My office was four blocks west on 4th street.
We lost a big plate glass window.
I banked in the credit union that was in that building.
We lost a big plate glass window.
I banked in the credit union that was in that building.
The company my dad worked for had a computer installation at the SW Bell offices in downtown, and he spent a lot of time working in their offices in the mornings. He said he was often walking past the Murrah Building at 9am on weekday mornings.
One of his friends and former coworkers had an auto service center at 6th and Hudson. I got to see it on TV--it was on the perimeter, with crime tape strung across the drive, a Humvee parked in its drive, and a military dude carrying an M-16 on guard. Also, the rear axle from the truck landed on one of the cars stored on the back side of his shop...
I had been going into that building every couple of weeks since it was built. My credit union was there and as a matter of fact, I was planning on being there that very morning, but instead I went the day before at lunch. The amount of steel and concrete put into that building was incredible. I always thought it was over built.
It's a small world, isn't it? My big boss (before he was the big boss, while he was working in downtown OKC) was supposed to be in a 9am meeting in the big conference room of the (IIRC) Journal-Record building that is/was directly across the street from the Murrah Building. For some reason, the meeting got delayed, so he wasn't in the conference room when the bomb went off, something for which he was eternally grateful, because that conference room has a giant window that was completely shattered by the blast and ended up embedded in nearly everything in the room.I use to use that guy to work on my junker work car before I got a company car. He was close to my office so it was easy to drop off & pick up.
Yep, Florence was a family friend. My dad knew her husband from the NG and my sister went to church where she did for years. I still remember opening my account before the Murrah building was even built. The CU was in the Federal courthouse building on 4th and Florence was the one who opened it. I was just a kid, probably about ten or so.Me too. Back in the day when we got paper pay checks. I always went E up 4th to the Catholic church, hung a left and parked on the street by the stairs up into the plaza. Up the stairs across the plaza, in the door and up the elevator to the Credit Union. Left out the elevator, right down the hall past the CIA office and right into the tellers room. Back out the same way. quick and easy. I can still see that big old stain at the top of the building on the west side from the construction process.
I was in that building an awful lot. I had a check in my billfold I intended to deposit, but I just hadn't got around to it yet. Had to wait until they got us a temporary place out off Meridian or MacArthur, can't remember exactly, to get that put in my account. Bad days. Really bad days. I knew or had done business with most of those 18 employees over the years.
On a side note, I saw Florence's obit in the paper a few weeks or months back. She ran the place. Most of the causalities were sitting across her desk from her when the floor fell away.
Yep, Florence was a family friend. My dad knew her husband from the NG and my sister went to church where she did for years. I still remember opening my account before the Murrah building was even built. The CU was in the Federal courthouse building on 4th and Florence was the one who opened it. I was just a kid, probably about ten or so.
It's kinda weird, but when I left that day before the bombing I went out on the south side through the plaza/courtyard thing over the parking garage as I often did and walked back around. It was 12:00 and It was a perfect sunny spring day. The church bells were ringing, the kids from the daycare were playing and birds were singing. And for some reason I noticed all of that, it was a very peaceful few moments. I had no idea it would be the last time. I was parked very close to where the bomb truck was and also parked in that very spot many, many times.
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