story2168.xml

story2168.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I had just left my boyfriend's house, and was driving to work. I turned on my regular morning radio station, and heard the DJs from a different station that I also listen to. I wasn't really listening at that point to what they were saying; it sounded like they were talking about some stupid hollywood action movie: buildings blowing up, etc. I switched to the station that they're normally on, and heard the same thing. At this point, I came up to a sign that was usually used for construction messages, you know "exit will be closed 9/23/01" etc. But it said "Airport closed - All flights cancelled". Having been a teenager in the 80's, the first thing that came to my minda was that there was a nuclear bomb coming, or something like that. I actually started listening to the radio at that point, and what I heard was almost as bad. I got out my cell phone and told my boyfriend to turn on the TV, that something bad had happened.

I got off the phone after I told him, and called my mom, who said she'd talked to my sisters and neice, and that they were coming over to watch the news. They all stayed home from work that day, glued to the TV. I was glad to know they were all together in one place. They live an hour away with no traffic, so I kept going into work, where my co-workers are my other family. I dragged out a little television that I keep there, and we all watched in miniature the replay of the planes hitting the building over and over, listened to President Bush speak, and watched the changing death toll numbers. Not much work got done that day, but no one wanted to go home and be alone, so most of us stayed late.