A funny thing happened to us while we were watching TV the other night, all of a sudden the doggone lights went out. Of course being the brave and resourceful fellow that I am, I immediately set out to bring a little light into our lives. And a little was what I brought. I grappled my way around in the dark until I found a doorway that I thought probably led to the bedroom where I knew I would find a flashlight on the dresser. It did lead to the bedroom but somehow I ended up in what I thought was probably the closet and I was completely disoriented. Anyway after a while I bumped into something that felt very much like a commode so I knew that I was in the bathroom instead of the closet. Now it would be easy to find the door and crawl across the bed to where I knew the flashlight would be sitting on the dresser on the right hand side of the mirror. So that's how I found my way to the dresser and the flashlight. Now I was in command, I had a good flashlight.
The next order of business was to get out the kerosene lamps. I brought three of them into the dinning room. I spent the next few minutes hunting for some matches so I could light the lamps. Jo Ann said they were in the kitchen cabinet over the range next to the vent hood duct, and they were.
At this point I had to rely on my experiences growing up in the mountains and other country places. So, I daftly lit each lamp wick and replaced the globe. Next I adjusted the flame to give the brightest light without smoking up the globes. Ah ha, now with three lamps glowing I looked across the table and ask, “Is that you honey?” She responded, “Who did you expect it to be?” Them things don't make a lot of light the way they used to, ha.
Well anyway, we were without power from July to August. Then one of the lamps ran out of kerosene and it got noticeable darker. Finally the lights came back on and motors began to hum and make other strange sounds so I blew out the lamps and stored them until the next time. I'm tellin' you, it pays to be ready for such things, `cause you never know when they'll happen.
Jo Ann: I will have to say that I don't remember things happening quite the way that Roy told it. We were watching TV when the lights went out, but he didn't wind up in the bathroom thinking at first he was in the closet or crawl across the bed to get the flashlight off of the dresser.
And he could see well enough to see who I was across the table from me by the lamp light.
Technically the lights were out from July until August. They went out July the thirty-first at ten P.M. and were back August the first at two A.M.
