Where were you when the terrorist attacks were happening?

What were you doing?

What was running through your mind?

I ask this because it ends up being on most everyone's mind today. My sis gets bummed because although she feels sorry that this happened to the US, the 12th is her birthday. People get so wrapped up in it that the next day they tend to forget, at least in the first couple of years this happened. Now, memories are still long, pain lingers for those who were directly affected, and life has moved on, somewhat.

I still like to ask. It's amazing to see the responses. No two are alike.

So I pose this to whomever reads this blog entry. See the three questions above. :)

I personally was not at home during the attack, I was in Franklin, IN. I was on the job with a previous company supervising the installation of a conveyor system into the distribution center (DC) of what was Musicland. Eventually Best Buy bought Musicland, and so where I was at was at a recently 'converted' DC.

The installers were laying down conveyor and securing it, and in this area was an open break 'room' with a 27" TV next to all the coffee and snack machines. A small crowd gathered around the TV in the middle of the morning, watching the breaking news unfold as a plane had hit the WTC. At the time, they were surmising that it was a Cessna that hit, because noone saw the plane - or came forward just yet. It was still too fresh. I remember seeing that scar in the side of the building, smoking slightly, papers fluttering down. And I remember thinking, "No Cessna did that much damage."

A little while later, the crowd grew around the TV as the second plane hit. Now it got serious. People were wondering what the heck was going on. Was this an attack? Who was doing this? What was wrong with the Air Traffic Control? Then it started to come across that there were hijackings going on. Then the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and it seemed everyone went into a low-key panic. News reports were coming in like crazy - missile this, hijacking that, type of plane upgraded to passeger airliners.

Then the 4th plane crashed in PA.

Then the first tower fell.

And then the second.

Going back to the hotel in Indianapolis, it was a madhouse in front of the gas station. Prices skyrocketed to $5.00/ gal from a little under $2.00 the day before. I filled up when I got down there the previous day, so I was good to go. All that night in Indy, all I could hear were emergency vehicles going somewhere. For 2 hours, I estimated. This small Midwest city was going haywire. I think the crews were going to NYC to see if they could help. A friend/neighbor of mine was going to fly to Cancun the next day. She ended up driving instead to catch the ship. That was a long haul.

The next few days were surreal. Not one aircraft in the sky. Where I live is in the flight path of one of the major airports, and I got used to, over the years, hearing an airliner scream on takeoff and make whatever turn it needed to head to its destination. Seeing the contrails as airplanes passed through different temperature layers and water-laden air. None of that in the following days. I thought, "This is the way the skies were about 100 years ago, before powered heavier-than-air flight became a reality. Amazing."

An eerie peace. I know that the Sears Tower was evacuated, as it was theorized that it would be the next target at the time. I can't imagine how things would have been if an aircraft had smacked into the single tallest occupied building in North America.

So... where were you when 9/11/01 was permanently etched into US History?