The power went out for eight or nine hours in Silver Creek and the surrounding area several weeks ago. Daytime outages are bad enough, but nighttime outages are worse because suddenly you are plunged into the darkness of a pioneer’s cabin unless you have a generator.

As for me, I was seated at my computer working on an upcoming column when suddenly the lights went out, tried to come back on several times and failed, which usually is the sign of a lengthy outage.

I had been watching the radar as the storms moved over the lake headed for Chautauqua County and they appeared to be bringing with them heavy rain and probably high winds. I also heard the thunder, but it sounded as if the storms were aiming for Brant and Evans in Erie County as is very often the case. But then the lights went out. I sat at my desk hoping against hope that the power would come back on but quickly gave up. I fumbled for my smart phone because even though the time was 7:50 a full hour before sunset it was pitch black inside and out.

I headed downstairs to find my wife reading something on her Kindle as if nothing had happened making me think of the wonders of modern technology. I have my own Kindle, but it sat on my dresser in need of a charge because I’ve always been more of paper and bound book kind of guy but tonight that wouldn’t matter unless I could find an adequate source of light to read by.

After I dug out our power failure emergency kit that consisted of two battery powered lanterns and assorted Christmas candles that had seen better days, I called the power company emergency line to get the status of the outage and heard that it involved 3,900 customers and would likely last until 10:50 p.m. As told my wife this information I once again brought up the subject of a standby generator. When we had our house rewired a few years back the installation was done with a generator in mind.

She looked up from her Kindle as if to say, “I’m having no problem reading.”

So, I settled in for an evening of no television, no radio or attempting to read by candlelight and lantern, which does not get easier as you grow older. About this time, I called the power company line again and was given the news that now service would not be restored until 4 p.m. the next day.

As I sat in the semidarkness that night, I imagined that this is what life must have been like for settlers living on the frontier of the Provence of New York in the 18th century. When night fell the only light available in most homes came from homemade tallow candles that gave off soot as well as light. Whale oil for lighting was found only in the homes of the rich in cities like New York and Philadelphia. Kerosene lamps for lighting were nearly a century in the future.

People on the frontier lived by the rising and the setting of the sun. They were up, fed and starting the days labor as the sun rose and ending their day’s labor as the sun set.

Unless you had books or had a musical instrument there wasn’t a lot entertainment available in the evening on the frontier of New York. Unlike our era when we are almost overwhelmed in the evening with news and entertainment, In the mid 18th century that wasn’t the case. The telegraph was a century off.

Radio in its crudest form was 150 years in the future with commercial radio 20 years after that and television another thirty years in the future.

With no entertainment available from outside the home you entertained yourself or you went to bed.

While newspapers were published in places like New York and Albany, news of the outside world was slow reaching the frontier and what did reach the frontier was often word of mouth from travelers or a weeks old newspaper.

If you looked outside at night the only light to be seen would have been the light of distant stars or from our moon. In summer there might be an occasional flash of heat lightening, a flash of lightning from a distant storm and in winter if conditions were just right the glow of the northern lights might appear on the northern horizon.

There would be no headlights from passing vehicles, no red lights flashing from cell phone and radio towers nor the glowing lights of distant towns and cities on the horizon.

Not even the flashing anti-collision lights of planes passing far above. But how wondrous the sky with its billions of stars and galaxies must have appeared on clear nights in those days, unsullied by the glow of civilization.

Then, tired of sitting in the dark I went to bed and by the time I awoke our power had been restored ahead of schedule and 21st century life had returned.

Thomas Kirkpatrick is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com