I was part of a tour in the Western states and Wednesday 12th found us in Las Vegas which was not a place I wanted to see but part of the tour. We were lucky to get hotel rooms, even though they had of course been booked previously, as apparently no one is allowed to force guests to leave who have nowhere to go. With all air traffic closed and no hire cars available, there were many who fitted into this category. I'm pretty sure my room was actually a staff bedroom. All over town the neon signs proclaiming 'In God We Trust' were a bizarre contradiction of the philosophy of the casinos displaying them. Here too I saw for the first time the extraordinary plethora of stars and stripes on cars and trees and dogs wearing bandanas.
There was a very moving and contrasting time the next night in Utah at a Mormon farm where the family entertained us over dinner with music and dancing. Their rendition of "How Great Thou Art' was beautiful and unquestionably sincere.
As that week went on I was discomfited by tee shirts bearing aggressive images of the bald eagle depicted as a threatening and belligerent Uncle Sam but deeply touched by the story of women who had lost husbands or children on the 11th who made plans to travel together to Afghanistan to meet women 'on the other side' to acknowledge shared grief and loss..
When flights were permitted again I flew from San Francisco to NYC on what I think was the same flight as one of those doomed a week earlier. After touching down at Kennedy Airport the captain's 'Welcome to New York' was answered with loud applause. This was, I supposed, a tribute to both the flight crew and the city.
In downtown New York there was still a pall of smoke and, unnervingly, a lot of grit. (Did that grit contain human bone dust? I wondered.) And there were shrines everywhere with framed photographs, messages, flowers and candles. Unlike roadside crosses which mark traffic deaths people were unable to place tributes at the site so these tended to be outside places of work and of course apartment blocks. In the foyer of Sam and Jodi's apartment where I stayed there was one for a 23 year old girl from the floor above them. From all these shrines there was an all pervading smell of candle wax which reminded me of Catholic Cathedrals where people pay to light candles.
It was said that for a while in New York the traffic was calmer and people were kinder and I suppose you could say it was a good time to visit from that point of view. In the famous Macy's Department Store business was so slow that the girls in the cosmetic department begged me to let them give me free facials and makeovers.
As I walked the city streets over the next 2 weeks I couldn't miss the Fire Stations as of course large numbers of fire fighters lost their lives too and there were tributes in the hundreds. Many of the big churches and cathedrals held funeral services for highly ranked fire officers and I saw a lot of ribbon and brass. One day near the WTC site I watched a squad of men heavily clothed with protective gear proceeding to their shift at the scene - their duty not one of rescue but recovery of remains. I think every shift was applauded as they went on and off by the appreciative onlookers.
The police were certainly twitchy. Walking down the sidewalk one day I must have put my hand up rather quickly to brush something off the side of my face and I was alarmed to say the least when I realised a policeman walking towards me had a very strong reaction to my movement. He didn't pull a gun or anything but he certainly looked alerted. It was just for a fraction of a second but I felt a little shaken. Bewilderingly though at the ferry terminal there was a very large back pack left in the ladies' washroom and I struggled to find anyone who would take any interest.
So many tourist attractions were closed and not for just a week. The Empire State Building, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Mayflower in Boston, ferries going anywhere near the Statue of Liberty, roads around the Hoover Dam, and streets surrounding the White House are some I remember and there were no joy rides in the air anywhere in the country for days. I was glad I had had my dawn balloon flight over the Arizona desert and a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon just the day before the attacks.
When eventually I was able to do a Harbour Tour by ferry I tried unsuccessfully to mentally fit images I had seen of the Twin Towers into the gaping maw where the WTC buildings had been. One of the missing buildings was a hotel where I had been supposed to stay at the start of my next tour and this was a very startling moment for me. So was the sight of barges plying the water between Manhattan and Staten Island which carried everything from the site to a place where they were to be sifted and examined with all care and respect, a process to take years. I was a little chagrined when the ferry tour commentator announced a minute's silence when we were in the appropriate position in the harbour and then proceeded to play an American anthem. This is not my idea of silence.
I attended 2 Memorial services. One was in the San Francisco City Hall and I left after an hour or so which was not as long as I had spent queuing to get in. Waffle from people representing all the interest groups you could ever think of. I'm sure one of them was Animal Rights. The other was in New York and was hosted by the ANZ and US governments. At least there were some readings and prayers and singing and it was good to see Jenny Shipley (NZ) and Alexander Downer (Aus) there. I don't know why but it was.
And what to say about Sarah whom I never knew? She was a pretty face I saw in Sam and Jodi's photos. It was very likely the last picture taken of her as 3 days later she attended a training seminar for her first job in the US. What an exciting prospect it must have been for this young English woman to be in the heady atmosphere of the 102nd floor of one of the twin towers even just for a day. But it was the wrong day.
chilling thought...well said.
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