"Do you have a friend at the Electric Company?"

I heard the voice of my grandmother this afternoon (my mother's mother)..... and that's what it was saying: Do you have a friend at the Electric Company?

That's what my grandmother always said when she walked into an empty room and someone had left a light on. She would leave the light on, go find the person who left it on, and ask them that question. Of course, the answer to the question would be No, I don't.... and then she would tell that person Well, go turn out that light you left burning because if you don't have a friend at the Electric Company, that means that I will have to pay the bill. (Mind you, all of that was said with a thick Italian accent.) Usually, in my grandmother's house, it was usually me leaving the lights on, and usually me going back into the room to shut them off.

It didn't take too many trips up and down the stairs of my grandmother's house for me to remember to shut off the lights when I left the room, and I've been part of the "light police" ever since..... because I still don't have a friend at the Electric Company.

The Electric Company.... I used to walk there with my grandmother when she paid the electric bill. The office for the Electric Company in her area was in Queens, north of Jamaica Avenue on one of the side-streets. I don't remember the street, I don't remember what the building looked like. But I do remember going there with her and she would take the bill out of her purse, along with the cash to pay it. My grandmother didn't know how to write a check, and she didn't even have a checking account. All utility bills were paid in cash, at offices in the neighborhood. There were separate offices for the Telephone Co., the Gas Co., the Electric Co., the Water Co. My grandmother would walk to all of them, pay them in cash, take the stamped receipt and put it away in a big brown folder when she got home.

I don't remember her asking me if I had friends at the Gas Co. or the Water Co., but if I talked on her phone too long with my friends, she would walk by and remind me that the telephone costs money, they don't give it to me for free. That was my hint that I'd been on the phone long enough. That phone in my grandmother's hallway was one of those old black bakelite phones.... heavy enough to use as a bookend for a set of encyclopedias.

The electric company. Black bakelite phones. A set of encyclopedias. In this age of technology, where bills are paid on-line, phones are the size of credit cards, and the encyclopedias have been replaced by Google....... does anyone even care if they have a friend at the Electric Company?

As for the electric company thing........ Our friend K was here on Thursday for dinner and stayed overnight, leaving yesterday for a meeting up in Austin. When K left, she turned off the air-conditioner in the guest cottage and brought me the sheets and towels. I did that laundry yesterday...... went into the cottage to re-make the bed, clean the bathroom, and get the cottage ready for whoever uses it next. It was blazing hot yesterday, so before I did all of that, I turned on the air-conditioner in there. When I was all done with the bed and the bathroom, I re-arranged a few things in the kitchenette..... then I looked through the books on the shelves in there..... and then I hung up a cute little mirror I'd found in one of the resale shops in town.

By the time I was done with all of the above yesterday, I forgot to turn off the air-conditioner. And.... I didn't realize that the air-conditioner was still on until dinner-time tonight when I went outside to put the chickens in the coop and I heard that unit running out there. Do you have a friend at the Electric Company? I have been hearing that question (in a thick Italian accent) over and over since I walked into that guest cottage and shut off the blessed air-conditioner a few hours ago.