It was Tuesday. I was 22 years old. I was taking a week off of work using "vacation" hours that I had just acquired the previous Friday, the second anniversary of my hire date at Springfield Remanufacturing. I hadn't gone anywhere. An actual vacation, as people define them here in the U.S., wasn't in the budget for me, but I was thoroughly enjoying my time off of work just hanging around the house with Jacob, then only 19 months old.
We left our home, just out of town, around 2:00 in the afternoon to get a few things at Walmart. Along the way, I drove past two gas station both of which had lines of cars stretching out into the streets. I found it odd, for sure, but didn't think too much of it until after I left a hectic Walmart and saw the same lines at other gas stations, as well.
I thought that maybe I should find out what was going on. I switched the car stereo from CD to radio and heard a lot of talk. I only picked up clues, but couldn't figure out exactly what they were talking about. I switched the station twice to find the same talk again and again. The stations were broadcasting the same thing. I heard, "war", "attack on American soil", and "death toll well into the thousands."
When I got home, I scrambled to find the TV antenna that was still packed away despite having lived at the house for over three months. I've never been much of a TV watcher. After hooking up the antenna, I sat and watched the footage for hours.
Alan Jackson wrote a song less than two months after the disaster. That song asked a simple question that has an answer almost everyone in the United States remembers very clearly: "Where were you?" So, where were you when you got the news?
Where Were You?
2 comments:
I was working at Tony's Texaco in Ozark and BOY was it ever busy after this!! The first in the ridiculous spike to gas prices. Yuck. Totally glued to the t.v. though. Intense.
I was in Texas, living at my mom's apartment, when I was awakened by my phone ringing. I answered it to find that it was my friend, Rock. All he said was, "turn on the TV" and then hung up. I lazily walked into the living room just as the second plane nailed the second tower. I wasn't sure in my sleepy state exactly what was going on. Was it a movie? What is it? As I watched for hours the picture became very clear.
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