BY STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—We tend to think of blackouts today as the consequences of some natural violence, whether it be snow, rain, earthquake, or fire. In fact, many in the Brandon area endured prolonged outages during the storms of this past Christmas week. But throughout World War II, they served a strategic purpose: planned blackouts were meant to keep German and Japanese airplanes from making stealth runs at night by depriving them of light on the ground by which to navigate and identify targets. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, and the “Blitz” on London by Germany, the U.S. was on high alert.
Vermont may seem an unlikely destination for foreign attackers, but citizens here were subject to blackouts just like those in big coastal cities. Even in Brandon, blackout sirens would ring out and everyone was expected to turn off all their lights.
This clipping from The Brandon Union of January 15, 1943, makes clear, though, that the execution of these blackouts was far from flawless. Lights were often left on in businesses when the owners weren’t close by to turn them off. Some people tried to get away with leaving lights on at home, perhaps figuring that a small reading lamp wouldn’t even be noticeable. But when folks got caught with the lights on—“careless violations”—fines and penalties could be imposed.
A blackout didn’t mean everything ground to halt, however. Dr. Estabrook, for whose family a lone of our local parks is named, still carried on his trade, albeit in the dark.
So the next time our power goes out and we curse the darkness, we should be thankful that we don’t have to wonder whether enemy planes are cruising overhead.
