Blackout in Toronto (Wikipedia photo)Today is the fifth anniversary of the big blackout. It's one of those things that makes you remember where you were and what were you doing when it happened.
I was in the air! No kidding!
That day I was working on a story about home-built replicas of the WW1 biplanes. The retired plane enthusiasts who built those planes offered me a ride, fitted me with a leather cap and those round 19-century goggles; before I could change my mind, I was in the air, off the runway of a small airport in Brampton. When we landed, the airport was without power. Only when I left the airport some time later it became obvious that the power outage was wider than I thought. All the traffic lights were out in Brampton, in Toronto, in most of Ontario and eastern United States. The trip home, which usually takes less than an hour, took me almost 5 hours! Every intersection in town was a bottleneck, people were walking everywhere, civilians were directing traffic. There was a lot of frustration, but also a strange camaraderie, neighbors got to know each other, people were huddling around the transistor radios, actually taking time to talk to each other. We should have a few blackouts a year, to re-learn how to socialize with other humans, without texting, emailing or messaging.
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