POWERGRAMS

half of Alabama Power's years in business. They can smile and shake their heads, now, at the times when each of the Williams can say "I nearly quit that day." They laugh at memories of not-so-Southern-Style foremen. "I worked for some rough people … but I'm that way to a degree," Elvin said. They all recall when their work was done with derricks, ropes, winches, hand tools and strong arms. During the '70s and '80s, Edsel said, linemen climbed poles 20-25 times every day checking circuits on street lights. "It was a lot different times back then," said Edsel. "Everything was hard work." They each remember climbing tall power poles to attach lines, going up into swaying treetops to saw branches after storms and facing other anxious aspects of what every lineman still confronts in their everyday exposure to electric current. Elvin had customers raise firearms at him on two occasions. "You get used to it," said Elvin. "You can't do this type work and get scared." "But there are days you get up there and you just don't feel comfortable," Edsel said. Each Williams brother accepted the perils as a part of having a good job and wages that kept them off their family dairy farm in Clay County, or away from an iron mill furnace job, or from becoming just another country pulpwooder. Now they all find humor in one uneasy task linemen no longer undertake: bill collections. "It used to be if they (customers) had the money, you cut them back on," Elvin said. Elvin once took $800 cash a customer had spread on the hood of a truck under the moonlight at 11 p.m. Morris ventured into a trailer park late one evening to reconnect power for a woman who paid her bill in pennies. He didn't hang around to count it. Edsel was bitten by a Chihuahua and had to be drug-tested for his pains. Another time a customer gave him $1,000 in $100 bills as Edsel fled the scene, only to realize down the road he didn't have the cash. He was only able to breathe easy after circling back and finding the customer honest enough to return the money that had slipped to the ground as Edsel first sped away. The Williams brothers' exploits are legendary among local operating linemen. Field Service Supervisor Wade Davis delights in reminding the brothers of tales that can actually be told in mixed company. During a meter change, Edsel opened his pickup door one day to find a goat pushing his way into the cab. "He got me scared," but after a short tug of war between his feet and the goat's head, Edsel won out and drove off. Morris was making a night service call in Talladega when he stepped into an open septic tank, dropping waist deep in the muck as he used a flashlight to reach safety on the other side. Edsel, who carried a 12-gauge shotgun in his company truck, saw "some kind of varmint" crossing a creek during the height of one hunting season. He got out and pursued the animal to the creek bank, which promptly collapsed, hurling Edsel flat on his back in the creek bed during 20-degree weather. Edsel later used a .38 pistol to shoot holes in a burning transformer, which released the oil and ended the fire on the pole but began another blaze on the ground. And snakes, it seems, are the bane of every lineman. Edsel readily admits to an extreme fear of the serpents that rule much of the wooded territory workers frequent. He used his wits and handy bush axe to slice in two a nine-rattle rattlesnake the last time he stepped on one. Elvin was 75 feet up a transmission pole when he came face to face with a snake sliding out of a woodpecker hole. "Snakes can get in strange places," he said. "You can't think about stuff like that or you'd never get anything done," Howard said. The Williams brothers' proudest moments on the job were during storm restoration efforts. They particularly remember the aftermath of Hurricane Frederic in 1979, which up to that point was the most damaging weather event in Alabama Power history. Howard said the worst destruction he ever saw was assisting after Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992. Edsel said his supervisor usually kept him at home to take care of local problems when other linemen traveled for restoration efforts. "A lot of times customers wouldn't show their appreciation, but the ones that did made it worthwhile," Edsel said. The Williams brothers were all able to work together at times during their careers with Alabama Power, although a majority of their 160 years were spent working separately. Howard and Morris worked longest in Ashland, Edsel spent the most years in Dadeville and Elvin has worked longest in Alex City. As they ate lunch at Jake's restaurant, they lamented being unable to join together other than usually at Christmas. "We don't get together near as much as we should," Edsel said. 26

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