A man stuck his hand in a live lightbulb socket: He was too curious for his own good

***This story was told by people who witnessed it, and re-told with permission***

Photo byJúnior Ferreira on Unsplash

When my grandparents were a young couple and moved to their new home, they became friends with a man we shall call Marvin. According to my grandmother, Marvin was a man of deep curiosity. He had a deep desire to know the internal and minute workings of everything.

But you may have heard of the old adage; that curiosity killed the cat. Will Marvin prove that saying to be true? And will curiosity prove to be his undoing?

According to the story I was told, it was a Saturday morning in South America. After working the week, the weekends were a time of indulgence. A time to visit, eat, drink, and partake in the weekend fun. Generally, it began with informal visits to your friends and neighbors. Perhaps just to catch up on the gossip, share information, or lend a helping hand in whatever projects they had going on.

In those days, living life was truly a community sport. Everyone co-existed in a wonderful symbiotic relationship. If one person had, then the whole community had. Sharing was the order of the day.

On this fateful Saturday morning, Marvin made his first stop at the neighbor directly next to his house. In those days the village people, still emerging from the trials of slavery, lived a simple life of mostly lack. The light that was used during the dark hours were the lanterns that used kerosene for fuel and/or flambeau. Electricity was a new addition just being used by the natives.

The electrical wires had just been installed at his neighbor's home, but the electrician had neglected to screw a bulb into the socket. Further to that he had probably forgotten to turn off the power supply to the home.

Forever curious, Marvin of course wanted to investigate further. He positioned himself under the exposed socket looking this way and that. When that proved to be inadequate, he made the fateful decision to stick his index finger into the exposed socket.

Needless to say, Marvin passed shortly thereafter, with his finger stuck in the socket under his neighbor's home and the source of a scary tale told to all children to prevent them from making a similar mistake.

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