The Town Bells

If, dear reader, you are from without the town, I should ask that you indulge me a moment of pride in revealing to you that we have a town clock, and bells which chime quite beautifully on the quarter hour. It is to my own particular advantage that this feature of our town is located a scant block from my home, and I am therefore among those that enjoy it the most - or the most often, at any rate.

I have described the bells as chiming on the quarter hour, and they do. However, I only just discovered that this is the case today, and upon this discovery I experienced a rapidly evolving emotional reaction, which I shall now describe.

For something over a year I suppose, while the bells have indeed tolled every fifteen minutes, they in fact did so four minutes after the quarter hours. This was always -- I had thought -- somewhat vexing to me, but not nearly enough so as to be bothered with mentioning it to anyone aside from my divine and long-suffering wife.

At some point, I now discover, it seems that I had grown accustomed to their tardiness; had come to find it endearing as one often does the quirks and idiosyncracies of an old friend. If, for example, I were still to be dawdling in my solarium when the bells chimed half past seven on a weekday morning, I knew very well that it was in fact 7:34 and that I really must hurry out the door!

This morning when they chimed their announcement of that time, my heart surged as usual, despite the fact that I had coincidentally just a moment before checked my own time-piece and knew very well that I needn't rush. In this first instant my reaction, amusingly enough, was annoyance! How dare the clock have startled me needlessly!

In the next instant, of course, I laughed at myself as I snatched up my personal effects and made my way to the door.

As I left the driveway, I experienced a feeling of warm gratitude for this sense of urgency conditioned in me by the chimes' now-corrected tardiness; this is an attitude and reflex I believe I will seek to retain. Springing to the driveway when the bell tolls half-past-seven will, I fancy, get me to work four minutes sooner, and thus add four welcome minutes onto my treasured evenings at home.

Alan, thank you for fixing the bells! Also, thank you for not having done so for so long. I suppose they must not be as easy to hear at your house as at mine. How long had they been corrected before I noticed? Who finally told you? Or did you happen to notice on your own, perhaps on a market day recently?