Electricity Is Where It Started, Fiber Is Taking Us into the Future
Posted on August 30th, 2022
[photo: Patricia Reid]
On the heels of our recent annual meeting and board election, we’re always eager to read comments on ballots that are returned. Often, they are words of gratitude mixed with a few constructive comments.
This year, two comments caught my eye immediately. They were notes written in cursive (a lost art today). One from Patricia Reid and the other from Virginia Simon.
Mrs. Reid shared with us that some of her family members were the first to receive power in Sylvania, Arkansas in 1940. Some of our staff had the pleasure of sitting down with Mrs. Reid at her home outside of Austin. Family photos and mementos from her past in the dairy industry lined the walls of her living room, and from her recliner, Mrs. Reid recounted how electricity changed their lives. From a single hanging light bulb to her Maytag deep-freeze, she was grateful to have electricity flowing through her home. “I felt so proud,” she said. Times have certainly changed. Today, her home is filled with electric appliances, and the creamer bucket sitting on the floor and wooden crank phone placed on the wall are just reminders of the past.
Electricity is where it started, but fiber is taking us into the future at First Electric. Mrs. Reid’s excitement about electricity coming in the 1940s is strikingly like Mrs. Simon’s comments about Connect2First’s fiber coming down her street! Mrs. Simon jotted a note to us that read, “Thank you, First Electric! You are about to come down our street with your line for internet and phone. I’m so excited – I know it will be great!”
We’re proud of our past and excited about the future at First Electric and Connect2First. Thank you for your membership in First Electric. We encourage you to consider Connect2First – where we deliver the fastest, most reliable internet in central Arkansas!
Sincerely,
Rick Love