Ever have a Coocoo Clock?

Grampa Don

Grampa Don

Yep, that's me
Location
Orange county, Calif.
I was in Hong Kong courtesy of the US Navy in 1966, and in one of my wife's letters she wrote that she would sure like a coocoo clock some day. So, I visited a large department store there and bought one. It was made in Japan and didn't cost much.

It hung in our living room for quite a few years before it finally died. I stored it up in the rafters of the garage and forgot about it. About ten years ago I noticed it and considered having it repaired. A local clock repair shop gave me an estimate of $350. I didn't want it fixed that bad.

After thinking it over, I decided what the heck, I've got nothing to lose by trying to fix it myself. Well, with some WD40 and a little tweaking I got it going again, and it still works. My wife didn't want it in the house because it coocoos all night long. So, it hangs in my hobby room in the garage. The bellows for the coocoo are tissue paper and I've replaced them a couple times. Here it is striking six o'clock. I think old clocks are neat.

coocoo.jpg

Don
 

We had one similar to the one pictured that a member of the family sent home when he was stationed in Germany.

The old clock had a good run from 1970 - 2010.

I took it to a repairman that said he could fix the time but the mechanism for the dancers and the music box would need to be replaced. The repairman told me that he could order the parts but due to 40 years of wear, he might not be able to marry the new parts to the old. He also advised against a deep cleaning of the works for fear that the accumulation of gunk was actually taking the place of some minute wear to the works over the years.

The poor old clock was eventually given to a local tinkerer, I don't know if he was able to repair it or reuse the case.

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I had a beautiful one my son send me when he was stationed in Germany, 1980s. One night, in the middle of the night, we heard this god awful crash from the living room. There on the floor was our clock, in a hundred pieces. Needless to say, we were heartbroken over this.
 

We've got a nice old German Coocoo clock that was in the wife's parents house while she was growing up, and they gave it to us when we came back to the States. It's just a basic clock...chimes and the bird comes out. It is still in great shape, and we only fire it up when the little great-grandkids are here....they like to hear/watch it. It's pretty loud, so we don't keep it running at night.
 
My brother in law brought one home from WW2. Because they had a small apartment, they would stop it at night.
 
I LOVE old clocks and have several, including two grandfather clocks, but I've never cared much for cuckoo clocks. I find their sound annoying, as opposed to the dignified traditional sound of the grandfathers.
 
I think grandfather clocks are neat, but they're serious clocks. They're big, expensive, and accurate. The Cuckoo is a novelty clock. I don't depend on mine for accurate time. I set it a couple minutes fast in the morning and by evening it's a couple minutes slow. If I need anything closer I have a little digital clock. To me, the little tick tock and cuckoo are happy sounds.

Don
 
My grandma had one of those crazy clocks above the sofa which is where I usually slept when I stayed with her. It drove me crazy. I took my blankets and pillow and went to the kitchen and slept under the table. She thought it was because it was warmer in the kitchen. She figured out it was the clock and she didn't reset those pine cone weight thingys so the clock stopped whenever I stayed overnight with her. I always loved her for that little act of kindness.
 

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