I was actually on the last day of vacation with my extended family on 9/11/01 as the events unfolded. We had all gathered in Branson, MO to celebrate my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary and were staying in a large condo on Table Rock Lake. We were checking out of the condo the morning of the 11th and I was flying back to Denver later in the afternoon from Springfield, IL and supposed to be in my office the next morning. As I can best recall, my brother or someone came in and told us to turn on the TV because something had happened in New York. We were watching the Today show as they were trying to figure out what had happened, and how on earth a plane could have crashed into the building, and were continuing to watch as the second plane hit - live - on the air. I remember there was a lot of confusion at first because the cameras had been focusing on the currently burning tower, so there wasn't the angle showing the plane heading in. It was more like - boom - a sudden explosion and it took a few minutes for the different footage clearly showing the plane veering towards the building to come in. At that moment it became clear that this was no accident, and the shock to the newscasters as this was all happening live was palpable. Shortly thereafter, I jumped in the shower and in the middle my Mom came in and told me that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon. I remember at this point in time wondering where the day was going to lead? Was this the beginning of something? We all set off to our respective homes - I was driving with my Mom and brother back to Springfield, IL and we were listening to the news coverage on the radio when the first tower fell. I don't think it had set in that it was gone until we saw the tv footage in the lobby of the resort as we were settling the bill. Then in the car on the way home, the second tower fell - the plane crashed in Pennsylvania all as we were listening intently on the radio.
My brother, who is in the courier business, was on the phone most of the drive home trying to assess the impact on his operations given that all aircraft had been grounded at this time and he had shipments in route. I called my office and not only was I clearly not going to be in Colorado by the next day, my boss was stuck in Chicago and desperately trying to either get a train or rent a car to make it back. At the time, we had no idea as to how long the airlines would be shut down. When we made it back to Illinois, we were at my Mom's glued to the tv watching the non-stop coverage and flipping between all the news channels.
The next day, there was this air of "what just happened?" and commercial air traffic was still grounded. My Mom went to work and I was stuck in Springfield indefinitely and a little stressed out about it because I had no more vacation time at that point and wasn't sure what the ramifications of that would be when I finally made it back. Also, I had left the dogs with a friend in Denver so I didn't have my normal companions with me. I ended up calling a local day spa and going in for a manicure and pedicure to take the edge off and get away from the tv for a while. By that evening, the main stories were now focusing on all the families wandering New York looking for their loved ones and posting flyers. Heartbreaking stories of husbands looking for wives, and children looking for their parents, all still hoping that they were just lost in the chaos and still alive.
I think I finally caught a flight out on September 14th, as I recall when they finally restarted air traffic it was complete madness because folks were still all stuck where they had originally been grounded. When I talked to the local American Airlines folks, I explained that I wasn't in a huge hurry since luckily I was marooned with family. So I waited an extra day until the backlog of people waiting to fly had calmed, I didn't want to take a seat from some poor sap stuck in a hotel in an unfamiliar location. I do remember that I wasn't remotely nervous about flying but a lot of people definitely were.
Overall, I was so thankful that I was with my family as opposed to on my own in Denver when it all happened. Even though it was stressful being marooned at the time without any idea of how long it would be before I could fly again, on that day when there was that feeling of "oh my god, what's going to happen?" there was comfort in being with the people that I love most. Had it happened a day later, it would have been a completely different experience because I would have been in my office .... well I guess because of the time difference I would actually have been watching the morning news and getting ready for work, all alone in my apartment with just my dogs to share it with. Instead, I remember sitting on the couch with my Mom watching the news and being shocked and tearful and just in disbelief of what had happened, but at least having someone to share it with.
I think it took weeks before "normalcy" returned. Even in the office, we all talked of nothing else and I remember that as each day went by, and no survivors were found, it became more heartbreaking to see the "missing" flyers and the people on camera begging for someone to contact them. At the time, I remember having the realization that this would be my generation's defining moment. Just as I recall my Mom talking about where she was when Kennedy was shot, for me it was always going to be "where were you on 9/11?"
1 comment:
Yep, that's exactly the way I remember it. It was your brother who came in and told us to turn the TV on. He saw it at the front desk when he was checking us out of the condo. It's crazy how exact our memories are with the 2nd plan hitting. I also think that it was on NBC and Matt Lauer who was reporting at the time.
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