Community Chat

[Carmie]

When I was a pre-teen, I used to want to read at night and my parents wanted me to sleep.

After everyone went to bed, I would turn on the lamp and crawl under the blankets with the lamp to read.

One night I did that, but removed the lamp shade.  The bulb got hot and blanket caught fire and burned a hole in it and in a second blanket as well.

I smelled the burning wool and ran down a flight of steps to the bathroom and filled a water glass with to put out the smoldering blanket.  I ran up and down the stairs a few times refilling the glass and dumping it on the bed.

My sister and I slept together in a double bed.  She slept through the entire thing.  I was too young and dumb to wake her up to get out of the bed.

Years later when I was an adult with children, I was helping my mother clean out the linen closet.  She looked at the hole in both blankets and wondered out loud what happened.  I fessed up.

I was lucky I didn't burn the house down or get my sister injured.

After that, I used a small flash light and kept it in one hand and the book in the other.  I still read under the covers when it was time for lights out.