I was at work — we were having our annual safety training. Everyone was being sort of goofy, when the president of the company (it was also his birthday) and one of the program directors came in with the news. We finished the inservice — I remember that I was quite distracted and wondering what the heck was coming next. My supervisor kept giving me things to do, so I couldn’t actually get any real information until I went home for lunch. I was also in the process of getting all the paperwork completed to get my truck — and I remember wondering if it was even worth it. I was glued to the TV for quite some time after that, and whenever in the car, the radio was on public radio or a news channel.

In October 2002 I visited the site near Shanksville, PA. where one of the planes crashed. The place is a memorial and it has quite an impact if you visit there. It all seemed so strangely surreal, but actually being where so many died due to terrorism — what a reality check.

I couldn’t bring myself to visit the site of the Twin Towers, or the Pentagon. Not then — I don’t know about now.

When I was out and about yesterday, I noticed a generally lack of acknowlegement for the date. Only the Jefferson County courthouse had its flag at half mast. All the wonderful tributes to America seem to be gone — how quickly we become indifferent.

Reading the logs of the 9/11 virtual touched me (but I am a bit sensitive to that stuff). What a wonderful way to mark a milestone cache.

Bec

I was home. I had been up very late the night before and so had hubby (due to work). We had been up awhile that morning but hadn’t turned on the tv or radio or computer yet when my father-in-law called and said something along the lines of “I’m sure you already know what’s going on in New York and at the Pentagon…” and we were very confused.

Once we found out, hubby being a police officer, immediately called into work to find out if he was to report in or anything. They put him on “alert” status. He spent the day half in uniform and we just watched the news and waited to see if anything else was going to happen. We also had to spend some time explaining what was going on to Little Fishcacher since he was only 4½ at the time.

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already….

I was on my way home from St.paul in the semi I was about osseo and I just could not think of all the pain that the people must of been going through. when I got home to see it on tv it was still hard to belive

I was at work….at school. The principal came in and informed us. He decided our classrooms needed not to know. Our kids were kindergarteners and 1st graders. The principal did have the TV on in the library and would come and relieve us every once in awhile so we could see what was going on. I have a 1 to 1 medical needs child, who can’t be left alone. I only heard from the other teachers as to what was going on. It really hit me when my 12 y.o. daughter called me on the cell…crying, she had been getting ready for school at home and saw the second tower hit. She wanted me to come home. I couldn’t…. I felt very isolated and sad. We later had an assembly for the school and the principal did a great job of explaining a very scary moment in time. We had parents coming to school and taking their children home. The flag was half mast immediately after the 2nd crash. Sadness prevailed all over that school. We ended the assembly singing “I’m proud to be an American”. I must say the most poignant moment for me was much later when I saw a plane in the sky…..after days of not seeing any planes over head. It really hit me how much all of our lives changed that day. I cried one more time for all those lives lost and all those who loved them. We went caching on the anniversary. We kept it low key. We wanted to go on with our lives to show we have not let it demoralize us or scare us. At school last Friday, the principal had a moment of silence and encouraged the children to honor those who died that day. The flag was again at half mast.

[This message has been edited by lucy92979 (edited 09-13-2004).]

I, like many of you, was at work. I work in a machine shop so the best I could do was radio. Luckily, those of us in my area listen to 620 WTMJ all the time anyway.

I distinctly remember that morning driving in to work and listening to WTMJ talk about how “today is National EMS and Firefighters Day.” I thought that was a cool idea being that the date was 911, the same as the emergency number.

Got to work and day like normal until the breaking news told us that there was a “report of a large plane, possibly a 737, crashed into the World Trade Center” We kept working and listened intently. All of us thought this was a terrible accident and oddly enough, couldn’t even realistically imagine that this could be anything but. I remember commenting in my smart aleck way, “now, if another plane crashes into the towers, then we’ve got a problem.”

At around 7:50am WTMJ’s Jon Belmont was live on the air with a witness to the first crash. The gentelman was describing what he had seen. You could hear the sirens and people in the background. Then a muffled explosion followed quickly by the witness’s urgent plea, “Oh my God, Oh my God. Another plane…” I could feel the fear in his voice. The screams in the background only reinforced the chills in my spine and the tears forming in my eyes. I can still hear those people and feel their terror.

Those days will live forever in the memories of those who were able to comprehend the magnitude of the events. The magnitude of the memory and its power, however, rests soley on the individual. We can choose to remember the feeling we had and the deep sorrow we felt; or we can go back to life as it was on 9-10-01. Do you remember the big news story on 9-11 before the planes hit? It was Micheal Jordan’s return to basketball. How different those worlds were, just mintues apart early that Tueasday morning. But sadly, how similar those world have started to become these three years later.

God bless the victims and families of the heroes on 9-11.

---

later,
Team GeoPink
Co-conspirators to make the world a better place…