remembering
A repost from 2006 on my other blog:
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
9/11
Worked all day the anniversary of 9/11....I guess that was better than watching it all unfold one more time on the tube. All those memories, the things I learned...Matt, Buster, the grandkids here, their mom far away...it was just mind numbing circumstances....and yes, Buster...the dog. At the beginning of that day, the last thing I thought as I walked out the door was about going by Tomlinson's for dog food. Now Buster was a rescue, he'd had his share of hungry days....and I know in his heart that even after 10 years of living with us, he did not trust us to always give him food. I'm telling you, the animal never missed a meal with us after Matt got him for his 6th birthday...NEVER...but on 9/11/2001...I came home from work, I cooked a huge meal, full of comfort foods...mashed potatoes, fried chicken, the works....went to call the family to dinner....and there sat Buster...by the couch. I just looked at him....and he knew. I had not brought home the dog food. He got up walked toward me and BARKED at me...he had never, ever barked at me....but he chewed my butt up one side and down the other. Tomlinson's was closed by the tragedy, but Target was open. And Buster got his dinner before I had mine.
I was at Starbucks back then, normally at work at 5am, but with the grandkids with us, I was working a mid shift...Matt and I were on our way to Akins High School, when we heard the news...and pulling into the parking lot when the second plane hit. Matt flew out of the car "I'm finding a television"....thank goodness for his History teacher, when the school DID NOT put this on the TVs in classrooms, he did.
At Starbucks, when I arrived... a million questions from everyone there....and we sent for a radio....so many rumors, so many people just standing in that little coffee shop, just waiting. A woman told me her husband was flying on the East coast that day...never did hear the rest of that tale. I still think about her. We turned on that radio...and Peter Jenning's voice took over the store, it was an amazing cloud of calm to all of us...Flight 93 had disappeared...The Pentagon was in flames...but Peter Jennings was on the radio and his voice never faltered...altho you could hear the tears at times.
The phone...and Darcie was there, and we both were in tears...she was so worried about her kids and I was so scared of her flying home from Las Vegas...and neither of us were in control of what was happening! When I went to the school to get the kids, Sam was under the desk (remember that from the Cold War? like that desk would do anything....) I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...Zach's class was sitting in the hallway...
but we made it home, and safe, except for Buster, of course, who was cursing the day this nutty family that didn't feed him found him!
The next day....dropping Sam and Zach at school, I told them that if for one second I thought they were not safe there, I would keep them with me, but I had faith in the principal at Odem Elementary, and they should, too...kids are so trusting, if Grandma said it, it's okay. They were out the door.
For me personally, the biggest change was in my son. That afternoon, I picked him and a couple of friends up from school...driving, talking....the boys in the back seat were concerned that there would be a draft....and Matt was very quiet. One kid asked Matt something about the draft....and I turned to look at him right when he said "it doesn't matter, I'll enlist, we've been attacked"....and his chin looked just like my father's....and my big brother's...strong and square and determined. Overwhelming fear and pride and that mother thing of love, I knew this boy had made a turning point in his life, and he would make his own decisions about his life. Edit: Matt went into the Navy in 2005, after giving me 2 years at ACC, became an FMF Navy Corpsman, serving 5 years with the Marines and then coming back to Texas to Camp Bullis where he was an instructor until he left the Navy 18 months later.
so that's my memories of that day....and I felt great hope that those murderers who planned that day would be hunted down...had faith in my President to do the right thing, and of course, we all know how that is turning out.
I'm thankful for our military, and for the military leaders, it's up to us to make sure they get a commander in chief and Congress smart enough to listen to them.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
9/11
Worked all day the anniversary of 9/11....I guess that was better than watching it all unfold one more time on the tube. All those memories, the things I learned...Matt, Buster, the grandkids here, their mom far away...it was just mind numbing circumstances....and yes, Buster...the dog. At the beginning of that day, the last thing I thought as I walked out the door was about going by Tomlinson's for dog food. Now Buster was a rescue, he'd had his share of hungry days....and I know in his heart that even after 10 years of living with us, he did not trust us to always give him food. I'm telling you, the animal never missed a meal with us after Matt got him for his 6th birthday...NEVER...but on 9/11/2001...I came home from work, I cooked a huge meal, full of comfort foods...mashed potatoes, fried chicken, the works....went to call the family to dinner....and there sat Buster...by the couch. I just looked at him....and he knew. I had not brought home the dog food. He got up walked toward me and BARKED at me...he had never, ever barked at me....but he chewed my butt up one side and down the other. Tomlinson's was closed by the tragedy, but Target was open. And Buster got his dinner before I had mine.
I was at Starbucks back then, normally at work at 5am, but with the grandkids with us, I was working a mid shift...Matt and I were on our way to Akins High School, when we heard the news...and pulling into the parking lot when the second plane hit. Matt flew out of the car "I'm finding a television"....thank goodness for his History teacher, when the school DID NOT put this on the TVs in classrooms, he did.
At Starbucks, when I arrived... a million questions from everyone there....and we sent for a radio....so many rumors, so many people just standing in that little coffee shop, just waiting. A woman told me her husband was flying on the East coast that day...never did hear the rest of that tale. I still think about her. We turned on that radio...and Peter Jenning's voice took over the store, it was an amazing cloud of calm to all of us...Flight 93 had disappeared...The Pentagon was in flames...but Peter Jennings was on the radio and his voice never faltered...altho you could hear the tears at times.
The phone...and Darcie was there, and we both were in tears...she was so worried about her kids and I was so scared of her flying home from Las Vegas...and neither of us were in control of what was happening! When I went to the school to get the kids, Sam was under the desk (remember that from the Cold War? like that desk would do anything....) I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...Zach's class was sitting in the hallway...
but we made it home, and safe, except for Buster, of course, who was cursing the day this nutty family that didn't feed him found him!
The next day....dropping Sam and Zach at school, I told them that if for one second I thought they were not safe there, I would keep them with me, but I had faith in the principal at Odem Elementary, and they should, too...kids are so trusting, if Grandma said it, it's okay. They were out the door.
For me personally, the biggest change was in my son. That afternoon, I picked him and a couple of friends up from school...driving, talking....the boys in the back seat were concerned that there would be a draft....and Matt was very quiet. One kid asked Matt something about the draft....and I turned to look at him right when he said "it doesn't matter, I'll enlist, we've been attacked"....and his chin looked just like my father's....and my big brother's...strong and square and determined. Overwhelming fear and pride and that mother thing of love, I knew this boy had made a turning point in his life, and he would make his own decisions about his life. Edit: Matt went into the Navy in 2005, after giving me 2 years at ACC, became an FMF Navy Corpsman, serving 5 years with the Marines and then coming back to Texas to Camp Bullis where he was an instructor until he left the Navy 18 months later.
so that's my memories of that day....and I felt great hope that those murderers who planned that day would be hunted down...had faith in my President to do the right thing, and of course, we all know how that is turning out.
I'm thankful for our military, and for the military leaders, it's up to us to make sure they get a commander in chief and Congress smart enough to listen to them.
Comments
I am thankful that this bin Laden tenure on this earth was ended before this 10th anniversary. How much more could we have healed if we had stayed the course to hunt him down in Afghanistan instead of being led to Iraq for political reasons?
As it is in the business world, everyone had to go back to work, but the television and radios were left on, and people drifted in and out of the lunchroom to keep abreast of the news. I don’t recall much else from the rest of the workday, but I was working part time and would have left sometime in the early afternoon. In September 2001, my children would have been 11 and 15 and would have still been school. Some of the neighbor mom’s had rushed to the school to bring their children home earlier that day, when mine did arrive home they knew something had happened but told me the schools would not tell them what and they had heard all sorts of rumors. I was a bit miffed at the schools for wasting an important opportunity to teach and guide the kids rather than leave them in the dark, but the schools were afraid that parents would be angry if their precious babies were exposed to this event. We sat in front of the TV and watched the coverage and I explained as best as I could what was going on, that we were safe here in our little mid-western town and not to be afraid. I was comforted with the quick response of our government in grounding all air traffic, My only other strong memory of that week was standing on my patio on another beautiful September day, exactly like it is today, but noticing the eerie silence, no air traffic, but still listening for it. Perhaps deep down in my soul there was a spark of primal fear just waiting to hear something I should not be hearing. Did that day change this nation, certainly, as did Pearl Harbor during WWII. Everything we have done and been since that day is a direct reflection on that day, some good, but an awful lot has been horrible. To many mistakes and misdirection’s, too many have used it as an excuse to promote their personal prejudices and hate, and worse of all too many more lives have been lost because of personal political vindictive ambition of our leaders. What should or could have been a shining moment for this nation has become another tragedy