We are now nearly 20 years from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A fact that I should have expected given my 20th high school reunion is this fall and I recently recognized the 20th anniversary of the day I moved into my first college dorm, meeting some ladies I am still (long distance) friends with today. But the fact that one of the most defining moments for my generation, and probably a few others, has already been 20 years ago is a little bit staggering. I have babysitters to watch my kids that weren't alive until after the attacks, many nieces and nephews (and my own kids) who weren't alive that day. It is such a lasting memory for me and to all these young people it will just be something they learn about but not have lived through.
The reporting and compilation in this book is just staggeringly good. It has the accounts from many, many people. Ranging from President and Mrs. Bush to people who were first on the site of the Pennsylvania crash. Rescue workers in Manhattan and people who were in the towers that morning. People who saw the immediate aftermath of the attack at the Pentagon (maybe those details shocked me the most, that crash was worse than I knew). The amount of work this had to have taken is just astonishing but I so appreciate the story it tells.
It should go without saying that this has some really gruesome and a lot of tragic moments in it. It's not a book I will be reading to Luke anytime. However, it was also very readable. I didn't read it right before bed but the pages sped by in my afternoon reading. Even though I KNEW the ending. I don't know the exact minutes everything happened that morning but as certain moments were coming up in the book I was almost holding my breath, willing it, two decades later not to happen. Excellent, excellent writing.
While gruesome there were also many moments of celebration of the human spirit. All the helpers that rushed into the towers that day. The people who helped others down from the towers. I had to keep reminding myself that if someone was telling a reporter/journalist/author their story, then that person HAD survived the day. One of the truly worst days in American history brought about the very best in hundreds of people. It reminded me of the intense patriotism in the weeks following the attacks. Yes, we were attacked, but we wouldn't be brought down. There are so many good people in the world. Many more people helped that day than the number of terrorists who participated and probably masterminded it all.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone old enough to have been alive for the attacks. Someday for those who weren't alive too. It brought so much more humanity to that day for me and gave names to many of the heroes. I was really rooting for so many of them and more vested in their stories as names and not just numbers.
God Bless America.
Reading the book also made me realize that I didn't know the 9/11 stories for many people in my own family. I didn't know any of my brother-in-laws then and Matt and I didn't meet or start dating for almost another year. Him and I have talked about it a few times and I had talked with my Mom and family back 20 years ago so while I knew the overview (we were all in school besides my Dad, my Mom was a 5th grade teacher then), I didn't know feelings for people around that day. I wish I had talked with my Grandparents more about their memories of Pearl Harbor because it would have been so powerful to know how that day impacted them and I didn't want to leave my kids with no family stories of 9/11.
So I sent out group text messages to each of our families and asked for anyone willing to share their stories. I am working on collecting them now. I typed up my story for the first time and dug through both my college planner and my diary from that day, words I hadn't looked at in nearly 20 years. It's probably partly reading this book, partly the 20th anniversary, that feels like a good time to remember and record the memories of that day. I have some nieces and nephews with memories of that day but a whole lot either too young or not born (like my kids). I've talked about 9/11 with Luke and someday we'll take him to see the memorial and museum in New York (we've been to the Memorial, not the Museum). Pearl Harbor happened 42 years before I was born. 9/11 was only 12 years before Luke was alive. It's important to know the stories.
Here is my story:
On September
11, 2001 I was 3 weeks into my freshman year at the University of
Dayton. On Tuesday my first class at 10:30am, History of World
Religions or something like that. Another girl on my floor and
I would get breakfast together at KU (the student union in the middle
of campus) since our dorm didn’t have a cafeteria and we both had 10:30
classes in the middle on campus. As we were walking down the hill
together (our dorm was at the top of a hill and
the farthest from anything but still my first pick because we got sinks
in our rooms) she asked if I had heard that a plane ran into a building
in New York. I hadn’t because I had no reason to turn on the tv or my
computer that morning (I didn’t have a cell
phone yet and cell phones didn't do worthwhile internet then anyways). We walked the rest of the way to breakfast and as soon as
we walked in the student union it was obvious something was very very
wrong. Everyone was gathered around the biggest tv and it was nearly
silent. We got our breakfast (I got what I
thought was a blueberry muffin which turned out to be cherry which was
very disappointing and non-edible for me) and joined everyone else around the
tv. We would have been there from about 10:00-10:20 and I remember
seeing the devastation on the screen. One of
the towers collapsed about the time we were coming into the cafeteria
and I’m sure we saw that footage replayed many times. I’ve seen
different footage so many times since it’s hard to remember what exactly
I saw on tv that morning but I still have a very vivid picture in my mind of the crowd around the tv.
I went to my 10:30am class where I was concerned because I had forgotten a pen but then it didn’t matter because we just talked about the attacks the whole time. My next class wouldn’t have been until 3pm so I headed back to my dorm afterwards. I had an e-mail that the class where I was supposed to give a speech that evening was canceled and then all classes were canceled from noon on.
We spent most of the rest of the day on our dorm floor, glued to the tv, seeing the same things over and over and over again. We left to get supper at least, probably lunch too. Our RA was going around to check on everyone and she was wearing a NYC shirt, said it’s just the shirt she put on that day, before she heard about any of it. Nickelodeon was about the only channel NOT covering the attacks and my roommate’s boyfriend (now husband) wanted to watch that and the Rugrats episode happened to be one where the Raptor destroys a city. It was very strange.
We went to a Mass in our dorm chapel that evening and I remember it being packed and noted in my diary how moving it was to have that small room fill with singing songs like "Amazing Grace". I don't think we really did anything besides watch tv and eat that day. I also noted in my diary that I didn't start my homework until 10pm. I talked to my Mom at some point in the day. Everyone was theorizing that Dayton was a next target since the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is in the area. Someone in the afternoon broke the sonic barrier leading to a HUGE noise that everyone was convinced was another attack but it obviously wasn’t.
Classes resumed the next day. The campus printer distributed paper American flags that nearly everyone hung in their windows for the rest of the year. A kid in my speech class that was first to cancel never came back to class because he had an uncle who was a firefighter in New York and I believe was at least missing. A freshman girl in another dorm lost her Dad and had signs hanging in her window the rest of the year that said RIP DAD 9/11 NYC.
I remember walking in to the campus library a week later and seeing the first plane I had seen in a week fly overhead. That was scarier than I expected. I remember how Friends started having little mentions of the NYPD or NYFD in the background and watching that season, season 8, still brings back memories of that time. It was an eerie time to be away from home and definitely cast a shadow over that fall.
On the one year anniversary we had a candle light vigil that was right outside my dorm that year. I still like seeing UD remember 9/11 every year with flags on the lawn since that is where I was on that day.
______________________________________________________
I encourage you to read the book and at least write down your own memories of 9/11, if you haven't yet (and if you were alive!). Maybe ask other family members to document theirs as well. The memories aren't going to get any fresher and this will be a day talked about for a very long time. Our stories might not matter as much as the ones directly affected by the attacks but they are still our personal stories and ones we can pass on to future generations.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, links for
which are included within this post, at no additional cost to you.
Thanks for helping support this blog! Of course, utilize the library
or shop used or from an independent bookstore, if you prefer!
No comments:
Post a Comment