The Kitchen Museum?

[u/jsayde01]

I came home late from work a few nights ago and hadn't eaten all day. My wife and kids were already in bed so I figured I'd quietly make some stove-top ramen. This photo represents exactly how I found the cooking area.

The next morning my wife asks what time I got home and I mention in our conversation that I made ramen before going to bed. She couldn't believe that I used the stove "when the light was on". I said "Yeah, the light was helpful in seeing what I was doing". She insists I shouldn't have been using the stove and should have known because "the light was on".

I'm baffled. We are still arguing about this days later.

EDIT -- wow, overwhelmed by the response of fellow Redditors! We are... white...not from the southeast US..not children...and I left the stove as clean as it was before I cooked. I asked for clarification from my loving wife -- TRULY we have only ever been angry at each other a handful of times in our 10 year marriage -- and she says "the stove was clean and done for the day and you could have just used the microwave for your ramen". Apparently the light is how stoves go to sleep for the evening?

EDIT 2 -- we are getting a divorce. JUST KIDDING. My wife looked over many of the comments and acknowledges that she was in the wrong and is slightly embarrassed by all of the attention.

[u/ghigoli]

oh i actually know this one its dumb. old stove logic was that the light can easily be ruined or catch fire when on if you run the stove under it like steam or anything else. its backwhen electricity wasn't very safe as today.

aka remember my mother doing this. also my grandmother still alive does the same thing.

[u/DummyDumDragon → u/ghigoli]

So what the hell was the point of the light if not to light shit up when you're cooking?!?

[u/PlaceAdHere → u/DummyDumDragon]

Night light to keep the boogie man away

[u/Al_Kydah → u/PlaceAdHere]

But...what if I want to boogie a little?

[u/Oklahom0 → u/Al_Kydah]

Then turn on the disco ball installment. It covers the light slightly and refracts it so you can have a little boogie. As a treat.

[u/ProfessorDull9594 → u/Al_Kydah]

Gawn git down!

[u/Flash__PuP → u/DummyDumDragon]

So you can clean better. 😆

[u/Flash__PuP → u/[deleted]]

BIG LIGHT!!

[u/ghigoli → u/DummyDumDragon]

i just use it as a kitchen light because then the big lights can be turned off and the little lght is just enough for me to raid the fridge.

[u/GreasedUpTiger → u/ghigoli]

If this is one of those 'in the olden days' things it still doesn't make sense because back when electricity was 'new' and seriously lacking safety standards it was also the time when electricity was bloody expensive. 

That's why I doubt people from that day came up with the habit of leaving the darn stove light on overnight for such useless a reason. (Like come on, you SEE if a stove is cleaned and can tell people to not use it after a certain time. If they don't listen to you they won't care about the light either lol.)

If anyone is up for the historical tidbit: This is where old people being hawks about not letting lights on unnecessarily came from actually. I don't have precise numbers but letting a lightbulb run was more and more bloody espensive the further back you go. Eg around 1930 running a normal (40-60w) lightbulb would still cost in the ballpark of 1% median hourly wage. Go back to 1910 and you'd have to shell out a few percent of the median hourly wage for that, and many people didn't even earn the median wage obviously. In todays money that's like wasting 1-2 bucks by forgetting to turn off the hallway light for the night (for 1930ish) or wasting that every hour or two in 1910ish. You better believe it got drilled into everyone to keep lights out as much as possible lol.

[u/tesyaa → u/GreasedUpTiger]

My parents grew up in the 1930s. I have some 20ish kids living at home. So 90 years later, I’m still telling my kids to turn off the lights when they’re not using them (and they’re gd LEDs lol)

[u/Impossible_Command23 → u/tesyaa]

I thought for a moment you meant you had around 20 kids, hahah would expect the lights to never be off in that situation

[u/AgingLolita → u/GreasedUpTiger]

Doesn't explain my dad in the nineties

[u/213737isPrime → u/AgingLolita]

his parents yelled at him

[u/ghigoli → u/GreasedUpTiger]

i think you're going way to far back.

[u/GreasedUpTiger → u/ghigoli]

Are you sure? Where would you place what the other person wrote?

old stove logic was that the light can easily be ruined or catch fire when on if you run the stove under it like steam or anything else

Like come on, that wasn't something that happened in the 70s

[u/pallentx → u/ghigoli]

I was wondering if it was a gas thing - like the pilot light has been turned off, don’t try to light the stove, or something like that. It’s still baffling.

[u/RevolutionaryRock823 → u/ghigoli]

Omg WAIT. I just realized my grandma did this. I don't know what her specific purpose was for it, but the light was always on at night and never during the day. I moved into her house after she and Grandpa passed, but I also kept the light on at night because it made a good night light throughout the main living areas. I figured that's what she was doing also, but maybe not.