September 11, 2001

 

Can anyone remember September 10, 2001?  Aside from this picture, I can't...can't remember one iota of what I did that day, how I felt, how the WORLD felt.

Talk to someone long enough, however, and you'll be swapping stories about where you were the very next day when you 'heard.' Right?  Over the years, especially being in this business, I've heard hundreds, if not thousands, of September 11th stories.  Today, I thought I'd share mine.

I was at my parents house in Oakdale that morning. Hadn't turned the TV on yet.  The phone rang and I heard my mother go into something of a panic:  'what?  What do you mean, Joel?  Where are you - c'mon what are you talking about?!  CNN?  Ok- ok"  It was my cousin on the other line--the first plane just hit.  He couldn't find his father, my uncle, and was hoping we had heard from him.  We hadn't.   Joel worked in 5 WTC -- my Uncle in 7.

I turned on the television just in time see the second plane crash into the building.  What the hell was going on?  Was I dreaming? Within seconds it was very clear I was not.  I sat glued to the TV, as I would for the next few days, trying to make sense of it, any of it. My father came home from church around 10 and thought my mother and I were lying when we brought him up to speed.  We showed him the TV and when the first tower collapsed he just slowly took a seat and said, "That's not for real, is it? " 

My father worked for Fuji Bank, on the 82nd floor of the south tower.  He retired in May of 2001.  The phone rang off the hook for hours.  People who he hadn't spoke with in years didn't know he was no longer working there.  He kept answering, "I really shouldn't even be talking to you right now." I can't count how many times he said that.

The 3 of us watched the day unfold on television, like most of the country.  When the Pentagon was hit, I remember literally falling to my knees in the kitchen and thinking, Oh My God, it's the end of the world!  But what I remember most is that in that time of uncertainty and questionable safety surrounding me, I couldn't have felt more secure and thankful to be standing in a room, shoulder to shoulder, with the 2 people I treasure and trust most in the world.