just got back from some 9-11 services..... I thought it maybe getting easy but .... it aint ......thanks for all who did not forget... 3000 souls rest in peace.......... 3000 great ones lost........thanks Alex.. for the post ....bumped in to you under the BQE at the Rumblers show... the "Freedom Tower" is moving along.
We will never forget over here either , I think it changed the world or at least peoples views on certain things . RIP those poor souls , cad
I'm a pilot and flew today... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuuEJK5crM Here is the better one http://www.jontzen.com/tributes911/only_time_tribute.htm
I was 13 years old when the terrorist attacks occured on 9-11. I was walking down the hallway to my 8th grade math class with Mrs. Ostein. There were TVs in our social studies rooms so we could watch historic movies and all of the teachers were congregated in the hallway peering into the social studies room. The feeling in the hallways was an uneasy one. We were all young and a bit confused but we were definately old enough to understand what was occuring. I remember sitting at a desk in my class and staring out the big windows at the bright, clear, blue sky and wondering how something so horrible could occur on such a beautiful morning. There wasn't a cloud in the sky that day. We are only about 2 hours away from NYC so whatever the weather is there is likely what it is here. As soon as class started our teacher told us exactly what was going on. Needless to say we didn't get much done that day and our social studies teacher kept coming in and feeding updates to our Math teacher. Being that 4 planes had already crashed into places, and us only being 2 hours away from NYC we were all a bit uneasy as to what was occuring...even though we lived in a tiny little town that no one would ever target to attack. I remember going home that day to sit on the couch and just stare at the TV and what was occuring not far from my home. I remember watching the footage of people jumping from the towers and that image is forever etched in my mind. I have been to NYC numerous times and i remember standing on those very sidewalks beneath those towers, looking into the front doors and looking up and staring at how tall they were. They were very powerful buildings in that NYC skyline after those events our school garnered such tremendous american pride it was heartwarming. We had a classroom decorating contest and awards were given out to each classroom. I remember the hallways and rooms were decked out to the nines in American pride. 2 students were taken from each classroom each morning to recite the Pledge of Allegience over the loud speakers and when they were finished they would be escorted out front to raise the flag on the flagpole. I remember each house/driveway had flags out by the road. Every car had a flag or a God Bless the USA sticker on it. The pride in the country was unbelievably humbling. I am a competetive horseback rider and i used to train out of a barn 10 minutes away from our international airport in which planes would fly over every 5 minutes at tree-top level. When they closed down all flight traffic i remember how incredibly silent everything was. You could look to the sky and not see one plane up there with the stars. I remember my mom driving me home from the barn at 9pm at night, it was dark and the skies were always clear and full of stars and i remember driving home listeing to the speeches given by George Bush every night. about 2 years after the attacks my high school class took a trip to NYC to the holocaust museum which is located only a few blocks from ground zero. We decided to take a walk over and pay our respects and witness the aftermath. Ground zero was mostly cleared by this time. It was the site of a giant crater in the Earth surrounded by buildings that were still standing but severely damaged by what had happened that day. There was a chainlink fence around the entire site and a elevated walking path that hovered ont he edge of the site so people could travel quickly to the other side (businessmen). I remember the eery silence of ground zero at the time. Amid all the hussle and bussle of the daily lives of NYC people, the only sound was the passing cars. There wasn't a word spoken by a single person. it was silence. The fence was layered with cards and flowers and American flags. I literally stood there for an hour reading what loved ones had left on the fence. While i never shed a tear standing there that day....the emptiness you feel standing there is like nothing i've ever felt. sorry to ramble; thought it would be nice to share some reflections on this day and what it means to be American since that day I will never forget those days and months following what occured that day and i will certainly never forget what happened on that clear, crisp September morning. Most of all I will never forget the pride and sense of community that this country developed in the wake of such disaster. while it was a very sad time it was also a very happy time in the sense that pride in this great nation was renewed and felt so strongly wherever you went. while it was horribly tragic it was very humbling in many aspects also. I wish everyone; especially those not old enough to know or remember what happened on 9-11 could experience that sense of American pride like we did in those days and months following. while the younger generations may understand that something very bad happened 10 years ago; i dont think the majority will ever fully comprehend the tragedy we witnessed. 10 years ago yesterday; we witnessed a horrible tragedy and the loss of thousands of innocent lives. we lost mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, friends, cousins, fiance's, wifes, husbands, and heroes. May they rest in peace and may God Bless the USA forever, and ever.
The Jalopy Journal
