Image Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC
By Susan E. Gingrich [Special to The Tennessee Conservative] –
A former coworker, Sherry Gritman, turned me on to Rush Limbaugh, and I was a fan for many, many years. Shortly after my brother Newt became Speaker of the US House of Representatives in 1995, my husband Jim Shurskis and I took a week-end bus trip to the Big Apple. The main event was attending Rush’s television program.
The tour guide contacted Rush’s staff in advance, telling them that I would be attending. There were tentative plans to have me sit in the chair besides Rush, while he did his program. Unfortunately, when staff called Newt’s office to verify my identity, the intern answering the phone denied my existence. I was then pretty much relegated to persona non grata, and seated with my group at the back of the studio.
Before I left, I talked to a staff person, who said it wasn’t possible for me to meet Rush, but that he would call me. I told her that wasn’t necessary. On the following Monday, Newt’s staff followed up to verify that indeed I was his sister, and I received an apology. I never had the pleasure of meeting, nor speaking with Rush, but that will be rectified when I get to Heaven.
Other parts of that trip were memorable, including seeing a musical on Broadway. The bus paused at the site of the 1993, unsuccessful first attempt to destroy the Twin Towers, by detonation of a large bomb. Our tour also included Wall Street and the World Trade Center’s Observation Deck.
The nightmare of what would occur on September 11, 2001, could never have been imagined during that fun trip. Photos taken that day on and from the observation deck are precious and historical.
My home is now in Tennessee. I’ve only been to Manhattan once since 9-11, attending a film premiere at Lincoln Center and staying overnight in New Jersey. The city I knew and loved to visit will never be the same, but my happy remembrances of trips there, despite never meeting Rush, are forever etched in my memories!
About the Author: Susan E Gingrich MHS., a Commonwealth of PA retiree, refers to herself as a recovering bureaucrat. She is a freelance writer and Christian, conservative activist currently living in Loudon, TN with her husband James Shurskis and Cassie and Desi, their senior Birman cats.
