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Tick-Tick, Tick-Tock

Charlottetown needs a town clock. I know we have a sundial on the south wall of the hose tower at City Hall, but that isn't good enough. We need a clock - maybe more than one - in a prominent place in the down town. We use to have a number of clocks. A really nice one hung out from the old Bank of Montreal building. They have one on the front of their new/old building, but it is never going.

The official one from the past was the one on the Court House Tower. It was a wonderful clock with three faces and it was lite up at night. When that building burnt twenty six years ago on January 29th the clock tower sucked the flames up and the clock was completely destroyed. When they restored the building, they did put a clock on the roof almost as a after thought. It is not in a tower. but rather in a dormer that faces only south.

People don't even put clocks in prominent places in stores now. We who shopped at Taweels for more than a life time where controlled by that clock that hung near the cash. You could even see it as you passed by in the car. The other clock that was handy was the one in the window of Roger's Hardware China Department. That was great. You could check the time as you waited for the light at the corner of Queen and Grafton.

How many times in the run of a day do we non-watch-wearers ask someone for the time? We won't - all of use - succumb to wearing watches. Remember, too, town clocks can be a piece of public art or at the very least an important piece of street furniture. It is time we joined forces and added such a town amenity to our community.


Written Sunday, February 24, 2002 at 04:06 PM




(c) 2000 by Catherine Hennessey. Questions or comments? Email me@catherinehennessey.com

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