Back in the old days, people didn't have electricity or batteries to see things with or to brighten up their homes. All they had were fireplaces, torches, and oil lamps. It was a lot harder to see to do anything but they did it anyway and they liked it that way. It was simpler, and they did not have an electric bill like we have today. The men hunted and fished for their food and the women cooked it in the fireplace.



Fireplaces were to put light into their homes and to heat them up. They lived in a one-room house so they all kept warm. The fireplace cooked their food, gave them warmth, and gave them light to see in the night. That was all that they needed. They had to chop up wood for the fireplace and to stock it for the winter. It washed some of their clothes, and it boiled their water, which helped them take a bath and clean their floor and tables with. They put out the fire if they went anywhere just like we turn off our light whether we leave or if we are done cooking. That's how they survived in those days.

When they went outside or in a dark place, sometimes they used torches to see where they are going. They had them in the towns to light them up so people can walk and so they can see the building that they are going to. A torch is a stick with a wood of rope or weeds on the top of it, and it has oil or kerosene on it to keep it burning. They hung it on the wall of the stores or on a pole. It was also help keep bad and big animals away from the towns and their home. It was their protection. But if they didn't have a torch, they stopped for the night and made camp. Then they built a fire to help them see what was in the night that surrounded them. That is how they also keep the animals away.

Now, oil lamps were for the inside of their homes to see where they were going if the light of the fire did not reach that area and also to see outside and to go feed the animal at night. But they have to watch the oil lamps because if it fell over, it would have burned the house or the barn down fast because of the oil in it. The oil can spread very fast just like that.