Guest Essay | Kathleen Clary Miller: Lighting My Way

When I read that the bronze light poles had been brazenly stolen on Orange Grove Boulevard, I remembered the historic and charming streetlights that lit the streets I traveled while growing up in Pasadena.  I was appalled that someone would selfishly kidnap something so cherished for their own greedy design. 

It seems that ever since I left home in my 30’s I’ve been destined to live without streetlights, let alone any so lovely as the lantern style ones that glowed on South San Rafael Avenue.  Whenever I visit for the day and walk that street I stop to gaze at and appreciate them, since I’ve not seen the likes of them anywhere else in Southern California.  

As an adult, living in a condominium on South Orange Grove, the orbs of light lining the street and seen through my window were equally unique during an era wherein streetlights had modernized, a sea of merely functional rather than picturesque.

The Colorado Street Bridge, La Loma Bridge, San Rafael Bridge—all of them carried the lamps I loved, and still do, standing out in the crowd of the otherwise ordinary.

When I moved to the Montana woods for a spell, the nights were dark as pitch, dirt roads illuminated only as far as my car’s headlights would shine.  I missed the warmth of those that glowed on my Pasadena streets.

From there to Fallbrook, in San Diego County: “If I can’t go back to Pasadena, at least here I’ll have streetlights again!” I thought, as I looked forward to being surrounded by neighbors once again and being able to see farther than the beam of my car’s front end.  

Alas, not to be.  Once again, I peer through the front windshield in order to successfully wind my way through the country roads until, in the center of this small town, I arrive to the glare of typical ho-hum boring bulbs on either side of Main Street.

One of my many favorite things about Pasadena is how she is embellished in the jewelry of classically elegant streetlights.  Whenever I think of them, I remember how they always, with grace and beauty, lit my way home.

Kathleen Clary Miller is a Pasadena native. She has written essays and stories that have been published in newspapers and magazines across the country for 20 years. Although she currently lives in Fallbrook, Pasadena will always be her home.