Memories on Monday - Got Lights?

Becky had a cute story about a power outage and asking her neighbor's if they had lights. Her story took me back about 35 years to a power outage from my childhood.

The power had gone out, whether the outage was caused by weather or something else I can no longer remember. Mom grabbed our camping lantern and fired it up and set it on the dining table. The dining table was situated in a little alcove at the end of the living room and the walls reflected the light around so well that it was actually a bit brighter than with the electric lights. I was sitting in the living room.

Our house was on a suburban street, where the houses were fairly close together and you could easily see your neighbors houses out of your front window. The street was lined with street lights and when there was a power outage it seemed very dark outside. I image our windows would have appeared to be glowing to the neighbors.

It had only been a few minutes when all of a sudden our front door burst open and one of our neighbors burst right in! He had obviously had a drop or two to drink and demanded to know how we had lights when the rest of the street was dark!!!!

Now I was afraid of this particular neighbor when he hadn't been drinking so when he burst in I was terrified. This happened after Dad had left us so it was just Mom and us three kids. She very calmly told him that our power was indeed out and that we were simply using our lantern. He glanced at the dining table, did an about face and left as quickly as he arrived. Mom was my hero!

Thus marked the beginning of our locking the front door early in the evening instead of waiting until Mom was ready to go to bed as had always been our practice. And that particular neighbor never visited our home again.