I thought I would take a moment and write down my memories of September 11, 2001… 10 years ago today.
It was a little after 7:45am CT and I had just gotten out of the shower… I was getting ready to head to my Media Communications class at Harper Community College in Palatine, IL. I walked into my bedroom and on TV was news reports of a massive fire in the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Empire State Building - 1945
Immediately, I flashed to images I had seen of the fire after a plane crashed into the Empire State Building back in 1945. Little did I know, not only was I right to remember that, but this time it would be worse, MUCH worse.
After sitting on my bed watching the news coverage, at 8:02 am I witnessed second plane crash into the World Trade Center, this time it was the South Tower. That was.. well, staggering. Did I mention my parents were at O’Hare waiting to board a plane to fly to Las Vegas for their 20th wedding anniversary?
I did not want to be late for class, and I wanted to make sure I got a parking space at school, so I headed out. But I didnt want to miss anything. So, I quickly grabbed my Sony Watchman portable black and white TV. I drove to school listening to WGN (I think). After arriving in the parking lot, I sat in my car and watched my portable TV. At this point, smoke was billowing from the two towers and reports of an attack on the Pentegon were starting to roll in. I watched as the first tower fell at 8:59.
A Tower Falls
I headed into class and sat in the empty classroom watching my little TV. I heard the ESL class across the hallway on the other side of our classroom trailer talking about the events. I walked over to the doorway and with a shaky voice told them the first tower had fallen.
People started ariving for class and needless to say we didnt have class that day. Our teacher wheeled in a TV and we watched news coverage for the remainder of class. At one point one of the students stood up, whispered to the teacher, and quickly left. His girlfriends mother was in one of the towers… we later found out she survived. We all left class, and I headed home. I later found out classes had been cancelled for the remainder of the day.
Early afternoon mom and dad came home from the airport. With all planes being grounded indefinitely, they were not going to be getting to Las Vegas that day, or any day in the near future. While in the airport, they met a couple from Buffalo, New York who were headed home, but stranded with no rental cars available. Mom and dad asked them to come spend the night at our house until they could get home. Eventually, they were able to rent a car and drive back to Buffalo.
The next few days were some of the most sobering, yet quiet days you will ever hear… there were few, if any, planes in the sky for the next few days. Seeing an airplane flying over a city would not be the same ever again.
