An older generation recalls where they were the instant they heard President Kennedy was shot. I believe for me and many others we will recall with similar clarity where we were when the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon were struck.
September 11, 2001 5:35 AM Central time
It was a morning like any other. I hit the snooze button several times before getting up. I went through my usual morning routine. Shave, shower, have a little toast, put some Diet Cokes in a cooler, grab my laptop and drive.
I lived in Janesville, Minnesota. A small town where nearly everyone drove somewhere else to work. Each day I drove about 30 miles to work in Faribault, Minnesota where I worked at RUST Consulting, a legal processing firm. You know when you see a T.V. ad ominously asking, "Do you have Mesothelioma?"or something similar - I was the guy who answered the phone, one of many at any rate.
7:05 AM Central time
I got to work and it was my first day on a new case answering the phone. The mailing for our lawsuit had just gone out and we were not expecting very many calls. It would be an easy day at work, slow but easy. I recall there was a radio on nearby and we heard that a plane hit a skyscraper in New York City (shrug, oh how awful, must have been a terrible accident) and the morning went on.
7:46 AM Central time
A short time later we hear that the Pentagon has been hit and our supervisors roll T.V. sets into the office I am sitting in and our phones begin ringing. It is the people who received the 1st mailings but they do not want to know about the legal case, the callers are mostly elderly men or their spouses and want to know, "What is going on?" They assume since it is a legal notice that we are a government office, not a private business. I keep telling them, "I don't know what is happening." CNN is on in all of our offices now. All eyes are on the TVs. We are all awestruck. A supervisor comes in and tells us to "Be reassuring, these are old people and the news is making them upset, they are calling us for comfort." It occurs to me as I watch the chaos in NYC that my sister lives and works in NYC and I tell my supervisor, "I have to make a phone call, my sister lives in New York!"
I rush to the payphone. I call my mom and dad. I am told immediately (as if reading my mind) that my sister is alright, but she nearly gave my dad a heart attack, she saw the 2nd plane hit the tower while she was on the phone with dad, she saw it from her apartment window at a distance and she screamed while talking to dad - but everything is OK, she got a phone call telling her not to come to work that day.
I go numbly back to work, glad my sister wasn't anywhere too close to the disaster but still upset at seeing the coordinated attacks occur over cable news on the TVs at work. As the phones ring hardly anyone discusses the actual case. Most of the calls I take are all about the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and rumours spread about planes heading for Los Angeles, Chicago and other possible Washington D.C. targets. We all sit there dumbstruck watching the tragedy and the pandemonium. People covered with blood and dust, people running through the streets being chased by clouds of falling dust and debris then dousing themselves in the aftermath with bottles of water.
Over the lunch hour people nervously joke about how nice it is to live in a small, Midwestern town, others give disapproving glares. Everyone is a little bit on edge. There is discussion about the fact that about a half hour away is Mankato State University which has both an aviation program and many Muslim students. The day comes to an end, the shift at the office changes and we go home.
4:01 PM Central time
The local drive home show's DJs rather than making the usual bawdy jokes about the previous nights bar escapades talk about what a dark day this has been for America and how we must all pray (Yes this was a Rock'n'Roll station!) and they play audio clips of Mayor Guiliani, former Governor Mario Cuomo and then current Governor George Pataki giving their assessments of the tragedy.
I get home and watch CNN and Fox news alternating back and forth. I feel exhausted. The next day I call in sick to work and stay home and watch the news all day long. My oldest daughter Jackie (who was 7 at the time) says, "I bet boys did this, girls would never do something like that." She was right. Boys did it, young men who had been lied to since their infancy thought they were buying themselves a 2 tickets to paradise ended up on a highway to Hell. Men who had been taught to hate America and the West, just like those below.
Palestinians (above left) and Lebanese boy (above right) celebrate September 11, 2001 attacks.
Within a couple months nearly all my coworkers (and me) were laid off indefinitely. The national economy spiraled downward into a recession but America (for a while at least) found a single voice and rallied around President Bush.
"I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you
and the people who knocked these buildings down
will hear all of us soon!"
In the following hours and days we became thankful for our allies Tony Blair of the U.K., John Howard of Australia, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of Poland, José María Aznar of Spain and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.
and we all wept to a song by an Irish singer named Enya who gave America a song that will be forever embedded in our memory:
Who can say
where the road goes
where the day flows
- only time
And who can say
if your love grows
as your heart chose
- only time
Who can say
why your heart sighs
as your love flies
- only time
And who can say
why your heart cries
when your love lies
- only time
Who can say
when the roads meet
that love might be
in your heart
And who can say
when the day sleeps
if the night keeps
all your heart
Night keeps all your heart
Who can say
if your love grows
as your heart chose
- only time
And who can say
where the road goes
where the day flows
- only time
Who knows - only time
Who knows - only time
I lived in Janesville, Minnesota. A small town where nearly everyone drove somewhere else to work. Each day I drove about 30 miles to work in Faribault, Minnesota where I worked at RUST Consulting, a legal processing firm. You know when you see a T.V. ad ominously asking, "Do you have Mesothelioma?"or something similar - I was the guy who answered the phone, one of many at any rate.
7:05 AM Central time
I got to work and it was my first day on a new case answering the phone. The mailing for our lawsuit had just gone out and we were not expecting very many calls. It would be an easy day at work, slow but easy. I recall there was a radio on nearby and we heard that a plane hit a skyscraper in New York City (shrug, oh how awful, must have been a terrible accident) and the morning went on.
7:46 AM Central time
A short time later we hear that the Pentagon has been hit and our supervisors roll T.V. sets into the office I am sitting in and our phones begin ringing. It is the people who received the 1st mailings but they do not want to know about the legal case, the callers are mostly elderly men or their spouses and want to know, "What is going on?" They assume since it is a legal notice that we are a government office, not a private business. I keep telling them, "I don't know what is happening." CNN is on in all of our offices now. All eyes are on the TVs. We are all awestruck. A supervisor comes in and tells us to "Be reassuring, these are old people and the news is making them upset, they are calling us for comfort." It occurs to me as I watch the chaos in NYC that my sister lives and works in NYC and I tell my supervisor, "I have to make a phone call, my sister lives in New York!"
I rush to the payphone. I call my mom and dad. I am told immediately (as if reading my mind) that my sister is alright, but she nearly gave my dad a heart attack, she saw the 2nd plane hit the tower while she was on the phone with dad, she saw it from her apartment window at a distance and she screamed while talking to dad - but everything is OK, she got a phone call telling her not to come to work that day.
I go numbly back to work, glad my sister wasn't anywhere too close to the disaster but still upset at seeing the coordinated attacks occur over cable news on the TVs at work. As the phones ring hardly anyone discusses the actual case. Most of the calls I take are all about the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and rumours spread about planes heading for Los Angeles, Chicago and other possible Washington D.C. targets. We all sit there dumbstruck watching the tragedy and the pandemonium. People covered with blood and dust, people running through the streets being chased by clouds of falling dust and debris then dousing themselves in the aftermath with bottles of water.
Over the lunch hour people nervously joke about how nice it is to live in a small, Midwestern town, others give disapproving glares. Everyone is a little bit on edge. There is discussion about the fact that about a half hour away is Mankato State University which has both an aviation program and many Muslim students. The day comes to an end, the shift at the office changes and we go home.
4:01 PM Central time
The local drive home show's DJs rather than making the usual bawdy jokes about the previous nights bar escapades talk about what a dark day this has been for America and how we must all pray (Yes this was a Rock'n'Roll station!) and they play audio clips of Mayor Guiliani, former Governor Mario Cuomo and then current Governor George Pataki giving their assessments of the tragedy.
I get home and watch CNN and Fox news alternating back and forth. I feel exhausted. The next day I call in sick to work and stay home and watch the news all day long. My oldest daughter Jackie (who was 7 at the time) says, "I bet boys did this, girls would never do something like that." She was right. Boys did it, young men who had been lied to since their infancy thought they were buying themselves a 2 tickets to paradise ended up on a highway to Hell. Men who had been taught to hate America and the West, just like those below.
Palestinians (above left) and Lebanese boy (above right) celebrate September 11, 2001 attacks.
Within a couple months nearly all my coworkers (and me) were laid off indefinitely. The national economy spiraled downward into a recession but America (for a while at least) found a single voice and rallied around President Bush.
"I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you
and the people who knocked these buildings down
will hear all of us soon!"
In the following hours and days we became thankful for our allies Tony Blair of the U.K., John Howard of Australia, Aleksander Kwaśniewski of Poland, José María Aznar of Spain and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.
and we all wept to a song by an Irish singer named Enya who gave America a song that will be forever embedded in our memory:
Who can say
where the road goes
where the day flows
- only time
And who can say
if your love grows
as your heart chose
- only time
Who can say
why your heart sighs
as your love flies
- only time
And who can say
why your heart cries
when your love lies
- only time
Who can say
when the roads meet
that love might be
in your heart
And who can say
when the day sleeps
if the night keeps
all your heart
Night keeps all your heart
Who can say
if your love grows
as your heart chose
- only time
And who can say
where the road goes
where the day flows
- only time
Who knows - only time
Who knows - only time
Dilecti Deo
non obliviscamur
honoratus nostris mortuus
aut hodie.
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