I have a great aunt that has never lived with electricity. She has never had indoor plumbing and she has never had a cordless telephone in her home. In fact, she doesn't even like to ride in cars (she still calls them automobiles) and prefers getting around town via horse back. My great aunt is in her 90's and I often talk with her about her childhood. Like what did she do without television, computer and running water. How does she take a bath? As a child I quizzed her mercilessly.
Fast forward to today and we have all the modern conveniences. We have refrigerators and freezers. We have television and computers. Add in the other electronic gadgets like cell phones, cordless telephones and ipods and we have it really really easy. That is until the power goes out.
Thankfully that only happens about once or twice per year where I currently live. About 7 years ago though I lived off the grid for quite some time. No electricity except for a generator. I really liked it but the one child I had at home at the time hated it.
Thus, when the power went out the other day, my kids were horrified! "What shall we do?" they lamented quite loudly. We want to play on the computer or our video games. It was still daylight so I suggested we go outside and play in the yard. What a concept. The looks I got said I was nuts. But they listened and outside we went. We had a nice round of softball and volley ball.
Since a transformer had been hit by a car in our neighborhood we knew we would be without power most of the day and perhaps the night too. Dinner preparations were well under way. I grabbed out few pounds of ground beef and some hot dogs and we fired up the bar b que. That went well. Now we had not only gotten in some exercise, but we had also eaten. I took advantage of the hot coals and made a quick batch of popcorn also. There are many basket type devices for this or you can just do it the old fashioned way with a kettle sitting in the coals and oil and a lid. It makes a great batch of the old fashioned stuff and the kids loved it.
It was getting dark fast though and the mosquitoes were ready for a feeding frenzy so I gathered my youngsters and herded them into the house. Lighting several of my oil lamps, part of a vast collection from my previously living off of the grid, we got out some great board games and proceeded to play a few great games.
Before we knew it, it was bedtime. Having lived off the grid previously I have a vast collection of flashlights also. I gathered up the smaller ones for the youngest of my crew and as I tucked them in and told a bedtime story they were given a small flashlight for bathroom trips and those "monsters" under the bed that are blinded by its magical battery powered lighting.
All in all the day had gone better than I had anticipated. I settled down to crochet a few rounds via lamplight and was in bed by 10:00 pm myself. I treasured that day, a reprieve from our electronic lifestyle.
