I lived on a farm in South Texas from 1932 to 1943 and iI was 11 years old that day. It was both great and disappointing. This is my story.
The day the lights came on at the farm
If you were born in the 1930’s or even the early 1940’s in South Texas on a farm somewhere you will probably remember how we didn’t have electricity and used kerosene oil lamps for light at night.
I some times wish for those days, because I remember how soft the lighting was in our little house, and made everything look so cozy at night. That house had three rooms, an attic, and a front porch. I think we just had one lamp, and it was in the room which we used the most …the room with the stove, long dining room table with two chairs and benches on either side. That was the room that had the radio too. We had a big battery for the radio since there was no electricity. Before, they had a crystal set with earphones, but Mother and Daddy were the only ones allowed to listen to it.
When we had to go to the outhouse at night, since it was a long ways from the house, we usually used a lantern to light our way, unless it was a moonlit night, and we had the light of the moon. If you decided to be brave and ran as fast you could there and back in the pitch dark, you found out how brave you were, when suddenly you heard a coyote howl near the house and your heart be in your throat and you went back in the house out of breath and scared to death, and welcomed the sight the lamplight and friendly faces all around the dining table. Coyotes won’t attack a human but I didn’t believe that!!
I asked several of my brothers and sisters what they remembered about those kerosene lamps we used, all of them remembered best how we all sat around the big dining table to do our homework at night. If you were sitting on the end, you complained that you could not see your paper, so Mother had to scoot the lamp down the table to you.
If we had to go in the bedroom for anything, Mother took the lamp to light our way, or maybe we lit the lantern to find our way in the darkened room.
When the REA (Rural Electrical Administration) came to Texas in 1937, but it didn’t reach our community until several years later and we finally got electricity in the early 40’s. That was so amazing to us. I remember that night when the lights came on in the Zook house! That was an exciting night. I remember it like it was yesterday.
But I also remember how the bright bare bulb that hung from the ceiling shined, revealing how drab, and colorless the room was. And you could see all the cracks in the walls, and the messy kitchen and the poverty that was really our status those days. I wanted to turn the light off and light the lamp, so I couldn’t see how poor we were. My mother always fussed at me for saying we were poor, but I had heard her say it one time to Daddy when they were talking after we went to bed.
After that I sort of yearned for the old days of the lamp burning in the room that was so soft and comforting, and didn’t show all the imperfections of our lives. I could pretend we were rich and had beautiful furniture and clothes, and a nice car, instead of an old pickup.
I daydreamed a lot in those days. But yet those times were so simple and I felt very loved by my parents and siblings. I knew Mother and Daddy were doing the best they knew how to give us a good life. It’s not how much “stuff” you have; it is how much love you have that is important. And that love is still in the family 70 years later.
What a wonderful description of your feelings at the time you first got electricity. You may not recall, but most people were poor at that time. Today, even poor people take electricity for granted, until it's turned out for lack of payment.
I didn't experience that transition, but I certainly remember a lot of kerosene lamps being used by my grandparents and parents. I still can't imagine how Abraham Lincoln taught himself to read by reading the Bible in front of the fireplace. Those good old days required a lot of family togetherness and cooperation. Now everyone seems to want to have their own things and their own space in a selfish sort of way.
I remember the kerosene lamps we had in case we lost our power which happened often enough back in the day. You really shined a light on how the dimness of a kerosene lamp muted imperfections and overshadowed poverty, while bringing out the fact that love outshines everything.
At the young of age of seven, Jill's mother Eve takes her for regular sessions to a child psychologist for treatment of her anxiety, which only makes her behavior worse. When she reaches her teens, she starts drinking and then smoking marijuana with
The day the lights came on at the farm
