Georgia Magazine - January 2015 - 36

Electricity-then and now
BY ROSEMARY TRIFILETTI

I

n 1950, I was just a
6-year-old girl living on a
one-horse farm near East
Dublin. We did not have
electricity in our house.
My mother, Mary Lee
Maddox, washed our clothes
in a No. 2 washtub outdoors.  She
scrubbed them on a washboard and
boiled Daddy's work clothes in an
iron wash pot over a fire.  Once
washed and rinsed, she hung them
on a clothesline to dry. This job was
performed year-round.
There was no running water in
the house. We had a well at the back
porch.  When we needed water, we
dropped the bucket into the well and
pulled it up with the attached rope.
Without electricity there were
no lights. At dusk, Mama would light
the kerosene lamps, and if we had to
go to another room, we took a lamp
for light.

I still remember the
icehouses in town. Daddy
would go to the icehouse
every two or three days
and buy a block of ice for
the icebox on our back
porch. He would wrap the
ice in burlap to keep it from melting, bring it home and put it in the
top part of the icebox.  Below was
where Mama stored the milk, butter and other food.  Of course, the
ice did melt, dripping into a pan
under the icebox, which had to be
emptied daily.
We took baths in a tin tub, usually on the back porch. We would draw
up enough water from the well to fill
the tub, which we placed in the sunshine so the water could warm up.
In those days, out in the country, many families still had outhouses. 
But we were really uptown. We had
a two-seater. This was where we
had to go in winter and summer, rain or shine.
These are the things I remember from the early days of
my childhood. 
In 1953, my daddy was
killed in an accident.  Thankfully, he had recently taken
out a life insurance policy. My
mother was left with three children, a car she could not drive,
a cow, a mule and a farm. She
survived somehow. 
The first thing Mama did
was have the house wired for
electricity. We were hooked
up to Altamaha EMC (electric
membership corporation) in
Lyons.  What a blessing that
was!  Next, she purchased a
From left, Rosemary Trifiletti's grandparents James
wringer washing machine.
and Addie Bright; her parents Merlin W. and Mary
Looking back, I realize how
Lee Maddox; and, standing in front, brothers Keith, 4, wonderful it must have been
and Carey Maddox, 6, line up for a snapshot in front
for my mama. No more washof an old corncrib, circa 1944.
tubs or scrubboards!

36

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Circa 1953, Rosemary Trifiletti's mother,
Mary Lee Maddox, sits on the steps of the
house where she had electricity installed for
the first time.

Suddenly, there were lightbulbs
above us with cords that you pulled.
I was amazed! These bulbs lit up
the whole room, not just where you
stood holding the lamp. 
In addition, we now had running
water that came from a new well operated by electricity.
Mama also bought an electric
stove. Previously, we had a stove that
required a fire built inside it to use it.
Imagine that on a hot summer day!
And how convenient it was when the
bathroom was put in. We finally had
a real bathtub.
I missed my daddy very much
and wouldn't have traded him for any
of the new conveniences we had, but
his insurance helped Mama take care
of us when he no longer could.
Rural electricity provided us with
many things that are now taken for
granted. When I tell my grandchildren about those times, I get strange
looks. They seem surprised when I
mention that we never had a telephone in the house, while they walk
around with one in their hands.
Electricity, what a blessing!
Altamaha EMC member Rosemary Trifiletti is a retired payroll clerk
from Graham Brothers Construction
Co. in East Dublin and a freelance
writer. She and her husband, Robert,
love to travel.
GEORGIA MAGAZINE
http://www.georgiamagazine.org
Georgia Magazine - January 2015

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