Monday, September 11, 2006

Where Were You?

Where were you five years ago when you found out the news?

(Yes, I realize that many, many blogs are probably asking the same question, and that I did this same thing two years ago. But there have been many new readers since then, and besides--if we don't talk about it, we risk forgetting, and this is a day that need not be forgotten anytime soon.)

I'll reprint my own story from the earlier post:
I was on a break from teaching, like every Tuesday, and actually spent the time of the attacks in blissful ignorance at the Rockwall Starbucks. I had CD's on in my car instead of the radio, so I totally missed the news on both the way over and the way back. I did hear someone listening to a radio on the patio and they were talking about "the second plane," but it didn't register with me at all. (It amazed me later that nobody walked inside and told us about it.)

When I got back to the school, the flute teacher stopped me in the hallway and asked me if all my students were being pulled out of school (evidently hers were). I said, "No, why?" and she told me what had happened. I spent the rest of the day like everyone else, in shocked, depressed amazement, catching the news when I could. There I was, not even two weeks into being a homeowner, and the world suddenly felt so different. It added to the pall cast over everything when I found out that the sister of a girl I graduated from high school with was on Flight 93, the one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The whole thing felt so surreal; how could anyone hate us that much? The concept of the suicide hijacking was unprecedented as well (before that, hijackers just usually wanted to go to Cuba, and that's why airline personnel were taught to cooperate with them rather than try to subdue them).

I know there are still terrorist plots being hatched, and people capable of carrying them out...but I hope nothing like this ever happens on U.S. soil again. Or anywhere, for that matter.
Feel free to add your own experiences in the comments.

2 comments:

Eric Grubbs said...

Here's what I wrote last year. What happened to me on September 10th, 2001 was really weird considering what happened the next day:

http://themeparkexperience.blogspot.com/2005/09/four-years-later.html

James said...

I was in year 11 at school... I was almost asleep in bed on the night of the 11th here in Oz, when the radio announcer did a bit of commenting on the unfoldings of tv. I got up and went out and sat with mum and dad (this was just after the second plane went in).

I remember sitting there watching for quite a few hours and not sleeping til very late that night. The next day at school was unbelievable - it was the only topic of conversion.

The pain was felt over here for our American friends.