Old-Style Streetlights Are Back
Our Fair City is installing new streetlights and they are of rather ancient design, at least to those of us who were born after, say, the development of electricity. This part of the burg just received its street’s worth of lights last night and, with rather bright bulbs in them, the effect is quite good.
It’s not as if anything was really wrong with the old lights, but the poles kept snapping off at the base and they were falling over randomly at all hours of the day and night. That wasn’t good for business downtown and was especially hard on pedestrians. You just never knew when the next one was going over.
The previous lights were of a modern design and not bad looking. Rather unobtrusive, actually. You never really noticed them; the light was there and that was about it. This isn’t a case of “modern is bad; old is good.” If the poles hadn’t rotted away, we’d probably still have the drum-style fixtures lighting our way.
Of course, there will come a day when they will be put back in as “period pieces,” some time in the future, when people will say, “Let’s go back to the days when we had those drum style lights; they were efficient and you never really looked at them.” The local historical society might remind us how they kept falling over, like drunks at a party, but it will make no difference; they are from Olden Days and the old stuff is the best stuff.
Ah, yes; remember when old Uncle Joe almost got creamed by a falling light pole?
It’s not as if anything was really wrong with the old lights, but the poles kept snapping off at the base and they were falling over randomly at all hours of the day and night. That wasn’t good for business downtown and was especially hard on pedestrians. You just never knew when the next one was going over.
The previous lights were of a modern design and not bad looking. Rather unobtrusive, actually. You never really noticed them; the light was there and that was about it. This isn’t a case of “modern is bad; old is good.” If the poles hadn’t rotted away, we’d probably still have the drum-style fixtures lighting our way.
Of course, there will come a day when they will be put back in as “period pieces,” some time in the future, when people will say, “Let’s go back to the days when we had those drum style lights; they were efficient and you never really looked at them.” The local historical society might remind us how they kept falling over, like drunks at a party, but it will make no difference; they are from Olden Days and the old stuff is the best stuff.
Ah, yes; remember when old Uncle Joe almost got creamed by a falling light pole?
posted by Tom Carten at 11:39 PM
3 Comments:
Here's a tidbit for you. Back in the colonial days, before Dick Clark was born, the most serious crime was stealing under the secrecy of dark as there were no street lights, hence thievery was relatively easy, but the penality for getting caught was almost as bad as that for rape or murder.
Talk about taking the roads less traveled! It worked. For a minute there I thought I was on Yahoo where nothing works. Glad to be back....
Welcome back. It's computer land; nothing is supposed to work right consistently.
Post a Comment
<< Home