On September 11th, 2001, I was awakened by the phone ringing just before 7 AM. It was my brother James, calling to make sure if we were okay.
I asked, "What's up?"
He said, "Turn on the news." He said two planes flew directly into the World Trade Center.
I said, "Holy…" then, "Oh no, oh no, oh no!" The first image I saw was the South Tower falling.
With James on the phone, he quickly caught me up as I watched the replay of the planes hitting the towers. I woke up my parents and we all watched the news together. James said that they were probably going to make everyone go home. I watched the live broadcast as the North Tower fell, as the news cameras gathered at the Pentagon, as the news broke that another plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
James called when he got home from work and my mom's first worry was about any of the tall buildings in Chicago. While on the phone we speculated that it was Islamic terrorism and all the pundits they could throw on the phone or who were already in newsrooms all pointed at bin Laden as the prime suspect. We knew that we were at war. We watched, numbed, as the death toll rose along with the missing. At one point, the suspected number was over 15,000. I saw live coverage of Tower 7 collapse.
What I most remember that night, was that even ESPN, Comedy Central, and MTV were carrying the news coverage.
I posted an addendum to mine. I had completely forgotten that Jeffrey called me that day.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to remember if Jeffrey called us that day too, but I think we only knew that he called you because you worked downtown. I honestly can't remember. I just remember switching the channels so much.
ReplyDeleteHe called you guys first to get my number, is how I recall it.
ReplyDelete