 While
one would expect that Bill (who gives the impression in
the film of being no fool) would have been unlikely to allow
strangers to film into his family life without some compensation,
there were probably other motivations also at work. Life
on a farm involved a lot of routine and drudgery. This new
experience of working with a film crew could be an interesting
diversion. Indeed, Bip and Ruth, the two youngest Parkinson
children, enjoyed the experience so much that they did not
want to attend school when shooting was underway. Robert
Snyder (in an interview filmed for Power for the Parkinsons)
also noted that Bill, like many of those farmers who were
among the first to get electricity, was undoubtedly proud
of that fact. As an early supporter of rural electrification,
he took pride in helping that program along. Yet, while
the Parkinsons obviously enjoyed this new experience, their
prominence in the final film does not seem to have changed
their essentially modest personalities. Life quickly returned
to normal for the Parkinsons. With the passage of time,
few in the community even remembered that the family had
been featured in Power and the Land.
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