the day the lights turned on,,

• living on the farm out west - the first years of my life we did not have electricity so I remember well the day the lights were turned on......
• Daddy and the neighbors on our road had to clear out the trees and make a path for the poles and the lines- this is how we paid to put the electricity in- every spring daddy would clear out new growth and any trees that looked like they could fall on the lines- if our power went out; it was often days before we a lineman could come out to fix the problems-
• this is one of the few paying jobs that daddy had outside of the farm
• I think there were six men who cut by axe a five mile stretch down the side road and then they also had to cut paths to most of the houses- houses in our area often were sight unseen from the road.....
• there were no bulldozers that could go in the areas where the poles had to go--
• it was years before I realized how hard the men had work to get those trees down and also cleared out... and of course- they save the trees for fire wood--
• we only had two lights put in the house- and two electrical plugs- a few years later a yard light was added---the barn never was wired- it was just too expensive
• we had a radio but no television- and mother finally was able to have a modern iron- before that she heated the old fashioned iron on the stove and she always used tissue paper between the clothes and the irons- we never bought things like electric coffee pots or toasters etc.
• we were able to convert to an electric washer wringer- before we had some type of gas washer- all our water was heated on the stove- and washing did take a whole day and our sunshine was the dryer-
• even after the lights came we used coal-oil lamps for part of our needed light- daddy had lanterns for outside chores-
• now I have light and/or lights in every room- and most all of my appliances are electric- in the old days we made toast by holding the bread in a special fork over coals- the toast was always a treat-
• Daddy was a second generation homesteader...and cleared a lot of the land by hand-
• this reminds me of one day when Miss Sidney was asking me about how God made the sun and moon - I told her that God had said ''let there be light- and she asked me how come God did not know how to turn the switch on......then she ran over to our light switch and turned it on and said with all seriousness--- ''there God, that is all you have to do........

hugs from Meme -------