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Torontoist wasn't around during the blackout three years ago today - we were founded a year later - but that doesn't mean we don't have fond memories of the day, and we bet you do, too. God knows we talk about ourselves enough, so we want to know from you, loyal Torontoist readers: what did you do during the "Great North American Blackout?" Let us know in the comments.
Happy Anniversary!
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TIP US OFF
Well, I'd just gotten home from another crappy shift at my crappy job in a automobile heating-a/c assembly factory. Why, oh why, couldn't the power have gone our 5 hours earlier?
I wasn't living the city at the time, so I already knew my neighbours. We sat around talking about how the Yanks immediately blamed Canada for it.
I was on the first Via train out of the blackout, and by chance was seated beside the then deputy publisher of The Star, who of course started freaking out because News was happeneing and he was trapped on a train headed in the opposite direction of News.
I got to see Radiohead outdoors that weekend.
Good timees.
Oh, and that would be the same trip where I was accused of personally destroying newspapers forever by reading online. I've mentioned that on here before.
We hunted for batteries (the guy in the nearby corner store was charging $3 for water and $5 for batteries, and was grinning ear to ear saying, "Special prices today!" We thought that was very neighborly.)
We walked up and down Yonge Street to watch the parade streaming north, hung out in Ramsden Park for a bit, and then came home to enjoy the fact that we could actually see stars from our balcony.
We should make it an annual thing.
I spent the evening drinking whiskey with my family on our back patio and enjoying the fact that we could actually see the stars. The first time I ever drank with my family, and the first time I could see stars in Toronto! Good times.
I was playing tennis in the middle of the day when the power went out. I didn't really know that anything was wrong until I got back inside my house, and all the lights were off - I figured it was just my apartment, so I reset the lights. No luck. So I called my dad, who was up at the cottage, to ask what the landlord's number was to call him, and he told me that the power was off there, too. Which was kind of funny.
I spent the night walking around with my friends, trying to avoid getting hit by cars, and listening to the news on a small portable radio. The power came on right after I went to bed (which was about 5 AM), which, of course, woke me right up as only the sound of every appliance ever turning on can.
And the next morning, I was woken up at 8 AM by the woman who lives below me playing her very loud Albanian music. It was a good day and a bad morning.
I witnessed a cabbie get punched in the face (from outside the cab through the window) and robbed right in front of two cops on foot at Yonge & Dundonald. I ran up to the cab and asked if he was OK. He was shaken and said he wasn't going to bother reporting it because the guy will never get caught. Shocked, I walked over to the cops and they said they would never catch him on foot and they had other things to worry about. A couple of minutes later, I saw two stores get their windows smashed and the opportunistic jerks taking stereo equipment. People suck.
I missed getting trapped in a subway tunnel by about 30 seconds, was on the platform when it happened.
Spent the rest of the day with my then-boyfriend and his family, enjoying how dark it got, and then did crossword puzzles by candlelight.
We were having a giant day of bread and cookie baking. All the dough was ready to go. But we ended up driving home, picking up hitch hikers, appreciating that only canadian pedestrians volunteer to direct traffic in such a situation. Later on that night, armed with the solar powered lanterns from the garden, we walked to a friend`s house where we sat quietly looked at the stars and noticed the absence of the hum of the electricity grid.
Mia in Japan
my wife was in an operating room 5 minutes from undergoing surgery on a torn achilles tendon. surgery cancelled. we went home and had a party. the next day she underwent the only surgery that took place at east york general that day.
At this time three years ago, I was laying in my neighbour's backyard admiring the stars...and getting my face trampled by her dog.
We were one of the last to have power restored after three days, so the third day I went to a big BBQ where we cooked up everything that was in everyone's freezers, including my neighbour's 12 trout that he had caught the previous weekend.
Funniest memory: looking at an apartment building where the western third of the building was without power, but the other two-thirds had it. I would have been pissed off if the guy on the other side of the wall had power five hours before I did.
I remember an excellent interview that afternoon on CBC 99.1FM with a blind man, who provided tips for moving around when you can't see what's in front of you.
I thought they should have won a broadcasting award for that interview.
Interestingly enough, I was working for the Emergency Management Department back in Oshawa - a summer job to pay the tuition. I was driving home when the power went out - I remember people getting out of their cars to direct traffic. I had to turn around when I got home to go back to work. It was supposed to my last week of work. I ended up working 25 hours straight - probably about 40 out of 48 - alongside the police chief, fire chief, a bunch of Durham Region mayors, and other emergency personel. We were on a generator, so I really didn't experience the lack of electricity. I made a lot of coffee for the important people and sent a lot of faxes.
Robonto was in New York City for the blackout. after meeting up with Moby at Teany, and getting into a subway car to go back home, it hit. I had to walk the tunnel and walk from the village area all the way up to the 100s... only to hit street parties and a steamy night.
Best NYC night ever.
My band was supposed to play a show at the velvet elvis in oshawa.. it was obviously cancelled. ended up barbequing a frozen pizza... which ended up tasting like a burnt frozen pizza. it was a glorious few days.
i also had to work double shifts manning the gas station i was working at the time. i sat in my car telling people we were closed, and by the third day had the pumps filled with people expecting the power to come on "any time now". most of them left after an hour or two, some stayed for the whole thing. craziness.
In the Rogers call centre, the lights flickered, but the generators came on. However, the phones weren't working. End of work.
The Sherbourne bus driver was letting any and everyone on, no fare. Which was the last time I remember thinking "Hey, those TTC bus drivers are alright".
I spent the evening in a lukewarm hot tub on the roof of a condo building at King/Bathurst with my future mortal enemy, I mean ex-girlfriend. Just chilled out and drank wine and looked at the stars.
The next day, the power still wasn't on in a lot of the downtown core. We had breakfast at Shanghai Cowgirl(open somehow), and drank barely cool beer on the patio of the Black Bull all day.
I was trying to avoid everything that Marc L described (I live right on Yonge and College). But nothing happened and I missed a wonderful night looking at the stars.... sigh.
I was living on Dovercourt Avenue in the middle of Little Portugal at the time, and I remember quite well the following things:
1.) People directing traffic at every Bathurst intersection because the cops were too busy with a thousand other things
2.) Impromptu drum circles in Trinity-Bellwoods Park
3.) Skateboarders and rollerbladers doing stunts in the middle of the Queen/Spadina intersection, lit with those rave necklace glow in the dark thingies
4.) My roommates being too chicken to go looting at the Dufferin Mall (CHICKEN, I say!)
5.) People jumping the fence at Alexandra Park for night-swimming to beat the (ridiculous) heat
6.) One bank machine powered with emergency power working (it was on Spadina) and a lineup of about two hundred people
7.) Having to barbecue all the meat in the house and the neighbours on either side doing the same so it became a huge neighborhood party
It was pretty awesome, all things considered. Even if I didn't get to go looting.
- briefly considered looting urban outfitters, as we were right outside when it happened. decided to be good citizens
- walked to the park at dundas and augusta where we sat for a few hours, enjoying the sun and quiet, and eating soft serve from an icecream truck
- meandered up to college and bathurst, sat up on someone's rooftop patio and had a bbq, also went to amato's. it was scorching hot in there with a very long lineup
- took the bathurst bus all the way north to get home. despite the crowds, wasn't much slower than a normal rush hour day. didn't have to pay fare!
- sat on my front steps listening to the crackle of my walkman and looking at the stars
(can we do this every year?)
I lay on my back, trying to breathe shallowly, listening to the Frida soundtrack on my Zen. Ate a shitload of ice cream. Later, I sat on the back porch killing my neck looking at the stars. It was one of the first times I remember being truly awestricken -- the other time seeing my brother Wesley shortly after he was born. My then-not-boyfriend sat on his roof, lucky bastard. I was too afraid of raccoons.
I was working at a small production company when the lights went out. We assumed we'd blown the circuit breakers until we went to the pub next door and found the power was off there too.
One of our editors who was a conspiracy theory afficianado sat outside listening to the news on his car radio. He ran back in and said the radio was reporting explosions in NYC and that the blackout had been caused by terrorism.
We all went and listened to the radio and found out he was wrong, but it was pretty exciting for a few minutes.