Posted by
Jon on Monday, September 11, 2006 1:15:56 PM
It is a cliche, now... you'll always remember where you were when <insert traumatic news event here>.
Not being one to shy away from a cliche, I just wanted to relate my experience on that memorable, tragic day... can it be five years ago, already?
It was warm and sunny in Colorado, too, as I woke up to do my "morning constitution". I have a small radio in my bathroom, and was listening to talk radio, and heard the newsies talking about a plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. As we all remember, the first reports described it as a "small plane." Since I was hearing this on the radio, my first thought was that the weather in NY must have been pretty bad. Secondly, I have a number of friends who work at our local FAA office, so I was thinking that my buddies would have a very busy day. Someone at the FAA was going to catch it, I thought.
Then I went to turn on the tube, and saw that it was a bright, sunny day in New York, too, and thought... what the <expletive>!!! Looking at the gigantic hole in the tower, I knew that this "small plane" report was bunk, immediately. And then moments later, the second plane hit, right there on Fox News, and I knew, like everyone else, that this was no accident.
I should have been getting ready for work, but I couldn't move from the TV. I had waked my wife, with "honey, you have got to see this!" I was sitting on the edge of our bed, clicking through the news channels, and I seem to remember being on ABC when the first tower came down. I think maybe it was Charlie Gibson (or perhaps Jennings had come on by then) talking over the pictures, and apparently he did not notice what was going on... he kept on with his narrative as the tower collapsed and a few moments after. He's not even watching his monitor, I thought. Then I looked at my wife, and said, "My God, thousands of people just died."
Boy, I can almost feel the waves of exhaustion rolling over me in those moments. You see, my daughter was less than a month old at that time... needless to say, my wife and I were not sleeping much in those days. I drove into work in a daze, and I couldn't help myself from looking up at the sky from time-to-time... what else is going to crash down on us?
No work got done at the office that day. We crowded into the few cubicles where some of our co-workers had portable radios. We heard the rumors of more hijackings, missing planes, a car bomb at the State Department, evacuations at the Capitol, Air Force One was a target. It was just crazy. Soon, many of us drifted into our Company's fitness center, the only room in the building with TVs. All were tuned to CNN, and no one was working out.
By noon, our managers told us to go home to our families, and I did, still spending too much of my drive looking up at the clear blue sky, instead of keeping my eyes on the road. I was so glad to be going home to my wife, my son and my new baby girl.
It hadn't quite hit me, yet, that so many people were not going home from work that day.