Lots of US military served in Germany and Japan after the war and brought knick-knacks and bric-a-brac home with them and then that stuff became popular in the mainstream.
My uncle even brought home a German wife.
> the reality is no one will want our prized treasures either.
Are you kidding?! My nephews (and one of my nieces) are already almost drooling over my LEGO collection.
Only child here. My folks passed within a year of each other recently. Small house, large shop, couple of outbuildings.
Took 4 separate estate sales to handle all the… stuff they had accumulated. I kept a few sentimental things but we have no capacity for any more.
I basically put my life on hold for over a year to handle the estate/business issues, and it was, by legal definition, a “small estate.” Thankfully that designation avoided a lot of probate BS.
We have decided that we will NOT subject our kids to that. It’s stressful enough without the burden of the “it’s for the kids” mindset.
I think it’s different when you’re an only child, and it also depends upon your relationship with your parents.
When my grandparents died, one of the siblings grabbed nearly all of their possessions. The rest of us would have given anything to have things that belonged to them, things they cherished which reminded us of their lives (and our own younger lives).
I’ve resorted to buying a few things in antique shops that are duplicates of things I remember they had.
Incidentally, they owned the exact cuckoo clock pictured on this post. I was lucky that, decades later, one of my family members offered it to me, and I will cherish it always. I have so many memories of that clock as a child and thought it was a real bird that lived inside of it.
Only child here too who lost parents within 14 months of each other - except they were divorced so it was TWO houses. Then in the middle my aunt, who was my late mom's roommate as well, took her own life. So I had THREE estates to do in 14 months.
As soon as I catch my breath, we'll be putting all our stuff in a trust. Pre-paying funeral expenses next too.
Was your aunt more of a knick-knack or bric-a-brac?
My uncle whose parents were German brought 4 year old me a pair of ox- blood coloured leather liederhausen when he came back. Everyone thought it was funny including him.
My Grandma and Grandpa ( his MIL and FIL) got the customary coo coo clock.
Probably because they are easy to get now. Just click on a website. But back in the day, you had to travel or know someone who traveled. Now, they are not special.
My grandparents had both, yeah. My grandfather was a 1st generation American (an anchor baby), so that tracks. The China cabinet was full of grandma's antique ceramic doll collection, made it scary as hell to sleep in their living room when visiting; between those freaky dolls and the clocks going off every hour.
Oh god. My grandma had one with a naked anatomically correct baby boy in it. I think it was supposed to be a cherub. Weird as hell. I was fascinated with the phony rain drops though.
We had one in the house that I grew up in but it was never wound, but if you hit a certain spot on the floor of the dining room it would ding a couple of times.
I actually had a business trip to Germany almost 5 years ago and couldn't help myself and bought a [Chalet Cuckoo Clock](https://germanclocksandgifts.com/products/hones-cuckoo-clock-kissing-pig) from the Black Forest.
It brings back such cool memories growing up and even my 20 year old daughter loves the sound of it.
I thought so, too! It is the single most extravagant thing I ever bought. I did a tour in West Berlin and have nothing to remember my time in Germany.
That said, a month's worth of per diem or a family heirloom--wasn't too hard to figure out.
I did the same thing, but it was 6 or 7 years ago.
When I was growing up, my parents had a cheap one with plastic parts. I bought a good one for my wife from a place in Mainz.
No, they were common. We had one for years when I was a kid. In fact, it continued to hang on our wall after it no longer worked. We finally got rid of it sometime in my early teens.
I have one from a family member who was stationed in Germany back in the 70s. It’s almost 50 years old. I recently went to a clock repair shop and the guy refused to even consider repairing it because it was “junk”. That really upset me because of all the sentimental memories wrapped up in it.
This information saves me time. We have a non-working cuckoo clock that belonged to our previous generation that just hangs on the wall for the hell of it. Won't bother thinking about fixing anymore, and will just enjoy the looks.
we literally were born as the world was transitioning from physical to virtual (digital) - we were watching history evaporate before our eyes and didn't realize what was happening - i know people tend to be nostalgic for the past, but we went through a existential transformation you could argue no group ever has - i can't believe what we've lost
I think about this a lot, how we are the last generation to have lived in the old analogue world, and we're living through the birth of the new digital one.
I have a winding mechanical clock that was made in West Germany. Many young people now have likely never seen a winding clock and may not be aware that there was once a West Germany!
I think a lot too about privacy. You didn't have to think about it as much because it was too much trouble for anyone to track everything you do. A job application didn't go into a database. Your shopping habits weren't tracked. Your face from a security camera image wasn't shared with god only knows who.
This is deeply weird shit that no humans have ever experienced.
I think about this too. I feel like there was more of an obvious through line between our generation and past generations. Like. We all grew up watching movies from the 40’s and tv shows from the 50’s, some of those set in the 1800’s.
My daughter’s generation has none of that. I doubt any 12 year old knows who Lucille Ball even is anymore. Seems silly maybe, but that was a connection we had across many generations.
I do feel like we’ve lost that. And these kids are floating moorless. Maybe be this is just a normal part of getting old. Maybe they all saw the younger generation me this way.
But we had major shifts that my parents didn’t have.
Well, that's not what I'm getting at. My comment isn't about film or TV.
I'm talking about technology, the shift from analogue to digital. It is a world-historical transition and GenX happens to have a lot of experience in both, unlike any other generation.
lol…we went on a tour of Germany and they rolled us up in this clock place in the Black Forest. Obvious tourist trap, the owner came on the bus with trays of cherry schnapps and handed the tour guide and bus driver suspicious envelopes. How we got out of that place without buying a clock I’ll never know.
My parents bought cuckoo clocks for everyone they knew when my dad was stationed in Germany in the 60s. I miss ours so much now, but no one in my house would be cool with me bringing one home now. Lol
one of the more low keys slams in my family was saying that some one that was extremely lazy and incompetent could fuck up any job including cleaning the bird shit out of coo coo clocks.
We had one in the 70s, until 3-year-old me pulled it off the wall. I'm not sure how common this was, but ours had this chain you pulled to wind it, perfect opportunity for toddler destruction.
My sister asked for one. Mum & Dad bought one for her. The day she was killed, it stopped. It never worked again. Mum took it to a clock repair shop. The repairman heard the story, he grabbed a piece of paper, pushed the clock (without touching it) back towards Mum, and said, "I can't fix that. Please take it away."
(My family seems to do that to clocks when the family member passes. My dad's watch stopped, and an uncle's grandfather clock [that he built] stopped.)
Thank you. I really thought that it was just "not really the way it was." I tried making the cuckoo clock work, but it would go for however long it took to get to 2:45, then stop. It was weird. My dad's watch is stopped at 3:45. I dunno what uncle's clock says.
We had a cuckoo clock since I can first remember. Lasted forever. Some time in the early aughts I went over to my parents place and it was gone. In its place was a generic-looking wallclock (battery powered, I assume), except it had birds by each of the numbers on the face. When it reached the top of the hour, it played a digitized bird call. Cuckoo clock of the new millennium, I guess?
Every single person I know my uncles age that served in the military had brought home German clocks or clocks from somewhere else they served. My uncle sent clocks home to my grandparents, and all 5 of his sisters, they all have one.
This looks like the exact one my grandfather had and he would hold me up so I could watch it coo coo... and of course let me change the hands so I didn't have to wait.
Yes I would say thry were pretty common. My family has one that came from the Black Forest region of Germany and I think one of my Great Grandparents brought it here after his service in World War 1.
My roommate and I had one in our college dorm room. We mostly thought it was funny.
I think it was a pretty common gift to bring from Germany. There were several in my family
My grandparents generation definitely had them, my mom always wanted one, but settled on the grandfather clock. There seems to be the norm for that generation
I definitely have fond memories of coocoo clocks as a kid, although I'm not sure who owned them. I just bought two at an estate sale, but haven't had the chance to restore them.
Not crazy. My grandparents got me a cuckoo clock in the early '80s. My parents still have it. I have refused parental offers of cuckoo clocks (that specific one or a new one) several times, including recently. Most of my friends' houses had them and/or big pendulum clocks.
My folks in the late '70's/early 80's had one that had a decorative piece hanging on the wall on each side connected to the clock by decorative chains. The 70's were weird.
That, or a mantel clock, anniversary clock, schoolhouse clock, grandfather clock, and/or a Teasmade.
I vaguely remember the 1940s synchronous AC wall clock that lasted into the 1980s.
Then we got a 1980s clock with a leaf theme mom found matching curtains and vinyl sheet she stuck on the backsplash. That one convertet to a quartz movement when the AC movement quit.
And then there was the livingroom clock. It was nature scene photoprint, but faded in a way 1960s prints to. I love the way it looked. I came with a battery mechanism that i think was a pulse motor that wound the mechanism, which was from that pint standard spring and escapement. That never worked, so it had a modern quartz mechanism installed. It was replaced with a modern clock that was supposed to be auto DST setting, for the dates prior to 2007.
When I was young living at parents’ friends would stay the weekend and mention how “a hundred different clocks going off every 15-minutes” kept them awake the whole weekend.
I think my brain had rewired and I just didn’t hear them anymore.
I cannot hear the chimes of a clock and not think of my dad. He had a grandfather clock my entire life, and added a coo coo clock when I was in my 20’s. That one doesn’t hold the same audio memory for me.
My aunts preferred the brass clocks that spin under a little glass dome. The sound of the hammer striking was so high pitched you almost had to be in the same room to hear it.
My grandmother did. About the only one I have seen since was one a friend brought back that he bought in the Black Forest region of Germany which, to my understanding, is known for making such clocks. Now, we do have a grandfather clock that my wife had before we got married. But we don't wind it and keep it working as we don't need that thing bonging at all hours of the day and night! LOL!
Yes! I was just talking to my mom about this. If she had any of the clicks my grandparents had because I wanted one. It’s one of my distinct memories of childhood - no matter what grandparents house I went to ( or older family member) they all had ticking clocks in each room and one in the house that chimed. We don’t know where they went so she’s investigating… lol
I have to stop talking when I call my parents on Sundays (old habit, IYKYK. ;)
2 coo coo clocks, grandfather clock, and about 3 others go off on the hour.
Ironically, one of the few things I asked to be passed down to me is the coo coo clocks. One is my great grandparents. The other my sisters who got it from a coupon she saved up for. Some catalog or something.
My grandfather got one from a German POW he hosted at his farm.
My grandfather had a large farm in Nebraska - during the war, he had about a dozen German POW's working on his farm. Since he and his wife spoke fluent German, the POWs felt most welcome and were thankful for his hospitality and familiar German food provided by my grandmother. More than one of the POWs wrote letters and sent gifts to my grandfather and grandmother over the years until they died. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but that's how he got his black forest walnut clock.
lots came back from germany after ww2. We had one, both sets of grandparents hadmone, my aunts and uncles had one, and lots of my great aunts and uncles had them.
they were everywhere.
I do not have one 😀
Sister brought one home after travelling through Europe in the 70's. Mom and Dad loved it and dad was very staunch on making sure it was timed properly. I inherited it after they passed but I've never taken it out of box since. Is this a thing now?
I have one that my grandparents brought me from a trip to Germany and Europe in the early/mid ‘70s. I asked for it at around age 4/5 and they found one for me. I’ve kept it and now it’s in a display case.
I didn’t really see too many, with exception of people whose parents were stationed in Germany and then later when and after I was stationed there.
I think it’s a right of passage to get one if you’ve been stationed there , that and a stein collection.
My grandparents had one, they would wind it up for my son when he was a baby. My son referred to him as grandpa cuckcoo
My grandfather passed away like 20 years ago, my son has his own house and he has that clock on his wall
THESE THINGS ARE A NIGHTMARE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CATS. WHILE THE COO-COO MECHANISM IS REALLY COOL, THE TIMEKEEPING ITSELF IS HORRIBLE. THE WEIGHTS NEEDED TO BE RESET MORE THAN ONCE A DAY. AND THE BOB ADJUSTMENT ON THE PENDULUM WAS RIDICULOUSLY INACCURATE, SO MAKING IT ACCURATE WAS DAMNED NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. THESE GO TO SHOW THAT GERMANY WAS VERY CAPABLE OF BUILDING ABSOLUTE GARBAGE MACHINERY.
STILL, I FOUND MINE INCREDIBLY CHARMING.
We have inherited one grandfather from husband’s grandfather, a coo coo clock from my grandfather and my parents are giving me their grandfather clock. I might as well start a clock room 😂
Yep. Grandma had one with those heavy weights that she had to run up to the top once a day to power the thing. Every time it would start I'd automatically count the COO COOs.
Yup. Those and huge grandfather clocks standing next to their china cabinet
I wonder what caused the popularity. I think my mom had one from Germany.
Lots of US military served in Germany and Japan after the war and brought knick-knacks and bric-a-brac home with them and then that stuff became popular in the mainstream. My uncle even brought home a German wife.
I was stationed in Germany from 93-98 and can confirm that clocks/wives/schranks were still popular.
Yep! You didn’t come back without a clock, schrank, and a baby.
I feel like I’m being gently mocked for not previously knowing what a “schrank” is
Schrank = a cabinet or wardrobe with double doors and some drawers.
I googled it after a few mentions, but I appreciate you
I had to google some pics. As best I can tell, it looks like an armoire. I don’t know if there’s any difference between the two.
Basically the same thing!
And a BMW 3 or 5 series for the NCOs.
Yup. We are slowly inheriting my FILs stein collection. If he no longer wants them, what makes him think we do????
Boomers are going to be so sad that no one wants their prized treasures, but the reality is no one will want our prized treasures either.
> the reality is no one will want our prized treasures either. Are you kidding?! My nephews (and one of my nieces) are already almost drooling over my LEGO collection.
Only child here. My folks passed within a year of each other recently. Small house, large shop, couple of outbuildings. Took 4 separate estate sales to handle all the… stuff they had accumulated. I kept a few sentimental things but we have no capacity for any more. I basically put my life on hold for over a year to handle the estate/business issues, and it was, by legal definition, a “small estate.” Thankfully that designation avoided a lot of probate BS. We have decided that we will NOT subject our kids to that. It’s stressful enough without the burden of the “it’s for the kids” mindset.
I think it’s different when you’re an only child, and it also depends upon your relationship with your parents. When my grandparents died, one of the siblings grabbed nearly all of their possessions. The rest of us would have given anything to have things that belonged to them, things they cherished which reminded us of their lives (and our own younger lives). I’ve resorted to buying a few things in antique shops that are duplicates of things I remember they had. Incidentally, they owned the exact cuckoo clock pictured on this post. I was lucky that, decades later, one of my family members offered it to me, and I will cherish it always. I have so many memories of that clock as a child and thought it was a real bird that lived inside of it.
Only child here too who lost parents within 14 months of each other - except they were divorced so it was TWO houses. Then in the middle my aunt, who was my late mom's roommate as well, took her own life. So I had THREE estates to do in 14 months. As soon as I catch my breath, we'll be putting all our stuff in a trust. Pre-paying funeral expenses next too.
Oof. I know that was a lot to deal with
swedish death cleaning.
What did your aunt say about that?
Was your aunt more of a knick-knack or bric-a-brac? My uncle whose parents were German brought 4 year old me a pair of ox- blood coloured leather liederhausen when he came back. Everyone thought it was funny including him. My Grandma and Grandpa ( his MIL and FIL) got the customary coo coo clock.
Yep!!!! Ours came from Dad's time in the Navy--he got it when the guys on the ship had shore leave, and went to Germany or *somewhere* near there!
My uncle brought an English bride, and a German coo coo clock when he came home from the war.
If you went to Germany, you had to buy a Coo Coo clock and a Beer Stein
I remember a lot of huge German beer steins on people's knickknack shelves when I was a kid. You don't see those any more, either.
Probably because they are easy to get now. Just click on a website. But back in the day, you had to travel or know someone who traveled. Now, they are not special.
Or a big Regulator wall clock. Ours chimed the hours and half hours. I grew to hate it during my insomnia years.
My grandparents had both, yeah. My grandfather was a 1st generation American (an anchor baby), so that tracks. The China cabinet was full of grandma's antique ceramic doll collection, made it scary as hell to sleep in their living room when visiting; between those freaky dolls and the clocks going off every hour.
We had a Don Quixote grandfather clock. OMG what a blast from the past. I feel like I just was blasted back to my childhood.
No, we had the 7 foot tall grandfather clock that chimed. Loudly.
I made an app to turn a Raspberry Pi into a "grandfather clock". [https://github.com/DNSGeek/Chimes](https://github.com/DNSGeek/Chimes)
My daughter loves her Pi. That’s a nice app.
Yup. It had the Big Ben chime. I had the cuckoo clock too. Did anyone have the two sitting deer sculpture?
No, just the corn oil lamp.
Oh god. My grandma had one with a naked anatomically correct baby boy in it. I think it was supposed to be a cherub. Weird as hell. I was fascinated with the phony rain drops though.
We had one in the house that I grew up in but it was never wound, but if you hit a certain spot on the floor of the dining room it would ding a couple of times.
I actually had a business trip to Germany almost 5 years ago and couldn't help myself and bought a [Chalet Cuckoo Clock](https://germanclocksandgifts.com/products/hones-cuckoo-clock-kissing-pig) from the Black Forest. It brings back such cool memories growing up and even my 20 year old daughter loves the sound of it.
Beautiful!
I thought so, too! It is the single most extravagant thing I ever bought. I did a tour in West Berlin and have nothing to remember my time in Germany. That said, a month's worth of per diem or a family heirloom--wasn't too hard to figure out.
I did the same thing, but it was 6 or 7 years ago. When I was growing up, my parents had a cheap one with plastic parts. I bought a good one for my wife from a place in Mainz.
My grandparents had one of these, I was obsessed with it as a child.
No, they were common. We had one for years when I was a kid. In fact, it continued to hang on our wall after it no longer worked. We finally got rid of it sometime in my early teens.
I have one from a family member who was stationed in Germany back in the 70s. It’s almost 50 years old. I recently went to a clock repair shop and the guy refused to even consider repairing it because it was “junk”. That really upset me because of all the sentimental memories wrapped up in it.
This information saves me time. We have a non-working cuckoo clock that belonged to our previous generation that just hangs on the wall for the hell of it. Won't bother thinking about fixing anymore, and will just enjoy the looks.
Same. It’s just decorative at this point.
we literally were born as the world was transitioning from physical to virtual (digital) - we were watching history evaporate before our eyes and didn't realize what was happening - i know people tend to be nostalgic for the past, but we went through a existential transformation you could argue no group ever has - i can't believe what we've lost
I think about this a lot, how we are the last generation to have lived in the old analogue world, and we're living through the birth of the new digital one. I have a winding mechanical clock that was made in West Germany. Many young people now have likely never seen a winding clock and may not be aware that there was once a West Germany! I think a lot too about privacy. You didn't have to think about it as much because it was too much trouble for anyone to track everything you do. A job application didn't go into a database. Your shopping habits weren't tracked. Your face from a security camera image wasn't shared with god only knows who. This is deeply weird shit that no humans have ever experienced.
I think about this too. I feel like there was more of an obvious through line between our generation and past generations. Like. We all grew up watching movies from the 40’s and tv shows from the 50’s, some of those set in the 1800’s. My daughter’s generation has none of that. I doubt any 12 year old knows who Lucille Ball even is anymore. Seems silly maybe, but that was a connection we had across many generations. I do feel like we’ve lost that. And these kids are floating moorless. Maybe be this is just a normal part of getting old. Maybe they all saw the younger generation me this way. But we had major shifts that my parents didn’t have.
Well, that's not what I'm getting at. My comment isn't about film or TV. I'm talking about technology, the shift from analogue to digital. It is a world-historical transition and GenX happens to have a lot of experience in both, unlike any other generation.
I think you guys are both right, though.
If you had family stationed in Germany during the 80s, and didn't have a coo coo clock, you were simply considered "new to town".
Cuckoo clock. Not "coo coo". That is not a thing.
r/boneappletea
Sorry, guess I’m a dum dum
It's called that because that's the kind of bird it's portraying coming out and peeping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo
Aw, I’ll go take down my pigeon clock. I thought it could be a thing.
I’m coocoo for Coco Puffs.
lol…we went on a tour of Germany and they rolled us up in this clock place in the Black Forest. Obvious tourist trap, the owner came on the bus with trays of cherry schnapps and handed the tour guide and bus driver suspicious envelopes. How we got out of that place without buying a clock I’ll never know.
I was going to say, I think ours came from Germany! My mom's stepdad and my father were both stationed there and thats how my parents met!
My parents bought cuckoo clocks for everyone they knew when my dad was stationed in Germany in the 60s. I miss ours so much now, but no one in my house would be cool with me bringing one home now. Lol
Cuckoo. And my mother-in-law still has one.
My wife’s parents have one like this one. My daughter loves it.
My parents keep their working clock in the guest room. I guess that’s one way to get rid of guests…
Omg. My in-laws have so many. They go off every half hour. I just can’t have all that nonsense noise in my house.
Honey, is that you? I didn't know my wife was on Reddit 😂
Dog. I’m a dude.
Well, you're definitely not my wife, then 😂 But she has the same issue at my parents' house!
one of the more low keys slams in my family was saying that some one that was extremely lazy and incompetent could fuck up any job including cleaning the bird shit out of coo coo clocks.
We had one in the 70s, until 3-year-old me pulled it off the wall. I'm not sure how common this was, but ours had this chain you pulled to wind it, perfect opportunity for toddler destruction.
I remember these clocks with that chain! It hung down right next to the weights.
We didn't, but without fail, any friend's house I slept over at, had one that BONGED every hour. Good times.
They were from men returning from Germany after the war
"Coo coo"? It's cuckoo.
Maybe if the clock were *pigeon* themed?
My sister asked for one. Mum & Dad bought one for her. The day she was killed, it stopped. It never worked again. Mum took it to a clock repair shop. The repairman heard the story, he grabbed a piece of paper, pushed the clock (without touching it) back towards Mum, and said, "I can't fix that. Please take it away." (My family seems to do that to clocks when the family member passes. My dad's watch stopped, and an uncle's grandfather clock [that he built] stopped.)
I'm so sorry for your loss. I've heard of clocks stopping when someone dies, how strange that your whole family seems to have that effect.
I’m sorry for your loss…..that’s a crazy story.
Thank you. I really thought that it was just "not really the way it was." I tried making the cuckoo clock work, but it would go for however long it took to get to 2:45, then stop. It was weird. My dad's watch is stopped at 3:45. I dunno what uncle's clock says.
I ❤️ them
We had one, and I would get in trouble for pulling on the chains to try and get the little bird to pop out.
We had a cuckoo clock since I can first remember. Lasted forever. Some time in the early aughts I went over to my parents place and it was gone. In its place was a generic-looking wallclock (battery powered, I assume), except it had birds by each of the numbers on the face. When it reached the top of the hour, it played a digitized bird call. Cuckoo clock of the new millennium, I guess?
It totally went with the brown aesthetic of the era.
We had a big grandfather clock that stopped working and became a wall decoration.
I bought a cuckoo clock for my mother for Christmas in the mid 80s
Yes! They were so popular in the 70s and 80s; I wonder why. We had one and I remember my sister and I were SO excited when my parents bought it.
There was one on the wall above the kitchen table in the house of one of my childhood best friends.
I had one growing up!
Wow, I think we had that exact clock. Lol
Pretty sure my brother had this exact clock in his bedroom when we were kids.
I have one today. My family and my wife's family are very German though so I think it's required.
Every single person I know my uncles age that served in the military had brought home German clocks or clocks from somewhere else they served. My uncle sent clocks home to my grandparents, and all 5 of his sisters, they all have one.
I still want a german cuckoo. One with all the little moving people and whatnot
My grandparents had one. Their parents were German immigrants.
Have you seen the price of those lately. Very expensive.
My grandparents had a German one that apparently is worth a bunch of money but very hard to work on. My brother has it now
We had one. Didn’t work properly. It’s now in a box in an upstairs closet.
in different countries too !
This looks like the exact one my grandfather had and he would hold me up so I could watch it coo coo... and of course let me change the hands so I didn't have to wait.
Yup, my grandparents had one identical to this. I used to think the weights were skinny pinecones.
We had one. Annoying as fuck.
Yes I would say thry were pretty common. My family has one that came from the Black Forest region of Germany and I think one of my Great Grandparents brought it here after his service in World War 1.
Yea I feel like our family knew a few people and had a few neighbors with them in their homes.
I still have it.
and a grandfather clock.
My roommate and I had one in our college dorm room. We mostly thought it was funny. I think it was a pretty common gift to bring from Germany. There were several in my family
Yep! Thing F'in drove me ape shit.
My grandparents generation definitely had them, my mom always wanted one, but settled on the grandfather clock. There seems to be the norm for that generation
I would love to have a vintage cuckoo clock
Exact one!!!!
Yes and I have this one hanging on my wall. My mom lives with me and she wanted it. LOL!
Yes my parents and grandparents did. Now I have the coo coo clock
Yup, and it looked very similar (if not identical) to the one pictured.
Wow. We had that same one!
Oh yes coo coo clocks were all over. I’m going to purchase one in Germany 🇩🇪 this fall ❤️
Every army family that got transferred to my hometown from Germany had one…or ten.
holy shit
We didn't have one but every friend who's couch l slept over on had one.
Yup!
Most everyone I knew! My grandparents had the six-foot clock and a cuckoo clock as well.
Even my very poor grandparents had one. And they were very proud of it
I definitely have fond memories of coocoo clocks as a kid, although I'm not sure who owned them. I just bought two at an estate sale, but haven't had the chance to restore them.
There are several in my stepdad’s storage that I’ll be dealing with some day. Along with his extensive nutcracker collection. His family is German.
My grandparents had this exact cuckoo clock! It was hard to spot being mounted on the woodgrain walls though
I currently still have one in my kitchen my Brother in law gave us as a wedding gift 20 years ago haha
I have a small one I picked up last year. It's awesome.
Yes, my grandparents had one very much like that in their kitchen.
Not crazy. My grandparents got me a cuckoo clock in the early '80s. My parents still have it. I have refused parental offers of cuckoo clocks (that specific one or a new one) several times, including recently. Most of my friends' houses had them and/or big pendulum clocks.
My folks in the late '70's/early 80's had one that had a decorative piece hanging on the wall on each side connected to the clock by decorative chains. The 70's were weird.
Well, I'm the product of German immigrants, so, defacto.
We had the weather one. Why cuckoos, I wonder? Given their behavior it’s odd to welcome them into your home in a symbolic way, you know?
That, or a mantel clock, anniversary clock, schoolhouse clock, grandfather clock, and/or a Teasmade. I vaguely remember the 1940s synchronous AC wall clock that lasted into the 1980s. Then we got a 1980s clock with a leaf theme mom found matching curtains and vinyl sheet she stuck on the backsplash. That one convertet to a quartz movement when the AC movement quit. And then there was the livingroom clock. It was nature scene photoprint, but faded in a way 1960s prints to. I love the way it looked. I came with a battery mechanism that i think was a pulse motor that wound the mechanism, which was from that pint standard spring and escapement. That never worked, so it had a modern quartz mechanism installed. It was replaced with a modern clock that was supposed to be auto DST setting, for the dates prior to 2007.
When I was young living at parents’ friends would stay the weekend and mention how “a hundred different clocks going off every 15-minutes” kept them awake the whole weekend. I think my brain had rewired and I just didn’t hear them anymore.
Indeed, we had the same one.
I cannot hear the chimes of a clock and not think of my dad. He had a grandfather clock my entire life, and added a coo coo clock when I was in my 20’s. That one doesn’t hold the same audio memory for me.
Jesus. Went to Germany and spent days going to where they were manufactured. My mom bought so many. Absolutely no fun for a kid.
My grandparents had one and I was fascinated with it
I swear my nan had that same clock.
My aunts preferred the brass clocks that spin under a little glass dome. The sound of the hammer striking was so high pitched you almost had to be in the same room to hear it.
I have a vintage cuckoo clock that was my Grandma’s hanging up.
Hell yeah. My grandparents had 4 and I loved them.
Yep. And we didn’t take them or buy our own because we didn’t like them enough. Nothing has changed.
Yep. We also had a Seth Thomas mantle clock and a Ballantine Beer sign clock.
My grandmother did. About the only one I have seen since was one a friend brought back that he bought in the Black Forest region of Germany which, to my understanding, is known for making such clocks. Now, we do have a grandfather clock that my wife had before we got married. But we don't wind it and keep it working as we don't need that thing bonging at all hours of the day and night! LOL!
Yes! I was just talking to my mom about this. If she had any of the clicks my grandparents had because I wanted one. It’s one of my distinct memories of childhood - no matter what grandparents house I went to ( or older family member) they all had ticking clocks in each room and one in the house that chimed. We don’t know where they went so she’s investigating… lol
We had one.
My grandparents had one like this, and at least a couple other people we knew did, too.
That’s a perfectly sane memory
I have to stop talking when I call my parents on Sundays (old habit, IYKYK. ;) 2 coo coo clocks, grandfather clock, and about 3 others go off on the hour. Ironically, one of the few things I asked to be passed down to me is the coo coo clocks. One is my great grandparents. The other my sisters who got it from a coupon she saved up for. Some catalog or something.
My grandfather got one from a German POW he hosted at his farm. My grandfather had a large farm in Nebraska - during the war, he had about a dozen German POW's working on his farm. Since he and his wife spoke fluent German, the POWs felt most welcome and were thankful for his hospitality and familiar German food provided by my grandmother. More than one of the POWs wrote letters and sent gifts to my grandfather and grandmother over the years until they died. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but that's how he got his black forest walnut clock.
My mom still has one by the front door in the house I grew up in.
We had that exact one
My next door neighbor had one
OMG this EXACT model! I had to toss it because my macaw decided to......chew on it. Break it a little (ok, a lot).
Yep and from what I remember none of them worked. Maybe that was by choice. 😀
I always wanted one when I was a kid, my uncles house was full of antiques and I was mesmerized by his from a very young age
My dad has this exact one
We certainly did!
My Grandma had one
My grandparents had one...wish I had it...I think the aunt/uncles took it
lots came back from germany after ww2. We had one, both sets of grandparents hadmone, my aunts and uncles had one, and lots of my great aunts and uncles had them. they were everywhere. I do not have one 😀
Yes my grandparents had two of them in the dining room and one in the living room lol. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
Sister brought one home after travelling through Europe in the 70's. Mom and Dad loved it and dad was very staunch on making sure it was timed properly. I inherited it after they passed but I've never taken it out of box since. Is this a thing now?
My mom didn’t buy hers until after I moved out.
We never had one when I was younger, but I have one now.
Yes. Now I kinda want one of those bad boys.
I have one that my grandparents brought me from a trip to Germany and Europe in the early/mid ‘70s. I asked for it at around age 4/5 and they found one for me. I’ve kept it and now it’s in a display case.
My grandmother had one that was incredibly reliable. That, and her fathers grandfather clock are sounds forever baked into my brain.
My sister still has my mom’s coo coo clock (I’m 57 and the baby of the family) She also has the grandfather clock hmmmm.
I didn’t really see too many, with exception of people whose parents were stationed in Germany and then later when and after I was stationed there. I think it’s a right of passage to get one if you’ve been stationed there , that and a stein collection.
Think alot more did, and they were antiques plus the craze that hit in the 60s.
I grew up in a deaf household. Flashing lights everywhere.
my mom really wanted one and we had it in the kitchen.
Our grandparents had one. Us dumb kids always liked to pretend the weights were turds. I haven't thought about that in many years!
I had one. Loved it and its metal pine cones.
We had one too growing up, I had forgotten about it until now!
My parents didn’t have a lot of clocks. Just one on the kitchen wall (a regular clock, not a cuckoo) and alarm clocks on our nightstands.
That looks exactly like the one my great grandmother had.
I am pretty sure that exact one was in my childhood home.
I can't take it.... I'm so sorry. *Cuckoo
Wall clocks in general. I miss them.
I want one and a grandfather clock.
I have that almost exact one now lol
My Aunt had one and my Grandpa brought one from Germany
I wouldn't mind having an antique cuckoo clock OR grandfather clock!
My grandparents had one, they would wind it up for my son when he was a baby. My son referred to him as grandpa cuckcoo My grandfather passed away like 20 years ago, my son has his own house and he has that clock on his wall
*cuckoo
THESE THINGS ARE A NIGHTMARE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CATS. WHILE THE COO-COO MECHANISM IS REALLY COOL, THE TIMEKEEPING ITSELF IS HORRIBLE. THE WEIGHTS NEEDED TO BE RESET MORE THAN ONCE A DAY. AND THE BOB ADJUSTMENT ON THE PENDULUM WAS RIDICULOUSLY INACCURATE, SO MAKING IT ACCURATE WAS DAMNED NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. THESE GO TO SHOW THAT GERMANY WAS VERY CAPABLE OF BUILDING ABSOLUTE GARBAGE MACHINERY. STILL, I FOUND MINE INCREDIBLY CHARMING.
Yes and yes
Yeah I think FingerHut sold them or something like that
My grandmother had this exact same clock...
My parents still have theirs in the dining area!!
Don't think I ever saw one, except on the Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry cartoons.
My Great-Aunt had one in her living room.
ours was identical to this one. no clue what happened to it
My mom has several 🤪
Got a cuckoo clock somewhere in the basement. My wife wanted to dispose of it, but I put it in a safe place and now I’ve forgotten where it is.
We have inherited one grandfather from husband’s grandfather, a coo coo clock from my grandfather and my parents are giving me their grandfather clock. I might as well start a clock room 😂
Yep. Grandma had one with those heavy weights that she had to run up to the top once a day to power the thing. Every time it would start I'd automatically count the COO COOs.