…seven years ago today?
Most Americans, and many others from around the globe, can tell you where they were and what they were doing the morning of September 11, 2001.
About 3000 people can’t. They are no longer with us.
That day, our family was in between homes, living in an extended stay hotel in Tulsa. I was driving to the laundromat when I first heard on the news that the first tower had been hit, and shortly after I turned on the radio…the second tower was hit. I watched on the laundromat televisions as the towers burned, then the Pentagon was hit, then Flight 93 fell to the ground…and the first tower.
I watched the second tower fall with my family in the hotel room. We watched all day, stopping only to eat what little we could get down. The horrific images played over and over; we wanted to shove it away, but we couldn’t stop watching. For days.
It was the most surreal week I’ve lived through…having no permanent address feels uncertain enough, but then to have the worst terrorist attack in history occur, and no “safe place” to call “home”…very unnerving. We were staying directly under a flight path to the airport, and we couldn’t help noting how quiet the skies were–all planes grounded for a week. It was like everything changed suddenly, and nothing was familiar.
As the years have passed, people still remember the facts, and the event; but it seems, sadly, that more and more people have forgotten what we felt on that day. We must never forget. Not just the history, but the way it felt when our world changed.
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
View all posts by Wayward Son →
I was sipping coffee and munching on a bagel at our local Einstein Bros that morning.. watching the towers fall was so traumatizing.. emblazened into all of our memories.
My family was in the middle of having several thousand dollars’ worth of plumbing work done under our house. Our water was left disconnected the night of the 10th as part of the job. My wife spent the night at the house with the dogs and cats and I was at a hotel with my sons. I dropped the kids off at preschool and then drove to work. I was listening to the radio, this independent station that was a really loose operation. As I parked my car at work, they cut in for news and the newscaster announced the attacks, but didn’t have any real details, and given that it was this particular station I wasn’t sure it was real. So I went in and looked it up on the Internet and learned that it was, indeed, all too real. The day at work was surreal as we all sat around dumbfounded, watching feeds on the Net. No work got done. My wife, meanwhile, was at home with the plumbers, one of whom was a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress issues and was falling apart in our living room as he watched the news. She called me in tears not knowing where to turn, unsure what to do.
It took us a couple weeks to get back to full effectiveness at work, but the attacks triggered a serious downslide in my industry that led to me being laid off a few months later when my company could no longer afford me. Meanwhile, my ex-military wife badly wanted to reenlist to go fight terrorism and was torn over that for several weeks because of how doing that would affect our family.
I am very disappointed that seven years later we have returned with a vengeance to the same superficial nonsense that seemed so pointless and silly in the months after the attacks.
It was evening we were watching Telly – I did some channnel surfing and saw the smoke. I was thinking there was no Bruce Willis movie advertised I hoped to another channel and saw the same scene then said – O my God.
I was at work. The company I was working for at the time had a very small office. There were only 4 of us.
A co-workers wife called to tell him what had happened. As he relayed the news to us we all just looked at each other in disbelief. One of us got on the web and sure enough, there it was. We just sat there looking at each other all day. As jimgrey said, no work was done that day.
I think it was the news of the second tower getting hit, all 4 of us just began to cry. It was terrible. Like most others I’ll never forget that day as long as I live.
It’s amazing that in just a matter of months after the shocking day, the people of our nation began turning back to business as usual.
Since that time there has been this nagging question on the forefront of my mind. Here’s the question: What will it take for God to get the attention of the people of this nation? As if that weren’t horrible enough.
Blessings,
Gary
I came from work, heard that something was wrong on the radio, rushed home to put on the TV. I saw the second plane hit, the collapse of the buildings. It was surreal. Don’t think I will forget it, ever.
Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories from that day. Very meaningful. As hard as it might be to go back and look again…we must remember…