power from Kentucky Utilities and sold all the engines but the original one. Rural Electric Service Company grew to 37.5 miles of transmission lines and over 860 customers. This included west Gilbertsville and also the old town of Gilbertsville until Kentucky Dam started producing power. In old Gilbertsville, now federal property, this included the school the recreation center, the softball field and sev- eral homes. At this time, you could not dance in public. The recreation center was on federal land, so the young people came there to dance, and the preachers were outside looking in and taking names. We also had power lines in, Briensberg, Draffinville, Palma, Sharpe, Oakland, and into McCracken County. We had about 65 customers in McCracken County. As kids growing up my brother Ray liked the mechanical work best, he could work on and overhaul the big diesel engines with the best of the company men. in the summertime. He drank and talked I thought he would never leave. On another rainy night during a basketball game at Calvert High School, lightning hit the transformer next to the school. Dad called the plant and had them bring the service truck to the school. I changed into my street clothes and climbed the pole, put in a new fuse, and turned the lights back on. Then I changed back into my basketball uniform and finished the game. My brother Ray and I both read meters, I am sure we I liked the electrical part best. I climbed a 25-foot pole and hooked up a transformer to 2300 volts of current, when I was 12 years old. My knees were really knocking when I got down. I was proud and so was my Dad until Mom heard about it. I believe that was the only time I ever heard them get into an argument, Mom was upset but I continued to climb through high school and some on weekends while in college. Climbing could be dangerous. I stuck a climbing spur in my heel once. I was close to Sharpe, Ky. I went to Dr. (Owen A.) Eddleman’s office and he put one stitch in it and charged fifty cents. Those were the good old days. I was on a pole once in a storm at Palma. I had placed my safety belt over a cross arm when lightning came down the line and knocked me out for a few minutes. Another time, a pole I was on fell across an apple tree. That tree saved me. The man who owned the tree was angry about the tree, finally my Dad asked what he would take for the tree, paid him, and then cut the tree down. Now the man was mad. I started driving when I was 14. I was by myself on a pole near Briensberg when a state trooper stopped. I knew I was in trouble. He asked if I had water on the truck knowing all the time, we always had lemonade “I was about 3-4 years old, and I re- member seeing elec- tricity for the first time. It was BIG.” both saw and heard things before our time. We worked hard and we played hard, it was a good life education. I am sorry kids today will never get the chance to grow up like we did. Ray is two and a half years younger than me; I am sure he saw all this from a different angle. - James E. Solomon, Seeing electricity for the first time When I was about 15 or 16 Dad went to Missouri for surgery and left me in charge. This was not a problem for the older men, they were a great help. I had one customer come in mad about his bill and I had the men check out the meter, it was okay. The man had lied about his appliances in the house. He finally said to just turn his power off and give him his deposit back. I took his bill out of the deposit, told the crew to remove the meter and seal the base. I had them also climb the pole and discon- nect the power going to the house. He called after a couple of hours and wanted the power turned back on. I made him drive back to Calvert and doubled his deposit to $10.00. When the men put the meter back in, they could see where he had broken the seal and had dropped one of his jumper wires. He came in to complain when Dad got home but was told that I had made a mistake and should have charged him a $20.00 deposit and that he had broken federal law by breaking the meter seal. Sometimes the power plant was the setting for a social gathering, we had a big console radio with a 50 foot antenna and was the gathering place for the Joe Louis-Billy Conn fights or some of the world series games. In 1952 Dad was having health problems and had hard choices to make about the company. Upgrades were needed, and he could borrow $250,000 or sell.
