A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR 9/11 ON THE 22ND ANNIVERSARY

Where were you? What were you doing? I can play that day back like a video in my mind. From the time I woke up to when I went to sleep. I worked a later morning shift so I wasn’t expected at work until 11 AM. Waiting at the school bus stop with Connor with Brynne in her car seat. KDWB’s DJs couldn’t figure out if this story from New York was an accident or on purpose. I got to Lisa ‘s parents to drop off my daughter and finally got to see the live coverage. Then number 2 hit. Then the Pentagon and the flight in Pennsylvania in an empty field. Madness. I stared endlessly at the TV screen. The towers started to fall. The giant dust clouds. The chaos. The sheer insanity. I couldn’t park in the parking garage downtown because they had a possible bomb threat and had dogs actively sniffing the premises. I parked on the street and didn’t have to worry about plugging the meter as those officers were busy being concerned with more important things. I worked at the phone company then and it was crazy with overloaded phone lines and schools rumored to be the next target. You couldn’t get a phone call to anywhere on the northern east coast. I spoke with people trying to reach their family and friends and I could hear the worry in their voice. Several of my coworkers had the same types of calls at varying levels of distress. We had an airport right across the river. Would the next attack be some random plane crashing to downtown St. Paul just to do any form of damage? Everything closed that day. The Mall of America was evacuated because it was rumored as a target as well. After work I drove home and saw people panicking over gas and lines of cars pouring into the streets. Back to the TV as much as I could to take it all in. That night on my back porch was as quiet as being out in the country with 2 jets circling the Twin Cities area as the only movement. That was it. So many dead in such a brazen act of hate. Put all your politics and complaints aside for one day and just remember.