nmah719.xml

nmah719.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-01

24 Hours and nothing to do...

It was a little before seven AM PST in the morning on September 11th, when we heard our cell phones ringing. We did not have a lan line phone because we were never around. My husband answered his, and I answered mine, it was my mother saying frantically, "Turn on the TV!" I headed over to my tv and turned it on and hung up the phone without saying another word.

At first I thought it was just a skyscraper fire, and left the TV running while I got my daughter ready for school that day. I left the TV running while I made the ten minute drive and came back to watch the news, my husband had already left for work before I arrived home.

Until, the second one hit...

Then I was mezmorized by the intense and graphic awe that insued by those reporters, crew and cameramen who were on the ground filming from all angles.

Then the news came across that the planes were hyjacked. I was numb to think and stared at the pictures, in wonder. I called my mom back after at least an hour passed. I had asked her if our east coast side of the family was ok. Which thankfully it was.

For about 5 hours I watched and switched channels back and forth. I could not obtain enough information to understand the situation at the time. It was time to pick up my daughter, and I sat in my car with the news station playing on the radio talking to local people in Sacramento who had messages for those folks in NYC who could not get through at the time.

We arrived back at the house after school, and continued to watch the TV. A few minutes later, the second tower collapsed, and I gasped and then cried. That hit home the hardest, because I knew at the time that some of the falling debris was not just pieces of the building.

Not long after the first tower collapsed, that the second followed it. By this time, I was calling my husband and updating him every time something happened. He was distracted by his own coworkers huddled around a tiny tv at the office watching the same.

After he came home, and I was in front of the tv, dinner was not made and my daughter was complaining of hunger, we just grabbed what was able to be created in a few seconds of prepreation and ate. I was feeling very thirsty that day and must have drank more than I could because I took b-room breaks more often than usual. Even tho some of the channels was getting back to the regular schedule nearing evening time, I stayed and kept watching, instead of getting online to partisipate in a online game called Everquest. (Which I did not play for an entire week after the 11th.)

I watched everything I could about the incident until the next morning. I took my daughter carefully to school and came home and took a short nap. Then there I was back on the TV, switching between news reports and speculation about who could have been responsible.

It was a number of days before I could relax enough to get a full night's sleep. I did not have nightmares, but to this day, I wonder what it was like for the thousands that did not make it out...

At this time, my routine has not changed, but I am quite aware of suspicious situations and persons. I think privacy should be sacrificed for the sake of saving lives.

The people who died, in the air and upon the ground.

Yes. I flew it more often until there were a rash of flag thefts in our neighborhood. In January 2002, it blew down in a storm, and was unable to replace it.