There was a question on the Discovery Channel Hyves Page about where you were on 9/11. I was at home in Fort Worth, TX USA watching Good Morning America as I always did. The report was an hour behind time in Texas and they interrupted the newscast with the story of the first plane hitting the WTC. At this point, everyone just thought it was a horrible accident. As I continued to watch, the second plane hit. I love this morning news show because of the very calm and unflappable anchors, Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer (at the time). Both myself and Sawyer had the same reaction..." My God!" The two newscasters rarely showed any strong reactions to incidents always professionals, that's why I remember her words that day, not just because I had the same reaction. My mind like so many others was just racing. Fear, anger, sadness, confusion, and pure shock set in all at once. I had to go to work that day, so I continued to get ready...but only getting out of view of the TV for as little as absolutely necessary. I watched as Tower 2 fall (2nd hit) then prayed that the other tower wouldn't fall....I had a strong feeling of not wanting whoever did this to win. Of course, the tower fell. I went into work, where everyone was just in shock and unfortunately, we all had the same feeling of "we're at war". We didn't have a TV only a radio to listen to, but it was on as loud as it could go. We heard about the Pentagon, then the Pennsylvania plane went down. I only had to make a delivery for the restaurant that morning so I left to do it. When I came back news reports were coming in that planes had been shot down, more planes were in the air, bombs in other buildings throughout the country, bombs on busses, subways and many other crazy reports. The reports were coming in so fast and furious that day that truthfully no one had a clue what was going on...the first 24 hours was absolutely frightening. Our restaurant was next to the Joint Reserve Naval Air Station formerly known as Carswell, it had been put on lockdown immediately. Military planes were going in and out....patrolling the skies. A bomb threat came over the radio for buildings in both Fort Worth and nearby Dallas. The restaurant dropped down from it's usual 60 person crew down to just about 6, no one was coming in....nor did they for the next 2 or 3 days. I wasn't needed so I went home.
Once I got home, it was right back to the TV. I watched as the President flew all over the country because they feared for his safety if he landed. There were reports of missing planes as late as 3 pm that day. As I recall the President landed once or twice at other airfields before finally landing in Washington. I don't remember when he spoke to the country, although I do remember him addressing the country at one of the stops prior to Washington. I do remember our Congress coming out, speaking, praying, then together they sang "God Bless America" while the Pentagon was still on fire. The Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) can't get together for anything...this was amazing...and it made me proud. It was hard to go sleep that night and I remember waking several times and turning on the news.
The next day news crews were still trying to make some sense of everything, but there was a different feeling slowly starting to emerge throughout the country. The country was uniting again and perhaps more strongly than it had since World War 2. While flags were at half mast at buildings and such you started to see flags on cars, windows, clothing...they were everywhere. There was a sadness that you could see on everyone's faces. A sadness but also a very defiant look as well. There was already a feeling of getting up and dusting ourselves off.
The next morning I went into work and once again no one was coming in. So we just listened to the radio and someone had brought in a TV. I do remember swelling with pride and thinking we need this as Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American"played on the radio...you heard it as well as many other patriotic songs for the next several weeks. I even felt a great comfort watching the guards at Buckingham Palace for the first time ever performing the US National Anthem...guess it helped knowing we weren't alone in our grief.
The next few days I watched TV. You couldn't take yourself away from it. I spoke with a coworker who had said the same thing...you just couldn't stop watching. Maybe it was a feeling that if you stopped watching you were giving up hope of finding survivors or maybe fear that something else would happen if you didn't watch. I was asked why we keep watching the programs even today...the only asnwer I have is we need to remember...not just the victims or events, but the feelings and thoughts of that day...perhaps so that we never forget.
The evening of September 11, I remembered a friend from college who worked at the WTC. I waited two days to call his family (getting through to New York was impossible) to see if he was alright...they had no word other than he had reported to work that morning. He wasn't supposed to be there that day. He did not survive. The upper portion of his burned and decaptitated body was returned to Texas at the end of October.
I still cry when I watch the towers being hit and collapsing, I don't think it's solely because of losing a friend, I think all those emotions of the day come flooding back, but that's a good thing because it reminds me why I am proud to be an American. Why am I so proud, because I know I'll always have that feeling of getting back up again no matter how hard you hit me... and I'm likely to be more fierce than ever. Japan's World War 2 Admiral Yamamoto was correct when he stated afetr the attack on Pearl Harbor "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Right or wrong... knock us down, we'll get back up and be more determined than ever.
They call it the "Red River Rivalry" . The University of Texas at Austin meets the University of Oklahoma half way between the 2 schools at the Cotton Bowl. Now this must be a really big bowl because they manage to fit 34,000 Texas fans and 34,000 Oklahoma fans in it. They say the equal split of fans goes right down the middle along the fifty yardline, one side burnt orange for the Longhorns, the other crimson red for the Sooners. These two teams have been meeting up since 1900. Texas has won 59 meetings, Oklahoma 40 with the rest being ties.
