The Watch, thoughts about RealJohnBoy

Forums: Personal History, Lost And Found Heirlooms, Family Dynamics, Family Crap, Personal Hx
Email this Topic • Print this Page

When I was about 10 years old my grandfather showed me his watch, it was a big cumbersome pocket watch with a key on a chain to wind it every day. It was a railroad engineers watch. My grandfather had been a railroad engineer starting in 1890 on the Florence/Cripple Creek narrow-gauge railroad and then on to the Durango/Silverton narrow-gauge and later on many different railroads throughout the rockymountain west. He loved the railroad, he hobo'd on the railroad, he worked from Chicago to Helena to Santa Fe on the railroad, he lost his arm in a railroad accident in 1923. He was fired from the railroad the day after he lost his arm.
In 1901 he saved enough money to buy a railroad engineers watch which he wore, he winded, he set every day. It was his single most important personal possession, he wore it with a gold chain that the key was attached to.
He promised me that someday when he died the watch would be mine, my eyes were very big when he showed me his watch.
My grandfather died at the age of 99 in 1973 and after the funeral my father told me he had my grandfather's watch and he would have it cleaned and adjusted before giving it to me for which I thanked him.
I never saw the watch again.
Today 12-27-09 I got an email from a friend of my mothers, she said she had been to visit my mother on xmas day and saw a large pocket watch on the table, she asked my father about the watch and he said f"oh, that's the watch Edgar (my grandfather) left to Bob Rea (that's me) I took it to be cleaned but I never gave it to him because he cared more about his grandfather than he did about me, I don't know what I'm going to do with it"
My mothers friend said to my father "how about if I take it and send it to Bob Rea?" He said "ok, I really don't care what you do with it."
Maybe in the next week or so I will have my grandfather's watch.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 23 • Views: 5,088 • Replies: 48

@dyslexia,

sounds to me like the old guy is warming up to you*.

you better post pix when you get 'em.

*(he'll be plenty warm soon enough...)

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

Quote:

but I never gave it to him because he cared more about his grandfather than he did about me

Wow?! That's a mean spirited grudge.

Hopefully, the watch is functional still. Still what an amazing (though late coming) treasure.

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

well, did ya?

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

If I was her, I'd pawn it.

Joe(yes, I would)Nation

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

Oh, wow. I'm very glad to hear this, Bob Rea.

(My grandfather's gold watch was stolen from the stuff I had stored with my first gallery in the seventies; I blame it on the cokehead theater director or my first gallery business partner's son, also a coke fan at the time. It was in a box of "treasures" among many other boxes. My grandfather died in 1929, so I never met him.)

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

I once had my grandfather's sterling silver pocket watch which he bought in New York City while accompanying Tsar Nicholas on his round-the-world cruise whatever year early in the 20th Century that was. My grandfather, whom I never met because he died before my mom married my dad, was the Kappelmeister (band-leader) aboard the Tsar's "yacht", the Standart. He accompanied the Tsar everywhere on his travels. When at Tsarskoie Selo, the Tsar's summer residence on the island which is now a part of Estonia, my mom and her sister, who died young, were playmates of the anemic Tsarevitch.

Anyway, I no longer own this time-piece. I had to recycle it during some very hard financial times about 40 years ago.

1 Reply

@Merry Andrew,

I wonder if your mother and aunt ever had the pleasure or displeasure of meeting Grigori Rasputin.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

I somehow doubt it. I think my ma would have mentioned it if she had. She knew who Rasputin was, of course.

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

I hope you get it.

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

Quote:

Today 12-27-09 I got an email from a friend of my mothers, she said she had been to visit my mother on xmas day and saw a large pocket watch on the table, she asked my father about the watch and he said f"oh, that's the watch Edgar (my grandfather) left to Bob Rea (that's me) I took it to be cleaned but I never gave it to him because he cared more about his grandfather than he did about me, I don't know what I'm going to do with it"
My mothers friend said to my father "how about if I take it and send it to Bob Rea?" He said "ok, I really don't care what you do with it."
Maybe in the next week or so I will have my grandfather's watch.

He didn't care what was done with the watch, when he knew it was actually meant for you, dys? Your father's a real charmer, isn't he? Neutral

I really hope it does arrive in the next week or so. That would be wonderful. Please keep us posted.

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

Whaddaya know? I've ridden the Durango/Silverton narrow gauge. The Denver & Rio Grande Western (the old name) did have a nicer ring to it, but the tracks from Durango to Silverton are still there, the trains still run, and the fireman is not a featherbedding position. The one I talked to is friendly, very muscular, and really shovels coal into the boiler. On the north bound trip, he shovels lots of, and I mean, lots of coal. Too bad everone elso associated with the line is so bitchy.

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

The part of me that believes a little Jewish guilt is good for everyone thinks you should send your father a sincere "thank you" note saying you are glad he decided to let you have the watch after all these years. You can mention that you never forgot it and always looked forward to it's return. I understand you two will never be close, but sometimes it's better to douse the bad energy with some good.

2 Replies

@Green Witch,

Green Witch wrote:

The part of me that believes a little Jewish guilt is good for everyone thinks you should send your father a sincere "thank you" note saying you are glad he decided to let you have the watch after all these years. You can mention that you never forgot it and always looked forward to it's return. I understand you two will never be close, but sometimes it's better to douse the bad energy with some good.

he didn't decide anything, he simply allowed a mutual friend to intervene.

3 Replies

@dyslexia,

No way around it, dys, your dad is a mean old grouchy devil!

I feel like giving him a jolly good smack! Laughing

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

He could have said "no, he can have it when I'm dead". When I see mean spirited people suddenly do something like this I think it's because they have regrets and don't know how to make it right, so they pass the good deed on for others to do. It's cowardly, but somehow revels a struggle in their conscience. Just my pop psychology reading of the situation. At least you have your grandfather's gift back.

2 Replies

Reminds me of when my grandfather died several years ago. He left me his car. My father took it and sold it.

0 Replies

@Green Witch,

That's how I read it, and Dys and I talked about. But then I remember, or think I do, that the father is staying in the same nursing home. Still, how did it get on the mother's table..

0 Replies

@dyslexia,

Well, once you get the watch you have Lady Diane take a picture of yourself
and the watch smiling from ear to ear and send it to the old goat. That will
teach him!

1 Reply

@CalamityJane,

Let me suggest the more humble and modest approach of sending your father a thank you card for "holding the watch all of this time". Let bygones be bygones and not feed into the father's irrational grudge. Maybe your father Dys could learn a positive lesson from his wrongheaded decision to hold back the watch all these years.

1 Reply

The Watch, thoughts about RealJohnBoy

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know