It was a mental game I'd play at the turn of the century. My porch in Natchitoches Parish had a good view of the sky and I'd look at the contrails crossing the sky. Southwest to est northeast? Probably the Houston - Atlanta route. Southeast to Northwest, probably New Orleans to Dallas. It was just a mental game, wondering where all those people were going.
On the afternoon of 9/11 I went back to work, doing a night shift before a couple of days off. Getting off work on Wednesday morning, I stopped by Wal Mart to buy an American flag, but they were sold out. I headed home, ready for a nap, and when I got out of the truck, I looked up at the sky. Nothing. No contrails at all. The FAA had closed all the airspace on the United States.
Growing up in central Louisiana, there was always something in the sky. Commercial air, military traffic, general aviation. Even little crop dusters buzzing around. For the first time in my life I was looking at a sky without aviation. It was decidedly odd, and quiet.
2 comments:
Last night the wife and I attended the US Air Force Band of the West's 9/11 memorial concert at ULM. Her nephew Senior Master Sergent Matthew Peacock, is the Superintendent for the USAF Band of the West, JBSA-Lackland AFB, Texas.
It was quite good.
https://www.music.af.mil/Home/Biographies/Display/Article/1964549/matthew-peacock/
https://www.knoe.com/2026/09/08/us-air-force-band-west-perform-free-concert-ulm-sept-11/
The lack of contrails even affected the weather. Kinda surprised there weren't protests calling for a permanent ban on contrail-causing air traffic in order to save the Earth.
Went grocery shopping friday and saw my first head-to-toe black burqua walking the prescribed number of paces behind a guy. So tempted to shout "Aloha Snackbar" while dumping a can of SPAM on him. I restrained myself.
Post a Comment