Well, five years ago on this day, it started sorta the same.
My wife was out at the gym or something and I woke up to check on some Fantasy Football results from the day before. Seeing if I’d won or lost or if it depended on Monday night football (lost more depend on MNF this year because there are TWO games tonight.) While looking around a buddy shows up on AIM and asks if I’d heard about the plane hitting the Trade Center in NYC. I’d not.
I figured it was one of those small Cessna planes where the pilot got disoriented or drunk or something. So I didn’t immediately think it was a major disaster. But then he told me it was a airliner w/ lots of people on board. So I try to look on CNN.com or USAToday.com and got some info but their servers were VERY slow. But yes indeed, a big passenger plane slammed into the World Trade Center and lots of people had died. No one was sure why it had happened. Pilot error? Hijacking?
I go get in the shower and listen to the radio and hear the rest of the story unravel. A second plane hits the other tower. Buildings begin to collapse. Many thousands expected dead at first estimates. Fire and Police details scrambling to get control of the situation. Other planes hitting the Pentagon or ground in Pennsylvania. It was just nuts. An act of terrorism.
I go to work and we just watch TV all day. You felt numb almost. Is it really happening. Of course, way down in Mississippi you feel distant enough you almost “safe” from any terrorist threat. But you just didn’t know (just like we still don’t.) People went crazy at the gas pump. Cars lined up everywhere trying to stockpile gasoline. All people did was watch the news for the next few days. Prez Bush was on tv a good bit. He was a hero for a few weeks there. My how times have changed.
How is my world different now because of 9-11? In small ways, I’m sure. But my average day to day goings on, nothing overtly obvious. Of course airline travel is different. But I’m sure there are subtle, or even secret ways, that my life (and everyone’s life in the USA) has changed. But what’s to come?
