Lamps. Standard lamps. Or lamp in the singular, as most households usually only have one of them. Who among us doesn't have cosy feelings of remembrance at, as children, coming home in the evening twilight after a day out adventuring with one's pals, and then being met by the warm, welcoming glow of a standard lamp in the corner of the room, softly embracing everything it cast its light upon? I know I do.
When my family moved house in 1983, I sometimes used to pass our former home and remember sitting in the living-room with the gleam of the standard lamp gently caressing the furniture. Curiously, now that I'm back here, it's the first house prior to this one that my thoughts seem to dwell upon when recalling such a cosy scene. I'd go home, pass through the back door into the kitchen, and then into the living-room, where my family would be sat watching the telly, with a wooden standard lamp sitting in the corner and emanating its mellow illuminance.
That wooden standard lamp faithfully served four or five homes before it was unceremoniously replaced with a metal one sometime in, I think, the late '70s. I was unaware of its disposal until after it was too late to salvage it for another room, but it's that wooden lamp I see in memory whenever I recollect times-past in my mind. It's been a number of years since our 'new' lamp has even been switched on, but last night, gripped by an all-consuming nostalgia for days gone by, I turned it on and enjoyed its comforting radiance for a few hours, recalling childhood memories from far too long ago, but which felt like only yesterday.
Any other Crivvies have similar recollections, or were standard lamps too old-fashioned to have been a feature of furniture when you were growing up? Looking back, our furnishings seemed to have been dated compared to that of friends and neighbours, though I was unaware of it at the time and realised this fact only in retrospect.
Feel free to comment, even if only to say I'm bonkers.
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Bonus: Below is a photo supplied by T47, which shows him circa 1959 (aged 12) reading under the light of the standard lamp he mentions in the comments section.
12 comments:
We didn't have a lamp when I was a child but I agree they are cosier. The closest thing we had to a lamp was at Christmas when the room was illuminated by the glow of fairy lights on the Christmas tree.
Yes, it's a similar kind of effect, CJ - nice and cosy. Wall lights are good too.
You are not bonkers.
I grew up with a standard lamp that was in our family's Front Room until it became my room. I would sit in the armchair under it's glow reading books, comics and magazines for many an hour. The shade was pretty opaque so all light was reflected down.
The lamp standard was Light Oak and part of the Utility Furniture my parents had purchased in the 1940's.
When my parents downsized in 2001 before moving to Sheltered Housing the item was placed in the front garden and was taken within the hour. Hopefully it is still being enjoyed where ever it ended up.
Glad to see you're back on form Kid.
Glad to see you're back commenting, T47. Do you wish you'd managed to obtain your parents' standard lamp for yourself, or are you quite relaxed about it?
It would have been nice to have retained it and if I had lived in the UK I would have. It was too big for carry on luggage and shipping it to the US would have required rewiring it anyway so it just remains a fond memory of the best reading light I ever used.
Well, at least you remember it, T47, which is the important thing.
Same. We had a lamp close to your one in the photo . But as years passed the material decomposed and finally it was relegated to the council dump. Today I still have a lamp ,a modern one , Couldn't live with out one. Well if you think your bonkers then I'm as nutty as a fruit cake...
The photo is one I 'borrowed' from the Internet, LH, not actually mine (don't want to mislead anyone). I miss ALL of my family's old items of furniture that are no longer here more than I miss some people, so I probably 'out-bonkers' you (sad to say).
We had a standard lamp similar to the one in your photo in the early 60s Kid. My mum then changed the lampshade to a more modern one in the late 60s ( round no tassles). My mum always had a standard lamp but a more modern one than the traditional one shown here until she passed away. I had a modern style standard lamp in most of my own flats/house until a few years ago when we had a big renovation. As you say the ols standard lamps were light was nice and warm ..and honely ....and you are a bit bonkers!
Just a bit...? Aw, shucks, thanks, McS. My present standard lamp (which I didn't photograph 'cos it's still got Christmas decorations hanging from it) is now around 45 years old, but I still miss the original and think of the current one as being 'new'. Just can't help myself.
Any overall light in the room is for anyone.
The lamp is for one's own personal space.
Very true, GP... though a lamp can sometimes be used just to provide 'ambience'.
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