Merry Christmas to all my readers! We are at that time of the year when we all sense that, well, we are out of time. Time has always weighted heavily on my shoulders. Even when I was a child, my Mother would remind me that it’s “time to get up, time to go feed the chickens, time for breakfast, time to catch the school bus, time to get the cows in from the pasture for milking, and time to go to church.” There were only two timepieces in the Bupp household: a mantle clock which was on a shelf in the kitchen, and a pocket watch that my Father carried. My Father was very conscious of time. He always set the time on the mantle clock five minutes fast so we would never be late for anything!
Later on when I went to college, I found out that my college did indeed run on a very tight time schedule. Classes started at 7:30 am and there was only 10 minutes allowed to walk from one class to another, even if they were in different buildings. Doors were locked to the women’s dormitories at 10:00 at night and at 11:00 pm on weekend nights. All had to pay close attention to the clock.
During my working years, time became even a more controlled commodity. One of the companies that were merged to form International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924 was the International Time Recorder Company (ITR) which was itself formed in 1900 out of the Bundy Manufacturing Company. Willard L. Bundy (a jeweler) of Auburn, NY invented the time clock and he and his brother Harlow started the Bundy Manufacturing Company in 1889 (click here). Time certainly controlled my working years at IBM. Reports had to be written on time, process specifications were to be updated on time, and of course, the machines had to ship on time.
One of the things that my Mother taught was to “make some time” for something that she really wanted to do. Of course, we know that one can’t make time as we all are given exactly 24 hours in each day. But we can set priorities for the things that we really want to do and to accomplish. And so I want to wish all of my readers to “Make Time for Christmas”. It is definitely the best thing that you can do for yourself.