I’ve never heard of this before, covering the mirror during a thunderstorm.

Nope!

We were never allowed to use the phone or the television and the television had to be unplugged.

No bathing or dishwashing.

We were not allowed to be on the second floor of the house either, my grandmother insisted that we all be together.

We had a big old elm tree in the back lot at the farm that was left to catch the lightning also lightning rods on the barn and the house.
 
When I was kid, my mom would freak out when there was lightning. You were supposed to stay away from windows. You couldn't bathe, nor be near water- including toilets. The lightning was out to get you!! Gradually, that over the top fear went away, and they developed a more practical awareness of lightning.
I never heard of the mirrors being covered, etc. That's extremely interesting. Got more stuff?
 
not take baths or showers, avoid turning on faucets. only time I ever heard of covering mirrors was when there was a death in the family, and Ive heard of both Jewish and Irish households doing this, idea supposedly being mourning was no time for vanity.
 
RadishRose said:
Never heard of this. We were told to stay away from sinks. My mother sat in the stairwell.
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My mother would go into the closet .

I have always, and still do to this day like just a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Nothing that hurts anyone, or does damage, just lots'a thunder & lightning , throw in a good wind just for kicks. And of course a night is the best.
 
If the glass breaks, it won't shatter outward sending flying shards, but be kept in place by the cloth & just fall to the floor in a pile.
 
Never heard of covering mirrors or the cutlery thing. We weren't allowed to take baths during thunder and lightning, and we also had to unplug things. My paternal grandmother would get truly hysterical over thunder and would screech and carry on.

I had a flat coat retriever once who at the first sign of a thunderstorm (and she knew one was coming before anyone else did) who would go in the bathtub and hunker down and refuse to come out until it stopped.
 
Quite normal in my part of the world (Wales).

People would come up out of the shelter during bombing raids to cover the mirrors, or turn them to the wall!
 
Unplugging the T.V. was a good idea. In the good old days television came in through a roof top antenna which is a natural lightning attraction.

I did see one T.V. antenna hit by lightning and it travelled to the T.V.and destroyed it but that wasn't the problem. If the t.v. was connected to the wall outlet the lightning would follow the wiring and set fire to the house.

That's exactly what happened in the case I am describing. With cable it's different. No outside antenna and the cables are insulated and grounded.
 
Butterfly said:
I had a flat coat retriever once who at the first sign of a thunderstorm (and she knew one was coming before anyone else did) who would go in the bathtub and hunker down and refuse to come out until it stopped.
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I've a friend who had a FCR that did the same thing ... isn't that strange?

Like rgp, I also always enjoyed a good thunderstorm when I lived in the Midwest. They're uncommon here in New Hampshire though, and the ones we do get are really pretty dull by comparison.
 
rgp said:
I have always, and still do to this day like just a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Nothing that hurts anyone, or does damage, just lots'a thunder & lightning , throw in a good wind just for kicks. And of course a night is the best.
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Me too!

I especially enjoy them while sitting outside on a porch.

Also the torrential summer downpours with a good measure of hail.

We don't seem to get close to the weather these days the way we did when I was a kid.
 
I had a TV go out, right after a lightning strike. The picture tube was fried. The end. Never heard of the mirror and cutlery thing, until now.
 
When the power comes back on it can come as a large surge of power that can knock out TV's, PC's, etc, unless you have a surge protector. Or have unplugged them. Which I never do.
 
Two years ago, we had a lightning strike right outside our camper up north. It blew out the smart tv and ruined our phones. I have insurance we have paid into for 20 years. I got a huge check from them, for $49.00. Very kind of them. :mad:
 
When we lived in Niagara Falls (the snow belt), there were fascinating lightning storms. We would turn off the t.v. and lights, open the drapes and watch the sky. Sheet lightning is really cool to see. When we were younger,
we'd drive down to Lake Ontario when there was a storm, and watch the waves from the car.

I've never heard of covering mirrors or hiding cutlery. Interesting.
 
I used to work in an es plosives store and it is standard practice to evacuate during thunderstorms.

On one such occasion my boss, a man of some five years experience, told me, with some thirty years more, to complete the the job I was on (he was safe in his office, outside the area).

I did, and within 30 seconds of securing the building, but still a quarter of a mile inside the danger area, there was a massive strike.

I didn't end up in the stockade and lose my pension only because my fellow non coms, and some of my team, took the risk of physically preventing me from entering the biding.
 
I grew up in the Tampa Bay area which is known as the lightening capital of the US. They average something like 100 lightening storms a year. It's almost every afternoon in the summer. So you kind of get used to it. Just take a few common sense precautions. If you're at the beach get out of the water and inside if you can. Same thing if you are out on the water in a boat. If you see a storm coming try to get off the water. Stay out of really open areas. If you are working on a roof get off. Stuff like that.
 
Because the backing was a silvery metal, or even the whole mirror was metal and in the days before radiators was probably the biggest conductor in the room.
 

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