Eighteen years ago today, terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people. Every year, a cold fist seems to grip my stomach on this day, and I find myself looking at reminders of it on the internet.
I can remember what I was doing to this day, since I'm old enough to have been in the work force at the time. (FYI, I'm still *in* the "work force"; I'm not THAT old, yet.) I was working at a dead-end job for a credit card company, at a thankless position in a call center, and since I'm not big on watching television, I drove to work that morning in complete oblivion to what was going on in NYC. I happily tooled on to work in my beat up old Chevy S-10 pickup...I've owned 3 of those darned things in my day...and walked into the call center building, blissfully unaware of what on Earth had just happened.
When I got into my part of the cubicle farm on our building's second floor, I found everyone standing around talking, with astonished looks on their faces, and no one on the phones. "What's going on?" I asked stupidly.
"We're at war!" the office drama-king blurted back at me loudly, at the time. Being the office drama-king and a fellow one couldn't normally take seriously in any event, I asked around for clarification... and that's when I learned about the two jet airliners that had just been crashed into both of the towers of the World Trade Center. I couldn't believe this had happened while I was blithely getting ready for work, taking my usual shower, walking my dog (my boy Angus, at the time, R.I.P.) and driving in the oddly empty streets to the office. My supervisor told me that she was convinced there would be immediate fuel shortages at all the gas stations, and (without me asking for it), gave me permission to flee at once to fill up the gas tank in my vehicle while I still could, without having to clock out first.
I did just that...but by then, it looks like everyone else had the same idea, and there were a few gas stations that were immediately taking advantage of the tragedy and were already starting the price-gouging. It took me TWO HOURS to get through the jammed up traffic lights and suddenly busy traffic to get to a gas station, gas up my pickup, and get back to work.
We spent the rest of the day looking at the office television, or at the news websites online at our desks, as chaos ensued. I don't recall if I even got one phone call from a customer during my entire 8 hour shift that day.
Nowadays, we have feckless show-piece politicians in congress who dismiss those attacks as "some people did something" as if it was a non-event, and us Americans should just quit talking about it.
That's not going to happen.
Let me know in the comments what you were doing on September 11, 2001, if you can remember (or if you were old enough...or even born yet) what you were doing on that day. Feel free to share your stories here, and never forget the lives lost on that day, or the U.S. service members who have lost their lives overseas in the wars that followed.
I remember that day clearly. It was our day off and we slept in late. My daughter was 2 at the time and woke me up, as always I turned on the news and started breakfast. When I realized what was on tv I woke up my husband and we basically spent the day watching the news and calling family/friends. I did have 1 downstairs neighbor who's husband at the time was a cop. Her responce to the situation was "well we will be hearing about this all day now" with an eye roll. I couldn't believe her attitude. But I understood why her husband divorced her a few years later.
Thanks John for this memorial. Because I am in another country someone called me at 3am and told me what was happening but it was not a war as first told me which was a shock. It is hard to believe so much time has past. It seems like yesterday. Where I live no one said much about it, but I certainly have not forgotten. On to your next happier post and our world hopefully changing for the better.