"Where were you when?"

This will be the question this weekend, actually all this past week as well… as the memorial for the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center being hit for the second time.
(remember it was hit by bombs about 5 years earlier)

I am from the generation of “where were you at when?”
Pearl Harbor … I was probably in my crib for a nap (as I think it was about
1pm est.) as I was 1 year and 8 months old.
JFK killing… I was in San Diego, California feeding my kids.
RFK killing… I was asleep when my sister in law woke me to
tell me.. I had just got out of the hospital from having twins.
Smaller on the scale was Ok. Bombing .. don’t remember where I was
on that one. MLK killing.. don’t remember but it was the day before my
birthday I believe.

But 10 years ago, this Sunday, I was working. I had just left the building at 6:05am. I turn on the usual station that I listen to, with the married couple that had music and chit chat, that I listen to on the radio each morning as I head home… when one of them said they just got word that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York at 9:00am est. It was of general thought that it was a small plane, Cessena like type… wondering what happen to the pilot that he hit the building.. By the time I got home 15 minutes later, driving into the driveway, they said it was a large jet like plane.

I turn on the television with New York station (I had a satellite at the time) and saw the smoke pouring out of the building.. and in a matter of minutes or seconds, a second plane hit. It is at this time the reporter tells us that these are airline planes. I called my daughter… who was getting ready for work. She had the television on, a different channel. As they are showing, for the time, the second plane hitting. It is then we hear that it is not only an airline planes that have hit the building but they were full, as they were heading to California that morning when they were taken over and taken into the buildings.. Both of us in horror as we start to realize, not only is this a terrorist whackos, but they have taken thousand of people (with both planes) with them. As we are digesting the horror of this.. my daughter says, I have to go to work now, Mom… but I just heard on this channel that there is a rumor of a plane hitting the Pentagon as well. Call me at work, it if is true…

I called her at work to tell her it not only is true, but there is another plane that crashed in the state of Pennsylvania, but it didn’t hit any buildings and they don’t know if it is connected or not. She said that all the computers at work were on national news.

The rest, as we know, is history… but one of the thoughts as I watched the planes hitting the buildings… was what I left at work.

See each morning as the last part of my job, I get a few people dressed and up for the day. So they sit there in their wheelchairs, for 2 hours in their room, waiting for breakfast. My last act of the shift is to turn on the television so they can watch the local news and see what the weather is going to be, and what day it is… it is a part of orientation, to keep them in the know of what day it is and etc.
As I sat in my living room, watching the news unfold, my thoughts went back to those 3 ladies, I left to watch the news. And my heart sank. I called back to work and told them, and the aide said they were heading to breakfast so they are ok.
I wonder what they thought as they watched it.

I am sure, this weekend, you will be telling… where were you when, at least once if not more… a mere day, that changed our lives forever. Not only the lost of innocent we lost during the others mention above, but our security and our lack of control over our own lives.