After a swirl in the city of New York, Dad and Mom (Achan and Amma) were due to visit the Niagara Falls from New York city about 400 miles - approximately six and a half hours - away to be done in a one day tour.
There does not appear to be any description or stories of the day of 31st December 1968. After the New York tourist bus visit a long day awaited Dad and Mom before their drive to Niagara falls on New Year’s Eve of 1969.
A Greyhound tour in the depth of a dark winter night in an entirely strange new setting would have been more than terrifying for Mom as she was always a sunshine being, a little girl at heart loving the outdoors, in sun, rain or wind. For a girly mind, who always referred to herself as a being who does not fade in the hot sun - having grown up in fire, the fear and trust in her husband were the only small cinders left in her mind…That night was a story clothed in the mystery of a long 11 plus hours journey into seeming nothingness.. but little could she have imagined the mysterious wonder of the unbelievably huge freezing and falling snow white waters which awaited them.
Dad on the other hand had to rein in his anger at the bus driver’s reluctance for the journey, with hardly a handful of non-NewYorkers. All the time the haggling was going on poor Mom shivering in the height of winter, praying for the infinite blessings from her favourite Gods for a happy conclusion to the hard wrangle … I could imagine the driver shrugging his shoulders as he had to finally give in.
On the first day of the year 1969 in the height of winter, the trip would have been a real stunt as so many stunts are always associated with the Falls! The dark and heavy time of day, wet, bone chilling cold, white fields of snow disappearing into dark nothingness, leafless trees drawing scary designs ….. poor Amma would have lost her voice trying to deter Achan from this Greyhound tour! But determined as he was like Passepartout of Jules Vernes’ Around the world in 80 days Achan finally won the wordy battle with the vociferous reluctant driver. And there they sat in the empty bus, devoid of tourists other than these two, on their snowy one-day journey to Niagara - Amma calling on her pantheon of gods & goddesses and Achan in an emotional dying tempest, though winning the battle was fun, and a burly driver slowly fuming, ready to explode any minute!
The Niagara River is one of the world's greatest sources of hydroelectric power. The beauty of its wild descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario attracts millions of visitors each year. During its short course (56 km), the river drops 99 metres, with much of the spectacular plunge concentrated in a 13 km stretch of waterfalls and rapids.
Today the churning river provides the driving force for almost 2 million kilowatts of electricity from a number of power plants on the Canadian side. On the American side of the border, down river from the Falls, the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant, together generate more than 2.4 million kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 24 million 100-watt light bulbs. Since 1958, Sir Adam Beck Generating Station No.2 has been Ontario Power Generation's largest and one of its most reliable hydroelectric facilities.
The Robert Moses Hydro Electric Plant is located in Niagara County of Western New York State between Niagara Falls, New York and Lewiston, New York. (4.5 miles downstream from Niagara Falls). This facility is owned and operated by the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The Robert Moses Plant was refurbished in 2006.
Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant and the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant, with a combined 25 turbines generates up to 2.6 million kilowatts of energy
(Courtesy: www.infoniagra.com/attractions/hydro_power)
… it was while reading …. Buchanan’s “The day THE FALLS Stood Still” that it came to me that there was a hydro-electric power station nearby tapping the huge potential of the falling water power..and Achan would certainly have pricked up his ears. He would have certainly known about the Adam Beck Hydro-electric power station.
No need to show or tell that the Niagara Falls is the greatest, natural, visually superlative, beautiful, wonder of the world - the just 56 km long Niagara River dropping from Lake Erie the higher big lake of the five great lakes to the lowest and smallest Lake Ontario about 100 metres down, from one country to another !!!!
And Amma got snapped once more before this divine wonder on that cold, winter morning of 1969. Like the early dawn of the New Year, she came out of the mist of the water drops dancing around her.
Apparently, Amma’s prayers seem akin to the story of Arch bishop Lynch’s dream of the Falls and prayers going heavenward through the mist which the nearby Loretto Academy had taken it for their tradition of perpetual adoration.
Figure 1 Father John Joseph Lynch (1816-1888) who founded a Seminary on the American side of the Falls which now is the Niagara University.
We can understand, and Achan would have had complete understanding, of how New York gets illuminated like thousand stars every night and day…
All the countless units of power being wired from the two huge Adam Beck hydroelectric stations 1(built in 1917) and 2 (built in 1954 and contains 16 generators)……..after harnessing the hidden Energy of the gravitational pull of unwieldy waters ending in the Falls, power the skyscrapers and the myriad companies and each spot of light in New York … but not alone in New York either….everywhere in the vicinity of the Falls.
Comments
Post a Comment