My Grandfather's Clocks: The True Story of a Grandson's Search for an American Inventor's Lost Collection - Hardcoverby Gregory Gerard Allison (Author) My Grandfather's Clocks (The true story of a grandson's search for an American inventor's lost collection), 59K words, is a memoir recounting a grandson's search for a missing 13 clock collection, each designed and handcrafted by his grandfather, Charles Allison, in the 1930s 1950s. PICTURE IT SUMMER 1908: Growing up in rural Western NY, Charley Allison was raised in a farming family. At 16 in 1908, all that changed.