Note: This column by Caleb Jones is from the September 2026 edition of Rural Missouri magazine. You are welcome to reprint it in your pages. We are sending new columns every month for your use.
It’s Good Till It’s Gone
by Caleb Jones
A couple months ago, my brother and I took our boys, dad and a handful of cousins and family friends on the fishing trip of a lifetime.
Our destination was Fletcher Lake, Ontario. Calling it “remote” doesn’t do it justice. There are no roads to get there — not even a cow path. The only way to get there is by floatplane. You better hope you pack enough toilet paper because you can’t just run down the road to the store.
On the bright side, we didn’t have to pack much food. The lake is full of walleye, northern pike and muskie. Cell service is nonexistent, so nobody is glued to their phone. Instead, we spent our days fishing and our evenings sitting around the lodge, playing cards and telling stories about the fish we caught (or didn’t catch).
One afternoon, we were gathered around the table eating lunch when everything suddenly went quiet. The generator had run out of fuel. The lights went out. The refrigerators stopped humming. The coffeepot quit brewing. The water pump stopped running. In an instant, the entire lodge shut down.
Thankfully, there was still plenty of fuel, and before long the generator was running again. But even that short blip made me think about how no one fully appreciates electricity enough until it is gone.
Then I learned something else I never expected. The owner of the lodge, Jeanie, grew up in Grundy County, Missouri. Nearly 1,000 miles from home, in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, we found ourselves talking about rural Missouri and the values we share.
It reminded me that no matter what state or even country you’re in, people from rural communities have a lot in common. We believe in hard work and doing what’s right. We believe in helping our neighbors — no matter how far away. All too often, when something breaks, no one is there to replace it or fix it, so you have no choice but to simply roll up your sleeves and get to work. That work ethic is what built our co-ops almost 90 years ago.
Most of us don’t worry much about electricity. We flip a switch, and the lights come on. We open the refrigerator, make coffee, charge our phones and go about our day.
It’s easy to forget the thousands of miles of power lines, substations, generation plants and cooperative employees working around the clock to make sure that electricity is there whenever you need it.
Much like the people they serve in rural Missouri, co-ops keep their heads down and quietly do their jobs, keeping your lights on, safely.
When that generator quit at a remote fishing lodge in Canada, it offered the perfect reminder of the power — and value — of our electric cooperatives.
Caleb Jones is the CEO of Missouri Electric Cooperatives. He is a member of Boone Electric Cooperative. Email him at cjones@amec.coop.