GVEC Strey, Elton and Mary - October 7, 1987
Interview with Elton and Mary Strey
Interviewer: Sarah Ezzell
Transcriber: Sarah Ezzell
Date of Interview: October 7, 1987
Location: Mr. and Mrs. Strey’s Home, LaVernia, TX
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Begin Tape 1, Side 1
Sarah Ezzell: This is Sarah Ezzell, and today is October 7, 1987. I’m conducting an oral interview with Mr. and Mrs. Elton Strey in their home at Route 1, Box 168, in LaVernia at 6:00 p.m. Do you understand the conditions if the interview?
Mary Strey: Yes.
Ezzell: Okay. We start with the questions. How long have you lived in the GVEC [Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative] service area?
Elton Strey: About twenty years now.
Ezzell: About twenty years? Where did you live before?
E. Strey: LaVernia.
Ezzell: You lived in LaVernia before, and you’ve always lived in this region?
E. Strey: Mm-hmm. We always have, both of us.
Ezzell: Have you always been serviced by GVEC?
E. Strey: Most of our lives we have, with the exception of the time we lived in LaVernia; that was the Floresville Light and Power [Systems].
Ezzell: Okay. Is there any difference that you can notice, as far as the service?
E. Strey: Well, not that you’re here, but the service is a lot better here than it was in the other—in LaVernia.
Ezzell: Do you think that’s just a difference in the time periods, or—
M. Strey: No, because they still have the same problems.
Ezzell: Oh, really? So GVEC, their service is a little more—
M. Strey: Well, consistent. Because I think, in LaVernia, they [have] a lot of power outages, for different reasons.
Ezzell: Mm-hmm.
M. Strey: Well, we don’t have that here.
Ezzell: I see. Is GVEC fairly quick in answering any calls or questions you might have?
E. Strey: Real good.
Ezzell: What do you think of the relationship you have with GVEC?
E. Strey: Ours is—we haven’t had any complaints, so it’s good.
Ezzell: You’ve been treated with courtesy by them, and they’ve been—
Mary and Elton Strey: Always.
Ezzell: —prompt in servicing you. Are you familiar with the GVEC Review?
Mary and Elton Strey: Mm-hmm.
Ezzell: Do you think that that provides useful information?
E. Strey: Yeah, I think—Mr. Hines, he does a real good job, you know, keeping it going.
Ezzell: Do you think it’s informative enough?
M. Strey: I think so. I’ve learned a lot from reading it that I didn’t know before.
Ezzell: Have you? Are you a participant in the load management program that GVEC has?
E. Strey: No.
Ezzell: You’re not.
E. Strey: Is that where—the water heaters and stuff? No, hm-mm.
Ezzell: Is that by choice?
E. Strey: No, we have a butane water heater.
Ezzell: I see. So it’s not electric, okay. Do you know anything about the program?
E. Strey: Yeah, a little bit because we used to be in that membership informative deal, you know, where we’d meet once a month or so and they’d inform us of all the new things that went on. So we were informed about it, we knew about it.
Ezzell: What do you think about it; do you think it’s a good idea?
E. Strey: Yep. Sure.
Ezzell: Saving energy—the management says that GVEC may offer things in the future, such as satellite TV, sewage, and garbage services. What do you think of GVEC branching out into these areas?
E. Strey: Personally, I think it’d be good because now we have garbage service here; if we had sewage service, that’d be good too. Some equipment they could use in both—all the fields there. So, I think it’d be good.
Ezzell: What do you—do you have to take your garbage to the dump right now or something?
E. Strey: No. We have garbage pickup now.
Ezzell: Oh, you do have—?
E. Strey: Some private person from Seldon Springs[??]; he’s got his own garbage-route, so to speak, and he picks it up. We like it.
Ezzell: I imagine it’s a lot more convenient.
Mary and Elton Strey: Right.
Ezzell: What, in your mind, is the proper function of an electric utility? Does it include branching out into areas like this?
M. Strey: Well, if they do an efficient job in one and are able to handle the other, I don’t see any problem with that.
Ezzell: Mm-hmm. What about the satellite TV?
E. Strey: I don’t know. People nowadays, they’ve got to have a variety of programs. To me, it doesn’t really matter that much.
Ezzell: Can you get cable service out here?
E. Strey: No, huh-uh.
M. Strey: I guess if we were to get a satellite dish, we could, but—
E. Strey: —not offered out here.
Ezzell: Okay. Member services division offers advice on how to save energy. Has this service been useful to you?
E. Strey: No.
Pause as telephone rings
E. Strey: No because we really don’t have anything out here that uses a lot of electricity. Most of our stuff is basic stuff, like refrigerators and freezer—
M. Strey: And we’re pretty conservative. I think we are, yes.
E. Strey: We’ve got one electric heater, and it’s in one of our bathrooms.
M. Strey: And we have a dryer, but we use it very sparingly, you know; only when the weather isn’t very good and we have to use it, so—
Ezzell: And you’re heating, how do you—?
M. Strey: Well, we have—what is it, gas?
Elton Strey: Butane and wood, wood stove.
M. Strey: Yeah.
Ezzell: Have you ever received electricity from another utility?
E. Strey: Yes, that’s that one from Floresville, Floresville Light and Power.
Ezzell: How does your attitude towards electricity now compare with your attitude towards electricity when you were younger?
E. Strey: I guess when we were younger, it was a real novelty for us, I guess, because we were both about the age where—like Mary’s folks, y’all had kerosene and used kerosene for a light—
Ezzell: So there was a time when you didn’t have electricity—I see.
E. Strey: So, electricity is—
M. Strey: I think we’re both kind of appreciative of it; [I] mean, we don’t really take it for granted. That may be one of the reasons we’re so conservative. You know—don’t want to use it all up.
Ezzell: What was your first electric appliance, do you remember?
M. Strey: I guess the refrigerator, probably.
Ezzell: Refrigerator.
M. Strey: I think that’s probably just about everybody’s—
E. Strey: We had an electric blanket when we got married.
Ezzell: What about you, do you remember?
E. Strey: I guess, like Mary, probabl …one of the first things everyone got, too, was the refrigerators.
Ezzell: Was it? Having those ice cubes—
M. Strey: Don’t have to mess with ice any more.
Ezzell: Do you have children?
E. Strey: Yeah, we have four.
Ezzell: Do you notice any difference in their attitudes and your attitudes towards electricity?
E. Strey: Well, they probably just take it for granted. I guess they do—
Ezzell: Do you feel that electricity’s vital to your life, or do you consider it a luxury?
M. Strey: Oh, I think it’s a vital. I do, and yet I guess it’s also a luxury because you are able to enjoy things like television, which we wouldn’t have otherwise.
E. Strey: Yeah, I think it’s a luxury, because it’s nice to have, but when you get down to it, you really don’t need it. You know, really, I mean—not, say in our home, we could probably do without it, I mean as far as business and stuff—keep everything going to have to have electricity nowadays. Or you lose lots of jobs and stuff, you know. Productivity would go down. I kind of think it’s a luxury.
Ezzell: How has electricity defined your work environment?
E. Strey: Are talking about like, at home, or—?
Ezzell: At home, when you’re working in the garage or at work.
E. Strey: Personally, for me, it’s nice. My drills and saws and stuff, so [it] makes everything a lot easier and faster, so it’s a lot better.
M. Strey: I work part-time, and we sometimes have trouble with our air-conditioner. And it just has a small window, it’s one of those buildings that was built when there weren’t very many windows, and when you’re not comfortable, it’s very difficult to work efficiently, and so, [in] that way, it has definitely made, you know, a difference as far as having it or not having it.
Ezzell: Do you believe that GVEC is more consumer- or agriculturally-oriented?
E. Strey: What do you mean by consumer?
Ezzell: Well, for farm work or, you know, like yourselves, living out here with your family. Do you think they’re more oriented towards the families or towards the agricultural work, you know, where people need to use their tool outside—?
E. Strey: I kind of think it’s both, really; that’s what I kind of feel. I’d say it’s both.
M. Strey: I would think more consumer-[oriented], that’s my opinion.
E. Strey: I’m thinking about the agricultural people around here, like your dairies and stuff. They’d have a hard time nowadays operating without electricity.
Ezzell: Do you know of some in the area that are serviced by GVEC? Things like dairies—
M. Strey: Yeah, I guess Walter Scull probably does, doesn’t he?
E. Strey: Yeah, all of them.
Ezzell: What was that, Walter Scull?
M. Strey: Walter Scull, what is it, C-Willow Dairy? I think that’s the official name they have for their dairy. And Ross Circle N Dairy. I guess they both have GVEC.
Ezzell: Mm-hmm. In your life, on what has electricity had the greatest impact?
E. Strey: What electricity does? To me, it’s the lights.
Ezzell: The light? Being able to have light at nighttime? Being able to do more? What sticks out in your mind as something that you could absolutely not do without that is run by electricity?
M. Strey: I guess you get right back to like refrigerators and ironing and things like that. I couldn’t imagine—of course, a lot of people don’t iron, and the washing machine, you know, if you had to run someplace to do your washing all the time—
E. Strey: On a larger scale, you have like your hospitals and stuff and some of your large manufacturers.
Ezzell: Mm-hmm. Can you tell me a little bit about your dealings with GVEC, and how you’ve been serviced by them in the past?
M. Strey: We really haven’t ever had any problems, I mean, so I guess everything is fine. You know, whenever we had had the electricity go out, we call them, and they’re very prompt in getting here. And getting it taken care of, too. I know one afternoon we didn’t have electricity, we just assumed that they knew about it. I guess two hours later we called, and no one else had called. I guess no one was home in the area. Then they were out shortly.
E. Strey: One thing that I like about them also, not only their good service, because they’re involved in community activities. Like one thing, the LaVernia Stock Show, we belong to the stock show committee, and they always donate all the ribbons that we use. We use, I don’t know, two or three hundred, probably. So they donate that. So I think they’re really—and also sometimes we’ve had, I know one guy at church, he always paints the steeple, he calls GVEC to bring out one of their trucks with the lift on it, I don’t know what you call that. But they come out there, not for any special trip, but if they’re in this area, they’ll let us know. I think they’re very community-oriented.
M. Strey: Well, I notice, too, in the Review that they do give out scholarships also. No one in LaVernia—we were talking about it the other day, LaVernia doesn’t get any of those scholarships, and maybe that’s just because the council in LaVernia hasn’t sought them out to provide a scholarship. But they do for everybody else in the area, all the other schools around here. I think that’s really nice.
Ezzell: I know a little about the scholarship program, but I don’t know specific high schools that they’ve hit.
M. Strey: Well I think like—
E. Strey: Well, like Marion, Schertz, Seguin—
M. Strey: I think Stockdale, and Smiley and Gonzales. It’s quite a few.
E. Strey: Some of them maybe you should call about—
M. Strey: I know we talked about it, and I thought, well, you know, I guess it’d be something that the counselor at the school could check out, you know. And maybe they just haven’t been approached and that’s why they’ve never involved LaVernia, I don’t know. I think it’s nice, even if LaVernia doesn’t get one, all the other students—you know, there are other kids that do get one, so—
Ezzell: You think that’s a good idea that they do that.
M. Strey: Yeah, because it’s usually, if you’ll look through, it’s usually kids that probably wouldn’t get another scholarship except for that one, so it is nice.
Ezzell: Are there any other things that you’ve read in the Review that stick in your mind as being helpful or beneficial that they’ve done in the community?
E. Strey: Well, I know that every time, used to, I don’t know, we haven’t tried in a long time—you’d go—where these different organizations that ask for a prize, a Bingo prize or something. I know they used to give that; I don’t know if they still do or not. But, talking about the Review—not many outfits give you information [about] what’s going about certain companies, you know. You got to give them credit for putting that out. They wouldn’t have to put that out, they could save their money—
M. Strey: And they always do, as far as information that we get from it, we always know when they have their district meeting, so you can’t—or whatever meeting it is they have, you can’t say you don’t know, because you are informed as to when they do have it. And if you don’t go—
Ezzell: Have you ever attended one of those?
E. Strey: Mm-hmm. Like in Gonzales? No.
M. Strey: No, we never have.
Ezzell: Do they have any local meetings?
E. Strey: Yeah. We’ve made some of those.
Ezzell: And you think those are a good idea?
E. Strey: Yeah. One thing about it, they seem to hire—I don’t know how they hire their people, but they do a good job in doing it. We know a few of them that work for GVEC, and they’re all good folks.
M. Strey: They’re probably all pretty nice people around here anyway (laughs).
Ezzell: One question about whenever your power goes off around here, is it normally due to some outside thing like a power line being knocked down by somebody or by lightening, or is it a fault with GVEC?
E. Strey: No, it’s either the weather; I think one instance where—but most of the time, it’s the weather, I would say.
M. Strey: That one Sunday, remember when the kids were all outside and the—
E. Strey: —the fuse blow.
M. Strey: Is that what it was?
E. Strey: I think so.
M. Strey: And they noticed it when it went off, and so then we called them, and we knew exactly where it was. But, yeah, it usually is—and it usually is very seldom just around here. And we don’t have them out that much though. Pretty lucky.
Ezzell: Do you think it’d be any different if you lived in town or something?
M. Strey: I don’t think so.
E. Strey: I don’t know.
M. Strey: You mean as far as the outages that we would have? I don’t think so. I don’t know.
E. Strey: Yeah, I don’t either. I don’t know.
Ezzell: Do you have anything else you’d like to add about GVEC? Any comments you’d like to make?
E. Strey: Yeah, what is this anniversary that y’all have?
Ezzell: Yeah, it’s their fiftieth anniversary.
E. Strey: Fiftieth, okay, that’s what it is.
Ezzell: Because they started in 1937 in Cost; that was their first establishment.
E. Strey: Because I think the electricity out here came, I guess early forties maybe—
Ezzell: In this area?
E. Strey: Mm-hmm.
Ezzell: Yeah, they’re celebrating.
E. Strey: (laughs) Everybody going to be invited?
Ezzell: I don’t know. It’d be an awful big party if they were.
M. Strey: Right.
E. Strey: I don’t have anything else.
M. Strey: No, I don’t either.
E. Strey: Just, service is excellent, you know, we have no complaints at all. If there would be some, we’d tell you.
M. Strey: Usually when you’re not happy about something, you have a lot to say.
Ezzell: This would be the perfect opportunity.
M. Strey: But when you’re satisfied, it doesn’t take long, I guess to say it.
Ezzell: Okay, well thank you.
End of interview