Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

Our Team – The Lamplighters

We are spreading God's light…
We are the matches He lights to expose the lamps in others. 

(…from Left to Right)
Jenna Kehrli
Ginny Allison (TEAM FINANCE) 
Rikki Lynn Vick
Sean Kelly
Nathan Dickens (TEAM LEADER)
Allison Pryziazny
Nick Rice (SQUAD LOGISTICS) 

P.S. We're throwing out "W"s because we're the "W" squad! 

…

lamp·light·er/ˈlampËŒlÄ«tÉ™r/ Noun: A person employed to light street gaslights by hand.

…


A lamplighter, historically, was an employee of a town who lit street lights, generally by means of a wick on a long pole. At dawn, they would return and turn them off using a small hook on the same pole. Early street lights were generally candles, oil, and similar consumable liquid or solid lighting sources with wicks. Another lamplighter duty was to carry a ladder and renew the candles, oil, or gas mantles. In some communities, lamplighters served in a role akin to a town watchman; in others, it may have been seen as little more than a sinecure. In the 19th century, gas lights became the dominant form of street lighting. Early gaslights required lamplighters, but eventually systems were developed which allowed the lights to operate automatically.

There is a long history of the role of a lamplighter-as-lightbringer as a symbolic figure in literature.

-Wikipedia


….

My theatre teacher every year when gave out the book, The Little Prince, to the graduating seniors and in it she would label which of the characters we were…

The Lamplighter who lives on an asteroid which rotates once a minute. Long ago, he was charged with the task of lighting the lamp at night and extinguishing it in the morning. At that point, the asteroid revolved at a reasonable rate, and he had time to rest. As time went on, the rotation sped up. Refusing to turn his back on his work, he lights and extinguishes the lamp once a minute, getting no rest. The prince sympathizes with the Lamplighter, the only adult he has met who cares about something other than himself.

 

…

"The Lamplighter" was a Golden Age superhero in Kurt Busiek's Astro City comic books.

…

Lamplighter Ministries International is a publisher of Christian fiction. The creator, Mark Hamby, prays the prayer 

of D. L. Moody: “The world has not yet seen what God can do through one man wholly committed unto Christ.”


…

The Lamplighter (1885)

by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky.
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa’s a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I’m to do,
O Leerie, I’ll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!

 

There may also be some nostalgia reflected in the poem. In 1881, Stevenson published the essay, "A Plea For Gas Lamps," in "Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers." In this essay, he sentimentally upholds gas lamps against electric lights, describing electric light as "that ugly blinding glare" and "a lamp for a nightmare." In the same essay, he describes the lamplighter as one punching holes in the night and as one worthy of being immortalized in a Greek myth, but one whose task has been overtaken by automatic electric ignition of the gas lights. Because "Penny Whistles" was published 4 years later, it may represent a similar theme.


…

Lamplighters Inn Tavern and Grille is a famous hangout in Palatine Illinois and home to the largest antique urinal in the area.

– ok, that one doesn't really relate to us. i just found it amusing…. 
 

…

FIFTY YEARS AT MAKING SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS BRIGHTER!
 
Sole remnant of San Francisco before the fire, the lamp-lighters pursue the even tenor of their ways. 

It is the one pursuit that has not materially changed in methods since the beginnings of the city. 

Since 1890 the practice of making the rounds with a lighted tape on the end of a stick has been in use. It still is the only known way to light one of the gas street lamps that are used all over the city for illumination. 

It falls to Roger Curry (90 yrs old), oldest lamp-lighter of the city, to tell the history of the industry in San Francisco.

 
“Sure I’m the oldest lamp-lighter in San Francisco,” he said, “and, more than that, I am the oldest living lamp-lighter in the world. I have been right here in Bonita Street for 55 years, and 50 of them I spent lighting the gas lamps on San Francisco streets."
 
“I could talk all day about thim old days. I remember when I first took the job, all us lamp-lighters had to carry two ladders and a pocketful of matches. 

The old lamps were just ordinary gas burners. I had to light them with a common match {I love that God always uses the "Common" thing/person. Something that is overlooked, yet God sees potential in} after climbing up the ladder to reach the light. 

And the matches it took. I started out many’s the time with all my pockets filled. And I’d have to come back for more before I got half way around my route. 

We bought our own matches, so we were sparing of them. But it took a bunch every day, at that. I remember that I used to buy them wholesale from the factories. 
But, as I was saying, I would start out well supplied with matches. I’d put the ladder up to the lamp and climb up. Carefully I’d turn on the burner and light the lamp. But before I could get the hinged door shut the wind would sneak in and put out the flame. 

I can remember spending five or 10 minutes trying to light one lamp, and then I had to go home for more matches. If it wasn’t the wind that did it, then the sudden shutting of the door would blow it out. 

And the rain. It would come down so hard that often all the matches in my pocket would be spoiled. There were surely plenty of troubles for the early lamp-lighters." {There will be trials, and Satan will come against us trying to blow our lights out, but we are determined and stubborn. God will light the light, we just have to keep supplying the matches.} 


"During my experience of 50 years I lighted lamps in all parts of the city. I watched it grow from a little town to the great city that it now is. I saw it destroyed by the fire and at the same time saw my little home go up in flames. 

But I built it up again. For 55 years I have lived right here on this spot and I am good for several more. They often ask me how I remain so healthy and happy and straight. 

But I just tell them that I never walked all bent over—that’s why I’m straight; that I took care of myself—that’s why I’m healthy, and that I’m healthy, and that’s why I’m happy."

"

You know, the gas company doesn’t own the lights. They own the poles and the gas, but when I was getting along about 50 they sold the lighting privilege to the Wellsback Street Lighting Company." 

{We don't own the light we share. It is from God, and of God. And if we don't own it, we have no right to keep it to ourselves. We must share it.}

 
Source: San Francisco Bulletin, February 2, 1924
by William H. Mason