i was on my way to class when i heard the, `we interrupt this broadcast` on the radio announcing it the first time. i was comepletely confused. when i got to school, no one had head about it yet, so i was trying to explain it but they were confused too. my professor tried to have class but ended up cancelling it. i remeber, they pulled out tvs at heartland, and all us students just stood there and watched it. we were glued to it...we just kept watching it and i remember watching the buildings colapse...hardly believing it was true. i remember hearing that the pentagon had been hit, that another plane had gone down, and that they were sending dick cheney into hiding, and wondering when all the madness was going to stop.
i remember going home and laying on the bed listening to the radio with my mom (we didn't have tv). we layed there quietly, and then i just said, this is the beginning of another war. she didn't say anything but just squeezed my hand. later than afternoon, we drove to gibson city where matt and rebekah lived to be with bek 'cause she was wanting someone to be with her.
i remember a few people calling me that night wanting to know what i thought was going to happen and the political side of it, but feeling scared because i didn't know but afraid of what i thought it could mean for our country.
that evening, there was a girl's apartment that had people over to pray, but i remember sitting in my car outside the apartment listening to president bush's speech and being very proud of him that evening.
the next day, i just wanted to go somewhere and pray. i drove out to our church hoping it was open, but it wasn't, so i drove to st. patrick's (random, i know) where there were hundreds and hundres of people. people were outside on the sidewalk 'cause not everyone couldn't fit in. it was very solem. the priest was saying his thing and the people were repeating something and crossing themselves. i just hid in the crowd and listened.
i remember the night that they declared war. i remember knowing that there was a time limit set that if iraq didn't agree to letting us come in and search for the weapons that we'd go to war...i can't remember the time, but i think it was a wednesday night because i know i was supposed to be at church for something, but i sat in the courtyard marriot's (on fort jessie road) parking lot and watched the digital clock in my car tick to the hour. i remember when it ticket the last minute of the deadline, i just starred at it and it seemed like an eternity.
i remember my mom saying things like she rememberd where she was when she heard that neil armstrong walked on the moon and different other life events and i wondered how she could remember it all like it was yesterday...but those moments are forever etched in us. i'm always amazed how everyone remembers exsactly where they were that horrific day.
where were you?
8 comments:
I was in Walgreens on my way home from Heartland. Everyone was acting kind of weird when I came in and there was a tv going too. I raced home to tell my mother, who (surprise surprise) had already heard about it on the radio...she was always so informed. I always wonder if something big will happen and I will have missed it because I was listening to Shania Twain...
-Heidi
I was on my way to a job interview with Herb and Georgia S.'s company. No big surprise that the Gibson City radio station wasn't playing anything besides corny music that sends the message that the world is a happy place. So, it wasn't until I got to my job interview that I found out that something was wrong. I just remember walking in and Georgia saying, "it sounds like a plane just hit the world trade center." At that point we weren't sure if it was just a fluke accident. Herb was looking every where for "bunny ears" (I couldn't figure out WHY anyone needed bunny ears at a time like this) Come to find out "bunny ears" are antennas for a TV. So, once he found them, we sat and watched the news. The second plane had hit by that point and we were just watching in horror as the buildings were billowing in smoke and flames. I remember saying, "I bet Osama Ben Laden has something to do with this." I had never even heard of the man until that moment.
I remember when the towers crashed to the ground I began crying. I couldn't believe it was happening. I drove home numb. When I got home I called my Mom and she and Tami came over that afternoon. We sat and listenned to the radio at my house. It felt very much like a death.
I remember at one point, Air Force One flew over little Gibson City that day. I remember just praying that President Bush would be safe and that God would give him the wisdom for the next step.
I was proud of the way America pulled together the few months after that happened. It's sad that it so quickly became divided again. But I guess that is what happens when unity is based on a tragedy...when the raw shock wears off, the unity tends to do the same.
Thanks for posting this Tam. I was wanting to post something about it on my blog but I didn't get a chance. I did think about it a lot yesterday though. I don't ever want to forget what that day was like.
I was teaching 1st grade at Peoria Christian School. I didn't hear about what had happened though until lunch break in the teacher's lounge. I am a visual person, so I really didn't fully understand the extent of it until I went home and watched it on tv.
Yes, I remember this like I remember exactly where I was and how I heard that President Kennedy had been shot ~ and that was 45 years ago. The big, traumatic, culture-changing (as well as the life-changing) events seem to burn themselves into our memory in detail.
I was at home with Elliot. He had just gone downstairs and turned on the computer to check the stock market. Right away he could tell that something was wrong because he couldn't get the stock market info. He called our broker to find out what was going on with the stock market or at least the access to it and was told that "New York City is under attack!" I will always remember those words. We didn't know what it meant right then, but it was a chilling pronouncement.
I was in 6th grade when President Kennedy was shot. We had just come in from recess and as soon as the class was assembled, our teacher told us that the president had been shot. I remember that it was obvious that our teacher was very upset and even though I didn't quite get the seriousness of it, I knew it was bad and that it was bad for our country. That night, I was invited to a slumber party for one of my friends' birthday party and I remember that we were all bummed because there was nothing on TV, on any channel, except stuff about the President being shot and we really weren't that interested in it!
I saw a good documentary called "The Cross and The Towers" about the events in NYC and particularly the rescue efforts. It was something to see how most of the men in the film, that had been involved in the rescue or support effort, still had obvious emotion and difficulty talking about it years later.
Only seeing it on TV, as most of us did, I'm sure doesn't begin to compare to what those experienced and saw who were right there in the middle of the horror.
I was teaching first grade and went home at lunch to see the TV and call my dad.
I remember I went to school and we all sat and watched the news all day. They let us out of school at noon. I was all excited about leaving school and got sick of watching the TV coverage. I remember spending the afternoon playing golf.
However I do remember looking up at like 2:00 PM, and seeing a jet fly over and it had to be Air Force One, because all commercial flights were grounded.
I was dressing. Erik was in the kitchen and a neighbor called and told him to turn on the TV. He hollored for me to come out to the family room. I ran out and saw the second plane fly into the second tower. The horror of the story kept me totally glued to the TV for about a week. In the days that followed, I experienced anxiety and fear as I have never before felt. I was actually scared to leave the house for about a week. I could not get over the sick feeling of fearing they would engage the draft again, and call my two sons to war. I could not get past the mental image of seeing my precious Kory and Morgan in military garb, over in the Middle East, out fighting for our country and being scared to death of those terrists. It was through this time that God showed me the strength of my husband. Erik responded to this whole affair so differently than I. Where I was scared, he was emotionally controlled. Where I struggled with totall anxiety, he would not allow himself to go there, and kept telling me that since there was nothing we could do about it anyway - there was no reason to waste so much emotional energy worrying over it. God used this time in our lives to cause me to see one more huge reason for being so thankful for my husband. Ever since that fateful day, my respect for Erik has only grown, I have realized so much more and so often since than how God uses him to "ground" me, and my gratefulness for Erik continues to grow with each passing year. God be praised for using such a terrible time - to reveal His goodness - even to me, in such a personal way.
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