San Marcos reacts with shock, tears and prayers

Editor's note: This story was published in the San Marcos Daily Record on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001.

The streets of San Marcos were strangely quiet late Tuesday, the downtown restaurants nearly empty, some stores doing business in a trickle, although some restaurants reported booming take-out and delivery sales.

Seems most people stayed home, alone or with friends, watching the story unfold on TV.

Terrorist attacks on New York City, Washington D.C.; The twin towers of the World Trade Center gone, reduced to a rolling cloud of smoke, debris, shattered glass, torn papers. Thousands of people missing, most likely dead. A surreal tragedy, chaotic and senseless.

But bits of normalcy swirled around the surreality of the disaster as people tried to cope with the horror they felt, tried to go on with life.

Some people kept their appointments, got their hair cut and styled anyway. Some shopped for things other than for necessity, buying a cigar or two to savor, some chocolate to nibble, or sat down to enjoy a cup of coffee or beer after a long and strange day. Some young people played a game of sand volleyball in the park; one young man practiced riding his unicycle along a quiet road.

For others, the tragedy on the East Coast wasn’t distant, was not that surreal. For some San Marcans, this disaster had a personal face.

One young man worried about his friend, a flight attendant for an airline, fortunately stranded safe on the ground in California.

A woman found herself torn between relief and fear, her relatives in upstate New York safe, but their friends in Manhattan could not be reached.

A retired military man expressed his concern for his friends at the Pentagon, also unreachable, their fate unknown.

Another woman feared for a friend, who is overseas on business, and for her family on the East Coast.

Even in the midst of trying for normalcy, everyone wanted to talk about what happened, how they felt, and what they thought we must do to as a nation to respond to this attack.

“It’s a hell of a day,” said Monty Moore, hair stylist at Calcutta’s. “We’ll all remember where we were. We’ll be a long time dealing with this, on many levels.

“I equate this with an act of war,” he continued. “We can’t just ‘investigate’ this. I think GW (President Bush) will have to attack somebody for this, even if it’s not the right group. We’ll have to take some big-noise military action, or the finger-pointing and impeachment proceedings will begin. He’ll have to take retaliatory action, or he’ll be run out of town on a rail.”

Others expressed their sorrow over the tragedy, and spoke of their faith in the U.S. Government to take care of things, and their belief that the American people will together to over this disaster.

“I’m deeply saddened for the families and innocent victims, and yet tremendously angered at the same time,” said Bob Nelson, a retiree who lives in San Marcos. “If I had a prayer, it would be for peace — but at the same time, the first rule of war is to never underestimate the enemy. Perhaps we did. My first concerns are for all; those poor people. But people should sleep well knowing there are thousands of U.S. government people out there, doing things that we don’t even know about to protect our freedom — and they will do their job.”

Others spoke of their plans to attend church Tuesday evening, to pray for their families, to pray for understanding as well as peace, to seek comfort and to comfort others.

“I think mass will be full tonight,” said Leesa Stafford, hair stylist at Calcutta’s. “We’ve got our candles lit.”