I grew up in New York City and I remember the year that there was a “hatching” when I was a child (in the 1950s and early 60s). The trees in Riverside Park were covered with them and the nearby gutters were full of cicada shells. The thrumming noise in August was almost deafening.
But it was kind of neat, and I still remember that summer.
As kids (LOVED bugs) we used to pick the emerging nymphs off the sidewalk in the evening on their way to the nearest tree to hatch. We’d let them emerge from their shells on our bedroom curtains and wake up to adult cicada’s buzzing around our room. What fun!
I remember a hatching in the early 50’s. Numbers do not add up. Minus 17 from the present is 1996, then 1979, then 1962 then 1945, much too early for me to remember. I was 10 in 1950 and it was a few years later, about 1952 when they swarmed in MD.
I remember in 1987 being overrun by them in DC. I was working there at the time and remembered driving in Rock Creek Park and being amazed at how deafening the noise was.