doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ot fO jO, Grand pappy & mammy thread.

Good question, Gil. Grandaddy installed a Delco "light plant" long before the REA ran poles and wires out here. It was a low voltage system with a little building full of batteries off to the side of the house. The engine that powered the generator to charge the batteries would crank itself up and run for awhile when the batteries' charge got low. They had several appliances that ran off the low voltage system, in addition to the lights. My Daddy told me that when he would get home from school he loved to listen to a Tom Mix show in the afternoon on the radio. He said every day when he would be listening to that show the generator would crank up and cause static so bad that he couldn't hear the show until it shut itself off. There are still some of the insulators for the wiring in my attic. I had the entire house rewired in 2000, and the electrician asked me what I wanted him to do with those old insulators. I told him to leave them. Planters Electric Membership Corporation was formed in 1936, and began running lines in 7 counties.

The Delco light plant wouldn't run a deep well pump, so Grandaddy devised a deal that supplied running water to the house. He had a 75' high Aermotor windmill that drove a long driveshaft that sat atop several large poles that went to the open well behind the house. The water from the well was piped up into a "water tank", which was a homemade tank of about 400 gallons that sat atop a 40' tower built of heart pine. The tank itself was made of cypress staves and steel bands, like a big barrel. The height of that tank provided water pressure to the house. No hot water heater, but no going out to the well to draw water with a bucket on a cold night, either.

SRH