Thursday, July 13, 2006

The night the lights went out

Today is the 29th anniversary of the electricity "Blackout" in New York City.


Where were YOU when the lights went out in New York City on July 13, 1977?





I was living in South Florida and watching TV after 9pm when the three networks ABC, CBS & NBC interrupted TV shows to report that the electricity was out in all of New York City. The "Blackout" as it was called had left millions stuck in Elevators and Subway trains. People were in high rise buildings without air conditioning and some went wild by LOOTING businesses.

My Grandmother lived in Queens NY at the time and we called her to see if she was ok. She was fine and eating watermelon on her front porch. It was a very hot summer time and the city was without electricity for 25 hours. When food began to thaw because of the power outage, my Grandmother and her neighbors pulled out the charcoal grills and barbequed.

Meanwhile I also had a cousin named Brenda who was pregnant at age 17. She gave birth to her daughter during the blackout.

Bernica is now 29 years old....Happy Birthday "Little B"!

And speaking of Babies. There are a lot of 27 year old native New Yorkers that owe their existance to "Con Edison" (the NY Power company) as many people found an intimate way to spend their time in the dark.

There is a song that tells the story of the time when the lights went out in New York City, July 13th, 1977.



"The Night The Lights Went Out" by The Trammps
Was a Disco dance club hit in the fall of 1977.
Written about the July 13, 1977 Electrical BLACKOUT in New York City

To read more about the 1977 New York City Blackout,
go to this wikipedia site.

Monday, July 03, 2006

The AMC July "Movie of the Month"

It is the Independence Day holiday and millions of people are headed to the beaches. And some may turn on the TV and come across the AMC channel and what does AMC offer as their July "Movie of the Month" during the prime beach season?

"Jaws"



Yes, that legendary 1975 film that scared the shit out of of beachgoers back in the day. And still scares some of us today! AMC is so wrong for showing this film during the prime beach season.

Every time this movie comes on I am reminded of the excitement I had as a child wanting to see this movie when it was new. There was a lot of hype over this film before it appeared and it was the great talk at school. Then on a Friday night in South Florida my family was out with some neighbors.

We did our usual family night out. Dinner somewhere and then we were off to the Drive In to see a movie. We always shared our family night with another family, either the Fredricks, my friend Peter and his mom Melissa, or with my mother's best friends, Doris and John and their son Bernard.

This time it was the single/divorced moms and their kids. That being me, my mother, Melissa and her son Peter who was 2 years younger than me and my sister who was the baby of the group at age 4. And we were all especially eager to see Jaws on its premiere night.

That evening before dark we ate dinner at SAMBO'S. Yes I said Sambo's and for those who don't know, it was a restaurant chain very simular to what we know as Denny's today. The chain was named as a combination of the founders names. One was named Sam and the other's last name was BOnnert. But many associated the name with a book about the African character "Little Black Sambo" and people thought the use of "Sambo's" was racist. The restaurants did try to capitalize on the Sambo theme but they were out of business by the 1980's. Many Sambo's locations became Denny's since the type of restaurants were nearly identical. Same type of food, open 24 hours, great breakfast food all the time and lots of toys and characters for the kids.

Anyway, we ate at Sambo's and went to the GOLD COAST DRIVE-IN in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The former drive-in is now the location of a shopping center that includes Office Depot, Winn-Dixie.....and a Denny's.

I even remember the car we were in that night. We were driving Melissa's pea-green Ford Maverick just weeks before she traded it in for a new Ford Mustang II.

Oh the cars of the 1970's








I watched "Jaws" from the back seat of the Maverick. I usually like to walk around some as I did like to play the pinball near the snack bar. But I watched every bit of this movie that night. And I enjoyed it right until a scene when a man slipped of the boat and right into the shark's mouth. Thats when I suddely lost it. I kicked and screamed and nearly created a sunroof in the Maverick. And I wasn't the only one screaming! There was the woman in the van parked next to us. She was screaming too.

No wait! I don't think she was "watching" the movie. (sorry)

Actually everyone reacted to that scene in the film and we were all a bit nervous about going to the beach for a while after that. Melissa and Peter loved to go to the beach and since Melissa was also an occasional babysitter of me and my sister, we always went to the beach together. She was especially protective of us at the beach after we saw Jaws. And whenever I watch the movie I have this automatic reaction to several scenes of the film. When that shark opens his mouth, my size 15 feet rise from the floor! It's almost as if the shark is coming out of the carpet to get me!

THATS HOW MUCH THE MOVIE "JAWS" SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME! And I would never watch any of the sequels. Especially "Jaws 3-D". I feared that watching "Jaws" in 3-D would just make me pee. This would not be a good thing for a teenager to do. So I never took the chance of watching hungry sharks in 3D.

So every time I see that Jaws is on TV I have these memories. And 31 years later I still cannot watch the movie with my feet on the floor.

So I admit one fear today. I am not ashamed. But when they show the movies "Ben" or "Willard" I will most likely keep my fear of rats to myself . (I wouldn't want you to think I am a wuss.) Instead I might blog about how passionate Michael Jackson sang the theme song about his love of the rat "Ben" while wondering why anyone is so surprised about how that kid turned out.