I remember vividly where I was on this day nine years ago. I don't remember what I was doing before the second tower was hit at 9:03 AM. I don't remember a great deal about what I did after, but I remember where I was.
I was in twelfth grade. School had only just begun. I was seventeen years old. When the first plane hit I was probably flirting with a boy in the halls of my high school. When the second plane hit I was in Mrs. Hewes Theatre Arts X class (or some such imaginary number she made up so those of us who took a million theatre arts courses could continue enrolling and learning from her) . This was a course that was usually rowdy and loud. We were obnoxious until we got started. But when I walked in that day I remember how quiet it was.
We sat in a circle so we could see each other. The circle wasn't there. The entire class was gathered in ugly plastic chairs staring in silence at the television on the right-hand side of the large classroom. I pulled up an empty chair. "What's going on?" I whispered.
Zane shook his green-haired head. "No one knows. Just watch." He whispered back. And then the second plane flew into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. It just flew right into the side of the building. No one said anything. We knew we were watching a tragedy unfold, watching our own tragedy unfold.
I remember the shock and the sadness that filled the room. I remember the reporters ducking instinctively as the south tower fell. This huge skyskraper tumbled to the ground like so much dust in a matter of seconds. And that's when we reached out to one another. We were crying and holding hands. People were dying and we knew it. So we sat and we cried and we held hands and we grieved for those people and for ourselves and for our country. And nothing was ever the same again.
Where were you?
I remember were I was... At Dixie Glass working, I was at my desk when a fellow co-worker comes rushing in telling me to come up stairs and watch what is on TV... I thought it was odd, cuz he was being very nice with this sad but shocked look in his eyes. When normally he was a major smartass and gruff. He also hands me the phone telling me to call Banks... So Here I go rushing up the twisty stair case, holding my belly that my sweet baby boy Charlton was in...Thinking to my self what in the world is going on... No one was speaking when I got into the upstrairs office... We all huddled around the small TV... while my fingers dailed the numbers to wake up Banks...He worked the odd hours at the airport. When Banks answers the phone I told him to turn on the TV. Of course he was grumpy and was asking me why was I telling him to turn on the Tv to watch a movie... Just as he turned it on the second building was hit. I was balling on the phone, that is when he realized that it was not a movie..It was REAL LIFE...Live watching it as it happend! Banks came to see me at work just a few hours later, we went and ate at Wendy's.. our small little world changed that day....
ReplyDeleteA few months before I was prego we were with some friends talking about how great it would be to move to NY live in Greinchvillage, we even looked at apt. and jobs, We talked of working in those buildings that fell that day. Then one day a girlfriend of one of our bestfriends came to us and said, "I had a dream and I know you both dont know me well, but please dont move to NY both of you will die in one of those buildings..something bad is going to happen there"
Needless to say we didnt go to NY and Banks got laid off, and all I could think about what is to become of my baby.
That is just part of my 9/11 Story.
Thanks for sharing Bettina. Great story--and I'm glad everyone was ok.
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