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La Crosseli doesn't take much u turn on 77-year-old Robert Breidel these days In fact. |u-t j flip of the light switch will do it.Mr Breidel and his sister. Rosin a Alt. who could light 70 candles when her next birthday tolls around, don't intend to buy a new IV. a new refrigerator or lots of household appliances for Christmas, even though they've never had any of these nn*dem conveniences.• When the tunc comes, we ll have everything we wish, but now we're satisfied with what we got. the oldest resident of BreidelCoulee said.What they got is electricity.In a way. Christmas came early for the tormcr dairy and tobacco tanner and his sister who still live at the end of Breidel Coulee in a two story home their grandfather built in 1865 when he returned from Civil War duty. He had arrived in the United States from Germany in 1X63 and built with wood eut from his 120-acre farm the home that Mr Breidel. his sister and six brothers and sisters were bom in.“I guess I have to say it's the best thing I ever did.' Mr Breidel said of the move he finally madejust three months ago to instaii electricityBut just because R«bcrt Breidel and his sister became members of the Vernon Elcvtnc Cooperative in September doesn't mean they are going to break the bank buying all kinds of electrical appliances In fact, they don't even intend to have I heir first lighted Christmas treeWe aren't set up for lights yet,” Rosina \aid. pointing out there are no outlets in their 125 year-old house that has been home to three generations of BreideNWhen he put in electricity in September. Mr Breidel installed just four lights, one in the kitchen, which also doubles as a bedroom for Mr. Breidel: one in Rosina s bedroom, another on the porch; jnd a fourth light in the cellar that serves as a food storage room because the home never has had an ice box or a refrigerator.Why wait so long to tap into the same electric line that serves everyone else in Breidel Coulee *We just never thought much about it. Mr. Breidel said, getting a nod o! approval from his sister, who never had electricity ir. her home, either, after she married and moved with her husband to the vil lage of Trempealeau on the Missis sippi River. 15 miles to the north. They just never missed what thevTVI l/sillSAnever had experienced, they figuredIt was in IWI that Rosina moved back home’ after she buried her husband, whom she found dead beneath the tractor on their small river-bottom larm whenPlease turn to Page A3
Newspaper Details
Country Today
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Dec 16, 1987
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Badgerlink
WI, USA 12 Aug 2017
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