Telling Our Stories:

    "Lexlexey'em"

We didn’t get electricity at Sugar Cane until about 1953.  Before then, people used either coal oil lamps or kerosene gas lamps.  The gas lamps had little cloth sacs called mantles through which the gas blew and created, actually, a quite bright light.  Most homes on the reserve though used only a coal oil lamp which did not throw much light.  However, it had adequate light once darkness fell.

I watched many times as Mom, Mary, or Dad lit the gas lamp.  I watched how they unscrewed the gas tank cap and used a funnel to pour in the kerosene.  Then, once the cap was screwed back on tight, I watched how they pushed the hand pump against the air spigot in the gas cap to pump air into the gas tank.  Then, I observed how they opened the main valve on the generator which allowed the gas to begin to flow up to the mantles.  I also noticed how they rotated the little safety valve to shut the gas flow on and off and how they used it to warm up the generator stack so that the gas would be turned from liquid to a gaseous state before reaching the mantles.  I also noted how they held the matches close to the generator shaft to heat the gas before turning on the valve to let the first gush of gas to the mantles.  It never ceased to amaze me as a flame would burst out of the mantles and reach for the ceiling.  I knew that by turning the safety valve on and off a few times continuously, the flame would retreat to the mantles which would then glow brightly until it was shut off for the night.  At intervals throughout the night, the air pressure in the tank would go low and would need to be pumped up again. The only thing that I was allowed to do in regards to the gas lamp was to pump up the lamp when it got low.

I must have been about four or five years old when, I awoke in the middle of the night.  Everyone else was snoring or making some other sleeping sounds.  So I got up and slowly went downstairs.  I don’t think I really had any plan at the time.  However, when I got downstairs, I noticed the gas lamp sitting on the table.  Not until that very moment did the thought go through my head.  I could light that lamp.  I must have watched it being lit at least a thousand times.  I could do it.  The matches were sitting right there beside the lamp.  So I got a chair, put it beside the table, and climbed up on to it.  I took a couple of matches and lit them.  I turned on the valve and heard the gas flow.  I placed the matches, one on each side of the generator shaft to heat up the gas.  Then I flicked the safety valve open and watched the flame burst toward the ceiling.  Then just like I learned, I began flicking the safety valve on and off.  Just like I new it would, the flame retreated to the mantles and the light came on brightly.  Success!!  I knew I could do it.  So, if I did it once, I could do it twice.  I took out a couple more matches.

The next morning I awoke to Mom screaming and yelling in Shuswap.  I got up and ran downstairs to see what the fuss was.  There they were, Mom, Mary, and Jake all in a state of shock, looking at the mess around the table.  There was burned matches laying everywhere, on the table and on the floor.  Mom kept asking, who could have come in and burnt all those matches.  I almost gave my secret away some time later when I commented that I knew how to light the gas lamp.

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