Back to the Future.

When Marty McFly and Emmett “Doc” Brown put the DeLorean DMC-12 in motion that fateful night outside Twin Pines Mall, who would ever have known we would have a similar story here in Glen Ellyn? Sort of similar that is.

No we didn’t borrow, or steal any plutonium; of course we could never reach 88 MPH down Main Street between Pennsylvania and Crescent Boulevards---and what is a “Flux Capacitor” anyway?

Here’s the story.

Back in March, 1924, The Du Page Trust Company promised the Village of Glen Ellyn a clock to be placed on the side of their building. (This would now be where M & Em’s is located.) The clock would do more than let the people of Glen Ellyn know the time, it would chime. To quote the Glen Ellyn News and The Glen Ellyan on March 14, 1924, “A clock in one’s home is a familiar friend, a clock in one’s village will be so likewise and Glen Ellynites will welcome the constant use of it.”

The clock more than chimed on the hour… “At a quarter past the hour, four strokes--- Westminster; at half past the hour, eight strokes---Reveille; at the three quarters past the hour, twelve strokes---Cathedral peal; and on the hour sixteen strokes---Westminster followed by the striking of the full hour, in a clear vibrant tone.”

So what happened?

No one knows, it just stopped one day and it has never chimed again.

I know as a commuter, nothing provides greater pleasure (commuting pleasure that is) to know when you think you are running late for the train, you are not. This clock, which still works today---less the chimes of course---has saved me from sprints, spilled coffee and other mishaps more times than I could ever recall as I was sure I was late for the train.

Do we need the chimes back on in “Our Town?” 

Thanks for stopping by.