The Heads or Tails Prompt today is Heads: Wear *or* Tails: Where. You can do either or both. I'm choosing Tails because every time I see the word "where" lately, I am reminded of 9/11, and particularly, a song titled "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning, that September Day" by Alan Jackson. On the anniversary date of 9/11 this year, I was evacuating for a hurricane, so a commemorative blog post did not happen.
I do remember exactly where I was. My next-door-teacher came to get me from my classroom to show me on the television what was happening. At first, I thought it was a Hollywood stunt. Then, I thought it was a joke. He explained it to me, and reality sank in. I realized why the skies had been eerily quiet that morning. I lived near a major airport, and I was so accustomed to planes flying over every few minutes, and there was nothing in the sky.
I was at the school where I taught at the time. My twins, age five at the time, were at a different school for kindergarten. I know exactly where I was, and I remember how I felt. I hope we never forget. I hope we are better prepared for a tragedy such as this, and I hope it never happens on American soil again.
Did you know that church attendance was up by 75-80% in the week or two after the attack? Did you also know that only 8 weeks later, it had dropped down to regular numbers already?
I'll leave you with this tune. Thanks for stopping by.
I do remember exactly where I was. My next-door-teacher came to get me from my classroom to show me on the television what was happening. At first, I thought it was a Hollywood stunt. Then, I thought it was a joke. He explained it to me, and reality sank in. I realized why the skies had been eerily quiet that morning. I lived near a major airport, and I was so accustomed to planes flying over every few minutes, and there was nothing in the sky.
I was at the school where I taught at the time. My twins, age five at the time, were at a different school for kindergarten. I know exactly where I was, and I remember how I felt. I hope we never forget. I hope we are better prepared for a tragedy such as this, and I hope it never happens on American soil again.
Did you know that church attendance was up by 75-80% in the week or two after the attack? Did you also know that only 8 weeks later, it had dropped down to regular numbers already?
I'll leave you with this tune. Thanks for stopping by.
It sure was a day that we remember where we were and how we were scared yet glued to the television for updates.
ReplyDeleteA day to remember, and even from the UK, I do.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do like this song.
ReplyDeleteWhere was I? I was in Tucson, living there in 2001...but guess what, I was 'on the computer'. Some things never change.
My HoT is posted, all about Veteran's Day and the last one ---one sweetheart I lost to the Viet Nam War. Come by, won't you? Happy Tuesday to you.
I was at work and someone from the office heard it on the radio and then turned on the TV and then the word spread we were all in one room shocked. They let us go home early to be with our families.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure everyone remembers where they were that day..
ReplyDeleteA phone call from my mom woke me up. She asked if I was watching TV and said our country was under attack. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. The second plane had just hit letting us and the world know exactly what was happening.
I think with the passage of time some of us may lose the emotion that was so intense during those days, months, weeks. This song always has a way of bringing it back.
Remember all the flags??? Hanging from porches, hooked on car windows???
I hope and pray our next President will never have to face such an event.
That is a day we changed our way of thinking for sure, at least I did.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I, too, remember where I was and the intensity of the surrounding time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting ‘take’ on this week’s prompt. I certainly remember where I was …
ReplyDeleteHugs and blessings,
It's a day that we will all remember as if it was yersterday. I remember where I was and what I was doing at that time. I was working as a teller in a bank and a customer came in and told us and we laughed when she left and said yeah right. Then the branch mgrs husband called then it was call after call from each of our families. Shortly after the news broke was told to us we shut down for the day and went home and was glued to the TV with the phone in hand calling and checking on everyone we knew.
ReplyDeleteIt is a day that nobody will ever forget.
ReplyDeleteI watched the second plane hit live on TV. My in-laws were on a bus trip to Atlantic City, NJ, so I was frantic trying to reach them. The hotel phone just rang and rang. We didn't even have an address where they were, so I was going crazy worrying.
My MIL finally called around 2 p.m., to say that FIL had been rushed to hospital with his heart. I told her to give me the address and I'd be there in 12 hours. She kept insisting she was fine, but she was crying. Of course, I wasn't going to listen to her, I had to be there. Randy had just started a new job that week and couldn't go or he'd be fired. I ran to my mother and asked her if she'd go. She grabbed her toothbrush, called her boss and we left. I had my camera and a change of clothes and that's it.
It was so eerie driving on the Interstate. Very little traffic. We finally had to stop around midnight to sleep. We were back on the road by 6 a.m. and got to NJ by noon. MIL just cried and cried when we pulled in. We had no idea what to expect. Would there be more attacks? Was FIL ok? What would happen? We were there a week before he was released and we could drive home. Got lost in Philadelphia. All the street signs had been removed to prevent terrorists from finding the Liberty Bell, etc.. What a nightmare. We were in the ghetto trying to find out how to get home.
It's a day I'll never forget on more than one level. I think that's when the in-laws realized just how far I would go for them. Family is everything to me. I don't work full time just so I'm always available when someone needs me.
One other eerie coincidence is the week before, my 9-year old daughter had said we would be on the beach that week. I just laughed because there was no way, it was mid-September and they were in school. As I stood on the beach, looking at the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 12, it hit me what she had said. She was right.
I will never forget. And having visited Ground Zero has etched it even more in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI, too, hope it never happens on American soil again.
I was driving through the Rockie Mountains at the time. There is no radio or telephone access there so we did not know until we arrived in a small town outside the national park. We headed for an information center to find out about motels and all the staff were in the back room watching TV. I thought they were watching a movie at first I couldn't believe that what I saw was real.
ReplyDelete