The Horseless Carriage Tail Lamp

I found this horseless carriage kerosene tail lamp when I was about 10 years old. It was my first haunted artefact and I still am proud to have found it. Near where I lived as a boy, there was this informal dump which included, among other things, an old hand crank wringer washing “machine”, parts of a broken gas stove, several sets of springs from a horse drawn carriage, the twisted frame of the model T, and many lumps of unidentifiable rusted metal. One summer whilst admiring the junk, a green glint caught my eye; something I had never seen before had emerged from the dirt and sand. It was this horseless carriage kerosene tail lamp.

I am not sure if I was drawn to it, or it was drawn to me, but when I first caught the green glint from the green lens, I knew it was something very, very special. As I grew up, I tried to mentally understand this strange attraction, and without realising, began to develop my mystic insights well beyond my age. Years later, my wife and I were cleaning out some old boxes we have never unpacked from our last move (which had been over ten years ago!), when she turned to me, holding up the lamp, and said, “What is this? It is really cool! There is something really interesting about it.” That evening after dinner, I pulled out the lamp and showed her the green glint. Thereafter she understood why I had kept it all these years.

To this day I am still uncertain about the nature of this strong attraction to, what most people would consider, a bit of junk. When you see the green glint, you too will agree it is not junk, but just as I, you may not understand why.

 

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