Let there be Light

Simple amenities are taken for granted every day. We don't realize how easy life is with the appliances and extras we use each day. If you ever had to hand wash and line dry laundry, or use coin laundry you will appreciate a washer and dryer you have in your home. If you ever had to have a cooler packed with ice(even for a week) to keep items cold because you didn't have a refrigerator at that particular time, you learn to love the big box that lives in your kitchen. If you never had a VHS player, or DVD player or even a 'box' to watch movies or television on, looking at a big box with moving, talking pictures is mesmerizing. Other 'goods' we seem to think we cannot live without include the stove, oven, microwave, and something all of the above have in common... ELECTRICITY! It is amazing if you live without electricity for a short period of time how much fun you can have, and where your attention goes.

Electricity was not commonly available until at least 1930 so how they lived before this time seems ancient or unbearable, but they did it. Scrubbing their clothes and lining them up on the close line to dry. The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric "Monitor-Top" refrigerator introduced in 1927, the compressor assembly, which emitted a great deal of heat, was placed above the cabinet, and surrounded with a decorative ring. As the refrigerating medium, these refrigerators used either sulfur dioxide, which is corrosive to the eyes and may cause loss of vision, painful skin burns and lesions, or menthol formate, which is highly flammable, harmful to the eyes, and toxic if inhaled or ingested. Many of these units are still functional today. And that big box you watch with moving, speaking and bright colored pictures we commonly know as the TV, were  commercially made television sets were sold from 1928 to 1934 in the United Kingdom, United States, and the Soviet Union. The moving pictures were not always moving, color, nor were you able to hear them. Television has come a long way too!

I have lived the last few years without a washer and dryer. I have had to hand wash and line dry, and I thank my parents for letting me use their washer and dryer!! But on rainy days it is not ideal to wash clothes, and with all of the time I used to do the work, I missed having my own washer and dryer. And since the move we have been doing okay surviving without a refrigerator and freezer. I never realized how much I took that big amazing box in my kitchen for granted. It is not impossible to think of meals that do not have to be refrigerated, we can have oatmeal for breakfast, pasta for dinner or it is okay to splurge once in a while and go out to eat. Television is a treat too. I have missed filling up the hour to prepare dinner with a fun movie or a show that distracts the children so I can make sure dinner gets on the table at a reasonable time. Sure playing a game or fixing a puzzle or just having quiet time so I can feed hungry little people is possible, but I did miss the television.

Needless to say, after missing all of these amazing appliances and extras that require electricity are amazing and help make life easier, I did enjoy waking up with the sun and getting into bed before the natural light shut off. I loved camp fire style dinners on a blanket with a lamp. I was able to focus more on my children and make up stories and fun games and just have more creative time. We even would pretend we were living in a different time period: medieval times, 1800's, out in the great outdoors, you name it we played it. I think every once in a while I will "unplug" the house and reconnect adventures, I think the only thing that will stay plugged in will be the refrigerator- we wouldn't want the food to go bad.