'Time Keeps On Slipping'

As a retiree, one might think Virgil Rauch would have plenty of extra time on his hands. Such an assessment would be wrong.

Rauch, 69, of the Lustre area, has been repairing old school wind-up wall clocks and grandfather clocks for decades. He also cares for elderly aunts, aged 86 and 90, who live nearby the house his father, Jacob, built in the 1950s.

Walking into Rauch's home for the first time, visitors will find dozens of clocks hanging in most rooms, tick-tocking away in perfect synchronicity.

"When the [daylight savings time] changed ... I think I had to change about 40 of them," Rauch said.

Working on clocks has been a life long passion for Rauch, who built his own wind up grandfather clock with. Homemade pieces in the 1960s.

"It was something about gears that always intrigued me," he said. "There was a fellow in Wolf Point, Frank Eastman, and he was a little guy and didn't have any legs, but he was a watch maker. I learned a bunch of stuff from him."

The grandfather clock first built by Rauch includes wooden gears.

"I got a pattern and I started cutting the gears," he said. "I tried to get it goin and it would run a little bit then quit. Finally, even Frank Eastman had it for a while and he couldn't figure it out. It turned out the hole in the center was off-center. So, I ended up discarding that and started completely over. I set up a jig and everything with my table saw and a router and cut gears. I started all over."

The grandfather clock still ticks to this day, although Rauch keeps it unplugged because his wife doesn't like the sound of the gears winding up.

Since making his first clock, "one thing has led to another," Rauch continued. "We didn't have TV until I was out of high school, so I think that is where I made these other clocks."

Being a full-time clock repairman was not financially feasible for Rauch, he said, so he spent 46 years driving a school bus for the Wolf Point School District.

"It's the money," Rauch said. "It is a good hobby, but to live off it you've got to really work at it."

For his day job, Rauch turned to bus driving. At first, it simply paid the bills. Little did Rauch know it would grow into a career spanning nearly five decades, and he continued driving bus until the pandemic kicked off.

"They shut the busses down," he said. "I was out here with the bus and I drove for Wolf Point. Then the shop man said 'bring in the bus and we'll clean it up" for when the lockdown ended.

Now, Rauch will never pick up that bus for a school route again.

"I never knew it was the last of it," he said.

A DYING ART

The gears on clock repair have been steadily grinding to a halt over the last several decades as the market is saturated with cheap battery operated devices running on plastic parts.

"All the new stuff is plastic, and a lot of times you can't fix them," Rauch said.

The older clocks were made with metal parts and had much longer lifespans.

"If the bushings are worn or the pivots worn, you put in a new pivot or bushing," Rauch said.

Other items needed to make repairs are harder to come by. So, Rauch makes them himself on specialized equipment he designed.

Such skills make him an endangered species in Northeast Montana.

"I have one friend in Kalispell at Precision Clockworks," Rauch said. "He went to school for it and that is all he does. I think he goes through about 400 clocks a year. As far as I know, I am the only one in this whole area."

Such a reality means the craft may fizzle away when Rauch's generation passes into memory.

"There are some who might pick it up, but it is getting less and less," he said. "At least in this area. There may be other areas in the United States."

Rauch is hopeful future generations will pick up the craft, but such an outcome is by no means certain.

"It would be nice if someone takes it over, but it is just like farming," he said. "You have the big farmers who have taken over."

In this case, it is large corporations - many in Asia - which have taken over the business.

In the meantime, Rauch is content to work on old clocks for folks in Northeaster Montana.

His least favorite part of the hobby is cleaning the old clockworks.

But, the tedious labor is worth it once "everything is ticking right and it sounds good and does what it is supposed to," he said.

Rauch said the clocks he has restored likely will outlive him.

"I am hoping they will. I hope somebody won't just chuck them out."

Instead, Rauch invites those in possession of old clocks in need of a little tender loving care to contact him. Folks in the Glasgow area can drop off their clocks at Baker's Jewelry, 54174 US Highway 2, while those in the Wolf Point area can drop of clocks at Friesen's Floral & Greenhouses, 431 Fourth Ave. N.