The Grandfather Clock

The pendulum of the grandfather clock swung slowly back and  forth as he lifted his little bride into his arms and carried her over the threshold of the old two story white farm house.  He stood there for a bit, just inside that door, holding the woman of his dreams.

Just outside the window stood the old barn and corrals and the one upright silo. Behind lay the little farm that he would  be renting. They were starting their life together. They were young and in love.

So the pendulum on that old grandfather clock swings back and forth, back and forth, passing the minutes, the hours, the days. Each month he reaches up and turns the calendar, another month shows and another picture of bales in the field, or mountain streams.  He turns the pages one at a time until the old calendar comes down and a new one feels its place.

They work together, season after season, year after year. Spring comes along with baby calves, and farm sales, and the purchase of an ole pull plow, a used tractor, a disc and some feed bunks, to list a few. Summer comes with its big open skies, cattle peacefully grazing in the pasture, alfalfa laying in fresh cut rows, and wheat fields turning a golden yellow.  Season after season. Spring, summer, then fall with its colorful leaves, its fall harvest, the cattle once again brought in from the pastures, the calves bawling for their mothers as they are weaned and placed in the feedlots.

 Then the first snowflake hits their noses and the cold north wind blows. The chores start in earnest. Morning and night they bundle up and step out into the cold, their breath coming in little clouds and their boots crunching the fluffy white snow.

Still...the old grandfather clock swings its pendulum slowly back and  forth, back and  forth, as the chimes call out the half hours, the hours, and he turns yet another page of the calendar. They work together. They learn together. They stand together. They hold their faith together.

There are happy jolly days. There are sad dark days. There are days that seem to stand still just waiting to find out that is next. Will the war come between them?  Will he come back to her? Will he see his little son who is born while he is far away across the ocean?

Yet the old grandfather clock's pendulum swings back and forth. Now it is her who changes the pages on the calendar. It is her who takes down the calendar and replaces it with a new one. But still she waits. She knows he is waiting too.....somewhere out there.......Somewhere he is looking up into the vast night sky, remembering her as he looks at the full moon. He remembers their promise. "Promise me that when the moon is full, you will go out and look up and know that the same moon beams are falling to your face as they are to mine.....


Well, my friends, I have in mind to write my first fiction book. I have had a topic in mind for some time now and it seems to be pushing to get out and onto paper.  I have not decided just how far it will go as far as public is concerned, but I wanted to share just a small part of my thoughts with you to see what you thought. Thanks for all your support these years. I will be busy writing my book but every once in awhile I will visit you on my blog.