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  #1  
Old 10-16-2017, 07:39 AM
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Default The click is gone

I work up this morning at 4:58am. My clock was set for 5:00am. That's kind of a norm for me. For some reason my body wakes up before the clock.

Through the many seasons of life I've had many reasons to beat he clock. When I was in college, if I woke up just before the clock I could turn it off before my roommate(s) were bothered by it. When I married I learned my lovely wife was bothered by my alarms so I learned "beat the clock" so I wouldn't wake her. Now these many years later she is no longer bothered by my clock but the dogs wake up downstairs in their room and become restive until I let them out. I can give myself a couple of minutes to dress if I beat the clock.

But this morning at 4:59, as I hung exposed in the chill morning between the warm of my bed and my clock radio it occurred to my befuddled mind that the click is gone. What click? The click that started this lame little game.



If I remember right my first clock was one of those horrible little Bakelight plastic electric doodads with the little reed buzzer that went RAAAZZZZZ! at the appointed time. MY grandmother tired of its shrill racket and bought a clock radio and I got this one. Only, in order to go RAAAZZZZZ! a little feeler on the clock's escapement had to click by a stop and close a contact to engage the buzzer. There was a rhythm to this madness. Click! Beat. RAZ! A sharp cookie with a quick hand could wake a minute or so before the alarm, hear the click, and switch off the alarm before it even sounded.


When the the case had lived through too many trips to the floor and the reed buzzer began to croak and the RAZ! became a horrible bleat I was given a hand-me-down mechanical bell clock with a brass colored housing and bells. There was a little lever that could be swung over to dampen the sound from HELL'S BELLS to a loud metallic clatter. But the click and the rhythm were still there and you could beat the alarm.



When I went off to college my grandparents gave me one of these GE electrics. The mechanism was pretty much the same as the old electric buzzer clock with the click so you could beat it as well.


The next step was the cascading tile digital readout clock radio where the little split tiles with numbers on them flipped over each minute. Think the clock from the movie, Groundhog Day. There was a rhythm to these as well: the tile would flick over (audible clcik), beat, "Then put your little hand in mine, there ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb." It was easy to beat the clock here as well.

But the ultimate destination looks something like this.

Or this:

Oh, there are variations, but the point here is that the manufacturers have conquered the click. The sentinels now do their job silently and without rhythm. And my game is over.

Now the only opportunity is to wake up, swing your legs out of bed into the chill air, lean way over to the clock or phone (it is set away from bed to definitively get you up), shed the cocoon, and wait through those precious last few seconds of warm bed rest for the first blaring notes of VanHalen or AC/DC and pray that your finger is quick enough to squelch the cacophony before the dogs react and begin rocking their morning.

The question is, is this a step forward or backward? Does this enhance to lessen our lives? Is this a first world problem or what?



Bob
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Old 10-16-2017, 08:30 AM
amyFB amyFB is offline
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I have a motorcyclist who revs the engine while passing my house every day at around 5.45.

I miss the click too.
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Old 10-16-2017, 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted by amyFB View Post
I have a motorcyclist who revs the engine while passing my house every day at around 5.45.

I miss the click too.
Yeah. My next door neighbor has hollowed out the mufflers on his diesel pickup and he serenades me at breakfast time as he bumbles off to work.

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Old 10-16-2017, 09:07 AM
HodgdonExtreme HodgdonExtreme is offline
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I'd bet you could buy some vintage alarm clocks, complete with "click", on ebay for next to nothing....

:-D
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Old 10-16-2017, 12:05 PM
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I don't even set the clock anymore - always up before it would go off....

Here's a funny one for you Bob.

Back in the mid 70's I had a "mechanical" digital (the kind that the numbers were on little "cards" that flipped over) and it woke me up most days with a horrid mechanical sound.

When I first got "Wish You Were Here", that same sound woke me from sleep with my headphones on......(the sound at :05 and :24) On Welcome To The Machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-udg9zQSE

but it wasn't time for my alarm, it was 11 at night!!
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Old 10-16-2017, 12:27 PM
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Originally Posted by fitness1 View Post
I don't even set the clock anymore - always up before it would go off....

Here's a funny one for you Bob.

Back in the mid 70's I had a "mechanical" digital (the kind that the numbers were on little "cards" that flipped over) and it woke me up most days with a horrid mechanical sound.

When I first got "Wish You Were Here", that same sound woke me from sleep with my headphones on......(the sound at :05 and :24) On Welcome To The Machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-udg9zQSE

but it wasn't time for my alarm, it was 11 at night!!
Hilarious! The first time I heard 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" was at a summer camp I and I was working as a maintenance man. My roommate at the camp always went to sleep with music on his very nice stereo. I woke at about 2am to a lovely lady's voice whispering in my ear, "Be quiet! Big boys don't cry. Big boys don't cry. Big boys don't cry." (2:23)



Bob
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Old 10-16-2017, 12:45 PM
Ozzy the dog Ozzy the dog is offline
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The change of clocks over the years is a good way of knowing you're progressing through time.

When the clock 'paddle' numbers click over to 6am every day to the sound of I've got you Babe then you know it's time to worry.
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Old 10-16-2017, 01:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
I woke at about 2am to a lovely lady's voice whispering in my ear, "Be quiet! Big boys don't cry. Big boys don't cry. Big boys don't cry." (2:23)


Bob
Sad part is you and I (and the others of a certain age here) know those parts by wrote - we probably felt the need to post the songs for the youngin's......so they would know what we were talking about
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Old 10-16-2017, 03:59 PM
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Yep. No more click. I don't miss it. But I still usually wake up just prior to the 6 am chime on my iPad.

On a related note, I remember really well the pre alarm buzz on that early electric alarm you picture in your post.

And I remember that when my mom was suffering with the onset of her memory loss, her ability to learn new things went completely away. (And I'm talking about a woman who happily bought a PC and set it up herself when she was in her late 70s.)

Her alarm clock was just like that first one in your post. And it finally broke.

I bought her a new one, but it was different. She didn't recognize the alarm. She couldn't set the dial.

I had to go on eBay and seek out a "Vintage" electric clock. Found the exact match. Problem solved.

Thank goodness for eBay.
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Old 10-17-2017, 04:45 AM
Murphy Slaw Murphy Slaw is offline
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Man, we're old.......
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Old 10-17-2017, 05:36 AM
Silurian Silurian is offline
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I've got four alarm clocks. They all have varying degrees of functionality. The newest is less than two years old. For some reason it can go off at any time of night. It doesn't appear to have an off button.

The middle two are fairly reliable and go off about 6 am. I've had the oldest for nearly thirteen years, I think it's broken, it doesn't go off at all anymore.
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