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Jan On Josh:
The 9/11 Tragedies
JanOnJosh Archives |
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The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of JoshDuhamel.com. |
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Wow. What a month September was for this country. Would anyone have ever guessed that on 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the freeist, most peace-loving country in the world would be attacked by terrorists? In the blink of an eye our lives were forever altered by acts that are so vicious to us, that they are almost unthinkable. Our perspectives on life will never be the same since this happened. A lot of things that normally would have bothered or irritated us no longer do. Why worry about the small things? Thank goodness we are alive to be able to worry about things that now seem trivial. Things like getting a not-so-nice voice mail from your boss, your mom giving you the third degree for having a messy room, or your husband fighting with you over the remote control. In the scheme of life, these things don�t seem so bad now, do they?
By the time this article is posted, it will be the one-month anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies on America: the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania crash. Yours truly was in New York City when it happened, about 40 blocks away close to Times Square. It was my first ever trip to NYC, and obviously one that will never be forgotten. I was there to attend the AMC Fan Club Luncheon that Saturday for the very first time and was extremely excited. I was fortunate enough to have a great seat at Table 2, directly front and center of the table where all of your favorite AMC stars were seated. |
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As luck would have it, Josh was literally sitting five or six feet away from me, just to my right, in the middle of Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) and Eden Riegel (Bianca). At left, you can see the picture I took of Josh standing to thank the members of the AMC Fan Club for voting him �Outstanding Supporting Actor� on AMC. As always, he was very gracious to the fans in his speech and thanked them again for being so accepting of him and his character. Incidentally, his co-star Rebecca Budig received the award for �Outstanding Supporting Actress�. After the question/answer session and awards ceremony was held, the part everyone anticipated the most, the autograph and picture session began. Josh�s line was among the longest. Fans received a special treat as Rebecca was sitting next to him at the autograph table � a GreenLeo fans� dream come true!! :-) I met Josh again and we had a nice chat ... no one that walks away from meeting Josh is ever disappointed. Any of you who've met him can testify to that! |
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All in all, my weekend in NYC was great. Arriving on Friday the 7th with my friend Sharon (RaisinKane), I had high expectations and wasn�t let down. We went to see shows that weekend, ate at some nice restaurants, and met a ton of online friends in the middle of it all. The one thing we hadn�t really done was the �touristy� stuff � visiting the Empire State Building, Central Park, etc. We were scheduled to fly out Tuesday the 11th at 6:05 p.m. But before we left, we wanted to see a few sights and the first on our list that Tuesday was the Statue of Liberty. We�d initially planned on being there around 9 or so Tuesday morning but (thankfully) due to a change in lunch plans w/ a friend, we didn�t get to go. And that turned out to be a lifesaver. I later found out that the ferry to get to the Statue of Liberty was just a few short blocks away from the World Trade Center. We could have been on a taxi on the way there or perhaps waiting for the ferry when the attacks happened. We were thankful to God we were not. |
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We did NOT EVEN KNOW what happened until about 9:25 a.m.. We had already checked out of our hotel but left our bags there for safekeeping. Around the time of the first attack (8:45 or so) Sharon & I were at Rockefeller Center, where they film the TODAY Show, and we were trying to get on TV. So we were having a good time, celebrating our last day, and at the same time 40 blocks away, God knows how many people had been killed instantly. It makes me cry at this very moment just thinking about it. Those people were probably just getting started for the morning, checking email, voice mail, chatting with co-workers about what they did over the weekend, getting their coffee, etc, and had no idea their worlds were getting ready to be forever changed. We left the Rockefeller Center around 9 or so and headed back towards Times Square to eat breakfast at a place called "Roxy's Delicatessen" (or something to that effect) & when we got there, I had a cell phone call voice mail that I couldn't retrieve ... didn't hear my phone ring when the intial call had come in because NY is so danged loud. A man came in while we were eating breakfast saying"They got the Pentagon, they got the Pentagon" but we just ignored him because we thought he may have been out of sorts or something ... no one else in the restaurant paid him any mind, either. Finally, we got done eating breakfast and we went to the Marriott Marquis Hotel so I could manually retrieve that annoying voice mail via pay phone. Well the pay phones were all in use and I thought it was crazy because EVERYONE in NYC has a cell phone! Finally, I got to a phone but could not get through. Kept getting the ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY message. My friend Sharon who was with me pulled me to the side because she'd just found out what happened. We both cried and were terrified, and there were people saying this was WWIII and that we were under attack. What was worse was that we could not get through to our families to tell them we were ok. Even worse still, now thinking back on it, one of the reasons we probably couldn't get through on the phones at first was because there were people calling their families from the WTC telling them they wouldn't be coming home. |
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We were there for the week, not being able to get out because we couldn't fly. We ended up driving home early Friday morning, embarking on a 12 hour drive because we wanted to get back to our families so badly. We know we were among the lucky ones who made it out but it was very tough to be stranded there not being able to hug your family or see them at all. I've been ok recently, but the first two weeks after the attack,it was pretty tough to deal with. . I've been functioning at about 85% as have a lot of others, I'm sure. This is just something you can't get over quickly, whether you were there or not. I would like to say this: New York City is FANTASTIC! I wouldn't trade my pre-WTC attack experiences for the world. If you get a chance to visit, please do so. I plan on visiting again sometime early next year. Things are a little different in our country now, but we are STILL the freeist, most peace-loving nation in the world and in light of what happened on September 11, 2001, we should never forget that and no longer should we ever take the simple things in life for granted. Life is so very precious and each day should be lived as though it were your last. |
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The soap world has banded together to help out in America's time of need. Twenty-five daytimers, including Josh, have laid their signatures within the red stripes of a flag T-shirt that aims to raise $25,000 for the Twin Towers Fund, which assists those impacted by the World Trade Center tragedy. (All production costs will be covered by the stars involved.) To obtain your shirt � and help out a worthy cause � send a $25 money order only (payable to Twin Towers Fund) to: Television Town, P.O. Box 3555, Hollywood, CA 90078. There are a limited number of shirts available so please get your order in as soon as possible. The unofficial deadline for ordering is by the end of October.
Special thanks to Sandy Strider at VincentIrizarry.com for this info! |
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Ok, well that just about wraps up this months edition of JanOnJosh. I'd like to thank those of you who've emailed me with your comments on my last article: The Debate Over Leo and Laura. I promise to include your thoughts in my next feature! Until then, Happy Halloween, JD fans and enjoy the next few weeks as I think we may be seeing an ever so slight return of the old Leo! If you'd like to email with any more thoughts or suggestions, click on the email "star" at right. Would love to hear from you!
Bye for now! |
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Janny |
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Graphics on this page courtesy of: |
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