You Light Up My Life

Debby Boone's hit song from 1977 could have been the theme song for the Rural Electric Administration which was established in 1935 to bring electricity to rural areas. And by changing life to night, you could have a song for yard lights and porch lights.
The yard light on our farm was just like the one pictured here at Grandpa & Grandma Lynam's acreage on the west edge of Corning. That's Ron holding Betty with me in my cute winter hat. (Late 1945) The first rural electric lines in Adams County were energized in July of 1937. By March of the following year, there were 230 customers on 125 miles of line north and west of Corning.

By the end of 1940, there 200 miles of electric lines including south of Corning. Our yard light was just to the south of where Maurice and Shorty Reichardt were working on their plow in this picture. Dad must have been offering advice. For reasons of his own, Ron decided to hold a cat while I (sitting on the tractor seat) turned my back on everyone.
Having a yard light meant not having to chore in the dark. It meant coming home at night and not having to fumble our way to the house or leave the car lights on until someone got inside. A yard light could show who was there if a car drove in at night. And porch lights meant just enough of a glow to light the yard for outside play, although Mom didn't like leaving the porch light on because it drew bugs which came inside when the door was opened.
A yard light on at a neighbor's in the middle of the night could mean trouble - someone ill, a varmint disturbing livestock - or the farmer out helping birth a calf or lamb.

Mom had another use for the yard light if I sat out in the car with my boyfriend too long after he brought me home from a date - she would blink it on and off several times. That meant: "It's already past your curfew. Get into the house now." If I didn't respond within a few minutes, she would blink the light again - then I was really in trouble.

When the mercury vapor lights became all the rage in the 1960's, the folks finally had one installed. It was nice to have a light come on at dusk and shut off at dawn. But it wasn't long before the countryside was dotted all over with night lights. Personally, I'd rather see the stars and have a light I could turn on when I needed it and leave off when I didn't.

Debby Boone's song was a song about love - "You light up my life, you give me hope to carry on. You light up my days and fill my nights with song. It can't be wrong when it feels so right, 'cause you light up my life."   In the case of porch lights and yard lights - you light up my night....