Yesterday was a very sad day all over the world, though that tragic day happened here…at home…on our soil---Many, many lives were touched by it. Employees of the World Trade Center were from all over the World not just American Citizens. I didn’t feel much like writing this yesterday but I do feel that I need to put into words some of my feelings.
I guess you might say I’m a fortunate one…no one from my family was lost by this terrible act, BUT I think we were all touched by it.
I don’t think anyone alive will forget what he or she was doing or where they were when they heard about the attack on America. My day had just started at work, when a courier came in and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center…we were always joking so I thought he was just pulling another prank on me. To my horror…it was true…and that truth only got worse.
Let me go back to late August of 2001. My hubby works for the Dept. of Technology supporting Police, Fire & CAD (Dispatch) for the City of Roanoke. That August we had attended a Fire Expo Conference in New Orleans, we both were amazed at the camaraderie of the Firemen and Firewomen from all over our great Nation. Our plane trip home we were surrounded by Firefighters from New Jersey & New York, I think we were the only “civilians” on board…we joked and laughed with them, their antics kept us entertained all the way to Pittsburgh where we changed planes for home…
When we learned of the numbers of those heroic firefighters lost that day took me back to that plane ride home…how many of those faces we laughed with were…gone?? We never learned their names…but I will ALWAYS think of them every 9/11.
It was later that I learned that one of my very good friends sister, a Lieutenant with the Navy, was to be at the Pentagon that day for a meeting…but she had been delayed. She saw the news and immediately called her brother to let him know she was okay.
One other thing I can remember about those days following the attacks was the fact that it was so quiet…the birds weren’t singing. There were no planes flying which also gave a very eerie silence. It was about 10 days later or so that I think planes began limited flights.
We were scheduled to go on a business trip to Los Angeles in early Oct. 2001 and, of course, that was postponed for obvious reasons. We decided to take a little time away, because those days following had been so dark…I, like a lot of others, couldn’t stop watching the recovery efforts on TV…and quite honestly I was feeling very depressed. We took a trip up to Antietam/Sharpsburg Battlefield in Maryland, which is only about an hour from Washington, DC. At that time planes had just started flying again and around the DC area they were being escorted by fighter jets (I don't remember but I think they were F-18)…
This picture will forever be a reminder…I didn’t know that Jack had captured it until we got the pictures back (yes, this is a pre-digital age photo), while he was taking this picture I watched a plane be escorted by a fighter plane on each wing.
The sound of fighter jets...unmistakable! Pretty amazing photo...to most it will just look like a black dot, but I remember what I saw and heard that day.
On the Knitting & Spinning front--
I started my second of the purple pair, and I started my Mom's sweater! My spinning foot is beginning to twitch...I think I'd better exercise it!
I have SO many projects in mind that I need more time to knit...darn it!
