Centralia, PA Superthread

[Axver]

ha, september 11th. i was home that day too because i didn't have college on tuesdays and thursdays. my dad was still home as he hadn't gone into work yet. i woke up, went into the living room, and he had on cnn (yeah, we're big cnn people if you can't tell already, we were even before all this crap) and he said "the world trade center collapsed." at this point i'd been awake for maybe thirty seconds, so i couldn't register it, so i mumbled something and went to go brush my teeth.

I very clearly remember 12 September. The attacks occurred very late on 11 September our time, after I'd gone to bed. At about 6:30am, I get this call from my friend Sam telling me to turn on the TV.

After I'd found out what had happened, I remember very clearly Sam asking me who I thought did it. My response was that it could be Hamas, Hezbollah, or one of those Palestinian terrorist groups, but "I don't really think so. You know who I think did it? Al-Qaeda."

All that day at school, when people asked me who I thought did it (I was even in grade nine known as a nerd for politics and world events), I would mention al-Qaeda and bin Laden. I must've been the only person in the school who knew about them, and that's including the teachers. I have a distinct memory of having to explain al-Qaeda and bin Laden to my homeroom teacher.

 

[Varitek]

sept. 11 was horrible for me, i obviously like being up-to-the-minute informed, and i was in 9th grade math class when they announced at like 10:30 that the towers had been hit by planes and had collapsed. the thing is, the headmaster had this serious death-has-happened voice for ALL announcements, and this really was grave. i was the first to talk in class, i said "they're joking, right" they gave no more info at all throughout the day. some teachers had radios or tvs on, but not one i had until last period, so the day was full of crazy rumors - the pentagon, the whitehouse, 5 planes, etc. nobody knew the truth it seemed. my uncle works at the pentagon for part of his job, so my mom sent a note that said "all dc family is ok" and i didn't even know the pentagon had been hit so this was concerning but i was freaking out about friends at stuy too. (turns out some had seen the towers fall..stuy is a few blocks away.) finally last period my awesome english teacher had the radio on, then i went home and watched tv nonstop. my mom had picked my sister up from school, i was so pissed she hadn't gotten me, cause the whole day was really scary knowing nothing. obviously, others had much scarier days, but, that's my 9/11.

 

[Axver]

i remember when we started bombing afghanistan too. i was in ny, at a friend's place, and we were up on her roof staring at the spot where the towers had been and were about to take the train downtown to ground zero. then she got a call saying turn on your tv, and we were bombing afghanistan. never have been to ground zero, walked thru the lobby once when i was like 12.

I still truly have no idea how I feel about Afghanistan.

 

[Varitek]

i've always wanted to go to a protest but it's never worked out. we've had protests here for the war but it is ALWAYS when i'm at work. case in point, there's one at the civil rights museum here, but it's saturday afternoon. and guess where i'll be then

i almost got trampled by a horse in ny. my mom flipped out. they had us caged in for blocks, no one could move.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

come to think of it, i've never even been able to see a politician. back during the last presidential election, memphis wasn't important enough to have kerry come visit, but edwards came. i worked 9-5 then and i lived downtown. and he came downtown. when did he visit? at 5 fucking o'clock. so by the time i got downtown, with traffic, the thing was mostly over. so i just didn't bother and just went home.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i almost got trampled by a horse in ny. my mom flipped out. they had us caged in for blocks, no one could move.

yikes! i certainly wouldn't want to be in the kind of protests that end in violence or whatever, that doesn't sound appealing at all to almost get trampled by a horse. but i'm sure the stuff that goes on here is much, much, MUCH tamer than over there.

 

[Varitek]

come to think of it, i've never even been able to see a politician. back during the last presidential election, memphis wasn't important enough to have kerry come visit, but edwards came. i worked 9-5 then and i lived downtown. and he came downtown. when did he visit? at 5 fucking o'clock. so by the time i got downtown, with traffic, the thing was mostly over. so i just didn't bother and just went home.

me and 2 others from my high school newspaper got press passes for the rock the vote debate at fanuel hall among the 9 democratic candidates in spring 2004. i asked wesley clark a question about gay marriage that he artfully dodged. he shook my hand. he is hot.

and, i worked on deval patrick's campaign for gov, met him, my congressman and several others, plus dukakis came in a few times (and hugged me when i told him i go to school where he's an alum). also lobbied congress on darfur in 2005, organized all the appointments for lobby day so i met some people then, mostly aids but a few pols.

i saw michelle obama speak last week

i wish i'd known barack was speaking at the constitution center tuesday, though i doubt i could have gotten in.

 

[Axver]

sept. 11 was horrible for me, i obviously like being up-to-the-minute informed, and i was in 9th grade math class when they announced at like 10:30 that the towers had been hit by planes and had collapsed. the thing is, the headmaster had this serious death-has-happened voice for ALL announcements, and this really was grave. i was the first to talk in class, i said "they're joking, right" they gave no more info at all throughout the day. some teachers had radios or tvs on, but not one i had until last period, so the day was full of crazy rumors - the pentagon, the whitehouse, 5 planes, etc. nobody knew the truth it seemed. my uncle works at the pentagon for part of his job, so my mom sent a note that said "all dc family is ok" and i didn't even know the pentagon had been hit so this was concerning but i was freaking out about friends at stuy too. (turns out some had seen the towers fall..stuy is a few blocks away.) finally last period my awesome english teacher had the radio on, then i went home and watched tv nonstop. my mom had picked my sister up from school, i was so pissed she hadn't gotten me, cause the whole day was really scary knowing nothing. obviously, others had much scarier days, but, that's my 9/11.

I've heard a lot of experiences from Americans of not being told about the attacks at school or very sketchy details or otherwise not really knowing quite what happened until they got home. It was completely different here. We did have the "benefit" of waking up to it, but of course not every family watches the morning news, so a good deal of people were finding out about it only when they got to school. A good number of my classes just devolved into discussing it. English was first period and my teacher was this nervous first year teacher who didn't want to deviate from his lesson plan, so while we ostensibly worked in silence, this sheet of paper went back and forth between me and other people in the class with thoughts on what had happened (the only time I ever passed notes in class! ). And as I said, we went into one classroom and watched TV at lunch - just spontaneously, a few of us went in and turned it on and the teachers made no attempt to stop us.

 

[Varitek]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...et&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=its=S%2BI%2BSS

(clearly the work of a wood burner, but )

 

[Axver]

come to think of it, i've never even been able to see a politician. back during the last presidential election, memphis wasn't important enough to have kerry come visit, but edwards came. i worked 9-5 then and i lived downtown. and he came downtown. when did he visit? at 5 fucking o'clock. so by the time i got downtown, with traffic, the thing was mostly over. so i just didn't bother and just went home.

I've never seen a politician either. Never cared to, for that matter. I don't get US politics, really. I can't imagine any politician packing a significantly sized venue in Melbourne. Who the fuck wants to listen to some politician speak?

 

[bono_man2002]

Going home guys, talk to y'all later

 

[Varitek]

I've heard a lot of experiences from Americans of not being told about the attacks at school or very sketchy details or otherwise not really knowing quite what happened until they got home. It was completely different here. We did have the "benefit" of waking up to it, but of course not every family watches the morning news, so a good deal of people were finding out about it only when they got to school. A good number of my classes just devolved into discussing it. English was first period and my teacher was this nervous first year teacher who didn't want to deviate from his lesson plan, so while we ostensibly worked in silence, this sheet of paper went back and forth between me and other people in the class with thoughts on what had happened (the only time I ever passed notes in class! ). And as I said, we went into one classroom and watched TV at lunch - just spontaneously, a few of us went in and turned it on and the teachers made no attempt to stop us.

my high school was a hellhole and didn't respect us and was awful at stuff like this, though afterwards they did work on a protocol in case there was another big event.

the next day was pretty much all talking about it. i mean, the math teacher on 9/11 didn't give us homework, neither did anyone else, and school stopped for a day or two for most. i guess there were a few hardcore asshole teachers who went on as normal, but i didn't have any.

 

[Axver]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...et&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=its=S%2BI%2BSS

(clearly the work of a wood burner, but )

I'll take two. I'm hungry.

 

[Axver]

Going home guys, talk to y'all later

See you later!

 

[Axver]

my high school was a hellhole and didn't respect us and was awful at stuff like this, though afterwards they did work on a protocol in case there was another big event.

the next day was pretty much all talking about it. i mean, the math teacher on 9/11 didn't give us homework, neither did anyone else, and school stopped for a day or two for most. i guess there were a few hardcore asshole teachers who went on as normal, but i didn't have any.

I remember all of us waiting for another attack to happen. The next Tuesday was really tense. Every day I expected to come home to news of another attack. Some people thought there was going to be some huge global war.

My school was usually pretty good with catering to the needs of those of us who were news junkies. The library every morning got copies of the three major papers on the Gold Coast, and if big news was happening, we could always go to the library to watch it or take over an un-used class at lunch.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

me and 2 others from my high school newspaper got press passes for the rock the vote debate at fanuel hall among the 9 democratic candidates in spring 2004. i asked wesley clark a question about gay marriage that he artfully dodged. he shook my hand. he is hot.

i'm soooo jealous of you. and yes he is hot.

come to think of it, i have met a former president, jimmy carter. and i saw senator john ford at pf chang's one time. he was still senator at the time, but he'd already started to come under fire for all the crap that led to his conviction. but no one important.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

anyway, i'm exhausted so i should probably go to bed

 

[Varitek]

I remember all of us waiting for another attack to happen. The next Tuesday was really tense. Every day I expected to come home to news of another attack. Some people thought there was going to be some huge global war.

My school was usually pretty good with catering to the needs of those of us who were news junkies. The library every morning got copies of the three major papers on the Gold Coast, and if big news was happening, we could always go to the library to watch it or take over an un-used class at lunch.

i don't remember anticipating another attack

 

[Varitek]

i'm soooo jealous of you. and yes he is hot.

come to think of it, i have met a former president, jimmy carter. and i saw senator john ford at pf chang's one time. he was still senator at the time, but he'd already started to come under fire for all the crap that led to his conviction. but no one important.

ooooh jimmy carter

 

[Axver]

i don't remember anticipating another attack

That's pretty much all everyone did here. I don't really know why. I guess they expected something more resembling a conventional war rather than an isolated attack. 18 September and 11 October were the two dates most expected to have another attack. Once 11 October passed, that's when people stopped really expecting anything.

 

[Axver]

Wow, FYM truly has gone to the dogs.

Far right dogs with annoying barks.

 

[Varitek]

dead thread

 

[Axver]

I feel like listening to U2. Ugh.

 

[major_panic]

Ax, I'm disappointed. First thing I do when I meet you is snippet "Sympathy for the Devil" Bono-style in my conversation, and I don't think you picked up on it!

Good fun meeting you though; and I'm guessing that I'm nothing like what you expected. You are fairly, but I expected more Kiwi accent

 

[Varitek]

I feel like listening to U2. Ugh.

you are a jerk sometimes.

anyway, what are you gonna listen to?

 

[Axver]

Ax, I'm disappointed. First thing I do when I meet you is snippet "Sympathy for the Devil" Bono-style in my conversation, and I don't think you picked up on it!

Good fun meeting you though; and I'm guessing that I'm nothing like what you expected. You are fairly, but I expected more Kiwi accent

In my surprise to have you suddenly catch up to me, I didn't realise that until it was too late to refer back to it.

Plus, as I said, I was expecting the Kunstmuseum. I also forgot to salute you. Didn't even think of it until I was walking to the tram.

You were actually fairly like what I expected. Though your accent was more obviously Asian. Westernised for sure, but not quite like one person I got on with well last year (who's now in Canberra, boo), whose accent revealed no trace of Asian origins. I believe her heritage is Singaporean.

Anyway, got to catch up again soon. I'm aiming to come to the Tuesday lunchtime concert first week back after Easter.

 

[Axver]

you are a jerk sometimes.

anyway, what are you gonna listen to?

Mofo, Please, Discotheque from Sarajevo.

Dear U2,

Stop sucking me back in.

Cheers,
Ax

 

[major_panic]

In my surprise to have you suddenly catch up to me, I didn't realise that until it was too late to refer back to it.

Plus, as I said, I was expecting the Kunstmuseum. I also forgot to salute you. Didn't even think of it until I was walking to the tram.

You were actually fairly like what I expected. Though your accent was more obviously Asian. Westernised for sure, but not quite like one person I got on with well last year (who's now in Canberra, boo), whose accent revealed no trace of Asian origins. I believe her heritage is Singaporean.

Anyway, got to catch up again soon. I'm aiming to come to the Tuesday lunchtime concert first week back after Easter.

Excellent. Now, I have family over as I mentioned, so I've gotta run. I'll be online a bit less over the weekend I expect, but I'll definitely be at the lunchtime concerts.

 

[major_panic]

Mofo, Please, Discotheque from Sarajevo.

Dear U2,

Stop sucking me back in.

Cheers,
Ax

Don't forget Pop Muzik before Mofo. Otherwise,

Ok I should go, bye!

 

[Axver]

Have a good one, Maj.!

Hope to see you both online and offline again soon!