Opinion : First Light: Thoughts from the shadows when electricity first arrives

Editor's Note: As the East Central Iowa REC celebrates its 75th year, Vinton Today is helping the REC celebrate the milestone by publishing some historical stories from the perspectives of customers who experienced electricity for the first time, as well as the workers who help bring the power to the cooperative's customers. Today's feature by VT Editor and REC customer Dean Close shares sentiments from the night the electricity first arrived at the place that is now his home between Vinton and Brandon.

The last of the red

Disappears from the west

The sky slowly fades into black

But this night, on this hill

For the first time, darkness will

Be asked to take one small step back

This field's seen a lot

In its millenniums here

It's been home to watermelon,

Turkey and deer

Maybe -- who knows? --

In centuries long gone

It saw footprints and tools

And heard native songs 

But now a new era

Has come into sight

For the very first time

Someone will turn on a light

This small, simple act

Repeated millions of times

Across a huge continent

Without bringing to mind

The impact a bulb

Switched on in the night

Can have well beyond

What is seen in its light

A metal click echoes

A hum vibrates above

A tentative flicker

From a yet-unlit bulb

A few seconds pass

And then a whole field

Takes shape down below

That light on that hill

The big truck is gone

The meter's all zeroes

Put there by skillful men

In hard hats and steel toe shoes

Now all that's left

Besides a few tracks

And some wires and poles

Is the end of the black

Of the night that had ruled

For ages untold

And the beginning of what

Will soon be called "home"

One white-haired man's hope

Became a not-so-young man's prayer

And too close to forever

Hope became reality there

Not as soon as they'd hoped

But in Providence's due course

Like a message delivered

By a 19th Century horse

Now, at the top of the hill

And under that first light

A shadow extends

Out into the night

The man whose big dreams

Have finally come into view

Sat there to consider

What would come next on that hill

One day, that man hoped

Some souls  yet unborn

May look at that hill

With a fondness adorned

By childhood memories

Happily recalling the ones

Whose children inherited

The light high above

From the road to the woods

A man follows his shadow

To measure how far the

New brightness will glow

But as he walks among trees

He looks ahead to the years

And what will follow his dream

And the light first seen here

Though no house is yet here

Will someone return alone

To the place he once called

That cherished name, "Home?"

Kids, dogs and cats

Perhaps ponies and horses

May be what are remembered

Along with the discourses

As they toss a white ball

They'll talk of science and history

And in between games

They'll discuss all life's mysteries

Such as girls and God

And the things we can choose

And what makes the difference

In whether we win or we lose

When that man got to the end

Of that first light's faint shadow

He offered a prayer

For that land just below

To the One whose first words

Before Creation's first night

Echoed throughout the darkness

"Let there be light!"

"Help make the most of this hill," he says

"And the years we will share

With the ones who will see

That new light standing there"

He walks back to that pole

At the top of the hill

Pondering posterity

And wondering if they will

Stop to think of the night

When this dream first took shape

Among the shadows and echoes

Of this first-lit landscape

The meter's still zeroes

It's been less than an hour

Since the light on the hill

First showed its promise and power

One more loud click echoes

The bulb fades to black

But before long the light

On that hill will be back

The field will soon be what

That man and his girl will call home

And the making of memories

For many generations begun

For now -- but not for long --

The darkness endures

And if it was watching

By now it is sure

That the light's here to stay

And the dreams it will bring

Will in due time be memories

That through decades will ring

Through the minds of who knows

How many more souls

Who will be touched by that light

And the land over which it first glows