HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY ANSLEY!!!!!

I know this is a day late, but I didn’t have time to post it yesterday after singing to her twice… so I’ll post it now: HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY ANSLEY!!! As I’m sure you remember, Ansley is No-Name Teri’s middle daughter).

Happy (late) Birthday Ansley! We love you!

I also want to take a minute to thank Janie and DG for donating to my Memory Walk. You still have time to give! Click on the link to the side. Please give!

Not sure if you noticed or not, but yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the terrorists attack on the US. I don’t know about you, but I can’t take my eyes off the History Channel on September 11. I didn’t even watch football yesterday… I couldn’t take my eyes off the videos of what happened that day… even though I remember it like it was yesterday (has it really been 10 years?). I know I’ve talked about my memories of that day on here before, but I’ll post them again. I was about a month into my second senior year at Winthrop University, living in an apartment at Mallard Point with Jeremy and Thomas. I got up and headed to my Tuesday morning class, just like always. Back then, I would usually listen to John Boy & Billy on the radio as I headed to class but on this day I was listening to a Bon Jovi CD (on one of those portable CD players that you had to connect to the car via a cassette tape that had a wire running from it to the CD player). I got to my class (a Business Writing class) and sat down. A couple minutes later a guy in our class walks in and says that he heard that two planes collided in New York City around the World Trade Center. It seemed, at the time, like it was two small planes... and while it was sad to hear, it wasn’t earth shattering news. After class I was walking out to meet/hangout with The Girlfriend. I had a break between my first class and my afternoon class (with The Girlfriend) so I liked to have lunch with her on those days. Rumors were starting to pick up about what was going on, so we headed back to her place for lunch (which I don’t think we ever ate that day) and to watch the news. We sat and watched as smoke poured out of the windows of the towers. By then, I believe, one of the towers had already fallen. As we were watching the news live, the second tower came down. At first, I thought maybe they were showing a replay of the first one... but then I realized it was the second one. I must admit to being a bit naïve that day because I was thinking at the time well surely everyone had evacuated from the building by then. Have you ever tried walking down 80 flights of stairs (or even 30 flights, for that matter)? Me either. It did hit, pretty quick, that even if everyone else had gotten out... there were still all the firefighters/policemen/EMS people who had been running in. I remember we sat there kind of stunned just watching TV. I remember having this numb feeling for a while (days/weeks?) after that and just wanting to sit and watch the news. We finally had to get up and go to our afternoon class because Winthrop (at least back then) wouldn’t cancel a class for anything. I remember just going through the motions in my afternoon classes... waiting for a chance to get back in front of the TV to watch the news. Back then I was working as a Manager Trainee at Rack Room Shoes in Carolina Place Mall (in Pineville, NC). I was scheduled to work that night, but I got a call from Peggy (my boss) telling me not to worry about coming in. She said she was pretty sure they were going to close the mall early, but even if they didn’t, nobody was there. Because of my class schedule, I worked almost every night and most of the time on the weekends... so this gave me a rare night off to spend with The Girlfriend. We went to Ryan’s for dinner. Her dad called me on my cell phone because he hadn’t been able to reach her. I remember sitting there thinking, "Hey, today is Ansley's first birthday... I've got to give her a call". I remember this was perhaps the longest period of time in my life when I just didn’t feel like laughing. I remember walking around campus and noticing how quiet it was. Winthrop is close enough to Charlotte that there are almost always planes in the sky... but not that day. Even the roads were light... it seemed everyone was staying home watching TV. I think the mall was closed for a couple of days (though I could be mistaken). I do remember going back to work and the place being like a ghost town for the first week or two. I mean, there was NOBODY in the mall. NOBODY. Nobody shopping. Nobody “just looking”. Nobody out walking around. Even the shoplifters were staying home. It was very strange. I remember me, Peggy, and Maureen (my friend from Long Island who was a part-time worker at our store, who has since passed away) would just stand there and talk. Every now and then we’d walk around the store and clean/straighten up... but with no customers there wasn’t much to clean. I do remember standing in the back corner of the store straightening up some shoe boxes when I heard Leaving on a Jet Plane (Leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again) being played and thinking, “Hmmm.... I don’t think this is the best time to be playing a song like this”. As time went on, things started to get back to “normal”. We had work and classes and The Girlfriend was busy planning “our” wedding. At some point I started laughing again. Before long sports picked back up and the little things that we learned weren’t really all that important started to become important again. Next thing you know, one... two... nine… ten years have gone by and here we are. Since then, I’ve lost two grandmothers and gained two daughters, one son and one Godson. I’m sure this event hit some people harder than it did me. Some for obvious reasons, some maybe not. I think the History Channel does a great job talking about this day each year. Some of the programs have “home video” type footage that really gives a great perspective on how things were that day. Some of it is hard to watch. Most of it will probably bring tears to your eyes (it did mine), but all of it is worth watching. This year (I don’t remember seeing it before) they had a show about voicemails that had been left from people trapped in the buildings (or on the planes) that family members have saved on CDs and MP3 players. Some of that was hard to listen to, but it also gave you a better idea of what was going on inside the buildings/planes while all of this was going on. It is a little hard to not sit and shout at the TV during all of this… like when you hear the voicemail from the person saying that they are ok and that they are being told to stay in the building and everything will be ok. It’s hard not to shout “NO! Get out! Get out NOW!” That’s hard. It’s hard not to yell to the people in the Pentagon to clear out before the plane hits there. As sad as it is seeing/hearing about the plane going down in PA… I can’t help but smile knowing the terrorists on that plane failed because some passengers said they weren’t going down without a fight. I like hearing about people who helped other people on their way out of the twin towers. I would like to think I’d do that… but I don’t know for sure that I would. The Wife doesn’t really like that they show this stuff every year. It makes her cry. I don’t exactly like it, in that I don’t enjoy watching people die… but I do like that they show it each year. I like it because each year there’s a new group of kids who don’t know anything about what happened that day. Each year there’s a new group of people who should be educated about what went on.

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Casper R. Carlisle (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His citation reads:

Saved a gun of his battery under heavy musketry fire, most of the horses being killed and the drivers wounded.

Private Warren Carman (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on March 2, 1865 at Waynesboro, Virginia. His citation reads:

Capture of flag and several prisoners.

Corporal Isaac H. Carmin (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 22, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi. His citation reads:

Saved his regimental flag; also seized and threw a shell, with burning fuse, from among his comrades.