Hurricane Sandy Prompts Readers' Recollections of 1985's Gloria

Hurricane Gloria hit the south shore on September 27, 1985 and Patch Facebook readers remember too things very well: playing board games and no power for weeks.

"I remember playing parcheesi with my grandparents in the front window of my parent's house," Sandi Birkeland Kanne shared on a group Facebook talk about past storms.

As Debbie Wagner Anderson noted "it was rough," without gas or milk for weeks. "Let's hope for the best with this one."

As Mizter Scott Cohen writes Sandy "will be a real test to see how far we have come."

Hurricane Sandy is due to hit the Long Island area late Monday with potential 50 mph winds. LIPA warned residents days ago power outages could be from seven to 10 days, and state, town and county officials enacted evacuations over the weekend.

Local schools are closed Monday and Tuesday and LIRR service ended as of 7 p.m. Sunday night.

In recalling Gloria, Patch Facebook fans remember that "Gloria's days without power sucked big time."

And food supplies were limited as Mark Mondello recalls.

"Canned mushrooms anyone?" he noted.

The majority remember playing board games to pass the time, including Monopoly and Yahtzee.

"Dominoes by candlelight," wrote Terri-Anne Doherty.

"Hope we don't lose power. We didn't during Irene," she added, noting last year's big storm event.