Residents joined by bond of shock, grief
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2001
The refined diction of British Prime Minister Tony Blair wasn’t what I expected when I walked into a truck stop lounge. I was looking for the United States of America.
I found it there Tuesday, in the dimly lit TV room at Donna’s Travel Plaza just off I-5 north of Marysville. I found our country united in the hushed tones of hard-working men who had pulled off the road to grab coffee and a smoke, and to try to comprehend the incomprehensible.
"We therefore here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy," a somber Blair was saying.
Truckers stood silently, arms folded, or slouched on an overstuffed sofa, riveted by images flashing again and again from a Sony screen, numbed by the shocking scene.
"This is just wrong," said Joe Hamer, shaking his head in disbelief. "I think this is just unreal.
"I don’t want to see that person jump again," Hamer muttered, unable still to look away from the replays — a second plane punching through one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the buildings burning and buckling, panic and carnage on the street.
Hamer, a 26-year-old from Scio, Ore., hauls groceries and lumber. When he unloaded in Ferndale early Tuesday, he said he "thought people were funning me" about attacks from the sky on the New York landmark and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. "I said, ‘You shouldn’t joke like that.’ "
Hours later, Hamer couldn’t shake the feeling he was watching a movie, "Armageddon" or "Independence Day." We’ve seen them before, these special effects. Now we’ve seen Hollywood’s nightmare come true.
Anger, as well as disbelief, filled the smoky lounge.
"It doesn’t make any sense, the callous disregard for human beings," said Correy Hodges, 60, who works for a Marysville trucking company. "The imbeciles. I hope they find who did it and retaliate.
"Turn the government over to Norman Schwarzkopf and let him handle it," Hodges added, invoking the name of the general who commanded U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf War.
Keith Jennings spent a year in the Persian Gulf during his six-year stint in the Navy. The 31-year-old trucker was driving through Ellensburg on I-90 when he heard the catastrophic news. "With as many people as we lost, I wouldn’t be surprised if we go to war," the South Dakota man said.
"They opened up a big keg of nails. There’s going to be retaliation," said Troy Munday, 78, who was having coffee at TLC &More Espresso near the Smokey Point Navy Support Complex.
The Marysville man served on submarine patrol duty off North Africa in World War II. He lost a close friend in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He’s seen war, but said that when he switched on TV news Tuesday, "I couldn’t believe my eyes."
"I knew something like this would happen someday. I didn’t think it would be anything of this magnitude," Munday said.
"It’ll be a long time before they figure it all out. And many lives will be lost, thousands," he said quietly. "I don’t know … it’s a sad deal."
Terrance Lawson, 38, was an Air Force radio communications analyst before his civilian life as owner of TLC Espresso. A picture of what he calls "my bird," an EC-130 aircraft from his days at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, hangs in the restaurant.
He was saddened but not surprised by Tuesday’s tragedy. Terrorism, he said, "will never go away."
"These people are ready to die. And America has been like a sitting duck for years," he said.
From behind the espresso bar counter, 22-year-old Lindsey McAfee had talked of nothing else all morning.
"Everybody is just shocked. Usually things don’t get to me, but this really is freaking me out," McAfee said.
"My heart hurts. At the same time, I feel angry," said 33-year-old Shannon Word, who was sitting at a nearby table.
We all feel that way. We are sad, numb and angry. And we are one.
