November 8, 2007

Pellom's Time Shop

pellomstimeshop.jpg

It's the oldest shop in Black Mountain, North Carolina. None of the other shop keepers can remember a time when it wasn't here. Nobody in town can remember a time when Pellom himself wasn't here. The Time Shop and Pellom may well have been here before the town was here; before even the Cherokee were here. Nobody can say.

These days Pellom isn't the Pellom he once was. If you want him to come and deal with your time in your space you have to pick him up and bring him back at the appointed time. If your time is more flexible you can bring it in to him if it breaks. He might well have that part of time you need in his shop. He's got all sorts of spare time parts from times past if precious little from time present and even less from time future. Still sometimes he's got time.

Most people look into the cluttered and dust-layered window of the Time Shop and walk on by. The stores full of crafts made the old-time way lure them on. After all, most of those who walk up and down this street in Black Mountain are retired and have, they think, all the time in the world.

Pellom doesn't mind. He knows what time it is. He also knows what can happen to time. How it can come unsprung. How it can run slow and still run fast. How time runs down. How time goes by. How time runs out. That's why he's careful, when he can, to save time.

You can, if he decides he likes you, buy some time at the Time Shop. All you have to do is to step through the seldom used door of the Time Shop and say "Good afternoon, Mr. Pellom." Then you need to look around the shop carefully and slowly. You need, most of all, to take your time.

In time, if the time is right, Pellom will glance up at you from behind his bench, his green eyeshade shadowing his eyes, and say, "What can I get you?"

Not "What are you looking for?," or "How can I help you?," but "What can I get you?"

You'd be well advised to take him at his word and say, "I'd like to buy some more time."

Then, if your request is timely, Pellom will nod and fetch that small cloud-blue glass-stoppered bottle from the shelf behind him and bring it over to the counter and put it down in front of you with a sharp, satisfying clack on the glass of the counter. Looking into it all you will see is, towards the center, the faintest mist made from the color out of space and inside that, towards the core of the mist, a shovel of stars.

"Very good, sir," Pellom will say. "How much time would you like?"

I'd advise you to buy as much time as you can afford, as often as you can afford it, time after time.

Just because Pellom has some extra time today doesn't mean he won't be out of time tomorrow. Most of the time, time is always in short supply. Tonight, while you sleep, your government will be awake printing more money. Nobody is printing more time. Which is why you should be careful how you spend time in the first place. Just ask Pellom down at the Time Shop.

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Posted by Vanderleun at November 8, 2007 8:17 AM | TrackBack
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AMERICAN DIGEST HOME
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

And I though Jim Croce had the lock on Time In A Bottle...

Vanderleun, you are an artist, painting visions with your words...

Posted by: Another Old Navy Chief at November 8, 2007 9:26 AM

Time to sit down and comment on Gerard's essay on Pellom's time shop. But, what the heck, no matter how much time I spend on it I can't make as timely or witty comment as the essay itself. So I'll save myself some time and just say, "Time to go, cause time's a wasting."

Posted by: Jimmy J. at November 8, 2007 9:52 AM

Well, it's kinda easy to wax poetic and metaphoric when you're The Only Living Boy in New York and the world's but A Hazy Shade of Winter.

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know that you've been eager to fly now
Hey let you honesty shine, shine, shine
Da-n-da-da-n-da-n-da-da
Like it shines on me
The only living boy in New York
The only living boy in New York

...Paul Simon

Posted by: Alan Kellogg at November 8, 2007 11:38 AM

This just begs the eternal question: who makes time with the timekeeper's daugher while the timekeeper's busy keeping time?

Posted by: Gagdad Bob at November 8, 2007 4:23 PM

I appreciate the time you invested in linking together this lovely interlude just so I, a complete stranger, could spend some of my time enjoying it.

Posted by: MizzE at November 8, 2007 5:29 PM

I like your weird musings best of all.

the faintest mist made from the color out of space and inside that, towards the core of the mist, a shovel of stars.

Color out of Space? Hey.... That's a veiled Lovecraft reference....

I follow American Digest, and I think that your time in The Blue Ridge Mountains has done you good.

You're on my list of people I wanna meet.

Posted by: Gray at November 8, 2007 9:01 PM

Reading this was time well spent...which is no time at all.

Posted by: gabrielpicasso at November 9, 2007 7:56 AM

Being in North Carolina, I don't suppose Pellom has any New York Minutes.

Posted by: AST at November 9, 2007 2:48 PM

I LOVE BLACK MTN! We've been there many times - even stopped in at Pellom's (I love clock shops - thankfully there's one in the little town where I live). I hope you ate at the Red Rocker Inn.

Posted by: Obi's Sister at November 9, 2007 4:28 PM

Riffing on "Gray": You didn't give a link to H.P.

Bad idea--Cthulhu's gonna getcha.

Posted by: Sam L. at November 10, 2007 5:27 AM

And then there is the arrow of time or time's arrow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_arrow

Posted by: ChiefTestPilot at November 10, 2007 11:07 AM
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