Look around you wherever you go. Where are they? What have they done with them? Why doesn’t anybody want you to know the time? Have you noticed that large clocks are no longer displayed anywhere? This is a conspiracy Why has time become the newest public secret? What level of security clearance must you have in order to be briefed on the time?
There are no clocks in banks. There are no clocks in warehouse stores. No clocks in coffee shops.
If you visit a hair salon to be clipped, dipped and snipped maybe they don’t want you to realize how much time this “maintenance” is taking. Perhaps those with natural gray hair tied back in simple buns have longer life expectancies than women who color, style and blow dry their hair. How many hours are taken performing these rituals? Salons don’t want to bring awareness to how much of clients’ lives are being spent trying to look younger as they age in stylists’ chairs. Solution: remove clocks from the walls.
Doctors’ offices do not display wall clocks. Are they trying to keep patients’ unaware of the time spent in waiting rooms reading old magazines with “newly released” gossip? Or do they not want patients to watch their lives ticking away?
Stores are equal opportunity deprivers of time data. Whether you’re browsing in a large department store or picking up a few necessities at a supermarket you cannot find a clock on any wall. Ignorance of time means an end to rushing, hurrying and leaving. Stores would like people to pick up a few more impulse buys in a leisurely way, so they provide “time ignorance.”
If we don’t know the time, will it disappear? Go away? Halt the aging process? If we have no clue about where the hands point are we dismissed from being on time?
Cell phones display the time, but if they’re buried in bottoms of cluttered handbags they take eons of time to locate and read.
Wrist watches are hidden under layers of sweaters, coats and gloves in winter and are too hot to wear in summer.
I’m going back to reading sundials 
and reading in nature’s way. So if you ask me what time it is, expect an answer like, “Three stars past the moon.”
MorristownMemos 
Comments on: "PARDON ME: HAVE YOU THE TIME?" (55)
Great post. You are right. It is difficult to find a clock today. In my town there is one on the Catherdal.
Let’s hope your town keeps up the maintenance on it.
Oh my! I love this. Not only is it true, it is humorous as well! Last Sunday in Church, the officiating priest was angry because some of the congregation where already leaving before the Mass was over. Yes, the mass was quite a long one–longer than usual, but he said the large clock on the wall was saying its own sermon as well.
It sounds as if the priest had his own sense of humor as well.
Thanks for commenting, Uzoma, and I hope your writing is meeting with great results. Good to hear from you again.
No actually – don’t have the time OR the patience!! My doc had me waiting 30 minutes of my 60 minute lunch break recently. I left, had my lunch, decided on another day. And there was no wall clock – you’re so right!!!
Love your humour style though :)… even when you are right….
Not very considerate, and unaccountable without that tell-all clock on the wall!
So there IS a reason for these strange disappearances…
I have an outlet high in my kitchen and didn’t know for what. I recently found out that it is for a clock but I cannot find a clock that plugs into an outlet. Maybe it is better not to know how fast life is ticking away.
You’re right, Joan. Some of these convenience built ins were clever at the time but have become outmoded with time.
Years ago an author, Alvin Toffler wrote book called “Future Change,” in which he spoke of the development of technology and the speed with which it would advance. When he sid that it would happen so fast that we wouldn’t be able to keep up he was probably speaking about the electric plug on your kitchen wall.
How about phone cards, typewriter repair shops, 8 tracks, records, tapes and probably soon CDs, and floppy drives. My computer went. It weighed about 2 pounds. Now I have one that weighs less than 8.
And how about cameras that use film (remember the Brownie and the Poleroid)?
Thank you for liking my blog post, and — especially — thereby facilitating my coming here and reading this. I love the way you write and the way your mind works. I really enjoyed this post. I think about time a lot, too — for a while I was obsessively collecting watches. I’ve gotten away from that. Reading this post helped me today. Thanks so much!
Finally: somebody who understand the workings of my mind! Please explain it to ME!
Thanks for coming aboard and commenting.
Ronnie … My folks (now only my brother) lived in Vegas. The casinos haven’t had clocks for years because they don’t want you to be aware of how much time – and money – you’re wasting. Why others would do this is mystifying.
Maybe the others are the cosmetics companies, who don’t want us to see how fast we are aging, and how little their products help with the youthful images they’re supposed to provide.
It’s so true, Ronnie! It drives me crazy that my grocery store has not clock. And every time I pull my phone out of my purse to check the time I’m worried they’ll think I’m shoplifting!
If your handbag is large enough to hide a side of beef I’d suspect you of shoplifting too!
I didn’t notice how many places don’t have clocks, but now I’m going to be on the lookout.
You’ll be amazed! It all started when I asked a bank teller the time and she said a client had just mentioned that clocks on the wall are nowhere to be seen anywhere.
I would respond to this, but according to the clock in the bottom right corner of my computer, I should be in bed right now! 🙂
Now you’ve gotten me all confused. The tiny little digital time thingy is way up in the right corner of MY computer. Surely you’re not suggesting that I drag this heavy thing around with me to tell me what I’m late for, are you???
LOL!
True story… the other day I went to the hospital to visit my grandma. All visitors have to sign in at the registration desk, and one thing you have to put down is the time you arrived. I’m looking all over the place, on every wall, back and forth, four or five times, desperately looking for a clock. The helpful lady at the desk pointed to the digital clock they had set up on the counter about 6 inches from the registration log I was signing… which I totally missed because it wasn’t where I was looking for a clock! Maybe they have just moved all the clocks on us!
It seems to be universal; who’s idea was this, and how did they get everyone to agree to take them all down? ‘Hope your grandmother if OK.
A very good and straight to the point observation on the demise of the public clock.
We see here in Australia a lot of great town hall clocks , and other public buildings that display heritage clocks but are never cared for anymore and neglected to the extent that they never show the correct time.
The only advance with technology and clocks I have seen now is on the poker machines in all our gambling venues, they are required by law to show the time.
Have we progressed ?
We neglect the past and adapt for the future.
Aussie Ian aka Aussie Emu
I didn’t realize how widespread it was to eliminate public clocks. So it’s also true in Australia? Crikey!
Ronnie now that you mention it… I haven’t seen a wall clock in ages.. except for those in our house…
Aha; so You’re the guy who bought up all the clocks. It never occurred to me that they were all in Rhodesia!
I had to take them there to keep the place ticking over…
Just checking my Donald Duck watch as I reply it tells me it’s beak minutes past tale, time I hit Post Comment.
Very funny, C.J. Thanks for your answer.
Funny thing is, I’ve been looking for a clock for my bedroom for a while now. The one I have, in my radio, speeds up time. I am now always an hour or more ahead of myself.
…so you’re younger than the clock tells you?
Giggle! That’s the way I roll.
You must be a fun person to be with, with all that humor, giggling and horsing around. Enjoy!
I think my Mom thinks so!
They used to say casinos had no clocks because the owners didn’t want customers to know it’s 4 a.m. and they’ve been gambling away their life savings for the past nine hours. I imagine that, with food prices soaring and interest rates on investment accounts nearly non-existent, supermarkets and banks may have adopted the same approach. We have at least ten clocks in our house, but every one seems to run at a different pace, so I have to estimate the time by adding them all up and taking the average. Which I would do if I could find the calculator.
Great post, Ronnie. Good luck with the sundial.
Thanks, but doesn’t your computer have a calculator? Not that it matters…
Sent from my iPad
I stopped wearing a wrist watch, some 20 years ago, as I was fed up with endlessly looking at my watch to see what was the time. I often didn’t know why I wanted to know the time, and it also involved me spilling a lot of drinks. During the 50’s and 60’s , in London, the phrase “Do you have the time” was used in soliciting hookers on the street, so it was best avoided for everyday use. Every clock in our house tells a different time. I think I’ve reached the happy point where I don’t give a fuck what the time is:-)
The funny thing is that if you see someone glancing at his watch and ask him what time it is he will take another peek at his wrist before he can answer.
Sent from my iPad
This is hilarious but an acute observation of the plot to rob us all of time. The superstore in my area also has no idea what date it is, so are they planning to rob us of days now instead of minutes or hours? What a wonderful post! 🙂
There ought to be a law…thanks for your kind response. It’s about time! (sorry: couldn’t resist.)
In a word, cellphones. Businesses assume everyone has them, I suppose.
I don’t give my cell number to many people but love it for giving me the time and access to the internet any time I have a question about anything whatsoever..
Yup. I hardly use mine except when I’m on the road. And even then, I look for a clock before I think to pull that little box out of my purse 😉
I stopped wearing a watch last year because my electronic leash gives me plenty of time cues. But I found that on planes for work, time literally stands still because I have no time piece until they let me turn my phone back on. Bliss!
How kind of the airplane industry to give you some uninterrupted time.
A friend once told me that you know when you’re on vacation because there’s no necessity to wear a watch.
It’s the only nice thing they give me on those flights, but hey, I’ll take it.
This is GREAT, SUBMIT TO GOLDFINCH.
What a compliment; thank you.
For readers unfamiliar with the reference, Goldfinch is the Literary magazine for Women Who Write that is published once a year.
My father, a former farmer, tells time by the sun.
Did he ever teach you how to do that? How accurate can he get to the real time?
Time is gold…Time is an illusion. Time is patience only without the clock ticking. 🙂
Awesome blog post. 🙂
My New Blog: Our Virtue Smells like Jazz-Tampons. http://charliezero1.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/our-virtue-smells-like-jazz-tampons/ Your inputs are most appreciated.
That’s a lovely thought: “Time is patience without the clock ticking.” Thank you, Charlie.
You’re welcome…check out my new blog: Our Virtue Smells like Jazz-Tamponshttp://charliezero1.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/our-virtue-smells-like-jazz-tampons/ I’d like to hear your inputs. 🙂
Tme as they say is an illusion we can make it appear faster or slower by the way we perceive it to be… But Time is appearing to speed up already its nearly Valentines Day and it only seems a blink of an eye since Christmas.. Hope you are well Ronnie.. Hugs Sue xox
Yes, Sue and it gets more so all the time. So may I take this opportunity to wish you a
Happy 4th of July!”
Hahaha!!! lol now Im not wishing that far ahead just yet.. let me enjoy Spring LOL 🙂 very funny Ronnie xx