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Our View: Where Were You That September Morning?
September 11, 2014
September 11, 2001. It’s been 13 years.
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.
(continues below photo)
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 cryDid 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 belowBut 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.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
Comments
14 Responses to “Our View: Where Were You That September Morning?”
I worked for US Airways in their support call center, and was at home sleeping because I had traded shifts and was scheduled to go in later in the day. I woke up to a phone call from a friend of my mother’s, asking if everyone was ok. I was a little perplexed, because I didn’t understand why he would call ask that. I then got up, flipped on the TV, and saw the world change before my eyes.
I went into work and it was quiet. There was almost no calls, and the few people who did call in, you could hear the sound of the news blaring in the background. Everyone was upset, scared, nervous, not sure what would happen next.
The next day, the calls were back logged in the thousands. I was pulled from customer service and placed in ticketing, processing refunds en masse.
I stayed with US Air until December, when I decided it was time I left and went back to college.
9/11 changed the course of my career, and ultimately my life. It was a day, as FDR so poignantly stated, that will “live in infamy”.
I was a newlywed married to my husband who is in the Air Force. He and I both were in shock and he was working nights. I called him from my job and made him get up and turn on the tv. A few hours later he was called into the base for an emergency briefing and was deployed not long after that. The world definitely stopped turning that day. We all feel for the fireman, policemen, families and civilians that lost their lives on that horrible day. Remember our fallen soldiers and the ones that are still fighting to this day. Thank a military service member and NEVER FORGET.
I was in 10th grade…. but I remember it like it was yesterday.. I didn’t know it at the time but that day changed my perspective, took my innocence, and forever changed the course of my life… like it did for most young Americans at the time. I just want to take this opportunity to thank our armed service men and women who are out defending the freedom that became so much more precious after that September day!
I was sitting in a classroom on the Atmore campus of Jefferson Davis Community College thinking about my sister and dad, whose birthdays are today. I’m sitting on the Brewton Campus today, but I work here now. It’s amazing how things come full circle in life.
I was at work at Central Water Works. I was extremely irritated that someone had stolen all our outdoor plants overnight. Within an hour we realized terrorists had stolen innocent lives and our feeling of freedom with security forever. What is important in life was definitely brought into perspective that day.
I was in Washington DC, just across the river from the Pentagon. After working many years at NAS Pensacola, I had taken a job with USDA in Washington a year earlier. The morning of the attack all eyes were on the TV showing the carnage in NYC. Then a report came that the Pentagon had been hit. I walked across the hall to the window in the men’s room that faced south and overlooked the Potomac and faced the Pentagon. The side of the Pentagon was on fire. I hurried back to my office and passed my boss who was frantically running for the exit. His wife worked at the Pentagon and his kids were in day care there (they were unharmed) . Then the word came that Federal agencies in Washington were closing and we all headed for the exits. Fortunately for me, USDA is located on 14th and Independence just off I-395 and we were some of the first one’s to hit the interstate. As we passed by the Pentagon, the I-395 overpass that overlooked the Pentagon was covered with people who had stopped to take pictures of the smoke and scorched building. I got a couple of cell pictures as we sped by but cell phones back then didn’t have near the picture quality that we have today. I got home fairly quickly but it took some of my neighbors hours to get home. Government offices were open the next day but needless to say we were not very productive.
10th grade computer class at Tate High School. The principal came over the intercom and told everyone to turn the TV’s on. We watched the second plane crash live. We didn’t do much school work the rest of the day.
I was listening to the radio on my way to work when I heard a “small” plane hit one of the towers. When we came out of our weekly meeting someone told us another plane hit the other tower. Since this dear lady was old and hard of hearing I knew she was mistaken. I gave it no thought, it was too unbelievable. Then our phones started ringing and to my horror it was true. I was so scared and knew immediately that America was under attack. We set up a TV and began watching the nightmare unfold. It’s still almost too unbelievable to believe. But, I could see and hear what was happening to our fellow Americans. Every year I have the same emotions I had the day it happened.
As this day starts ALL Americans need to stop and remember those incident lives that were taken from us in a needless act of unprovoked violence. These people did nothing more than go about their daily lives. ALL expecting to return to their families that evening for dinner, but that was not to be. As the world changed for the families who lost a love one that morning, the whole world changed for ALL Americans. We must live our lives in the anticipation that something more will follow, that there is someone out there more evil than the man that thought how to move thousands from the world in the blink of an eye. We are Americans! Life goes on! We must live our lives a little more on the alert. Yet we must live our lives.
In doing so I’d like to wish my twin grandsons HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY, Wyatt and Noah Spence! Have a great Ninja Turtle day
I was at work. I remember my boss turning on her small television and we watched in unbelief as it happened. At first I thought it was an accident when the first plane hit. Then when the second onr hit the other tower I knew it was something bad. I wanted to be with my family. All I could do was pray.
I was working and one of my coworkers mentioned a small plane has crashed in to one of the twin towers. Being an airplane guy I got really curious as to how in the world that could happen. When I got to a TV and saw the first tower on fire all I could think of was that it wasn’t a small plane to do that much damage. I remember blinking my eyes and that’s when the second plane came in to view bearing down on the second tower. I’ve since been deployed to the desert and other places in the world under the guise of protecting our freedoms. Our lives changed forever that day and hearing TAPS played daily along with the national anthem brings tears to my eyes and I proudly stand at attention with my hand on my heart to respect those who paid that day with their lives and all those who have paid the price since in the attempt to preserve our peace and way of life here in what once was the greatest country on earth. God knows we need to get that country back soon. God bless those souls who have given it all, and protect those who are still with us. Give our leaders the strength to make decisions that would make us all stronger and provide us the peace and freedoms that our forefathers gave their lives for.
I was on NAS Pensacola. Watched it all happen live on a big screen in a briefing room on base. Wasn’t long after that I found myself in Afghanistan.
I was on Lake Arbuckle Crappie fishing. This is a lake near Avon Park Fl. We came in to the Dock and a Guard at the Bombing Range told ud we were under attack.
It’s eerie that you mentioned PBS playing children’s shows. I was newly married, had just moved into a new home, and was coming home from working the night shift at Tom Thumb. I wanted to get a nap in before I had to drop the girls off at Granny’s and hubby went to work, and I went to school. Not an hour later, my great grandma called from St. Louis and said, “They’re bombing us!” Since she was 90 years old (and later lived to be 104) I gently reassured her and ended the call. This happened to be the day a cable tech was scheduled to install cable in our house. He showed up about a half hour later, hurrying, and babbling like crazy about what he had heard on the radio. Planes were crashing into the Twin Towers! Other planes were missing! Are we at war? I think I got the fastest cable install of all time that day. We got picture on the screen, only to flip to every channel and see the same video over and over. The first plane hitting the tower. They must have shown that for hours. The cable tech was just as transfixed as we were. He stayed for lunch. This wasn’t a normal day. We sat in that house with the stranger from Cox cable as the towers fell. When we couldn’t take any more of it, we also found comfort in PBS. The girls were both under age 3 at the time and had no idea that the world had just stopped. Sesame Street looked the same to them.