The Power Outage

Last night we had a power outage. Kansas City Power & Light estimated 2,000 homes lost electrical power for about two hours. The cause of this outage was most certainly a lightening strike that took place during a brief but intense micro burst of inclemency cause by a passing cold front encountering the hot, moist atmosphere over southern Kansas City. In a fifteen minute span a deluge of 2 inches of rain, 50 m.p.h. winds and innumerable lightening strikes blanketed an area no more than 4 miles square.

The brief downpour flooded my street, knock out the power and was gone. The sun came out and so did the neighbors, warily surveying the immediate area for damages. Soon they returned to their dark, stuffy homes only to reemerge to the out of doors. Lack of television and air conditioning made the rain cooled air and light breeze wafting through the hood seem inviting. Suddenly, every front yard was filled with lawn chairs, family's went for walks, kids took to their bikes and the streets filled with humanity. I sat on my stoop, read a book, hailed passers by and watched everything from the corner of my eye.

The whole fleeting affair reminded me of summer nights in my Chicago suburban youth. Then everyone was outside every night. Adults congregated in back yards and on patios for conversation and cocktails. Kids played catch, Whiffleball or street games. We rode our bikes up and down the streets checking out all the action, we prayed for the fogger so that we could weave in and out of the clouds of mosquito poison or we followed the Good Humor man and pestered him for samples. Just before dark the fire flies would come out. Little kids would put them in glass jars, hoping to domesticate bugs. We big kids would catch them in hand and squish them on our faces making angry iridescent war paint. Kids are hell on bugs. I remember inundating ant hills like a goliath, torturing heretic grasshoppers under the lens of a magnifying glass and attaching thread to bubble bees to make captive flying machines.

Were we outside because of the lack of air conditioning or the dearth of summer television? I think not. As northerners we loved all winter activities and spent countless hours in snow play; making forts, planning snow ball wars and searching out hills to sled but in the cold evenings we were trapped in doors over homework or the blather of situation comedies. The summer offered its own warm attraction and the evenings were special.