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What Were You Doing 5 Years Ago?

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Sep 11, 2006 11:41 pm

This may sound a bit contrived & rehearsed for this forum, but in the spirit of today's anniversary...

"What were you doing five years ago today when you heard the news?"

 

Sep 11, 2006 11:47 pm

I was talking to my dad on the phone, who was watching the news. It happened while we were talking. As soon as I got to the office, me and my sales assistant watched it in my office. I didn’t even try to do any business that day. I hate muslims.

Sep 11, 2006 11:54 pm

[quote=knucklehead]I was talking to my dad on the phone, who was watching the news. It happened while we were talking. As soon as I got to the office, me and my sales assistant watched it in my office. I didn't even try to do any business that day. I hate muslims. [/quote]

If you were speaking would you say, "Me and my sales assistant watched it in my office?"  If not, why do you write it?

Sep 11, 2006 11:54 pm

Great Question.

 

Who could forget.  Just walking out the door to go to work when my son stopped me to look at the television.  Went to work and spent the rest of the day starring at the live coverage.

My son joined the Air Force because of September 11, 2001.

Sep 12, 2006 12:00 am

We had the tv tuned in to cnn/msnbc all day long. Clients would wander in and sit and watch with us, then get up and wander out without really saying much.

When I got home from work that night, there was a message on the answering machine from my husband's former CO in the USAF saying, "keep your bags packed & don't go too far from home, we may be calling you back."

Sep 12, 2006 12:09 am

One of the guys who worked with/for me lived on Maiden Lane--less than a block from the WTC plaza.

He spent close to a month in our guest room before he was allowed to spend the night in his apartment.

He and I went down to his apartment on Wednesday afternoon--fifth floor of a buldiing that did not face the WTC.  The power was off so we walked upstairs.

When we walked into his place it was amazing--four or five inches of dust everywhere, even though the windows were closed.  Even his clothes in the closet were coated with dust.

We pulled togehter several changes of clothes, his toiletries and a case of wine and headed back for the Upper West Side.

Lots of us went back down there every day for weeks to watch the progress and to deliver bottles of Coke and Sprite to the workers.

One of my better friends was in the South Tower and didn't make it out--I was unaware that he was missing until I saw his picture on the fence in Union Square.

Sep 12, 2006 12:37 am

I was on the road, between appointments, when the first plane hit. I cancelled the remaining appointments, as no one was in the mood to discuss their investments, anyway. I spent the next few days talking to clients and trying to keep them from doing anything rash.

The towers had special significance for me, as I spent the entire month of August 1992 in training there with Dean Witter. And the last day of training. we were treated to lunch at Windows On The World Restaurant, at the top of one of the towers. All trainees stayed at the Vista Hotel, which was attached to one of the towers.

February 1993 was when the bomb exploded in the parking garage under one of the towers. The same garage I used to rent a car (Hertz I believe).

To this day, I can't watch any replays of that horrific event. Same goes for any footage of Pearl Harbor.

I fantasize about me standing in front of some Islamo-fascist, with my .357 Magnum cocked and pressed against their forehead. Of course, this terrorist is smiling, thinking that I'm about to deliver him/her to Allah and 72 virgins. That is, just before I tell him/her that my hollowpoint bullets were dipped in pig blood and that instead of heaven, he's going straight to hell. Then I squeeze the trigger. Or...

I blow-off their kneecaps and both shoulders and just as they start to fade away, due to blood loss, I tell them they can't die cause the bullets were dipped in pig blood. Then I watch them fight to stay alive...

Why the obsession with pig blood? In Islam, pigs are considered unclean, the ingestion of which will send you to hell. A U.S. General in the Phillippines (Late 1800's-Early 1900's) was having problems with Islamic guerillas, so he set-up firing squads; shooting the guerillas with bullets dipped in pig blood. The guerilla problem stopped once word got out. Why fight for Allah, if you could be shot with a bullet dipped in pig's blood and be sent straight to hell?

Sorry for the rambling...

Sep 12, 2006 5:23 am

I was getting ready for work, very early in the morning.  We had no television at the time because we were living above our workshop. We were building our new home home and hadn’t moved in yet and were roughing it.  My husband called me on the phone from the place where he has coffee and swaps BS tales in the morning with the guys.  Said “You’d better get down here and see this.” So I did. Ran down with wet hair and no make-up. 

My first thought was for my niece who lived at the time near the Towers. She was fine as it turned out. It was unbelievable and surrealistic.  It was also one of those moments that you will always remember where you where and what you were doing at the time.  I can tell you exactly what I was doing and where I was during certian pivitol and memorable events in our lives: the Kennedy assasination, the OJ slow chase and the Twin Towers collapsing. Strange how some events are carved in amber in our minds.

I also thought: "This changes everything".  I went to work and was glued to the television and tried to decide what the heck to do about my clients. Should I call them and tell them everything is going to be OK.  How the hell do I even know that is true?  Basically spent the next 8 to 24 hours numb. 

Sep 12, 2006 1:27 pm

NASD-  If you were speaking would you say, " one of the guys who worked with/for me...

If not, why do you write it? 

Sep 12, 2006 1:29 pm

[quote=Malcolm]

NASD-  If you were speaking would you say, " one of the guys who worked with/for me...

If not, why do you write it? 

[/quote]

Yes I would, because it's politically correct to suggest that people who work for you are referred to as working with you.

I would often introduce my secretary as somebody I worked with, and often as somebody who worked for me.

What I would not say is "Me and her watched TV in my office."

Sep 12, 2006 1:32 pm

[quote=babbling looney]

I was getting ready for work, very early in the morning.  We had no television at the time because we were living above our workshop. We were building our new home home and hadn’t moved in yet and were roughing it.  My husband called me on the phone from the place where he has coffee and swaps BS tales in the morning with the guys.  Said “You’d better get down here and see this.” So I did. Ran down with wet hair and no make-up. 

My first thought was for my niece who lived at the time near the Towers. She was fine as it turned out. It was unbelievable and surrealistic.  It was also one of those moments that you will always remember where you where and what you were doing at the time.  I can tell you exactly what I was doing and where I was during certian pivitol and memorable events in our lives: the Kennedy assasination, the OJ slow chase and the Twin Towers collapsing. Strange how some events are carved in amber in our minds.

I also thought: "This changes everything".  I went to work and was glued to the television and tried to decide what the heck to do about my clients. Should I call them and tell them everything is going to be OK.  How the hell do I even know that is true?  Basically spent the next 8 to 24 hours numb. 

[/quote]

On a slightly lighter note, I remember the OJ slow chase well.  My buddy was extremely pissed off because as I recall they ended up pre-empting coverage of the Knicks game.
Sep 12, 2006 2:23 pm

What do you remember about November 22, 1963?

Sep 12, 2006 2:25 pm

[quote=NASD Newbie]What do you remember about November 22, 1963?[/quote]

I was in my third trimester. I was working on getting OUT of the very same thing that I would devote the rest of my life to getting back INTO. If only I had known....

Sep 12, 2006 3:53 pm

[quote=NASD Newbie]

[quote=knucklehead]I was talking to my dad on the phone, who was watching the news. It happened while we were talking. As soon as I got to the office, me and my sales assistant watched it in my office. I didn't even try to do any business that day. I hate muslims. [/quote]

If you were speaking would you say, "Me and my sales assistant watched it in my office?"  If not, why do you write it?

[/quote]

If we were all in person having just met for the very first time having this conversation...would you interrupt to correct someone's grammar?  If not, why do you write it?

Sep 12, 2006 5:35 pm

[quote=knucklehead]

[quote=NASD Newbie]What do you remember about November 22, 1963?[/quote]

I was in my third trimester. I was working on getting OUT of the very same thing that I would devote the rest of my life to getting back INTO. If only I had known....

[/quote]

Your Mom?  You are twisted knucklehead.

Sep 12, 2006 5:41 pm

[quote=Devoted SA]

If we were all in person having just met for the very first time having this conversation...would you interrupt to correct someone's grammar?  If not, why do you write it?[/quote]

Because if I don't correct them they will continue to make fools of themselves.

How does one learn if their mistakes are not corrected?

Sep 12, 2006 5:47 pm

[quote=dude][quote=knucklehead]

[quote=NASD Newbie]What do you remember about November 22, 1963?[/quote]

I was in my third trimester. I was working on getting OUT of the very same thing that I would devote the rest of my life to getting back INTO. If only I had known....

[/quote]

Your Mom?  You are twisted knucklehead.

[/quote]

I actually laughed out loud at that one. No, not my mom. Think in more general terms, but include bankrep1's mom.

Sep 12, 2006 5:48 pm

[quote=NASD Newbie]Because if I don’t correct them they will continue to make fools of themselves.

How does one learn if their mistakes are not corrected?

[/quote]

Poor Newbie, you carry the weight of the grammatical world on your shoulders.

You obviously have never parented anything that doesn't have four legs either.

Children (human ones that is) learn from their mistakes. It's a great gift of life.

Sep 12, 2006 5:50 pm

[quote=Devoted SA][quote=NASD Newbie]Because if I don’t correct them they will continue to make fools of themselves.

How does one learn if their mistakes are not corrected?

[/quote]

Poor Newbie, you carry the weight of the grammatical world on your shoulders.

You obviously have never parented anything that doesn't have four legs either.

Children (human ones that is) learn from their mistakes. It's a great gift of life.

[/quote]

It is impossible to learn from a mistake if you are unaware that it's a mistake.

I assume you disagree, it will be fun to read why.

Sep 12, 2006 6:01 pm

[quote=NASD Newbie][quote=Devoted SA][quote=NASD Newbie]Because if I don’t correct them they will continue to make fools of themselves.

How does one learn if their mistakes are not corrected?

[/quote]

Poor Newbie, you carry the weight of the grammatical world on your shoulders.

You obviously have never parented anything that doesn't have four legs either.

Children (human ones that is) learn from their mistakes. It's a great gift of life.

[/quote]

It is impossible to learn from a mistake if you are unaware that it's a mistake.

I assume you disagree, it will be fun to read why.

[/quote]

Oh no I agree completely and I am sooooo grateful that you have decided to grace us with your grammar-wise presence.