Alfred P. Murrell Federal Building memories

pdjr · 08-06-2005, 11:53 PM

I noticed some heart-wrenching stories/recollections/memories about this former building in other threads and just lit started a candle.

I was in it the day prior learning the ropes of the oil & gas business with my dad. Day of, I was at my college job serving espresso and fancy desserts. It took a while to reach my dad. He was in Dallas and like a pre-Raphaelite (may he rest in peace) hadn't listenened to the AM or FM news all day. I said a prayer and went to class.

**Doug Loudenback** · 08-07-2005, 12:18 PM

I've got plenty, but I still don't like rekindling them. I was in the 1st floor of the Oklahoma County Courthouse that morning (about 3 blocks south) when the blast occurred. It is a time that still makes me cry if I place myself back then. Shortly after the explosion, the OK county courthouse was evacuated (as were most if not all downtown buildings later that morning). With a few friends, we walked up Harvey to the south side of the Murrah (the correct spelling, BTW) Building and just watched for about 30 minutes or so. At that time, we didn't know what had happened, but, of course, soon learned. That's about all I think I want to say.

**mranderson** · 08-07-2005, 12:46 PM

What is a "Raphaelite? "

pdjr · 08-07-2005, 01:41 PM

Doug, thank you for your contribution. I didn't mean to cause upset. I wanted to provide a place for people to remember and offer support for those who were scarred by this tragedy. I also wanted to provide a hopeful place where we could honor the heroes and volunteers who selflessly gave everything they could.

mranderson, I was referring to an art movement in an obscure way. Another term that probably works better is Luddite. Dad wasn't one to multi-task. When he was working, there were no radios to listen to or papers to be read. That was for before or after work.

**Doug Loudenback** · 08-07-2005, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by pdjr

Doug, thank you for your contribution. I didn't mean to cause upset. I wanted to provide a place for people to remember and offer support for those who were scarred by this tragedy. I also wanted to provide a hopeful place where we could honor the heroes and volunteers who selflessly gave everything they could. (emphasis added)

You didn't. Tim McVay & whats-his-name did that (and perhaps others, I woudn't know). It's an important topic and I'm glad you started the thread. But, alas, the scaring will not be gone ... just something that has to be to lived with.

As for the heros, they were, and are, everywhere. Remember the seemingly unending stream of vehicles with cargo for those in such horrible need? This place, Okc, is a town full of heros.

MadMonk · 08-08-2005, 02:41 PM

I was in Vegas with my in-laws. My brother-in-law called me at 7:30am (VERY early for a vegas morning) and told me to turn on the news. It took me a while to comprehend what had happened. I have a friend who's mother used to worked in the Soc Security office, but luckily she had changed jobs 6 months prior.

When I got back my company was organizing ways to assist the rescue workers (I worked for Southwesern Bell Mobile Systems at the time). I remember doing shifts down at 1 Bell Central of couple times a week for weeks. We would go out once an hour with a big bag of batteries, walking around switching out batteries for those workers that needed fresh batteries, taking the dead batteries back and charging them. We had a HUGE charging/staging area set up in the 1st floor lobby of that big old Bell building. Celiing tiles where missing from that building as a result of the blast and it was blocks away!

Usually, we just walked around the perimeter of the Murrah building and cleanup area, outside of the chain-link fence that was erected. One night, one of the workers said they needed more batteries and to follow him to swap them out. He took us (me and another person) through the gate. I was stopped momentarily and searched - security was everywhere. He led us down around the front of the building, around all the recovery equipment and into the Murrah building parking garage that the firefighers were using as a staging area. I wasn't able to comprehend the scale of the destruction until I was that close. It was devastating. I don't know how anyone in the building survived.

There were a TON of people down there at 1 Bell Central going 24/7 cooking meals, providing support, and helping out in any way possible. I saw pizza places bringing in mobile kitchens like at the State Fair, huge amounts of food lined up buffet style with people constantly bringing in more, even saw a chiropractic station set up for giving adjustments and massages to the firefighters. It was amazing. Hell just remembering all this is making my eyes start to water as I type this... The way huge numbers of people came together to help out in many different ways is one of the reasons that I will always be proud to live in Oklahoma.

**Doug Loudenback** · 08-08-2005, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by MadMonk

There were a TON of people down there at 1 Bell Central going 24/7 cooking meals, providing support, and helping out in any way possible. I saw pizza places bringing in mobile kitchens like at the State Fair, huge amounts of food lined up buffet style with people constantly bringing in more, even saw a chiropractic station set up for giving adjustments and massages to the firefighters. It was amazing. Hell just remembering all this is making my eyes start to water as I type this... The way huge numbers of people came together to help out in many different ways is one of the reasons that I will always be proud to live in Oklahoma. (Emphasis supplied)

Me, too, and my sentiments exactly. For those of us having a personal association with the event however that association may be derived, and in those moments that we force a remembrance for a moment or a few, our eyes cannot but help but water. In this incredibly horrible time which was light-years beyond what our prior imaginations perceived that such a time could be, Okc was, and I'm sure is now, is a town of heros. While I cannot begin to place myself in the shoes and misery of those whose loved ones died or were badly injured, or in the shoes of those who would even contemplate doing such a horrible and evil thing, ripping apart the bodies of innocents, particularly babies and young children, let alone citizens who were their adult peers, oh god, the grief ... the outreach of the children, men and women in this city and surrounding areas was beyond belief, as well.

Children reaching out? Their actions were perhaps the most poignant. It was hard to walk into any public building, e.g., Courthouses, the Conncourse, most anywhere, without seeing the images that they'd drawn or the teddy bears and other kindly things and messages they affixed to the perimeter of the Murrah memorial. What a pain it is to remember those pictures, drawn by the innocents, once again! And what heroes they were, and are.

A year later, I had to be in El Reno for a court hearing, left in the morning, and I was wrapped up in what I was doing. When I returned to downtown Okc on I-40 that afternoon, almost all cars traveling the opposite direction (West) had their headlights on. In my preoccupation with my work, I'd forgotten what day it was. It took me a moment for it to set in that the people in those cars were just honoring the dead and maimed, a year earlier, and I immediately began to cry.

It is not possible, I think, for the pain to go away, even though we put it in the background as our lives go on.