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20. Impact of Texas Rural Electrification on Children – Duncan Coleman

Impact of Texas Rural Electrification on Children – Duncan Coleman
August 6th, 1939

All we had in the house was the fireplace, the dirty old washboard, an earsplitting, gasoline-run washing machine, and our dull kerosene lamp. Piddling poor things compared to Aunt Susie’s magical devices. Aunt Susie lived way out in the big city, a world away from Fischer. Wondrous things were at that house of hers. Light came in little glass containers instead of from the window, a noiseless washing machine permitted peace and quiet, a big white box kept food fresh, and a dirt sucking device left her floors spotless. I was especially fascinated by the sunshine bottle. At first, all I thought you had to do was go out and grab a tiny piece of the sun and stick it inside the dinky thing. I was informed however, that electricity made those teeny wonders work. I asked my mother, “How come we don’t have sunshine bottles back in Fischer?”

She looked into my puzzled eyes that were searching for an explanation and harshly retorted, “That’s for the city folk, Johnny. We aren’t ever going to get no light bulbs or electricity.”

I thought to myself, “Why are city folk allowed to have these light bulbs and not the folks down in Fischer?” When I got back from Aunt Susie’s, I asked my history teacher, Mrs. Vanhouten, this question and she gave me a history lesson on how the first practical light bulb was invented by an innovator going by the name of Thomas Edison in 1879.

This didn’t answer my question so I petitioned to President Roosevelt himself after his inauguration and all he had to say was, “The focus of this nation is toward the relief and recovery of our people in this Great Depression. I would fund electrification in Fischer, but electric companies have jurisdiction concerning light bulbs and what areas they are distributed to.” I had finally come to the source of how to get light bulbs in my home town! I expressed my deep-seated desire for light bulbs in Fischer to the electric company to which they firmly responded, “There is no economic incentive to serve the town of Fischer with electricity.” I had hit the end of the road. I could only marvel at those little sunshine bottles from afar, envying all that possessed such an awe inspiring invention.

As time went on, I heard from Mrs. Vanhouten that a congressman by the name of Lyndon Johnson was campaigning to bring electricity to the Hill Country. The whole town decided to join the movement when Johnson came to our meager farming community and told us of the benefits of electricity. He preached to my peers and me at the school house about electric lighting that would be easier on the eyes for reading, electric radios that would grant us the privilege of music and important news, electric refrigerators that would stop food from going rancid, noiseless washing machines, time-saving electric irons, efficient and economical electric stoves, and vacuum cleaners for improved sanitation. His dreams for poor farmers like us finally came true with the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935, which allowed rural communities everywhere to form electric cooperatives to bring power lines to the country, including the Texas Hill Country.

It has been four years since that day and half a century since the light bulb was first made practical by Thomas Edison. On this scorching hot day in Fischer, Electricity finally came to our modest old schooling house. Mrs. Vanhouten had been anticipating this day with great anxiety for months on end and even had gone to the trouble of already installing the air conditioning unit as well as the lighting system. I couldn’t wait a second longer to see that empty bulb fill with sunshine again. Right before my eyes in Mrs. Vanhouten’s classroom I saw the lifeless bulb fill with shining bright rays as if to challenge the sun itself with its all-consuming radiance. Some of my classmates were dumbfounded with awe, others were frightened by it, and still others such as me were filled with elation! Ultimately my classmates lost interest and chose to bask in the refreshing coolness of the air conditioner and eventually went back to their school work as if it were just another trivial day, but I was captivated by that sunshine bottle. I stood in the classroom gazing into the brilliance of the class light bulb and reflected on why it took fifty years for this dazzling sight to reach my humble town. “How could such life enriching device be kept from us?” I pondered.

Many considered the light bulb as well as electricity to be uneconomical for rural communities. Early electric companies did not want to construct the costly amount of poles and electric wiring lines required to bring electricity to the Texas Hill Country. It took Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson to convince President Roosevelt to disregard previous population density requirements for rural electrification loans. This, coupled with the assistance of electric cooperatives such as the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, allowed for the dissemination of affordable electricity to the sparsely populated Texas Hill Country in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Rural electrification granted improved standards of living and increased economic competitiveness of Texas farms – a goal that Lyndon Johnson envisioned all along for the Texas Hill Country.

http://www.pec.coop/docs/default-source/pdfs/duncan-coleman-essay.pdf?sfvrsn=2