Normally I would not post about such a sad topic, but this is one I feel is important to never forget. I sincerely hope that this does not turn any one off of reading my blog but if it does, I hope you come back at some point. I grew up only an hour away from DC, and as a result September 11, 2001, was felt deeply in the small town I am from. I think the way I feel about this day is the way those of the Greatest Generation feel about the Pearl Harbor attacks, we will never forget.
It is hard to believe that it has been 12 years since the attacks on Washington DC and New York City. I was 15 years old and home sick from school for the second day. My mother was working the polls that day and was about a half a block up the street, she had come up to my room early that morning to check on me and tell me if I needed her that I could come down and get her (obviously I wasn't horribly ill). I was up and getting dressed for the day when the phone rang. Being the only one home I hurried to the phone next to my bed, it was my father. He told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City. I was certain he was wrong. He told me to hurry down stairs and turn on the TV to see what was going on then to call him right back. That is exactly what I did, and these is the images I was greeted when I turned on the news.
I was on the on the phone with my father as the second airplane hit. I told him what happened and asked him what to do. I didn't know how to react to what I had just seen. He told me to go find my mother and tell her what was happening. I did not want to do that. But I quickly returned to my room changed into street clothes and went to get my mother. It's strange but I clearly remember that when I stepped out on our front porch I thought, how beautiful the weather was that day. As I approached where my mother was she saw me and must have thought I wasn't feeling well. When I crossed the street to get to her, I was still calm, the magnitude of what I had just witnessed had not yet sunk in. I told her what had just happened. I am not sure she believed me at first, and honestly who would? But as I told her about the plane and the fire, and hearing myself say what had happened, the magnitude of the situation began to sink in and my calm began to crumble, and I think she began to see I was not mistaken. My mother walked me home, she turned the television back on and found what I had told her was all too true. The remainder of the day was a blur. I know that my father came home very quickly, and we had many close family friends in the house with us all day. Also strangely I remember someone bringing fried chicken and telling us we needed to eat (it's odd the things we think of at times like those and the things we remember). My mother was with us most of the day but she did go down to the polls, I don't really know what went on down there that day. I do know my mother was sitting next to me when the towers fell, because I distinctly remember grabbing her hand in shock and fear. I also remember there as very little coverage of what happened in DC. At some point I also remember walking to our church to pray. That walk to church will also remain vivid in my memory. The small downtown district my parents live in, is never particularly quiet, but that day it was like a ghost town. A police officer stopped us and asked about the news, we told him we were on our way to church to pray. He asked that we pray for the police and firefighters that would be responding to this tragedy. He was the only person we encountered on our 4 block walk to church.
The towers falling
The Pentagon
The pentagon
What also stands out in my mind, is how quiet the sky was for the next few days, it may have even been longer. There are 3 major international airports within and hour or so of my parents house and a small municipal one only 5 minutes up the road. There were literally no airplanes in the sky when you looked up it was simply too quiet. When air traffic did start back up strange new things happened, fighter jets would fly over and if people flew in the wrong areas, they would get escorted by those jets to a place to land. To this day when I am visiting my parents if I hear a fighter jet over head I know someone has flown where they do not belong. And when in a large city, it makes my stomach turn to hear an airplane over head.
I will never forget the events of September 11, 2001. They have forever changed this nation.
