Na-na, Hey-hey, Good-bye! Kiss the Firebird good-bye. Either Jeff’s getting a much cooler car (his Dad is rich, remember) or he’s S.O.L. We’ll find out once they get to San Diego.
Doing these “easy” strips is really much harder than I think. I thought “Hey, a slow zoom out then the car explodes. How hard is that?” Getting the explosion, the lightning, the motion blurs just right took forever. I’m gonna stick to the characters! Rest easy, their stage gear is in the trusty hands of Chet as we’ll see more of that on Monday.
Do I really need to state today’s title is by REO Speedwagon? Didn’t think so. I woke up from a drunken stupor in May of 1976 at an outdoor concert to luckily catch REO ending up a day long concert event with this song. I barely remember the song, but it was cool to see them just the same.
Being today is the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our fine little country, I thought passing along my story of 9/11 might be a bit interesting. Like Kennedy being shot, it was one of those moments you remember with clarity what you were doing and where. I was in Nashville, home of Country Music and a few other things.
Quickly, at the time, I developed a digital video editing system for a big Broadcast company here in Illinois. To launch this new product line (which had been a year in developement) we were attending the annual Television & Radion News Directors trade show in Nashville. It was to start on September 12th, but alas, that was not to be. On the 10th, I loaded up my trusty van with a ton of computer gear and booth accessories and headed south on my 12 hour drive from Chicago to Nashville. On the 11th, I awoke early as I was scheduled to do a demonstration early that morning for a PBS station in Knoxville, a couple hours away from Nashville. I was heading up and down the hills of Tennessee occasionally turning on my radio to listen to the morning DJs of the area. I switched off my CD player and tuned in a station only to hear screaming and tons of background confusion. I thought “what the hell kind of morning talk show crap is this?” I was quickly informed that a plane had struck the Twin Towers and second one was inbound. Moments later it hit. I stopped my van at the next exit to call my wife. It took a bit, but I got a line through and she answered “We’re under attack!” Great, here I am 14 hours from Chicago and the bombs may be coming. “Your fucked, Wilkins.” Was the first thing that went through my head. Well, cooler heads prevailed and I told my wife I was coming home.
I got to Knoxville to pick up my salesperson (she had flown in early that morning, and got in before the chaos ensued). We stopped at the PBS station only to find them all glued to their monitors watching replays of the planes exploding. We bid them farewell, and headed back to Tennessee to get my stuff from the tradeshow and drive home. With all the stops and re-packing the van, the salesperson and I got back to the Chicago area around 2:00AM. Her husband picked her up and I was greeted by a very worried wife. I spent the next two days like most Americans, glued to my TV set trying to figure out what the hell happened.
Needless to say, I will never forget that experience or how that moment crushed the introduction of this new product line, and impacted millions the same way. I feel for those who lost family that day and know my loses were nothing compared to them, but we all remember the impact personally and that is how 9/11 went down for me.
How about you?
***************
Discussion (54) ¬
heh thats funny
im going to go se styx, reo and night ranger in nov. at the local arena its gonna be cool
ive seen styx and night ranger before but i havent seen reo i cant wait
I loved REO when original guitarist Gary Richrath was with the group. But when those inane ballads by Kevin Cronin became the signature to REO, I quickly gave up on the band. REO is also from my neck of the woods having played in bars in central Illinois much like I did (they were much popular for some odd reason).
The current version of Styx plays more rock than when keyboardist Dennis DeYoung was in the band, which is good, as Styx was at it’s core a good rock band. The 80s messed up most great rock bands… Styx, Journey, REO and others turned to those damned ballads (“Babe” by Styx makes me cringe) which seemed very popular for some odd reason. Those ballads today rather suck in my opinion and the rock songs held up much better.
I work nights on an airport. I came home that morning and went to bed at my usual time. I woke up shortly after the first impact and spent most of the day watching the television, including seeing the second impact and the collapse.
I recall being upset when local news stations began reporting that Air Force One had landed at a nearby US Air Force base. I felt they were breaching security by announcing the President’s location and movement.
That I night I reported for work at my usual time. By that time the grounding order had gone into effect. Planes landed at the nearest facility capable of handling them, regardless of planned destination.
I still recall the eerie quiet – no airplanes landing, taking off, or moving. No ground support equipment running. At one point the airport shut off all of the field lights so there was a certain element of darkness to go with the quiet.
No one else was in the building, so when our air operations center called asking for verification of all company aircraft on the ground at our location, I had to go make the survey. I called the airport PD to let them know that I was going to be moving among the airplanes just to make sure they didn’t get excited when they saw a vehicle moving on the tarmac.
As you said – it is my generation’s “JFK moment”.
Living near Chicago, and O’Hare & Midway Airports, the sound of commercial air traffic is routine and you really don’t notice it. I stood outside my house on Wednesday the 12th, and was taken back at the quiet. No planes. Everyone seemed to have stayed home, no matter where they worked. It was eerie at best.
Yes, it is that moment of the 21st century that is etched in our memories firmly.
I had just joined the Navy that spring and was sitting in my first class for my rate (job) as a Computer Technician. We were going through an introduction of what was expected of us. One of the instructors came in and told us what was happeneing. The entire base went on lock down. My husband at the time was at home with our two kids. He was worried I wouldn’t be allowed to come home. I remember talking to my mother once I was finally allowed home later that day. She reminded me of a conversation we had had right before I enlisted. It was when the USS Cole had been bombed. She asked if I really wanted to enlist after seeing that trajedy. I told her not to worry, I would probably be on a carrier, not cruiser. Yeah, I was stationed on a cruiser as my first and only ship. Mom worried about me every day I was in. Now eight years later I am out. My current hubby is in the Army and on his way home right now for R&R from Iraq. Its been eight years and I still remember that day as clear as a bell. And I am still proud of our country and the men and women who serve it.
In my day, all we’d say is “Right on, man!” I’m with you.
Anyone serving in any branch of services deserves a pat on the back and our support. It is a freakin’ tough job and one that I could never do. I wish you and your hubby well and glad to have you as a reader!
Heh, you could have used Riders on the Storm as well 😛
9.11:
I was at work (Tech Support Supervisor). Then one of my employee says a Plane as crashed in one tower. Then, all of a sudden, the amount of calls dropped drastically, as if nobody cared anymore about their tech problems. Another employee had a radio, and the entire floor was gathered around it.
When it was obvious it was terrorists attacks, people started to freak out. I was living in the Canada’s Capital…. Potential target as well.
One of the attendees for that tradeshow was coming from the UK and his plane was told to land in Canada as our borders were closed to air traffic. He was stuck in this plane for FIVE days until the ban was lifted. He slept at night in a gym and spent the days aboard the plane stuck in his tiny seat with little or no ventilation. Pure hell.
So many stories unheard, man.
Ooo! Riders on the Storm would have been better too. Damnit! And I’m a Doors fan… jeez.
Getting ready for work. Ended up having to drive from Cincinnati to Louisville that day. Let’s just say it wasn’t fun.
On my trip home that day, just inside the Illinois state line, I needed gas and was forced to pay $5/gallon with CASH only. It was BP station too! The guy had a big sign saying “CASH ONLY” Found out later the guy was busted for doing the price gouging, but it didn’t get me my money back. I just wanted to get home.
It was amazing as so many people thought the end was coming that day. Very weird.
I was woke up by my roommates just right after the first plane hit. We watched the second plane hit. I was living in Florida at the time working for a mom and pop pizza shop. About an hour after the second plane hit, I received a phone call from work asking me to come in. The whole crew worked almost nonstop from noon to close at 11pm. Everyone was ordering pizzas. Almost every door we went to had people scared or crying.
One lady asked me why I we were still working that day and my response was, “Everyone needs to eat and pizza is a comfort food for many. I hope they can find comfort in it today. ”
She gave me a ten dollar tip. We turned around and donated most of our tips that night to the Red Cross (tips were how we paid for our fuel).
I think I was more stunned by the attack on the pentagon as I actually had relatives that worked there. Luckily they were in other parts of the building. We were so busy that I didn’t hear about that until after we had closed that night.
Good for you making the donations! That was cool!
I hadn’t thought about people ordering pizzas, but it seems a natural thing to do. Who wants to cook on a day like that. It also reminds me, and the rest of us too, that folks had to carry… papers needed printing, pizzas needed delivery, donuts were to be baked… To those of you who had to work through this, I tip my hat to you.
I was lucky, and still am, that I’m self-employed and was able to take a few days to let it all sink in. That Friday I called my clients and said “Let’s get back to work.” I was trying to do my part.
Wow, that reminds me of the time we went out with a couple of friends of ours for a pontoon boat day trip out on the lake. Not only did it storm that day (we braced against the rainstorm singing the Gilligan’s Island theme), but at the end of the day we packed all our gear into a shopping cart on the docks. The other couple started arguing about what they were going to do next and let go of the cart.
I yelled, and Paula and I ran after it, but it was too late. All our gear deep-sixed into the lake. Thanks, Byron, for bringing back such fond daytrip memories. XD
You’re welcome!
“Just sit right and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of fateful trip…” 🙂
As far as where I was on September 11th, that wasn’t so funny. I was sitting at home, turned on the TV and like a million others that day, yelled, “Holy S@#t!!” It was a mind-numbing day, and about 5 pm I got a call about a new job.
This morning at 8:46 am, I clicked “Send” on an email to Alan Fitch of Panel Borders, the only UK radio show dedicated to comics. Hopefully that’s auspicious.
Life does go on, and we have to be ready for anything.
Yes, life does indeed go on. But some didn’t get that message as a lot of companys slowed down spending on various things… which made the launch of that new product line die a slow death as budgets were cut because of the events of 9/11.
For me, 9/11 really led me to drawing this comic. The economic effects of that time, topped with the downfall of most of our economic systems, pushed my company into bankruptcy. If I’m gonna be broke, I might as well do something I love… drawing this comic!
So, in a way, it’s been a good thing. Or I’m just nuts. Eh, it’s 50/50! 🙂
You started 1977 the Comic after 9/11? That’s interesting. 2001 is the same year I pulled out my manuscript and revived my series too. That was one year that got a lot of people thinking, gosh, you just never know what the future holds. Time to get off that duff and do some of those things you really wanted to do, before you wake up one day–or don’t–and realize the chances have passed.
Yeah, I remember that morning.
I had flown back from Burning Man two days earlier, and was on my way to work when I stopped in at the bank to deposit some checks that had arrived while I was away. In the car, I’d been listening to Rusted Root’s album When I Woke; in the bank, a different sort of wake-up call was playing.
The bank I used to use had a large-screen TV in the lobby for customers to watch while they waited. (This in itself is kinda screwed up, but that’s another tangent…) As I walked in, I noticed people crowded around it. At first, I thought, “Oh, yeah – welcome back to ‘civilization’ – another rubbernecking newscast. No thanks!” Then I noticed what was happening. At the time, the second plane had not yet hit. I recalled the plane that had crashed into the Empire State Building decades ago, and went to watch the screen myself. Ouch. Bad… but not yet being called a terrorist attack. Shaken, I deposited my check and went to work.
At the bookstore I worked in at the time, a TV had been set up in the break room. Most of the employees – including the managers, were watching. Someone else had retrieved another TV and was setting it up in the store’s main drag. As we watched, the second plane hit. It’s a cliche, I know, but I still feel a very literal chill that raises hairs across my arms just remembering that image now. From then on, we couldn’t stop watching. Soon after, the towers fell.
I remember absolute silence in the break room… and then my co-worker Brenda saying, “Bush did this. He’s behind it – isn’t that obvious? He wanted to be important. Now he will be.” Events have proved her more or less right. Bush may not have set the charges or ordered the attack; he may not have even intentionally let it happen. His administration, however, certainly turned the attack – whomever was ultimately behind it – into the biggest power grab in American history. And for a while, they succeeded. We have been living with the repercussions of that activity ever since.
After a while, there was nothing to do but go back to work and try to sort things out as we would. Some people were crying. Most of us were just numb. Brenda was furious. I didn’t know what to think or feel, except to be glad that I wasn’t still out on the playa and yet wishing I still was.
Back out on the sales floor, a cluster of customers furiously debated what should be done. By then, it was obvious we were at war with SOMEONE. The general consensus that it was radical Muslims. “We oughtta round them all up,” said one customer as I joined the group. “You can’t trust ’em, you can’t tell ’em apart. They’re all together on this. We need to lock them all up.” One or two other customers agreed. I regarded them with pity and revulsion.
All those customers were black. “Look at yourselves,” I remember saying. “Don’t you, of all people, know where that kind of thinking goes?” One or two of the guys nodded. the main speaker just shook his head. “That’s different,” he said. “We didn’t do this.”
Eight years later, I wish I knew he’d been right.
“We” didn’t bring the Twin Towers down. We The People did not set the charges or steer the planes or do whatever the hell it was that caused that atrocity. We DID, however, choose to let that crime, that massacre, that act of sick performance art that said all the things we didn’t want to hear about who we are – we did choose to let it turn us into the rogue nation we have become. We chose to throw aside the worldwide outpouring of goodwill and sympathy that came from such unlikely sources as China and Iran, to discard the feeling of national unity that followed those first days, and let ourselves assume every grotesque cliche ever uttered about America. And THAT is the ultimate tragedy of 9/11: not that we lost roughly 2000 people to an act of desperate psychopathology, but that we let it turn us into everything we despised.
Down the street from my house at the time, there was a family of Muslims. In the days after the attack, I decided to make a small sign that said “You are not my enemy” and leave it on their mailbox. I almost did it, but I chickened out. I wasn’t afraid of what they’d do to me if I came near their property – I assumed they’d be scared of me if I did. Soon afterward, they moved. I wish I’d left that sign for them. I wish I hadn’t been afraid of nothing.
Whether he’s in a cave, a hospital room, a mansion or hell itself, Osama bin Ladin is laughing his ass off at us. Because eight years ago, he scared us so badly that we’ve torn ourselves apart, disgraced ourselves and bankrupted ourselves trying to live out some G.I. Joe fantasia rather than acting like the mature nation we’d believed, up till then, we had become. Each time some ape raises a gun outside a town hall meeting, each time one of us cringes from the lunacy of our fellow citizens, each time Ted Nugent rings cheers from a crowd by threatening to shoot President Obama, I see what we lost on 9/11/2001.
We’ve lost our goddamn minds.
And unless we learn to find them again, the bastards will have won.
Wow, a lot there! Let me just say that I agree that WE Americans have lost our way. I cannot blame any one person or even our government, as it ultimately comes down to US. WE let this happen. WE let the events of that day lead us here.
We have had our spanking, and many want to get back to work, but “the fear” is still over us and until we stand up to that fear, we’re just going to wallow in our own waste. We shall overcome this when we start thinking with some common sense.
But, hey, who said common sense was ever in our political system? 🙂
But what do I know, I draw stoner cartoons… so carry on! 🙂
Heh – thanks, Byron. And keep drawing those stoner comics – we love you for it! 🙂
“Whether he’s in a cave, a hospital room, a mansion or hell itself, Osama bin Ladin is laughing his ass off at us. Because eight years ago, he scared us so badly that we’ve torn ourselves apart, disgraced ourselves and bankrupted ourselves trying to live out some G.I. Joe fantasia rather than acting like the mature nation we’d believed, up till then, we had become.”
THIS. And satyrblade, millions of Americans make jackass noises about being a “real American”, but to stand up and say things like what you said here YOU are the real American. I hope and pray more people will think like you.
Thank you. I really appreciate that. 🙂
It probably sounds corny but your country needs you! America never was so hated around the world as it is now but really there are great things about America and Americans no matter what the “West haters” say.
NOOOO dont tell me the stash got blown up too!!
There’s always more grass to be had… 🙂
I was in bed, pretty sick and my BF said come and see this on TV.he’d just turned it on and thought it was a movie.I got up and remember, sitting watching it open mouthed through a haze of pain and fever which made it even more unreal.
I got in a sort of argument on line the next day because I’d worked in Manchester in the UK,during the IRA bombing campaigns in the 70’s and been close to several big blasts.I was pointing out that I think the big shock to America was that no enemy had ever touched the homeland apart from Pearl Harbour whereas stuff like 9/11 happened every night in the UK during the Blitz.
I’m not downgrading the horror of it,I’m flying the Stars and Stripes outside my flat today in respect,even though I live in England,but I think it was the fact that even after WWII,the USA felt itself to be invincible and now it knows it isn’t.And that has made the grief,shock and horror worse for you.
RIP everyone,we will never forget.
People die every day from attacks of some sort, and they just don’t get as much attention.
You’re right, we here in the USA have had it “safe” for a long time. 9/11 was also a wake up call that world had changed and we needed to be more alert.
But also typical of us bloody Americans is we took it too far. Anyone remember the “buy duct tape for your windows” statement that caused a ton of nit-wits to buy up all the duct tape? That was pretty typical of our “over” reaction.
Well, it’s back to the job of making comics for me. If people can laugh, then we’ll be fine.
🙂
Both towers burning on the skyline as the train pulled toward the Woodside tunnels.
Everyone trying to figure out how both towers were hit in an accident because at that moment no-one was able to conceive the someone would do such a thing deliberately.
About a mile from the WTC, my building had a panoramic view of the towers. I left that room when it became obvious that it would soon be time for a Shirtwaist Factory solution for those whose back was to the fire.
Finally finding a phone that worked, and getting a call through to my frantic wife.
The towers fell, at once cutting off all communications (the cell repeaters and TV broadcast antennae were mounted on the North Tower, WTC1) and a cloud of dust made up of pulverised asbestos, furnishings and people blanketed lower Manhattan out to the Brooklyn Bridge. Colleagues spent hours locked in buildings with the door seals taped.
My youngest brother-in-law should have been in WTC1 but got a call from his head office that took until it collapsed to get out of. We wouldn’t know this until evening.
Riding home that night, one woman on the train was calling everyone she knew and talking about those poor buggers who jumped. Obviously in shock, her voice was high, squeaky and loud. I reached over and gently touched her leg, and when she looked up at me said: “Ma’am, please. there may be those in this car who’ve lost people”. She started using her indoor voice, and soon hung up for good.
And then the real horror began when those who were left started bickering over whose names should be first, largest or just left off a monument no-one could actually get round to making. I wondered aloud why we couldn’t just put up a Vietnam Memorial-style wall, each person who died, Police, Fire Service, EMT, Civilian Volunteer, WTC occupant, simply arranged alphabetically, with their name coloured to reflect how they came to be there: Blue for a Cop, red for a Fireman, white for an EMT or Doctor, green for civilian responders and silver for the poor sods who just went to work and never came home. America, where all men are created equal, but they don’t die that way apparently.
Wondering ever afterward would the New Yorkers ever get over it and get their old fire back, or had it all been just loud talk all along? Would they run screaming every time a low flying aircraft swung by, or some venal politician announced a “credible threat?”
Wondering, when one of the flying school owners who had trained these bastards stood in front of TV cameras and said it wasn’t his fault, whether anyone would point out that when he had signed the application for the H1 visas they had to have before he could start billing them, he had signed a statement saying that he vouched for their character and would stand responsible for their behaviour.
Wondering if we would ever be officially told where the money that financed it all came from, being as how it had seemingly originated in a so-called ‘friendly” country.
Yes, I remember. That and a whole lot more.
I remember the smell that hung over Manhattan for two weeks, weeks in which the heat soared and it just would not rain. “Not bodies” said the politicians, “just the food court”. Yeah, I saw 2010 too. The fire burned in the pit relentlessly and no-one could actually go and see what was what.
After two weeks the heavens opened, finally, and the rain quenched the fire. The stink was everywhere and the sky was yellow in places.
And the former governor of New Jersey, now head of the EPA strode into town and declared the air of what the press had – with typical lack of taste – dubbed “Ground Zero” safe.
Then she left. Rather quickly, I thought. And people started dying all over again, and those they thought had got their backs, who were paid by the taxpayers to have their backs, lied through their teeth.
Yes, I remember.
Every town in Metropolitan New York has streets named for firefighters or police officers. Every community lost people. Whole engine companies were lost when the smoke cleared.
I remember. I’m too angry to forget, and not entirely human when I go back to that day.
Thank you for your memories, and for the reminder of all that is great and not so great about our country. 9/11 brought the best and the worst out in our system.
We banded to clean the area up only to have politicians/companies take advantage of the situation. That’s unfortunately Human Nature, and even an event like 9/11 can’t wipe that out for long.
I do remember for about a month it seemed, that folks were friendlier, more respectful and even down-right helpful. Then it was back to business as usual.
Ah, but I wouldn’t really want to live anywhere else… except on a private island with lots of native women bringing me 7&7s all day on the beach.
🙂
And you, hotclaws, need to get more educated on the subject of terrorist attacks on American Home Soil. Not downgrading your intelligence, just pointing out that you are in factual error. For a start, this was not the first attempt to take down the WTC, and the previous one claimed lives.
Steve. Expat from Coventry, and also a survivor of the IRA bombing campaigns.
Well, even this American had forgotten about the first bombing attempt on the Twin Towers, as the horror of 9/11 kinda makes you forget other stuff. Or even that Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. But her point is well taken. The USA has been immune to these kinds of attacks that plague other countries sometimes on a daily basis.
Your point is well received as well.
Steve — the Canadians attacked Washington DC a LONG LONG time before the first WTC attack! Not many Americans know about that either.
Great effects on that last panel, Byron!
Thanks! It was the hardest thing in this “easy” comic! 🙂 I didn’t know what to do at first… how of the car to show, or to do it more “cartoony” style… decisions, decisions…
Damned be you, for destroying the greatest star of the comic!!!!
😀
Oh, I think we’ll get a suitable replacement soon enough… Jeff is gonna have some sort of cool car regardless…
🙂
Jesus…
SELLING a car to get another, is one thing.
DESTROYING a great pony like this is a crime, no matter if there’s gonna be a replacement!
Have a good weekend!
What will the womenfolk do now their collection of shoes and hair-care products is vaporized?
Luckily, they don’t wear too many shoes (none that I can remember thus far… though I rarely show anyone’s feet anyway) but our gang is going to literally go to California with nothing but the “shirts on their backs” at this point.
Maybe they’ll get an advance from their Producer… doubtful.
🙂
Heh – haven’t you noticed that pretty much every female character in this comic goes barefoot? 😉
diggin that last panel. and holy shamoly, I have never seen such long comments on a webcomic!
The last panel is me going crazy in Photoshop with shading and motion blurs.
Man, I know! I thought I’d get a couple “I was here…” replies, and my readers came through big time with some great insights and stories! We rock folks!
So where were you, young lady? Climbing a tree? 🙂
Byron — good job on the drawing today, I can’t wait to see what kind of car they get next!
Me too, I haven’t decided on what car Jeff is to get next… maybe I’ll do one of those corny “let the readers choose”… that was big in the 70s.
🙂
My vote is a Shelby Mustang!
Being an educator and an old newspaperman, I spent much of that day reassuring employees that WWIII had not, in fact, just begun, and that “Someone had just kicked over the wrong anthill.”
Bonus anecdote: Shortly after lunch the next day, our building was rattled by the roar of a jet passing directly overhead at very low altitude, maybe less than 1K/ft. Had I not been close to the front door, I wouldn’t have seen it heading north on Afterburner. I recognised it as a USAF fighter jet.
I learned later in the day it had been dispatched to see about a single engine two-seater some Idiot had chosen to fly near Dubya’s ranch in Crawford, TX despite the FAA’s “No-Fly” directive.
Double bonus: The fighter was part of Dubya’s old Texas Air National Guard unit based at Ellington Field, southeast of Houston…much more recent model than what Dubya flew, of course.
Holy cow! What a maroon! Not only did this pilot pick the “no fly” period to go up in his plane, but he’s buzzing the President’s private ranch. All together now: Looser.
Seeing that fighter zooming overhead must have been cool regardless. I love that at NASCAR races, but seeing one with after burners kicked in… man!
Thanks for sharing! You made my day! 🙂
My wife and I were living in Queens at the time, and really, dodged a bullet. On a normal day, Kim would’ve been at the World Trade Center at 8:45am, coming out of the subway there to walk three more blocks to where she was temping. I would’ve been on the E train heading to my job down in the West Village, about a mile from the World Trade Center. But, on that day, Kim left later and was headed to midtown to go to an audition for a Broadway tour, and I took the day off to wait for the arrival of my new Macintosh G4 tower.
It was a terrifying time, in the most literal sense of the word. I’d lived 36 years at that point, but had never known real fear or terror. I learned it that day. I knew Kim wasn’t at the site, but she was still in Manhattan. One of the darkly funny moments of that was that I reached her on her cell and told her a plane had hit the World Trade and she should just head home…probably walking, as the subways would no doubt be out of service. There were still like 10 planes in the air unaccounted for, so no one really knew what was going on, or if there were more. Meaning well, I said, “just head home, and avoid any landmarks or such.” She sort of laughed and said “Oh, you mean like THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING WHICH I’M LOOKING AT? Or the Chrystler Building? Or the U.N? Or the Brooklyn Bridge?” I had to acknowledge that what I said was sort of stupid and just told her to walk home. So she did…with literally a million other people.
She was at Sixth Avenue looking downtown when the towers collapsed, so she saw it happen. Much the same response as we all had watching on the TV…we knew in our hearts what had happened, but our brains wouldn’t quite admit it. Kim is great in an emergency, and herded a large group of people to keep walking and head over the bridge. She finally got home to Queens, and had one woman with her, who was very dazed and needed to make a phone call to her husband.
In the following days, friends of ours came over and we just watched the TV like everyone else…only we could look out the window and see and smell the smoke and the death. Ironically enough, the station we got the most insight and useful information from was BBC America. The local news stations did nothing but show the same pictures over and over and gave us nothing new. The BBC had openings and closures, actual discussion of what happened, the world picture…gave me even more respect for them.
What I remember is after about 24 hours of that, we turned the TV to the Game Show Network and watched old episodes of “Match Game” and the like. It was mind numbing and nice. Every car backfire and low flying plane scared me for 6 months. My brother had some good friends in the NYFD, and though Bill’s friends survived, obviously many of their buddies did not. Kim and I didn’t know anyone personally who died in the collapses, but she worked professionally with that company who lost nearly everyone, and knew many of them. It was sort of nice in NYC in some ways after that…people seemed nicer, with that sort of “I’ve seen what you’ve seen, too” comeraderie. A bit of a steep price to pay for that, but still. It was also great to see New Yorkers in general, and how quickly “normalcy” returned to the day to day grind of things. I joked that if they wanted to really take care of these terrorists, they should give every New Yorker a baseball bat and let us at ’em. 🙂
But, as roxysteve so eloquently stated above, there’s still the anger. Anger at our government wasting such a wonderful chance to foster stronger relationships with countries around the world who reached out to us…anger at the fact that I look today…EIGHT $#&*@! YEARS LATER…and I still see a pit where those buildings were. Tied up in polical maneuvering, greedy developers, misguided victim’s families, a failing economy. Build something there…now. THAT would be the greatest memorial to those people.
Well said Tom, as usual. Yes, the whole country banded together there for a while, it was really nice.
Yes, it was a missed opportunity. Greed runs this world of ours and that saddens me the most. There is so much more to life then money… the fact that your wife is safe and sound is all you need.
Thanks for sharing. I am really enjoying all of these insights! I didn’t think there would be such an out-pouring, but I should have known better as my readers are the best in the world! Perhaps a little stoned, but the best…
🙂
The Dirty Little Secret that no-one ever speaks of, is the fact that while the Twin Towers had finally lived down most of the detractors who called them an eyesore, the buildings were notoriously hard to fill, which is why NYC agencies had offices in them. The real reason no-one wanted the twin towers put back just the way they were: they weren’t the moneyspinners they were supposed to be.
Two weeks before the attacks I was in NYC with a cousin and his mother, people I hadn’t seen in 30 years. They wanted The Tour. The Tour included being taken up the Empire State *first*, then being whisked downtown for the WTC for a second round of amazing. We never got to the WTC because we were turned away. I explained to the guard that I was simply trying to plan my relatives’ day, and asked quietly if it was a bomb threat, to which he nodded. We buggered off for a trip on the Circle Line. I have footage of the towers from that day, but only because my cousin was in the frame. I had by then been in and around the Towers for over a decade, spent more than a dozen trips on the roof ands observation decks of WTC2 and was a bit blasé.
Funny thing, life.
What’s it say that these are people with “leftover lightning rods”?
Thanks for the comic. I was also @ work, driving the pony for a local book chain when I first heard Bob & Tom talking about it. The second one hit while I was driving, and the Bob & Tom show shortly ended for the interminable ‘news’ that nearly all stations were airing for the next week. (I remember having to turn to Cartoon Network @ home to find non-news programming). I think that the stress of the attacks & not knowing about some family contributed to my reckless driving ticket two days later that got me fired from that awesome job. Thankfully the family was ok, at least.
Sorry to hear you lost that job. I feel for you as the product line I developed was killer and never really saw the light of day, so I dig what you’re saying.
Yep, I had to watch something besides the News at the point too as it was just depressing and annoying at the same time. Thank God for Cartoon Network!
🙂