As my eyes came back into focus and began to feel the numbness kick in from the Ice Cold Water, being full on naked standing in front of 4 or 5 guys in haz mat suites suddenly became reality that this was not some over the top dream rather it was reality. I was not waking up. This was real, very real.
The year was 2001 and somehow I found myself hurled right in the middle of a National Crisis, or better put a National Panic. How did I get here and how in this world is this happening to me in of all places Huntington, Indiana? Was the world ending? Was this the beginning of the end? How in this world did life end up putting me down this road? What was going on? Was America as we know it about to change forever? Was this this really going to be the New “Normal” in America, Huntington, Indiana, Really?
When September the 11th, 2001 happened I instantly knew changes were going to take place. I had been flying a lot back and forth out west to do some of my favorite hikes up the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado. I was flying down to see my girlfriend at the time in El Paso, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. It seemed like everytime I turned around I was hoping on a American Airlines flight flying out west or flying back home.
I love flying and still love flying it is heaven to me. Back then I just remember saying this is just too easy flying all over, and boy was I ever right. So I knew the days of just hoping on and off flights not being rushed to catch a connecting flight were over. And of course that was confirmed I was one of the first to fly POST 9-11 in the country. I even increase the amount of flying I did after 9-11 but that is besides the point.
So knowing big changes were coming in the travel industry I never thought the changes I was about to encounter would ever hit Huntington. Maybe me with all the traveling I do, but Huntington? Really? I mean I felt like as long as I was in Huntington I would be protected from being caught up in some crazy stuff.
So working at WAL-MART I did it all. I was in my 6th year working there and I worked evenings. So a lot of times we were short on help so I would cover the whole back end of the store and occasionally run all over the store if they needed my help.
It was September 2001 a couple of weeks after 9/11. Things were finally getting back to normal and we were looking towards the Holiday Season and hiring more help. Of course we were short on help so I was covering the whole back end of the store with my central focus being Sporting Goods.
Just 2 weeks earlier I came in the evening to quickly have to put our Guns on lock down. WAL MART Suspended all Gun sales on 9/11 it was crazy. I was serving customers as it happening. I was getting orders directly from Corporate.
So working at WAL MART I did everything and pretty much had a choice what I could do. Great job. I was pretty much my own Boss most of the time.
At the time I was covering Lawn & Garden, Toys, Pets, Housewares, Hardware, Automotive, and kept myself at Sporting Goods. Huntington season was heating up, and for most of the Summer and into September my focus was Lawn & Garden and Sporting Goods.
Like I said Wal Mart was very short on help gearing up do start hiring Holiday Help but we were getting by very good with people like me who were veterans who had learned to cover everything despite the Holidays. Rumors were flying around we weren’t going to hire that many for the Holidays.
So unloading truck at the time proved to be very challenging for our store because we were short on help and recieiving was beging to pick up for the Holidays.
We were also having issues with truckers showing up for Lawn & Garden late when we didn’t schedule anyone for 2nd shift because the season was winding down. I had to turn away a lot of truckers at that time and made them sleep in the parking lot till morning when the day shifters came in to unload the truck.
In the meantime we usually unloaded the main truck for general merchandise 2ndshift and we were running short of help. This was usual but you can clearly see what kind of issues we were having being short of help at the time which was causing some issues in receiving.
So you were not really supposed to leave the floor for any reason when you were the only one covering the back end of the store. However the students in receiving were in desperate need of help. Coming in daily falling way short of getting things unloaded catching a lot of heat from management and the overnight stockers for not having the truck or trucks unloaded and pulled out on the floor ready to stock. Also this was causing the back room to become very full because the 3rd shifters would come in and have to spend half the nigh unloading truck and pulling the freight out on the floor to stock, which was 2nd shifters job.
So now we get to how I ended up where I did in the first place. So even though I would cover multiple departments or just fill in wherever throughout the night, I would still occasionally go back and help the High School Students who I loved the best I could.
Fast forward to Late September somewhere between September 24th to 28th, 2001. On this particular night I kept running back seeing how they were doing and helping them to make some progress and get the truck unloaded faster.
So the last time I got back there I knew they still needed a lot done even though I had already been back there a few times helping them out. I knew this would be the last time of the night I would be able to help and so I put myself on the front line pulling the freight off the truck putting it on the conveyer letting them do the palletizing. So I just started throwing the stuff on the conveyer belt hoping this would be more efficient and get them to do more when stuff starts flying down to them. I figured I would set the tempo of the whole operation.
All of a sudden I started unloading 4 or 5 of these boxes that appeared to be some kind of detergent or something. So I was carefull as always and put several boxes on the conveyer when all of a sudden I see this white powder all over the place. Sometimes powders from soap and stuff will do that but for some reason my mind was telling me, something was different about this.
Without hesitationI immediately yelled at everyone to stop doing what they were doing on the spot. I looked back hoping I caught it before all of them had touched it. Luckly only one person a very good friend of mine while working up there was the only one who had touched it. So the other 2 or 3 students hadn’t touched it yet.
I immediately thought of “Anthrax” which was being sent all over at the time including the White House causing people to be quarantined. I also remembered kind of going over some of the Manager notes and doucments from Home Office at the time that talked about the protocol if you do stumble on some white powder.
So I turned to the guys and said hey don’t get close to us, don’t touch us, we must call the closing manager according to what I read. First I went back to check what it was on the truck and it wasn’t soap of any kind, and the white powder was totally out of place.
So I grabbed my walky and called the closing manger and CSM and they didn’t know what to do, I did. I said we must call poison control. Management was lost. So poison control pointed us to local emergency management like they should have, and then it really got fun.
They got back to us and told me and Brian (Who is now a great local successful business owner in Huntington) to wait there don’t move. They finally had use drive together in his car out to Parkview which they were lost and didn’t know what to do. They said not to go inside when we get out there and told us we would not be allowed inside etc. They put the whole Hospital on lockdown as well.
So finally we stood out in the ER BAY waiting on them to see what they would do. One lady came out and said she didn’t know what to do, but we couldn’t leave. We had no coat no sweatshirt on or anything. We kept seeing people check us out from inside the hospital and guys pulling up in EMS Trucks just looking at us.
They kept coming out telling us we couldn’t do nothing but we couldn’t leave. Finally after 3 hours they finally came out saying they were going to put us in the ER Bay and spray us off. Another hour or two later they finally come out in HAZ MAT Suites and said the only thing they could do is make us strip down totally naked and spray us off in the ER BAY.
Of course my response was “Is the water heated?” and the said “NO”! I thought great we are going to go in shock. During this time brian and I laughed so hard and I couldn’t think of anyone I worked with that I would rather go through this with then him.
So Brian went first. When it came my turn I had everyone laughing so hard because I was like “Hey I don’t know whats worse seeing me naked squiriming and sqealing like a pig as you spray me off or the Anthrax.”
I was already dancing around cracking up because of how intense the water out of those hoses would be. They were like Fire Hoses and the water they kept saying were ICE COLD.
Brian’s girlfriend was there and I think we sent her to our houses to get us clothes because they were taking everything we had on and putting them in plastic bags to be sent to Washington DC for analysis. That is why we left our coats and everything at the store because we didn’t want to lose them to the madness.
So here I am walking naked no doubt looking like the rubber band that I was. I kept yelling telling them please do not laugh because it will be so funny when you guys start. To late they were already cracking up while assuring me they would not laugh.
As I stood back facing them I felt like I was in a dream. All of a sudden the water goes full blast and it was whipping me around like THE Rubber Band I said I was. Of course I start squealing like a pig.
After they told me to turn around I heard all of their laughter stop and everything went into slow motion almost like when Frodo put on the ring throughout “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. Then it hit. What has happened to America and how on earth has this happened in Huntington, Indiana?
As I stood there looking at the guys in haz mat suites spraying me down it looked and felt like I was in the middle of the biggest Hollywood Steven Speilburgh blockbuster movie of the year. It was without question one of the craziest moments in my life.
Finally when it was all over they let us go. When it was all over the total time was from 7:30 pm to about 1:45 AM when we were finally released.
I remember thinking I hope our society doesn’t operate in the spirit of fear. I mean I remember having visions of American Malls, Airports, schools, and other places getting evacuated on false alarms hoping and praying this is not what we are coming to. I remember thinking no matter what living life based on fear is not truly living. What is this going to do to the economy. Fear will destroy the economy very fast. That all of the safety measures on earth is not worth the price of freedom.
Fast forward to present day Sunday March 22nd, 2020 and here we are again in a crisis, but this time it is at a much bigger threat and wide spread; the (COVID-19) Pandemic. This time it has almost shut down the economy.
This incident took place way before Anxiety firsts shook my life on November 30th, 2008 at at 9:37pm. I did have normal anxiety like anyone else back then and your normal fear. I did keep my cool and a lot of it was Brian and his girlfriend now (Wife) at the time. Couldn’t have or wouldn’t have asked for 2 different people than these 2 people. If I would have chose 2 people that I worked with to go through such a crisis it would have been both of them without hesitation.
2009 my anxiety hit out of the blue and someday I will tell you the whole story of that and how fear can become a personal battle outside of a national crisis. At that time I did not know 7 years later I would have a personal battle with fear for at least 12 years of and on.
A week or twolater much like the White House the test from our clothes and belongings came back “NEGATIVE”! I remember during the whole thing being afraid they would take our cars and keys too for testing and being ready to completely refuse to allow them to do that. We also feared being flown away or sent somewhere to be totally quarantined for a couple of weeks totally being cut off from society, and there was talk of that. This was new for the United States at the time only being 3 weeks after 9/11 so they trying to figure out how to handle post 9/11!
Remembering and reflecting on this incident all of these years later has helped ease my mind, made me laugh, and reminded me that this will pass someday.
Stay safe everyone. We will get through this. Love each and every one of you and will be praying for all of you!
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