Another Adventure in the Little House in the Little Woods

     Another adventure here in the little house in the little woods. The light over our kitchen table needed a new socket and Jeff got one some time ago. Today (because the weather wasn't so good?) he decided to change the socket. But first some background.

We had our kitchen first done over (not remodeled by a long shot!) after we had been in this house for a couple of months. When we moved in in1962 and met our neighbors, they were in the middle of remodeling their kitchen and my mother complimented their choices. The husband, Bob, offered to help my father 'do' our kitchen. My mom was so happy she would have agreed to whatever colors/styles of cupboards, wallboard, flooring, etc. that was offered...and I think she did.

You see, our kitchen when we moved into our house had ugly blue vinyl flooring (you can still see it in the closets in the bedrooms!), hideous yellow paint on the walls, a large wooden cupboard that had started life somewhere else and ended it in our kitchen, and a metal sink unit. And that's all.

When they were finished, our kitchen looked just like our neighbors...except for the light hanging over the kitchen table. My mom looked all over for the perfect light to compliment her mother's solid oak, round pedestal table and she found it, I think, at Valley Electric. It's a large, glass bowl with scalloped edges decorated with leaves and flowers. Josie loved that light! Over the years, no matter what we did to the kitchen, painted and rearranged the cupboards, pulled the carpet and sanded the oak floor, painted the wallboards, knocked down part of a wall, the light stayed over the table.

All I could think of as I tried to fulfill my duties as 'electrician's assistant' today was not to let the glass light cover fall and (not to keep shining the flashlight in Jeff's eyes.) It took us about an hour to get the job done (the circuit breaker tripped when the wire broke as Jeff was taking the old socket off, the wire he had to work with was hanging from the ceiling and kept breaking as he tried to strip it...he kept grumbling that he'd probably have to go into the ceiling and replace all the wire from the box down! (something I was not looking forward to!!!), parts of the sockets kept getting mixed up on the kitchen table and falling on the floor (I was waiting for a dog or 2 to decide it was time for a game of Finders/Keepers but with Jeff involved, they were smarter and stayed in the living room). Finally, the light was back up, the circuit breaker was back on and all was right in my kitchen!

The 110th anniversary of my mother's birth was 3 days ago (1/13/1914) and I'm looking at the successful repair of her kitchen light as a birthday gift from heaven.

Happy Birthday, Mom! XXOO

My Mom's light!