Thanks a million for the responses.

Yep, this baby's old. My dad installed it over his workbench (now my
workbench) 50 years ago or so (or maybe when they first came out with
fluorescent lights, who knows?).

And yes, Don, they're 4-footers with starters. And on your advice I
put the starters back in after the lights were lit, and they went out.
I think I'll go get me a couple of starters and see what happens. If I
can get the thing to work properly, maybe it'll be worth something on
eBay in another 50 years (when MY son'll be wondering why the blame
thing lights when he removes the starters...).

Maybe I'll just go get a new one.

Thanks again for the tips and the advice.

Lynn Willis