Rural Missouri - May 2023 - 15

start climbing up. When you got to the top you belted off
and hoped your hooks didn't kick out. "
He's lost track of how many poles he's climbed over the
years, but does know that in one year when the co-op kept
records he climbed 100 poles. The most he did in one day
was 13. " There were a lot of times when we would build a
three-phase bank and we would go up the pole and stay
until lunchtime. Then we would come down, eat and then
go back up, " he recalls.
Pole climbing was a way of life for Junior and his fellow
linemen, at least until the 1990s when bucket trucks made
their debut at the Mansfi eld-based co-op. " When I came
here in 2018 he was 68 years old. I was told Junior was
one of the best climbers we had, " says Se-Ma-No Electric
Manager Dan Sisco.
Linemen there still climb a
lot of poles when the terrain is
too rough to get a truck where
it needs to be. Junior was still
able to climb last fall when
the co-op practiced pole-top
rescue.
A lot has changed during
Junior's career. He can
remember using jackhammers
or blasting holes into the
tough rock in order to set
a pole. These days carbidetoothed
bits turned by diggerderrick
trucks grind the rock
into powder.
Linemen in the early
days learned on the job
rather than at a school like
State Technical College of
Missouri or Ozark Technical
Community College. Veteran
linemen passed on their skills
and taught the new ones how
to stay safe in a dangerous
whatever lineman was on call for the evening. Junior's
wife, Colleen, took a lot of outage calls. Often Junior would
return home after repairing a line only to fi nd out another
trouble call had come in.
I just felt like I owed it. I wanted
to work and I was able to do it.
I just stayed with it. It's one of
the best jobs I think there is.
- Junior Curtis,
Se-Ma-No Electric lineman
Junior says he's been working since he was 12 years
old when his neighbors hired him to put up hay on their
farm. He never considered quitting until he reached 50
years at the co-op. " It just felt like I owed it, " he says. " I
wanted to work and I was able to do it. I just stayed with
it. It's one of the best jobs I think there is. "
He grew up in the community of Coldspring, " just a
wide spot in the road. " Like a lot of people his age, he can
remember living without electricity. He recalls his parents
putting cardboard on the walls to block the wind. Heat
came from a wood cookstove
and water for laundry and
baths was heated in a large
iron kettle. Entertainment
was listening to the " Grand
Ole Opry " on Saturday nights
using a battery-powered radio.
Later the family moved to a
house that did have electricity.
" It had a sink but didn't have
running water. Dad put it in.
We didn't get a TV until 1958
or '59. Channel 3 and 10,
that's all we got. And we didn't
really get 10. We could hear it
but couldn't get it. "
The power went out a lot,
Junior says, forcing the family
to resort to coal-oil lanterns
and candles for light. " We
were on White River, " he adds
with a laugh, poking fun
at the neighboring electric
cooperative.
With the retirement of
Kevin Finley in 2022 with 47
trade. Surprisingly, Junior says he was never injured on
the job except for the inevitable cuts and scrapes. " All I
can tell you is we just had to watch it, " Junior says. " I
tried to think ahead what's going to happen and that kind
of helped me. "
He did suffer some painful wasp stings and dog bites.
" One year I got bit three times, " he says.
While Junior says he enjoyed the outdoor work, one
thing he won't miss is the many ice storms. " I always
worried about them and what's it going to do, " he says. " A
lot of times it didn't amount to nothing and you would feel
better then. "
He says the worst in his memory happened in 1996. He
remembers the ice being so thick that it formed a sheet on
the chain-link fence surrounding the Seymour substation.
" It came in around the 10th of November and run
through Thanksgiving, " Junior says of the outages the
devastating storm caused. " I had some contractors I was
running. Their wives brought up turkey on Thanksgiving
for us to eat. I couldn't believe that. We had turkey out
there in the ice. "
After hours, the co-op would forward its phones to
years of service and now Junior with 50 years, Se-Ma-No
Electric has lost a lot of experience. " We are losing a lot of
knowledge, " admits Hayden Dennis, Se-Ma-No's operations
manager. " When the lines went out Junior could tell you
pretty much where to start looking. And where it's at on
the system. And how to get there. "
Now retired, Junior says he wouldn't mind going back
to those simpler times. He's even asked the convenience
store in Mansfi eld to stock some of his favorite candy bars
from his youth, with mixed results - most they've never
heard of. He plans to spend his retirement working in his
two gardens, hunting and " grabbing " suckers out of the
clear-fl owing streams nearby.
Mansfield
He admits changing times may
have infl uenced his decision to retire.
Se-Ma-No Electric, like a lot of electric
co-ops, is getting ready to move
lineworker work orders from paper
forms to iPads. " I'm no computer
man, " Junior says with a smile. " I
wouldn't even know how to turn
one on. "
MAY 2023 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 15
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Rural Missouri - May 2023

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