Perry's Pen

The guy on 94.7 WCSX just said today is the 22nd anniversary of “THE Blackout.”

Being a Detroit station, he made a point to remind us that OHIO caused the power outage.

I got stuck in Windsor on my way to Michigan because of the blackout.

Here’s the story:

Power was out everywhere in Windsor when I got off the VIA train. I assumed terrorism, 911 still fresh. Nobody knew, so I just shrugged. “WINDSOR.”

The Windsor-Detroit tunnel was closed because the exhaust fans could not be run without electricity. I don’t know—it might have been poetic and perfect for me to die at the bottom of the Detroit River.

Phones were working, or sort of working; I forget. Cell phones weren’t as omnipresent in those days as they are now.

I managed to contact some people in the MI.

I got a room at a dive in Windsor, and they gouged me hard—$900 just to use the phone, or something.

My “brother from another mother” on the north side of the Detroit River and I decided our best course of action was for him to drive over the Ambassador Bridge and hang out in Windsor with me.

We walked around Windsor, but there wasn’t much going on. Vintage Windsor, in other words.

Tunnel Bar-B-Q was open and we were hungry, so we checked it out. The first and only time I have eaten the legendary birds from the fabled Windsor landmark.

It was dry and horrible, but it was food.

The power was on at the hotel when we had given up on having fun, or at least a unique experience in Windsor.

Spike Lee’s only movie worth watching, Do the Right Thing, was on TV.

It was perfect: two cultures coming together in a time of emergency.

I fell asleep shortly after saying, “I can see both sides.”

“Sound of the funky drummer!” – Chuck D
“Motherfuck him AND John Wayne!” – Flavor Flav

– Public Enemy