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My wife bought a clock and I went all funny.

It’s a replica of an old Smith’s wall clock. When I saw the Smith’s of London logo, I was hit by a Proustian rush of nostalgia. Smith’s Industries had a huge factory in Cricklewood which, when I was a child, employed about 8,000 people including several members of my family. That logo adorned the railway bridge by the factory and I hadn’t seen it for about 30 years until yesterday. For six full minutes (I know this, I was holding a great big clock), I glazed over and remembered a London full of factories. I suppose I should play a Smiths track but no. Far better to get another Smith to evoke the old clock factory’s golden era when a lot of the workers looked exactly like this.

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