An Anniversary

September 11, 2001 was the day of the "attacks" on America. What were you doing that day?
I was getting ready to go to work. At the time I was not yet working at the college...but instead I was working very part time as a school nurse for the Crawford Schools. I only worked there one day a week. While I was getting ready to leave, the TV was on and I did catch a clip of a plane flying into a skyscraper....the sound was down low and I assumed it was a movie promo and out the door I went.
I was listening to the radio on the way and they were talking about how an airplane had crashed into one of the towers in New York. I was listening to a local AM station and the announcer was actually kind of making fun of the pilot and how idiotic he was to do that...he and a co-announcer kept bantering about what in the world could have distracted the pilot so much that he crashed like that. Music resumed.
Pretty soon the announcer broke in and was very contrite sounding and said that a second plane had crashed into the other Tower and that it was now being reported that this may be a terrorist attack. He apologized for his earlier comments and sounded like a whipped dog.
I continued on to work but switched the radio to a different station to see if I could get more updates.

When I got to Crawford, I pretty much kept my nose to the grindstone....only being there one day a week meant that there was always pile of things to attend to. I didn't have access to a radio or TV so I was not constantly reminded of the tragic events that had and were continuing to occur on the East Coast. The Elementary school kept the day as normal as possible but when I went over to the high school, they were all in the classrooms that had TV and they were watching the coverage over and over and over....it was eerie and the kids were visibly shaken.

Our President had left the White House and was flying over the US somewhere....all the flights were grounded.....there were theories and conjecture flying all over the place that should have been grounded too.

I still tried to stay focused on my day but I did hope that Cole's school was not watching the TV footage.

When I got home that night we purposefully did not watch the TV reports....I just didn't want those images in my head....I had heard the description on the radio and that was bad enough.

There was a prayer service scheduled for that night at Memorial Park and we went in to that. I was a non-denominational, open service. There were quite a few people there and since it was right across the street from the college, there were a lot of students there as well.

It was a somber group. One of the pastors, in a supposed attempt to drive the tragedy home did try to give a visual....by suggesting that we look at the high rise dormitory across the street (13 stories) and imagine an airplane flying right over our heads and crashing right into the dorm.
Ummm.....yikes.

A lot of college students just packed up and went home that day.....I am not suggesting that it had anything to do with the pastor's speech that night....it was just what happened. We had a host daughter that left. She just wanted to be home. I knew how she felt. Somehow, even though it had happened on the other side of the country.....I felt vulnerable and scared and ungrounded.

The next year, September 11 2002, was the first anniversary of the attacks and there was a lot of national concern that there could be attacks on the US again to commemorate the first 9-11.
I guess terrorists are big on anniversaries...I don't know. Thankfully that did not occur. But I was feeling upset about.....everything. I had just started at the college and was now working full-time for the first time in 10 years. I was tired and unsure that it was the right move, but we had droughted out really bad that year....little did we know that the drought would continue for several more years....but that year was particularly bad and I needed to go from mostly NOT working to mostly working to help out financially.

On September 11, 2002 John called me at work and asked me to go out to lunch with him. This is not a frequent thing....John doesn't really like to eat out and he doesn't really like to go to town....but that day I was so glad that he was sacrificing his preferences and that he had asked me out for lunch. I really thought he must have been feeling just as unsettled as I was about the state of the nation.

When I got in the vehicle...he had flowers and a card for me. Daisies. I really love daisies. I still thought it was just John busting out of his comfort zone. Then I opened the card.....it was an anniversary card......for me.....from him......to commemorate our 20th DATE anniversary!
I had totally forgotten with all the 9-11 hub bub! I felt so bad because we actually probably have historically celebrated that anniversary more than our wedding anniversary. I felt like a real jerk.

Anyway....today is our 26th DATE anniversary. John took me to lunch today too. He was a good catch. I thought so 26 years ago and I still feel that way today. I didn't even get him a card. I would never make a good terrorist.....I am not good enough at commemorating anniversaries.