What is your earliest memory of using a flashlight?

Sleestak

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For me, it was when I was four years old.

My father was in the Navy, and we were stationed in Okinawa.

There used to be these huge by large drainage culverts all over the place by the base, and us kids would follow them down into the underground pipes. Well, we'd follow them as far as we could by the available light. Sometimes we used matches, sometimes we used candles.

When my father and his friends caught us kids going down there, I thought he was going to have a fit, but none of the fathers gave us any real flak about it beyond telling us we couldn't go down there without them being near.

When I was about six, he and his buds loaded us up with cheap chrome 2D flashlights and we all went from one end of the culverts to another, probabably about two miles underground.

The rats and roaches were something to behold, but my father would chase them away by throwing firecrackers at them. They were the strange kind of firecrackers that you struck on a box just like a match, and they were powerful as all heck. You could get anything in Okinawa in the way of fireworks back then (the 60's) up to and including the 'real' silver salutes, M-80's, M-500's and M-1000's.

The pipes eventally led us out to a beautiful lake. Remember it well because not only did the fathers trust us enough to go down into the pipes, but they actually came with us as well.

IIRC, the cheap chrome flashlights had a plastic head, but I can't remember for sure. I know that I probably played with them before that, but this memory is solid. My girls already play with flashlights for everything, and I'll bet they'll have a lot more stories than me to tell when they get older.:)
 

Omega Man

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I have been thinking of this specific topic since I became a member, it sort of awoke the memory I have. So at the very least, thank you Sleestak for bringing it back.
When me and my brother were I guess about 4 or 5, and the power went out, we'd build the Flash Tank. It was a big cardboard box that we'd load all our stuffed animals into, and then sit one of those 6 volt lanterns on top of. We'd take it to the basment, and push it around in circles yelling FLASHTANK-FLASHTANK-FLASHTANK like idiots.
Oh man, remembering that makes me feel so dumb.:laughing:
 

nighthawk

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I was about 5 years old at the time I was given a first flashlight. It was a cheapo plastic light that I admired at night times. Played with it for a few nights, flashed on anything within my sight. Then it got lost. Couple decades later, I treated myself with a Mini MagLite. I thought it was the best and it was one of the britghtest lights until one night at the camping ground, my friend flashed a SureFire on me.
 

tvodrd

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My sole-surviving braincell's memory does extend to the early '60's when I was a teenager. I made a "flashlight" from lighter (as in cigarette) parts for "stomping" storn drains. A hardened steel wheel against a ferro-Cerium alloy "flint" can provide a nice "flash" to light the tunnel for 50' + ahead of you! (Try it with a dead Bic in a dark room!) (You can drill .22 hollopoints for "flints" and get a nice (potentially pyrotechnic) flash on impact! :D )

Larry
 

BatteryCharger

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I was about 6 and smashing open a toy to see how it worked. (didn't know how to use a screwdriver, so I used a hammer) I plucked out some sort of bulb with wires attached, and stuck it to a 9v battery. My first mod! :) I had more fun with that than the original toy! :D
 

nighthawk

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tvodrd said:
My sole-surviving braincell's memory does extend to the early '60's when I was a teenager. I made a "flashlight" from lighter (as in cigarette) parts for "stomping" storn drains. A hardened steel wheel against a ferro-Cerium alloy "flint" can provide a nice "flash" to light the tunnel for 50' + ahead of you! (Try it with a dead Bic in a dark room!) (You can drill .22 hollopoints for "flints" and get a nice (potentially pyrotechnic) flash on impact! :D )

Larry

It is very dangerous drililng a live bullet, sir.
 

Flying Turtle

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Had a little 1 AA light when I was 5 or 6. I remember using it to read and listen to Pittsburgh Pirates games with a little transistor radio under the bed covers when I was supposed to be sleeping. Maybe that's why I seem to prefer the small lights.

Geoff
 

tvodrd

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nighthawk said:
It is very dangerous drililng a live bullet, sir.

Having worn-out a couple of RCBS presses in the process of reloading 1M+ rounds, and having only experienced a couple primers go-off on seating... :D Maybe, I've just been lucky. :D

Larry
 

geepondy

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For my own use, I had a double A penlight. Anybody remember those? it was shaped like a fat fountain pen. This was probably very early 70s but I remember we had the two D flashlight with the magnet stuck on the fridge before then, with the slide switch that never was reliable.
 

KevinL

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tvodrd must be one of those lucky AND good ones who survived stuff which killed off everybody else. You da man! :thumbsup: (glad you are still sticking around with us though)

As a small kid - disassembling a 3V Energizer freebie flashlight. I remember it had the 3V screw-base bulb, the tiny little thing. Got good at picking apart the internals and switching and understanding why it worked.

Next memory is at school camp, with a horrible 2C flashlight, standing in a field conducting primitive versions of throw tests. Lost to everybody else in terms of brightness and throw.

Fast forward many years....

Still disassembling various and sundry kinds of common aluminium flashlight, getting really good at putting them back together, sometimes with soldered mods to the switch core, sometimes with deanodized tailcaps and custom trimmed springs to accomodate extra NiMH high current cells.

Still conducting throw tests, except that this time I back 'em up with a digital SLR on a tripod to record the moment and I'm quite happy that this time round, my lights have been doing me proud, whether my own designs or combinations that I picked to put together. :D the ROP/LE has been clocked by GPS reflecting off a wall at a staggering 400 meters range.. :eek:oo: MOP cammed reflector too!
 

carrot

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I remember using a yellow and blue Fisher Price flashlight. Took 2 C cells, I think. Beam was pretty yellowish, but it had a little knob to swap internal green and red filters. I bet I could dig it up if I wanted to.
 

Niteowl

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Kindergarten, mid 60's. Show and tell. Brought in a 2xAA plastic light, yellow and red I think. Don't remember how I aquired it or how long I had it.

Show time......I go to my coat hanging on the hook at the back of the room by the door, reach into pocket, no flashlight....... :mecry:. Not a happy camper.

Fast forward a couple years.....Wooden ruler, tape, bulb, batteries, and a dark closet. Pull out the metal strip from the ruler, tape everything together. A crude but intermittently working flashlight. Of course, I dissasembled a perfectly fine (at the time) light to get parts.
 

Pydpiper

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I was in summer camp, my Dad lent me his Air force issued 90 degree green light.. I was in the top bunk showing off my Dads light when I decided to show everyone how indestructable it was by dropping it..
It broke into a million pieces, I went through camp with no light. :candle:
 

rikvee

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Amsterdam, early 60's, a small blue lantern with a door (!) and an odd flatpack battery with two copper reed contacts (a short and a longer one), driving a small screw-in bulb.
I believe the brand was Varta, still exists, probably German.
Used it for reading under the covers past my bedtime...
When my Mum found out she would always say that the battery was too expensive and only meant to be used for emergencies....
The reed lips were sharp enough to cut your skin, inside the lantern was evidence of previous battery leakage, the light put out was totally unimpressive... and enough to put me off flashlights for half a life-time, never really fell in love with MagLites either (the light sucked, bulbs blew a lot, the finish wore off), but the emergence of LED's, and the excellence of ARC turned me around eventually.....
 

Lurker

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At the age of about 5, around 1970, I received one of those chrome 2-D flashlights, probably as a Christmas gift. Multifunction switch with a morse code function. It was really groovy and far out. Except the carbon zinc batteries seemed to be dead every time I got the light out. And I had no good way of getting a consistent supply of batteries, so it was more of a paper weight than a functional flashlight.

Years later I discovered the joys of the Radio Shack Battery Club card that promised one free battery per month for visiting the store. Yes, I had more than one card.
 

The_LED_Museum

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I was probably around four, and remember having one of those fat 2xAA penlights.
I honestly can't remember the beam quality, but it most likely consisted of an elongaged filament-shaped hotspot surrounded by a dim corona.
 

redcar

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I was very young, 4 or 5. It was a flashlight that looked liked a space/ray gun from a cheap science fiction flick. It was probably a 2 C cell light. It had a tube on top that resembled a small scope for 'aiming'. It was momentary only, and the switch was the trigger. Maybe it made a noise, or clicked when you switched it on. Might have been black with yellow front bezel, scope and trigger. I remember it more as my favorite toy gun at the time that just happened to be a light.
 

ABTOMAT

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I have no idea how old I was exactly, but I was really young. A family friend gave me a birthday present which was sort of a grab bag of stuff. In it was a clear plastic 2AA flashlight. Waterproof with a twist bezel, maybe a very, very early Tekna or UK?

After that I remeber a black and silver "Marbo-Lite" Everready knockoff, and a red light I got from the Cub Scouts.
 

VillageIdiot

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I remember using a yellow and blue Fisher Price flashlight. Took 2 C cells, I think. Beam was pretty yellowish, but it had a little knob to swap internal green and red filters. I bet I could dig it up if I wanted to.

Dude, me too!

Here's a blast from the past: '92, my dad bought it in Japan just before I was BORN, hah! Still working on 2 D cells without changing the bulb. Bulb is as long as the reflector, but it still throws really well with a smooth beam!

 
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