Dear Editor:

Living on Southport this past week we were able to experience a little bit of what it must have been like living here 150 or more years ago. I wish we could have had a young person with us who had never experienced life without television or the internet. We were hardly in distress, but our gas generator was dedicated to the water pump, furnace, microwave, fridge and our bedroom reading lights, and although powered, the downed cable took out our TV and internet.

I suppose we could have used our portable radio, but TV had gotten us out of the habit, and also, radio just didn’t seem to fit into the scene.

Our ancestors must have had a lot of talent using candles, (however did Lincoln study his law books by candlelight?), but we elected to eat by a single table light with a cord long enough to reach a live outlet. It was a very quiet night after dinner.

How long those winter nights must have been for our ancestors. Did they go to bed shortly after the evening supper and then rise in the morning to work for 2 or 3 hours in the darkness? Were they lacking in mental stimulation? I guess we were, at least just enough to get a bit of the feel for what life must have been like back then. For me, however, that feeling never translated into a desire to go out and build a stone wall.

Phil Brooks

Southport