Last night marked the 30th anniversary of the great blackout of 1977.
The New York Times has a nice special report on that crazy couple of days:
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The blackout began at 9:34 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, 1977. At Shea Stadium, it was the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Mets were losing to the Chicago Cubs. Emergency lights illuminated the stadium. The game was not finished until Sept. 16, when the Cubs finally won, 5-2.
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BTW Jerry Koosman had 11 strikeouts when the lights went out.
I was 9 years old and had been sent to bed. We lived on the Grand Central Parkway, and the highway lights usually illuminated my bedroom. Suddenly it got real dark in my room.
My dad was on the subway coming home. Fortunately he was in a station when the power went out so he didn’t stuck. We had to drive and get both him and my grandmother. When we got home, we listened to reports about the looting and fires, and could hear sirens all over Queens. The next morning, we drove around Queens, including over in Corona near Shea. My memories of some neighborhoods on July 14, 1977 are not much different than the images you see of downtown Baghdad these days.
What do you remember of the blackout?
Comments
The blackout was one of the best things that happened to the Mets that summer...it came a month after they traded Seaver and Kingman, and the downward spiral was under way. At least they didn't lose when the lights went out.
Shea in the late 70s was about as depressing a place as there is....some nights they completely closed off the upper deck for lack of fans. What made it worse was that the Yanks were kickin' ass back then.
This was my second NY blackout - the first was in '65. This time, the city went nuts in an orgy of looting and burning. I had just gotten out of the subway at Main Street Flushing and was in the process of ordering a slice of pizza when the power went off. I just walked home, without my pizza.