story10778.xml

story10778.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-09-03

September 11th. I was vacationing with my family, and at the current moment we were in the middle of the Thames river taking a tour cruise, viewing all of London's famed waterfront buildings, bridges, and the occasional ship. The time was around 3:00 pm, when people on the tour boat began telling me how sorry they were about what had happened in New York. Now to give you a better idea, I was wearing my usual garb of wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, jean jacket and stetson hat. Also a small Canadian flag imbedded in the middle of the hat, as I am Canadian. After several questions bantered about back and forth, we were able to learn that a plane had crashed into the world trade centre, but that was about all that was known from the people on board the tour boat. Upon returning to our hotel rooms and watching the footage on the t.v. we were just stunned and shocked. To say we were nervous about continuing our vacation on to France was an understatement. But in the end we did, and the people we stayed with made sure we saw all the war cemeteries, the D-Day landing beaches, Dieppe, and most importantly, people who were actually there at the the time, and their own stories. Getting back home was I disappointed in how Canada reacted to the events as they unfolded from then on? Yes. Still am, and feel slightly ashamed for every boneheaded remark that comes from the "superior" uppity people in the more dense population areas. That being said, my country, right.....or wrong. Just my thoughts.