New Freedom, PennsylvaniaThe hour struck three and the little shop of clocks erupted in sound, a chaotic chorus of chimes. No two sounded the same. There were tall grandfather clocks and tiny cuckoo clocks, dome-shaped anniversary clocks and caseless skeleton clocks. There was a small, battery-powered kitchen clock on the wall above the register, to tell the time. It was the only one that did not seem to make a sound.

Standing in the middle of it all was Theron “Jeff” Jeffery, a tall, gruff man with thick fingers and slick white hair. He has been fixing clocks for a living for more than 40 years. For 30 of those he’s been here, in his Ye Olde Clock Shoppe, along the side of