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La Crosseli doesn't take much to turn on 7 year-old Robert Brcidcl these day s. In fad. just a flip of the light switch will do it.Mr Brcidcl and his sister. Rosina Alt. who could light 70 candles when her next birthday rolls 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 modem conveniences.When the lime 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 lor the former dairy and tobacco farmer and his sister who still live at the end ol Brcidcl Coulee in a iwo-story home their grandfather built in 1865 when he relumed tiom Civil War duty. He had arrived in the United States from Germany in 1865 and built with wood cut from his 120-acrc 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 ol the move he finally madejust three month* ago to install electricity.But just because Robert Breidel and his sister became members of the Vcmon Electric 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 their first lighted Christmas tree.We aren't set up for lights yet. Rosina said, pointing out there are no outlets in their 125-year-old house that has been home to three generations of BrcidclsWhen he pul in electricity in September. Mr. Breidel installed just four lights, one in the kitchen, which also doubles as a bedroom for Mr Breidel; oik* in Rosina s bedroom, another on the porch: and a fourth light in the cellar that set ves 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 every one else in Breidel Coulee?We just never thought much about it. Mr Breidel said, getting a nod of 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 Mississippi River. 15 miles to the north fhey just never missed what theynever had experienced, they figuredIt was m l%l that Rosina moved ''back home utter she buried her husband, whom she found dead beneath the tractor on their small river-bottom tarin 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 15 Sep 2017
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