Olden Days

I used to wonder what people did in the evenings before television, and specifically, before good ‘ole Ben Franklin went kite flying and discovered electricity. I mean, if you can’t come home to a good meal, a cold mug of cider, and a good show on the tellie, what’s the point? I once tried asking my parents about their childhoods but they just gave me “one of those looks” and told me to go play on the 401. So much for asking the experts.

Don’t get me wrong. If there’s nothing on TV, I don’t mind popping in a DVD or begging Hubby to play a game of Trivial Pursuit (or Monopoly, or Life, or cards or…) but I am very much a child of my generation. I derive pleasure from watching people in the pretty magic box that raised me and without it, I must admit, I am a wee bit lost. Which brings us to Thursday night.

Much like in Delhi, we live in a pretty good neighborhood where, we were told, people don’t need generators. “The power never goes off for more than a few minutes at the most,” they insisted. And for the first few months, we found this sentiment to be pretty darned accurate. Lately; however, we’ve been in the dark – literally.

When we arrived home after work Thursday, we discovered that the power was out. No biggie, we thought, as we waited to hear the annoying beep from the UPS backup that keeps our computer and Internet going when the power dies. But there was no beep. Dear God! There was no beep!!!

*deep breath*

The power, we realized, had been out for at least four hours by the time we opened our door at 7 p.m. We shrugged and sat to chat for what we were sure would be only a few minutes until the power returned. Hours passed and we realized that it was 7:30 and the power still wasn’t on.

So by the light of our giant flashlight, we (aka Hubby) prepared a rather yummy Bhel Puri for dinner and ate it while giggling at each other when our spoons didn’t quite reach their targets in our now pitch black living room. Without candles to see by, Hubby lucked out and we were unable to play any board games. Darn it!

By the time the lights finally came back on at 8:45 p.m., we were both tired and snuggling, half asleep on the couch. We looked at each other and then at the seemingly over-bright lights and smiled sleepily because we had finally realized what it is they did in olden days before television and electricity – they went to bed early and got a good night’s sleep. Who knew?!