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Jeep random question but need some Greensboro help. Last time my wife and I where traveling back from Blacksburg for a game we stopped at a Chinese Buffett there. It was cheap good and even had a Hibachi setup. But I can't seem to find it using my Google fu. Can you give me some names of places there? Going to brig the kids up for the spring game and stay Friday night and Saturday nit in Greensboro to make the trip easier on them. They love Chinese buffets so thought I'd take them there one night.
I was a Junior in HS, and like many others, have been a part of the VT family since birth. The immediate years following the tragedy, the candle light vigils at Tech were some of the most emotional times I spent there.
I just wanted to share something that touched me many years after. A few years ago on 4/16, I was in a sandwich shop in DC for lunch and they had a solo musician playing while people ate. As I was standing in line, the first song that he played while I was there was Fields of Gold. For anyone who was able to attend the vigils, you know that this is the song that the student choirs would sing. I got chills and even shed a few tears. Then, I smiled, knowing that somehow, someway, someone knew that I needed to hear that song. Hokies Forever.
Well said. I was in the third grade and we had a snow day. Living in West Virginia, VT was never very popular. That entire week, my entire elementary school turned into Hokies. Our school had "twin day" the Friday after, where everyone was encouraged to dress up in the same Hokie memorabilia with a friend. It had its own page in the yearbook. An entire elementary school in West Virginia wearing Hokie stuff.
My prayers continue to go out to the victims' families, and we continue to prevail every day.
Great article. Tears always come on this day.
neVer forgeT
GO HOKIES!
My wife was born in South Korea, one of the horrible things that came out of this was many Korean people felt they would be hated because the shooter was Korean. My wife was doubly devastated, she saw the hurt I was feeling and she mourned that a Korean person had done this terrible thing. We all know mental illness does not know a color or a nationality.
Just moved into our new house in SC in 2007. Saw this on the news waiting in line at Time Warner because our brand new cable box had already quit in one weekend. Had we not gone in to get it replaced, may not have even have found out about the shooting for days (no iPhone back then).
During the period of 2006 - 2009, I was an occasional blogger (though I doubt many people ever read it). I just remembered that on 4/16 and in the aftermath, posting to my site was very cathartic for me.
Here's what I wrote the day of:
http://justinsworkingtitle.blogspot.com/2007/04/day-that-will-be-remembe...
And one year later:
http://justinsworkingtitle.blogspot.com/2008/04/one-year-later.html
I guess there's not much more for me to say.
It was my sophomore year and I remember it was snowing. I and my friends had just finished Proffesser Robertsons civil war class and walked into Brodie. One of the guys in our company said he heard gunshots which we laughed off. Soon I heard them to and watched in horror from the dorm window as people jumped for their lives. The rest of the day was a blur of watching the news. I remember hearing about Matthew Laportes death as if I was in a cloud. The rest of the semester was spent on an empty campus. For years afterwards I would snap at people who would ask if I knew who had died or if I knew the shooter. Nine years later it still hasn't faded and I can't think back to that day without tearing up.
This is beautiful, Joey. Well done and thank you. It expresses many of the same things I think every year when this date rolls around.
I was in 7th grade at the time. Our basement had flooded the night before so I had been up since 3 AM helping my parents clean it out and got to miss school accordingly. I woke up around noon because my mom wanted us to turn on the news as a family friend was supposed to have a segment done about them. Instead we got the first coverage of the shooting. I remember as the number of people shot increased slowly up to like 7. Then they held a press conference where they announced that many more had been shot and around 30 killed and I'll always remember how silent the room felt afterwards. Despite how awful it was I didn't really understand what a big story it would become. I was a tech fan from Virginia and had just been watching local news so I thought it would be confined to our area, but I remember turning on PTI later and the shooting was the lead.
I was in Italy, and was horrified as the news story started with a news report of a couple of people shot on the VT campus ("did they just say Virginia Tech?"), and continued as a story with progressively higher numbers that were unreal and unbelievable, broadcast as nonstop coverage on CNN International. It was hard to believe it was our sleepy, friendly Blacksburg campus that was at the center of the story.
It was a bit surreal, particularly as it seemed very close and personal for me, while for the people around me in Italy it was tragic, but distant.
Yeah, 6' light action/ ultralite rod, 6 lb test, 1/0 3/0 worm hooks and some watermelon and motor oil senkos. Cast them unweighted 90 degrees to current and let them drift down to in line with the current. Seem to get most action once they've drifted down in line with current. This is for smallmouth.
Could also get some standard hooks with a bottom rig and bait with chicken livers... I've caught some nice eating size catfish in the Shennandoah
I was in my micro biology class at Liberty University when I got a text from a friend. I had my laptop open and brought up the news coverage. My professor must have noticed my pale face as I watched in horrible as he came to see what was going on. He stopped lecture immediately and grabbed my laptop plugging it into the large screen in the front of the class. We sat for what seemed like hours watching in horror. A student in my class started praying out loud and many more started to follow. Before I knew it we were all in a huge huddle with about 40 people we barely knew praying, crying, and watching as the events unfolded. I will never forgot that day for the rest of my life.
He looks very fast. Don't know what type of competition he's going against but he looks like he has acceleration and speed that could be dangerous in the WR screen game. That is, if he is being pegged for WR.
This was my senior year. I was in shock, in some ways still am. From the fall of my freshman year, Tech had been home more than my hometown ever was. The guys on my hall in AJ were my brothers. Dietrick was my kitchen table. The drillfield was my back yard. This changed everything. First it was the shock that something like this could even happen in my home. Then finding out that I new one of the students killed (he was a good friend of my roommate's). Then getting assaulted by media and well meaning friends and family who just didn't understand that I needed space. All I wanted was space from anyone who wasn't directly affected and to be able to sit in silence and cry with anyone who was there. There was way too little of both.
My emotions were so messed up. I was a wreck at the candle light vigil. I remember laughing to myself when eveyrone was singing amazing grace and then realized no one knew the second verse. Then someone yelled "LET'S GO!" and I broke down crying. As a campus, we just needed something to unite us. Something to show each other that we were together in all this. To this day I start crying when I hear the whole stadium chanting.
And then everyone left. Classes were canceled for the remainder of the year and parents rushed to take their kids away from "there." My hall, normally filled with laughter, the odd video game triggered expletive filled rant, overly loud complaints about the smell, was now eerily silent. There were three of us left. My roommate, who was graduating, but staying at tech. Myself, and our RA. I got the idea the RA didn't want to be there either, but didn't have a choice. I limped towards graduation, not really knowing what to do with myself. The regal in Cburg offered free movies all day so I'd spend 12 hours at a time in the dark trying to do something normal.
It's funny how the little things stick with you. Things you almost feel guilty being upset about. My friends and I had a tradition of running over cassell the night before graduation. Just 5 months earlier I'd played lookout for a friend with a december graduation. There were too many cops on campus when it was supposed to be my turn.
"Oh, you graduated in 2007? So were you there for the shootings?"
The emotional response to this question is a microcosm of the whole experience: the cold numb response that you hope will kill the conversation in its tracks- "I was driving back to town that morning"
"Oh, well did you know anyone who was killed?"
Then the angry response "what the hell are you expecting to get from this conversation?" It brings up memories of how the media invaded your grief just to get ratings.
Then you try to extricate yourself and be alone and process all over again the loss both of the people you knew or knew of and of your home.
...........................................................................
I still don't have the words.
I was driving to a job interview. I had the radio on, and as I was flipping channels I caught the tail end of a news report about something at Virginia Tech. I had a buddy who was doing graduate work at VT at the time. I gave him a call but his wife answered. My buddy was in class. She hadn't had the news on yet that morning, so she knew nothing about what was going on. She thought maybe it had something to do with wind damage, because there had been nearly hurricane-force winds in Blacksburg that morning. I said okay, hung up and kept driving.
The interview was in another town, so it was a long drive. A few minutes later I caught a full mews report and found out about the shootings. I called my friend's wife back and told her to find out where he was.
The rest of the drive was surreal, because the number grew with each successive report. Radio doesn't drop everything for breaking news coverage the way TV does, so in between songs it would go from "Seven people have been killed in a shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech..." to "Twelve dead at Virginia Tech... " to "Reports are coming in that there are at least 20 victims in the mass shooting in Blacksburg this morning..." It just kept creeping up, which alone in my car made it feel like I was living through it as it happensed. I don't think the number had been set at 32 by the time I got to the interview.
As for my buddy, he was okay. As it turned out, he had just stepped off the bus in front of Burruss as the shots started to ring out in Norris. He was close enough to hear them.
Beautifully written Joey.
Well said. As someone living out of state, it is comforting to be reminded family is there, even if they are not with you.
I was a junior in high school. I remember being scared to death that my best friends sister was involved since she was a freshman at tech at the time. She ended up being ok, but my heart broke for the people who went through the horror of waiting for a call from loved ones that never came
I was in my Science class in 8th grade in Middle School when I heard about it. I will never forget that day.
My freshman year at VT was the 5th year anniversary and the vigil was one of the most powerful things I have ever witnessed.
My entire family pretty much attended Virginia Tech. One grandparent, 2 Aunts, 2 Uncles, both parents, 2 cousins, my sister and I. And any one that has married into my family has become Hokie fans as well. I always knew I wanted to go to Virginia Tech, but after finally making it to Blacksburg during the following football season and seeing everyone together, I knew Blacksburg was where I wanted to be.
I am happy my work schedule is allowing me to make it Blacksburg today for the rest of the weekend. I cannot wait to be on campus again.
Also, one of the best accounts I have read is on the following blog. I read it every year on this date. It is an emotional read, but if you have the time I urge you to read it.
http://www.paintspeckledpawprints.net/2012/04/live-for-32.html?m=1
Why would you want to ask a UVA grad about a potential VT recruit anyway?
I'd say the staff "recruits" a lot in NC, getting commitments from there is another thing.
I wasn't a student yet, but I had been accepted for transfer from the community college system, my wife was already a VT student, and I was living in Blacksburg already.
I was at work in Amherst (2 hour commute) when we first heard the news. I got a text from my wife early in the day saying that something had happened in her dorm (West AJ) and that they were on lockdown. Soon after, one of the designers (a VT alum) came to my station and asked me if I knew any more about what was going on. Within around half an hour, a lot of the VT staff was clustered around a makeshift news area in the factory office where we were sharing information with one another and watching the actual news. We knew from my wife that something had happened in West AJ, but there wasn't much more coming out and we were all pretty freaked out. I had asked my wife if she wanted me to come home, but she said everything was fine and I wouldn't be able to come see her anyway.
It wasn't long after before we heard the news start to trickle out about the rest of the occurrences. I lost contact with my wife because everyone was trying to call/text at once, and I left the office along with several other employees and made my 2 hour trek back to Blacksburg with the radio serving to keep me updated. I got there later in the afternoon, and campus was chaos. I dropped off my stuff at my apartment (Pack Place) and tried to walk over to her dorm. I was stopped by a reporter, but I don't remember what I said or what she said. I was just in shock. I talked to a guy whose friend had been shot through the arm on my way there, and he was in shock too. Everyone was. It was so quiet.
As I got closer to the dorm, I was stopped by a man with a shotgun pointed in my general direction. I don't remember who he was with, but I don't even remember being surprised. He let me go after a brief interaction, and I finally met up with my wife. We just walked back to my car, loaded up the little she had brought with her, and I drove her back to her parents house.
I still just remember being so confused. It didn't seem real for a couple of days. My wife knew two of the people who had been shot. It was just... it still is. Painful. I still can't talk about it for more than a couple of sentences without tearing up. Of course, I get asked about it frequently when I say I went to VT. Less now, but it still happens.
One thing that really sticks out, aside from all of that, is the community. Everyone coming together. We drove back the next day, and it was as though the entire campus had turned into one big family. Hugs, handshakes, offers of food... that period is what defined for me what it is to be a Hokie. In the face of overwhelming tragedy, the community banded together and provided the support that everyone there needed. I am unbelievably proud to be a Hokie, because being a Hokie means being a part of that family.