My folks had an all electric home and all was well until the Blizzard of ‘78. No heat, no lights, no nothin’. The fire department had to get us out on snow mobiles. Later that winter we had a 100-year ice storm and made it out to my grandma’s. She had a gas furnace and gas stove. What a difference.
After that, my folks put in a wood stove and I have always had a gas stove at my house. Because I could still light the stove and have some heat and cook, too.
Sothern CA had separate companies for gas and electricity, massive competition. Northern
CA has PG&E.
I worked at the gas company after one year of college.
my mother grew up with a wood cook stove.
So we moved out from ticky tacky tract home to a cabin in the woods, and put in a wood burning wood stove.
We had lots of firewood from the trees around our home.
Us 3 boys slept in the living room, and parents in main bedroom and a giant walk in closet was made into a bedroom for our sister.
We boys were in high school.
There was a dam and a lake a mile up the gated road and we spent a lot of tine swimming and fishing, and catching rattle snakes.