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Showing posts with label flashback. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flashback. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Where were you 10 years ago today? Remembering the "Big Blackout" of our generation

So ten years ago today, something happened that was kind of a big deal in the Northeast. If you lived here during that time, you will remember that today marks the 10th anniversary of the biggest blackout of our generation. Wow! In many ways, I can't believe it was 10 years ago already, but in other ways, it feels like a life time ago!

Ten years ago today, I was:

  • A teenager just wanting to move out of my parents' house! Ahh, life without bills. How naive I was!
  • Working at a gas station/convenience mart when the power suddenly went out. People were pumping gas on our digital pumps and they all ended up getting free gas because we couldn't 'prove' how much they got. 
  • Listening to our customers' moods go from excited about the monumental event unfolding to annoyed about how crazy people were driving on the roads without functional traffic lights to worried about how long a blackout during the dog days of summer would last to relaxed and wanting to buy and subsequently drink all the beer we had in the store.
  • Counting money by candlelight scared out of my mind that area knuckleheads would try to break into the store since our security system was down (we only had a simple deadbolt on the front door, made of glass).
  • Wanting to go home because work was driving me crazy, only to get more annoyed once I got home since I was trying to read books by candlelight.
  • Hoping the store would be closed the next day so I wouldn't have to go in.
  • Waiting to hear from my aunt who was going into labor with my baby cousin!


So where were you 10 years ago today? Were you affected by the big Northeast blackout of 2003? Leave your story in the comments :)