The importance of electricity

We were reminded of the importance of electricity Monday evening and how we take it for granted in our daily lives.

There is a National Day for about everything, it seems. National Electricity Day, for example, is June 15 this year.

Today is National Military  Brat Day. It is also National Honesty Day, National Raisin Day and National Adopt-A-Shelter Day.

Tomorrow is National Law Day, National Loyalty Day, National Mother Goose Day and National Silver Star Service Banner Day.

You get the point.

But back to the importance of electricity. I had plenty of time to ponder it Monday evening as my wife Connie and I dined by the light of a kerosene lamp in our kitchen.

We lost electricity at our home south of Holton due to the highly-anticipated and highly-publicized storm that predictably rolled through our area with thunder and lightning and some wind that evening and night.

The kerosene lamps that we used Monday night weren’t just any old kerosene lamps. They were special ones - antique ones - fancy ornate glass ones of different sizes - that have been passed down to us from our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents - and maybe even great-great grandparents.

While we utilized the kerosene lamps in our otherwise dark home, I wondered how it must have been for our family members in the old days of the pre-1920s and pre-1930s, prior to towns and rural areas being electrified, when the kerosene lamps were the only source of light in their homes except for the warm glow of the fire in their fireplaces.

I suppose our ancestors would think we have gone soft and would think it is funny when we act like we are unable to do much work when the electricity goes off.

There are fewer and fewer people living now who can actually remember how it was to live day by day without electricity. 

Wood had to be cut up for the fires used to cook and heat. Water had to be drawn from a well and carried into the house.

Wagons were horse-drawn. Everybody had an outhouse outside instead of a bathroom in their home.

After the electrification of homes, there were countless  inventions made to put the new utility to work powering washing machines, refrigerators, etc. Motorized vehicles were next.

It is interesting to hear people who lived back then talk about it. It was no big deal, they say, That’s just the way it was.

But it was sort of a big deal Monday evening when we didn’t have electricity. On the flip side, however, going to bed when it got dark out and getting up when the sun came up was kind of nice, too.