Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 16 May 2004 Vol 3 Issue: #19 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, On this date in 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. An admiral feat. Many of our ancestral grandmothers married very young by our modern standards. On May the sixteenth in 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. My Grandma's Mother was also married at fourteen, and when she married my Great Grandpa, it was her third marriage and she was 24 years old. Grandma Oliver waited until she was seventeen to marry Grandpa. As prices for gasoline rose this week to more than two dollars a gallon and I read about the supposed reasons for this, I was reminded that another rise in cost of a petroleum derivative occurred about the time Grandma Oliver was six years old. Though candles and various oils, such as whale oil, were still used, it was in the 1860s that kerosene was in widespread use for lighting the homes in this country. I remember kerosene lamps being used in the homes of many of my non-city dwelling relatives. Kerosene lamps were filthy black each morning and had to be cleaned. This was one of my chores when visiting overnight or longer. There also was the smell of the kerosene. The wicks needed trimming after each use. And, to top it off, this fuel was "highly" flammable ... kerosene was dangerous. Urban dwellers, at least those who could afford the installation and lived near available sources, began using gaslight. It was cleaner and much less demanding. Still, most Americans of the late 1800s could not afford gas for lighting, and continued to use kerosene lamps. Just as individuals could not afford gaslight, collectively they could afford gaslight for street lights and installation in other public places, such as schools, train stations, hospitals, government buildings. Various types of business also could afford the installation for gaslight ... hotels, factories, barrooms, theaters, department stores, etc. With the invention of the incandescent electric light bulb, gas companies went into panic mode. As electric power began to replace gas as the illumination source, gas companies began to consolidate and raise their prices while reducing the quality of the fuel. The year Grandma Oliver was born [1885], the Consolidated Gas Company raised its prices a whopping 25%. Gas company users formed Associations and in New York, demanded that the legislature investigate price gouging. An article in the Harper's Weekly for May 14, 1881 commented that the gas industry "...make[s] just what gas they please, charge what they want for it, and slap the customer's face, so to speak, if he dares to protest against either the quality or the price." A subsiding of public outrage occurred in New York with legislature capping the price of gas and the establishment of new competing gas companies. In the early years of the last century, gas began to be used in American homes, not for illumination, but for use in home appliances such as stoves, water heaters and furnaces. As we utilize new and "better" products we alter our behavior. Technology ... the innovative technology of gas and electricity with light fixtures throughout our homes and central heating has allowed our family members their space, or allowed for the separation of the family. The traditional forms of lighting with fireplaces, kerosene and oil lamps, and candles brought the members of a family into close proximity to each other. Always there are tradeoffs which force us into new ways of relationships. Speaking of such, before we owned a telephone in the home, when Grandma needed to complain about an electric bill, she would take a twenty minute bus ride to the corporate office to speak with a person with authority to take action. Today it takes longer than that to reach a "real" person at the corporate office, in whatever unknown location, who has no authority to take any action. That's progress! <grin> e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html