By Brian M. Rafferty
As the sun set behind Manhattan last Thursday evening, an unusual darkness settled across Maspeth after the blackout had extinguished the lights and sounds that define the neighborhood.
Along Mazeau Street, just off Grand Avenue, families were perched outside trying to cool off. People in one house had rigged a makeshift antenna from their front stoop to their car hood to try to boost the signal on their radio. Except for the candles and lanterns, there was not a light to be seen in this part of Queens where the two-family houses are just the right height to block out the daunting Manhattan skyline.
Last Thursday night this usually quiet street had taken on the quality of a rural road. People turned their heads when a car passed by, straining their necks to see if they knew its occupant – a type of familiarity that is not uncommon in this wedge of land between Grand Avenue and the Long Island Expressway. It is an area with an ingrained small-town feel – where people chat on their stoops with passers-by who are returning from trips to the Laundromat or the grocery store.
But with no light and just the dull roar of engines on the other side of the sound wall, the location of Mazeau Street not far from the geographic center of the most densely populated city in the nation could have been anywhere.
Up on Grand Avenue couples walked hand-in-hand, some with flashlights, some pushing kids in strollers. Others were still wearing business clothes with ties undone. An occasional bus or car would drive by, briefly illuminating the otherwise pitch black avenue. When the Q58, packed with passengers, bypassed the stop at 70th Street, the few people gathered there moaned and cursed, some bowing their heads and turning to continue walking on their trek home.
At the intersection of Grand Avenue and 69th Street, traffic picked up. A few police cars were placed at the intersection, flashers on, with officers standing in the middle of the road to be sure everybody got home safely.
Earlier at about 6 p.m., a few teenagers and an older firefighter were directing traffic as cars coming off the LIE tried to make their way to points north and west. At one point a police car pulled up to refresh the fading flares, offer a few words of thanks, and then move on to the next intersection.
By 10 p.m. the traffic had dwindled down to a few cars a minute. At the nearby firehouse for HazMat 1 and Engine 288, a ghost crew of about five firefighters sat playing cards and making small talk with passers-by. When two young women walked past the door of the garage, they explained that they were headed toward Glendale after having walked all the way from Mt. Sinai Hospital on 100th Street in Manhattan.
West of 68th Street, along Clinton Avenue and Hull Avenue, kids played outside, shining their lights on anybody who approached. Every house had its windows open, and many of the people who did not sit on their front steps were around back, gathered at tables on outdoor patios.
Back up on Grand Avenue, the Cedar House Café, a small restaurant with a backyard deck, offered treats to people looking for a way to cool down on a hot summer night. Selling ice cream at 50 cents a scoop, the cafe drew a small line. People bought extra ice cream to bring home to family members who had been too tired from their walk from Manhattan to enjoy the night.
By 8:30 a.m. Friday the hum of air conditioners and the sound of morning television had returned to Maspeth, but neighbors on Mazeau Street were still outside, chatting as they always do – this time with new stories to tell.
Reach Assistant Managing Editor Brian M. Raffery by e-mail at rafferty@timesledger.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.
