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I remember it. I was on the 6 train headed back to the office when it happened and it stopped right before 51st St. I had to walk from there to 28th (where the office was).
I also remember how HOT it was that day. It was in the mid-90s.
Also, the absolute SEA of people at Madison Square Park trying to grab an express bus to get to the Bronx (since the trains weren't running).
I remember it also. Tried to turn on the TV, noticed the display on the stereo and DVD player was blank. Went outside, traffic was jammed everywhere. Guy at the corner shop told me the whole U.S. had no electricity. (!) Downed a tall boy beer just in case it was Armageddon and then spoke to a few other people who informed me that it was the North East and we were still standing. I just walked around enjoying the nice weather, neighbors in my building congregated outside with candles and beach chairs after dark and just hung out. More stars were visible and I went up to the roof with my crazy neighbor Barry to marvel at a dark skyline. Barry later had too much hooch and began yelling in the streets. Fun times in Brooklyn what can I say!
I got stuck in a movie theater on Second Ave, missing the end of The Magdalene Sisters. It took me YEARS to find out how the film wound up.
It took 8 hours to get home to Jersey City via a kindly man with a big cigarette boat ferrying about 40 people at a time from the Chelsea Piers direct to Newport. As we arrived home, the lights came on (about 10 PM.)
Of course that was childsplay compared to the mess for some of the City that was the 1977 blackout.
While walking in the unbearable heat of last week, I had flashes of a recurrence. We dodged a bullet.
I remember it.. I just gave birth and was in NY Downtown Hospital when the lights flickered.. I was so fascinated by the darkness when I stared out the window all night.
My husband, mom and step-dad walked home. We lived in Crown Heights at the time so he said it wasn't too bad. He then drove my mom & stepdad home to Canarsie. I was chillen in the hospital the entire time watching the news. When I was released from the hospital, Lower Manhattan still did not have power. I stayed with my granny a few hours before it got dark, then headed home.
I tell my son every year, his birth caused a black-out!!
I worked in a place were we would blow out the fuse and loose power, and we thought oh it happened again. Then later we realized when we saw hordes of people walking in the streets saying, oh its the whole NE that lost power, ooops, this was in the UES. We bought flashlights, being in the streets and at the store felt like this eerie end of the world feeling, it was only two years after 9/11. We headed to the liquor store (everybody else had the same idea, shelves were almost empty) bought a bottle of Johnny Walker and headed downtown. It was still early and Union square was popping with bars open for business. People had their cars blasting music, some were having picnics out in the parks, Pizzerias were selling pies by the pound. When it finally got dark we were in the Village and people were playing music/drums and had those tin barrels lit up with fire (kind of like in those end of the world movies, weird). The city was so dark, the subway stairs looked like black holes in the streets from a distance, it was one of the most intriguing exciting but scary all at once. I had heard about the 77 blackout and never thought I would have experienced it in my lifetime. But yet regular people were directing traffic, regular people were giving other people rides fitting as many people as they could in their delivery vans, cars, buses. People helping the elder and pregnant women to get home, people volunteering to help people stuck in elevators, to me that's America being great...
Last edited by Ruready4Bklyn; 08-16-2016 at 08:28 AM..
Lol, My mom, dad, and I were on vacation in Myrtle Beach SC. Left Brooklyn like a day earlier. My Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins weren't so lucky however....
We (me, wife, twin infant daughters) were going up to the Catskills and made it through the light under the FDR at 96th street seconds before the power went out and heard Hannity going WTF while we went up the FDR. Fortunately most of the drive was traffic light-free and the power was on up at our place so we missed out on all the fun.
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