Recently, we have been doing a dance macabre with Peoples Gas, regarding getting our gas meter fitted with a radio-equipped dial assembly. The young man who showed up earlier this week found that the position of our existing meter, facing out behind a glass black window, gave him no room to remove the old dial assembly and install the new, so we have to have another go round to have a new meter installed. Five minutes of work, surrounded by days/weeks of waiting.

I remarked about the apartment my maternal grandparents had in a building on the SW corner of Halsted and Roscoe, where the gas meter was hung in the bathroom, over the toilet. He said that it was probably still there, albeit with the remote-reading dials, and that he had seen them in people's showers! I also remember my paternal grandparents 4-flat, with all the utility meters along the east wall of the western portion of the basement. The electric meters south of the doorway, the gas meters north, five of each, one for each apartment (gas stove, or in our case, a gas stove and a Servel gas refrigerator), and one for the building (heating and hot water). Someone always had to let the meter readers in.

I used to have a coworker who worked for Commonwealh Edison, who was bemoaning the replacement of meter books by electronic readers there. He said the books were useful for fending off attacks from dogs, and always had the locations of the meters, giving one example of a meter in an apartment, in a bedroom closet (the apartment having been demolished for the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway)!

So, what is the most unusual location you've ever seen, or heard of, for a utility meter (gas, electricity, or water).