TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

She Tells Time 200 Ways

ADVERTISEMENT

By ELAINE MARKOWITZ, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 2, 2008

Updated: 01/02/2008 12:11 pm

SUN CITY CENTER - Elizabeth Hendricks always knows what time it is.

In her sun-lit home in Sun City Center, clocks abound. Large clocks adorn walls and miniature ones fill the shelves of curio cabinets. Some lure the eye to a table top, where a pendulum swings on one, and a circular plate resembling a flying saucer swirls gently around the conical-shaped top of another.

"We just changed 185 batteries," Hendricks said one recent morning. "I buy 100 batteries at a time for the miniatures."

Hendricks and her husband, Al, own more than 200 clocks, about 190 of them miniatures. Telling time is not their most important function for Hendricks, though. Music, beauty, motion and pure entertainment give the clocks an even greater value.

In the past 15 or so years, Hendricks has been collecting clocks, learning about them as she goes, and seeking interesting time pieces all over the world.

Collecting was not on her mind when she bought her first clock. That purchase, an American-made grandfather clock, stretches high against a living room wall - a chain-driven Howard Miller clock that stands 94 inches high.

"After that one I purchased other standing clocks," she said.

In 2002, when the couple moved from York, Pa., to Sun City Center, Hendricks opted to sell most of them.

She auctioned off six in all - a grandfather clock, a smaller grandmother clock and four large wall clocks.

"I profited on all the clocks," she said, "and I decided then that clocks were a good investment."

At some point, clocks became a hobby.

"About 15 years ago Al ... bought me a Small World clock in Mobile, Ala.," she said of a popular wall clock that features music and rhythm. "Small World clocks are all motion clocks."

On the original motion clock, French-style doors open hourly, revealing a carousel. As the horses go up and down a different tune is heard.
Motion clocks became an immediate draw to Hendricks and she purchased four more. On one, the numbers swirl around hourly; on another, a blimp bounces along nonstop, although the music plays on the hour.

Her favorite clock is a motion one, a Small World oval wall clock on which the numbers shift in a kaleidoscope-like pattern to the sounds of "Silent Night" and other Christmas carols.

The Hendrickses spent years traveling and brought home many foreign additions to their American collection.

"I have clocks from Japan, Venice, Paris, Lucerne, Luxembourg and other European countries," Betty Hendricks said. "The only place we've been where I couldn't find a clock was Alaska.

"I've bought the majority," she said, "but our children also give them to us on birthdays and anniversaries."

Four children, she added, have significantly increased her collection.

At this point, Hendricks is thinking small.

"It has to be a miniature," she said, "since I've run out of space."

The miniature collection, featuring wee clocks that fit easily into the palm of a small hand, is a varied lot. Most are fashioned from Hendricks' favorite metal: brass. Some are made of crystal, including the noted Irish Waterford crystal.

Glass shelves provide a feast of shiny brass pocket-sized time pieces. On one shelf stand tiny musical instruments, including a player piano, a cello, a bass and an old-fashioned gramophone.

Sports objects crop up on a second shelf. Tiny replicas of basketballs, baseballs, golf balls and tennis racquets draw the eye. A miniature bicycle clock stands unobtrusively nearby. For animal lovers, bears, swans, horses and a seal balancing a tiny ball-shaped clock on its nose all show accurate time.

Hendricks said she enjoys looking at her clocks. To date, she has not exhibited them or joined a collector's organization, although she has been invited to do so. The clocks provide a perpetual form of entertainment and are low maintenance.

"All we do is change the batteries once a year," she said. "If a clock needs a battery we usually leave it alone until the time changes and then do both at once."

Al Hendricks, who has long left the hobby to his wife, still plays a part changing batteries and cleaning clocks as needed.

The collecting fever has found its way down to the next generation. Hendricks' daughter, Pamela Apelian, also of Sun City Center, collects miniature shoes.

"Mom got us started collecting," Apelian said.

This story appeared in one or more of The Tampa Tribune's semi-weekly community papers. To read more community stories, go to community.tbo.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT