Above us only sky
I'm judging from the photo with my sister in the photo (with the hood pulled up over her head) that I was about 10 or 11. The year must have been 1979 or 1980.
Our friends, the Van Dykes, lived in New Jersey and that day they took our family to New York City to see the sights. Tom, or Tommy, with the curly hair. Kari Rose, their daughter. A friend of Tom's, Tim Jeltes.
I remember we didn't go up the Twin Towers that day because it cost more than we were able to afford at the time for all of us. So we were content to look up at the twin skyscrapers from below.
The photo that strikes me the most out of these is the one of the towers from below. The blue sky. The sun shining. I am reminded of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, to what heights men can aspire, to how our dreams are dashed, sometimes with back-to-back blows to our collective solar plexus.
However, we couldn't see more than 20 years into the future then. Oblivious to what was to come, we lifted our heads and smiled at the camera. In fact, the future was so bright that I had to wear shades.
Does the future look so bright now eight years later? I don't know. I like to imagine it is.
24 comments:
It just gives me goose bumps. I cannot believe how fast time goes bye. A moment of silence is needed as today mark the anniversary of a sad time in our planet. Amazing title for this post.
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It just gives me goose bumps. I cannot believe how fast time goes bye. A moment of silence is needed as today mark the anniversary of a sad time in our planet. Amazing title for this post.
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what great pictures...wish i could've seen them live. my first trip to NYC was in early 2002, sadly.
Thanks, Brian, for stopping by. And couldn't agree more about it being a sad day on the planet today.
I forget I had these until recently and then last night I knew I had to use them. It was the only time I visited the World Trade Center. I've only been to NYC about twice, the second time for a Yankees game in the 90s.
Great pictures!! Thanks for sharing!
That was a really beautiful post!
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Thanks. If you click on the photos, it will take you to Flickr, where you can see them slightly larger, especially the last one, which my mother just reminded me I took. I think I remember taking it now, lying down on the concrete below the towers to get the photo.
I remember watching that cliup of Neil the first time around - a poignant performance. We need to be optimists my friend.
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I have the CDs and need to pull them out again. Oh, wait, I think I taped it too off TV...wanted to watch something appropriate. That just might be it. Was thinking of watching Spike Lee's The 25th Hour too.
I have very similar photos from 1976. I remember the floor numbers in the elevators went by 5s... or was it 10s? The view from the top was amazing. I cannot watch the TV specials or read stories about it any more. I remember in my own way. I do not need to see the people jumping again and again since those images are already etched in my brain. Never have I felt such profound sadness than on that day. Never could I imagine humans could be so evil.
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I wish I had been able to see the view from the top...
I'm with you, on the specials. Tonight we might watch America: A Tribute to Heroes, which I taped. That's about all I can take. We do have other specials on videotape, but I don't know if I could bring myself to watch them.
Positive tribute to a devastating disaster..Thanks..
Awesome, dude. As a veteran of the first gulf war the events of 9/11/2001 cut me to the quick. I hope for a bright future, indeed.
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My husband was supposed to be at a breakfast in Windows on the World that morning. He fell asleep on the couch and ran fifteen minutes late. That unintentional nap saved his life but I spent 3 hours at work thinking I'd lost him. He was stuck in the subway. When he got out, the cell lines were jammed so he walked to my office on the Upper East Side. We were incredibly fortunate on a day when so many lost their lives. I can't say any more than that.
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I try to keep it mostly positive here, even with something like this, and apolitical (not there's anything wrong with being political, it's just this is one "subject" that I think has been overpoliticized).
So say we all. :)
Wow. I can't say any more than that.
How amazed you must have been looking up at the towers like that. Good thing you couldn't see into the future.. you would have been traumatized beyond belief.
You are among the privileged who go to see them in real life. I never have been to New York
My thoughts and prayers will all who lost someone that horrible day
My prayers continue for the safety of our country.
How amazed you must have been looking up at the towers like that. Good thing you couldn't see into the future.. you would have been traumatized beyond belief.
You are among the privileged who go to see them in real life. I never have been to New York
My thoughts and prayers will all who lost someone that horrible day
My prayers continue for the safety of our country.
I've never been to NYC. One of these days....
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Heck yeah the future does does. What great pictures to have from a childhood trip. The towers were so awe inspiring especially to un-jaded little kids... that's the angle in your photo that we all saw it from :-D
Always with the big white belts with you. Of course I was a 70s kid too so I can't talk. Maybe I just don't have as many pictures of me wearing them.
Love the Neil Young video. I think I'm going to do that song the next time I perform. Thanks for the idea!
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This is the best of the 9-11 posts I've seen in the last week or so. You did a great job of giving us a personal perspective on the event by tying it into your life and then pulling back out with the Neil Young Imagine song. Very nice bit of work, Rambler.
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Want to leave a long, rambling diatribe on the state of world affairs? Have at it...somewhere else. I'm the unfinished rambler here. But feel free to leave your aphorisms, especially encomiums, panegyrics to the author. Feel free to consult a thesaurus like I did.