When I Really Needed a Light and Didn't Have One; What's Your Story?

Thought about this while replying to a post in the "How Do You EDC?" thread and thought it may make for some interesting tales. In that other thread I told the story of getting caught in the mens room at a department store when someone turned the lights out on me. I have one even worse than that.

Back probably about fifteen years ago I had flown down to Florida to visit my mom and sister and then flew back into Atlanta's Hartsfield Int'l airport. Before my initial departure I had parked my truck in the multi deck parking garage but to prevent theft while away I pretty much took everything out of my truck before leaving home, that included my tool box with my only Mag light flash light inside. Incan of course. The parking deck was in total darkness when I came back to get my truck and of course I had a flat tire. It was a Nissan truck with a spare tire underneath that you had to stick this long handle through a small hole and engage a slotted turn bolt in order to lower the spare and I didn't have a light to be able to see to get my spare tire down.

So back into the airport I went thinking it would be easy to buy a little flash light at one of the gift shops or stores inside. Boy was I wrong. Almost an hour later after searching store after store on three levels I finally found a shop that had one of these little credit card sized lights you carry in a shirt pocket and you squeeze it to make the little light come on and the darn thing cost me $8.99! Highway robbery!

So back to the truck I went and used this tiny little light to finally get my spare down and change the tire and get on the road home. Oh did I mention it was about 20 degrees outside and I didn't have a coat?

Before I carried a flashlight, I was inside a large store when the AC power failed. There were a few emergency lights in the store, but they did not shine into the aisles due to the tall store shelving.

I had to find my way out of the store in the dark.

It was in the mid 80's when there weren't that many choices of lights. I think I had a Petzel headlamp but didn't have it with me........pretty stupid. I was in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming (the highest range in that state) and we were coming back from climbing Jackson Peak. It got dark, we were above timberline, there was no trail or moon out. We could not find our way out of a very swampy basin in the dark and we had to spend the night without a tent or sleeping bad. They were back at the base camp. The temperature was in the mid 30's (this was on Labor Day weekend). Luckily no rain or snow that night. Never again would I be somewhere out in the woods without a flashlight in my day pack.

I've carried a light almost forever, even back in the 80s I used to carry a mini Mag, had both AAA and AA, so I've never been caught without . Light output might have been puny, but it was still light.

The story should not be extraordinary to understand importance of light Simple situation: I am late from work, long corridor, some moron has switched off illumination, another -- placed a knee-high safe in the pass... Kinda painful experience

Yesterday, I needed to look behind the refrigerator. I reached for my flashlight and it wasn't in my pocket. I had to stop everything I was doing and walk about eight feet to get one I had in a drawer. I hate when that happens.

When I needed a light and did not have one I had a bic lighter.

fnsooner said:

Yesterday, I needed to look behind the refrigerator. I reached for my flashlight and it wasn't in my pocket. I had to stop everything I was doing and walk about eight feet to get one I had in a drawer. I hate when that happens.

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Levity is always appreciated of course but.................

hiuintahs said:

It was in the mid 80's when there weren't that many choices of lights. I think I had a Petzel headlamp but didn't have it with me........pretty stupid. I was in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming (the highest range in that state) and we were coming back from climbing Jackson Peak. It got dark, we were above timberline, there was no trail or moon out. We could not find our way out of a very swampy basin in the dark and we had to spend the night without a tent or sleeping bad. They were back at the base camp. The temperature was in the mid 30's (this was on Labor Day weekend). Luckily no rain or snow that night. Never again would I be somewhere out in the woods without a flashlight in my day pack.

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This is really the kind of story I was hoping to see more of, serious to dire situations that the lack of an appropriate light caused great discomfort or inconvenience. Something a little worse than having to walk eight feet....(poor baby!).

I seriously wanted to add a story here...but could not.

Ever since grade school I have nearly always had a writing instrument, cutting tool/nail clippers and something that provides light.

Once while swimming at a pool a lady asked out loud "anybody got a pen?".. my son quips "my dad"..sure enough there was a pen wrapped in my towel with a pocket knife, finger nail clippers and my cigarette lighter.

bykfixer said:

I seriously wanted to add a story here...but could not.

Ever since grade school I have nearly always had a writing instrument, cutting tool/nail clippers and something that provides light.

Once while swimming at a pool a lady asked out loud "anybody got a pen?".. my son quips "my dad"..sure enough there was a pen wrapped in my towel with a pocket knife, finger nail clippers and my cigarette lighter.

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Well that at least qualifies as an interesting anecdote. I too have been fairly anal (can I say anal on this forum?) about always having a pen with me and back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a smoker I always had either my Zippo or Scripto cigarette lighter on me. And I generally always have some kind of pocket knife.

Then there was the ice storm of 98..Christmas eve the power went out. By Christmas morning I was breathing steam in my drafty home. Had just split up with a wife and my kids lived across town.
Definitely wasn't my idea of a good time.

After a couple of days I'd open the door to let heat in my all electric apatment as 35° outside was warmer...

I had a brand new 20# bag of charcoal, a bunch of frozen food, about 25 jar candles and my trusty bic lighter.
I put food from my freezer outside in a cooler.

I made miniature candle radiators with alluminum foil and used any old reflective source for making more light.

After a week I was the only person left in the apartment complex.

I ate well, stayed comfortable and after about 10 days thanked my lucky stars for electricity again.

Later that winter I worked the midnight shift on a road project. One night I pulled up to an intersection in a rough neighborhood..the kinda place you coast through red lights after 11pm.
To my right I see a young fellow in front of a bank where there is a porch unfold his cardboard box and some newspapers he had for blankets. When I saw him covering himself with newspaper and place the box over himself the light turned green.

Later when I arrived at my meager, drafty apartment I flicked on every light, opened the cupboard noting all that food and commenced to doing snow angels on my carpeted floors.

Neither of my sons smoke, but both carry bic lighters. Now they have Streamlight Nanos and nail clippers as well.

A similar experience to bykfixer's, January (if memory serves) '72 we had a huge ice storm in Atlanta. Our power went out on Saturday night. I've always kept a battery powered camping type lantern and or one of those coleman lanterns so we had light in our one bedroom downstairs flat on Roswell rd in Sandy Springs. Like Bykfixer I put all our food from the fridge out on the porch in a coleman cooler. We had all electric heat but fortunately the stove was natural gas and somehow it kept our whole apartment warm. Power stayed out till Wednesday evening as all the transformers up and down Roswell road had blown out and had to be replaced. Not sure what we'd have done without that gas stove but we did have light from our lanterns and candles and our food stayed in great shape out on the patio.

My story is in the first post of this thread, there are a couple pages of people telling stories. Not many, if any, are real dire situations, mainly just an inconvenience.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ght-without-your-light-and-need-it&highlight=

This has happened with me too..I was in my room doing office work and suddenly power cut,torch was kept next to me and I was roaming in house like an idiot.

My wife has lately found it entertaining to turn off the lights while I'm taking a shower. Likely because this is the only time that I'm not carrying a flashlight. Maybe I should attach one to the shower wall with a suction cup in case of power outages or her mischievous pranks.

20 years ago I could see being caught light-less.
But this is the Jetsons age we live in.




For when you absolutely positively have to have a flashlight but have no way to carry one.

The Whispering Gallery said:

My wife has lately found it entertaining to turn off the lights while I'm taking a shower. Likely because this is the only time that I'm not carrying a flashlight. Maybe I should attach one to the shower wall with a suction cup in case of power outages or her mischievous pranks.

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Hmmm....... maybe you should play the same game next time she is in the shower.....