"Cotton Electric: A Cooperative Meeting Consumers Needs".
A winter storm hit my house several years ago. We watched icicles form on the trees outside as the storm continued to get worse. We started a fire and then the lights started to flicker. Then out of no where, we were standing in complete darkness. We lit candles all over the house. It was only then that I began to realize the importance of electricity. As I walked from room to room, I found myself, out of habit, flipping light switches, and then laughing at myself when nothing happened. Knowing there was still no power to the house, I found myself automatically still trying the microwave, the TV, the blow dryer, and still nothing. It's really quite funny how you will do these things anyway out of habit. I started to wonder how I would function without electricity. I wondered what it must have been like for our ancestors before electricity. How did they stay warm? How did they prepare thier meals? Oh my gosh, how did they curl or blow dry their hair? What a hardship it must have been for them to have what we take for granted in our everyday lives, as we know it today. That is why I'm so thankful to Cotton Electric Cooperative for providing me with electricity. My curiousity began to grow around Cotton Electric's history and I'm amazed at how it all started.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as part of the New Deal. The urban electric companies were not interested in providing to the "end-of-the-line" farmer. The REA would provide service to all rural areas. C. W. Cox, a radio repairman and Walters native, had high hopes for getting the REA in Southwest Oklahoma. The hard work and commitment of the group that attended many meetings and pushed forward all their efforts, made it possible for Cotton Electric to be settled in Walters, Oklahoma on September 15, 1983.
