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Tiger Titan [49905]
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A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 7:22 AM
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At about this point 13 years ago, I was prying my daughter away from Pokemon on TV to eat her breakfast and get dressed for kindergarten. Froot Loops and orange slices, IIRC.
From there, a 20-minute drive to work and a morning split between the usual stuff: rehash a pretty lackluster win over Wofford and discuss the upcoming win over Duke.
I'm still trying to remember who had the first posting, a little before 9 a.m., of a plane crash into a skyscraper in New York City. But within minutes, how we did against Wofford seemed not to matter much.
Sept. 11, 2001 was, in a way, the finest moment of Tigernet. The snark and sarcasm that's part of a balanced breakfast here was set aside in a shared community of sorrow and anger. There were no pumpers, no dumpers, just a family trying to make sense of the senseless.
And that day is one of the reasons many of us stick around. Despite the proliferation of other Web sites and networks, this remains one of the great communities in college sports.
It saddens me that so many people who were part of that day 13 years ago have left as internecine sniping and the weary drumbeat of flogging dead horses overcomes them.
Or perhaps, unlike me, they have real lives.
But if you were here on that day, take a minute and reflect on those events and what this place meant to you. And if you're among those who view Tigernet as the Devil's Playground, I'd ask that you see what some of us Silverbacks still see.
Tigernet is family. And family is what you make it.
If you use your family as a collective roll of Internet toilet paper, you get what you give. If you want to use it to mask your own insecurities with a spewing steam of belittling of others, you get dysfunction.
I can't change how you live your life on the Web. I'm way too old to try. But I can tell you that 13 years ago today, this place was an anchor for many shaking souls.
It truly deserves a bit more respect than it seems to enjoy today.
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Walk-On [136]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 7:29 AM
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Amen brother
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Top TigerNet [29875]
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,,***
Sep 11, 2014, 2:34 PM
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Orange Blooded [2916]
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I have to respond
Sep 11, 2014, 7:31 AM
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This puts ALL things into perspective. I remember so many things about that day. My brother was in the air flying home from a business trip, we spent hours glued to the TV waiting for word from him. He finally called...we held hands and prayed. We should all be mindful of what is important.
That is all. Y'all be sweet.
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Rooter [234]
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As the news was breaking...
Sep 11, 2014, 7:44 AM
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I too found myself in the chat room of Tigernet. I remember having the tv on and getting all that official news, but you're right the personal feeling that came from sharing that day with this community was one I'll never forget. Sure, as the day wore on, I broke away form the computer and began to console and share with my family and church family, but oddly enough the first place I turned was Tigernet.
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Starter [375]
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Great post rev.***
Sep 11, 2014, 9:38 AM
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Clemson Icon [27763]
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Eloquent! Though a member only the past three years and
Sep 11, 2014, 7:59 AM
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an older Tiger at that, the camaraderie evidenced on the site among folks from all backgrounds and ages has been its greatest draw to me.
I enjoy the posts from our younger crowd, especially the fire-breathers, for they remind me of myself years ago. Most of the older members try to offer restrained perspective from their long association with Clemson.
The openness of the forum is, perhaps, its greatest draw, for that allows all types of people, fans or not, to enter into discussions, offering different perspectives. True the imposters and lurkers seeking to create havoc are a bore, but we deal with people like that every day in our lives.
The fact remains that most people participating are good, down-to-earth types who enjoy the ability to chat with others, and most would be loath to upset others' apple carts. It's just that the anonymity offers each of us a little stage upon which to display our acting, and hence, why so many revel in the roles!
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TigerNet Elite [69781]
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It was a Tuesday...
Sep 11, 2014, 8:03 AM
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and the reason I remember (other than for the obvious reasons) is because I was in Manhattan the day before.
I flew-up on Sunday (9/9) for what I thought was going to be a two day business meeting on 9/10 and 9/11.
The location of the meeting was Hudson Street which is in the lower West side of Manhattan near Washington Square Park or about 25 blocks north of ground zero (a little more than a mile)
We actually concluded our business in the early afternoon of 9/10 (around 3:00) and there was a great deal of discussion about spending another night in the city or trying to get a flight back to SC on Monday evening.
Fortunately, there were flights available out of LaGuardia and my group returned to SC on Monday evening, otherwise we would have been in Manhattan on the morning of the tragedy.
I vividly recall seeing the Trade Center buildings in the Manhattan skyline as we made the cab ride from the lower west side of the city over to LaGuardia in Queens
So, as it turned out, I was one of the many posters here on TigerNet since so many of the news sites were difficult to access. Hard to believe that was thirteen years ago.
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All-TigerNet [11934]
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I was in TAC (as usual) and I remember YOU posting about
Sep 11, 2014, 8:26 AM
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a plane hitting the World Trade Center.
I recall thinking ... wow, WEIRD ... that's the same thing that happened to the Empire State Building back in the 40s. Thought we had better air traffic control these days!
Then a short time later you reported the second plane and it was so painfully obvious that it was no accident.
Hard to believe it's been as long ago as it has ...
PS: I was scheduled to fly to Chicago the next day and I had tix to my first Cubs game. Of course the flight and the game were cancelled. I still have that Cubs ticket.
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Tiger Titan [49905]
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I did report the second plane ...
Sep 11, 2014, 9:01 AM
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...we had the TVs on different channels in the newsroom, trying to info about the accident a little bit earlier.
An interesting afternote was flying to the GTech game two weeks later. My wife didn't want to fly, anywhere, but heck we already had tickets and I was adamant that we were not going let our daughter be scared forever.
I have always believed that the euphoria in beating GTech that weekend was a little more intense among the Clemson faithful who made that trip.
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All-In [30593]
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I was in a classroom teaching American History
Sep 11, 2014, 8:56 AM
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it was my first year, and a pretty unbelievable sight... I was coaching football and basketball, so we were able to talk to our guys about it that afternoon.
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Top TigerNet [31537]
TigerPulse: 100%
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I remember that day well
Sep 11, 2014, 9:12 AM
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At the time I lived about a 5 minute walk from where I worked. I remember hearing the news of the first plane hitting as I was sitting in my office. It seemed a freak and horrible accidental tragedy. My office mate at the time was one of those guys that kept the CNN website up at all times so he was sharing the information about the first hit with the oher 2 of us in there when the news of the second plane showed up. Everyone in the office began to start to search for information. Our work network began to lose access to most news sites as it was being clogged by folks watching the CNN streaming video no doubt at the time in real player. As you all, no doubt, remember it was this very real feeling of wondering if we were all under attack. And of course we were, but we didn't know the scale of this invasion.
So, they pretty much told folks to head home if they wanted. To contact family if they wanted. I tried, but my wife was a substitute teacher sitting in a classroom trying to handle scared kids. It was her birthday, and this was before the days of every human having a phone on them at every moment. We had cell phones, but they didn't live in our pockets at all times.
So I walked home, turned on the news on TV, and began to hit the internet for information. So many of the news sites were simply unreachable due to this spike in demand. I then logged into Tigernet and spent the best part of the day sitting in front of the TV watching the news, and sharing what we were finding out on Tigernet. There were all of the expected reactions. Anger, sadness, prayers. Many all at the same time fromt he same folks.
Rev, you are so right that I think that day helped turn, at least for me, Tigernet into a community. I still, to this day, filter much of the idiocy I've seen on here through the gaze of someone of remembers the community on here that sad morning.
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All-In [30593]
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Happy Birthday to your wife....
Sep 11, 2014, 9:37 AM
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on a more pleasant note
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Game Changer [1640]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 9:16 AM
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Amen Rev.
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Game Changer [1640]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 9:25 AM
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I was in eastern NC, between jobs in the rapidly dissapearing textile industry. I was working for an auto dealer as a courtesy driver in Wallace, NC. Watched it all unfold in the customer waiting room. In nearby Bullaville, NC there were two muslims running a convenience store. They started celebrating. The local police had to rescue them from being hung by the mob that gathered. The 2 of them were never seen again. Rumor had it the police told them they would save them once, but they better get out of town
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TigerNet Elite [69781]
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They started celebrating !?!?!?!
Sep 11, 2014, 9:33 AM
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Wow...just wow !!!!
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Ultimate Clemson Legend [100824]
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ThX..for this is New news to me since not member in '01...
Sep 11, 2014, 9:43 AM
[ in reply to Re: A memory, and a request... ] |
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And it causes me to not only reflect again (sadly) about what happened on 9/11 when I was 60...but now About what TigerNet means to the earliest & most revered members..And understanding more why there is such a great bond "bonding" us all..who love our beloved School..and our great Country!
Salute...and gO Clemson & America!
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Top TigerNet [29875]
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that's most certainly made up
Sep 11, 2014, 11:35 AM
[ in reply to Re: A memory, and a request... ] |
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nobody knew who the perpetrators were that quickly
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TigerNet Champion [117416]
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thanks rev.***
Sep 11, 2014, 9:19 AM
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Ring of Honor [26353]
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I was only 12 when it happened, and I don't think
Sep 11, 2014, 9:52 AM
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I fully realized the gravity of the events transpiring at the time.
We got news of the first plane hitting as we were getting ready to leave for my great grandma's funeral in Alabama. I vividly remember listening to the radio and passing GSP on hwy 14 going towards I85 when the second plane hit, and my mom started crying.
Once in Alabama I remember all of us gathered around the TV in the hotel watching the same video loops of the footage over and over. Then the 45 min+ wait at the gasoline stations trying to get gas cause everyone was filling up their cars and extra gas containers.
Sad day, sadder things that led from it.
Great post, Rev
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Tiger Titan [49905]
TigerPulse: 100%
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That got me thinking...
Sep 11, 2014, 10:10 AM
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about the column I wrote the next day:
After all these years, the hurt is the same
The scene played itself out in countless homes across America.
“Mommy? Where’s daddy?”
“He’s in the other room, watching TV.”
“Is a ball game on?”
“No, honey. He’s watching the news.”
“Oh... how come he’s watching the news in there, not out here?”
“Well, there are things going on in the world that he wants to watch that he doesn’t want you to worry about.”
“Like what?”
With that question, asked a thousand different ways by a million different kids, a whole generation learned something their parents already knew -- the innocence around us is a fragile shell, a thin membrane of hope, bravado and the vain hope that bad things will always happen someplace else.
“Like mean people.”
“What kind of mean people?”
“Mean people who want to take something away.”
“Ohhh, like bank robbers.”
“Sort of like that, but worse...they want to take away our way of life. They think that if they can scare us enough, we’ll give in and do whatever they say. So they threaten people in big cities like Washington to make our government give up.”
“You mean like bullies. We have a kid at our school who pushes some kids around.”
“Sort of. They hide far away in another country and threaten us.”
“Will they take our freedom, Mommy?”
“I don’t think so. Remember the war your daddy fought in? That was the last time someone tried to take away our freedom. A lot of people fought very long and very hard so we could be free. I don’t think they want to give it up again.
"But your daddy doesn’t want you to worry about it, at least not yet. Your daddy and I love you and won’t let anything happen to you. Try not to be scared.”
“I’ll try, Mommy.”
“And when he comes out here, give him the biggest hug you can.”
“OK.”
“And when you say your prayers tonight, say one for all the people in charge of our country that they’ll do the right thing.”
“Should I pray for the bullies, too?”
“Yes. Pray for them that they’ll stop.”
That’s what I remember about the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly 40 years ago -- a brief conversation with my mom in the early October darkness of our small home.
Nearly everything else in that part of my life has long since evaporated, or covered with memories of later TV shows, football games and scattered snippets of life. But that evening’s memories remain, black and white and sort of scratchy like the TV news shows of the time.
A few minutes later, Daddy wandered into the room, on his way to the kitchen for some buttermilk and corn bread -- to settle his stomach, I learned years later. Even in the dim living room lights, he looked tired, drawn... perhaps wondering if everything he had worked and fought for was about to be lost.
I did as my mom suggested. I hopped off the sofa -- the same sofa I cowered behind when the Wicked Witch appeared during “The Wizard of Oz” -- and grabbed him around the waist and squeezed him like he was all that kept me from falling into some dark void opening in front of me.
Daddy put his hand on the top of my crew-cut head and rubbed it softly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll be all right.”
Half a lifetime later, after watching the latest news on the attacks on New York and Washington in the back room, I wandered back into the kitchen of my family’s home.
There’s no buttermilk and corn bread in the refrigerator. But there’s a little girl who dashed across the vinyl, skidding on her sock feet like a car bouncing off the No. 4 turn at Darlington. She lashed herself around my waist.
There are no secrets safe in this information age. Already she knows about the planes, the buildings, the dead. She knows about the fear that someone is trying to take away our way of life.
I reach down and rub the top of her head softly, left to right, left to right.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “It’ll be all right.”
And I silently pray to God that it will be.
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Hall of Famer [8712]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 10:24 AM
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I was in Houston working and my husband was in DC. After the second plane hit, I called my husband and begged him to get in his car and leave DC. He didn't. He said he wanted to find out what was going on and then he would call me right back. We didn't talk again for four hours.
After the plane hit the Pentagon, we were evacuated from the high rise we were in. I was with a team of ten other contractors and none of us wanted to be in Houston away from our families. We couldn't fly home so we rented an RV and drove for 24 hours straight.
None of us work together any more, but every year on this day, me and my co-workers send messages to each other to say thank you, again. We really leaned on each other a lot that day, and we formed a bond that will last a lifetime.
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Dynasty Maker [3506]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 10:38 AM
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I was listening on the radio in Atlanta Ga on the way to a computer trade show. Just had to sit there in traffic. Could not get out. I finally got to the hotel and turned on the tv. It was such a solemn day. Of course we went to register for the show and hardly anyone there. Most were coming in by plane. They had a meeting at 7p whereas we had a remembrance for those lost that day. Show was cancelled as so many could not get there. Head back home the next day with a such a bad feeling about the future.
As a volunteer first responder and fireman, I truely understand what they went though. I wanted to get in the truck and head north to help !
I have always remember all those lost 13 yrs ago especially all the firemen lost. Lost my dad as a fireman when I was 15.
I always pray on 9/11 for the family members that lost love ones.
I truely understand.
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Clemson Conqueror [11746]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 10:44 AM
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wasn't there a tnet member that worked in the Pentagon? I seem to recall many anxiously awaiting a post from him
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Game Day Hero [4202]
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I have to slightly disagree, It was one of the better
Sep 11, 2014, 10:58 AM
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moments, but it doesn't top what you and so many other Tnetters did to help RockHill Tiger's daughter, Isabella. The generosity, time, and prayers that were shown is a memory I will take with me forever.
The invitation to vacation in Colorado is still open.
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Tiger Titan [49905]
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Whenever I think this really is the Devil's Playground...
Sep 11, 2014, 11:03 AM
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...I think of times like that, when the true heart emerges.
The offer is appreciated, and when time and circumstance allow, I'll be delighted!
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Tiger Spirit [9192]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 11:14 AM
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It was a normal workday for me. One of the ladies in the office got a phone call from a friend saying a plane had crashed into a building in NYC. She turned her radio on
to find out more info. Then the second plane crash was reported. We all knew then it wasn't an accident.
My best customer's office was about 20 miles from NYC. I called them and asked what was being reported "up there"
and if they were OK. She said they didn't know anything about it but would turn her TV on. The owner called me about an hour later." Wow! We are 20 miles from this
and we hear about it first from SC. Thanks for informing us."
I let the office go home early that day. I got home around 2:30PM and sat with my wife as she wept quietly and we watched the tragedy unfold on tv. When the kids got home from school, I encouraged them to watch TV with us. And they did, but only for a short while.
I remember the shirt I wore that day. It was a white polo with an SMI Steel logo on it. I vowed never to wear that shirt again. After 13 years, it still hangs in my closet to serve as a reminder.
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Top TigerNet [29875]
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I was only 10 years old
Sep 11, 2014, 11:31 AM
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and I was actually at school mass being an alter server at the time that it happened. However my elementary school did not tell us about what happened until the day was ending (around 2:30 pm) only to tell us that the next day we would not have school but did not tell us why.
Our teacher said something bad had happened and it was tragic. I remember a friend of mine panicking that his grandma in Ohio was in danger and kids were speculating that the Chinese had bombed LA or something. Kids being kids really.
I didn't hear the truth until later at the very end of school when one kid who had seen the news was telling everyone.
I went home, my mom didn't allow the TV to be turned on. I cut on the TV briefly and saw the pentagon wreckage and my mom immediately told me to shut it off, so I did and played playstation.
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Orange Immortal [64497]
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Yessir, yes indeed. I was at my desk in the ATL
Sep 11, 2014, 12:01 PM
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back when employers didnt monitor internet use so much. Someone posted that a "small plane" had hit one of the twin towers. Crazy, but no big deal. Then the reports kept coming until suddenly I realized, "holy ####, we're being attacked!" I am a Christian and don't normally cuss and still the only words that matched the situation were "ho-ly ####. Holy f-ing ####!" Then word began to get around the office. We were in a meeting when the first tower fell. Total disbelief. The weirdest part was seeing people come in the office who had not yet heard the news. Oblivious like it was any other day. It was not any other day. It has sadly changed all of our lives and our futures forever. Tiger netters did a great job following the events that day.
So much more I could reflect on, but this will do for now.
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Orange Beast [6293]
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I lived on Rector Street, just a couple blocks away, when the
Sep 11, 2014, 12:32 PM
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planes hit. I was coming out of the subway at Grand Central, walking to work. Most surreal day of my life.
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Standout [303]
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Re: A memory, and a request...
Sep 11, 2014, 12:54 PM
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I walked into my office on an Army installation to find my assistant and a group of Soldiers standing in the lobby, watching the TV after the first plane hit. When the second plane hit, there was dead silence, then murmurs of "we're at war" started among the Soldiers, most of them very young and new to the Army. I told them to go back to their units, for accountabiliy and because moving around on post was about to get difficult.
I had a really sick feeling knowing that so many firefighters would be going into the towers. I've been a volunteer firefighter for years, as was my father before me, and I knew very well what steel did when heated dramatically. So the collapse was no surprise, and when it happened I was numb for awhile, wondering how many brother firefighters had just been murdered. 343, by the way.
Soon, I got tired of seeing and hearing the same video on TV over and over again, so I want to my office and got on Tigernet. We were a somber bunch that day, and at the same time were spoiling for a fight. Someone on Tigernet was actually watching events unfold through a window across the Hudson, which really brought things home. I think Tigernet morphed into something other than a message board that day.
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Tiger Titan [49905]
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I remember that! Dang, who was it?
Sep 11, 2014, 2:33 PM
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Very chilling to be getting first-hand description from a fellow Tiger.
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Clemson Icon [27763]
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Wonder if any of that was archived on TNet? Probably
Sep 11, 2014, 2:43 PM
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would be an interesting read for some.
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Standout [303]
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Orange Immortal [64497]
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Either Lumbee or 3rdgeneration. NYC yankees that they are.***
Sep 11, 2014, 4:10 PM
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Tiger Titan [49905]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Fencer's right! Recalling last week gives me a headache!
Sep 11, 2014, 4:20 PM
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Trying to scrape the collected rust off 13 years? I might as well be trying to remember Fortran.
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Orange Blooded [3258]
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Amen!.........and I was here also.***
Sep 11, 2014, 4:08 PM
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