Blackout Birthday Bonanza

My mother never caters.  She cooks for every occasion and when she offered to host my daughter Julia’s 11th birthday party, Julia immediately began to plan a menu of her favorite Nana dishes.  Her response to the news that Nana was taking the day off was a quizzical look and an “oh”.  This was indeed an unusual occurence, dare I say weird, but we accepted it with unease and moved on.

On the day of the party we arrived at my parent’s house on Staten Island in the midst of last weekend’s Nor’Easter.  My mother was getting nervous because my aunt was stuck on the Belt, my uncle was threatening to cancel, the basement was flooding and the garage was under 8 inches of water.  My brother’s tools were in the garage, getting soaked, the second refrigerator/freezer was eerily silent in the corner of the garage surrounded by water like a spooky atoll.  I was very hesitant to wade into the water to rescue the food and tools out there for fear of a 220 volt wake-up call.  It was my mother’s worst nightmare…family coming (or worse canceling)…food left uneaten and no place to store it. She was fit to be tied.

We managed to start pumping out the basement…Aunt Pat survived the Belt and Uncle Jimmy overcame his fear of rain and arrived on time.  I rolled up my pants…took off my shoes and socks and ventured into the chilly waters of our detached garage to begin the rescue effort.  By the time company arrived we were ready even though my feet were red and chilly and my mother had only recently regained her composure.

At one point, the wind howled particularly loudly and the lights flickered.  Julia, who like most children just loves a good power outage, at that moment said that her birthday wish was for a blackout…wish granted.  The transformer around the corner blew and we were thrown into darkness with the only light coming from the sternos heating the catered food.  Mom bristled a bit but in no time the house was bathed in beautifully soft candlelight and she realized that had she cooked that her electric oven would have made this a true gastronomic apocalypse…she smiled and began to enjoy the adventure. It was as charming, romantic and quirky as any party we had ever hosted at mom’s…my dad commented that it was a birthday that Julia would never forget…indeed.

We ate dinner, undaunted by the change in lighting…we quietly wondered if mom had consulted the entertainment gods when deciding to cater the event…we sang Happy Birthday…but….only this time we didn’t blow out the candles.