The Good Ole Days

The Good Ole Days

August 26, 2013

It’s my quest to find something to write about today that might be interesting to you who haven’t lived without electricity. I was given a history book that had been written recently.

This history was written in celebration of 75 years since our local power company had been organized. Seventy five years…that was two years prior to my birth. I really appreciated getting this book and the great memories that it has awakened.

My family was one of those farm families who lived before electricity arrived on the scene. In fact we experienced that life style twice. Our first experience was before the power lines had been constructed in the rural areas.

I remember the REA, (Rural Electric Association), co-op that was organized by the farmers in an effort to get power lines to rural areas.

Times were tough before electricity. About the only cash flow came from each family having a small dairy. Selling cream or milk gave the farmers a little money to exist on.

We milked our small herd of cows by hand. I remember that we had seven or eight cows to milk every morning and night. The only method we had to keep the milk cool was to set the 10 gallon milk can in the irrigation ditch.

The history book reminded me of the effort of volunteering neighbors who visited with each family and collected a $5.00 signup fee to receive the power provided.

Back then, even that much money was hard to come by. Many lost faith  that power would ever get to them. We were so excited when the labor crews started building up our lane.

The first thing Dad purchased was electric milkers. How happy we were to just slip them on the cows and sit back and watch the milk flow! Happy days!

After a couple years, my dad sold that farm and we moved to a more remote area. He felt that a bigger farm would be more of an advantage to our family.

However, we moved away from the electricity again and back into primitivism. It was hard for us to return to using gas lamps and having to milk the cows by hand. We were so far from civilization that we couldn’t sell our milk on a daily basis.

This made it essential to separate the cream from the milk. Cream is easier to preserve without an electric cooler. Our chores included separating the cream from the milk using a hand cranked separator twice each day.

You can imagine our interest in getting electricity constructed to our home again. We were so excited and happy when we first saw the power poles being placed up our road once again! The gift of electricity is such a blessing. It’s just like stepping from darkness into light!

I’m actually glad for that struggle. It tested us and tempered our will to do what ever it takes to survive. It helped me to know that it doesn’t get any better than this!