A reader left a comment on my post about Where the Crawdads Sing, and she wondered where they got sewer and electricity if they weren’t connected to town. That made me realize that there are people who don’t realize a lot about rural America.
My grandparents lived in a very rural location and many people around them did not have electricity. This was in the early 60’s when I would go visit them. My grandparents did have electricity as far back as I can remember but I was in my early years of high school (late 60’s) before they got running water or indoor plumbing.
We do not have to be connected to a city to have modern conveniences. It’s 2019. I live where trash pickup is not available. We do have electricity. We get our water from a well and have a septic tank for our sewer system.
As we look at places to live in Arkansas, there are cabins so far out in the woods that they do not have electricity. I’m sure they could get it but they don’t want to pay the price to have the lines put in that far back from where they would have to connect.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s, you could get electricity almost anywhere and I don’t even remember my parents having to pay extra to have it run to where they lived when they built their house in 1959. I’ve never heard them talk about having to pay for it but even where our house is built, the people who built the house had to pay to have the lines run from the highway and it is rather expensive to have it done. I think I remember them saying it was about $10K. They had wanted to build farther back but didn’t want to pay more for the electricity.
In an area like where we’re looking in Arkansas, it’s easy to get a good water well. Here, in this part of Texas, it’s not easy at all. It usually takes four or five drilling attempts before you get a halfway decent well and even then, some people never hit water.
It’s funny because our grandkids are going to grow up and remembering stories about life before internet, cell phones, tablets, and GPS.
Also, almost every house we’ve considered in Arkansas has a whole house generator and at least one 1,000 gallon propane tank. They seem to have extended power losses in the winter if the weather is bad and the people do what they have to do to make accommodations for whatever may happen.
It’s easy to get used to modern conveniences and forget that it wasn’t that long ago, not everyone had the option of having the things we have now. I’m happy to have well water and never have to worry about a water bill. Yes, we have had to spend $150 on well repairs since we’ve been here (almost 8 years) and we did pay for having a second well drilled (which took two tries before hitting water) but we have much better tasting water than we would have in town, and we have no chemicals in our water . . some people are happy to have that; some are not. We have our water tested . . we used to do it every year but it’s been a few years since it was tested.
I hope I never live without electricity. Even with solar panels and batteries (we do not have batteries), it’s almost impossible to run air conditioners like we need here in Texas. I do miss trash pickup. Since we’ve lived here I’ve said I hope to never live without trash pickup again but in the rural areas of AR where we are look, hardly anyone has it. They’ve had some landfill issues there and trash pickup is a problem. I doubt we’d have it there either. But, we’ve managed here without it and we’ll manage there without it.
For us, we’d rather give up some of the conveniences and NOT be so close to a city but not everyone feels that way. It’s a wonderful life – we can all choose what works for us and be happy.
Cilla Tyler says
I live the same way and enjoy it, even with no trash pick up. I have a 426 foot well, a decent septic, a generator that husband made into “whole house” one he unplugs 8 plugs and plugs in the red ones. I don’t mind going to the dump…er…I mean transfer station. lol. This small town (3,000 people) recycles. I work at the dump on Saturdays at the Swap Shop. Bring items in and take what you want. A great way to get to know folks. I live between 25 min to 40 min to 3 large cities. Large for NH I mean. Until 19 years ago I didn’t have cable…depended on antennae so that meant only local channels. Internet consisted of only e-mail, nothing else. I’m 70 and looking forward to what else will be new. Oh, an city water is horrible. I sneak my water bottle into restaurants.
Vicky says
I live the same way also. Live about 30 miles from a decent sized town. We are on our second well. I love our water. We built this house when the kids were younger and still at home. The only thing I would change is to build a smaller house. We have no trash pickup either which we don’t mind. We have a generator for power outages and our own septic. My grandparents had electricity but never running water. They never had a telephone until they were almost 70.
njgrl4ever says
I learned so much about rural Louisiana when I read Strangers inTheir Own Land. Having grown up and lived most of my life in the suburbs it really opened my eyes.
goonyburd says
njgrl4ever – who is the author of this book?
Nelle Coursey says
We did not get electricity until I was 3 years old! That was in 1952. We got indoor plumbing when I was about 14. So I know how hard it is when there is none. We never had central air. All we had was a “swamp cooler” and unless you put water on the straw it only blew hot air!
dezertsuz says
I’ve always lived with water and electricity, in my memory, though when I was born, we lived in a mountain cabin and didn’t have electricity, at least. I’m not sure about water, not being concerned at the time. =) However, where we plan to build, if you don’t hit water at 50-100 ft., it’s about 1500, so if we don’t hit it, we’re using other means to get water. We won’t have trash pick up (or mail delivery!), and we’re using other means to supply electricity off grid – not solar. I expect it will be a great adventure, but there ARE other options out there than city services. =)
montanaclarks says
That’s why so much of the land around us in Arizona has never been developed–no electricity–and it costs $24/foot to run power from the nearest pole–that adds up very quickly!!