[MrFixr55]

Hi Ron, It was great to know that Kirk is able to practice the hobby again.

I didn't cause a blackout in the house in 1965, I took out the entire Northeast United States (At least that's what my mom accused me of.

I was playing with a Westinghouse 1/3 HP induction motor given to me by a teenager (I was only 10 at the time). I hooked it up, understanding what L1 and L2 meant). the motor hummed but did not start (I did not know about start windings and centrifugal switches at the time). It tripped the breaker for the "playroom". I unplugged the motor. When I reset the breaker, the lights dimmed, brightened, dimmed and went out. Mom, immediately screamed for me, thinking that I was playing with something. I told Mom that I reset the breaker for the playroom and did not touch the main breaker (I knew all of this by this time, as I read a lot about electricity).

Mom noticed that even the streetlights and lights in neighbors' houses were out and neighbors were gathering in the streets. Dad came home and having the only radio that worked (in the car said that the lights were out as far west as Chicago (not true but mist of Ontario, Canada was out). Mom screamed out "AND YOUR SON WAS THE REASON FOR IT!!!". Dad knew which of their 4 sons (and 2 daughters) Mom was talking about.

Did I actually cause the blackout? No. Dad understood that my experiments were merely a grain of sand in the truckload of sand that represented total electrical usage on the Northeast Power Grid. But Dad could not convince Mom for a long time. They all started calling me Con Edison (Although ConEd did not serve Long Island).