Mr Dad grew up in Esk - a little town in rural Qld. When he was a boy the town was lit by gas lights. When these were changed over to electricity his Dad (an avid collector) obtained one of the old gas lights. I grew up on the Gold Coast - with this light, on its metal stand, in the front of our home. When Dad moved to a retirement village he took the gas light with him - but the metal stand stayed behind. It has lived in our garage for 40 years - but it's now free again - and happily providing seed for the local birds on the Granite Belt. It's a joy to behold. :)
How lovely that the light has been restored. A lovely story. I can remember gas lights when I was a child too. Elsie, the 'knocker up lady' used to wander round the village with a long pole lighting the gas lights in an evening and distinguishing them in the morning. Also on the pole were some wires and she was paid by some of the villagers to knock on their windows with the wire pole to wake them up on the morning in case their alarm clocks didn't work.
Elsie was also the school crossing lady and she had a round sign on a pole that said 'children crossing' it looked like a lollipop so she was always known as Elsie Lollipop. Never did know what her real name was. ha ha.
Love this story! How wonderful that you still have it. I remember reading in the school magazine from my late Father in Law's school days an article telling the boys the exciting news that during the holidays they would be replacing the gas lights for electric ones. It caused huge excitement! Always loved that.
Thank you all so very much for your responses. We can now see this from our bedroom window every morning and it always makes me think of my Dad.
When we bought the farm we were a bit apprehensive about spending that much money on a crazy project. My Dad had always been a very practical man so I rang to get his opinion. To my surprise his comment was " That sounds like something you two would really like". So we bought it, and have never regretted it - but unfortunately my Dad died 6 months later and he never got to see the property. Seeing his gas light there every morning just seems so right! Many thanks Rob @gamelee@nzkites@gilbertwood@olivetreeann@onewing@jgpittenger@shutterbug49@lynnz@777margo@koalagardens@ludwigsdiana@pusspup@casablanca@haskar@elisasaeter@craftymeg
Elsie was also the school crossing lady and she had a round sign on a pole that said 'children crossing' it looked like a lollipop so she was always known as Elsie Lollipop. Never did know what her real name was. ha ha.
When we bought the farm we were a bit apprehensive about spending that much money on a crazy project. My Dad had always been a very practical man so I rang to get his opinion. To my surprise his comment was " That sounds like something you two would really like". So we bought it, and have never regretted it - but unfortunately my Dad died 6 months later and he never got to see the property. Seeing his gas light there every morning just seems so right! Many thanks Rob
@gamelee @nzkites @gilbertwood @olivetreeann @onewing @jgpittenger @shutterbug49 @lynnz @777margo @koalagardens @ludwigsdiana @pusspup @casablanca @haskar @elisasaeter @craftymeg