What did people do of an evening?

[Erato]

"I read an interesting story a few years ago...wish I could find it now....it was 1800s America, and the family gathered in the evenings to read their books around an oil lamp."

Yes, it is a touching story but the reality may have been somewhat different.

I have experienced this myself.  In the 1970s – 80s we lived for several years in a small Amazon village.  During the first year there was no electricity because the village generator was kaput.  Since we were close to the equator, we had to endure almost 12 hours of darkness per day.  After an early supper, we would gather with the other investigators around a kerosene lantern.  If we were out of kerosene or the last mantle had broken, we would gather around a cluster of candles.  Everyone would try to get his book into a position that made reading possible.  Kerosene lanterns throw off a lot of heat; this might be cozy in New England but was close to unbearable in the tropics.  Insects swarmed to the light; they thunked and fluttered around the lantern or sizzled in the candles.  The lanterns required constant maintenance due to the high sulphur fuel we were able to buy (though not nearly as bad as the maintenance required by the kerosene fridge).

The relief we felt when the generator was finally repaired and we got two or three hours of electric light in the evenings cannot be over stated.  And the main thing was that we were able to get away from each other for at least a few hours. 

[chinakay]

the other investigators

What were you investigating?

[Lydart]

(I lived like that for some years Erato, also on the Equator, but near Lake Victoria.  We had mosquito netting on the house windows, and used to hang the kerosene lamp just outside the window, so that the heat and the millions of moths were OUTSIDE the house !   When the amount of kerosene we allowed ourselves got used up each evening, we then went to bed !)


Youngsters lives seem so different today; very few in Western countries at least, have even known poverty, hunger, deprevation ... I have always drummed into my own children the difference between want and need ... they soon learned never to say things like 'I need that new game/skirt/music tape' !!  

[adee7]

Book reading was a great pleasure for many folks and the gramaphone was a wonderful addition to
the evening's activities for those who could afford to own one.

In later years (1930s onward) while my mother enjoyed reading, she often spent her evenings knitting, sewing, and listening to the radio while my father read the newspaper or books. 

During summer, we played outside with our friends until dark.  The idea of staying in the house during good weather was not considered by any of us.

Kathleen

[Trees]

Immediately post war dad tended his garden and an allotment after work I helped with weeding harvesting the produce and collecting the caterpillars off his precious cabbage leaves  We also went for evening walks or cycle rides I knew I was grown up when I was given a cycle lamp for a birthday present and allowed out after dark! Wet evenings we read often out loud to each other constructed mechano models listened to Children's hour and music programes laughed at the Navy Lark , Take it from here etc Mum knitted and taught me to I can remember making dish cloths with long drop stitch. Oh joy Friday night was Guides  when we had soo much fun and I was excused caterpillar collection
O I could go on and on happy healthy outdoor evenings
Trees

[little meg]

I imagine a lot had to do with the type of class they were.
If they were extremely poor, even burning a candle at night would probably have been a luxury.
Lower to middle class, would have spent most of their evenings mending or sewing, something important and not trivial.
Upper class, well I guess they could afford to do what ever they wanted
Ladies embroidering etc.

Margaret

[willow154]

At the risk of changing the lovely tone and nostaglia - sorry
Cock-fighting + dog-fighting.
If you go on a tour of the Caves under the Broadmarsh Shopping
Centre, In Nottingham, there is a whole community - rooms, each with a history, a story.
People lived, worked, and played there - and cock-fitghting was ones of the things that went on. Thank goodness those days have gone.
Sorry to break the atmospher, but it's true.
And, of course, Goose Fair.
Hope you'll forgive me!
Paulene

[adee7]

Yes, Pauline, there were many groups of people not yet
mentioned here.

My great-grandfather and his two brothers were placed
into a workhouse after their mother died and their father
remarried.  I have done some reading about those places,
but can only imagine how bleak their  lives were.

Kathleen

[Erato]

"What were you investigating? "

Well, there were a lot of different things.  Fundamentally, though, it was a wide ranging, long-term investigation of rainforest ecology focused on nutrient cycling and forest regeneration following disturbance.