Prayers and patriotism

Signs and flags displayed North Idaho residents' collective pain and patriotism following Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

Flags flew at half-staff Wednesday from a library in Hayden to the Mountain West Bank in Post Falls.

Many store owners also donated their advertising billboards for messages of hope.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with our nation's families," read the electronic sign at the Post Falls Tidyman's.

The flag at Hayden's Holiday Station Store flew at half-staff.

"I'm very exhausted today," said Laurie Rose, as she restocked Energizer batteries. "As much as I didn't want to watch it, I couldn't turn it off either."

Customers, too, couldn't erase the televised images of the hijacked airliners crashing into the World Trade Center towers from their conversations, she said.

"Business is much calmer today," said Rose, the store's shift leader. "I think people are a little less panicked."

Many businesses, including Adventures N' Fun in Coeur d'Alene and Bruchi's Cheesesteaks and Subs in Post Falls offered to help take donations for the American Red Cross.

Lyle's Fabric's, Crafts and Gifts had a run on safety pins and red, white and blue ribbon Wednesday morning.

A teacher making patriotic rosettes for the Coeur d'Alene School District cleaned out the store, said Tonya Lyle, part-owner of the family-run business.

"She bought 4,600 safety pins. I sold every package on the wall," Lyle said.

The teacher bought 300 yards of striped red-white-and-blue ribbon, and six spools of ribbon in those colors.

"Three of those spools had 100 yards each," Lyle said.

Residents also purchased a gaggle of flags.

Fred Meyer in Coeur d'Alene sold out and ordered more. Economy Hardware in St. Maries had just a handful left. Ace Hardware in Kellogg had about 10 left, after selling seven Wednesday morning.

"We may make it through the day," said Neil McAvoy, a sales clerk.

But that patriotism hadn't materialized in young people signing up at the local Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine recruiters in Coeur d'Alene.

David Wilson, the local Navy recruiter, said he received several calls Tuesday.

"What we are seeing is people who were already interested saying, `Can we go sooner?'" Wilson said. "Some have asked, `Can we skip boot camp?'"

The response is almost opposite to 60 years ago when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

In 1941, "people were elbowing each other in line because they were so mad," Wilson said. "During the Persian Gulf War, we had very successful recruiting.

"It doesn't appear like that now."

Sgt. 1st Class Tim Stanton, who recruits for the Army, said he took 15 to 20 calls Tuesday. But many were from residents past their prime.

One was a 53-year-old Vietnam veteran from Athol.

"He said, `Hey, I want to be the first to go. I'm a tough old guy,'" Stanton said of the Athol man.

"It's neat to see older guys offer their services and want to get back into the fight again."

But little or no response came from younger residents, he said.

"They would rather bad mouth us when we make the call or go out in the public," Stanton said. "It's frustrating."

David Anderson, 32, placed one of the calls the Army recruiting office received Tuesday. He waited Wednesday to fill out paperwork.

Anderson served three years in the Army starting in 1988. He had been thinking about re-enlisting.

"I heard it on the news," Anderson said, "but when I actually saw it on TV, I couldn't believe it."

Massage therapist Jeane Wood offered a different way to cope.

She learned after the Oklahoma City bombing how to offer relief to emergency workers and the shocked public.

Massage Emergency Response Teams - MERT - reduced stress enough to enable rescuers to continue their grisly work far past the exhaustion point.

Grounded flights stopped Wood, an American Red Cross instructor, and her students at the American Institute of Clinical Massage in Post Falls, from offering their services in New York this week.

So they offered rubs along Mullan Avenue in Post Falls Wednesday in exchange for donations to the Red Cross.

Wood and about a dozen students worked from noon until midnight massaging passersby in chairs lining the street in front of the institute, just west of state Hwy. 41. They plan to return today. She attracted attention with her sign, "Yo New York. Let us give you a hand."

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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