Friday, September 10, 2010

HOW DO I REMEMBER 9/11

I remember 9/11 because I was off that day.    It was a cool, crisp and bright sunny day.    I met my husband at the local family restaurant for breakfast.  We always take two cars because he like to sit, relax, drink coffee, and read the morning paper and I am ready to go after I eat.
Breakfast was finished when one of the regular, who was a detective, got a page.  After his call was finished he said “A Plane has just hit the World Trade Center…”
After a bout of disbelief, I wondered if it was an accident and then my thoughts turned to terrorism.  Honestly my prime suspect was Osama bin Laden.   I had read about him  years before 2001  
After breakfast I went home to watch the television and viewed it with disbelief. The whole world seemed to have gone mad.    I had a hair appointment that morning at 10 and another client came in and announced that the Pentagon had been hit and a plane was hijacked.
Back home and more news about an airplane crash not too far from Pittsburgh in SHANKSVILLE PA  The rumors were crazy, was it a crash, was it terrorism.  
The truth be told, by that time the passengers had heard of the strikes.   I know if that would have happened to me and I knew we were a flying bomb to hit Washington DC, I too, would have tried to thwart the efforts.   When you realize that the flight is doomed and you will not survive I would have done what I could to prevent that from happening.
The rest of the evening and into the night the scenes were horrific.   I even woke up in the early morning and turned on the television, perchance, that I had dreamed the whole thing.
Our daughter was in Cleveland in college.    My thoughts were of her safety.   Phone lines were jammed, but she was safe in the dorm and the classes were canceled.   My thought was to leave at a moments notice to go to Ohio to get her.    She said that the weirdest thing was that the college town was in the flight path of Hopkins Airport and with the suspension of air traffic, the silence was deafening.

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