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Saturday, August 16th, 2003
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2:32a - Blackout
When the power went out at Barnes and Noble we naturally assumed it was a local situation. In fact, we thought that the man who had come to repair our frequently malfunctioning alarm system (which also runs the A/C) had messed something up and shut off power to the store. A manager even yelled at the poor guy.
Then we saw that the power was out across the street. Then someone got a call from their family who said the power was out in Queens. Then someone who was calling a relative in Toronto said the power was out there as well. In the meantime, we had to explain to the customers that, "No. The power is out. We can't sell you these books. Hello!" Eventually we got the customers out of the store.
"Oh damn!" everyone seemed to realize at once, "Everything in the café will go bad!" A manager led the march upstairs. We proceeded to drink all the milk, eat all the cheesecake and brownies, and most of the bagels. I should have grabbed a Cuban sandwich to go. Then one particular manager spoiled the party. She put us all to work. I understood that she wanted the magazines and books resorted, to make things easier for the next day, but she also made everyone go upstairs and put 50% off stickers on books that were supposed to be reduced beginning today. I spent around half an hour in the bargain religion section putting green stickers on books like "A Grandmother's Wish" and "Christmas Cross" instead of being outside and finding out what the hell was going on. Eventually, the murmurs of dissent turned into a very small scale workers' revolution. Heather let us go. There were still a few customers outside wanting to come in.
I joined a group of cashwrap people walking uptown. After playing three games of pool and drinking a bit at a bar, we went to an apartment, then another, then another. Eventually we got a fairly large blackout party going. It was mostly people in a group of friends who had attended SUNY-Purchase together. Lots of free food that would have spoiled; lots of free alcohol that wouldn't have spoiled or anything, but hey, what better occassion? We hung out on the fire escape and watched the rest of Harlem party. We went outside with candles and joined in eventually. There were lots of people playing music, quite a bit of it live. Neighbors were probably meeting for the first time. Cliché cliché cliché, cliché cliché cliché cliché.
One thing I noticed was the number of cats walking around. I saw 5 different ones in about ten minutes on W 141. It's possible that there are this many cats out normally, but they are just very good at hiding under things. In the dark they weren't bothering to do that.
The party broke up at a little after 2:00 and I walked the twelve blocks home. By that time even the dozens of police cars (marked and unmarked) that were stationed at every intersection along Broadway were starting to leave. The walk was lit mostly by headlights.
I got home and was surrounded by dead technology. The light and amount of ambient noise was very reminiscent of Missouri. There was nothing to do but sleep.
Excerpts from other blackout stories of people I know (or sort of know) that you all might find entertaining:
1. "when the power goes out over the entire city, my first instinct is to run to the bodega downstairs and stock up on 40's...Colt 45, Old English, Ballantine...you name it, i bought it. i then got drunk on the roof of my building and proceeded to sleep with several strangers. woke up this morning, and found thousands of loaves of free bread out on the sidewalk."
2. "I live about nine miles from the office, so it was no big deal; a few of the people I met on the road had to walk all the way to Nassau County... Once it became clear that terrorism wasn't involved, I actually began enjoying the trip, and I was far from the only one. I resisted the temptation to start belting out Simon and Garfunkel while crossing the 59th Street bridge, but the mood was more a party than a disaster area. Kids outside apartment buildings in Queens handed out water for free; people joked with strangers met on the road and cheered the pickup trucks that passed by full of passengers. It was New York all over; we piss and moan about ordinary things, but when it hits the fan, we show the world how it's done."
current mood: well-lit
current music: Cold Cold Night, The White Stripes, Elephant (comment on this)
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