Dr. Brogdon, antique clock restoration

My name is Dr. Keogh Brogdon. I'm the Associate Dean at the College of Education. I have been collecting clocks since about 1970 and currently repair clocks, fix clocks, buy clocks, sell trade clocks. So I do a little bit of everything. Well, my dad used to collect clocks and I never did pay too much attention to them. As a child, we stopped at a garage sale one time close to Waco and I bought my first clock in about 1970. A year or two later, I bought another clock and then a year or two later, I bought another clock and before I knew it, I had several. I started repairing clocks in probably about 1985. So before that, I was always carrying them out and getting them repaired. But I got tired of spending the money because I had so many. And so then that's when I decided I was going to learn to work on them. So I bought me an old set of works, bought me a book, and I started. It was not too hard to take it apart, but it was a little bit harder to put it back together and to make sure it worked. And I've been doing it ever since. I love to work on clocks. I used to have to draw them off so I'd know where the parts went back to them, you know. So I'd draw me a diagram. I've done so many of them now, I don't even draw them off. I know pretty well how they're supposed to go back. I think the fact that you can restore something that may be nearly 200 years old, that was quality made, I mean, finding out what's wrong with it, that's really what the intrigue is. Because once you solve that problem, you know, then you've got a mechanism that'll work. It's very therapeutic. Rather than playing golf or bowling, I do clocks. And that's what I'll look forward to doing. I work at my own leisure. So when I have an hour or two hours or three hours that I have extra time, then I'll work on clocks. I do have old works that I can take parts off of if they'll fit. But they're not just as simple as taking one part off of one clock and putting it on another. If they don't match up, it won't work. And very seldom do you get lucky enough to find interchanging parts unless they're the same maker. You know, you just have pride. You take pride in what you're doing, and step back and say, you know, I fixed that clock. And without that, it would not be running. When they were made, they didn't have the machines they have now. So a lot of those things are handmade, very crude, but very good. And what they did, they did well. Craftsmanship is there. So I guess I appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making those clocks and the time that those people spent. You don't fix a clock fast. There's no way that you can fix a clock fast. It just takes time. And I found the faster I go, the more mistakes I make. So I have to slow down and be very thorough, very accurate in what I'm doing. You know, it's not unusual to put them together, and then you have to take them back apart, make a correction. It does take a little time. In my collection, you're probably talking 150, 200 clocks. I got clocks in my garage. I got them all over the house. I used to buy anything that would tick, I would buy it. But then I learned there were clocks, and there were clocks. So I try to buy better clocks. Okay.