Send the Light

AIEC Draft
Conceived and Written
by Don Shandrow
510 East Washington St.
Suite 316
Bloomington, Illinois 61701

309-825-8298

dshandrow@msn.com

With Music and Lyrics by Phil Shaw

Copyright 2006

Special Acknowledgements
Ruth Graves
Missouri Rural Electric Women’s Association
Floyd Imig
Harry Kuhn
NRECA
Corn Belt Energy

Material from The Day the Lights Came On, copyright 2000, compiled and
published by the Missouri Rural Electric Women’s Association, used by
permission.
Sen. George Norris quote and use of the phrase “The next greatest thing”
from The Next Greatest Thing, copyright 1984, by The National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association, used by permission.

Prologue
Irene: The whole night sky lit up.

Zach: Porcelain spools thread with wire.

Irene: My Papa played the fiddle he brought back with him from Germany…

Zach: Poland…

Rhys: Ireland…

Kay Lynn: Sweden…

Zach: They call my dad a dreamer.

Irene: I longed for the comfort of the dark...

Rhys: Furchten sie nicht.

Zach: The only thing we have to fear.

Kay Lynn: He took my hand and smiled.

Irene: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Zach: A revival has swept through this country.

Irene: I believe it is the salvation of this family and this farm.

Rhys: It’s a dangerous program that brings us one step closer to Socialism.

Irene: I blame Sears and Roebuck.

Kay Lynn: An electric sweeper

Rhys: A Frigidaire

Zach: An Electric Washer…

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Irene: and dryer.

Kay Lynn: My own electric bulb.

Zach: God’s gift of electricity has brought us light.

Kay Lynn: My own electric bulb.

Rhys: You’ve got the by God gumption to make it work.

Kay Lynn: You don’t just dig up five dollars with the potatoes.

Zach: God’s gift of electricity brought us light and in that light relieved the drudgery of
day and lifted the darkness of night. Hallelujah!

( reaches up and turns on light.)

All: (In reaction to light going on) Hallelujah!

(Guitar chord, pause)

Rhys: It’s the greatest thing.

Irene: Pardon?

Rhys: (repeats) The greatest thing.

Zach: (questioning Rhys) The greatest thing?

Rhys: (correcting himself) The next greatest thing…

Kay Lynn: The next greatest thing to having God in your heart…

Rhys: The next greatest thing to having God in your heart. (Pause) Is having electricity
in your home.

All: Amen!

Rhys: Amen.

(David plays “Serenity throughout monologue”)

Don’t Fear Change

Irene: (A 73 Year Old Woman) The whole night sky lit up, and I was as afraid… as any

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six year old girl would be. My parents came from Germany… across the ocean, that part I
don’t remember. But in 1881, heading west from New York, all I could see was a
wilderness of tall prairie grasses. And that wilderness was on fire. I longed for the
comfort of the dark. When we got to the land that we would homestead it was scorched
and bare. I cried until my father whispered in my ear,

Rhys: (as Father) Furchten sie nicht anderung. Anderung ist gelegenheit.

Irene: I’m 68 years older since my family settled here and now the Federal government
has promised us another change…electricity.

Zach: It’s the REA, Grandma…the Rural Electrification Administration…part of

President Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Irene: Today my grandson finishes wiring my house for electricity. He hangs porcelain
spools and threads them with wire. I could never begin to do what he’s doing,
but these young people understand these modern things.

(Speaks to Grandson) Be careful with my house. It’s only six years younger than I am.

Zach: (as Grandson) Don’t worry Grandma; I know what I’m doing. I’m just going to
make a few changes and bring you and your house up to date.

Irene: As he works, I share memories of this house.

How it was built and the many times it was added to.
The chores.
The births.
The deaths.

The evenings letting my mama’s hair down from the tight little bun she kept it in…
watching amazed as it would fall down below her waist. Combing her hair as my Papa
played the fiddle he brought back with him from Germany.

How the Indians would set camp on our farm and hang a small clay pipe with colored
beads on a nail by the door. How when they left they would take the pipe only to hang it
up again the next year when they returned. How one year, they left that pipe and never
came back.

How we would collect coal by the railroad tracks that had fallen off the railroad cars to
burn in the stove.

How our neighbor built his outhouse around a tree so the boys couldn’t knock it over.
(Pause) How my papa made a wooden box to lower into the well to keep the butter fresh
and how I just used that box today.

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Zach: Don’t worry Grandma you won’t be using it again…we’ll buy you an electric
icebox.

Irene: I cry when I think of all the change I’ve seen in my life…all the change that my
grandson will see. He holds me and as he does I whisper in his ear, “Furchten sie nicht
anderung. Anderung ist gelegenheit”

Zach: What does that mean, Grandma?

Irene: It’s something your Great-Grand Papa used to say. (Pause) Don’t fear change.
Change is opportunity.

(Rhys sings Dream Lullaby)

A Gift of Freedom
Kay Lynn: (29 Year Old Woman) The one thing my Daddy was afraid of was that I’d die
young like my Mama. One of the most vivid recollections I have was seeing her hold an
oil burning lamp in one hand while cooking with the other over a hot wood burning
stove. My Daddy wanted to keep me from the same kind of hard life that had taken her
away from us when I was eight years old.

He pushed me to study and saved every cent he could so that he could send me to
business school.

My first job was working for a local Democratic politician who had won election to
Congress. So I went to Washington as his secretary…during the Hoover administration. It
was the Depression, but I had a job and was living in the city with the luxury of
electricity.

When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, he inaugurated social programs that
revolutionized life throughout the country. President Roosevelt spent a great deal of time
at Warm Springs, Georgia, for his health. His retreat was “out in the woods” where
electricity had to be piped from the city. It was there he determined in earnest to bring the
wonderful gift of electricity to the rural people of America…the REA…the Rural
Electrification Administration. The idea had been thought up before but it was in Warm
Springs where it began.

Once, about this time, I had the privilege of visiting this presidential resort. I had an
opportunity to speak personally with President Roosevelt about Rural Electrification.
(Kay Lynn stands)

Rhys: (as President Roosevelt) Ruth, you’re a farm girl. Will electricity mean as much to
your family and friends as I believe it will?

Kay Lynn: Mr. President, electricity has spoiled me. Life without it is rough indeed. It is

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an unexcelled luxury. (Kay Lynn sits) If we could build a cooperative economy that
would bring electricity to my Daddy’s home and the homes of his neighbors, all of the
hardships that they have lived with would vanish as quickly as the coal oil lamp. (Pause)
He took my hand and smiled.

(Stands and brushes self off) Today I’m heading home to visit my Daddy. To let him
know that electricity is coming. To give him a gift. A gift of freedom from the kind of life
that killed my Mama. Freedom from the kind of life he helped me escape.

(David plays “A Major Jam”)

The Delco Dilemma

Rhys: (a farmer) See these batteries. There are 16 of them. 2 volts each. 32 volts total.
They’re made of glass…you can see the plates. As the charge goes down a little ball goes
down in this gauge. When that happens a generator kicks in. If the battery is too low to
start the generator, you crank it. The batteries supply all the electricity I need for my
farm. This used to be a chicken coop…but now it’s my Delco room. I paid for it. I
strung the wires from this Delco plant to my barn and my house. And yes…it does make
my farm more productive than the farms that don’t have electricity. But that’s free
enterprise. My sweat…my money…my profit.

Irene: (his wife) This was my chicken coop up until last year. I was just starting to turn a
profit selling eggs. I blame Sears and Roebuck…it was that darn catalogue. He ordered a
power plant and the Delco batteries to run it. He started to spend more time tinkering
and less time on chores. Don’t get me wrong…it was good to have electricity but then the
neighbors started to ask if he could connect them. He started to spend more money on
wire and meters… “creating our new business opportunity,” and less time working on the
farm.

Rhys: It’s either working or being on the dole. The government is going to provide
electricity for all the rural areas?

Irene: It’s the REA…Rural Electrification Administration (overlap with Rhys next line)

Rhys: I believe that it’s interference in the economic decisions of individuals. It’s a
dangerous program that just brings us one step closer to Socialism.

Irene: It’s about time the government provided electricity for all of the rural areas. Thank
God! I believe it is the salvation of this family and of our farm.

Rhys: Then to top it off, after the wires are connected, The government is going to walk
away and let the farmers run this electric company. Most of our neighbors barely have an

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elementary education…and they’re going to manage a power company? No. They don’t
have the skills for it.

Irene: It won’t be left to this one household and you to neglect our farm and supply
electricity to all our neighbors. Maybe I’ll even try to get on the board of directors. I
know a little about business…after all, I was starting to turn a profit in my egg sales.

Rhys: You know this is all going to fall apart. I’m going to just stick to what I know.
After all, I still have my Delco room

(David plays “I’ll be Alright”)

Irene: Me? I’m going to take the last $5.00 of my egg money and go to the REA meeting
tonight and sign us up. Maybe after that I can get my chicken coop back.

(Irene puts on a hat as chairs are set up for meeting. She stands and recites the Pledge of
Allegiance with Zach and Kay Lynn.)

All: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

(They all sit)

Irene: The REA man spoke…told us all we needed to know about how electricity would
make our lives easier. I’m a farm wife…I know how hard it is. But when he stopped and
asked for questions and no one spoke I got pretty perturbed. And then when I heard little
negative chatter around me…

Zach: $5.00 is a lot of money.

Kay Lynn: Is this really necessary.

Rhys: Sounds like Socialism.

Irene: (Stands) I am going to be the first one here to sign up and pay my $5.00. We need
electricity. I’m not going to let my daughters…our daughters and granddaughters live the
way I’ve had to live. If all it takes is $5.00 and some commitment from this community
then that’s a small price to pay to make sure we have a future. I get fighting mad when I
hear how private industry is trying to do away with or ham cord the REA.

Enslaving women may be good for the country in corporate opinion but in my opinion it
is just plain wrong! Shame on us if we don’t have the courage to take hold of our future!

The men sat speechless…but the women…they applauded. By the end of the meeting, I
was elected to the county REA board. Or as my husband finally said,

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Rhys: If you’ve got the by God gumption to defend it then you’ve got the by God
gumption to make it work.

(David plays “A Transition In A”)

The Dreamer
Zach: (15 Year Old Boy) Tonight I carry the card table into the schoolhouse and my dad
continues to tell me how electricity will change the way everyone lives. As I unfold the
table and prepare the papers on top of it the way that he instructs me…he continues to
talk about his main interest in life, electricity. (pause) I guess he expects it to be my
interest too. I’d just as soon be jawin’ with my friends. But tonight I work the table
signing people up for the county REA… ‘cause my dad is the president of the board.

It’s hard enough getting anyone to listen but whenever there is a farm meeting my job is
to take the card table sit at the door and try to get signers for the REA...

But my dad doesn’t hear what they’re saying. Some people won’t sign because they think
the whole notion is silly. Some people just laugh at me. They call my dad a dreamer…
sometimes I even think he’s dreaming.

Others don’t have the $5.00 membership fee. And if they do sign for electricity they
worry about being able to afford the $2.00 a month they have to pay to stay connected.
And then there are electric appliances…refrigerators and irons.

One man looks at me and says,

Rhys: (middle aged farmer) Son, I dig all the holes on my farm and my hands remember
every one of them. (pause as Zach offers a pencil to Rhys. Rhys takes it looks at it, pauses
and sets it down on table) I don’t have the money.

Zach: (Pause) Maybe my dad is right. Maybe I’m not the dreamer he is. Maybe once the
lights are on other signers will come fast. But right now…I sure feel silly sitting
behind this card table.

(David plays “E Minor Vamp)

The Delineator

Rhys: It’s mine to provide for my family.

I built this home.
I farm this ground.
I bring food to the table.

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Never had money but I’ve always been able to provide.
I’ve dug all the holes on my farm and my hands remember every one of them.

Kay Lynn: (Reading from magazine)

“Electric cookery with a Graybar-Crawford full automatic eliminates all the drudgery
from cooking. No guessing--no experimenting--no variations. Modern recipes give the
cooking time and temperature for all dishes. Graybar-Crawford Electrics will keep the
heat at the specified point for the required time.

A Graybar-Crawford Electric range is the most highly perfected cooking device in the
world. It is clean, efficient, economical, in short--MODERN.”

Rhys :( After a pause listening to his wife read electric stove advertisement. Speaks while
she continues to read ad) I watch my wife every night as she reads those magazines her
sister sends her.

Calls ‘em…calls ‘em her “dream books.”

Now with electricity she’ll see those dreams as real.

Electric sweepers.
Electric irons.
Electric ice box.
Electric range. (Both end saying “electric range” at the same time)

(Pause) How can I provide all that?

(To himself) How...?

Kay Lynn: (a 38 year old woman) Of all the magazines that my sister has sent me over
the years…this is my favorite. I keep this one in a special box under my bed. It’s a two
year
old issue of The Delineator from1937. It has a picture of Ann Sheridan on the cover, you
know, THE FOOTLOOSE HEIR-ESS. (Pause) I’ve never seen her moving pictures but
from what I’ve read they must be wonderful.

Delineator… I even love the word. I looked it up in the Webster’s Dictionary at my son’s
school. It means…to draw a line, to separate clearly one thing from another. (Pause) Like
my sister’s life and mine…I suppose.

Oh… my sisters life. It reads like a romance story from one of these magazines she sends
me. A sixteen year old country girl meets a handsome young man from the city, who is
traveling from farm to farm delivering catalogues. They fall in love over a weekend and
elope. And now she lives happily ever after in Chicago…the wife of a Vice President of
“The World’s Largest Store”…Sears and Roebucks.

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I see this picture of Ann Sheridan and imagine that’s how my sister lives. I see Miss
Sheridan on the cover having breakfast in bed. I can tell how soft and flawless her skin is
by how it reflects the glow of the electric lamp on her night table. Everything is clean and
white. No soot or smell from an oil lamp in her bedroom.

She lives with all the wonders of electricity that I can only read about in my sister’s
magazines. Lights at any time of the day or night. An electric sweeper. A Frigidaire. An
electric washer and dryer, an electric range…. a house heated clean with electricity. A
life that I can only dream of.

Rhys: Are you going to stay up all night? Unless you’ve forgotten, we’ve got chores in
the morning.

Kay Lynn So I put the magazine back under the bed, turn out the coal lamp and dream
that I am Ann Sheridan. Wearing a white dressing gown, waking up to breakfast in bed
and reading my own magazines by the light of my own electric bulb.

(David plays: The Kelvinator Rag)

Only $5.00
Zach: (Sixteen Year Old Farm Boy) “All my friends are getting electricity,” (Pause)
That’s what I told my mother. What does she do? She treats me like a kid. Heck, I’m 16
years old. It’s only five dollars.

Kay Lynn: Only five dollars? You don’t just dig five dollars up with the potatoes. Five
dollars will buy enough kerosene to last a year. Five dollars to connect is too much
money. (Exasperated) Don’t let your father hear you say it’s just five dollars…

Zach: (Boldly talking to Mother) Sure, five dollars. Five dollars to have light when I milk
the cows and do my chores in the morning. Five dollars to have a cold soda and fresh
meat. Five dollars to be modern. To look to the future.

Kay Lynn: Well?

Zach: (Timidly) it’s only five dollars…

Kay Lynn: Well if it’s only five dollars then you can go out and earn it yourself.

Zach: So I do. After my own chores are done, I work two jobs. Repairing fences for our
neighbor Mr. Anderson and working for the Grocer in town sweeping floors. I earned that
money. I paid to connect with the REA. (Boldly After Pause) Heck…I even connected the
barn.

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(David Sings: “Mr. REA Man”)

REA Man
Rhys: (An REA Man) “Hey Mr. REA Man.” That’s what most of the folks around here
call me, or they call me “Big City.” That’s ‘cause I’m originally from St. Louis. Worked
as an engineer for Peabody Coal until the Depression hit. Since then I worked a lot of
different jobs…just trying to get by. No real future.

Then Rural Electrification passed Congress and a friend of mine let somebody from the
federal government know I’d worked for the coal company. I was hired to convince folk
of the need for electricity. To sign them up for $5.00, inspect their homes, and help them
form a power distribution cooperative. Owned and run by all these local farmers.

Between you and me, I expected it would be a failure. These folk had either never lived
with electricity, or they had provided for themselves. That’s just how these rural folk
lived. And to ask them to pay $5.00 and run a company…well, that seemed a stretch.

July of 1939, I held my first meeting at the schoolhouse and there was more interest than
I had imagined. Now not everyone signed up, mind you, but as one of the first board
members put it,

Zach: After they see their neighbors’ homes and the rest of the countryside lit up, they’ll
change their tune.

Rhys: Here’s where I’m going to settle. I met my wife Dori here…she’s the daughter of
that board member. They even hired me to manage this local cooperative.

As for farmers being able to run a company, well, that’s what they hired me for. And I
know that there are plenty of engineers, electricians, and people with the skills we
need…out of a job because of the Depression looking for a future. I know they’ll find it
here…I did.

(Guitar plays “REA Man”)

The Job Interview

Zach: (17 Year Old) Hey, REA man. Any jobs at the new power cooperative?

Rhys: We’ll be looking to hire line men. (Pause) But what does a farm boy know about
that?

Zach: If it means raising the poles and wires in a straight line…well, I’ll take you out in
the field and show you how straight I can plant a row of corn.

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Rhys: You’d be working those high lines…climbing them. Are you afraid of heights?

Zach: Afraid of heights? When I was five years old, I climbed our 40 foot windmill and
set straddle the tail. I sat up there and watched Lindbergh deliver mail between Chicago
and St. Louis.

Rhys: You’ll be repairing lines in at all times of day or night and in all kinds of weather.
Can you be resourceful and inventive?

Zach: When I was ten, my father sold the carburetor off of an old Huber tractor that
hadn’t run in years. I got it to run by cutting and twisting two or three old Prince Albert
cans. Putting them into the place where the carburetor set and squirting gas in the hole. It
kept running…as long as I squirted gas in it.

Rhys: What’s your name, son?

Zach: Sam.

Rhys: Sam. I’m sorry but we…(shakes hand, impressed) You’d be working with
electricity, Sam…it can be mighty dangerous.

Zach: When I was 15, the generator on our Delco system in the basement went out. My
Dad and Uncle tried to fix it but had to let it sit until planting was over. I took the two
batteries from our telephone…attached it to the points on the generator and started the
Delco plant myself.

Rhys: (laughing) What did your parents say?

Zach: They just stood there with their mouths open until my mother said…

Irene: How did you make that work? (Pause) No, don’t tell me…I’m just glad it does.

(David plays: Intro to “See You on Down the Road”)

Rhys: So now that I work for the county REA, whenever I connect a house or repair a
line and I’m asked…

Irene: How did you make that work?

Zach: I try to explain as best I can until they finally answer.

Irene: No, don’t tell me…I’m just glad it does.

(Change in music.)

The Love Letter

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Rhys: I’ve got something for you, Dori. It’s something I’ve wanted to show you for a
long time.

Kay Lynn: (to Rhys) What is it?

Rhys: It’s something I carry with me.

Kay Lynn: Is it a love letter, Earl?

Rhys: It’s not a love letter. I’ve had it with me since I was hired as an REA man. It’s
meant to remind me why I’m here.

Kay Lynn: Let me read it.

Rhys: No, I want you to wait until tonight…read under your electric light.

Kay Lynn: Alright. (To Rhys) I still think it’s a love letter. (Pause) So that night, I
turned on the electric light and opened the envelope. It was a pamphlet with a quote from
Senator George Norris. Above it in pencil Earl had simply written, MY REMINDER,

“I have seen first-hand the grim drudgery and grind which had been the common lot of
eight generations of American farm women. I had seen the tallow candle in my own
home, followed by the coal-oil lamp… what it was to take care of the farm chores by the
flickering, undependable light of the lantern in the mud and cold rains of the fall and the
snow and icy winds of winter.

I could close my eyes and recall the innumerable scenes of the harvest and the unending
punishing tasks performed by hundreds of thousands of women, growing old
prematurely; dying before their time.”

( she pauses as she touches and reads Earl’s note)

MY REMINDER

(Pause as she tries to control tears)

(To herself) I knew it was a love letter.

(Waitin For Charlie)

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 Change is Opportunity

Rhys: I appreciate your presence here at the christening and dedication of our new Rural
Electrification Association building…

Zach: (Shouts out) Just talk to us plain, Jimmy. They all grew up with you.

Rhys: (Hears her and responds after awkward pause) Surprised me when I got the itch
last year to bring the REA to our county. Then you members up and elect me to the board.
Now I’m your first county REA President. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

(Almost to himself, amused) Talk plain….huh. (Begins his talk) Electricity. It’s given
us…a challenge. President Roosevelt and Congress have given us a means of makin
things modern…not just makin our own farms efficient… and our own lives easier but
givin’ us the chance…no…an opportunity to make our community stronger. …puttin’
aside our differences. Where we’re from…where we choose to go to church…We own
this here REA…we’re a family and its success is based on us pulling together. The fact is
we’re all owners of this here REA and that’s already changed things for us. Enough of all
this yakking…here comes the fun part. (Pause gets canvas) I was going to christen this
building with Champagne. Don’t worry… I decided to use something that we farmers and
our families might feel more comfortable with…a quart of local milk from a local cow.

Rhys: Everyone laughed and cheered as they went inside to have potluck…an assortment
of food from every denomination in the County.

Zach: (as he shakes Jimmy’s hand) Thank you sir...I do believe this County is ready for
change.

Irene: (as Grandmother puts arm on shoulder) Furchten sie nicht anderung. Anderung ist
gelegenheit

Zach: (As he remembers)… ‘Don’t fear change. Change is opportunity.’

(Play: “Waiting on Charlie”).

Epilogue:
Rhys: I’m proud of the change that the REA has made in all of us… Why, it’s the next
greatest thing.

Kay Lynn: It is an unexcelled luxury.

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Irene: I get fighting mad when I hear how private industry is trying to do away with or
ham cord the REA.

Zach: Five dollars to have light when I milk the cows and do my chores in the
morning…to be modern. To look to the future.

Rhys: A Biblical David of a power cooperative that can stand toe to toe with any investor
owned Goliath.

Irene: If you want something you have to make it come true yourself

Rhys: People’s lives changed in miraculous ways

Irene: REA.

Kay Lynn: I knew it was a love letter.

Zach: The next greatest thing.

Rhys: The next greatest thing to having God in your heart is having electricity in your
home.

All: Amen (They Exit)

Rhys: (After Pause) Amen. (Reaches up and turns out light. Blackout)

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