It was right before I moved out of the trailer into my own house...September 2001. I was getting ready for work that morning, and I had Good Morning America on the tv, glancing at it every now and then as I rushed through the living room. I stopped, though, when I saw one of the twin Trade Center towers on fire, smoke billowing out of it, and a panicky-sounding news anchor talking hurriedly. I couldn't really stop and listen, though. I had to get to work. It was almost 8 a.m. and I had to go!!
When I got to work, though, there was talk among the others, and everyone in town, about how the World Trade Centers had been hit by a plane and had exploded and were on fire...and then had collapsed! Oh....how that made me feel....! I was shocked, awed, confused, and wondering what in the world was happening!
As the news unfolded, we were informed about the terrorists that had piloted the planes into the side of the towers, one and then another...and then how the towers had gone down right in the middle of New York City! All day...on the news...nothing but stories and reports of what had happened. We were all just in shock. How could this happen? What would happen now? How many people were in there? What would happen to the survivors? To the folks that were close to the buildings? To the rest of the people in my city? So many questions went through my mind...and I just couldn't grasp it all.
In the small Kansas town where I lived, people were trying to find ways to show their support. Flags went up everywhere. Yellow ribbons. Red, white and blue was everywhere! The lines at the gas stations were long, because someone had started a rumor that the gas would be in short supply because of this disaster. I"m not sure where that came from, but I ignored it. I figured I had bigger things to worry about than where my gas was going to come from, and how much it cost. I would wait and see.
Then, we heard about the plane crashing at the Pentago, another devastating and confusing time for all of us. What was going on?
I remember sitting in the laundromat...later that week...and seeing the replay on their little television, once again, of the planes flying into the side of the tall trade center buildings....and feeling tears come to my eyes. Why? I asked myself. Why? Why would anyone do that and kill so many people!? WHY??
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Its nice to hear what happened outside of New York like Flags going up and yellow ribbons. In new York and Outside New York as far as where I live 30 Miles outside of the city you could smell the burning of the buildings for several days. There was no air traffic, so many of us took time to listen to the sounds of nature being surrounded by airports JFK LGA Westchester, Islip., now it was just birds. We followed local stories who knew who that was there that made it out, who didn't which communities lost more than a few households, Entire fire brigades, Brothers from the same station. Brokers from the same neighborhood. Elevator workers sent in to rescue, or get people out. Outside of New York, we felt there was no sense of our local loss. I'm glad you told me the Kansas Local story. I was at CNN that morning when I left to come home, my wife on her way in, It was a Tuesday an election day and I went to school to pull my child out with the intention we were going to vote, but in my heart in the event there was panic I wanted to have One Child with me when I was going to have to run to high school to get the other. The teachers found out as I was pulling my youngest out of class.
ReplyDeleteIt was awful, it was heart-wrenching, and it was pandemonium! Yes, even in Kansas, we felt it. Believe it or not, at the Safeway store, the owner installed a HUGE, 30 foot tall flagpole that very same month, with a HUGE American flag on it. It's still standing there, and he replaces it when it gets tattered. I mean it's HUGE!! You can see it from a long ways away!!
ReplyDeleteThe reports we got were mostly from the television, but I'm sure there was plenty on the web, and the radio. It was as if the whole country came to a standstill. I'm so glad you were able to get your kids out and have them with you.....that seemed to be the most important thing...to have your loved ones as close to you as you could get them!!
I can only imagine what it was like being so close to NYC!!