16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, March 17, 1912: Am trying to get my lessons out tonight. This light of mine is going out and tis all I can do to see.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sometimes I’m surprised by the similarities between 1912 and 2012. Other times, I’m reminded of the differences . . .
It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like to study using light from a kerosene lamp.
I have a small collection of kerosene lamps from my grandmothers and mother. This baby boomer learned to write the alphabet by the glow of the lamp.
Wow, that’s awesome. I can remember studying with the light from a candle once or twice when the electricity went out. Somehow I have nice memories of working on homework while the candle flame flickered.
I have my grandmother’s kerosene lamp right here in my family room. The one in your picture is so lovely – I see you got it from wiki – That’s a good source when you don’t have your own photo, as it’s ok as far as copyright as far as I know.
As far as I know it’s okay to use photos from Wikipedia.
That’s the prettiest kerosene lamp I’ve ever seen. My only experience with them was on camping trips when I was a child. It makes sense that the ones in a home would be more decorative. 🙂
It’s the prettiest one I’ve ever seen, too. Wikipedia had a photo of a beautiful one!