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THE BATTALION
College Station, Texas Thursday, October 6, 1966
Read Battalion Classifieds
Rooms Available
LAKESHORE
MOTOR HOTEL
Across from the
State Capitol
1575 North Third
Baton Rouge
Phone: Area Code 504
348-7111
PETROLEUM GRANT
A $1,000 Engineering- departmental assistance grant is
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Evans, Houston district production manager of the Gulf
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to Education.
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FIRESTONE STORES
Corner College Ave. and 33rd Streets Hours 8:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M. Phone 822-0139 Bryan, Texas
Caught In NY Blackout
Coll
Aggie In The Dark
By DANI PRESSWOOD
Battalion Managing Editor
Where was Gary Sherer when
the lights went out?
The infamous New York black
out of last year caught the Aggie
junior in a rather awkward
position: carrying a loaded food
tray in an eighth floor cafeteria.
“When I entered the cafeteria
the lights started going on and
off and dimming to a low de
gree,” Sherer recalls. “I had just
gotten my tray and all of a sud
den all the lights went out.”
The irony was yet to come, he
explained, when he could not pay
for the meal because the “elec
trically operated cash register
wouldn’t open.”
Sherer, of Binghamton, N. Y.,
is a transfer journalism major
from Broome Technical Com
munity College in New York.
WORKING PART time for a
department store in capital city
Albany, Sherer had just gone up
to the top floor employee cafe
teria for his break.
“Going up the elevator, I re
member the one I was on was
going very slowly, even slower
than usual,” he noted. “And the
other one wasn’t working at all.
“Nobody was caught in either
one when the electricity did go,
and even more amazing was that
in the 16-story bank where I
worked in the daytime nobody
was stranded in any of its seven
elevators.”
One of the more fortunate em
ployees was just getting off work
when he realized what was about
to happen.
“He tore up the stairs to push
in his time card before the power
went off completely,” Sherer said,
“and just in time. The lights
went off just as he’d pushed it
jn.”
THE FIRST thought that
struck universally when the lights
went out, Shearer remembers, was
an attack on the United States.
“To enhance this the radio gave
no explanation until about an
hour and a half after the lights
went out. However, people were
too occupied trying to figure out
what happened to panic.”
After the people were informed
that a power failure had caused
the blackout “it was funny for
awhile, then it became frustrat
ing.”
“Everybody wanted television
and all the selfish reasons erupt
ed,” Sherer explained. “First they
worried about the country and
then about themselves.”
Sherer’s first experienced in
convenience was eating in the
dark before candles were lit. His
next bottleneck was encountered
in trying to leave the store.
“At first they were trying to
stop everybody to make sure there
wasn’t any looting,” he said. “But
that got to be too big a problem
and they stopped.
“IT TURNED out after it was
all over there was practically
nothing missing anyway.”
His next problem was in get
ting to his girl friend’s apart
ment during the rush hour.
“It took me 30 minutes to make
a 10 minute drive,” Sherer con
tinued. “Of course the street
lights were not operating and the
traffic was a real mess.”
The power failure, which dark
ened the east coast from Canada
to New Jersey, forced the Albany
Airport to utilize automobile
headlights to light the runway
for incoming planes.
“They spaced about 10 or 12
cars along the runway with their
lights on,” he said. “During the
time the lights were off 12 planes
were landed safely.”
One of these carried New
York’s Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.
Sherer noted that the blackout
gave people a realization of how
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much their daily lives depend#
upon electricity.
“PEOPLE JUST sort of tali
it for granted,” he pointed out
“Until something like this com#
up they don't realize how matj
things operate on electricity."
The blackout was a major heat
ache for the restaurant business
in New York. Loss of refrigen
tion caused a huge spoilage prols
lem and service was halted unti
the power was restored.
“One restaurant in Albani
specialized in candlelight meals, h
Sherer said. “People packed tin
place just to see each other ani
talk.”
“Although the restaurant wss
unable to serve, the owner sail
it was the most customers he hal
ever seen.”
Lack of electricity put gasolim
pumps out of commission for th
endurance of the blackout ani
only one generator-equipped radii
station was able to broadcast.
The blackout period ranged ii
longevity throughout the aru
with Albany plunged in darknes
more than three hours. Som
cities were without electricity ap
to 13 hours.
“The whole thing was as ii
somebody said ‘stop’ and every
thing stopped and then he sail
‘go’ and everyone went,” Sherer
summed up.
P
F
sib
tin
Camera Club
To Show Films
Two color films will be shown
at a Camera Committee meeting
in the Memorial Student Center
Monday, announced president Ken
Reese.
The 67-m'ember club will meet
at 7:30 p.m. in Rooms 2C and D,
After a brief business meeting,
color films on the Blue Angels,
“Jet Colorama,” and travel will
be screened, program chairman
Dan Hatzenbuehler said.
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