Crossposted from BostonMaggie
#911Plus10 That's the Twitter hashtag for today.
I plan on being on the Cambridge Common at 7am for the United We Stand 9/11 "Moving Tribute" Boston.
It winds up in Boston Common in time for the 8:30 am tribute at the State House.
Then onto a service project from 11am to 2 pm at the Mother's Walk on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. We will be preparing packages to be sent to our Troops overseas. This event is being run by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund.
At 4pm (note the earlier time) my friend Matt will be joining my friend Kevin for a special "Someone You Should Know" - Rick Rescorla. Tune in to AM Radio 680 in Boston or online at wrko.com.
5 to 6pm is MIDRATs, Navy blog talk radio with CDR Salamander, Eagle1 & LCDR Claude Berube, USN
And because I never expressed it better than I did in 2007, I'll just link that one - 8:46 AM.
#911Plus10 That's the Twitter hashtag for today.
I plan on being on the Cambridge Common at 7am for the United We Stand 9/11 "Moving Tribute" Boston.
It winds up in Boston Common in time for the 8:30 am tribute at the State House.
Then onto a service project from 11am to 2 pm at the Mother's Walk on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. We will be preparing packages to be sent to our Troops overseas. This event is being run by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund.
At 4pm (note the earlier time) my friend Matt will be joining my friend Kevin for a special "Someone You Should Know" - Rick Rescorla. Tune in to AM Radio 680 in Boston or online at wrko.com.
5 to 6pm is MIDRATs, Navy blog talk radio with CDR Salamander, Eagle1 & LCDR Claude Berube, USN
And because I never expressed it better than I did in 2007, I'll just link that one - 8:46 AM.
I was living in the San Francisco Bay area and for some forgotten reason had the day off from work. I was planning to sleep late, maybe 9am, or so, but woke up around 7 and flicked on the TV before rolling over. The first plane had already hit, but then I saw the second one roll in.
I had two second cousins who worked in lower Manhattan’s financial district so I wasted some time trying to get through to them to tell them to get outta Dodge quick like a bunny. The phone lines were pretty much impenetrable until mid-afternoon when I reached their mother who said everyone was alive and well.
My father had come to this country in 1927 from his native Ireland. He had spent his work life in New York’s construction industry. Early on, he worked on the Empire State Building. Towards his retirement, he worked on the World Trade Center and, after it opened to the public, we spent an afternoon together doing the observation deck thing and my father’s version of the three-martini lunch. It was a brilliant New York afternoon, much like 9-11, no ceiling and unlimited visibility as they would say in flight school. When I stood close to the windows on the observation deck, I felt like the building was leaning over, a much different experience than the observation deck on the Empire State Building. My other impression of the Trade Center was the volume thing. It doesn’t always come across in pictures or film, but the sheer volume of the two towers was almost beyond belief.
There’s a peculiar aspect to a lot of the workers in New York’s construction industry, especially on the really large or famous projects. A kind of relationship develops between the workmen and their creations, like somehow they and the building were parts of each other, then and forever. It was concept that I really didn’t understand until much later when I learned that I was a printer and that my printing was both by me and of me.
When the two towers finished collapsing, I was left with two unpleasant thoughts in my mind. One, I was glad that my father had gone on to his well earned reward and didn’t have to live to see it. The other was why the hell did I ever give back that M-16.