9/11 Ceremony in Johnsburg, Illinois --Part 2

I was unable to post my annual 9/11 commemoration in my blogs yesterday, but am doing it today.  The first part is in today's RoadDog's RoadLog blog.

Johnsburg, Illinois, is about three miles from our house in Spring Grove along Johnsburg Road.  The ceremony was to start at 9.  It rained all morning, all the way there and by golly it rained even harder as they got the flags set up in a line along Johnsburg Road between the bank and Johnsburg Library.

They were still putting the flags out when I arrived.  Too bad the grass had not been cut in awhile as I got my feet quite wet walking over to them from the bank's parking place.  There were probably 12 people there busy putting in holders for the flags in the ground.

Despite being wet, the flags were fluttering and flapping in the strong wind.  It looked good.  

Once the 30 U.S. flags and several 9/11 flags were in place, we had a few words from a woman that really struck home about what happened that day and how America rebounded.  Then a wreath was placed and a prayer given.

Most of the people out there were members of the McHenry Moose Lodge's Legion Riders.

Upon conclusion, I drove around to where I would pass them and honked the horn.  I had heard some say that they were disappointed because in the past when they did this, people would honk their horns.  I got a lot of smiles and waves.

I Want to Thank those people for the commemoration.

New York City's NYFD Ladder 118, 9/11

Ladder 118 didn't return to its Brooklyn quarters that day.

Its crew were killed when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

Ordinarily, their replacements would erase the firehouse's assignment board and sign in themselves.

Instaed there, to this day, are the chalk-scrawled names of Ladder 118:

Lt. Robert Regan

Leon Smith

Vernon Cherry

Scott Davidson

Peter Vega

Joey Agnello

The World Trade Center By the Numbers-- Part 2: Cost, Depth and Extra Land

TIME TO BUILD:   14 years from the formal proposal to finish

NUMBER OF ARCHITECTURAL DEIGNS:  105

COST TO BUILD:  More  than $1 billion

RENTABLE FLOOR SPACE:  About one acre per floor

DEPTH OF THE TWIN TOWERS:  70 feet

EXTRA LAND CREATED BY BUILDING THE WTC:  About 23 acres added to Lower Manhattan

TWIN TOWERS ELEVATOR SPEED:   1,600 feet per minute

WINDSPEED THE TOWERS COULD SUSTAIN:   80 m.p.h.

NUMBER OF SPRINKLERS IN THE TOWERS:   3,700

HEIGHT OF THETIGHTROPE WALK BETWEEN THE TOWERS:  1,350 feet on August 7, 1974

FORCE OF THE TREMOR WHEN THE TOWERS FELL:  Akin to 2.1 and 2.3 earthquakes

The World Trade Center By the Numbers-- Part 1: Quarter Mile Up, 45 Miles on a Clear Day

From History.com.

It was Supersized in all aspects.

It took ten years to build and came down in a minute.

When the World Trade Center's twin towers opened in 1973, it was the world's tallest buildings.

They rose a quarter mile into the sky.

They had  15 miles of elevator shafts.

Nearly 44,000 windows which took 20 days to wash.

From the South Tower observation deck,  visitors could see 45 miles on a clear day.

The Trade Center complex (there was more than just the Twin Towers) was so huge that it had its own zip code.

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)?

On September 11 and September 12, I posted the words to this Alan Jackson song.  Then I watched two videos of it on You Tube.

Gerard Vidal's one had photos from the event and The Grand Old Opry just had Alan Jackson and his band playing it.

Both really got to me,  just as Alan Jackson singing it back then did.

I mean, really got to me.

I had to go to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" to get me out of it.

That was the sad side of me.  But my get 'em back side was Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."  I listened to this one as well.

Music Can Have Impact.  --RoadDog

Deaths of 9-11 First Responders Continue

Continued from today's Tattooed On Your Soul, Not So Forgotten and Cooter's History Thing blogs.

Pulmonary fibrosis is among the diseases that can take decades to manifest themselves.  "We're not even two decades past the event,: Dr. Cosgrove says, "and  people with asbestos exposure for instance, for instance, don't begin to present until the third decade."

Doctors still don't fully understand how pulmonary fibrosis works.  It is relatively rare and causes are tough to track.  In addition, the lung injuries that cause some cases can stem from a wide range of factors.

The Ground Zero site contained dust that held heavy metals and asbestos among other hazards.  Over time, those irritants can produce scarring, or fibrosis in the lungs.  Some people will not develop it, but others develop progressive scarring over time.

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)?-- Part 4

Continued from (in order)  Tattooed On Your Soul, Not So Forgotten and Cooter's History Thing blogs (see the side bar Blogs I Follow).

On this, the 18th anniversary of the Day the World Stopped Turning.

By Alan Jackson

**********************

Where were you when the world stopped moving that September day?

Teaching a class full of innocent children   (In my case, I was.)

Or driving down some cold interstate?

Did you feel guilty

'Cause you're a survivor

In a crowded room did you feel alone?

Did you call your mother

And tell her you loved her?

Did you dust off the Bible at home?

Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened

Close your eyes and not go to sleep?

Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages

Or speak to some stranger in the street?

************************************

How did Alan Jackson know I was teaching a class of seventh graders at John T. Magee Middle School in Round Lake, Illinois?

The Tragedy in Orlando

That was certainly horrific news we got on Sunday, about what happened in Orlando.

However, there is no way to stop something like this from happening again.  We can make it more difficult, but we just can not stop it from happening.

About the only thing we can do is to make people who do this aware of the extremely horrible consequences that will happen afterwards.

Some statistics:

79. The percentage of Republicans who say the Orlando murders were more an example of Islamic terrorism than gun violence.

60.  The percentage of Democrats who say it was more about gun violence.

But one thing I would like to say is that media should stop mentioning his name.  Just say, "He whose name will not be mentioned."

A Sad Day Six Years Ago, 9-11: The Day Terrorism Came To Our Shores

Today, September 11th, occurs on the very same day as that fateful event six years ago. Not only that, but we had a brilliant bright blue sky here in the Midwest, just as was over NYC that beautiful fall day.

I watched some of the History Channels shows on the event this morning.

I was teaching at John T. Magee Middle School in Round Lake, Illinois, that day. I didn't know anything about it until after first period when another teacher came to me with the information during passing period. School continued on as usual, but all we did in my classes was listen to the radio and TV (although I couldn't get the picture).

I tried to get it across to my students that this was actually an outgrowth of an event that happened almost 2000 years ago when the Romans made the Jews leave Palestine. I also wanted them to know that this was to be an event that would rank right up there with Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy Assassination as points in US history that affected everybody.

Seeing those two buildings burning still gets to me.

I am going to have an account that I wrote on 9-11 from my journal (which I have been keeping since 1978) on my other blog spot.

http://roaddogsroadlog.blogspot.com

A Very Sad Day. --RoadDog