The Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Church in Park Slope sent in this story of blackout 2003:
My stories of that day aren’t great, but small. But I offer them anyway.
1. People began gathering on the front stoop of Old First. We found
a battery operated radio, so everyone could keep up on the news, and as
expected, it became a little party. We watched the buses get fuller and
fuller and more packed as they drove by.2. Daniel, the Korean grocer on Seventh Avenue, was open. So
creative and inventive. He had rigged up car batteries to his coolers
and his cash register, and he was doing a rousing business for us all.
He covered all his vegetables with plastic and ice, and it was so cool
and so much fun to shop there that evening.3. That night we saw the stars. So wonderful, from President Street
we could look up and see the stars. Everyone was sitting on their
stoops, and talking to passersby, and offering to strangers some beer
and food.4. And the next morning, mid-morning, my wife finally walked in the
front door, finally home from work. I had had no fear for her, despite
not knowing where she was or spent the night. We all seemed to know
that people would do what they could do, and it would be fine.5. And then none of us got anything done that afternoon, because,
being New Yorkers, we had to talk and talk and talk about it all.
I have many fond memories of the black out. Playing games by candlelight with my daughter, everyone congregating on their stoops with candles and portable radios – a real feeling of community but my most favorite thing – Hagen Daas giving away all the ice cream they had because it was all going to melt!
My blackout story is this – we had our second ivf treatment that afternoon. Afterwards, we had stopped for lunch at Barneys – There’s a nice spot called Fred’s on the top floor. Very swank, but we felt we deserved a treat after the ordeal.
Jose, the man I often hire to drive me around for work had picked us up and brought us home to Brooklyn. I believe I immediately went to bed to rest. It must have been about 5:30pm – and the light wents out. Since I needed to stay somewhat sedentary, we did not go out. We realized we didn’t have a transistor radio, so we couldn’t find out what was going on. From my window I could hear people on the street. It was incredibly hot that night – sweltering actually. My husband couldn’t sleep a wink because of the heat.
It felt like a very long night. And it was very, very quiet. I wish I had looked at the stars – I can’t remember if I did. I was too worried about the procedure that had happened earlier in the day. The excitement and expectation – Jose was stuck in traffic for something like 5 hours after dropping us off. I bought a battery powered radio the next day – just in case. For the next time.