By June Mathews
Good grief, has it really been 15 years since Y2K? An entire decade-and-a-half since we huddled ‘round the TV watching the crystal ball drop on Times Square, wondering if we were about to experience a global calamity that would plunge us into darkness and chaos for days, perhaps weeks to come?
For months on end, we’d been warned about the possibilities. Since computers manufactured well before the turn of the 21st century were programmed to assume dates began with “19” as in “1979,” it was predicted that when 2000 rolled around, anything run by computer could potentially shut down – things like traffic lights, power grids and airports – and mass confusion would reign. Some of the more pessimistic predictions warned that civilization as we knew it was about to come to a screeching halt.
While we never got overly concerned – I personally figured most computers were smarter than the so-called experts were giving them credit for – Jimmie and I did buy a full load of firewood and stock the spare refrigerator in the basement with bottled water. It never hurts to be prepared. But in hindsight, we probably should have put some extra canned goods on the grocery list. I now find it odd that as much as we enjoy eating, the prospect of starvation evidently didn’t occur to us.
Neither did we consider the situation serious enough to keep us home on New Year’s Eve, so around 8 p.m., we headed to a friend’s house to welcome the new millennium. Electricity or not, we knew we’d be able to find our way home but just in case, I left a flashlight near the front door and a batch of candles and matches on the kitchen counter.
By that time, however, midnight had already come and gone at other points on the globe, and nothing catastrophic had occurred. Thus, we had a pretty good idea we were in the clear. Information technologists everywhere had been working nonstop for months to head off any problems, and it was looking like they’d succeeded.
But as we and our fellow partygoers grazed the buffet table and played trivia games, the conversation kept returning to the possibilities that lay ahead should the southern United States be affected differently than the rest of the world. So we went ahead and partied like it was 1999 (which it still was for the time being), collectively but tacitly deciding there was nothing we could do to head off any impending disaster, so we might as well have a good time until circumstances dictated otherwise.
Then just as quickly as midnight came, it passed, and everything was fine. Just as I had a feeling they would, the infrastructure-running computers never missed a beat. The traffic lights continued to work, the power stayed on and the airports, as far as I know, ran as smoothly as they ever do, which isn’t always smoothly, as we all know.
Meanwhile back at the party, an elated type of relief took over when we realized the new millennium had arrived in our time zone, and we’d survived. We happily shared toasts and hugs all around before everybody headed home to put their flashlights and candles away. And for the moment at least, nobody was taking the local power grid for granted.
Furthermore, Jimmie and I had plenty of firewood to last the winter, and we didn’t have to buy bottled water again until April. So our survival preparations were not in vain. I can promise you, though, that should a similar situation ever occur, we’ll include food. And tea. Lots of sweet tea. I mean, really, what kind of Southerner would I be if I could survive without that?
Happy New Year, everybody.
Email June Mathews at jmathews120@charter.net.