Sunday, September 11, 2011

That September Day


10 years ago today, I was at work. I was mom with young kids, just trying to make ends meet and survive. Danny was driving a truck for the same company and had come in and asked if I had heard that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.  All I could picture was one of those small recreational air crafts. I didn't think much more about it until people started pouring out of the office, letting everyone know that another plane had hit and they thought we were being attacked.  We all piled into our bosses small office with a TV, and watched news coverage. I could not even comprehend that anyone would do that on purpose.

Work continued, and with the radio on we heard about the towers collapsing, and the Pentagon and Shanksville. I remember if felt like the world was ending, and all I wanted to do was leave and go get my babies and go home.

Danny and I spent evenings and every lunch hour watching news coverage for about 2 weeks. As a mom I wondered just what kind of world I had brought my boys into.  It was very quiet at my house, and I could feel something shifting.  Within just a few weeks there was a navel recruiter sitting in my living room and a husband re-enlisting. Danny, a veteran, comes from a strong military family, and he was pissed.

My boys were young. Jacob kind of remembers the news coverage, but Tristen was only a year old. This year at school, they watched coverage of it in class, and it has really bothered Tristen. He is, in a way, just like we were the day it happened..asking hard questions, and wanting to know exactly what terrorists are and why would they be angry at America.

I will never forget that day or the days that followed. The flags, the tears, the uniforms...  Earlier today a friend that I graduated with posted this in his reflections of that day: 
We weren't Republican or Democrat, Texan, or Californian, white or black...we were AMERICANS. How quickly we forget, and yet remember all at the same time...


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for sharing! I remember being at school and having lots of scared kids with lots of hard questions - most of which I could not adequately answer. A was about 8 months old and I remember sitting and rocking a lot in the following weeks - as much for me as for her.

Melanie said...

It has been hard to watch and listen to the news casts of late. .unbelievable almost that is has been 10 years!! I took my trip to NYC with Chandini a few years after that. .and remember the black tarps still on the buildings next to the towers. .and the huge chain fences with photos and sticky notes all over them. I am eager to stop on our Nov vacation there to see the new park and fountains, and the new building! It still blows my mind today that anyone could mastermind such a horrific act. .and the most haunting thing to me to this day, is the fact that they chose 9-1-1. .America's symbolic number for emergencies, hope, and help!! WOW!

Rhonda said...

Thanks for a thoughtful post. I remember the shock of that day, and following ones, very well.