Life Without Electricity
The first thing my husband did when the ground stopped shaking
after the Northridge Earthquake was try to turn on his lamp. He was surprised that
the power was out. He was also surprised that we both had working flashlights
within reach of the bed. This was a brief look at what life might be like
without power.
Once upon a time…and not many decades ago…very few had
electricity. They had to accomplish the same tasks we do to survive. Would we
know how to go back to this type of life?
Cooking: My grandmother used a wood burning stove when her children were
small. My aunt Daisy used one when I was growing up. It isn't easy to judge how
hot the fire needs to be to properly cook a meal. It's even harder to figure
out how hot to make an oven for bread or other baking needs. Different woods
burn at different temperatures and at different speeds. Green wood smokes and
doesn't burn well. It would be hard to do.
It isn't impossible. We do have choices that our elders didn't
have. Propane, charcoal grills and so on provide us with some help should we
lose power. Over time, we could learn how to cook with wood again. Learning
before it becomes necessary might not be a bad idea.
Laundry: It's a boring, time consuming task to do the laundry, but we have
it lucky. All we have to do is put the dirty stuff in the washer, take the
cleaned laundry out, stuff it in the dryer and then fold it up when it's done.
I remember my mother using a wringer washer and a clothes line.
Hers was an open tub affair, and it would wash and rinse the clothing. It
didn't have a spin cycle…that was what the wringer was for. Many mangled
fingers and hands have been suffered when the person doing the laundry wasn't
careful.
Before that, they had washboards and tubs. If the housewife was
particularly lucky, she had a wooden, hand cranked wringer. Most weren't that
lucky. They, too, had to use the "solar" option for drying.
The earliest method of washing clothes was in a lake, pond, creek
or river. Before lye soap was invented, various types of soaproot were used. Hopefully
we wouldn't have to go back that far. For me, the problem would be *what* pond,
lake, creek or river? I live in a desert.
Light: We are lucky to have flashlights, battery powered lanterns and
other lights that don't draw on the power grid. However, batteries die and
with them, the lights as well. Candles can provide light, but they create a serious fire risk. So
do kerosene or other oil lamps. Unless our homes come equipped with a
fireplace, we'd have to stop working, reading, playing or whatever after dark.
That's not such a bad thing…going to be early will give us more energy for all
the thing we'd have to do without power.
Our dependence on electricity isn't all a good thing. It makes
things easier. It lets us do things that were impossible without it, but if
something ever happens to the power grid, I'm afraid a lot of us aren't going
to know what to do. Rather than wait, wouldn't it be a good idea to know how to
survive?
The original link can
be found at:
http://voices.yahoo.com/life-without-electricity-12236130.html
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