BLACKOUT !!

November 9th, 1965 Nenna was at school (she was taking night classes at BSC) and Aunt Maria was babysitting us kids. Late in the afternoon as it was getting dark out, all of the lights in the house went out. Strangely enough, so did all of the neighbors lights. As a family who regularly camped at the island and the pond, candles and hurricane lanterns were never packed away. We kids knew where they were all kept and we could see again in no time. As this was how all big storms were handled, this would have been no big deal – except that there was no storm at all, and Mom and Dad weren’t home, and this was probably more responsibility than Maria had planned for. Dad was at his Ocean Spray night job and not easily contacted under good conditions. Mom was in Bridgewater and no one could guess when she would get home. Next door, Nana (step-great grandmother) and (great-)Grampa Roddy had to be checked on. Who would go? Although news didn’t travel too fast without electricity anywhere so we didn’t hear any speculation as to the cause of this darkness, we were quite scared of UFO activity. Neighbor Henry Howland (later to become my step-father)on the other side of Nana’s house used to tell tales of how he came from Mars, and although we figured (but not totally certain) that he was making it up we (especially Laurie) were thoroughly convinced and wary of UFO’s real existence. I also have a vague but uncertain recollection of Billy Howland being there with a puppy, who (the puppy, not Billy) pooped on the living room rug. [I need Wes or Laurie to confirm or debunk this, please]

So eventually Mom came home, Dad came home – safe and sound. The lights came back the next day. News of a failure at a Niagra Falls Power Plant reached us. As amazed as we were that 1) our electricity came from that far away and 2) that all New England and New York were blacked out, our real surprise (much to Henry’s delight) was a report that UFO’s over Niagra had caused the whole thing. His mother ship simply needed power to get back home.

To this day I can still see Laurie - one random evening - coming home from babysitting at the Mahoney's house, crossing Nana’s back yard, racing from the back of the Nana's house, ducking behind the apple tree and dashing to our back door -- terrified at seeing glowing lights in the sky beyond Halls Farm (despite wearing glasses, she obviously had better eyesight than the rest of us and could see things that nobody else could).

http://blackout.gmu.edu/events/tl1965.html

http://ufologie.net/htm/blackout65.htm

http://www.ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures.html