It was 25 years ago that four hijacked planes attacked the US. Two of them slammed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers, causing their collapse. A third crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane was delayed long enough for the passengers to learn what was going on, and they attacked the hijackers and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll was 2,977 people. I won't ever forget that day.
I worked the afternoon shift back then. In the morning, I went down to the DMV to renew my driver's license. The clerk asked about my daughters, ages three and four, and suggested I bring them in to get a "bicycle license." I'd never heard of such a thing, but said I would do that. They and my husband were up when I got home, so we all went back downtown. As we were headed out the door, a friend called and said to turn on the TV. We didn't, but turned on the car radio. The morning DJ at my station was talking about "some idiot" who had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. He obviously was under the impression then that it was a small plane, which had happened before. But when we got to the DMV, everyone was huddled around a TV set, and it became clear this was something much bigger. Still, the clerk took my kids' pictures and made bicycle licenses, which have no information beyond their pictures, but are laminated and important-looking.
I worked the afternoon shift back then. In the morning, I went down to the DMV to renew my driver's license. The clerk asked about my daughters, ages three and four, and suggested I bring them in to get a "bicycle license." I'd never heard of such a thing, but said I would do that. They and my husband were up when I got home, so we all went back downtown. As we were headed out the door, a friend called and said to turn on the TV. We didn't, but turned on the car radio. The morning DJ at my station was talking about "some idiot" who had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. He obviously was under the impression then that it was a small plane, which had happened before. But when we got to the DMV, everyone was huddled around a TV set, and it became clear this was something much bigger. Still, the clerk took my kids' pictures and made bicycle licenses, which have no information beyond their pictures, but are laminated and important-looking.
On the back, she jotted down the date before laminating them.
Back home, we were glued to the TV, and I cried. I know now that for my daughters, it was like the day President Kennedy was shot when I was five years old. They knew it was important and awful, but didn't understand much more than that. We saw the second crash and when the buildings collapsed. Yeah, I should have sent to kids out of the room, but I couldn't anticipate when another tragedy would be shown live, and they didn't want to be alone anyway.
When I got to work, we were in emergency mode. No music, no ads, just the live network news feed, for about a week afterward. A few days in, the office informed me that we had to make up all the ads we missed, so I would run 15 minutes of ads and 15 minutes of news until we caught up. No matter- by then, no one was listening anyway. The station owner bought the biggest American flag I'd ever seen (outside of the Smithsonian) and hung it over the front of the two-story building. For months afterward, we couldn't even check the weather outside the studio window. And they hung it wrong, with the blue field on the upper right. I mentioned it, but they said it was too much trouble to change it.
What are your personal memories of that awful day 25 years ago?
When I got to work, we were in emergency mode. No music, no ads, just the live network news feed, for about a week afterward. A few days in, the office informed me that we had to make up all the ads we missed, so I would run 15 minutes of ads and 15 minutes of news until we caught up. No matter- by then, no one was listening anyway. The station owner bought the biggest American flag I'd ever seen (outside of the Smithsonian) and hung it over the front of the two-story building. For months afterward, we couldn't even check the weather outside the studio window. And they hung it wrong, with the blue field on the upper right. I mentioned it, but they said it was too much trouble to change it.
What are your personal memories of that awful day 25 years ago?
3 comments:
A catalyst that ended up robbing Americans of their freedom, as was intended by the perpetrators.
At the time I lived in Arlington, less than 5 miles from the Pentagon. And I slept through the entire series of attacks. I was severely jet lagged after returning from Europe. My mother was frantic because she kept calling to check on me (from a time zone away) and since I didn't hear the phone ringing she thought the worst.
I live north of your border; I heard about the first plane as I was leaving a dentist appt. I remember it was a blue sky day, and how happy I was that my appt was over. I walked the 10 minutes back to my office where I was greeted by the sight of my colleagues surrounding a small TV we used to play the daily House sessions. On all our faces, gaping mouths and disbelief, none more than my boss who had, just the month before, visited the twin towers with his two sons.
As the news continued throughout the day, we never lost that sense of disbelief. No one did work that day, and driving home was nothing short of surreal. It was as if everything had changed, yet everything looked the same.
I was proud of our fellow countrymen who temporarily took in your refugees and comforted them as best we could. Although we are experiencing bumps in the political road nowadays, your friends are still here, and waiting for you.
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