Arriving a little after midnight one night about twenty years ago, I was surprised to see a candelabra full of lit candles on the check-in counter at the Boone Tavern Hotel in Berea, Kentucky. The candles were there because the power was out -- a utility crew was replacing the hotel's transformer on the sidewalk next to the building.

I had a nice chat with the clerk, who checked me in, asked whether I knew his cousin who lived in my Ohio town and turned out to be my next-door neighbor, and handed me a glass candlestick with a candle and matches.

The hotel had apparently never disposed of the lighting equipment it must have laid in when it was built in 1909 and electricity supplies were not very reliable.

I remember feeling quite uneasy at the thought that fellow guests were illuminating their rooms with candles, but I survived the night.