1. 24 The Tennessee Magazine
T
he year was 1942. Scents of a cedar tree wafted
through the house. A big Christmas dinner was
prepared on the wood-burning stove, and cheerful
voices filled the McNeese home in the Odd Fellows Hall
community.
Little did the McNeese family know that after this
Christmas, the holidays would never be the same.
Ladye McNeese Sellers was one of 15 children who
grew up in the rolling hills of Giles County. She
remembers the days before electricity and recalls the last
Christmas her family cooked over a wood stove and
decorated their tree without lights.
In 1943, everything changed. The McNeese home
received electricity from Duck River Electric
Membership Corporation. It might not have been a
merrier Christmas, but it was certainly brighter and
less labor-intensive for all involved in celebration
preparations.
The McNeese siblings, in particular, marveled at the
electrically lighted decorations that glowed and twinkled.
“Electricity changed the way we lived,” says Ladye. “I
remember the first time we decorated our tree with
Christmas lights and how much easier cooking was for my
Mama.”
Ladye’s family owned a country store in the Odd
Fellows Hall community. The store provided grocery
items, fresh meats and canned goods.
“We grew up in a time of hardship,” says Ladye. “Our
neighbors and friends often couldn’t pay for the food they
needed for their families, so they exchanged hens for
groceries. We had a pen for the chickens under the
storeroom.”
Christmas was a time of happiness and fellowship.
Ladye recalls the entire family gathering
around their big
dining
room table for the
holiday meal.
“We always had chicken and dressing, green beans,
sweet potatoes with marshmallows, potato salad and
coleslaw,” says Ladye. “My Mama and sisters would cook
all week preparing our Christmas meal.”
Imagine a Christmas tree without lights.
“Before we had electricity, we decorated the tree with
tinsel, roping and anything we could find around the house
or the store. When we got electricity, we always decorated
the tree with great big lights. I don’t think you can get
those kind of lights anymore.”
Ladye remembers Santa bringing her and her siblings
each an orange, apple, candy, big raisins (not like the ones
you see today) and one toy.
“We had cane chairs with our names on them, and Santa
would find our names. Our gifts would be in the chairs on
Christmas morning.”
After leaving for Lipscomb University in Nashville in
1950 and graduating in 1954 with an education degree,
Ladye spent her career teaching at Head Start in Maury
County. She and her husband, Allen Sellers, lived on a
farm in Maury County, raising beef cattle, pigs and
tobacco.
Ladye has been a DREMC member her entire life.
“As I grew up and started my own family, I looked back
on my childhood and realized how blessed I truly was. I
didn’t have to start a fire before preparing a meal or warm
water (on the stove) for my children to bathe. Electricity is
something I don’t take for granted.”
Indeed, the electrification of rural America positively
changed millions of lives. Like Ladye McNeese Sellers,
those who remember “when the lights came on” also
cherish the special recollection of when electricity lit up
strings of glass bulbs on the Christmas tree.
Fifteen McNeese children made family gatherings and
holiday times memorable, especially after the advent of
central-station power from DREMC in 1943.
The amazing, never-before seen ...
by Claire Sellers
Ladye McNeese’s parents, D.J. and Lochi McNeese, stand
on the porch of their country store in Giles County.