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Some cleaned up after the storm. Others turned off TVs, went to malls or rented lighthearted movies in the search for a distraction.
By CURTIS KRUEGER, AMY WIMMER and TIM GRANT
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2001
The tropical storm dumped branches and leaves on Tim McVoy's back yard in Clearwater, so he spent Saturday afternoon stacking them neatly out front. Compared with what he has seen on television lately, it was a welcome distraction.
"If it wasn't for the storm, believe me, it'd be worse," McVoy said Saturday of the emotional strain of watching the endless footage of Tuesday's terrorist attacks. "I watched that memorial service yesterday and just" -- he paused for a moment, making a circling motion next to his eyes, and completed the thought -- "you know, tears coming down."
Countless tears have come down since Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Washington and New York City. Finally this weekend, people in the Tampa Bay area started to turn their eyes away from the tragedy. Not in disregard, not in apathy, but simply to take a much-needed break from agony.
It wasn't easy. Some favorite diversions -- major college football, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and today's National Football League games -- were canceled this weekend out of respect for the victims.
But Tampa's brand-new International Plaza mall was packed Saturday. One day earlier, Tropical Storm Gabrielle and the national day of prayer had kept many people in their homes.
For Phil and Marisa Secord, enjoying a day at the new mall with their children was a first step toward normalcy.
"We're just trying to get out in the community and get this stuff off our minds," Mrs. Secord said. "The Secords are trying to be tough. We believe there is hope, and in what is right and that people will do what is right."
Still, the mall management tried to set a more somber tone. The words "We Grieve" were stenciled on some store windows, and various grand opening events have been postponed.
Some shop to forget, some shop to remember.
St. Petersburg's Wal-Mart sold its entire stock of 300 to 400 American flags within a day of the attacks, so customers this weekend turned to other merchandise: earrings, lawn chairs and shirts emblazoned with the stars and stripes.
"I can't cheer for my team, but I can cheer for my country," said Jim White, who ordinarily would have spent Saturday afternoon watching the Tennessee-Florida football game. He walked through the store Saturday in a Gators cap and American flag shirt.
Flag shirts and pins could be seen throughout International Plaza as well, and some shoppers attached American flags to their cars.
Thomas Riggs, chief executive officer for Directions for Mental Health in Pinellas County, said Americans are like the firefighters sorting through the rubble of the World Trade Center: They want to work hard and see a job through. That's admirable, but sometimes it's psychologically important to take a break.
Riggs urges people this weekend to "think of something lots of fun that they haven't done in months and go do it." Watching an NFL game would have been nice, he said, but because that's not possible he plans to cook a gourmet meal for his family, possibly chicken piccata.
"You cannot live with your face stuffed in traumatic events for too long," he said.
While some crowded the malls, Brian Bergin found solace on the shore of Tampa Bay near Alligator Lake in Safety Harbor, casting a lure and hoping to land a snook. Earlier, he walked three or four miles.
Both solitary activities helped him "just to try to get to the point where my thoughts were uppermost in my mind and not what I see and hear today in the media," he said.
Still, recreation has its limits. Bergin, 54, who recently took early retirement from an office equipment company, said he and five buddies had scheduled a weeklong fishing trip for this week in Alaska. Now, "Most of us don't have the heart to go up there and have a good time."
Elizabeth Ross headed to the Blockbuster Video store in South Pasadena and chose not to rent Sleepless in Seattle; she knew the movie shows New York City's skyline when it looked different than it does now. Instead she picked When Harry Met Sally, a comedy that shows "no fire, no planes, no death."
But for many, taking a break from the tragedy was not easy.
Ken Reiss of New Port Richey swore off television coverage of the attack on America on Thursday night, when he broke down crying.
"They just did the replay of the plane crashing into the building over and over," he said. He didn't hear from three friends in New York until the end of the week and couldn't take it anymore, he said. But he catches himself watching anyway.
"I try not to, but you gravitate back to it," he said. "I have cable and satellite."
- Times staff writer Ryan Davis contributed to this report.