In the case of Tucker’s friend, Del, and the lamps in my house — it’s the lamps which are old, not the lamp lighter! (And speaking of age… are you old enough to remember that song, “The Old Lamplighter of Long, Long Ago”?) I can’t help associating Del and that song because he has worked on two of my old lamps to get them alight once more.
The lamps belonged to my grandparents and were originally gas lamps. I have no doubt that they were used in the parlor and only for special occasions. Otherwise, how would they have survived seven children and all the hubbub that went with their growing up years?
Actually, one of the globes did not survive and my mother had a friend in San Francisco duplicate it from the pieces that had been saved. It was in the 1960s and my mother, at that time, owned The Little Lamp and Shade Shop on College Avenue right on the Berkeley/Oakland border. She specialized in custom lamps and shades and if she couldn’t make it for you (or in this case for herself), she knew someone who could!
I’m not sure when the lamps were converted to electricity, but probably 80 or 85 years ago. And in that length of time, parts wear out — especially switches. Del is a genius at electrical (and probably other) stuff. He spent the better part of two days last summer working on one of the lamps and it has been perfect since then.
Tonight, he tackled the other one — the one with the replicated shade. One of the switches has not worked for some time, so Del to the rescue! He was able to fix the pesky switch but needs to replace a light bulb and we didn’t have the right size on hand. Tomorrow he plans to go to… yep! … Jack’s Country Store to find one small enough for his purposes.