By Charlotte Lane – West Virginia Public Service Commission
The holiday season should be a time for reflection. We have much to be thankful for at this time of year. But sometimes we forget.
First of all, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
I think back on all the sacrifices our ancestors made to get us to where we are today. What a hardy bunch they were.
This was especially true in our state, where access to the land was never easy.
Many families came down the Ohio River from the Pittsburgh area. My family eventually settled in the Ohio River town of St. Marys.
Or else, they hacked their way through heavily forested mountains to reach our river valleys.
Neither path was easy. Much of the interior was not populated until railroads were completed through southern West Virginia in 1873.
I think about those people.
What was it like for them? Can you imagine a world without electricity, or natural gas, or clean water, or sanitary sewer systems? One without flick-on heating and air conditioning?
I’m grateful for all those things when I turn on my gas fireplace and bask in the radiating heat this time of year.
My home is warmed with natural gas efficiently piped in. But our forebearers had to rely on wood they chopped every day to maintain heat in drafty, uninsulated homes whose only warmth was from an inefficient fireplace.
Today, we thaw a ham that has been in our refrigerator for a week and heat it over an electric range, all done in an hour.
Before refrigeration, people had to kill the pig, salt or smoke the meat, and then cook it over an inefficient cooking fire. How long did that take?
I flip a switch to turn on or off the lights. I think about the candles and oil lamps people had to use at one time for their evening and early morning light source.
My thirst is slaked by turning on a tap that brings cool, clean water to my kitchen.
And sanitary sewers conveniently sweep away wastes from our homes. I dread to think what that was like once.
So, let’s all take a moment at this time of year to be thankful for the technological advances that have put so many fabulous items at our fingertips.
Yes, our utility bills cost us each month.
But what would life be without those utilities?
