Appalachia Through My Eyes - Light Bill Or Electric Bill?

I was in head start when we moved into the house Pap built. I think my room was pink in the beginning-then it was yellow-then purple-then finally a tan color. Even though the wall color changed during the years I slept in the room-the light switch cover didn't until I reached adulthood.

Just before I met The Deer Hunter, I painted the room a light tan color. It was then I noticed the old number light switch cover-I mean how could numbers go with my new mature look I was working on? So I politely unscrewed my Elves and their friends and went down the hallway-where I took Granny and Pap's beige light switch cover and gave the Elves a new home.

Once I left home for good, Granny turned my old room into her sewing bedroom.

Years later, after I was a married mother of twin banshees, I was down at Granny's looking for something in the back bedroom when I noticed the light switch cover was the one from my childhood days.

I was up the hill in a flash. In no time flat I had the old cover switched with the beige one from my baby girls' bedroom-and there it's been through the various colors of their room. It started as builders beige, then there was yellow, then there was the years of orange/green combination (the first time I let them choose the color-yikes!), then a soft green, and as recent as this summer-a chocolaty rust color.

I told you all that to ask you:

Do you cut the light on or turn it on/cut the light out or turn it off? And do you pay the light bill, electric bill, or the power bill?

I cut the light on/off and I always pay my light bill-even though I wish I didn't have too.

Tipper

Appalachia Through My Eyes - A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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Comments

[Theresa]

Interesting...I'd never heard of cutting the lights.... My husband says turning the lights on and off and I have always said turning the lights out. We pay the electric bill. (And Lord knows I wish we didn't have to!) What I'd give for a wood burning stove!!! Perhaps in my next life time I'll have money for one. LOL

[warren]

We cut off the lights and pay the power bill!

[Laura @ Laura Williams Musings]

I say turn the lights on/off and it's a light bill here. Kinda like light bread. lol

I get laughed at for saying light bubs instead of bulbs too. Listening to our Pastor Sunday morning made me giggle and smile a little as he says light bubs too. I kinda nudge hubby and told him, "see I ain't the only one".

[Mike McLain]

I turn the lights on and off and pay the electric bill (I usually call it the FPL bill - that is Florida Power & Light). By the way, my wife retired from FPL 4 years ago after working for them for 42 years!

I think I have always said turn the lights on and off, but I have lived down here in South Florida (there ain't nothing Southern about it) for so long with all these transplants, my language has probably gotten corrupted.

[Tim Hassell]

We turn the light on and when we don't need it any longer we turn the light "out". I wonder if this language is related to coal oil lights? You turn the knob on the burner to raise the wick and make the light brighter, then you turn the knob to lower the wick and turn the light out. In those days light was fire and we build fires and put "out" fires.

We pay our light bills and my grandparents insisted that the bill be paid in person, with cash at the light company. They also followed the same rules for the gas bill (it was butane) and the phone bill (it was a 9 party line with a ringing partner).

I also remember the Delco System that Don Casada mentioned. My grandfather had a dairy and used the Delco system for a pump to circulate cold water in "cooling vats" located in the "milk house". This cooled the cans of milk over night before taking them to town the next morning. This modern "farm expense" also provided a well pump so that water no longer had to be drawn from the well in a bucket. Electricity really changed the way we live our lives over so many years, from the old Delco system to micro wave ovens. I wonder if there will be something that changes the lives of Chitter and Chatter the way electricity has changed mine.

[Suzi Phillips]

Light bill-once again, I had no clue that it was called anything else!

[Vicki Lane]

I turn on/off the lights and I pay the electric bill (or the FBEMC bill)

[dolores barton]

OK! I turn the lights on or turn the lights off. I pay the electric bill. Turning things on/off just sounds right, but then in a movie or a play, they say cut the lights. I use electric because it is part of the power company's name, but more important, I need electricity to work the many electrical items I have. But then again, I will say put the lights on so we don't trip in the night, or put the lights out. I think this whole thing is an oxymoron.

[Ron Banks]

Yep, cut off the lights but pay the power bill.
Dad and grand dad called the windows in a house winder lights. Don't be throwing rocks around the house,you'll bust the winder lights out!

[Ed Ammons]

Question for Don-
Does electricity actually flow through the wires and if so how far does it go before it reverses direction?

[Ed Ammons]

Tipper-Ethel mentioned her great grandparents were from Italy and settled in the Northern foothills. Could you ask her if they were Waldensian perhaps and if they were chased out of Northern Italy because of their religious beliefs.

[Buffy Lowe]

So does nobody "shut out the lights" or "shut off the water?" or get shut of that dad gum dog.

[Ken]

Tipper,
I still pay my "light bill" and
cut my lights off/on too. When
Duke power bought out our power
company, Nantahala Power and Light
Co., they changed the billing to
"Duke Energy". (Was that to justify raising the rates?) My
daddy helped build Nantahala Lake
back in the early 30's and it
don't cost any more today than it
use to, to power the generator.The
last time I checked, water still
runs downhill.
Today, everything costs much more
than it should...Ken

[Kimberly]

I cut the lights on and off and I pay the light bill.

[Ed Ammons]

We used to pay our bill to Nantahala Power & Light, so apparently they thought there was a difference. Now I pay Duke Energy so who knows what I'm paying for.

[Howland]

Here in West GA the missus says "turn out the light", I say "turn off" and for decades I've always paid the 'lectric bill though most everybody around here calls it the light bill and I have caught myself doing the same. What can one expect from a recovering Yankee? The spousal unit also asks me to "Push the door together" if it's open a crack, but she's a bona fide mountaineer.

When I was a kid we lived in an area that was well-populated by immigrants, especially Italians; my Dad told me about "open the light" and attributed it to the Old Ones' use of gas lamps in their younger days3. He also said that it was why a lot of us said "Turn on the light" because there was a little valve on the gas lamp that had to be turned (opened) to make the gas flow. Dad also said, I think it was in the same conversation, that people asphyxiated themselves or blew up their house when they 'blew out the light" as though it were a kerosene lamp, without turning off the gas. The lamp would go out but the gas still flowed.

As a parting shot, I'd like to inform y'all that in the Big Siddy Up North, the gas company is still called "The Atlanta Gas Light Company".

[B. ruth]

Tipper,
I "turn off or on" the lamps, since they have a little key thingy type switch...I "cut off" the stove...I cut the car lights out...I "pull the switch" for on or off.. in the laundry and one closet...I "flip the switch" for overhead lights...I "move or raise my hand" for the motion lights outside...No wonder I'm always in such a state...I need to decide to turn on or off or cut out or cut on...LOL
Don, I would love to have a Carbide light system...liken' the olden days...but not a miners lamp!
Thanks Tipper, PS...I do pay the light bill....or REU..in our county...Our bill has actually gotten cheaper since they now read the meters from the district office instead of sending meter readers around...I think their eyes just got bummed out in the cold and then the summer heat!
Loved this post!

[Tipper]

Charline-Like your friend-I say cut on/off for all sorts of things too!

Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
www.blindpigandtheacorn.com

[Paula Rhodarmer]

We always say "cut the light off/on" and we always pay the light bill. How funny, I never noticed that before.

[Charline]

We turn the lights on and off and pay the electric bill. That seems kinda long, so many of us just say "did you pay FPL?" My parents always said "light bill". A very good friend of mine from VA says "cut" on and off for everything from lights to fans to TV. I've been told some of my husbands departed PA-Dutch relatives said "offen the light" to turn off. Now,I MUST do something about my boring switch plates!

[Jackie]

I remember my grandfather reading the comics to me and telling to, "Get out of my light." I would look at his kerosene lamp over on the mantle and say, "Me not in you wight". Many years after he died I realized he wanted me to move from between him and the window.

[martina]

Turn the lights on and off. The bill has always been called the light bill because it used to be paid to City Light. The water, sewer, garbage bill is a separate bill, paid to the City. Who knew it could cost so much $ to throw away garbage!

[Tim Cuthbertson]

I am citified on these questions, I guess. I turn the lights on and off, and I pay the power bill or, sometimes, the electricity bill.

Tim

[Jackie]

I've heard 'turn, cut and put' from my wife's family bur only 'turn or flip that switch' from my family.
In Spanish the word 'prenda' means to turn on. When we moved to Arizona the Mexican neighbors said 'abran la luz' I wondered about 'open the lights'. I knew that a circuit was involved and the circuit had to be 'closed' to have light and 'opening the circuit would end the current to the bulb. Years later someone explained that in many languages actions are based on concepts. The light was contained in the bulb - moving the switch in effect 'opened' the bulb and allowed the light to emerge.

My wife wants me to 'pull' the blinds every evening. I keep telling her that I turn the wand to close them. My sister raises windows 'up'. I keep telling her I can't raise them any other directon so I just raise them.

[Marianne]

We use the term flip the lights for both on and off.. never really thought about it till now, LOL. We pay the extortionist bill every month, (power/electric/light) Someday when we build our home we will be off the grid, am learning all I can about it between now and then.
I have a wooden bear switch cover in my room (I made with scroll saw) also made my roommate sister a wolf cover also. My son took his eagle cover with him when he moved out, so need to think of something for the guest room, cannot abide the boring white/tan covers!

[Garland Davis]

We turn lights on or off here and we call it the electric bill. But since installing a photo-voltaic system last year, the electric bill hasn't exceeded the hook up cost of $8. Not so conscientious about turning off the lights anymore.

[Canned Quilter]

We cut the lights and pay the light bill here in the holler : )

[Lise]

I usually use turn, though sometimes I say 'put'. We pay the power bill, only so long as it takes us to get off the grid! Counting on our wood stove keepin' this place nice and toasty during winter, so Mr. Power gets as little as possible:)

[Gorges Smythe]

Old habits die hard, but I've called it the "electric bill" for years now. The old timers called it the light bill, though, since that and the refrigerator was about all they used it for.

[Wanda in NoAla]

My parents always called it the light bill. We get one bill for everything, so we call it the utility bill. Plain ole light covers here!

[elithea]

i turn the light on only if i have paid the electric bill. and i have a bunch of vintage fancy white ceramic switch covers with handpainted flowers that i have because they came as a set when i only wanted one. if you or the girls would like one (somehow i don't think they're the type?) i could bring with when i come up at christmas...

[Phyllis Salmons]

We always "cut" the lights on/off and paid the "light" bill.

[LINDA L. KERLIN]

I turn the lights on---when I have them on --I prefer to be in a dark room?!! I pay the electric bill --to be that bill is more than just lights----I have hand made wooden light switch plates thru out the cabin and a friend once made me a burnt log cabin switch plate so that is here as well.

[Tim Mc]

We cut the light on -- turn the light off, and that reminds me, I've got to pay the power bill. Seriously, it's due tomorrow. It would be bad to get a cut off notice when you actually work for the Power Company..

[Tenesha]

We cut the lights on/off and pay the light bill. When we moved into our "new" old house, I was on a mission to banish the boring beige switch covers. My two youngest boys got a cowboy themed cover and my oldest requested John Deere. Over time, I have replaced most of them with pretty ones. And, yes, when there are a multiple number of little blessings close in age, as mine are, those blessings can become banshees at the drop of a hat! :o) I thoroughly enjoy your blog. I was born, raised, and still live in Mississippi. A little removed from your beautiful mountains, but not from your values. It all resonates! Thank you!!