Monumental Millennium Let Down

by Jill Peitzmeier


3! . .2! . .1! . .Nothing. In case you hadn't noticed amid your post midnight partying on New Year's Eve 2000, the world did not end. Not even close. As I stood on my friend's front lawn, watching some guys set off festively illegal bottle rockets, I felt a sense of relief that I was still alive to appreciate the new century. But at the same time, I was oddly disappointed. After the months of frenzied hype and frightened preparation, there was nothing. Not even a small power outage to appease all the doomsday predictions.

For months people across the county prepared for disaster by stocking up on the bare necessities such as rolls of toilet paper and liters of water. Basements became bomb shelters for what some felt to be the inevitable: ultimate destruction.

I myself found all the stocking up to be quite frivolous, although I have to admit that my parents did save 2-liter pop bottles for water storage. My argument was this: how long have we known about Y2K? At least two years, right? So while everyone prepared for the judgement day, computer programmers throughout the world prepared as well. Only they prepared to prevent chaos from happening. That's why they were paid large sums of money.

Okay, so maybe not everyone thought it was the end of the world. Probably the most people were anticipating was an extended power outage, in which case water would be a good essential to have stored in advance. But don't you think that OPPD had thought about the Y2K bug and took preventative measures? That's what I assumed and am glad, and maybe a tiny bit smug, that I was right.

So what's next? What do you do with a two years' supply of canned green beans and evaporated milk? I suppose you could keep those bomb shelters ready for the next millennium, because it's always better to be safe than sorry.

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