More About “Tanse,” My Maiden Aunt

The Watch, Part 1 

Aunt Millie remains a powerful influence in my life. I can still hear her say, “You can give more effort to the phrasing of your thought. Stop your lazy speech patterns.” It always brought laughter from me. In German, she would say, “If the fool wasn’t mine, I’d laugh too.” From her I learned grace and beauty in all forms. I hiked in the High Sierras. I dug fossils on the Pacific cliffs. I was exposed to art, music, ballet, flower arranging, and entertaining. I learned from her and taught her what I thought I learned at college. Her life experience proved deeper than a college education ever could.

She is my ‘precious possession!’ Because of my brass, I have a permanent possession to admire, wear, hold, and cherish.

In my life, and certainly at Berkeley, I lived by schedule. At school, my watch went out of order and while it was being repaired, I asked Aunt Millie if I could borrow hers.

She answered, “I can’t lend you my watch. It’s the only one I have.”

“Not true, Aunt Millie,” I answered. “You have your diamond watch.”

“I don’t wear a diamond watch during the day. It’s ostentatious,” replied Tanse.

“Please Tanse! Use it, wear it. I need the other,” said I.

“Take it,” she told me. “You can always bend me to your will.”

“I know,” I said coyly grinning.

I loved wearing it- so much so, in fact, that when mine was repaired, I didn’t like it anymore.

When I got back to San Francisco for the weekend, I confronted Tanse with my dilemma.

“Aunt Millie,” I begged. “Please give me your watch. I like it so much more than mine.”

“You may not have,” Tanse answered angrily.

“Please, yours is prettier and you do have your lovely diamond watch. You should use it to keep it running. Otherwise, it will stop forever in the drawer,” I said.

“I tell you what I’ll do,” said Tanse. “In my will, I will leave it to you.”

“Never! Do you want me to wish you dead,” I screamed.

“No, positively no. Keep the watch,” Tanse excitedly replied.

“What possessed me to utter such a thought, I don’t know. I love you so deeply for not wanting to die. In your immediate positive response, you showed you wanted to stay on earth as long as possible, to enrich me and everyone else you touched.”

Sequel

During the second World War, the watch needed a new part. I searched everywhere and to no avail. I finally asked George to bring it to the Movado factory in New York to have it repaired.

To my dismay, he returned home to tell me, “No parts will be imported for the duration.” He then presented me with a reasonable facsimile of the original.

I promptly flooded the room with tears, crying, “I don’t want a new watch. I want Tanse’s watch.”

“I know—, It’s just temporary, a substitute until Movado gets the part,” George replied gently.