My grandmother remembers it. Our family was lucky to live on high ground so they were left alone but hundreds of towns were not. The also only helped power the bigger citys that were growing. Took years before they even thought about sharing with the small communitys. An much of that had to be done mostly by the private sector.
Weird, because the Rural Elecrtification Administration was created in 1935 with the express purpose of bringing electricity to rural areas like East Tennessee.. Within 4 years, the REA had established more than 400 rural electric cooperatives that served nearly 300,000 homes.
Not sure where you're getting your info here..
That song is badmouthing Roosevelt by the way. The talk about papa being a southern Democrat. Then say that wish that rich men would vote like him. Then say that But Roosevelt was going to save us all... Its a sarcastic remark. Roosevelt was a republican an they saw the republicans an him as a joke.
Then after that "county got the farm and they moved to town" They were imminent domained out.
But he was lucky enough to get one of the few TVA jobs.
So he lost everything so he could get a job that he didnt need at the start.
I really hate to break this to ya, but FDR was a Democrat. Heck, I'd go so far as to say that FDR was the Democrat.
In other news, that song's not badmouthing Roosevelt at all -- it's expressing the sentiment of the time. He was, afterall, elected to four consecutive terms in office. FOUR.
It's been said that they'd have elected him King if they could.
Yes, the song says that daddy was a veteran and southern Democrat, and when they say "they oughta get a rich man to vote like that," what they mean to point out is that rich people voted for Republicans because the Republicans represented big business and corporations and rich people's interests so forth, while regular people -- working people...farmers, veterans, etc -- voted for Democrats, because Democrats represented the interests of
labor.
The family in the song lost the farm to the county through imminent domain, yes, but you missed the "mama got sick and daddy got down" part... Typhoid fever was around then, as well as smallpox and malaria. Malaria was rampant, actually -- about 1 in 3 people in the Tennessee valley had it when the TVA came in, if memory serves. The TVA actually played a huge role in reducing malaria cases in East Tn...look it up.
So, ya...mama got sick, daddy got down, county got the farm, and they moved to town...probably with what money they were paid by the TVA for a farm they'd otherwise have lost to the bank.
. That sorta thing happened a lot back then (hence the all-encompassing name of the song).. Heck, to this day, people are still losing all their worldy possessions on account of health-related problems -- some things never change, I guess.
And, yes, he got a job with the TVA and they bought a washing machine and chevrolet...which is to say, dispite being displaced, their standard of living actually went up. Did he need that job before?...no...but "let the market decide" economists and gold-standard adherents created a credit boom in the 1920s, which led to a depression in the 1930s, which led to decreased prices on farm commodities, etc..
Roosevelt didn't create that problem, though -- he implemented solutions to it.
So, no, the song's not badmouthing FDR, and it's not a sarcastic song. It's the song of the Tennessee Valley.
I'm actually quite surprised that the band hasn't made efforts to have it pulled from the airwaves and committed to the giant dustbin of history like it never happened -- because some things apparently DO change, if the band's current political leanings are taken into consideration!
Incidentally...that's the only Alabama song I can stomach.
