3 ms·

I have this picture in my head of you holding a worklight above an open CPU case while your dad works to connect the drive.

• mdip 3y ago
  That would a pretty accurate depiction of future years, though who was holding the work-light changed hands when I was about 13 :)
• aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  Why not use a decent headlamp? So much more comfortable.
  • iancmceachern 3y ago
    There was a time where lights were too big to be on headlamps. Many of us of a certain vintage grew up holding what were essentially metal cages around regular household light bulbs attached to a power cable for our parents and grandparents while they worked on carburetors or whatnot.
    • jdhzzz 3y ago
      Did you call them "drop light" or "trouble light" (Drop light for me)
  • mdip 3y ago
    It's funny you mention that ... I have both discovered and forgotten the novelty of a headlamp at least 5 times in the last decade. At the time (1980s), I'm not sure there were very many good headlamp options but either way, I wasn't in control of the portable light purchasing decisions. However, the man who's job it was didn't skimp much. He was a small plane pilot, so I recall being warned not "to look into this flashlight[0]." It looked not much different than you're typical consumer flashlight, but if you picked it up, it was much thicker plastic, used 4 C batteries and no joke, it hurt your eyes to look into. [0] The flashlight has a switch and a button on it, the button lets you flicker the light for emergency visual signalling (the kind that a pilot might need for the very specific situation of "need to flash morse-code through the windscreen at the ATC tower to get landing clearance because I was struck by lightning and my radios are all fried" -- so ... bright.