B: Blackout

Blackout – 1965

October 1, 1965

Dear Jeffrey,

I was given your name and address as part of an assignment by Miss Gersch my English teacher. Everyone in our class had to pick a name out of a box and write to that person and become a pen pal. You could trade your card with someone else if you wanted to. Your card said that you were interested in sports and science. That sounded like a good match for me, so I’m writing this letter to you. I’m into some sports, mostly baseball and ice hockey. My father was a big soccer fan. He played for one of the German national teams before World War II. He and my mom both came from Germany. Since we are Jewish, it wasn’t a good place to be in the 1930s. I have two older sisters Marion and Leslie that are 8 and 5 years older than me. I like science also, especially when doing experiments.

I’m writing this letter during our 7th-period 10th grade English class. Miss Gersch said that she will mail the letters this time, but from now on any writing between the two of us, we have to pay for. 

I hope to hear from you soon.

          Your penpal,

                Harvey

—-

November 9, 1965

Dear Jeffrey,

Thanks for your last letter. You seem to be very busy with extracurricular activities in your school. I don’t do any yet. I’m thinking about maybe trying out for the school newspaper. Soccer didn’t work out for me. Too many of the other players knew too much about playing on soccer teams and made fun of the fact that I didn’t know much at all. I was too intimidated to go back a second time.

I’m not sure if this is happening to you, but on my way walking home today I noticed that none of the traffic lights were on. When I got home the elevator in our apartment building didn’t work either. I only live on the second floor. It wasn’t hard to walk up the stairs to get to our apartment. It turns out that nothing worked, power is out in the whole city. 

It’s not a problem now since there is still some daylight outside, but if we don’t get power back soon, I’m not sure how the night will turn out. We don’t have many candles in our house and though I tried our flashlight and it’s working okay, I don’t think we have any spare batteries if the batteries die. 

Cooking meals should be okay since we have a gas oven and water is flowing well. I hope the blackout lasts a while, this could be fun and with no power, they’ll probably have to cancel school tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind that at all. 

Let me know if you’re affected by this blackout. I’ll mail this out tomorrow.

           Your penpal,

                   Harvey

p.s. November 10 – It turns out the blackout lasted only 10 hours, but it was more than just where I live. The radio said that they are calling this the Great Northeast Blackout since it affected so many states. Hope it didn’t affect you. Unfortunately, the power was back before school started, so school wasn’t canceled. 

            Your penpal,

                      Harvey

—-

November 20, 1965

Dear Jeffrey,

I’m glad you wrote back to me quickly. Your family sure had more problems than mine had with that blackout. I feel bad that your father was stuck in the subway, underground for so long. I would have been pretty scared. My parents don’t drive at all, so they have to rely on subways and buses all the time. My mom’s job is within walking distance of our apartment building. My dad does take the subway but got home okay when the blackout hit.  I guess we both learned how important having more candles and batteries in our houses is. 

I hope we don’t have to deal with this kind of blackout again. Of course with enough batteries and flashlights and possibly no school, it might still be fun. At least for us. 

Till next time.

           Your penpal,

                    Harvey

To be continued in D – Deep Snow – 1969

Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section,

if you were around during the Great Northeast Blackout. I’d love to hear them.