|
|
Posted by Paul Cook in Kempner, Texas [76.0.107.207] on Monday, September 03, 2012 at 13:08:12 :
In Reply to: Re: Back in the day??? Parking lights posted by Daryl in Oz [116.240.168.168] on Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 04:16:01 :
During “the war” (WWII to those of us who lived back then) it was not common for people to park their cars in the street. When you were at home, you parked in your garage or driveway. If you expected your car might be parked in the street when there was an air raid, you would have a blackout parking light.
This was a small light fixture mounted about waist high on the street side (opposite of steering wheel) of the car. It was about two inches in horizontal length and about an inch in diameter with a jeweled clear lens facing forward and a jeweled red lens facing rearward. It has a single, low intensity bulb visible in both directions. If it was dark when the air raid siren went off, you went out and turned on this light. Only authorized official vehicles with blackout driving lights were driven during the air raids. They depended on the blackout parking lights to guide them as they traveled the dark streets.
Not many cars had interior lights that came on when the door was opened, but that could explain an exterior switch for the blackout light to avoid turning on the interior lights.
I lived in Springfield, Ohio. It was a medium sized city. Larger or smaller cities with varying vehicle densities and different width streets may have had different rules in effect.
Okay, pickers, find me one of these lights.