Where were you on September 11, 2001?
I remember like it was yesterday.
I had arrived for work at Parkvale Bank in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. It was a few minutes before 9:00 am, and on my way in I happened to pass by a television set. The news was on, and it was covering a freak accident -- an airplane had run into one of the World Trade Center towers. I remember thinking that I'd have to catch the news when I got home to see what happened.
Work began like normal. I worked with the "IT Posse" in the data center, and we were handling our routine tech operations. About 10:15, one of my co-workers came in and said, "Hey, did you guys hear about a plane crash at the World Trade Center?" I replied that I had seen something about it on the news as I came in, but I hadn't heard anything else. By the time we realized what was going on, the floor we worked on was abuzz with radios and people conversing in utter disbelief.
My wife called me around noon, sobbing. I did what I could to try to calm her down. I also called my parents -- as it so happens, my father's birthday is September 11th.
About 1:00 in the afternoon, we noticed that several vehicles had arrived in the parking lot of the bank. The bank is located at the intersection of two major highways, one of which will take you out to Somerset County. Many rescue teams had chosen our parking lot as a meeting point.
Downtown Pittsburgh was given an evacuation order, and our downtown branches called us to let us know they were closing. My mother-in-law worked downtown; I called her at home, to make sure she had arrived safely.
We spent the remainder of the day sitting in one small vacant office, crowded around a radio tuned to KDKA, the local news/talk radio station. We had tried to find news websites to read, but even the big ones were unreachable. I managed to find the news page on the BBC website, which would just barely load. We all shared details and rumors as we heard them.
When I left work, I went straight to my in-laws' house. We sat there most of the evening with some of the family, just watching the news. I remember we had fish sandwiches for dinner.
All these things I remember, and much more. I could not give you that much detail for perhaps any but one or two other days of my life.
The media coverage and memorials will eventually fade into the background, and children who were born after 9/11/01 will grow up and read about that day in history books and magazine articles.
But I was here. And I will never forget.
Posted by wrodina at September 12, 2003 12:48 AM | TrackBack