Something I admired

At the end of May, Nancy and I drove (trailering my 51 Chevy Street Rod) to Springfield Missouri for the National Street Rod show. We stayed with Odell and Juanita Shell, my first cousins. The hospitality was overflowing. Of course the rest of the family in Springfield came over a couple times to visit. Always love visiting them all. We all went to the car show and saw a ton of great cars, and then cruised down the main drag in town like the old days. What a kick. One evening as we all sat around and talked about our younger days, Odell had something he wanted to show me. When he came out of a back room, he unwrapped something I had not seen since 1974, my Grandfather's pocket watch. My Uncle Fred had it setting on the console TV suspended inside a glass dome display case for many years. I always wanted to have the watch as a bit of my history. When Uncle Fred passed, it was given to Uncle James. When Uncle James passed, I assumed it went to his son Ray, and I would never see it again since I moved away from Cincinnati to Arizona. When Odell revealed the watch, I was touched that he was honored to be the keeper, and happy for him. The watch was bought in 1920 and originally sold for $55. It could be bought for $2 down and $4.22 a month. Today they sell for nearly $900 on eBay. It was a very quality watch with 21 jewels and a double roller (whatever that means). These watch (Model 992) were used heavily by the train industry for keeping the trains on schedule and sold over 1 million. But the true joy was to see this watch again, and to know it was being kept by a family member who would take very good care of it. And when the time comes, it would go to another caring family member.