1963 — the year the light came on in the village

Until 1963 the village had no electricity. Paraffin lamps gave light, water was drawn from the well on a windlass, and laundry was boiled in a great cauldron over wood. The machines on the farm were driven by a horse-gin or by one's own hands.

Electrification changed everything. A light bulb appeared, then an electric steamer for potatoes, a radio that played without crackle, and in time a television. What for today's grandchildren is as obvious as air was, for us, a revolution — literally overnight.

I described dozens of pre-electricity tasks in the book precisely because I know how quickly such knowledge disappears. Who today remembers how the floor was sanded, or how the wired loudspeaker on the wall worked?