I know within a few feet of where I was standing at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001. I'd just poured a cup of coffee and was getting ready to go into a training class.
I remember a classmate saying, "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I stood there trying to wrap my mind around that fact.
Was it a small plane?
Had the pilot had a heart attack?
When we found a television and the pictures began pouring in, I was shocked.
We continued with the class but our minds were elsewhere as each story more tragic and horrible than the last.
All I could think was, "The world will never be the same." And it hasn't been.
The thing I remember most about the following days was the silence. I live in rural Alabama, but even here, there is rarely a time when you look up that you don't see a plane overhead. They are so common, that we've suppressed the sounds and pay no more attention to them than cicadas or treefrogs.
But when that sound disappears, you can hear the silence.
Today was a beautiful day. We had rain in the afternoon, but on the way to a meeting this morning, I snapped a picture out the window of my truck.
.
I remember a classmate saying, "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I stood there trying to wrap my mind around that fact.
Was it a small plane?
Had the pilot had a heart attack?
When we found a television and the pictures began pouring in, I was shocked.
We continued with the class but our minds were elsewhere as each story more tragic and horrible than the last.
All I could think was, "The world will never be the same." And it hasn't been.
The thing I remember most about the following days was the silence. I live in rural Alabama, but even here, there is rarely a time when you look up that you don't see a plane overhead. They are so common, that we've suppressed the sounds and pay no more attention to them than cicadas or treefrogs.
But when that sound disappears, you can hear the silence.
Today was a beautiful day. We had rain in the afternoon, but on the way to a meeting this morning, I snapped a picture out the window of my truck.
I've always felt that Fall season has never been the same since that day. It was one of those events that you always remember what you were doing and where you were. I also remember the quiet of the skies. We live where we hardly ever hear or see the planes..just the white trails in the sky...but it felt weird anyway.
ReplyDeleteI remember that day well...I was in my classroom teaching...what an awful day and the days following watching the horror in news clips repeatedly. Things did change forever...most definitely!
ReplyDeleteI remember that day as if it was yesterday... a sad day that changed us all...
ReplyDeleteLovely photo of the clouds. Sept. 11th was a sad day for our nation.
ReplyDeleteWell stated friend, and the world has not been the same, re: your prophecy.
ReplyDeleteI was at my desk in Clearwater, Florida when a client called and we giggled, supposing someone was off his meds. (Believing it was a suicidal Cessna.) A little later, the 3 sole occupants of our office were officially frightened when none of our cellular phones -- each of us subscribed to different providers -- worked. Only later, learning that President Bush was nearby, did the pieces start falling in place.
ReplyDeleteA FB friend of mine who lives in NYC put it so perfectly this morning. I don't suppose Carol would mind my quoting her: "At this moment 13 years ago, I stood at the window at Two Broadway looking west and the sky grew totally dark. In some ways it never cleared again."
It was a day that changed for all of us. I called several friends who did not live in New York that I hadn't spoken to in a long time. I just had to hear their voices!!
ReplyDeleteI believe it was that day, more than any other, which took our innocence from us. Realising that even distance doesn't keep us safe has changed our national character in many ways, some more subtle than others.
ReplyDeleteThat really was a day to remember. So many innocent lives and all for nothing.
ReplyDeleteThey should pass a law stating mullahs are not allowed to force people into religion.
Otherwise nothing they say or do can be taken seriously.
I remember the busy noisy skies over our place as we are directly in the path of flying aircrafts that were diverted. They kept coming and coming as airplanes were rerouted to airports in the east. Many people took in total strangers in their home as they were stranded and many friendships was formed.
ReplyDeleteI remember a very somber day and I was numbed by what had happened. I was glued to the TV.
I hope that some day there will be an end to this madness.
JB
The silence, yes, the silence that followed. In my house, I watched the followed up in silence and with a box of tissue.
ReplyDeleteThe long road seems to echo what I feel about the past 13 years: we started and will be on a long road after 9/11.