Hurricane Helene and the Musing of a Pre-Modern Historian

As a little girl, I loved nothing more than curling up on the couch with a pillow and a blanket and watching David O. Selznick’s vision of Gone with the Wind starring the incomparable Clark Gable (my first crush) and Vivian Leigh.[1] The moment I first saw the dresses, I was hooked. That film started my love of fashion from the Antebellum period and, if I am honest, even some of the colonial and medieval periods. I used to dream about what it might be like to be Scarlett O’Hara with all those gorgeous clothes or to be a courtesan in the court of Henry VIII with the exquisite dresses of the period. I did not stop to think about the lack of modern conveniences such as air conditioning, electricity, running water, or even a toilet that flushed. I knew I would fit in perfectly and be the “belle of the ball.” It might sound odd coming from a pre-modern era military historian now that I think about it since I do not even remotely study the fashion of the past. In fact, I wouldn’t say I like having to do cultural histories that focus on the first thing that made me fall in love with history.

However, those musings of that young girl were in some ways put to the test over the last two weeks. Hurricane Helene ravished my tiny hometown of Douglas, GA. I went two weeks without electricity, running water, or even the ability to flush a toilet without using a bucket of water. Thankfully, some fantastic linemen from Northern Mississippi relieved me of this new “lifestyle” yesterday when they replaced two down electrical poles and lines and brought a few of us on our road back into the modern era. So, what did I learn from all this? Well, it’s pretty simple: I cannot do without certain aspects of our contemporary life.

First—electricity. I do not know how past generations survived the heat of South Georgia (thank goodness it was not the middle of summer when 100 degrees felt like 115) without air conditioning. To be transparent, I had a small portable AC unit hooked to a generator (that was an experience trying to put gas at 9 pm in the pitch-black darkness with just a flashlight; I got so eaten up by mosquitos) that provided some air in my bedroom. However, that did not produce the kind of cooling I am accustomed to at all. In addition to the air conditioning and lights that run off electricity, we live in the country, so we have a well. Well, you need electricity to make the well run. I have a new appreciation of not having to grab a bucket of water from a stream or pond or even manually pump a well to have water in the house.

No electricity means no hot water to wash dishes or take a shower. I do not know how Caroline Ingalls, with three girls and a farmer for a husband, did to wash clothes, do dishes, and provide baths. Still, I can tell you it would have been the hard way of heating it on a wood-burning stove or over a fire, which means she couldn’t control the temperature of the water quickly. If I had to resort to that type of heating for water, I would be up a creek without a paddle. Having to resort to an outhouse might have also made me think twice. Thankfully, today, we know to fill a bathtub with water before the storm hits so we can still use our indoor toilets. Knowing this also gives me a new appreciation for my late great-grandma, who lived that way until she no longer could.

Secondly, entertainment! Today’s generation (and yes, even mine) has everything they need in the palm of their hand regarding entertainment. All smartphones can do everything from movies to books to music. Lose electricity and the internet- what’s a person to do? When you are without electricity to produce light, once it gets dark, it’s pitch black, especially out in the country. No light means you cannot even read a physical book (yes, they still exist; ask my husband about my “library” in my house). Before electricity, you might have an oil lamp to read by, but oil would not have been affordable enough to waste reading books at night because you were bored. Instead, most went to bed when the sun went down. That might mean you were in bed at 6 pm, depending on the time of year. I nearly went stir-crazy sitting around the house for just two days before cell service was restored enough to browse Facebook and TikTok at least.

Lastly, the dresses! Those dresses I dreamed of for so long as a little girl; there is no way I could even think about wearing those in the heat of South Georgia! They might be beautiful and fashionable, but think about all those layers when all you want to do is strip them off. No, thank you! Katie Scarlett O’Hara can keep her dresses if it means I can keep my jeans and shorts! I will probably always love and admire those dresses. Still, after two weeks of living without electricity or running water, I have firmly determined that I was born in the right century.

In the twenty-seven hours since the linemen from a company called TIPPAH restored my power, I have washed, dried, folded, and put away three loads of laundry with more in the washer. I have redone dishes I washed in cold, soapy water, graded papers (albeit with a hotpot on my phone since the internet has not been restored), created lectures and PowerPoints, set up a new online class for my US History II course that I will be teaching in B term, and enjoyed the hottest shower I could stand without feeling like I needed to rush. I will always return to Gone with the Wind and my first crush, Clark Gable, but I will never again wish to live in that era. It is “a bygone era, one that is gone with the wind.”[2]