A great time for a festival in the park

By Jill Broecher, Journal correspondent | Sunday, July 20, 2008

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SPEARFISH – With 150 art and craft booths, 25 food booths, live music, a beer garden and more than 30,000 people, it can be easy to lose track of time at the annual Festival in the Park in Spearfish.

“It really is a beautiful day to look at all the neat booths,” said Lana Smeenk of Newell. “There’s a lot of variety here you can’t find anywhere else.”

Mixed between booths of hand-crafted jewelry, artistic paintings and metal sculptures lies a booth that is certain to bring people back for a second look. Jim Mofhitz’s beautifully entertaining humorous clocks get a point and a laugh from many passersby.

Mofhitz, Wellington, Colo., customizes faces to make a clock sure to fit anyone’s lifestyle.  For example, the cat clock displays a mixture of the words “eat” and “nap” in the place of numbers on the clock face. There’s also an auto mechanic’s clock which says, “Pick up your car at five o’clock,” and displays repeating four’s in the place of the five, six and seven.

“I realized the faces you can buy for clocks are just so generic and boring, so I started coming up with my own faces,” said Mofhitz. “Over the years I’ve come up with over 250 faces.”

Mofhitz made his first clock 27 years ago, for his living room wall. At the same time, he made another which hung in his office. People kept coming into his office wondering where they could get such a great clock and pretty soon he was getting clock orders all the time. Now, he sells them at about 30 arts and craft shows a year, on his Web site and at his 3,000 square foot shop on his property in Wellington, Colo.

At age 66, Mofhitz now enjoys keeping his own hours rather than punching in on an employer’s clock. “When I was working for someone else, well, the 9 – 5 is tough. Sometimes you just can’t wait for five o’clock to roll around. But now, running my own business, time isn’t a factor.”

Mofhitz has a clock for especially for those stuck in the 9 – 5 routine – the, “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” clock, proudly displays a five in every number slot.

Mofhitz does all the wood working for his clocks himself. They are made of a beautiful oak frame and glass encasing the humorous face. The clocks have a hand-rubbed finish. They are finished with two coats of Danish oil. Then they are hand waxed with a mixture of beeswax, Camuba wax and turpentine. They are held together with a spring system, making it easier to take the clock apart to clean the inside of the glass.

“I’ve had costumers come back after 25 years and say they still have the clocks and they are still working fine,” he said.

If you go

What: Spearfish Festival in the Park

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 20

Where: Spearfish City Park

Cost: Free