Cuckoo for my clock

Hello there! I hope you’ll indulge me today while I show you something new to our home. It probably isn’t too exciting to most, but it is a piece that makes me so happy I can’t even explain it. :)

It’s actually a kind of weird how it came about. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say I have very little from my childhood. I have no toys, no Christmas ornaments – only pictures (that I treasure) and a small box of papers/trinkets from my entire childhood. All of it was lost along the way, (I touched on why a bit here), so everything that I do have means the world to me.

For some reason, a couple months ago, I started thinking about one item from when I was a kid in particular. It was a small cuckoo clock my parents got when I was very young – I don’t think there was a time when I didn’t remember it in our homes.

I have no idea why all the sudden I couldn’t stop thinking about this clock. I hadn’t though of it in about 20 years – it was the oddest thing. I had this deep ache for it though – it was just something that reminded my of my childhood. It was quirky and fun and symbolized good memories for me.

I thought about it for weeks and then dropped it. Until one day a couple weeks before Christmas when my Dad came by for a bit. We were sitting at the kitchen table and he starts telling me how he had a clock that he was going to have refurbished. My ears perked up and I asked him which one, and what do you know…he had that cuckoo clock I had been thinking about for weeks!! I thought it was long gone since the last time I’d seen it was in my Mom’s storage. All of that was lost a long time ago.

Could NOT believe it.

I had no idea he had “saved” it at one point years ago, and he had had it for about ten years – but it didn’t work and it was broken and dirty.

Seriously, freaky. I pretty much begged him for it, and I think he was surprised at how badly I wanted it. I just couldn’t believe that the one thing I had been reminiscing about for weeks was actually still around.

So for part of my Christmas Dad had it refurbished. He brought it down last week and I tell you what…I was just plain giddy:

I seriously could have cried. We hung it up and messed with it a bit (everything has to be just so for this to work properly).

I love all the detail in the wood (but not too much – it’s actually simple compared to some) and it was JUST as I remembered it. The roman numeral face:

And that little door for the bird to come out of course. :)

I anxiously waited for us to get it just right, and then Dad turned the hands of the clock to set it and that bird came out and did his “cuckoo”:

It filled me with JOY.

You know how when there’s a song from a certain time in your life, and you hear it years later and you almost feel like your in a time tunnel and you can close your eyes and there you are again?

Well, when I heard that cuckoo it took me back to a very happy time in my life and it was emotional, I have to admit. I spent that whole afternoon and evening hanging around the clock, waiting for that little bird to pop out. When it did I was JUST STUPID with happiness. I would do a little dance and would yell out to my son and husband, “DID YOU HEAR IT?? ISN’T THAT AWESOME???”

Of course they did…I just had to make sure.

Now when the Bub hears it and I’m not there, he makes sure to tell me how many times I missed the cuckoo. I love that he’s already in love with it and it will become a memory from his childhood as well.

Dad told me that my grandparents actually bought this overseas for him and Mom, so I talked to my grandma to find out more. She said they got it in 1977 (I was two), in Lucerne Switzerland. They bought one for each of their four kids, and as far as she knows, this is the only one left. Can you believe they traveled home with four of these in their suitcases?

My grandparents traveled often and to some truly amazing places, so I love that this symbolizes their adventures too. I’ve done a little bit of research on it and I believe it’s a Bucherer cuckoo clock. Like I said, it was a mess, so things like the chain and some of the woodwork were replaced and are no longer original. 

But it works and I feel like a kid when I get pull down those chains with the heavy pinecones on them every day, just like I remember my parents doing 30-(something) years ago.

It hangs on a skinny wall between our black doors in the basement – we have it down there so it doesn’t wake us up all night, and I just because I think it fits in perfectly:

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have this in my home – I’m so excited about it. I guess you could say I’m “cuckoo” for it. Ahhh yes…I went there. Did you have any doubt? ;)

Do you have lots of things from your childhood? Is there one item in particular that you miss and wish you had? Do you have a cuckoo clock that makes you dance around when you hear it every hour? :)