story5434.xml

story5434.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

It is a day that I will remember always. At that time, I was working at a local telecommunications company. I worked the 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. shift and was still sleeping that morning at about 9:15 a.m. (Est) when my telephone rang. Generally, I would let my voice mail pick up my early calls, because they ususally were telemarketers with a sales pitch I just didn't want to hear about. But on this particular morning, that ringing of my phone seemed different. I answered. My friend Michelle was on the other end. "Turn on your T.V. right now!" she said. "A plane has just crashed into one of the twin towers in New York." Still not quite awake, I must have answered with..."What did you say?" "Debbie, just turn on your damn T.V., it's horrible", she shouted. With my remote phone still in my hand, I ran to the living room and turned on the T.V. There is was, in living, breathing, color. The news man looking serious, like the times when presidents have been shot, or when annoucing that we are going to war. Somehow I could not get my mind to grasp what had happened. It was playing out before me like a plot to a movie I had already seen. My friend was still talking on the phone that was now glued to my ear. I don't think I heard anything she said. Truthfully, I thought I might be dreaming! Unfortunately, I was not. The rest of that day played out like a dream, however. My daughter was in school. Do I need to go get her? Where do I go? What do we do? Are we next? My mom, she lives 100 miles away! WHAT DO I DO????!!!!I called her immediately.

I live on a now closed Air Force Base, and many of us who reside here have jokingly said that what if our enemies abroad don't know that this is a closed military base, we would definitely be a target in a bombing strike. Now that
joking comment came back to haunt many of us.

This is a day I will remember always. It is the day that changed my feelings of security and isolation from the harsh realities that we are not exempt as a nation from war in our own country. In that split second on September 11, 2001, every single American's life was changed forever.