<p>It was a very memorable event for us. We were just about to fly out of JFK to go on a cruise leaving from Barcelona and had just approached the boarding gate platform to check in when the lights flickered and then the power went out. We immediately went into survival mode and found the one outlet to charge our phones (verizon worked, ATT didn’t). It was a surreal time period. I think we actually left before the lights were fully restored the next day after spending one night sleeping on the floor. The airlines gave everyone blankets so we created nests amongst our bags. They got emergency lights on some of the runways and the planes trickled out. The only baggage inspection was a cursory one by the employees.</p>
<p>Once we got to Barcelona, we were immediately schlepped onto a double decker bus (there were a couple of dozen of us from NYC) through Spain and into France where our cruise ship was finishing up it’s first port of call in Cannes. We took a tender to the ship, they fed us a meal and then we went to bed. When we woke up the next morning we were in a different country!</p>
<p>I was at my office on the 22nd floor of an office building at 7th Avenue & 38th Street. We waited for awhile all together and then we had to leave… a colleague who lives in a loft building on 26th Street offered several of us the opportunity to stay over rather than fight our way home since we had no idea how long it would last. One of our colleagues used a cane and it took us some time to get to 26th Street. She could not climb the 9 flights to colleague’s apartment or locate a cab to get her to her apartment in the East Village so we met a neighbor of my colleague on the second floor. She was there with her college-aged daughter. Both of them had plans to leave for the weekend but clearly would not be going anywhere. She opened a bottle of wine, threw together a huge salad and we enjoyed ourselves. My colleague who could not climb stairs stayed there. I climbed upstairs with my co-workers, another woman and I slept together in pull-out couch. We went back downstairs in the morning where co-worker was able to leave to get home to NJ. Those of us commuting by LIRR out of luck. DH took a chance and drove into Manhattan and stood outside of her loft building calling for me to come downstairs… sort of like Rapunzel… we drove home and had ourselves a family beach day. Older d was still in high school and was working at a temple nursery school whose power was restored so she was able to go to work that morning. Had been able to reach them intermittently by cell phone. My next door neighborhood spent the evening on a bench in Bryant Park before the LIRR finally got back up and running.</p>
<p>Crazy stories and memories, huh?!!!</p>
<p>Oooooooo, bookmama – garment industry job??</p>
<p>We missed out on the fun in the dark since we were in MA… :(</p>
<p>No Very Happy… publishing industry in one of the garment center buildings that have been somewhat repurposed. We are not there any longer but it was a great building and I had a Hudson River view. Russell Simmons Phat Farm had the penthouse in the building and I got to see Kimora Lee and many models coming going… not to mention Reverend Al Sharpton and his entourage as well as Venus and Serena Williams.
I am in another building now that is nowhere as cool on 31st St…</p>
<p>Other blackouts- I remember 1965. I was in my bedroom at home playing a Beach Boys record on my portable stereo(?)…home with my mom and little brother. We had no idea that it was anything more than local. My dad was still in his office on Lexington Avenue and made it home sometime after midnight as my aunt drove into Manhattan to pick him up along with her daughter who had begun her first job straight out of high school. </p>
<p>In 1977, DH and I lived in Brooklyn Heights, newly married. He drove to work at JFK and left in the morning. I stayed upstairs on the 9th floor, trying to stay cool and not opening the refrigerator. My mom kept me informed about all the looting whenever I checked in with her and the rest of the family.</p>
<p>I remember '65 very well. I was in 3rd grade and home with my sister and dad. My mom was at U of Bridgeport taking a class for her Masters. I was very scared she wouldn’t be able to get home. </p>
<p>'77. I was at a Boz Scaggs concert at Lincoln Center. We had to walk back in the pitch dark to my sister’s apt. on 46th & 1st and then walk up 15 flights of stairs. Had no idea what was going on in other parts of the city.</p>
<p>Was in midtown NYC, standing by the printer waiting for the Kohl’s Department Store earnings release to print, so I could jump on the earnings call. (was a retail analyst in investment industry). At first we thought it was a power surge on our floor, as our computers didn’t go off immediately because we had battery backups.</p>
<p>I was in the Chrysler Center, which had emergency ventilation, so it wasn’t horrible. Husband walked to my office from Long Island City, arriving around 6pm. A few smart people in the office ordered food quickly, so we opened up the alcohol stash (European company - we had wine & beer parties monthly) and had a party in the conference room. </p>
<p>I had a battery-powered radio at my desk, so when we heard the PATH trains were running from 33rd to Hoboken by midnight, we walked to the station with other NJ colleagues and when we got to Hoboken, found an NJ Transit diesel train. Think I got home by 3am, after driving one colleague to her car a few miles away at a bus park/ride lot. </p>
<p>I remember all the people lying on 42nd street, since they closed Grand Central. </p>
<p>Best story: A colleague who lived in Long Island walked over the Queensborough Bridge and bought the last bike from Sports Authority and biked 15 miles home.</p>
<p>Thinking about '65, I remember being at home alone, reading Mary O’Hara’s book Thunderhead. I lit a candle so that I could continue reading. It was later discovered that the flame was licking a lampshade which was slightly scorched! Luckily, someone came home before I burned the house down. I have no idea where everyone else was, or how my father got home from NYC. I have the vague memory that he and others may have gotten out and walked up the tracks to some place where he could call my mother and she might have driven down to get him.</p>
<p>Funny how many of us had future husbands who lived in Brooklyn Heights! 
My H was living there when I met him, and I was in Hoboken.</p>
<p>My mother has actually had MUCH longer outages in the last few years, what with all of the big storms.</p>
<p>I was shopping with my mom at Gordon’s (I’m not sure if this is a national or regional store, but it’s a place with bulk food). They had a back-up generator so the power just blinked or browned out- can’t remember. I remember it briefly doing something that caught our attention. While we were in line, we heard on the radio that all the local power was out. Just on a hunch, we went and got a few giant packs of water bottles. I don’t know what prompted it, but after so many “terror” things in the last few year, we figured why not? Good thing as they were sold out within the next like 2 hours. </p>
<p>On the way home, we heard on the radio that at least half of the country was out.</p>
<p>The other thing I remember is that it was that it was SO FREAKING hot that week.</p>
<p>I remember the first few hours, the neighbors were all crowding around a truck in one of their driveways listening to the radio, waiting to hear if we were under attack. We thought it was a terrorist attack. I was a middle schooler at the time and our parents were so distracted the entire day that we ran completely amok, running around the neighborhood barefoot in the dark, chasing helicopter spotlights. We made hot dogs and macaroni and cheese over a fire pit. My friend’s mom made us eat over a pound of salami afraid it would spoil, and then was mad at us for eating it when the power came back on. We lost power at around 4pm (I remember because Oprah was just starting) and it came back on around 8am the next morning-- every appliance in the house turned on at maximum volume and woke up the whole house.</p>
<p>Romani-- I remember the heat, too. We spent most of the day in the pool. Thankfully it was only the one day. I have a vivid memory of sitting around the kitchen table, my friends trying to teach me to play poker, and I was too hot to pay attention.</p>
<p>Ema, I actually was living in a different part of Michigan at the time. Ours was out for about 4 days. This was a place where our power was ALWAYS out though :(.</p>
<p>My coworker in the West Bloomfield region said his power was out for a week-- he loses power a lot. It must have varied a lot all over. I was lucky!</p>
<p>Brooklyn Heights was the place to be in the late '70s!</p>
<p>Very Happy… for sure… If we win the lottery, Brooklyn Heights will once again be the place to be…that’s because after living in a house for so many years, a one bedroom would not cut it. We would need 2 bedroom, preferably with a terrace and we would need a garage because having been there and done that with alternate side of the street parking, that’s something we wouldn’t wish to relive. With all of that, we have to remember to buy lottery tickets!</p>
<p>Alternate side of the street parking . . . . . Oh gawd, just kill me now.</p>
<p>Also, if we lived in Brooklyn Heights, I would insist on being on the view side of that street, the name of which escapes me now.</p>
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<p>OMG, so true!</p>
<p>H lived on Willow St, IIRC, catty-cornered to a gorgeous place that was used as an exterior in the movie Moonstruck. I’d be satisfied with that block! :)</p>
<p>Is Columbia Heights the street you are thinking of?</p>
<p>YES, Columbia Heights! DH’s little walk-up apartment was on the other side of the street and faced the rear. Not much view.</p>
<p>We lived on Remsen Street corner of Hicks on the 9th floor of 10 story apartment building, with spectacular skyline view but standard L-shaped one-bedroom. The building went co-op with no insider pricing. Had we had the opportunity to have bought another apartment and created a larger apartment, we likely would have stayed…probably still be on waiting list for garage space in one of the two garages in the neighborhood.</p>