I remember when my grandmother would take me to Jamestown to do shopping and watch the big union castle ship come into Jamestown bay. Even though it was not often my grandmother would visit her good friend Gurty.
I remember Gurty well. She was such a kind and friendly woman. Gurty had a friend, a kind man that was always smiling. Everyone on the island called him Blossom. I thought that Blossom was a beautiful name for a man and suited him very well.
I was fascinated and amazed that Gurty had water in her toilet. It was magic, and you just pulled a chain and water would appear in her toilet. It all seemed rather strange when we didn’t even have any running water in our kitchen. At Deadwood I would collect water from a big black tank at the back of our house.
Gurty like most people in Jamestown even had electricity. It was amazing you just touched a switch and a light appeared.
What a contrast to our house. We didn’t have electricity. We had candles and oil lamps which were actually empty jam jars. Occasionally momma would use a pickle jar and she would fill it with parrifin oil and put a wick into it to light it.
It was both smoking and stunk of parafin oil. Later on mumma would upgrade to a beautiful oil lamp with a glass shade with less smoke and you didn’t smell the parafin as much.