NOVEMBER 9th - That's Real



On this day in 1965, the biggest power failure in U.S. history occurred when a 230-kilovolt transmission line in Canada tripped and snowballed to New York where much of the state lost power. In total, 30 million people in America and Canada had to light candles, play board games, and eat all the frozen food before it went bad. Not to mention 800,000 people who got stranded in subways--that probably sucked a tad. It was 1965 though, so people didn’t lose as much when the power went on the fritz. Though no power sucks no matter what decade. Unless it was before electricity was discovered. People were used to no power before they had power. Now, though, now there are cell phones. You need to be careful when using them during a blackout, don’t you? You become like a castaway on a deserted island rationing your limited supply of water. It’s only one text you think. Shelly really needs to know how you feel about missing the latest episode of The Walking Dead. And then an hour has gone by and while you have solved the mystery of why Rick shaved his beard, your phone is almost dead and you have no way to charge it. That is when things get real. About as real as it got for the guy who was in charge of that big-ass wire in Ontario that tripped. Or one of the 800,000 people stranded in a New York subway. That's real.

This Day has been Marked.

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