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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Let there be light | Let there be light |
| (about 24 hours later) | |
| Chilly-billy!Minimal heating, lights off as soon as the room is vacated (if not before) - Laurie Taylor recalls saving money on the electric in his weekly column for the Magazine. | Chilly-billy!Minimal heating, lights off as soon as the room is vacated (if not before) - Laurie Taylor recalls saving money on the electric in his weekly column for the Magazine. |
| After Dad died, the house had to be sold, but before we could do that we needed a family meeting to decide how to dispose of what the second-hand shop down the road called "the furniture and effects". | After Dad died, the house had to be sold, but before we could do that we needed a family meeting to decide how to dispose of what the second-hand shop down the road called "the furniture and effects". |
| We all sat around in the front room that we knew so well from childhood and started to make plans. My younger sister would have the dining room chairs. My older sister would take the china set. I would have the small bookcase from the hall. | We all sat around in the front room that we knew so well from childhood and started to make plans. My younger sister would have the dining room chairs. My older sister would take the china set. I would have the small bookcase from the hall. |
| It was a cold day and I remember, as in childhood, that we'd all automatically eased our chairs forwards so that we were closer to the two glowing bars of the electric fire. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdays or 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here | It was a cold day and I remember, as in childhood, that we'd all automatically eased our chairs forwards so that we were closer to the two glowing bars of the electric fire. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdays or 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here |
| It must have been an awareness of that movement which suddenly prompted my older sister to cry out. "Listen everybody" - as though she'd suddenly remembered the existence of a box of jewels in the stair cupboard. | It must have been an awareness of that movement which suddenly prompted my older sister to cry out. "Listen everybody" - as though she'd suddenly remembered the existence of a box of jewels in the stair cupboard. |
| "Listen everybody. There's no need for us to crouch round the fire like this. Watch me." And with that she got up from her chair, took one step towards the fire, flicked a switch on the side and then stood back holding out her open palms towards the golden glow now being given off by the third bar of the fire. | "Listen everybody. There's no need for us to crouch round the fire like this. Watch me." And with that she got up from her chair, took one step towards the fire, flicked a switch on the side and then stood back holding out her open palms towards the golden glow now being given off by the third bar of the fire. |
| "There," said my sister. "I bet you didn't realise there was a third bar. I only found it out accidentally when I was moving the hearth rug yesterday. All those years we spent shivering in this room because Dad would never ever use the third bar. All those days we'd have to plead to have even the second bar." | "There," said my sister. "I bet you didn't realise there was a third bar. I only found it out accidentally when I was moving the hearth rug yesterday. All those years we spent shivering in this room because Dad would never ever use the third bar. All those days we'd have to plead to have even the second bar." |
| "Dad, Dad. Can we have the second bar?" cat-called my younger sister. | "Dad, Dad. Can we have the second bar?" cat-called my younger sister. |
| In the dark | In the dark |
| In a moment we'd forgotten the furniture and effects and gone into an orgy of remembrance about Dad and his permanent efforts to save "on the electric". Save power every hour | In a moment we'd forgotten the furniture and effects and gone into an orgy of remembrance about Dad and his permanent efforts to save "on the electric". Save power every hour |
| I remembered the number of times when I'd been sitting by myself in the living room in the late evening and suddenly been plunged into complete darkness as Dad slid his hand around the door and switched off the solitary light. | I remembered the number of times when I'd been sitting by myself in the living room in the late evening and suddenly been plunged into complete darkness as Dad slid his hand around the door and switched off the solitary light. |
| Both my sisters remembered only being able to make it halfway up the stairs to bed before Dad flicked off the landing light. | Both my sisters remembered only being able to make it halfway up the stairs to bed before Dad flicked off the landing light. |
| My younger sister told the story of how she'd cracked her head on the shower appliance after Dad had flicked off the light as she was having her weekly bath. And I piled in with the tale of how Dad used to like to keep the curtains of the front room open at night so that it would be at least partly illuminated by the street lamp outside. | My younger sister told the story of how she'd cracked her head on the shower appliance after Dad had flicked off the light as she was having her weekly bath. And I piled in with the tale of how Dad used to like to keep the curtains of the front room open at night so that it would be at least partly illuminated by the street lamp outside. |
| Later that night I went round the house and switched on every light and heating appliance I could find until the entire building was ablaze with burning electricity. It wasn't environmentally sensitive but as my younger religious sister said, it was nearly bright enough to be seen from heaven - where no doubt Dad was already hard at work switching off a few haloes. | |
| Below is a selection of your comments. | |
| So it's not just my father! I caught him shivering in the living room with the gas fire turned off. When I suggested he turn it on, he said there was no need and would I mind fetching him another jumper. He then had the cheek to turn off the hall light when I was walking up the stairs to get him a jumper from his wardrobe.Rachel, Scunthorpe, England | |
| That could be my housemate with the heating... Surely there are more sensible things to save money on, rather than sitting in a dark cold house in which you can see your breath in front of your face when you exhale sharply. Amelie, London | |
| Much as I love my mum, one of her most annoying habits back when I used to live with her was her insistence on turning off any thing electrical if you were out of the room for more than a moment. The amount of times I'd go to the kitchen to get a drink, only to return to my bedroom to find both the telly and light had been turned off, all in the name of saving on the 'leccy. This by a woman who has three radios on around the house at anyone time because likes being able to here it wherever she is.AS, Manchester, England | |
| This may be a memory to some but it's still reality for many of us in low-paid jobs. I switch the landing light on to go up the stairs to use the loo rather than the hall light as it means that I can leave the door ajar and let some light in so I don't have to switch the bathroom light on. I have a duvet in my living room so I don't have to turn the heating up. It might sound like being a penny pinching to some, but some of us genuinely can't afford the luxuries of extra heat and light.Kirsten, Glasgow, UK | |
| If you so much as put a foot across the threshold of a room, my feather would immediately yell "Lights!" before the rest of you had a chance to follow. It's like a New York minute in our house. He also refuses to use the main lights. Our front room is lit by one or two (if he's feeling generous or you plead eye-strain) 40 watt lamps. You only turn the main light on if you drop something sharp and then we all blink in the unaccustomed glare like moles. He does not however have the same intolerance for wasting heat. As a man who worked outdoors or underground all his life, he likes to roast the family when he gets home.Bethan Jones, Coventry | |
| I just read a reproduction of a book that was first published in 1833 - The American Frugal Housewife. Mr Taylor's dad teaching thrift by example is admirable but it makes me wonder what special occasion he was saving that third bar for. (And what must he have thought when the children turned on that taboo third bar.)Deirdre, USA | |
| This reminds me on a public information broadcast years ago. A couple are going out for the evening and before they leave, to save money, they ensure every light in their house is off. On their return, they discover they are the unfortunate victim of a burglary. The message was quite simple, leave a light on or risk being burgled. Paying to burn a single bulb is better than being broken into.HS, Cornwall, England | |
| I have also tried my best to "save the planet" by using energy efficient bulbs and thus less electricity. I replaced the downlighter bulbs in the kitchen with LED bulbs. The light was so white and harsh that it was difficult to see anything clearly and then within days they started flickering. The old bulbs were reinstated and we are happy again. Other bulbs have been replaced but again not without problems - the energy-saving bulbs take some time to warm up and do not provide the light of our old 150 watt bulbs. With the current gloomy state of the economy surely we need more light to brighten our world.Fred, Norfolk UK | |
| I shivered when I read this as child-hood memories of our cold, cold house came flooding back. No electric fires for us as we were coal-gas fired for both lighting and cooking. The gas mantles in the lamps were very delicate and it took a steady hand to remove the glass globe for cleaning. A careless touch and the gauze mantle disintegrated into feathery pieces of white material followed by much cussing. Open fires in the two downstairs rooms (only one of which was allowed to be lit) burned hand-sawn and chopped wood supplemented by a few knobs of coal. The bedrooms also had these fires but were lit only in times of illness and at Christmas. As children, we dressed and undressed in our beds during wintertime and frost appeared on both sides of the window pane. When the call came up the stairs to say that the fire was blazing, we'd rush downstairs for a good warm-up before going to school. At night, cold linoleum-covered floors, which chipped and cracked leaving razor-sharp edges, had to be avoided at all costs so slippers were an essential defence as only parents were allowed to light the gas lamps. During nocturnal visits to the toilet, which was outside, we younger children were accompanied by an elder sibling, a hurricane lamp and invariably, the dog.Ironically, electricity came to our village courtesy of natural gas in the early 1960s. The luxury of having a real bathroom installed necessitated a full electrical connection and the excitement we children experienced was unbelievable. When the man from the Electricity Board announced he was ready, we all rushed into the front room for the big switch-on. And that night, I read Robin Hood for the first time without my torch. Brianonthecam, Cambridgeshire, UK |
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