For many of us all we need to do is close our eyes and we can still picture the soot-coated faces of firemen and police officers rushing into a burning mass that used to New York City’s Twin Towers. It was a day that changed our nation forever and though my personal recollections are clouded by the fog of childhood, I still remember that moment I went downstairs and my dad told me to turn on the TV, “There’s history happening right now, kiddo.”
As part of the upcoming tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks we’re putting together an extensive Sunday feature to run on Sept. 11 and we’re looking for reader input. In an email or a comment on the blog, please let us know where you where, what your initial thoughts were and what you remember most about the day, as well as your name and city.
Loading ...
I was heading down to the Union Square Cafe to have some coffee. I parked in front of the Esquire Barber shop and noticed about six or seven guys watching the TV and no hair being cut. I knew there was a TV in the cafe so I walked in and say the first tower smoking. I remember making a comment that a DC3 had struck the Empire State building many many years ago but it was in bad weather.
When the second tower was hit I turned to the guy next to me and said we are under attack.
I also remember the following day, Wednesday I was walking to my car to go to lunch and they tested the storm sirens as they always do Wednesday at noon. There was a little old lady driving by and she almost had a heart attack. She stopped and got out of her car and started looking at the sky for airplanes. It probably wasn’t the best day to test the sirens.
I was in nursing school, and can vividly remember not only hearing the words Bin Laden immediately, but also a classmate running in to let us know that they hit the Pentagon. My daughter and son in law were both active duty and I cried in the bathroom for their little girl knowing that her daddy would be going to war soon.
I was transporting a prisoner to the Community Correction Center in Texarkana. Just when we were driving through the prettiest part of that drive from El Dorado, just past the Red River through those beautiful fields, I heard the news on the radio. Before I got to Texarkana the second plane had hit. Just as I was leaving the CCC the reports came in about the Pentagon. I didn’t own a cell phone at the time so I stopped at the EZ Mart just outside Texarkana on Hwy 82 and called my wife collect and woke her up to let her know what was going on. In a little over an hour our world as we knew it was changed forever. That was the longest drive home I had ever made.
I didn’t want to go to work when I got back, but a special assignment was waiting on me for a security detail at a local bank that was concerned about their security. For the next five hours I sat in the bank with the tellers and we all watched the news together. By the time I got off, the gas stations in El Dorado had already raised their prices considerably and all had lines out into the street. A sad day to be an American, but as it turned out, also a proud day to be an American. It was immediately apparent that this attack had not torn our Nation apart as intended, but it had brought us together like nothing I have ever seen in my lifetime. People prayed. People sang. People displayed the American Flag proudly. People were proud of our country, our first responders, our military, and all those who were feverishly digging through a massive pile in New York searching for any survivors.
As we come upon the ten year anniversary of this infamous attack, I wish this Nation would once again come together, without bellyaching, griping, complaining, racial divides, and politics like immediately after these attacks. Let us all remember we are all created equal. Won’t you join me again to stand up and be proud to be an American?
Thank you all for your comments, they were touching and an interesting look into where we were before as compared to where we are now. If you’d like your comments to appear in our Sunday feature, please either comment of email me (agatlin@eldoradonews.com) your real name and city. Thanks!
I had just flown from Dallas to Atlanta the day before for business. Came down to the hotel lobby that morning and noticed a bunch of people standing around a big-screen TV with their backs to me. There had been heavy rumors that Michael Jordan was coming back to the NBA, so I thought that it was his official “I’m back” announcement, until one of the people turned away from the TV and I noticed they were crying.
Needless to say, we didn’t get any business done that week. Wound up having to keep our rental car and drive back to Dallas from Atlanta. Living in Dallas at the time, we were quite near the airport, and we were quite used to the sound of airplanes on approach and taking off. It was very quiet that week.