As I leave Washington after 22 years, I am grateful to many people, but among those for whom I feel a special sense of gratitude include the members of the Illinois rural electric cooperatives.

And I say this not because I happen to be one of your customers!

You have accomplished a great deal and I am confident you will continue to contribute much in the future.

U.S. Senator Paul Simon

Some of you who read this will recall my telling you my personal history. My grandparents were dairy farmers in Wisconsin. About half of my relatives were farmers. When I was a boy, my father served as a Lutheran pastor in a congregation where probably one-third of the membership were farmers. Visiting my relatives or other farmers, I can vividly remember homes without electricity. I was fascinated by the kerosene lamps, but less impressed by other features of life without electricity. Not only were there inconveniences, lack of refrigeration, for example, meant eating food that was less safe and sometimes less appetizing.

In those days almost all farmers had a few hogs, chickens, work horses (not all farmers had tractors) and cows. Milking of cows was done by hand in barns that would not meet today's sanitary standards. When you filled a bucket with milk, you poured it into a creamery can, through a piece of cloth that caught any dirt or lumps or other impurities. Then, when the creamery can was filled, it took two of us who were younger to haul it to the end of the road where the creamery truck came to pick it up. We would save some cream from the top before taking it out. There was no refrigeration at any point before the driver of the truck placed it on the truck and took it to the creamery. (Why we called them creameries and not dairies, I don't know.) My assumption is that the truck was not refrigerated either, but I don't know that for sure. But this I do know:

Milk was not as safe and sanitary as it is today. Undulant fever, sometimes called "milk disease," was not a rarity. Young people today probably have never heard of it.

"The good old days" were not so good for farmers, nor for people who ate farm products, which is all the rest of us.

The REA changed life for farmers directly, and indirectly helped everyone.

When I visit a farm today it has everything I have in an apartment in Washington, D.C. And my non-farm home on 11 acres in the country near Makanda, Ill., (population 402) has the same conveniences as a house in nearby Carbondale has.

People of vision created the REA and people of vision continue to support it.

And electricity is only part of it. Many farms did not have telephones, and those they had were usually party lines that took a few cranks to get an operator — and then you knew all the neighbors had the ability to listen. I recall visiting a farm home while I attended college, and I spotted the old-fashioned phone on the wall. Later at the dinner table I jokingly said to the eight-year-old girl, "I bet you listen to what the neighbors have to say." She replied, "No, but mama does." Our hostess blushed and I fumbled badly to try to dig myself out of the awkward situation I had created. Telephone cooperatives today have brought modern telephones to most areas unserved by the major telephone companies. And the neighbors can't listen.

The REA's influence has not come from sitting back home and reading reports and then writing letters, important as that is. REA leaders have been regular visitors to Washington, where you have buttonholed senators and representatives on behalf of REA and rural communities. You are effective.

One of the changes that I did not like is seeing too

U. S. Senator Paul Simon will retire from public service in January, following 40 years of distinguished service to the citizens of Illinois. In 1982, he was a recipient of the Illinois Electric Cooperative Public Service Award. The author of 16 books, Simon will head the Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he will teach and write.

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many rural communities wither on the vine. I would love to have some creative efforts by the electric cooperatives, encouraging small business and industrial development in rural communities. That would permit more of your sons and daughters to stay where you live, if they so choose, and also build a base of customers for your utilities. When I leave the Senate I will be going to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale to teach, and also to head a public policy institute there. Perhaps we could have a brainstorming session at the public policy institute to consider some of these alternatives.

One thing I know: My leaving the Senate will not diminish my support for electric cooperatives.

Some years ago, when I headed an effort to stop legislation that would have harmed the electric cooperative movement, your national association gave me the Legislator of the Year award. That award should really go to all of you who have taken an interest in the cause, not only to protect yourselves, but to build a better tomorrow for your children and generations to come. I thank you.

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