By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 8. 2023 | Today’s modern electricity is a far throw from when electricity was a new product for homes.
Roy Stowe, chief operating officer of Jackson EMC, wrote us the other day about some of the early days of his co-op. Finding a page in the Jackson EMC history book, People Power Progress by Jackie Kennedy, he shows how different the early wiring of homes were compared to today’s modern techniques.
Back in its early days, (Jackson EMC began in 1936), the fledgling rural electricity industry did not have a modern stockpile of material needed for its new customers. In some instances, the book recounts, “electricity providers were short on supplies and told the would-be customers they would have to wait until the war was over” to have electricity run to their homes.
Then the article tells of the can-do spirit of Jackson EMC. One of the first “superintendent” was Robert J. “Rob”Kelly, a Georgia Tech graduate who came up with an ingenious way around the lack of traditional copper or steel wire.
“He used barbed wire to run electricity to some of the areas of Gwinnett County,” said his daughter-in-law Imogene Kelly. She even doubled-checked with the lady who was telling her this: “Are you sure, Frances? I thought barbed wire was to keep cows in.”
The book continues: “Of course, the barbed wire was only a temporary fix in hard times, and had to be be replaced as soon as adequate supplies were available, but it helped Jackson EMC to extend service into Gwinnett County areas that ultimately became home to the largest concentration of the co-op’s members.”
It adds: “If copper or steel had been in big supply in the 1940s, or if Kelly had not resorted to barbed wire, perhaps another electric cooperative would have beaten Jackson EMC to Gwinnett and benefited from its eventual growth.” Imogene added: “Probably Jackson Electric wouldn’t be in Gwinnett County now if it hadn’t been for him having the foresight to stretch his money and stretch the supplies and meet the demand. If they’d waited ‘til after the war, someone else would have taken it (Gwinnett.)”
So as the history shows: Gwinnett became a large part of the modern Jackson EMC somewhat because of barbed wire!
THOSE SCAMMERS have all sorts of ways to try to get to you. Be aware!
One that hit my computer several times over the last few months looks like it is coming from someone I know. The subject line is: “(Photos) to you from Sam Smith (who you know.)”
Then for the body of the email, it says “On Wednesday, September 06, 2023 11:09 AM, Sam wrote: Finally! Those 2 .” Then it offered an innocuous-looking link.
Don’t you dare click such a link! If so, we bet the scammers can get into your computer.
The reality is that this is not Sam, but some foreign-based scammer. Clicking the link would open your computer to him, making him eventually a little better off because you were curious! Don’t do it!
PRESIDENT BIDEN’S 2024 BUDGET proposes to reduce the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade by raising taxes on those who make more than $400,000 a year. His budget would effectively repeal the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, restoring the top tax rate to 39.6 percent rather than the 37 percent the 2017 cuts established. It would also raise corporate taxes from 21 percent, to which the 2017 tax cuts dropped them, to 28 percent, lower than the high of 35 percent before the Trump tax cuts.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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