Blog: Where Were You That September Morning?

September 11, 2008

September 11, 2001. It’s been seven years today. We’ll all ask each other today, “where were you”. So here’s my story.

Life, at least when that morning began, seemed good. I’ve always been a work at home dad, so I was home with my two girls. The youngest was almost four months old, and the oldest was approaching her fourth birthday. It was a normal morning. The little one was asleep, “fat and happy” as we used to say, after a morning bottle. The oldest was in the living room just a few feet from my office watching PBS Kids on the TV as I worked on a project for a client.

Then this arrived in my inbox:

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 08:52am

– World trade center damaged; unconfirmed reports say a plane has
crashed into tower. Details to come.

I got up, walked to the living room and flipped the TV to CNN. They were talking about how a pilot could make such an error, hitting such a large building. They were speculating that it was just a small plane. But then as the TV news helicopters zoomed their cameras in closer, the anchors were beginning to notice what I had already thought….those holes the tower were to big to have been a small plane.

I called my wife at work in Atmore. She had seen the breaking news email, and had tried to visit the CNN website to see the story. If you remember trying to use the internet that morning, it was near impossible to get a news website to load; they were all overloaded. She was unable to see the pictures. I was describing what I saw on the TV to her.

I managed to grab a picture from CNN via my web server and then download and email it to her. We were speculating about how it could happen when the second one hit.

I remember saying “wait, hold on, wait…”. I told her what I just watched on the TV. The second plane had hit the other tower. We quickly decided that we were at war as the anchors on TV speculated again that perhaps there was a problem with some navigational system, causing jetliners on a beautiful, clear morning in New York to fly into some of the tallest structures in the world.

Another breaking news email arrived:

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:21am

– Second plane crashes into World Trade Center.

She and I began to speculate ourselves that we were at war. What would we do? What should we do? What about the kids? It was not panic, understand, but just that protective momma and daddy instinct, I suppose. Prayer. That was a good idea. Maybe go to the bank and get out a little cash. That seemed like a good idea. How would you prep for a war on American soil? We were not sure.

I continued to relay information about what I was seeing on TV to my wife at work, who, in turn, would relay the information to her coworkers. They had a TV, but no cable service or antenna. They ended up fashioning a homemade antenna to see a fuzzy picture.

Meanwhile, the breaking news emails kept arriving…

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:32am

– Sources tell CNN one of two planes that crashed into World Trade
Center was an American Airlines 767.

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:42am

– President Bush calls plane crashes at World Trade Center a
terrorist act.

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:45am

– Significant fire at the Pentagon. Details to come.

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:46am

– White House evactuated. Details to come.

The Pentagon on fire? The White House evacuated? Notice that in CNN’s email they were in such a hurry that they misspelled “evacuated”. One sentence at a time, the situation became more grave.

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:55am

– CNN confirms a plane hit the Pentagon

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:03am

– One of World Trade Center towers collapses; fire forces
evacuation of State Department

Subject: CNN Breaking News
From: BreakingNews@CNN.COM
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:30am

– Second World Trade Center tower collapses in Manhattan

Over and over, we watched those towers collapse on TV, and we watched our Pentagon burn.

Our almost four year old asked a lot of questions. “Were people hurt? Did they need a Band-aid?” The magnitude of the event was lost on a four year old. Looking back at those first few hours, I think the magnitude of the event was lost on all of us.

Like many Americans, I sat glued to the TV that day, continuing to watch the video of the towers falling. Our almost four year old asked if another building fell down or if it was the same one. It was time to change the channel on the TV.

You might remember that many of the entertainment TV stations ran network news feeds. Others just simply ran screens about the day’s events. There was no USA network, no ESPN, no MTV. But on PBS, we found children’s programming at a time it was not normally on. For a little while, sitting in the living room floor holding my kids, the world stopped turning that September day, as we watched Big Bird and the Cookie Monster.

Country artist Alan Jackson later wrote a song “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?”.

Some of those lyrics:

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Out in the yard with your wife and children
Working on some stage in LA
Did you stand there in shock at the site of
That black smoke rising against that blue sky
Did you shout out in anger
In fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry

Did you weep for the children
Who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don’t know
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below

But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love

Where where you when the world stopped turning that September day? Your comments are welcome below.

Comments

10 Responses to “Blog: Where Were You That September Morning?”

  1. teacher on October 18th, 2008 2:14 pm

    I was teaching my class when a fellow teacher came to my room and told me “a plane just hit one of the towers of the world trade center, turn on your tv.” I turned on my tv to witness the 2nd plane. I prayed because I knew this was not an accident we now were under attack. God Bless America.

  2. Gayle on September 15th, 2008 8:45 am

    I was at Gulf Power in Century before it closed down we did pay our light bill there at one time……talking to Evelyn…. and saw the news on her T.V. with chills running down my spin and Evelyn was crying i will never forget this .

  3. Tina Hartman on September 11th, 2008 5:18 pm

    I’m Active duty Air Force and we were working 14 hour shifts playing war. We actually started the night before at about 10pm and were waiting for our replacements to come and we were told the exercise was over. A bus came to pick us up and took ud back to our squadron where we were briefed what was happening. The base was on lock down so we were not allowd to leave. I was awake for about 48 hours before we were actually allowd to go home.

  4. Kim on September 11th, 2008 4:12 pm

    I was at home babysitting watching Good Morning America when they broke in telling about what had happened. At that time they were confused as to what was happening. I just sat there in shock watching the television . My husband was working the night shift and had just went to bed . When I realized what was happening I walked to the bedroom and woke him up to tell him the shocking news. I remember being afraid, part of me wanted to go to the school and get my children and bring them home with me . The secure feeling I’d always had was all of a sudden gone!! I’ll never forget that day!!!!!!

  5. tracy on September 11th, 2008 2:38 pm

    I hadn’t turned the TV on that morning. I had to go to Movie Gallery to return movies. On the way I was listening to the radio when I heard the report of the crashes. When I got to the store I asked the clerk what she had heard. She stated the same thing that I had heard. I thought maybe it was a small plane that had hit the Trade Centers. When I got home I turned on the TV and seen the tragedy. What a shock it was to witness this event. I didn’t turn the TV off for about 2-3 days.

    God Bless the families that were affected by this tragedy. God Bless Our Troops.

  6. Elizabeth on September 11th, 2008 11:45 am

    I was working at Whitney bank when it was open in Century. One of my co-workers had gotten to work just before me. As soon as she turned off the alarm and we all came in, she said, “Did y’all hear about the airplane hitting the World Trade Center?” I looked at her like she was nuts and I asked her with a giggle, “What? Did the pilot not see that gigantic building or something? How do you hit something as big as that?” Soon we heard about the second plane and another co-worker went and got a little 13″ TV and we watched the rest of the day unfold. It was so somber that day. People came in not saying much. They’d watch the reports on TV with us for a few minutes and just shake their heads.

    Remember how we all banded together in the months following?

  7. Mark on September 11th, 2008 9:05 am

    I was still living just north of memphis ,TN. I had just finished working the night shift at Coors brewing company running the warehouse. I droped a friend amy off at her house and went to mine. She called me as I walked in my door to tell me about the first plane. As we talked on the phone watching everything on tv the second plane hit. She asked to come over and we spent the day watching tv wondering what was going to happen next. Was good to have a good friend around at that time.

  8. Misty on September 11th, 2008 8:59 am

    I was in my 9th grade BST class at West Florida High School. Our teacher turned on the television and we just sat there watching the reports, dumfounded.

  9. Jennifer on September 11th, 2008 8:26 am

    I was in my Senior year in high school. The class I was in was Spanish. The tv’s came on and showed what was going on. It was a very sad day at school that day and I will never forget it. God bless all the families that 9/11 has affected.

  10. AL on September 11th, 2008 5:13 am

    I had worked the overnight shift at a local ER, and was at a traffic light on 9 mile Rd when the radio announced a “small private plane” had crashed into the WTC and there was smoke coming from the building. Music played uninterrupted until I got home. I had no TV or computer, so I went on to bed. When I woke up just a couple of hours later and went to my mom’s house, she was staring in shock as the first tower collapsed… she said “The whole world has gone crazy…. planes are just falling out of the sky”

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Archive