“Now Tommy, put your hands over your ears “ Tom’s Grandfather didn’t place his hands over his own ears, but Tommy, being the dutiful namesake grandson that he was, complied.
At precisely eight PM, it seemed as though Grampa Carson’s entire house clanged, gonged, dinged, chirped, and rang out with numerous other sounds.
After the cacophony from too many clocks, or as Grampa referred to many of them as timepieces, Tommy released his ears.
“Wow, Grandpa!”
“Yes, wonderful wasn’t it?”
Tommy Carson the Third, seldom visited his Granddad since his family moved to Wisconsin six years before when he was one.
“Well, they are pretty loud when they…ah, go off, aren’t they?” Tommy asked.
“I’m used to them and would miss it if I silenced them. I do have silent ones, four in fact. My sundials! Ha! But I admit one of my sundials has been running a bit slowly lately!”

Grandpa Tom looked at his grandson out of the corner of his eye to see if Tommy realized that sundials can’t run slowly.
“Oh, it isn’t slow Grandpa, it’s just because it’s nighttime!”
Grandpa Tom hugged his “boy’s boy” as he sometimes referred to him and asked if Tommy wanted to see his “clock shop.”
“I’d love to. Could we eat potato chips and drink a coke while we do that?”
“Ha…sure we can. I’ve got pretzels too!
“Like chips better, but bring ‘em anyhow!”
There was a shed out in back of Granpa Carson’s house and it had a sundial right in front and a large black and white clock hanging on the side wall which, by the way, was showing the wrong time, one hour earlier.
“That clock is wrong Grandpa!”
“Well, it actually isn’t. It always shows the time at YOUR house!”

When his Grandpa opened the double doors there were so many parts of clocks on benches and large springs hanging on the walls and small, medium and large numbers, both Digital and Roman were everywhere.
“Do you build clocks too Grandpa?”
“Well, no, but I fix them.”
“Could you teach me how to fix clocks?”
“It takes a lot of time and you would have to really love clocks to put all of the time into it! Pardon the pun!”
Then Grandpa Carson explained to Tommy exactly what a “pun” was.
“I’m working on a Cuckoo clock right now. The little bird is a bit shy and I think also oversleeps too!”
“Is that a PUN Grandpa?”
“No, that was a poor joke.”
“How long does it take you each day to wind all of your clocks Grandpa?”
“It takes about an hour by the time I finally wind up!”
“THAT was a pun, RIGHT?”
“Yep!”
“Who winds all of your clocks when you go on vacation?”
“Nobody. That’s why I don’t go away much.”
“When I grow up and you go away, I’ll come and wind ALL of your clocks and keep them right on time, even the sundials!”