What a difference a year makes
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I eventually went to IKEA and bought some furniture, came home and tried to call my mother to tell her what I got and what I still needed, but for whatever reason, my call wouldn't go through.
A couple hours later, she got a hold of me, frantically telling me that something terrible had happened.
The next couple of days were awful in Minneapolis. It's hard to relay just what the impact was to people that aren't from here. The 35W bridge was the most traveled bridge in the state of Minnesota, and everyone in the Twin Cities felt the impact. Soon after the bridge had come down, the phone lines had been jammed, explaining my difficulty from earlier. You couldn't get a hold of everyone you expected to, and if you saw a car that looked familiar on the news, it was cause for panic, especially when it reminded you of one of those people you couldn't get a hold of (turns out, there are a lot of gold Mercury Sables, thank God). People in Minneapolis still remember the curiosity, sorrow, and most of all, the panic of a year ago, and as you can tell, is on our minds today.
Here we are now, a year later, and things are much better. I have cable and can watch Cribs on MTV while writing about Dan Hinote (which I will later today, promise) and most importantly, the city of Minneapolis is still recovering.
Sorry for bumming you guys out. This is a hockey blog, not a "reminisce about horrible disasters" blog, but I had to get this out there somewhere. Kevin's never letting me back.
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I visited Minneapolis at the end of last year because my grandmother died. Her retirement apartment overlooked the 35W bridge. She was a huge fan, and I had split the Wild with her that year in the family playoffs pool. I went to the Wild/Oilers game with 7 other people from my family - cousins, uncles, my dad and had a great time (and it was a great game, too!)
ReplyDeleteThis is a hockey blog and consarn it, Minnesota is still the state of hockey, and known for being home to many hockey players and enthusiasts. Like Canada south. I think it's relevant and a whole lot of people will hopefully have their minds off of "Owen Nolan, really?" today.
I remember hearing about it that day because I have family in Minnesota, and my boss's husband at the time inspected bridges in Connecticut. It was a terrible tragedy, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Thanks for reminding me. I have added you blog to the ones that I read daily. Based on the past 2 days, I doubt you'll disappoint.
It was a terrible day and thanks for the recap. Perhaps, though, to bring this back to a more lighthearted hockey blog you throw up some "choice" pics of the Wild's cheerleaders.
ReplyDeleteWait, they don't have any? This day is getting worse and worse.