Posted on 09/10/2007 6:41:30 PM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
"After we got done and loaded up to leave we found out it was true."
My youngest daughter was in 11th grade physics when a teacher ran in and said the first tower had been hit. She was sort of stunned, she said, but figured it must be an accident (an awful damned lot of people thought that, as we can see ; why was it such a crime against reason for the president to have thought it, too?) The same teacher hollared in shortly after that the second tower had been hit.
Now they sat there in shock, horrified...and the TV in the physics classroom decided to give up the ghost. En mass, the entire class stampeded across the hall into their English class - which was full - and watched the world as they knew it crumble. Oh yes, she said, they knew. As they discussed the atrocities, it became clear that, when the English teacher had hollared the news of the second plane, she and nearly everyone else in her physics class had thought the same things: "What now? This is war. Will they bring back the draft?"
She said that, as she looked at her classmates, she wondered how many of them would enlist and how many she would ever see alive again?
Though neither of these are FReepers (only my oldest daughter is), their stories seemed appropriate for this thread. The take of the man next door to the house Mike was working on thinking we had been invaded - and if this HAD been a real act of war, as opposed to an attack of terror, military invasion SHOULD have followed - is interesting. He had to have been a veteran. My daughter and her entire class thinking almost exactly the same thoughts in the same instant illustrates to me how surreal that day was, for all of us.
As for me, I've already told my story but the above reminds me: beginning the moment I witnessed that plane slamming the second tower and for months after, one line from a classic rock song ran through my head almost continuously; "It's the end of the world, as we know it...It's the end of the world, as we know it..." Just that one line, over and over. Everybody gets sick and tired of the song that just keeps playing over and over in their heads and I'm no different. But that line...that line didn't bother me much at all, except occasionally. I knew from the moment those words started their endless loop that they were the truth.
Oh geesh. The ol’ “Jew/Israel/Zionist” thing. And now we have regular white guys pushing this conspiracy $!@#$!@. “Only 1 Jew was killed”, etc, etc, etc.
I only wish Moslems were alot more like Jews.
At work I found out it was airplanes and remembered my daughter was scheduled to fly east on September 11. Drove StarFan crazy with freepmails about whether there were any more planes in the air (she was watching TV) until the phone finally rang. For once, the kid called when she was supposed to. She had been waiting for takeoff and the plane was grounded. Thank you, Norm Mineta. You did something right.
Yeah, I imagine it was somber. lol I have that tshirt too.
Firemen’s weekend was always the same weekend as my Dad’s VFW Post weekend so it was always lots of fun. The parade was fun too. But we were there for both celebrations.
My husband remembered how they received a lot of flack for having the convention that year right after 9/11, but by law they had to have it. He said it was mainly about 9/11, foregoing normal convention business under the circumstances, and was extremely respectable memorializing NYPD losses and all the events of that day.
Yes, we enjoyed the times we went, although we don’t drink so we mostly observed the other wild people, but had our own good times. Always enjoyed our dinners at the Captain’s Table restaurant, I think that was the name of it. We haven’t gone the last couple of years, my husband was a delegate, not sure if he would still be. We got tired of going I guess, same ole thing after a few times!
That’s probably the one thing I do recall about that year’s convention: how many said it shouldn’t have happened. That was silly imo since life goes on and this was such a big part of my life and so many others. We had such wonderful times at those annual conventions. My oldest brother did the Irish weekend that same year, like all the other years, and that year was truly meaningful for him.
LOL! Captain’s Table. I recall the name but not the location. It was either on Cresse Ave or down further in the Crest. My Aunt owned a home and business on Cresse Ave so I spent many summers there and for some reason I think the Captain’s Table was on the corner of Cresse and Pacific (?) Ha, I’m getting old I can’t even remember exactly. I also recall a Captain’s something down further in the Crest but maybe that Admiral’s Table? or the Admiral hotel? That may be a hotel, lol. We spent lots of time at the Bal Harbor because a friend worked in the snack bar there.
I haven’t gone to that weekend since sometime during college but spent that weekend there all through grade and high school. We always stayed at the Park Lane(?) I know I;m screwing up the name of the motel. It was across the street from the Pan American? A hotel on the beach with a rotating globe. It had a restaurant and me and my best friend who came with us each year use to eat breakfast there. I’m sure both were in the Crest. That’s the only thing I recall about the hotels/motels. I spent years in Wildwood, recall Duffer’s (?) restaurant and so many other spots. Same with Margate, again an aunt owned a summer home there.
I stopped going after my freshman year in college but my parents, brothers, family still went for a few years afterwards. It was the Last weekend of the summer for us, the annual LAST WEEKEND. Fireman Convention and VFW weekend. Wonderful memories.
FR bookmark , #159
The Captain’s Table Beach at Hollywood Rd., Wildwood Crest NJ
We drove down a bit to get to it, and that’s the address above!
If there’s a red X for the picture I posted, just copy and paste the properties of the pic (right click your mouse, in case you dunno how) in your browser and you’ll then see the pic!
We enjoyed our time in Wildwood too, had never been there before going to the conventions. Duffer’s sounds familiar, a restaurant? The one year when we finally drove to Cape May it had to rain that day! We stayed at Binn’s Motor Inn until the last time, it had changed owners and our room had bugs in it, on the headboard of the bed, crawling on the toilet paper in the bathroom...big ewwww there. We paid a little more the last year we went and stayed in a nice bed and breakfast a little further away from the convention hall. Well, we didn’t actually pay since my husband was a delegate our town pays, so we kept less of the money I should say! When we went in ‘99 my husband was on crutches. He’d been in a head-on collision that July, it was fun having to be the one lugging our luggage up the stairs of the motel, not! It always amazed me that none of his fellow guys HELPED ME (I’m small!)!
My childhood best friend used to always vacation in Wildwood, that’s all I knew about it! My family went to Belmar for our first Jersey shore vacation when I was a kid, then Seaside Park future years.
As for having the convention after 9/11, I agree with what you said and if ever there was a time for people to gather together, that was an important time. Scarey with the military flying over on occasion, but actually they made me feel pretty good knowing they were up there.
RIP Barbara, I liked her, have her book. Miss seeing her on fox news.
my sister-in-law’s father is a retired iron worker, he helped build the towers. But, he and his wife, and my SIL are liberals, anti-Bush, anti-war...and they lost 2 relatives. I mentioned one in a previous post, he worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and left 5 children. Don’t know what it would take to convince them that fighting these terrorists, killing them, is what we must do..losing relatives wasn’t enough?!
Amen
God Bless you!
My Grandmother’s maiden name was Foley, had to mention it reading your post. She was born in Canada.
oh, and my grandmother was one of 13 children, lots of Foley’s out there.
I remember seeing that concert the first time and it was great when Hitlery was booed off the stage...what happened New York??
Thanks. I didn’t know how to do it. And it still didn’t work so I’m sure I’m not doing it right. But I remember it. The Admiral’s Table or Quarters was also in the Crest and attached to a hotel, I stayed there once as a teen. I still can’t recall the name of the restaurant on Cresse Ave. I asked my husband tonight and it was definitely a “captain” something but we can’t recall the full name. It was on Cresse and either Pacific or Atlantic. My aunt’s house and business was on Cresse near New Jersey Ave next to the Wagon Wheel Florist - LOL I never could recall the name and called it the purple flower shop because it was purple. Friends of mine searched for “the purple flower shop” thinking it was the name of it when they were trying to find my aunt’s house while I was staying there,lol.
He remembered that we had breakfast at the Captain’s Table, view of the beach, etc.
Duffer’s was a restaurant, ice cream parlor, and Duffer’s Challenge was the game room and putt putt/mini golf, it was right across the street from Green’s Liquors. The wait staff dressed in old fashioned costumes. They had a toy train that went around the restaurant, near the ceiling. It was a hang out for south philly kids but I used to love their French Toast/Hash Brown breakfast so we always went there for breakfast too.
The VFW convention was in June but I never attended that - we always went during the Fireman’s Convention in Sept. and it was my Dad’s VFW Post’s Family Weekend.
I spent my childhood and teenage summers in Wildwood and Margate mostly because I had family in both. We usually go to Ocean City now and we’ve been to LBI. My childhood best friend had a house in Beach Haven and Seaside Heights is familiar to me.
I loved spending summers at the Jersey shore but it’s so expensive now so we don’t do vacation there. We did vacation in the Crest about 6 years ago at Seapointe Village. Many of the old haunts are gone, like Morey’s Inlet (bar).
It was great reliving these memories :)
Thanks for your service.
Fellow FReeper.
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