It sticks in my mind because
Discussion
One lunchtime I left work to drive into town to visit the bank and buy a sandwich. How safe and conformist is that? Walking back to the car I passed a young bloke wearing a tee shirt with "You Suck" written across it. He was striding down the middle of the pavement and he was angry, you could tell. I didn't know why and I didn't much care. I just felt unsettled and, if anything, a bit sad for him. I didn't think he wasn't angry with me specifically, but I knew he would be if I made eye contact.
It wasn't even that he posed much of a threat, he was a bit weedy, but tackling him about his tee shirt's sweeping generalisation would just have been too much aggravation.
Back at work I was still wondering if there was anything he could have been doing more beneficial to society and whether there was something anyone could do to help him get some perspective on life when phones started to ring in the office. Partners, friends, relations, all sorts of people were ringing in with terrible news and asking if we had heard.
It was the 11th of September 2001. It sticks in my mind.
It wasn't even that he posed much of a threat, he was a bit weedy, but tackling him about his tee shirt's sweeping generalisation would just have been too much aggravation.
Back at work I was still wondering if there was anything he could have been doing more beneficial to society and whether there was something anyone could do to help him get some perspective on life when phones started to ring in the office. Partners, friends, relations, all sorts of people were ringing in with terrible news and asking if we had heard.
It was the 11th of September 2001. It sticks in my mind.
I was working as a research assistant in my university's computing department at the time. Remember watching it on a crappy TV in one of the rooms and posting on a tech forum I was on at the time as a couple of the members that I knew rather well lived in New York and I was trying to find out if they were ok.
Came home from school just after 13:00 our time, mum saying "Have you heard what's happened?"
Sat watching the news for a short while then it suddenly dawned on me; my father was in NY on business (Parents divorced so not living at home)
Que roughly an hour of frantic calls trying to phone him, only to find later that the cell phone transmitter was on one of the towers, eventually got word from a friend that he'd managed to email that he was safe and well, at the time of the attack he was in the building opposite the Israeli embassy
Very vivid, but still not as vivid as I remember where I was when I found out Princess Di had gone...
Sat watching the news for a short while then it suddenly dawned on me; my father was in NY on business (Parents divorced so not living at home)
Que roughly an hour of frantic calls trying to phone him, only to find later that the cell phone transmitter was on one of the towers, eventually got word from a friend that he'd managed to email that he was safe and well, at the time of the attack he was in the building opposite the Israeli embassy
Very vivid, but still not as vivid as I remember where I was when I found out Princess Di had gone...
I spent the day at a mates house, watching the tv coverage. Highlight of the day was mates mum returning from work and him leaning out of the window and shouting "mam, mam some sandmonkeys have blown up the world trade centre".
Not politically correct in the slightest but made me
Has anyone been to the big hole in NYC? They aint exactly cracking on with it fast!
Not politically correct in the slightest but made me
Has anyone been to the big hole in NYC? They aint exactly cracking on with it fast!
kentmotorcompany said:
I think he had the raving hump because you bought the last Cheese & Pickle Sandwich. It was his favourite.
Oddly, I was in the stottie shop on the very same lunchtime and asked the girl for Coronation Chicken and salad with no onions. She gets as far as the salad and says, "D'you want onions?" When I said, "No, thanks," she started putting them in anyway. "No onions," I said firmly. Gordon Bennett, she did huff and puff. That sticks in my mind too but I thought it would lessen the impact of the story.i was waiting for a plane at gatwick... Total news blackout... For most no mobile signal... Didn't believe it until we were told about hand searches then were the last plane out b4 they closed the airport. 27 hours. 3 unscheduled stops hand searched on and off each time. Saw the videos for the 1st time a year later- no tv's in the middle of the india ocean at that time...
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I have to ask why are we 'remembering' this today ?
We're not. Everyone's spectacularly missed the point.As for me - "it" sticks in my mind because I woke to a terrible hangover after my cousin's wedding. My sister was hammering on my hotel door to get me to wake up and check out, and the telly had come on as per my instructions for a wake up call.
There was Diana's Merc wrapped around a pillar.
Haven't felt that s
te in years.Edited by Famous Graham on Wednesday 9th December 00:23
wendyg said:
Famous Graham said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I have to ask why are we 'remembering' this today ?
We're not. Everyone's spectacularly missed the point.Famous Graham said:
wendyg said:
Famous Graham said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I have to ask why are we 'remembering' this today ?
We're not. Everyone's spectacularly missed the point.Famous Graham said:
wendyg said:
Famous Graham said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I have to ask why are we 'remembering' this today ?
We're not. Everyone's spectacularly missed the point.People often say they can remember what they were doing when they learned Kennedy had been assassinated, but many of the incidents quoted would have been important in those people's lives anyway. I was sitting in front of the TV waiting for Harry Worth. My mum said they should have put something else on out of respect and my dad said they probably didn't have anything else.
Crystal clear in my mind.
I remember being on the annual family summer holiday in Swanage, August 1977.
We were camping and had pitched the tent in a nice spot at the bottom of a field.
We'd been out during the day and it was typical English summer weather, raining cats and dogs (I know, I stepped in a number of poodles
).
When we got back to the tent in the evening, we found out why all the other tents were on the hill. The tent was flooded and there was only enough dry room for 2 of us to sleep in the tent.
My Dad and I slept in the car (blue Volvo 144) and just as I was drifting off to sleep, my Dad switched on the radio.
Elvis had popped his clogs.
We were camping and had pitched the tent in a nice spot at the bottom of a field.
We'd been out during the day and it was typical English summer weather, raining cats and dogs (I know, I stepped in a number of poodles
). When we got back to the tent in the evening, we found out why all the other tents were on the hill. The tent was flooded and there was only enough dry room for 2 of us to sleep in the tent.
My Dad and I slept in the car (blue Volvo 144) and just as I was drifting off to sleep, my Dad switched on the radio.
Elvis had popped his clogs.
Famous Graham said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I have to ask why are we 'remembering' this today ?
As for me - "it" sticks in my mind because I woke to a terrible hangover after my cousin's wedding. My sister was hammering on my hotel door to get me to wake up and check out, and the telly had come on as per my instructions for a wake up call.There was Diana's Merc wrapped around a pillar.
Haven't felt that s
te in years.Edited by Famous Graham on Wednesday 9th December 00:23
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