Re: Where were you on 9/11/01 when the world trade center got hit?
Aside from the obvious, it was a strange morning. I was driving to work, and I was on the cell phone (yes, hands free) applying for a Southwest airlines advantage credit card. The woman taking my application seemed awfully distant and aloof. Not sure if she knew yet or not. My thoughts: she did.
When I got to the machine shop, the first guy I saw (Karl) looked sick. I knew something was wrong. Karl, is everything OK? No, Brad, it's not.
He is the only person I saw at that time, which with a shop of four, is not that unusual. Later I learned they had gathered around a TV in one of the offices. They had a TV on a training cart, and hooked up an antenna to watch.
Now, someone had just brought in a TV to the main area where Karl and I were standing and turned it on. As soon as the TV came on and got to a TV station, the images of the second plane was coming on the screen. I had no idea what was going on at this time. As Karl watched this second plane go into the building, I saw a face of a strong, hard-working man just become lifeless; he turned, and walked away. At that moment, standing in the machine shop, by myself, with the TV on, is my memory of 9/11.
After trying to get some work done, and do something to pass the day, I had to head to another building. I got in my vehicle, and turned to one the shock jock shows. Why did I do that? I never listen to that stuff . Maybe I thought listening to his stuff was much less painful than listening to the truth. However, the DJ had moved into full coverage of the activities; and did a very impressive job covering the events.
(Several months later, they had a town meeting with the local radio jocks about 9/11. They talked about how hard it was to do their jobs, cover something they did not want to cover, hide their own emotions and fears, and deliver good journalism; filtering through the millions of news bites coming in every minute. It was a long day for those folks.(
After going through an all-day funeral, I went home to start again with my family.
9/11- a day I would like to forget, but will always remember.