An old Memory

On my high school graduation day, one of my sisters (and I'm so sorry I can't remember which) gave me a very useful graduation gift. A small, battery-powered, digital alarm clock [pictured here at right]. She said that it would be a good thing for me in the coming years.

At the time I couldn't think of anything I would need an alarm clock for in the immediate future, but did think it would be very cool when I went on my mission--it's so compact and everything. But as it worked out, within a couple of months that little alarm clock served a very important purpose.

It was August 1999, and my two friends, Aaron and Spencer, and I had set up a recording date in Phoenix for our band. Aaron's dad worked for (or with) a guy at a recording studio; we got an excellent deal and we were thrilled to go record, but we needed to get from Provo to Phoenix somehow with all of our instruments. My reliable little Mazda fit me, my drum set, and one other person rather comfortably, but three people with additional amplifiers and such was not an option.

So we took Aaron's car. An old Buick (or something like unto that)--brown of course. Old cars like this are always brown or maroon. It had no air conditioning, radio, or clock. We fit all of the instruments in the trunk and backseat, which meant that there was just enough room for the three of us on the bench seat in the front. We brought along a battery-powered boom box for music, and my little alarm clock for a time keeper (we were punk-rock kids who didn't wear watches). Eight years later, is it unbelievable that we took off on a road trip in an unreliable car and no cell phone or other means of communication? Pretty much, but a lot of what we did on that trip is unbelievable.

Like when we got to Phoenix. After sleeping for a couple of hours we woke up and went to Denny's for breakfast, following which as we were driving back to Aaron's parents' house we saw a soccer field that was full of irrigation water and decided that looked like a great place to cool off a bit (because in Arizona in August it is unyieldingly, unbearably hot). We walked out into the middle of the soccer field and had second thoughts. The water was murky and warm, and there were a number of little bugs flying low over the water. But as we were not very wise, one of us (and I don't remember who) tackled another one of us (again who escapes me), but that started it. We bathed in a cesspool that morning...

It seems like that was Friday. On Saturday we recorded, Sunday we rested and went to bed at about midnight before our Monday morning drive back to Utah. By Monday "morning" I mean 1:00 am. I set my handy little alarm clock for 1:00 am, and after it went off we piled into the brown beast of a car and headed--not directly to Utah--but on a little detour that took us to visit one of Aaron and Spencer's friends.

I don't remember her name, but she lived somewhere in Arizona and we showed up at her place around 3:30 am. Now, to this day it shocks me that she was not at all surprised to see us at her apartment door at that hour. Yet she opened up and greeted us like it was the middle of the day. After a short visit there we headed out again, and made a brief stop in St. George where we startled Laurie and her family (imagine seeing three dirty, multi-color haired kids pull up in front of your house in an unfamiliar car and come stumbling out looking like they know you...). Then it was on to Provo; the smell in that car was revolting. The three of us were exhausted, Aaron was delirious, and attempting to stay awake was difficult. We stopped at a rest stop near Nephi and each flopped on the grass for a few minutes where we caught a little nap.

Oh, the memories this alarm clock brings...

This is the amazing thing about it:
It came with a AAA battery in it which powered it. That battery lasted the entire course of my mission, the year afterward while I went to school before getting married, and then survived multiple uses under the hands of Joshua who liked to see the screen turn blue when he pushed the button. When I picked up the alarm clock last night I noticed the battery was out. Eight years of dedicated service it gave. It's one of those with a power indicator line on it--it showed no sign of life when I tested it. The "best when used by date" was January 2002. That battery certainly fulfilled the measure of its creation.

I woke up this morning to the familiar beepbeepbeep of that alarm clock. Aw the good times we've had!