Your first flashlight memory??

I must've been about 4 years old, under the covers, shining my little 1 AA cell sized metal flashlight with the paint rings around the battery compartment and the little slide switch.

How about you?

For me it was the cheapie Eveready 2 D cell lights, the red plastic ones with the big white slide switch. I used it all over the house, under covers, in a tent in the living room... as I found batteries (mostly) fascinating. I probably started reading about electronics as young as 8 years. Forrest M. Mims III was my hero.

I see they're still selling that model for a dollar, though now in pearlized plastic and in a few colors, with a black switch. The little widget that holds the bulb in the reflector now shrouds part of the positive contact, so maybe they don't get mushed as badly as they used to.

My first memory of my first flashlight was when I was about 6 years old. My dad bought me a chrome 2 D cell light. Don't remember the brand, but it had a chrome off/on switch and a red button for intermitent use(morse code). Took it every where I went, day or night.

I remember, in no sense of order:

1.) A copper T head BSA 2D light
2.) A chromed 5D light with sides that undulated like a quonset hut.
3.) A bunch of 1 * AA chromed lights with red or orange bezels and slide switch. these had screw-in bulbs.
4.) A Big Beam #164 sealed beam with emergency flasher in the back. I remember being transfixed with the tight beam shining over a lake surface at night.

I also remember being frequently warned to stop wasting the fragile carbon zink batteries that were available those days.

Two D-cells, wire, bulb, and masking tape. Made my own and the neighbor kid was jealous. A lot of fun for a 42 year-old! (Just kidding - I was about 12)

I loved those chrome lights as a kid. I would buy everyone I found at garage sales. This would have been in the mid to late 70's so they where fairly common. They never seemed to last long or work right but I didn't care. I think I normaly paid a quater for them. I wish I still had some. I bought a made in China knock off at Sears a few months back for .99 on clearance. I set it on intermitent and let my 2 year old son play with it.

Patrick Hayes

Few other memories threads: Can't find one that started with a long story about taking a light to a drugstore and having the bulb replaced, some contacts cleaned with emery cloth, and which described a nifty ray-o-vac cabinet that had battery and bulb testers on it.
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Topic: Flashlight memories from childhood
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000021#000000

Topic: Why Flashaholics? Compare YOUR history with your brother CPF'ers
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001090#000017

Topic: Why are mag lights criticized so much?
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002110;p=3#000085

Originally posted by radellaf:
[QB]...Can't find one that started with a long story about taking a light to a drugstore and having the bulb replaced, some contacts cleaned with emery cloth, and which described a nifty ray-o-vac cabinet that had battery and bulb testers on it...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Ray-O-Vac story is here

Make that here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=36991

A comic strip called Torchy .

[ QUOTE ]
Kanai said:
My first memory of my first flashlight was when I was about 6 years old. My dad bought me a chrome 2 D cell light. Don't remember the brand, but it had a chrome off/on switch and a red button for intermitent use(morse code). Took it every where I went, day or night.

[/ QUOTE ]

Likewise for me but with a magnet so the light hung on the fridge. This would have been the early 70s. 2D cell flashlights seem to rule the day back then. Very inconsistant switches. Seems like I remember some chrome pre-mag 2AA lights as well with a push button switch on the tail.

in about 1950 (when I was 9 yrs. old), a very similar light like you described....a 2-AA cell Eveready penlight with the 2 black painted rings on it, and a black tail push-button switch.

It was either my blue/gold 2C Cub Scout flashlight or a Flash Gordon that came with a matching lunch box and Thermos. I remember both vividly, but I don't remember which came first. Then, there were all the rest... - Lee

My main childhood memory of flashlights is when I was a Boy Scout in the 1950's. I had a 6 volt lantern with a big spotlight on the side (about 5-6 inches) and a floodlight on the top with a metal cage around it, open at the top. It had a heavy wire bail with indents at the mounting points and you could rotate the bail 360 degrees with stops at the indents. On the side opposite the spotlight was a kind of oval handle mostly for use with the spotlight. To the left, upper of this handle was the switch, which was basically a metal peg coming out of a kind of slide switch and there was a kind of scallop pattern in the body of the lantern just above the switch which was engaged by the peg for positive indication of the switch position. The switch positions were (if I recall correctly) (l-r), off, spot, flood, both spot and flood. I loved this light, mostly, I think, because it the spot had pretty killer beam for its time, and I could pretty much blow away my buddies. But.....when I first got it, the spot had the dreaded black hole in the middle, kind of like a somewhat defocused m*glite. This drove me nuts! After a lot of fooling around I finally figured out that since it had a screw in bulb I could probably unscrew the bulb a little and change the focus and I finally got it into pretty good focus. Seems pretty obvious now but I was about 10 years old and pretty much a dork and an idiot(probably still am). Anyway this lantern rattled around my family for many years and gave a lot of good service.

My grandfather who was in law enforcement gave me something that resembled a Streamlight Vulcan when I was very young, way less than 10. The thing really impressed me as it lighted up walls of a house across the street. Since then, I had a number of low-quality lights that were very disappointing. The next impressive flashlight that came along was the Sanyo Cadnia Lite, which was a small twin-bulb rechargeable. The light worked for years but was lost later.

I think an Eveready Big Beam was what got me started on this path. Yea I remember those chrome flashlights with the glass lens (usually cracked or dirty or broken) and the fridge magnet on the side (though usually stored in dad's toolbox with dirty wrenches & screwdrivers stuck to the magnet), but it was the Big Beam that I remember best. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The Big Beam that I had featured a sealed-beam main lamp (the bulb was built into a reflector) and a flashing red bulb with a plastic cover. You could run the sealed beam by itself, run the red blinking light by itself, or run them both at the same time. I eventually figured out that a Polapulse battery (flat 6V battery found inside some kinds of Polaroid instant camera film) would run the Big Beam for a little while, but those rectangular 6V Burgess fencer batteries with the posts on top fit the thing without tape or tools. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Although this wasn't my first flashlight, it was my first standard-issue flashlight by the city - a 3 size D cell flashlight... notice the tactical dead-man's push button on the main switch. They stopped issuing these in early '91/'92. Just thought it was funny to see this light compared to what is in use today (for tac needs).

My SL Ultra Stinger is next to it - which is currently in use. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif




Notice the printing on the side... yep, they want it back after you retire - nothing's for free in life -

well... you can see the images when my photo site is up /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif

PieThatCorner:

Nice old LA light. Hey, come to think of it, I have a Dietz kerosene lantern or two around here that has Los Angeles in raised letters on the tank.

No idea what model it was, but I remember that it was a 2 C or D cell Ever Ready light, blue body, white head, bit white slide switch, and a funny sort of protruding notch on the head to stop it rolling. body was an odd shape, widest at the head, whole flashlight body tapering away toward the end of the barrel if I remember correctly, which I might not given that I was about 4 at the time.