Bill Carter from Norborne
who reads my column in the Richmond Daily News, says “I can remember in 1939 my
first year in school about electricity. I could not figure out how
they dug the hole for poles with this long handled shovel and spoon.” He went on
to say that if you didn’t use REA people, your house had to be inspected before
they would hook you on. Their REA was out of Chillicothe.
Another
letter I received was from Alta Waddell.
Dear Mr. Hackley
I enjoy your column in
the Mansfield Mirror. You wondered about who wired
the houses when electricity became available. Anyone who knew how
to do it wired their own, and helped the neighbors do theirs. In
the late forties and early fifties, I helped my father, Clarence Collison, wire
several homes in our neighborhood on Pea Ridge Road-
where Pea Ridge School was located. (The schoolhouse is
now a home). He also wired New Hope Baptist Church,
across the road a little east of the school. Some of the original
wiring at the church was still intact the last time I was there in 2008.
Sincerely, Alta
Waddell, Wickenburg, AZ
Mo Pub
electric company furnished electricity to most towns in our area.
They had an employee in each town who was called the “local maintenance
man”. In Oak Grove, it was William McCoy. He liked
to tell about the early days when people didn’t understand electricity.
One woman called him, wanted her meter checked because she was using too
much electricity, then called him back and said, never mind, she had found the
problem. There was a plug-in that didn’t have anything plugged in
to it, and it was leaking.
Jack can be reached at
PO Box 40,
Oak Grove, MO 64075, or jackremembers@aol.com.
Visit www.jackremembers.com
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