Down Memory Lane: First encounter with the electric kettle

By John Hughes, native of Cappavicar, Castlebar, now resident in Cobh, Co. Cork, who grew up in Mayo in the 1940s

PART 5

I HAVE some funny stories which have stayed with me through the decades, though some were not so funny at the time they were happening! As I have said before, life was very simple back then.

Pat Quinn was a few years older than me and was serving his time in Burke’s chemist, to become a chemist himself. That’s the way things happened back then, it was more like an apprenticeship.

He was a great fellow for shooting and fishing. One day he was all set up for an afternoon’s shooting, wherever he was going, but he was in a bit of a dilemma. His mother had told him that she had ordered a load of turf to be delivered that day, and that he’d have to put it into a shed at the back of the house. He didn’t want to tell her that he couldn’t do it, that he had other plans, so he came to me and asked me if I’d like to earn a few bob.

I was curious and asked him about the job. He explained the situation about the turf delivery and that he had arranged to meet the lads.

“Would you ever be able to do it for me?” he asked. I said I would of course, no bother. “I’ll have everything ready,” he said, “the barrow will be there for you.”

The afternoon came and the turf arrived, but there was nobody around that I could see. So, I started putting in the turf in a big barrow. I was well into the job when Mrs. Quinn arrived back. She asked where Pat was. I explained to her that I was filling in for him, putting the turf in, in case it would rain.

“Did you have anything to eat?” she asked. I told her I was fine. She said she would get something for me and would give me a shout when it was ready.

I was called into the house some time later. She had something nice ready for me in the kitchen. She said she would get me something to drink too. She was working at the other side of the kitchen, and I wasn’t paying much notice. Then she left the room for a while. Soon afterwards, I began to hear a strange singing sound nearby.

Now you must understand, we had no electricity at home, and a kettle that could boil water by electricity was like something capable of going to Mars. I didn’t know what it was.

In those days you had to flick a switch manually to turn off the kettle, but of course I knew nothing about that. So, after a while, it started to sing louder, and hiss, and a short time after that the room was beginning to fill with steam.

I couldn’t understand what was going on. I wasn’t quite finished my grub, but I weighed up my priorities and I said to myself I better get out of here, there’s something going to blow up.mI was just going out the door when Mrs. Quinn came back into the kitchen, and she screamed! But I kept going and she didn’t follow me.

I met Pat the following day. “What did you do yesterday?” he asked. “I put in the turf, like I was told to do,” I replied, avoiding the episode in the kitchen.

“My mother nearly killed me,” he said. “You could have burned the house down!”

That was my first encounter with an electric kettle, and I will never forget it.