On one such trip, probably around 2001 or 2002, John and I took a side trip into Middletown Springs, near where we were staying in Vermont, which was probably in the Lake Bomoseen area. There had been a story in the Rutland Herald of the Clock Doctor, Allen Grace, who lived and worked in Middletown Springs.
The story was a nice piece about Mr. Grace, his work, and his hope of selling a grandfather clock he had in the showroom so he could pay for some upcoming college tuition for one of his children. I think he was asking somewhere in the $17,000 neighborhood for the clock.
My wife wasn't with us on this trip. but John and I went to Middletown Springs to see what clocks Mr. Grace might have for sale. My wife and I have a few antique clocks, all working, and all giving us an approximation of the time, within a few minutes. If it's 5 o'clock our clocks won't necessarily agree at the same time that it's 5 o'clock. We have 5 o'clock a few times before it's 6 o'clock.
The trip into Middletown Springs was a little dicey because of a flooded road from a recent heavy rain, but it wasn't that many miles from where we were staying, so we made it in good enough order.
Like most of the towns in Vermont, there is a graveyard just as you're entering, or leaving the town, and Middletown Springs is no exception. We slowed to take a look and seemed to attract traffic. It was almost like in a Western, riding into town as strangers and having everyone come out and look at you.
Not the people in the graveyard, but suddenly more breathing residents of Middletown Springs needed something at the store than I thought really needed something at the store. No problem.
The town is beyond simple. The center of it is the intersection of two straight roads, that become South Street, North Street, West Street and East Street, taking you respectively in those directions from the center. If you get lost, you're a moron.
The Clock Doc's address was 41 South Street. Not hard to find. Unfortunately, he wasn't in at the time, but his wife was only too happy to show us the showroom, which was really a section of the house that had numerous clocks jammed into it on the walls and on the floor.
We spotted what I've later learned was an advertising clock, advertising Calumet Baking Powder. John and I, being racing degenerates, traded looks with each other since Calumet is a storied thoroughbred racing stable that has produced several Triple Crown winners and other high profile winners over the years—it's earlier years, not now.
But the original owners of the farm, the William Wright family, made their money in Calumet Baking Powder, a key ingredient in early 20th-century kitchens for all the baking that was done by the housewives. This of course was before the era of the supermarkets and ready to eat baked goods.
The clock was rather huge, but attractive in its own way. There was certainly no place to put it in our home. There was another clock I took serious interest in, but without the other household vote I could only look and report back. (Reporting back, the vote was no, and a trip back up to Middletown Springs never came off.)
Vermont Life magazine was always subscribed to, but toward what became their end, they were nothing more than ads, with little content. We switched our allegiance to Vermont Magazine, which I never knew has been around for decades. Vermont Life recently folded, having been published by the state of Vermont for eons. Vermont Magazine buried it.
The 2019 fall issue of Vermont Magazine has a two page spread on Middletown Springs. Anything on The Clock Doc?
I eagerly fast forwarded to page 94 and got the usual stories about some businesses in the town, a bakery, a wood working design shop, and a pottery place. All nice thumbnail sketches, with addresses, websites, hours and directions. But no Clock Doc is mentioned.
Through Google you can find web links to the Clock Doctor, but none of them are from the business itself. Apparently Mr. Grace either has no website, or perhaps may not be with us anymore.
A call to the phone number from one of the links does however get answered by a living and breathing Allen Grace, who tells me he has a few clocks for sale, but mostly does repairs. No Calumet clock is available anymore. Asked why he might not have been in the magazine he theorized that he "may not advertise enough."
If you do make a trip to Middletown Springs because of the Vermont Magazine story, add a trip down a few houses from the center of town to 41 South Street and check out what Mr. Grace might still have available.
The time will be right.
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