In the Chapter titled, "One Cold Sunday," Piercy describes the various characters' reactions to the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. For me, this evoked memories of 9/11. This DQ is about your own experience on 9/11.
On 9/11/01, I was working at the college & was driving to a local school district to address a group of Principals about my Ed Leadership Master's program. First, I heard on the radio that one of the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane & I figured it was an accident. Then, I heard that the second tower had been hit & I knew it wasn't an accident. I got to the school district meeting & the Supt. had just told the Principals to go back to their school buildings & close down the schools - this district had quite a few students whose parents worked in NYC.
I went back to the college. Our VP decided to keep the college open bc we had so many students who lived on campus & we wanted them to have as normal a day as possible. From my office window, I could watch the steam from a nearby nuclear generator. I kept debating over whether or not I should go to the 7-11 and pick up a pack of cigarettes & start smoking again (I had quit a few years ago - but if I was going to die, I figured I'd re-start).
We had some tv's around in the classrooms & our computers - everyone just wanted to stay as "hooked-up" as possible to the rest of the world. I remember for months after that watching news all the time - just in case something else happened.
On the morning of 9/11, I was, as usual, on my way into Boston driving on the Mass Turnpike. Like you, Lynn, I heard about the first plane and assumed it was an accident. I was scheduled to be at a development team meeting first thing in the morning, and when I got to my office, my phone was ringing off the hook and I had a huge number of messages. I gathered my stuff and headed up to the meeting, and they were pulling a TV into the board room and had hooked it up to a live newsfeed. We all just sat there watching, aghast and incredulous.
Within the next few days, the calls started going out for assistance - they wanted grief counselors on the scene to work with both families and the rescue workers. Since I worked as a therapist before starting this current phase as a writer, I volunteered. I spent two weeks out at Ground Zero doing 12+ hour shifts onsite. I worked with a Salvation Army group. They had set up makeshift feeding & counseling stations - I think six or seven of them - throughout the Ground Zero area. It was like serving in a war zone - or the closest thing to it that I've ever experienced. I sat at a card table with a couple of folding chairs. We were supposed to wear our gas mask thingies at all times, but of course nobody did. It was all mud and debris and the site of the twin tower buldings were just huge piles of brick and stone and dirt and glass and metal. There were still fires burning throughout the rubble. They had dogs there who were trained to sniff out survivors - and dogs trained to find dead bodies, as well. The ones who found the dead would become depressed and not want to eat. I remember talking with some of their trainers, who had to spend a lot of time trying to cheer up the dogs. It's funny how things like that stand out in your mind.
It was a pretty amazing experience. The one thing that I never heard mentioned was politics. Can you imagine? None of the rescue workers, none of the firemen or police or anybody else was thinking about anything except finding survivors. All the anger came later.
My granddaughter has kept my bright red windbreaker jacket with "Disaster Team" on the back, and my gas mask as souvenirs.
Oddly, when 9/11 happened, I found myself thinking about where I had been when JFK was assasinated.
I imagine Pearl Harbor had very much the same effect on everyone. An event of such national - and world-wide - significance seems to create an indelible record on our consciousness.
Z
I was working also on 9/11. I remember, I had went into the "day room" to give medication to a patient, and it was showing it on TV. At first i couldn't take it in, and when I did, I had to sit down. My legs wouldn't hold me upright. All I could think of was "now we will go to war". Everyone was in shock, of course, and talked of nothing else the rest of the morning. A bit later I went downstairs and walked into a seldom used bathroom there. A young girl wearing the hair covering of the muslum was standing in the corner crying. She kind of turned away when she saw me. I walked over to her and offer her my hand and said "it's a sad day for all of us, isn't it?" I think she was afraid of being rejected that day. Everyone was very sad, somber that day, and we had a prayer in the chapel for those that wanted to go pray.
On 9/10/2000, my brother died. On 9/10/2001, I thought I would be able to have less grieving after the 1-year anniversary. Then, the next day, came 9/11. I went into some serious depression - as, of course, did everyone else.
A week or two after, Donald and I came into the city for a weekend - it was the most deserted I've ever seen it. We went to a play. About 1/2 the seats were empty & about 1/4 were filled with rescue workers - the theaters were giving free tickets to the workers. We stayed around the corner from one of the fire stations that had lost a lot of men. They had photos and flowers out on the street to recognize each man who had died.
I never did go to see ground zero until a few months ago when my cousins from the South were here & they wanted to go see it. I went with them reluctantly. I can't watch any movies/tv shows about that day - still too raw.
Until 9/11, I never really understood the pain of Pearl Harbor. Now I do. I thought the book captured the feelings pretty accurately.
On 9/11 the words of This Day in Infamy kept running thru my head and when you suggested the correlation been the two horrors it really made sense.
After growing up so close to the City it was terrible to be so far away and having to sit watching everything play out on tv. I sent a big check to the Salvation Army immediately. My uncles after WWII always said how good the Salvation Army was to them. And there they were at ground zero giving out clean socks and tooth brushes.
How amazing the courage of so many and the willingness to help.
I was at work and I heard something about an airplane hitting one of the towers on someone's radio. Then I heard about the second hit and went to watch the news on a tv in the fitness room. I found it very unbeleivable at the time. Then when we heard about the Pentagon hit, my office mate began screaming about her brother. He worked in the Pentagon. All day she did not hear whether he was ok or not. Finally by the end of the day, she made contact with him. Unbeleivably, that weekend he had just moved his office from the area that was hit by the plane to another. If he had still been in that office, he would have been hit. I remember going outside and just walking and walking still not able to take in the reality of it all.
Being in Alaska, we are 4 hours earlier than the east coast (though I grew up in Mass, I've lived here since 1974). My neighbor, who was supposed to have left on a plane that morning, and who ALWAYS has TV on, called me to tell me about it. It was very shocking. I had jury duty that day, and they gave us NO news in the jury room, so I didn't learn the full extent until I was done for the day. It felt awful, and while everyone of course felt the horror of the whole situation, those of us who had friends or family flying that day were especially worried. Also, since there was a ban on any air travel, many hunters and others who were in remote areas without radio/TV who were stranded, not knowing why.
I thought about Pearl Harbor and the day the astronauts died in the explosion of the space craft.
I fantasize that I was conceived on Pearl Harbor day, and I relate all big disasters to my conception. I am and only child, and by my birthdate, I really could have been conceived on Pearl Harbor day. For some reason, I never had the nerve to ask my mother why I was an only child or if it was true that I was conceived as described.
The book came in at the library today. Man is that ever a big book with very teeny print. I have only read the first few paragraphs, so far.
"Gone to Soldiers" - DQ #2
