Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11

ON THIS DATE, ten years ago, we were on a road trip. We had spent the night in a cabin in the redwoods with no television or radio. We came late to the news of the attack. In my travel journal I wrote, "Susan and Tim were worried about us, but Chris felt certain that terrorists wouldn't aim at the World Trade Center and an old couple driving to Oregon." So we kept going although the urge to return home immediately was strong.

You know those free-standing signs in front of businesses? They have changeable letters and are usually used for advertising. I used a page in my sketchbook and noted the wording on different signs, feeling they were a form of folk art.

PRAY TODAY                    GOD BLESS AMERICA
  ----------------                     SAY A LITTLE PRAYER
                                                ---------------------------

PRAY FOR AMERICA  OUR HEARTS ARE WITH NEW YORK
       ------------------                 ----------------------------------------

AMERICA IS UNITED              PRAY FOR PEACE
      -------------------                      -------------------------

WE SALUTE                         AMERICA
EMERGENCY                   FREE, BRAVE, PROUD
SERVICES                           ----------------------------
---------------

GOD BLESS AMERICA              PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY
LAND OF THE FREE                     ------------------------------
    ---------------------

REMEMBER THE VICTIMS             PRAY FOR OUR
------------------------------------               LEADERS
                                                                 -----------------

PRAYER TODAY                           PRESIDENT BUSH
HOPE TOMORROW                  WE SUPPORT AMERICA
------------------------                          ---------------------------

OUR PRAYERS                             UNITED WE STAND
GO OUT TO                                   STRONG AND PROUD
THOSE IN NEED                              -------------------------
----------------------

ZERO TOLERANCE                      PLEASE PRAY
 FOR TERRORISM                       FOR OUR NATION
---------------------                               --------------------

SUPPORT LOCAL                     HONK 4 AMERICA
BLOOD DRIVES                        ---------------------
----------------------

FREE SPIRIT RIBBONS                ONE NATION
   -------------------------                     UNDER GOD
                                                           -----------------

and perhaps my favorite

                           BLESS THE USA

                          3 TACOS  -   $1.99


Where were you on that fateful day?




9 comments:

  1. I was at work. A parent called my classroom to ask if I knew about it. I immediately turned on the tv, and it didn't hit me until much later that I maybe shouldn't have watched it with my students? I still don't know. We were all so shocked.
    ~MJ

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  2. I was at home listening to public radio. I was so shocked I had to turn it off. A Non Y Mouse

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  3. My sister outside Buffalo called me in the morning and said turn on the T.V. I am a radio listener and had just heard the cut in on the radio. I watched in disbelief, but like others i went ahead with my day not knowing what had really just happened. My Mom and i took a trip to the Commissary at March AFB. They were on orange alert...very quiet and serious. I was not allowed in the food place under orange, but was allowed to wander and walk the base??? It was there i thought about my father buried at the cemetery across the freeway 1 yr. before and.....the enormity of what just happened to the United States of America and how i wish i could talk to him.

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  4. I was at work, and we were situated very close to the local airport. It was normally very noisy with planes overhead, but the planes were all returning to the airport that day, and for days after, there was an eerie quiet that was palpable. I was glued to the TV for days listening to all the stories of the lives lost...

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  5. I was listening to the radio as I got ready for work The news reported that a plane had hit one of the towers. I turned on television just in time for me and Lee to see the second tower being hit. Stunning, shocking, terrifying, inexplicable. Fortunately, we had no television reception in the classrooms, so school had to progress as usual that day. A comforting distraction.

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  6. We started watching at home and then came to work at the Manor. There was a tv or so around but not the ability for us working folks to sit down.. It was too unspeakable to digest - it was my friend saying that her birthday had been blighted forever that made more of an impact than the tv. We hated the towers from my home outside New York because they ruined our tv transmission - I thought of that too. Meanwhile, my youthful nephew was walking out of the city over the bridges.

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  7. Thanks Jane for sharing your signs. There was a lot today that was memorable, and we do need to remember.
    #409

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  8. We just returned from San Diego--visiting to celebrate our grandson's 2nd birthday. He was born September 10, 2009. I was extraordinarily grateful his birth date did not fall on 9/11. It feels like that date should be retired from the line-up, held in reserve. That's how I also feel about November 22, 1963.

    This tenth anniversary feels more poignant---probably because I have more clarity about the impact of the event ---on the country, on individuals.

    I heard someone say, as an act of tribute, do something physical today. So I chose to take my 4 year-old granddaughter on a Wonder Walk. We grabbed a plastic baggie and walked the neighborhood, paying attention to every pod, every rock, every flower---fully present to each other. That worked for me----Embrace the moment. Be fully present. Nurture a child.

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  9. We had on the Today show while getting ready for work as the horror unfolded. I spent a lot of time trying to get in contact with our family in NY because one of Ed's brothers and his wife worked in The City. Thank God, they were fine. I still get chills as I watch the replays of the towers coming down... Shelley

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