Remembering a dark time
It’s hard to believe a decade has passed since Toronto and much of the continent’s eastern seaboard went dark and stayed that way so long that workers in Ontario — a killjoy task force later estimated — lost a whopping 18.9 million hours of employment.
For many Star online readers, though, what was “lost” isn’t what they remember.
A group of kids from the neighbourhood community centre and I went to the Ontario Science Centre that afternoon. We were so excited and were working hard on the rowing machines when everything went dark. We thought we had broken something and guiltily looked around. We got freaked out as we wandered further and found more places were dark! We thought we had broken the whole Science Centre! — victoria
I was at work and my daughter called. She was in high school and wanted me to call hydro to tell them to turn the power on — she needed to blow-dry her hair! —
Aly Anker
It was not a good experience for me. Was having a small tumour removed from my head at Toronto Western hospital. The doc was in the dark for about 30 seconds before generator kicked in. The hospital was in total chaos. Worst experience ever and definitely won’t forget that day. I am fine today, though. — girl hockey mom
I wish we would “celebrate” this once a year. It was a great time: BBQ, wine, talking to neighbours I had never met before. Let’s do it again! — Ross Perlmutter