Ten years ago today, the Towers fell and the world changed. That is the big picture view but from out here on the Plains, are things that different? Not really.
I remember driving in that fateful morning to the production company where I worked, listening to some tunes. We had a couple of gigs to prep but nothing big. It was a mellow week.
When I walked in the door, John K. asked if I had the radio on, a plane had just crashed into one of the towers. I remember three or four of us gathered around the radio in the shop trying to puzzle out what could have happened when the second plane hit. We soon adjourned to a nearby bar & grill where the walls were covered by big screens. By that point, it had become obvious the country was under attack.
And now ten years after 9/11, life goes on. The Pentagon is rebuilt but the towers are still gone along with the souls that died that day. America has forgotten the unity we had in the days after and now people are even more distrustful of their countrymen. We have become a more distrustful, hyphen-ated society and the only time most of us really notice any changes to the world is the security at the airport. When I look at the news, and see the crime and distrust plastered on the screen and the politicians at each others throats in Washington, I can only think, the terrorists have won, for now.
But how did things change here the heartland? Our work load went from doing shows 6 days a week to nothing as every corporation and organization panicked, cancelling their events. Everyone was afraid to gather at hotels and convention halls for fear that they would be the next target.
Events ended up being so sparse that many of us eventually found ourselves out of work. I, myself, looked for nearly a year before landing a job doing service work taking care of building and parking lot lights. It was a far cry from concert lighting let me tell you, but it paid.
A decade later, I drive a desk and sell light bulbs to the guys still doing production and driving bucket trucks. Life is much more boring, my joints aren't quite as limber as they used to be and the thought of climbing around in the steel of some arena ceiling at 2 o'clock in the morning doesn't sound as fun as it used to be. I find I kind of like a forty hour work week, even with the paycut. I make less now than I did in 2001 but I actually get to see my wife and the kid we have now on a regular basis.
I will never forget that morning and the shock of seeing the Towers fall.
I am not religious but I can only pray I never to see such a thing again.
God Bless America (and all her faults)
Bob
