Point Reyes Light - September 13, 2001
What West Marin residents were doing
By Daniel Freed
Virtually all Americans who were alive on Dec. 7, 1941, can recall where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Likewise, those who were old enough to know what was going on will always remember what they were doing on Nov. 22, 1963, when they learned of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
"JFK is my first memory," noted Mike Lawson of Dillon Beach on Tuesday. "I was three years old. I remember...because my parents and grandparents were upset to the point of tears."
On Tuesday, Lawson didn’t learn of the bombings in New York and Washington until he dropped off his youngest child at Tomales Elementary School’s kindergarten. "After I put my daughter’s things away and said good-bye, I told one of the parents I know, ‘I’m leaving for Florida tomorrow.’ She said, ‘No you’re not.’"
"She took me outside. She didn’t want to alarm the little kids [by describing the carnage]. I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I thought it was a sick joke. Then I went to my car and turned on the AM radio on the way home."
Experiences like Lawson’s are the stuff of history, and partly for the sake of the historical record, The Light on Tuesday and Wednesday asked people throughout West Marin how they got word of Tuesday’s attack on the United States.
• Lisa Martinoni, Diekmann’s Store, Tomales: "I was actually at home when I heard about it, just getting up. I heard it on the radio and thought it would be a current event of interest for my son at school. We turned on the TV and saw the second plane hit. We watched in awe. I couldn’t believe it, it was almost like a movie."
• Stephen Barrett of Marshall, a former Light reporter born on Manhattan Island: "I turned on the radio this morning a couple of seconds after waking up. It took a while for the enormity of what’s happening to sink in. I’ve been following it on the Internet. I haven’t been following it on TV, but I know lower Manhattan well and can picture it all in my head. My head is spinning pretty bad from today."
• Wade Holland, retired manager of Inverness Public Utility District: "When I got up in the morning, I turned on KPFA and heard [announcer] Amy Goodman say something about flames at the World Trade Center. So I went to the TV just to see what she was talking about. That’s when the second plane hit. It was just mind-boggling. It was not possible for this to happen."
• Vedananda, Vedanta Social Retreat in Olema: "I called a company to arrange some work with them. The representative said, ‘I hope I’ve helped you on this crazy day.’ I said, ‘What crazy day?’ It’s very difficult to say how I feel. It’s so shocking. It’s an overwhelming, unbelievable fact that leaves you dazed. Imagining what happened to those people in the buildings, it leaves you silent. I think the only reaction is silence, sympathy, and love."
• Jenny Pfeiffer, art teacher at Bolinas School: "I was alerted by a call from my son in San Francisco. He said he was in his truck coming out to West Marin. He said he didn’t want to be on the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought that was smart. I’m not a TV person, so I didn’t have the TV on, but he said, ‘Turn it on.’ It’s so hard to take such a big thing in. It’s like seeing Godzilla taking over New York. I had to turn it off because it’s just too harsh."
• Alexis Suarez, biologist at Avocet Research Association, Point Reyes Station: "My neighbor called me this morning and said, ‘Have you heard? And I said, ‘Heard what?’ She asked if I had a TV, and I do, so she came over and we watched what was going on. All these questions keep coming to mind – what should I do? Should I go to work? It’s just so surreal."
• Ken Massucco, County Fire Department battalion chief, Woodacre: "I was at home getting ready to go on duty. I was watching the news when it came on. I started making phone calls to the department to put forward our contingency plan. At the time, we were worried about things happening in the Bay Area. Like anyone in the emergency services profession, we knew there was loss of life to firefighters and other rescue workers when those towers came down. That’s always a devastating blow to an emergency worker – to see something like that happen to our brothers and sisters."
• Stella Logan, Dillon Beach Resort: "Like everyone else, early this morning I was turning on the news, and it was like getting hit in the stomach. Very sad, very depressing. We’re so remote out here in West Marin. It was like a bad movie. I wish to everybody that they can get over this grief."
• Bob Cecchini, manager Sand Dollar restaurant in Stinson Beach: "I was walking from my house past the firestation. The fire chief, Kenny Stevens, said, ‘Bad day.’ I didn’t know at that point what had happened, so I turned on the TV. I couldn’t believe it. I’m still dumbfounded – just the loss of life."
• Robert Baker, veterinarian at the San Geronimo Valley Veterinary Clinic in Lagunitas: "I was making a pot of coffee and I turned on the morning news. I saw the World Trade Center on fire, just one tower was on fire. You think optimistically at first, ‘Oh they’ll put it out.’ But it went from bad to worse. As the day goes on, the magnitude sets in. The depression sets in. We have a young son in the seventh grade. We tried to explain things to him. He was quite upset. You try to go about your day, but it’s difficult. You realize it’s important to keep going and not let these things overtake you. We have to trust in our leaders, but the feeling is that the world has changed. We’re a little insulated in West Marin, but this affects us all. I’d imagine this is what Pearl Harbor felt like. Suddenly the things from the day before don’t seem so big. My son asked if he could donate blood. I was proud of him for thinking like that."
• Bill Beck, retired businessman, Inverness Park: "I was sleeping, and my closest friend called me from San Francisco and said he’d heard it on the radio. So I turned on the TV set. Of course it’s a horror. I feel the same horror as everyone else. It puts a better focus on something that’s bothered me for a while. It focuses on the futility of the missile-defense shield because we won’t be attacked by missiles. I predicted something like this would happen. This defense shield we’re trying to build is going to do no good. Terrorists won’t attack that way. I think that there’ll be another attack; this is only Step 1."
• Dave Wilson, manager of Papermill Creek Saloon in Forest Knolls: "I was at home, and I was watching the news. I saw the first plane hit, and I thought it was an accident. Then I saw the second hit and saw the buildings melt like an ice cream cone. To think of all those people in that building. It was devastating. I think everyone’s in a daze. I know I am. Denial kicks in. I hope they take care of who did it. All those people, all those babies without parents. I think it’s going to hurt this country."
• Laraine Miller of Muir Beach: "I’m an innkeeper at the Pelican Inn, so I live here. I was here, and my girlfriend in Reno called and told me to turn on the TV. We don’t have TV’s or phones at the inn except the innkeeper’s, so I had to come down and inform all of our guests. We had some guests from Japan, and they spent hours on the phone and the computer trying to find out what they were going to do. We also had some other guests from Ohio, and they decided they were going to drive home rather than try to fly. We had a crusty old black and white TV with rabbit ears in the attic that we set up. Everyone was fixed on that. It was a solemn day. All the normal sounds – cars, wildlife. The pub existed, but it seemed so quiet. All the people were in a strange state."
• Mary Lafranchi, a homemaker in Nicasio: "I got a call from my daughter in San Francisco at 7 a.m., which was a shock. Then I remembered we had two granddaughters back in Washington, DC. We were all very fearful until we got calls from them saying they were okay. The TV’s been on since. It’s just devastating. I can’t hardly think about anything else."