WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.560 Hollo. I morecan stories all the time. Glad you are here, 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:10.039 Let's get into it. 3 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.279 On an April morning, more golden than expected, I found 4 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:17.519 myself in the front room of the Lower Warren History Society, 5 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.480 the odd sun filtering through the wavering green glass and 6 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:25.199 catching itself in the dust. There's a certain privacy in 7 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.039 retired life, even when spent among musty boxes and the 8 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:33.200 quiet shifting of someone else's idea of order. For me, 9 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:38.000 volunteering with archives meant less unearthing lost treasures and more 10 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:43.039 labeling committee minutes, sometimes over tea with Missus Wainscott fretting 11 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:47.600 gently beside me. What set this morning apart besides the 12 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.399 smell of last year's festival bunting folded with near reverence 13 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:53.960 on the side table was the angle of my chair, 14 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.439 A small thing. Perhaps I'd shifted it closer to the 15 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:00.840 tall window, so the great clock tower nearly filled my view. 16 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:05.959 Its face was endlessly ornate, florid, overfashioned, with curls of 17 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.120 wrought copper, and three gold black hands that moved with 18 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:14.200 measurable intent, sweeping over blue enamel numbers. As the town 19 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:16.680 was just exhaling from the rush of school drop off, 20 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.879 I idly watched the second hand past twelve, then tuck 21 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:24.239 itself above the broad too. Nothing seemed odd, nothing aside 22 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.400 from my own aimless gaze, until the hand jerked minutely, 23 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:30.519 and to my eye stuck a pause, not a halt, 24 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.200 a lean of half an instant, like a dancer who 25 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:37.000 lingers a touch too long in a pirouette. Then at twelve, 26 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:42.000 the smallest version again a beat, catch release. It happened 27 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.560 while the children streamed by, unbothered, jackets half pulled, and 28 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:50.359 while Missus Wainscott composed a shopping list for just after ten. 29 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:54.599 I shut my eyes, half smiling at the invention of 30 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.319 a slow brain, or worse, the over indulgence of a 31 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:01.519 retired one. But after a returning to the ledgers, I 32 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:04.400 was haunted. It was the ordinary that had blinked at 33 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:08.120 me at quarter past. I slipped out with the excuse 34 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:10.840 of delivering a record to the pharmacy. A walk of 35 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:14.479 two corners passed Missus Felsy's greenhouse and the town's only 36 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:18.599 bus stop. Above the chemist's door, a glowing digital clock 37 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:22.360 marked ten twelve. In the seconds that followed, I waited, 38 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:27.159 feeling slightly foolish, before seeing it. The digits hung, not glitching, 39 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.120 but breathing a full heartbeat longer than should have been 40 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.680 a thrill. A gentle, private amazement ran through me. But 41 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.560 it wasn't fear, not exactly disbelief, either, but a stubborn 42 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.479 urge to make sense of this small defiance. Why did 43 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.960 the clock stall for two on the tower on the 44 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.199 high Street, even the school bell that would soon toll eleven? 45 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:51.400 Could a mechanism across different designs agree to hesitate together? 46 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:54.680 I almost laughed at myself then, but the sense of 47 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:59.080 being on the cusp of some odd discovery weathered my skepticism. 48 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.879 As I passed back through the square, I decided I 49 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.639 wouldn't mention it, not yet, not to missus Wainscott, not 50 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:08.400 to Mars at the bakery, not even to my niece, 51 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:12.960 who'd surely blame it on provincial boredom. Instead, I returned 52 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.719 to the diffused half light of the Society Room and 53 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:18.840 watched once more as the clock performed its quiet stutter, 54 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.280 waiting patiently for me to learn its secret. That morning 55 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:27.960 is typical of Lower Warren, something quietly peculiar, hiding beneath ritual. 56 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.159 I have lived my sixty five years here save a 57 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:35.039 handful on the outskirts for teaching in another district. Even now, 58 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:39.479 three years into retirement, I cannot help but narrate small 59 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:42.400 histories to myself as I observed the town on my 60 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:46.319 daily circuits. I split my mornings between tea and the 61 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:50.080 Society's parlor, archiving birth announcements and the odd piece of 62 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:54.560 civic ephemere and brief restorative walks across the square. My 63 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:58.039 world is bordered by the physical clock faces embedded everywhere 64 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:01.639 on the sharp, narrow steeple of Saint Helen s whose 65 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.680 belly rang as a girl on the squat town hall, 66 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.840 its roof scolloped with pigeon droppings above the bakery, round 67 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:13.479 and faded, but still insistently marking time in blue lower. 68 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:18.199 Warren's routines are affable and consistent, no great passion for punctuality, 69 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:22.199 but enough coordination that the market opens precisely when needed, 70 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.560 and the buses nudge away from the same curb, always 71 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:28.680 within a minute or two of their posted slots. People 72 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:32.560 hear prize practicality above all. If pressed, they would tell 73 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:35.160 you the clocks are primarily for knowing when you've enough 74 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:39.720 time for another cup. Missus Wainscott, I still struggle to 75 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:43.680 call her. Marjorie, retired from her post as town postmistress 76 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:47.040 three years before me, and now presides over the society, 77 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:51.560 the parish jumble, and more gently, every one's comings and goings. 78 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:54.759 She wears her hair in a swirl and folds her 79 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.040 spectacles after each use with ritual precision. When we spend 80 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:03.040 a slow hour leabling the archivist's endless backlog, she offers 81 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:07.639 stories in careful doses and punctuates sentences with small there 82 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:11.160 you are Then's born from decades sorting more than letters 83 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:15.439 to Mars. By contrast, is the youngest fixture in the square, 84 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:19.680 a Portuguese transplant who inherited the corner bakery when Booker's retired, 85 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.199 and whose pride is in opening the doors at eight 86 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.680 zero two every morning, a full two minutes after the hour, 87 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:30.079 fresh from the oven. Never rushed, he says. Around that time, 88 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:33.199 the bell from Saint Helen's rings once, and the first 89 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:37.040 wave of parents and small children descend for bread and rolls, 90 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:41.000 The smell of yeast a signal to begin the school. 91 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:46.560 Bell itself, tiny stuttering, suspended insistently over the entryway marks 92 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:49.199 the start of the day. At eight thirty two, not 93 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:53.240 a minute sooner. The children line up fidgeting, and someone 94 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.600 makes a joke about losing another shoe at the lucky minute. 95 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:01.120 Central to this small theater is mister Leventhal, the society's 96 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:05.439 closest thing to an expert by temperament and archivist by fate. 97 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:09.199 A caretaker of dead men's papers, he dresses in wool 98 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:12.639 jumpers year round, is perpetually off by a step or two, 99 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:15.839 and cannot be relied upon to remember the precise date 100 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:19.959 of his own wedding, much less the time. Still, the 101 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:22.360 rest of us defer to him on the meaningful points 102 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:26.240 of custom, when to schedule the annual clock winding ceremony, 103 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.639 the proper color for bunting. Which year it was that 104 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:33.600 Lower Warren's market day proved remarkable enough to merit a 105 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:36.920 page in the ledger. The pattern of public time in 106 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.639 Lower Warren is gentle but pervasive. The very cycles of 107 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.839 civic life, parish meetings, bell ringing, the buses, lonely circuit 108 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.800 are embedded in the spoken clock, but none speak of 109 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:51.160 it with reverence. Children learn by osmosis to meet by 110 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:54.160 the clock tower. Buses idle just a minute longer if 111 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:57.439 a passenger is spotted running from the chemist's. The bakery 112 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.839 churns out its trays perfectly in rhythm with open The 113 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:04.040 market officially does not open on the hour, but at 114 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:10.680 eight twelve people are almost superstitiously unconcerned with explanations. Life 115 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:15.199 simply fits into these shapes. Every spring, the town stages 116 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:17.199 its own odd play. At the heart of this system 117 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.959 the celebration of the Clock, an overblown pageant that sees 118 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.319 the mare in top hat and children in felted waistcoats, 119 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:27.560 all clustered under the chattering clock tower as the brass 120 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:32.399 band strikes up. The speech, delivered from yellowed script, celebrates 121 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:35.079 the gift of time that binds us, the mechanism that 122 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:39.439 sees us through each hour. Few listen. Most are negotiating 123 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:42.439 cups of hot cider or angling for a better spot 124 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:46.759 in the sun. The clock gets a special winding. Children 125 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.000 are permitted to ring the hour, and afterwards to Mars 126 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.120 gives away loaves to whoever can answer a question about 127 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:57.800 famous minutes in town history. This embeddedness of time is 128 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:00.519 curious once you look for it, but no one, not 129 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.160 even I, would have called it odd. The pulse of 130 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:06.480 the square is marked by these time pieces, not dominated 131 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:10.800 by them. Their presence is comforting, anchoring in the endless repetition, 132 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:14.279 Or so I always believed. That belief I now see 133 00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:17.120 was the first veil to fall. It had to be 134 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:19.360 before I could begin to see what time was actually 135 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:23.399 doing to us, one stuttering minute at a time. It 136 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:26.680 was missus Wainscott who first offered me a contradiction, even 137 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.399 as she didn't know she delivered it. We were sorting 138 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:32.840 through a pile of battered time tables labeling bus routes 139 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:36.039 for the Archive of Civic Convenience, a project no one 140 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:39.919 but mister Leventhal truly cared for. I mentioned almost in 141 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:43.679 passing funny to Mars. Never opens at eight, always at 142 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:47.240 eight zero two. That must drive some of the early 143 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:51.720 rises mad. She didn't even look up. Hasn't it always 144 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:55.519 been like that? She said, easily as shrugging. Every one 145 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.440 here likes a minute or two for themselves first, gives 146 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:02.000 things time to settle. Don't you think? What struck me 147 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.240 was her certainty to question It seemed almost impolite. Still, 148 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:09.480 I found myself scanning the array of public schedules tacked 149 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:13.639 up around the square. Parish meeting next Thursday, six twelve 150 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:17.639 p m. Market Day announcements, doors open at eight twelve, 151 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.159 Bellringer's rotor practice at seven twenty two, never at half past. 152 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:25.759 It was as though some secret code determined the shape 153 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:29.000 of every event, but nobody seemed aware the code existed 154 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:33.039 at all. At the Society meeting that afternoon, mister Leventhal 155 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:37.080 confirmed next week's extraordinary General Session should begin at three 156 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:40.159 forty two sharp. When I asked if he meant half 157 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.480 past or quarter two, he looked at me over his 158 00:09:42.519 --> 00:09:47.279 steaming mark. Now forty two, Yes, feels about right. More 159 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:51.279 time to finish with lunch. No one laughed, least of 160 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:54.679 all me. The more I listened, and the more I watched, 161 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.399 the more clearly I saw the same silent choreography. Events 162 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:02.000 nodded into life at two twelve or twenty two, sometimes 163 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.840 thirty two, never at the round certain hours, I asked, gently, 164 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:08.519 just to the edge of politeness, is there a reason 165 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:12.120 for this? Responses ranged from blankness to the suggestion that 166 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:15.240 people needed the grace of a moment or two. If 167 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:20.759 pressed for precision, explanations faded away. A contradiction hung between 168 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:23.679 what people did and what they thought about what they did. 169 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:28.120 Everyone structured their life around these second minutes, but none 170 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:31.559 could say why, even as they co ordinated year after 171 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:36.559 year by its logic. I found myself suddenly helplessly curious. 172 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:39.759 The pattern was too rigid to be habit too widely 173 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:42.279 shared to be random. Had it always been this way? 174 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:45.919 Was it deliberate? Or worse? Was there something in the air, 175 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:49.080 some slow geologic shift of local mind that made us 176 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.320 hesitate together and believe it natural? And if so, why 177 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.919 did the clocks, different mechanisms all participate in the same, strange, 178 00:10:57.159 --> 00:11:01.720 nearly invisible ceremony. I could not stand not knowing the 179 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:06.120 kind of curiosity that teachers hone. The dogged, methodical, slightly 180 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:10.080 apologetic sort quickened in me, making the ordinary seam at 181 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:14.320 last full of slant promise. By the third morning of 182 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:18.840 my private investigation, curiosity had replaced confusion. I brought a 183 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:20.879 note book and sat first at the window of the 184 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.240 society stop watch, at the ready. At each minute ending 185 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:27.600 in two, that is nine zero two, nine twelve, nine 186 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:30.039 twenty two, and so on, I pressed the button. As 187 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:34.120 the second hand neared its mark. The hand's motion would stall, always, 188 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:37.279 as if the clocks spring caught on something unseen, and 189 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:41.519 then shudder forward. My pulse embarrassingly did much the same. 190 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:46.039 Was it visual illusion? I moved to the pharmacy, sitting 191 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.559 on the cement step beneath the digital clock. The old 192 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:53.600 ten zero two came, and with it a blink, a hitch, 193 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:56.879 more subtle than before. Like the numbers paused to take 194 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:01.679 a last look at themselves before continuing. To counter my imagination, 195 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:05.360 I tried Saint helen s, whose clock mechanism was ancient 196 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:10.120 electric restored in the nineties after a flood. The effect persisted, 197 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:15.440 stubborn as the minute hand reached eleven twelve straight, unwavering 198 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:19.360 than a subtle stutter, and yes, a barely perceptible lag. 199 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:23.360 Before continuing in the same easy arc, I thought to 200 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:26.320 time the paws itself. At the bakery, I waited for 201 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:28.519 to Mars to bring out his cheese buns and use 202 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:32.200 the stopwatch. Sometimes the pause was two point three seconds, 203 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:35.759 sometimes one pointate. It changed with the clock, the weather, 204 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.879 the hurry of the moment. On non second minutes, the 205 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:43.240 motion was continuous, unremarkable. I wrote down the timings, hoping 206 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.720 for a pattern, and instead found only contradiction. The delays 207 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:51.679 were real, but slippery sometimes longer, sometimes shy of a second. Altogether, 208 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:57.279 I measured, doubted, and measured again later as to Mars 209 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:01.120 handed me a scone, I asked, pretending to speak of pastries. 210 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:04.279 Do things ever feel slower to you at say eight 211 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:07.080 o two? Or is that just me waiting for your oven? 212 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:11.559 He grinned, flower in his hair. Everything is slow here, 213 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.399 isn't it. That's why we start early and open late. 214 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:18.799 He shook his head. No more explanation than that. At 215 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:21.960 the next Society meeting, I watched as the committee prepared 216 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:24.480 to vote on funding for a new exhibition. Just as 217 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:28.440 the clock touched for twenty two, people seemed restless. Just 218 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:32.919 before some fidgeted shuffling papers until the large wall clock 219 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:36.480 signaled the right moment, and then all at once action 220 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:41.960 raised hands a unanimous decision. I tried quietly to see 221 00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:45.440 if this happened every time a motion delayed until a 222 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:50.399 second minute, and yes, more often than not, people unconsciously waited, 223 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:54.440 as if for some private blessing. Seeking a new angle, 224 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:58.120 I arranged to meet missus Chow, the oldest Society member 225 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:00.919 and daughter of a family who survived both wars. In 226 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.320 Lower Warren. She occupied a tiny cottage with an overgrown garden, 227 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:08.799 and told stories carefully, as if she were sorting apples 228 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:13.200 for bruises. I described, with as little editorializing as possible, 229 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:17.519 how meetings were always quarter past two or twelve minutes past, 230 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:22.279 rather than on the hour. She nodded, untroubled. I always 231 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:25.639 thought we were blessed, she confided. My mother said, only 232 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:28.879 fools hurry past a lucky minute. We'd always wait at 233 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:32.639 the door before letters came. Never mind what the schedule said. 234 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:35.200 Give the minute a chance, or it'll trip you up, 235 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:41.639 she laughed. Superstitions, but good ones. More contradiction, a loose explanation, 236 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:45.879 alive with tradition but empty of reason. Out of interest, 237 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:49.519 I called my niece Beatrice, newly arrived from London, and 238 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:52.080 told her to watch the clocks while she crossed the 239 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:54.840 square on an Errand do you see anything odd at 240 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:00.000 two or twelve past? I pressed? She snorted, Lord, Aunt Macie, 241 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:03.000 they're all broken anyway, But I don't see anything strange. 242 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:07.480 Time is time? Did you lose your watch? The sensation 243 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.399 was akin to living inside a story visible only from 244 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:14.679 one angle, a fairy tale half told depending on whose listening. 245 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:20.679 Outsiders saw nothing, Locals believed unconsciously in a lucky minute, 246 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.279 no one could explain, and the very clocks seemed accomplices. 247 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.639 My list of contradictions had grown, the effect struck only 248 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:30.840 those who had grown up here or grown used to 249 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.600 the rhythms. The tradition was remembered in whispers, but never named. 250 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:38.399 The clocks were warped, but only for us. Every event, 251 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:43.120 great or small, seemed blessed or perhaps subtly manipulated by 252 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:47.360 the second minute, unnoticed by the wider world. I could 253 00:15:47.399 --> 00:15:50.080 not help but feel I was sliding closer to a 254 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:54.240 center that would refuse to hold. The more closely I 255 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:57.799 interrogated the routines of my own days, the more unsettled 256 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:01.039 I became, not with fear, but with a sense of excavation. 257 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.679 My own planner, half forgotten in my bag, revealed a 258 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:08.360 covert pattern. Tea with friends at ten twenty two, lunch 259 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.799 at to Mars's at twelve twelve, exactly, appointments for the 260 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:16.360 pension paperwork inexplicably at eleven twenty two. Not one meeting 261 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:19.720 in the past year, save those forced by officialdom, had 262 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:23.519 begun on the hour or half hour. Out of curiosity, 263 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:27.960 I phoned missus Wainscott and proposed, uncharacteristically, shall we walk 264 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:31.600 at four o'clock sharp? A pause on the line, she replied, 265 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:35.879 let's make it four twelve. Shall we love makes getting 266 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:39.720 out the door easier? Determined to break the spell, I 267 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:43.039 submitted a meeting time for the book club six zero 268 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:47.639 zero p m. Unvarnished. The committee responded quickly, let's do 269 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:50.440 six twelve, if it's all right with you. When I 270 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:54.240 asked why, the opinions varied. Seems kinder to not rush 271 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.720 dinner gives me space to tidy up. Not one person 272 00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:01.720 found it unusual or worth discussion. I kept a record 273 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:04.359 for a week asking people to join me for lunch 274 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:08.319 at noon sharp. Never once did a meeting occur as planned. 275 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.119 People arrived late, apologized, or simply suggested a little later 276 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:17.759 twelve twelve say the pattern was absolute, yet the awareness 277 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:21.279 of it was missing. That week, I watched myself try 278 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.880 to resist it. Deliberately arrived early at the square for bread, 279 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:27.799 but to Mars would not open until the familiar too. 280 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:31.799 I tried to arrange a phone call for seven zero 281 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:36.160 zero p m. Missus Chow called at seven twelve, serenely, 282 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.839 as though her mind could not process a different rhythm. 283 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:43.200 I grew convinced the second minute was not simply a 284 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:46.359 marker of tradition. It had become a force more structuring 285 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:49.559 than habit, an unseen hand channeling the workings of the 286 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:53.000 town and its memories. Its shaped not just schedule, but 287 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:58.200 decision recollection, possibly even community action. My mind circled the 288 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:01.200 heart of the puzzle. Is the town's so organized because 289 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:05.559 of a mechanical quirk or degenerations of tradition slowly bend 290 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:11.400 the clocks into their current strange orbit. For all my notes, interviews, experiments, 291 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:15.799 and stubborn skepticism, one fact remained resistant. The effect was 292 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:18.640 deeper than quirk and could not be chalked up to chance. 293 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:22.920 The second minute did not simply punctuate time here, It 294 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:28.440 orchestrated it silently everywhere I looked. I became preoccupied. My 295 00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:31.799 mornings grew dedicated to observing the moment the clock slowed, 296 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:36.119 my afternoons to scanning past ledgers for any record of irregularity, 297 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:40.240 my evenings to charting out new tests. Propose something at 298 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:44.960 nine zero zero, watch people guide it to nine zero two, 299 00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:50.200 never mentioning the drift. Human beings, I realized can acclimate 300 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:53.640 to almost any oddity, provided it is shared. What was 301 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:57.079 the cause and what the result? Was the moment engineered 302 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:00.559 or did the town, through sheer force of collective will 303 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.440 orchestrate its own small disobedience to perfect time? As the 304 00:19:05.559 --> 00:19:09.640 daylight hours lengthened, I retreated into the History Society's archives, 305 00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:12.880 determined to chase the thing to its source. There were 306 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:17.440 crates of yellowed council minutes, bundles of festival rosters, binders 307 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:21.960 bulging with photographs of the town's various incarnations. Most were, 308 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:26.440 as I remembered from youth ceremonies, bunting strung between gaslights, 309 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:30.599 children holding skewed clocks painted on cardboard for the celebration 310 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:35.039 each spring. In the third cupboard, where someone had misfiled 311 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.160 civic gifts, I found the first trace of a culprit. 312 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.200 It was a letter, faded and brittle stuffed among programs 313 00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:46.359 from an eighteen eighty five clock tower rededication. The writing 314 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.640 neat and demonstrating too much patience was from Horace Grundle, 315 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:54.960 the original clockmaker. More than the signature, it was the 316 00:19:55.079 --> 00:19:58.359 line half way down the page that arrested me. The 317 00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:01.279 new clock is designed to grow at us each hour 318 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:05.319 an extra moment to gather ourselves a gift of the mechanism. 319 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:09.359 My heart slid in my chest for the first time. 320 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:12.920 I wondered, could the pause be a designed feature, A 321 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.960 deliberate offering. Next to Grundle's name was the phrase let 322 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:19.880 it be a well spring, never to be hurried, written 323 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:24.440 in a heavier hand. Further searching produced an annotated blueprint 324 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.480 of the original mechanism. I do not claim to understand 325 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:31.279 the technicalities, but the annotation near the two and twelve 326 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:35.799 on the face showed a note slight delay, imperceptible insure 327 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:39.440 mechanism lingers on minute and twelve. The design was not 328 00:20:39.559 --> 00:20:42.720 accidental at all, nor the result of some later quirk. 329 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:46.240 It was systematically consciously placed at the heart of the 330 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:51.039 town's greatest artifact. My hands shaking a little found a 331 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:55.240 ledger entry town council minutes from the same year, celebrating 332 00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:58.680 the ingenious device and the blessing of the second minute, 333 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:03.519 as crafted by Grundy's own hand, passed by acclamation to 334 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:08.640 observe each hour's second as a moment for consideration. Later 335 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:12.799 reading through the town's storied past, devastating fire averted at 336 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:17.200 three thirty two, a famous compromise between two rival families 337 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:21.519 concluded at seven twelve, the first radio broadcast marked in 338 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:25.079 the record as cent at two zero two. I saw 339 00:21:25.079 --> 00:21:29.559 a pattern repeated with oppressive regularity. These minutes, always noted 340 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:34.319 with a peculiar sense of pride, had accumulated a mythos Still, 341 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.559 pride of artifact is different than living culture. I took 342 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.119 what I had found back to the society meeting, reading 343 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:43.599 the entries aloud to Missus Wainscott and mister Leventhal. Both 344 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:48.480 blinked at the discovery. Missus Wainscott adjusted her glasses and said, only, well, 345 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.039 tradition is tradition, isn't it. But it's a lovely thought 346 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.160 the gift of a pause. Mister Leventhal, perhaps less certain, 347 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.720 said unusual, but perhaps a clever clockmaker wanted us to 348 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:03.240 mind the present moment. For the first time, I felt 349 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:07.480 the town's routines, my own routines, come into focus, not 350 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:10.599 as a vague accumulation of preference, but as the result 351 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:15.200 of a chosen, purposeful strangeness. The pause was not a flaw, 352 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.440 but a feature designed to slow the community for a breath, 353 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:22.400 to anchor each hour with a gift of stillness. It 354 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:26.000 was the mechanism itself, a tiny alteration to the body 355 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:29.400 of time keeping, delicately imposed upon the life of an 356 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:34.400 entire village. The rubbery line between custom, memory and reality 357 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:39.400 slackened and danced. My sense of lower Warren shifted. What 358 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:43.640 seemed accidental, eccentric, or trivial now revealed itself as a 359 00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:47.319 living echo of one man's idea. If the present delights 360 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:50.640 in memory, then this, I thought, is how you shape it. 361 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.759 I still did not understand whether the pores owned us 362 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:58.400 or we owned it, but it was unmistakably ours. For 363 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.519 three days after that meeting at the History Society, I 364 00:23:01.559 --> 00:23:04.559 found myself watching clocks as if I'd only learned their 365 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:08.240 language for the first time. I carried Grundle's letter and 366 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:12.039 blueprint around in my bag, along with all my careful notes, 367 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:15.880 some scrawled in the margins of the Society's forms, some 368 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:19.240 on the backs of bakery receipts. When I laid them 369 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:22.759 out next to one another, the pattern took visible shape. 370 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:26.720 Every pause, every lucky minute, every event scheduled at an 371 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:30.599 odd time carried the signature of that singular decision from 372 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.200 nearly a century and a half ago, But I also 373 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:37.960 felt a new and urgent doubt. Had the mechanism over 374 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:42.319 decades changed the way people sensed time, Had our community 375 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.480 enfolded the pause into its rituals, or had we become 376 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:50.759 imperceptibly engines for its propagation a living metronome keeping pace 377 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:54.599 with a bell no visitor would ever hear. To challenge 378 00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:57.759 my own thinking, I decided to observe a single day 379 00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:02.240 with undivided attention to the second minute. I resolved to 380 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:07.759 become both witness and participant, documenting but resisting only when necessary. 381 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:12.039 The first test was the primary school. On most mornings, 382 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:14.839 I would watch children file in at eight thirty two, 383 00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:18.440 teachers waving them through the blue painted door. That morning, 384 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.319 I arrived early and hovered beneath the bell's thick braid 385 00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:24.400 of rope. The year one teacher, Miss hall ushered her 386 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:27.519 line up two minutes before half past, but waited idling 387 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:31.279 with forced patients, her hand loosely gripping a battered clip board, 388 00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:35.039 until the digital clock flicked at eight thirty two. Only 389 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:38.839 then did she gesture the children through. When I asked, 390 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:42.720 half jokingly, do you run things to the tick? She smiled, 391 00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:45.400 there's always a moment you need to let every one 392 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:49.319 breathe isn't there? She shrugged off another question. You'd be 393 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:53.160 surprised what sorts itself out in a spare minute. I 394 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.240 toured the square and timed the bakery surge of customers. 395 00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:00.000 Sure enough, the queue thin at seven fifty eight, would 396 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:03.480 balloon at eight zero two to Mars, greeting half the 397 00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:05.759 village as they circled in with the chiming of the 398 00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:09.440 bell above his shop. It would repeat at each twelve 399 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:14.119 twenty two thirty two, with rhythm better than most concert bands. 400 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.160 Determined to move beyond simple measurement, I decided to ask 401 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:22.359