Eighty years ago, an Eveready flashlight and Eveready batteries saved another life, as recounted in this ad from the November 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The story was sent in by Mrs. Camille Dearkin of 222-09 135th Avenue, Springfield Gardens, Long Island. It was one of those nights. Her one year old son was seriously ill with whooping cough, and her husband was also “down with the grippe.” And while she was going to bed, she managed to blow a fuse.

Since she didn’t know how to replace the fuse, she decided to wait until the morning. But she was awakened by her son’s terrible coughing, and rushed in the dark to the medicine cabinet to find the medicine.

Her hand was shaking in the dark as she fumbled in the medicine cabinet until she encountered what she believed was the bottle. But her shaking was such that she spilled the medicine, and she realized that she needed light to properly measure it. So in spite of her panic, she took the time to get her husband’s trusty Eveready flashlight.

When she got it, to her horror, she realized that she had taken the wrong bottle! In her hand, she was holding not the cough syrup, but a bottle of deadly poisonous disinfectant! The Eveready batteries had saved her baby’s life.

Of course, it’s probably best not to store deadly poison right next to the medicine. But if you do, make sure you keep your Eveready flashlight handy.

People frequently Google their own names and names of family members, and I always enjoy hearing from them to follow up on these old stories.  So if you are the 81 year old Mr. Dearkin mentioned in this story, I would love to hear from you.  Please feel free to contact me at clem.law@usa.net, as I would enjoy sharing your recollections of this event.