GVEC Willmann, Grace - November 4, 1986
Interview with Grace Willmann
Interviewer: Karen Yancy
Transcriber: Karen Yancy
Date of Interview: November 4, 1986
Location: Mrs. Willmann’s Home, Seguin, TX
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Begin Tape 1, Side 1
Karen Yancy: This is Karen Yancy. Today is November 4, 1986, and I am conducting an oral interview with Mrs. Grace Willmann, retired employee of Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative [GVEC] at Gonzales, Texas.
What were the years that you worked at GVEC?
Grace Willman: Let’s see, I worked from 1951 to 1972.
Yancy: What experience did you bring to GVEC? What past work experience had you had?
Willman: Well, I taught school for seven years, and then I married but quit in between—during the war [World War II], I went to work for the rationing office.
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: And then I worked at a, they were so short of help around, and I went to work for the Seguin Cotton Oil Company, and then that’s when I came to the Co-op.
Yancy: Did you hear about the job at the Co-op like, through newspaper listing or by word of mouth, or—
Willman: By word of mouth.
Yancy: Word of mouth.
Willman: My sister-in-law had an office downtown, and the Co-op’s office was diagonally across from the courthouse, and the man that was the head of it, the Co-op here, at that time, he was telling her that he sure needed some help, and so she knew that it was better pay and everything.
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: So she called me and said didn’t I want to try for it, and I got it. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) So, at that time they stayed open on Saturday, and I had to work that Saturday at the mill until twelve. I got off to work from there at twelve and went to work down here at one because the girl that I was replacing was—she would be there that afternoon, and from then on, why, I didn’t have any help down there; what I mean is she didn’t come back. That was her last day.
Yancy: Mm-hmm, last day.
Willman: But, of course, we had another girl in the office, too, and it went off real well.
Yancy: Good. Did you ever think of working somewhere else?
Willman: Not after I started there.
Yancy: Started there. What were your responsibilities at work?
Willman: Uh—
Yancy: And how did those responsibilities change, if any, over the years?
Willman: Well, let’s see, I started out as a collector of payments and checking applications. Mainly, I was first a cashier and then—filing, just general office work, and then as the years went on, let’s see—I can’t say that mine changed, I mean that I changed in duty except what was added.
Yancy: Mm-hmm, added to—
Willman: To because I was still the cashier when I quit, and they just, well, they would just—at one time, we were three in the office. At first, there were just two of us, and then the load got so heavy that they hired somebody else the last years that I was there, and I don’t recall what year that was that they hired another girl, but mine was still all the same and taking care of a lot of the records here—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —at this office, and then I—let’s see, the last few years, whenever they, the girls up at Schertz had vacation; well, I usually had to go up there every day for the week or two—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —whatever it was, but otherwise mine stayed pretty much the same, except that it was just, you know, load added to it every time.
Yancy: How did GVEC grow and change from when you first started working there to when you retired?
Willman: I think you better read that [Let There be Light], one more time. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) Well, when I first went to work there, we could handle it real easily, two in the office. And, in fact, there were times when we were not busy, and which I think happens in every—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —office, but they’ve added lines. In fact, they had a contractor come in and build some more lines, and then at the meantime, well, the employees there, I mean the boys, were building like off to individuals, you know, they were doing that, but as far as putting in big lines, we had somebody come in. They increased the capacity of the McQueeny substation, oh, I don’t know how many times, and then the one up at—oh, let’s see, that was close to Cibolo—they—
Yancy: Yeah.
Willman: —increased that one too. And, of course, it seemed like that, then all of a sudden they started having mobile homes, and boy, then we really were overflowed there for a while. It was just—I guess everybody just wanted to get married or have their own home or something. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) And we really were quite busy then. And they extended the services to this new subdivision, like a—I recall one that was way down near LaVernia in a secluded part of the county, (laughs) and the boys came back and said who wants to live down there. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) But, it really was nice, very nice, and I think if all of them hadn’t just worked together so nicely, well, that really was the thing I appreciated so much: that if one of us didn’t know something, we could ask the other one, and they would help us. And I guess some of them thought that I didn’t know anything, which was probably right, but, you know, I had to put it on the map where they lived, and when it was way back over here. And so they would—like if I’d get it down wrong and people had showed me differently on the map, well, then the boys would bring it back in [and] tell me what it should be. And we had quite a bit of corrections to be made. I guess when they started, maybe they didn’t use map references so much, or the maps weren’t just accurate or something, or people didn’t know really where they lived, they’d come in to make an application for service and membership. They’d have to tell you, you know, who they lived by and all. I’d show them on the map where that was, I’d look that up first, but some of them would get way off. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) Poor boys called back one day, We’re at this map reference on here, but we don’t find anything. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) So then I’d give them if I had any information as to who, remember, you know, if who was close to that. Well, I’d give them that, tell them, over there see, and they usually, the boys—of course, I think we had a good bunch of men that would, you know, knew the territory.
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: Pretty good, and—except like when you’d get off like, well, out in the woods, and they did open a number of, put in electricity back in a number of subdivisions or just to farmers that—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —way back in there that wanted electricity; that we picked up quite a load then. And, of course, they were constantly increasing the power and all. I guess that was going on all the time, and it—let’s see, I guess during the time I was there that Holly Farms appeared, a chicken processing plant. They opened during that time because we used to not have that, and that was a big load. I’m trying to think why—that’s right, that section we served when they went in at first, and then the smaller towns around, they began having more activity and different firms going in and opening, and, of course, that all called for more power and everything, so they; I was trying to think of what some of those larger ones were. Of course, SMI, that was a big one, and it seemed like they were constantly needing more power there, and—well, Schertz was growing. Cibolo grew, and Marion—that was mostly residential, but they just—Schertz and Cibolo, of course, I think Randolph Field being so close—
Yancy: Right.
Willman: —did that, and then the schools, they were—oh, that really changed from the time I began working there until I retired. Well, the schools had all—I think nearly all of them had added on or they had enlarged there schools, and that load picked up quite a bit, especially in the western part of the county and then the northern, too. It wasn’t quite so much back down in this way; that part wasn’t settled as thickly as this up here, and they did more ranching down in this part—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —of the country than what they did up [in] these other parts. Of course, that all depends on your land and how you have the water and everything too—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: But it really increased, oh, back up in here.
Yancy: I know a power outage would have created havoc with the office routine, but what other sort of problems might have created disruption in the office routine?
Willman: The only thing I recall that would disrupt us was when we had bad weather, and, you know, sometimes then you can’t contact the men in their unit or they can’t contact you at that time. Of course, I think they have a better system of the radio than that now. You know, those things have—
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: —all been improved, but otherwise we didn’t have anything that would disrupt us at all.
Yancy: At all.
Willman: The customers more or less all seemed to be in correspondence with us and everything. Of course, we had one storm on a Sunday morning that it rained, and there was quite a bit of hail in it, and the whole thing [electrical system] was out from here all the way back there, and the men could not reach one another with their units. Our man at the office was out of town, and so the boys would want to call—so they called me, and they said, Would you go to the office and stay there so you can repeat for us? And so I said, “Yeah, I will, but one thing: my husband is taking our little boy to Sunday school, and I am going to be without a car, so you’ll have to come get me.” They said, Okay, we’ll be there in a minute. I happened to be ready, didn’t do them like I did you. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) But that morning, it kind of got a little rough for me, and some of the people had called and they’d say, I haven’t had any electricity since such and such a time during the night, you know; I hadn’t had any breakfast. Oh, golly, it was getting a little bit rough, and I said, “Yes, sir, I understand that.” I said, “But do you know that these men that are out trying to get the service restored haven’t had any breakfast and they have been working since such and such a time?” He said, “They haven’t?” I said, “No sir, they have been working all this time, they haven’t even had coffee.” (Willmann and Yancy laugh) And he says, “I never thought about that,” and he changed just like that. It was just like talking to a different person. At first I thought—(Willmann and Yancy laugh) but I think that’s the only time that I ever had to say anything like that, and I told Mr. Davis and them that when we were talking about how to handle things like that, and I told them, Mr. Davis getting up, and he says that was good. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) Well, it so happened the man—(Willmann and Yancy laugh) but sometimes I think you have that in every business so somebody is going to try to put you down—
Yancy: Oh, yeah.
Willman: —a little bit, but really, I thought of all the customers that we had, that it was really a nice group to work with; I mean, if they understood what was causing it and things like that, well then it was fine. Of course, maybe they went to the men with that, I don’t know but, in as far as the office was concerned, I thought [the customers] were, well, considerate.
Yancy: Mm-hmm. What are some of your earliest memories at work? Do you remember any humorous anecdotes of Mr. Davis or any of the others?
Willman: One thing I remember that I was very embarrassed over, I hadn’t been working there too long and we had a service interruption. Of course, the men were all out on the job, and Mr. Stubbs, the assistant manager, was out in the area, and he called in some information that [I] should relay to the men in the field. He was telling me some things, [and] I had never even heard those words used. Of course, the boys knew what the words were immediately, and I just couldn’t repeat, you know; he wanted me to repeat it to, I guess, the linemen, at that time, and I know that he was upset with me, and I don’t blame him, but I didn’t know what he meant by all of this and all of that, voltage and stuff. I just didn’t know all of this, but of course they were very nice about it. I mean, when he came into the office, I apologized to him. I said, “I never heard those words,” and so he didn’t say anything too much, and I said, “If you can give me something, I can read up on this. Well, that will be fine.” But, that was one thing that upset me because I had just started. I thought, Oh no. Well, let’s see, I know there was some funny things happened. I recall we had one man, one elderly man every month, he’d come in to pay his bill, [and] he’d reach back to his pocket and pull out a little, I don’t know whether you ever saw, this Prince Albert tobacco cans—
Yancy: Oh yeah.
Willman: He’d pull out this tobacco can with his money and his bill in there, always. (Willmann and Yancy laugh). I often wondered if maybe they put—every day he put so much in there or just what they did, so they’d know whether they’d have it or what. He wasn’t, I mean, it wasn’t that—I’m sure they lived just as close as they could, but I mean that was the only way they could pay it. I don’t think so though, but that was just—well, I guess maybe he thought, Well, I’ve got that separated, now this I have to use for groceries and this for feeding the cattle and that—but that always amused me. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) He did that for years and years, all the years that he came in when I was working. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) That kind of—oh, there were a lot of little incidents, but I just can’t think of them now.
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: They were kind of amusing to us, and still they may not have been to the people but—
Yancy: In retrospect, how do you regard your years at GVEC? Was it fun to work there? Why? Or—
Willman: To me, it was. Well, I knew I had to work, but I enjoyed it; I enjoyed all of it. Of course, sometimes we’d have to work overtime, work at night, and that did get covered up, but I never did mind that much. At night, you didn’t have any interruptions, telephone and all of that.
Yancy: And all the people coming in and out, and—
Willman: That’s right. Of course, when there were two of us could stay on the job, we usually always stayed two at night, not one alone because after we built—that new building was put up out there while I was working, but see, I hadn’t been down here at the office in town too many years when that was just not large enough, and they built out there, and of course there were no other businesses around to stay open at night or anything, and we were just kind of out there on that highway alone. I didn’t like to work very late then alone.
Yancy: Mm-hmm.
Willman: Of course—have you been out to the office?
Yancy: No, I haven’t been out there.
Willman: Well, of course, it’s changed. They’ve remodeled and everything, but it was just glass all along the front and to the side over here that was all glass, and there was no breaks or anything in front of it you know, anybody driving by, they—
Yancy: Could see you.
Willman: And once or twice I had to do some work out there at night, and the other girl was sick, that was the reason I was having to work at night, but I just took my things that I had to work with and went back in the manager’s office because that was next to the front there, and you couldn’t see in his office, but that was, to me, a little frightening at times. Today, I wouldn’t, not the way things are today, but at that time it worked out real good.
Yancy: Is there anyone else that you can think of that I should interview, other employees or customers or—?
Willman: Well, I don’t know who; I mean, have you talked to anybody else?
Yancy: I’ve talked to Mr. Davis and Mr. Siepmann, and I have another interview scheduled for November eighteenth—the name escapes me at the moment.
Willman: Well, if you wanted information on when they built this and when they built that, I would think—I think then if you would see Mr. H.A. Ulbricht, he was district manager up here for a long time. In fact, I retired in January, and he retired the following September. I don’t know, he worked there a long time. He had been there before when it was San Antonio Public Service. He worked for them, and then when the Co-op was organized, I didn’t know whether he—I really didn’t know him too much then and whether he quit then—whether he went in with the Co-op then, and then he was city manager for a while, but then he went back to the Co-op, so in all I don’t know how many years he worked there. I think he could give you just, you know—he was well up on everything that was going on and a lot of things that I didn’t know about that were happening way out in the country or so that we didn’t get to see or anything, but—they were very pleasant years. I really enjoyed working with all of them. The boys were nice to me and everything like that, and I really appreciated that. You know, sometimes you get on a job, and there is one or two that try to upset the cart or something, (Willmann and Yancy laugh) but I didn’t find that, and the girls in the office at Gonzales and all of them—the men too, Mr. Shultz and all of them—they were real cooperative, helped me out.
Yancy: Hmm. Well, I don’t have any more questions. Do you have anything else you’d like to add? Anything else you would like to tell me about?
Willman: Well, let’s see. I wrote some things down yesterday I decided I better—no, I think there is nothing that I recall. It was just a nice job. Of course, sometimes I would get upset over things, but then I think you do that with everything.
Yancy: Every job.
Willman: And it isn’t always a job. I mean—
Yancy: Yeah.
Willman: —you get worried at home or something. Of course, I had two children, and my husband was working at the bank, but sometimes you have little things that upset you. I started out working during the war because they needed help so badly everywhere, and I thought, Well I’ll work until the war is over. (Willmann laughs) I ended up staying out there twenty-one years. But I knew that our son was in college by that time, and I knew the girl was going to want to go to college too pretty quick, so I just kept on. I don’t know why I kept on after they weren’t at home anymore. I guess it was habit. (Willmann and Yancy laugh) But, we could always kind of see some activity over at the college, which is quite a distance, and the college wasn’t built up as large as it is now, when I was working there.
End of interview