I Will Always Remember Where I Was, September 11, 2001

I guess the attacks on September 11th for many will always be similar to the JFK Assassination, people for years and years to come will say "I remember EXACTLY where I was when I heard the news!" For me, that day is as fresh in my mind as if it happened only weeks ago, rather than ten YEARS ago!

I was working in retail at the time, and I remember I was in the jewelry department, it was the day that we usually were in that department because we were doing "price change." Different departments had different days of the week that we were assigned to go into them, and make changes to prices, marking things clearance that were on the way out, and just making changes to other prices. I can remember clearly being ready to go on our first break (since we started at 6:00 am, by 9:00 am it was already break time)!

I remember the lady that was the team lead in that department at that time coming back from the break room with TEARS in her eyes, I thought, something awful must have just happened! She told us the news, and promptly picked up a phone to call her daughter to tell her that she loved her.

Our reaction was shock, an unsettled feeling... I could not help but think, is this the only thing that's going to happen to our country today? Then a while later, we heard about the Pentagon, and later the field in Pennsylvania. As the day progressed, we heard the updated news reports and I felt an awful feeling of dread, being scared, knowing this was not just a plane that flew into a tower, but was an intentional act! And that they had flown into TWO towers, then the Pentagon, then that brave act by the people on United Airlines flight 93, that went down in the Pennsylvania field. What kind of person or group would DO such a thing?

I can remember on my lunch break, going outside and sitting on a bench, I just wanted to be alone for a minute to collect my thoughts, not listening to all of the "chatter" in the break room. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, and for some reason everyone felt compelled to share it with everyone else, all at the same time. It became pretty loud at a times. I just wanted to bow my head in prayer. For those people in those towers, in the Pentagon, and on that plane... for all of the loved ones who had lost their loved ones, for the children, for the brave firefighters and responders, for the people in the surrounding areas. All I wanted at that point was to pray... sit outside, in the blue sky sunny day that we were having in Wisconsin at the time, and PRAY like I never had before.

All throughout the afternoon, you could hear "chatter" in the store, customers talking amongst themselves, to the employees, everyone talking about the same thing. I think in the fourteen years that I worked in retail, I never saw another day like September 11, 2001... just the way it brought people together, total strangers, empathizing with one another, some saying they had a relative or friend in New York City, and how they had been trying to get in touch with them. Then someone else would say "I'll say a prayer for you that your loved one is ok". That kind of kinship and camaraderie was pretty rare, and I knew I was witnessing something special.

I can remember having some trouble sleeping for days, even weeks after that. It gives you such an uncertain, unsettled feeling... what if there were more attacks in the days and weeks to come? I can remember watching the CMA, Country Music Awards two months after the attack, broadcast live from Nashville, TN and thinking... how can we just go on with an awards show as if nothing had happened? Doing that seemed "superficial" to me... THEN, Alan Jackson walked out onstage, guitar in hand and started with "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning"... and I sat there in shock with tears in my eyes. He was putting to MUSIC what I had been (and a lot of the country had been) feeling since the attacks. The shock, all of the horror -  and the song itself was a litany of questions that were seemingly without just one answer. It was beautifully written, beautifully delivered, just the "perfect" song for that period of time we had all just been through. I remember getting goosebumps... and that doesn't happen too often to me!

I can see myself telling not only my grandchildren about that day, but if the good Lord is willing perhaps one day I will even tell my great-grandchildren about that day and what it meant to the country, and how PROUD they can be of all of the people of the United States that pulled together in a way I had never seen before. I just hope that one day the country can pull together like that again, but never again under those kind of circumstances! I hope that it is for a positive reason rather than the country being attacked.