Waiting for Electricity in Vance County, 1936

“The Woman’s Touch or What Club Work Means to N.C. Farm Women” by Jane S. McKimmon in the November, 1936, Carolina Co-Operator

Rural Electrification

The Vance County Grange and Home Demonstration Clubs are going after electric current for the farm home this year. At the beginning of 1936 there was only one rural electric line in the county and already two more have been constructed and five other lines approved.

Sometimes a landlord feels that he cannot wire the farm house even if his tenant is willing to pay for the current but this does not apply to most of them.

The head of one farm family said: “We are getting too old to make a change in our way of living now.” But when he saw what electric conveniences did for his neighbor, he changed his mind.

After Mrs. J.E. Gill of Vance County had her electric current for two weeks, she told the home agent to tell every woman in the county to sign up for an electric line and to buy an electric churn the next morning after they get it. “Why,” she said, “I turn mine on when I sit down to breakfast and when I have finished eating the butter is ready to take out of the churn. I also have lights, a refrigerator, and an iron, and I feel that the drudgery of my home is already much lessened.

“The money that I used to spend for ice in the summer more than pays all my electricity bills for the entire season.”

Husband Fills Gap in Edgecombe County

Sometimes a husband steps into the breach and helps in times of household stress.

Mr. Joe Bradley of Edgecombe County canned vegetables to feed his family of 12 this winter. His wife is taking care of his invalid mother and has no time to give to canning, and the oldest daughter is only 10 years old.

Mr. Bradley went to the home agent’s office and asked her how to can corn. He was a good pupil and took his canning bulletin home and began to use it. He was sold on the idea of using a steam pressure canner and a sealer. “They save time,” he said, and he learned how to use them when one of the neighboring club women, a canning leader, visited his home and showed him the use of her pressure canner, and when the home agent loaned him a can sealer in addition, he was all ready to do a good job of canning.

Two weeks later Mr. Bradley returned the sealer to the home agent and reported that he had canned 505 quarts of a variety of vegetables and fruit. In fact, he proudly exhibited 10 different kinds of canned products to help provide balanced meals for the family.