Day 14 #100DaysOfOldDays

As children we loved when the lights went out. That’s 70’s slang for power outage. When the electricity went off in those days, it stayed off for a couple of hours or more. Sometimes it wouldn’t be restored until the next morning.

The lights and the television were the main things we needed electricity for. Our solid fuel range heated the house and the water. We didn’t have electric blankets—electric what? A dish washer was unheard of. No such thing as a microwave. Our cooker was gas. The radio/tape recorder usually had working batteries in it. (Mam loved her music) The washing machine was electric, and so was the iron, but those things mattered not to children.

We loved the excitement of being in semi-darkness. We often ended up telling ghost stories!

A candle flickered in our little red metal candle holder; the same one I would later take to bed. Mam would open the door of the range to let out an extra bit of light from the red hot coals.

My dad would go searching for a mantle and some paraffin to light the Tilley lamp. There was always paraffin, but sometimes we’d have no mantle, and the Tilley was useless without it.

There was great light from the Tilley. A bit like the clay pipe, you’ll likely find old Tilley lamps in places of historic interests — old style pubs in particular. The smell of paraffin still reminds me of the nights when the lights went out.