Of Savage Storms Along the East Coast of the USA

Hey gang,

I'm glad that I was able to obtain access to the wonderful Dark Shadows Forums via the facilities of my local library down here on the beautiful New Jersey shore.  My power, not to mention internet access, has been out for the past week due to the "beloved" Hurricane Sandy, and I'll unfortunately be shelling out a grand or two to remove the fallen trees which, thankfully, avoided my house, but not the fence!!!

I finally did get to drive over to nearby Point Pleasant and Spring Lake on the coast and the damage was, indeed, considerable for the people who live along the ocean in those two communities.  We're all thankful that there was not a considerable loss of life here in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

I wonder what effect Hurricane Sandy might have had on the great house of Collinwood, up there in the scenic New England fishing village of Collinsport, Maine?  Collinwood, with its fortress-like granite construction, would have weathered the storm admirably, imo.

And, as for the Old House weathering the hurricane's fury, as Barnabas once related to Vicky, the house would withstand nature's wrath for many centuries to come.

I hope that all my fellow Dark Shadows pals and cousins are doing as well after the terrible onslaught of Hurricane Sandy.

Best regards,

Bob

Good to hear from you, Bob!

There is no doubt that Collinwood would have lost power, but everybody would be used to that.  I'm a little more interested in the effects of a power outage at Windcliff.  A record might be set for number of patients escaping in a single 24-hour period.

When I wrote my first DS novel back in the late '90's (hoping to submit it to the HarperCollins series) and set it in that present day, one of the central parts of the plot was a full-force hurricane hitting the coast of Maine trapping the family in the estate while terrifying things happened around them from which they could not now escape.  Collinwood had been restored to its full former glory by Carolyn and David (she a never re-married widow; he married with two kids) along with Quentin (Carolyn, David and Quentin running the new family business of operating several resorts, along with the old industries) and a curmudgeonly Roger.  Barnabas and Willie lived "in retirement" in the Old House, also fully restored with electricity, plumbing, a satellite dish on the roof and Barnabas would spend time surfing the internet.  Maggie and Angelique were also there (too complicated to explain why, but it was all rather happy).  But the main point was that a hurricane did it make it that far north (a once-in-several-centuries event) and things didn't go well when it did.

Gerard

Thanks! Safe and well here, thank goodness.

Hi Bob  its  good  to hear from you!   All  is well  here in  Binghamton  we were safe.
                Love  Anne

Personally, I believe the Old House could weather a hurricane much better than Collinwood because of it's perceived location.

BTB, glad to hear you weathered the storm unharmed. We share stomping grounds! I've spent many recent years in the Brick/Herbertsville area & Belmar. And Asbury Park as a teen.

I was staying in Belmar before I left the Friday before Sandy to come home to batten down the hatches and in Brick before that. The house I was in that Friday is now uninhabitable. I'm glad I left because I would have been the idiot that didn't heed the mandatory evacuation.

My only personal loss is all my children's pictures from birth to now. I kept the foto's of them and me together so I feel blessed to still have those.

Annie, we're practically neighbors! I live 5 miles south of Wurtsboro. I think you are about an hour west of me!

Gerard, can't wait to read your book. Sounds like Roger will be a hoot, and the premise, something new.

Personally, I believe the Old House could weather a hurricane much better than Collinwood because of it's perceived location.

BTB, glad to hear you weathered the storm unharmed. We share stomping grounds! I've spent many recent years in the Brick/Herbertsville area & Belmar. And Asbury Park as a teen.

I was staying in Belmar before I left the Friday before Sandy to come home to batten down the hatches and in Brick before that. The house I was in that Friday is now uninhabitable. I'm glad I left because I would have been the idiot that didn't heed the mandatory evacuation.

My only personal loss is all my children's pictures from birth to now. I kept the foto's of them and me together so I feel blessed to still have those.

Annie, we're practically neighbors! I live 5 miles south of Wurtsboro. I think you are about an hour west of me!

Gerard, can't wait to read your book. Sounds like Roger will be a hoot, and the premise, something new.

Dom,

I don't know about the Old House weathering the storm better than Collinwood; there still seems to be far too many d@mned trees around the Old House to my liking.  I could just see one of those mammoth babies crashing through the window into Josette's room on the second floor and doing severe damage.  (No doubt, after such a terrible event, Barnabas would have cursed himself, or his father, for not having gotten Ben Stokes and some other men to cut down even more of those big trees around the first Collins home.) 

And, I'm old enough to remember when Brick/Herbertsville was still called Laurelton.  (Incidentally, Eugene O'Neill had a home in the Herbertsville area, way back in the 1920s.)  I think the boardwalk in Belmar was hit severely, as was the boardwalk in nearby Spring Lake (better known as the "Irish Riviera"), although not nearly as bad as was the boardwalk in Seaside Heights.    If you're familiar with Jenkinson's and Martell's pavilions in Point Pleasant Beach, I heard, but haven't yet seem for myself, that Martell's lost its rear bar/dining area, which extends out on a pier into the ocean.

You know, its too bad that Dark Shadows' two ill-fated lovers, Pansy Faye and Carl "The Comedian" Collins (a/k/a "Shecky" Collins), didn't remain in Atlantic City on the New Jersey shore.  If they had, years later, Carl and Pansy (what with Pansy's obvious show business connections) could have been hobnobbing with the heady likes of A.C. Mayor Nucky Thompson and his wife, Gov. (and later President) Woodrow Wilson, Eddie Cantor, Lucky Luciano, Alphonse Capone and Arnold Rothstein.  Oh well, might might have been...  

Annie,

I'm glad to hear that everything is okay up there in Binghamtom.  Yes, Binghamton, N.Y., home of the N.Y. Mets' Double-A affiliate team, the Binghamtom Mets.  Some of those "can't miss" Binghamton baseball prospects should be able to help turn around the woeful N.Y. Met team in about twenty years or so, what with the feckless ownership and stewardship of the ballclub with team CEO Fred Wilpon and his callow son, Jeffrey, calling the shots.  At least, Midnite's beloved L.A. Dodgers have a new owner, who spends money and seems to know what he's doing!    

And, what can I possibly say about political commentator Chris Matthews, after he opined that Hurricane Sandy may have actually helped President Obama to re-election victory in the final days of the 2012 U.S. Presidential election?  

Mr. Matthews, or as I like to refer to him as Chris "Motor Mouth" Matthews, makes Dark Shadows' own Harry Johnson seem like Lyndon Baines Johnson by comparison!