The End of the World...Not Really

On November 9, 1965 the end of the world nearly happened. Well not really.

It was my first year of high school. After the initial apprehension of going on to Blakelock,

I had settled into the routine. This included going to my first high school dance, this one Halloween themed. For some reason, I remember the band, Richie Knight and the Midnights. There is a picture of that dance in the TAB 1965 yearbook which I some how photo bombed.

When we left school, there was no real Oakville Transit so getting back to Bronte offered few choices. You could walk, which for me was about 5 miles. There was the "Bluebird" which was an old rickety school bus that prowled the streets of Oakville. There was also the Lakeshore Grey Coach. Lastly was hitchhiking, which was my choice most days, with the Grey Coach serving as back up plan.

The end of the school day would not be complete without a stop at the Riverside Restaurant at West River and Lakeshore. I had started working at Lakeside Marketeria, so I was flush with cash and could afford a plate of fries and a Pepsi, all for the price of a Quarter. It was a place to hang out, listen to the juke box and catchup with friends, particularly those who had decided to go to Perdue.

I would have left the Riverside around 4:30 pm to walk the rest of the way to Cudmore Road, where we lived. By the time I got home it was getting dark; my mom was still at work at Lakeside and brother Terry at his job at Ford. My father had taken a few days off from his job as Globe and Mail circulation manager to head to our property in Sunridge Ontario to oversee the cutting of Christmas trees that would soon be shipped down to Oakville.

When I turned on the lights, there was nothing, only darkness. I stepped outside, look across our backyard towards West Street and there was only darkness, the same with our immediate neighbours Rogers and Patterson. I was puzzled, the sky was clear as a bell, so no storm and I didn't hear any sirens indicating maybe a car had hit a hydro poll.

After 30 minutes or so, I got on my bike to head out to see how far the blackout was. There were a few cars on the road but everything was veiled in darkness. My first stop was the Riverside, where I saw people standing inside talking by candle light. I went inside to find out what was going on. The first thing I learned was that people were trying to get information from their transistor radios; but none of the stations were broadcasting. At this point, I think we were all thrown into this darkness with no information.

At 15, the mind is a very fertile environment. You need to remember, it was only 24 months since the Kennedy assassination and barely three years from the Cuban Missile Crisis. The threat of nuclear war was still a feature of the nightly news, especially from the 3 Buffalo stations we could pick up on our antenna.

I also had recently read the War of the Worlds, and with the silence, cold night air, clear moon lit landscape and darkness it too was excellent fuel for the mind.

Back on my bike, I headed across the bridge to Lakeside Marketeria to check on my mom. She was still at work and the store was bathed in candle light with Bill Hill walking about the store with flash lights still looking to finish orders for delivery and serving customers. There was still no information as the radio stations were silent. At 6 pm, my mom was finished and we walked home in the eerie darkness.

Dinner was by candle light, likely a sandwich of some kind. Periodically, we looked outside across to neighbours and other than the flicker of candle light there was only darkness.

This was a long time ago, but I do remember finding my brother's transistor and trying to pick a radio signal. Back then, it was possible to get strong radio stations, such as WABC out of New York City on what was called the "skip". The radio waves would bound off the ionosphere and could travel hundreds of miles. We could pick up Murray the K or "Cousin Bruce", playing the latest hits. The signal would fade in and out but seem to be particularly strong on cold clear nights.

Around 10 pm, I was able to pick up the US stations on the skip and maybe CFRB had come back on line as back up generators had kicked in. Again information was sparse but we were able to learn it was a power outage which covered our world which was Oakville and Toronto, but extended to major US cities such as New York.

Completely lacking was the cause or how long it would last.

Calling it a night, I headed to bed wondering if there was something far more cataclysmic had occurred. With sunrise the next morning, the lights and radio were on and information began to flood in about a major power failure.

For most people the great blackout they remember was in August 2003. We were now in the internet and telecommunications age so there was far more information as radio stations remained on the air and there was some telephone service. There was not the information vacuum of 1965, in fact it quickly became an evening of celebration, gathering, friendship. It almost seemed if the world was put on pause for a brief period of time to catch its breath and reflect on the important things.

We were driving home from dinner last night, the sky was clear with a crescent moon and the coolness of the evening was descending. Maybe it was the light, a song on the radio or just a random flashback, but the memory of that evening somehow became very clear. There was no end of the world, alien invasion or nuclear war, just my imagination.