The Kind of Place Nauvoo Is

 

     So what kind of place is Nauvoo?  Maybe the best way to answer that is to tell you about my poor watch.

      My first summer as a missionary, I was warned to take my watch off, in order to avoid getting a horrible skin fungus that would eat between my radius and thatotherbone, disfiguring me for life.  This threat was impetus enough to take my watch from my wrist and move it to the keyring holder attached to my belt.  I’ve since come to prefer keeping my watch on my belt, but it does have its disadvantages.  For instance, I keep my watch on the same ring as my car key, and car keys are something I frequently drop.  “Here, let me get that door for you.  Oops.”  “Here, Let me unlock that real quick.  Oops.”  I usually ruin my watches by breaking the face; shards of glass catch in the hands and the watch is rendered useless.  Then I have to buy a new watch.  It’s very irritating.

      While I was in Nauvoo, I had no car and never locked any doors, so I left my keyring holder in the room and just pocketed my watch.  When I cleaned bathrooms, I would prop it up where I could see it.  (So I wouldn’t have to stick my contaminated hands in my pockets, you see.)  This, inevitably, led to me dropping it on hard, tiled surfaces.  I cracked the face several times, but miraculously, no pieces of glass broke loose.  One time, however, I dropped my watch in the bathroom and it finally stopped working.  When I shook the casing, I could hear the battery rattling around.  Somehow it had been knocked loose.

      Theoretically, this should have been easy to fix.  (Step 1: Pop the battery back in.)  Practically, it was not.  I didn’t have anything thin enough to take off the caseback, and of the pocketknives proffered me by others at the Academy, they all seemed too fragile for the task; I was confident the blades would snap right off if I applied enough pressure to actually open the watch.

      So I carried my rattling battery watch around with me, and wondered what to do with it.

      Once, on an unsuccessful quest for twine, I had visited Nauvoo’s hardware/antique store (many places in Nauvoo are /antique or /tshirt or /postcard or /something else touristy).  Now, in my moment of timeless need, I returned. I was interested in putty knives.  However, putty knives, I discovered, are much too thick-bladed for the task of watch-opening.

      “Can I help you?”  Viewing my confused putty knife carrying, it was evident to the proprietor I did.  The question was just to be polite, I suppose.

      I showed him my watch and explained the problem. 

      “Here, try this.”  He took out his nice, sturdy, (manly), pocketknife.  It popped that sucker right off.  Sure enough, the only thing wrong was a loose battery; I pushed it in and ticking resumed.

      “MMph,” I said.  I couldn’t get the blamed caseback back¹ on.  No amount of force from my thumb was going to do the trick.

      Fortunately, I was in a hardware store.  I picked up a rubber mallet that was for sale.  The gentleman behind the counter thought me a little foolhardy  (“So, you fixed you watch in order to smash it?” he appeared to be thinking), but it worked great.  Snap!  All better.

      So what kind of place is Nauvoo?  It’s the kind of place where you can take a chance at destroying your own stuff with an unpaid-for rubber mallet.  It’s that kind of really great place.

 

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Thanks for revisiting Nauvoo with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.