Wednesday, July 20, 2005

 

Ashes, ashes, they all fall DOWN!



Ames was buzzing with all kinds of excitement yesterday and probably about half the town took time off in the morning to watch two of the most prominent features of the Ames, Iowa, skyline disappear forever. Throughout my whole life I have always looked for the Towers when driving back to Ames from every direction. They looked like four suitcases you could just pick up and carry around. This morning, as I drove down the street that runs just north of these Iowa State University Residence halls, I was struck by a feeling that things weren't as they should be--as they have always been--even though I know and witnessed the reason for the blue sky through the trees of Storm Street. I never realized you could look up and see Knapp Hall through the trees along that street until this morning when I drove down it and it felt weird before I ever reached the block on which these buildings resided. Knapp Hall was my father's home for three and a half years of college. The dorm was 2 years old when he started living there--on the top (10th) floor. It is now only a 40 ft. pile of concrete.

I had watched implosions of buildings on TV before, but it is nothing compared to being able to actually witness it in person. Even a personal video recording of it (which I have--fuzziness and all) is more exciting than the professional news casts of it. One of the most impressive things about this particular implosion is that they imploded two 12-story buildings simultaneously, while attempting to save the building between the two. According to all reports I've heard so far, it seems to have worked exactly as they hoped it would.

15:46  + 
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