I have a son that is 12. Today he's been asking me what I remember about 9-11-2001. I'm surprised he remembers that day because he was only 2 1/2 years old at the time. He remembers being in day care. He remembers the teachers telling them they had to take a nap early and they had to be very quiet and still. He recalls his teacher crying and wondering what happened for her to be crying. Then he remembers all the parents coming and getting the children early. I'm amazed that he remembers this much - I really didn't think he would remember anything about that time.
Now my son is trying to figure out what happened and what each one of us remembers most about that day and the time just after that event. For me there are four distinct things about that day/time I'll never forget and I shared them with him. While I'm still musing about these things, I've decided to write them done.
The 1st thing I remember was needing to go to the grocery store, but not going because I was fixated by the TV. Normally I don't look at the TV in the morning but I had been on the phone with a friend discussing PTA stuff when she said 'Oh my God - a plane just hit the world trade center- you got to turn on the TV and see this.' With that she said she had to go and hung up the phone. I went and turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit and then the world trade centers building collapsing. Then there was rumors of the Pentegon being hit too. I didn't want to move from the TV for fear of what else may be going on in the nation, then my husband got through to me on the phone and told me to go to the store now and then get the kids!. That was all I needed to jolt me into action because up until then I was in a daze not believing what I was seeing on the news. I was surprise he could get through on the phone since all the lines were busy when I tried to use them. So I went to the store like I had planned to do so for that day. While getting out of the car in the store parking lot, I looked up at the sky and I saw at least 10 fighter jets in the air circling over head. I had never seen so many air craft like that before. The hole sky was crisscross with contrails. I knew this was something more serious than I had realize to at that point. Shreveport is right across the river from Bossier City and the home of the 8th Air Force command and Barksdale Air Force Base. I was in the store trying to get the things on my list and as much can goods as I could because I was thinking there is no telling how this thing was going to affect interstate commerce and such and it was better to have too much in the house than not enough. While I was in the store there was music being piped into the store through a local radio station. Then the radio announcer broke in with some breaking news. The President of the USA was now at Barksdale Air Force base. I instantaneously got so angry with the news media at that point. I thought that was not information that should be being broadcast throughout the world - where the President at that moment was since he was obviously a target for them. I had visions of whoever was attacking us now being focused on the area where I was living wanting to bomb the hell out of it. I did not want to be blown to bits, just because the President thought our out of the way, middle of no-where was the safest place for him to be at that time. I finished my shopping as quickly as I could and went and got my kids who just so happened to be in three different schools and locations. I got home and saw the speech President Bush gave to the nation. I recognized instantly the room where he was giving the national address. Yes, he was definitely in our area. I had been in that room not too long before at a cub scout meeting where one of the fathers, whom happened to be in the air force, showed us emergency first aid and what to do in case of an emergency. At least I knew at that location they had all the state of the art equipment there. No wonder the President went there. All I could think about was the Cub Scout Motto of "Be prepared" and they were definitely prepare for something like this. I was so relieved when we heard back from my husband that the President was gone. Air Force One flew by his office window. (That is his strongest memory of the day seeing that plane fly by with all of its military escort, and him being so relieved to have him gone too. It reminded him of when the space shuttle Columbia flew by his window - here, only this time it wasn't a planned event and no pictures were taken.)
The next thing I remember was finding out a friend of my son was working on a project at the Pentagon that day. For a couple of days we didn't know how he was and everyone was frantic with worry about him. I just remember praying a lot for him since I had seen him grow up in the church I went too and felt he was like a family member. It took awhile for the whole story to come out. But he was in a room that the plane debris hit. A couple of the people he was in the room with were killed, that were near the window, while he got out with a couple of scrapes and bruises. We were so grateful he made it out alive but just felt awful about the people that died and what their families must be going through. It really hit home when you could place a name and face to some of the victims. Also when I realized he could of also easily been one of those people and how fortunate he was.
The 3rd thing was we had some friends that were traveling by air that day. The mother had taken her kids to school and then left and was on a flight to some distant city to give a professional talk that day and was suppose to be gone overnight and then come back the next day. The father had been out of town on business too and on his way home. He was suppose to be home by the time their 2 daughters were to get out of school. He too was in the air flying when this happened. Both flights got instantly grounded. They both ended up in these strange cities that they had no intention of being in. They both had to scramble to get a rental cars so they could drive home to their children. I remember getting a call asking for help by the mom in getting one of the girls from school if they couldn't get this other parent who was suppose to carpool the one child to a after school activity. All I could think of was what a nightmare that must have been for those parents having something like this happen and not be able to get home to be with their children when they really needed them at the time. The other carpool parent got the child and her sister and kept them safe until the father was able to get home by the end of the day, but the stress of that day was something we talked about for a long time afterward. It did make us realize how important it was to always have back up emergency people around to help us out in times of crisis like this was.
The fourth and last thing was my brothers life was in turmoil over all the things he had to be changed. I'll never forget that the attacks happened on a Tuesday, because my brother was supposed to get married that Saturday (9-15) after 9-11. With all the planes grounded, and nothing getting done that week, all their plans went up in smoke and the wedding had to be postponed. They didn't want to wait any longer. They ended up deciding to go ahead and take the cruise that they had planned & paid for their honeymoon (also because they had the vacation time all scheduled too and they would have had to wait until the next year to get time off for it. The cruise was also non-refundable -even with these extraordinary events. It was scheduled for a couple of days later and they had enough time to drive to the cruise ship as was part of their original plan.). They got married by the captain of the ship in a small private ceremony. I'm happy that they got married but was upset that we couldn't be there to witness the happy event. At least they were able to have some pictures made to share with us. Things like that just can't be gotten back. Now they look back and joke about it and how it made it such a memorable wedding for them, but at the time there wasn't a lot of laughing going on with everything being turned upside down.
Days like 9-11-2001 are days you never forget. It reminded me so much of when President Kennedy got shot. I was only 8 at the time but I still can remember it to this day, and that is a whole different thing to muse upon.
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