My New Flashlights. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 My New Flashlights.

 By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 Feb. 22, 2018

 I was in a Walmart store today, so I had to just buy a couple of new flashlights.  Well, I did not have to buy more flashlights.  But sometimes I buy a new flashlight if the flashlight itself is new, like with new features.  I am a real collector of flashlights, for many reasons.  Mainly, I do not want to be in darkness unless I want to be in darkness, which of course is the reason flashlights were made in the first place.  There are different types of flashlights, like the flashlights you can hold in your hand, or wear on your head, or those flashlights that are meant to be on the floor or hanging on something.

 The realization that flashlights, or at least one flashlight to be carried at all times, was when I first moved to the Bay Area, California, with its major earthquake fault lines.  I was having an old car’s brakes replaced or fixed at a Sears in the silicon valley area and the guy who was working on the car told me a story about how he was in the men’s room, in the Sear’s store basement, during the 1989 earthquake.  I was living in New York at the time, getting another degree so I was not even interested in daily events unless those events were in the Wall Street Journal.  And back then, computers were nothing like they are today.
 
 So this auto repairman was in the bathroom when the building actually shook from one side to another side, and he was tossed to and fro until he was knocked to the ground, in total darkness because there was no electricity in the building.  That meant he was laying on the men's basement floor in total darkness.  He did not want to die on the Sear’s men’s bathroom floor, in complete darkness, so he stood up and ran straight for the door that was always open.  He hit the door straight on because it was so dark that he had not seen that the door had closed.  He fell to the floor again.  He stood up and opened the door and walk into the fresh air at which time all he heard from his co-worker was, “Hey man, where were you?  That earthquake was creating waves in the street and parking lot.  It was so cool.”

 It was at that exact moment that I started to carry a small flashlight esp. if I knew I was going to be in any building whatsoever.  I did not want to be caught in men’s room in total darkness without a flashlight to lit up the path to the outside world.  I have met a few other people who also carry a small flashlight, mostly older females who also realize that a big Bay Area earthquake could happen at any moment.

 Then there have been those moments when I had to direct street traffic because of a minor or major situation on the street, and the drivers of cars need to be warned that if they did not slow down and change their direction they would be in deep trouble.  I always made a quick exit once one or more cops showed up because they have bigger and brighter lights on the top of their cars.  ( I am currently laughing at my own statement. ) Anyway, I do not understand why more people who live in earthquake country do not carry a small flashlight with them.  Maybe they will use their smartphones for light while they take a picture of the buildings falling on them!