Mother!!!

Remembering how my Mother was always right. We argued many a point. The world was as she saw it. 

In my youth, the electric company had a local office for paying bills, and they would exchange burned-out bulbs for new ones, no charge. 

I asserted to my Mother that the electricity did not flow through a burned-out bulb. The connection was broken, no electricity usage/bill. She insisted otherwise.

So here we are at the Detroit Edison office and I asked the clerk to verify that the electricity was not flowing if the bulb was shot. No, he said, the electricity still flows.

I really burned on that one. Sort of like a lot of my childhood experiences where the so-called adults either lorded it over you or were the undisputed holders of all certain knowledge, defining your reality. Isn't it ever so, though? 

In recollecting that affair, it now occurs to me that we may have been both right. The electricity doesn't go through the bulb, and the electricity is still flowing. I had it like if all you had was burned-out bulbs there'd be no bill for those lamps. The adults may have taken it as the electricity would still be available.

[Just like how my heart ached over the self-sacrifice my Father was making always taking the Chicken neck when my Mother made soup. Only now it dawns on me that he preferred it! Geez ... kids.]