Our store was opening at 9am for a sale on September 11, 2001. I had just gotten by register open and had straightened my department. Ready for the day. My friend Thom, who worked in Rugs next to my department, came in and said that he had heard on the radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. He and I talked about it for a minute, and both of us had decided it must have been a small plane. Maybe the pilot had a heart attack. He said it might be on TV.
I walked across our floor to the break room and cut on the TV. I saw the big hole in the side of the building and thought that could not have been a small plane, judging from the damage and the smoke. As I was watching CNN, I saw the second plane crash into the second tower. I saw it live. I was shocked and horrified. I knew immediately that we were under attack.
I ran back to my department and told Thom what I had seen. He went to get a radio. I ran to the store manager's office and told her what had happened. She cut on her radio and told me to get back to the TV. Every time something new happened, I went back to report to our manager. I saw the towers collapse. I could not believe my eyes. I saw President Bush get on Air Force One. He wanted to get back to Washington, but I am glad he didn't. No one knew how bad it was. No one knew what was going to be attacked next. There was a story on TV about people seeing smoke rising from an area near the Pentagon. News came soon that a plane had hit the Pentagon. People in DC were running for their lives. I was running back to the office and then back to the break room. Our manager told me that I was not to tell others, but someone on the radio said that the Columbia area had been locked down. Was Fort Jackson next? After all, it was the largest Army training facility in the world. What about Shaw Air Force Base? It was only 30 miles away. We were scared.
Then, we heard about another plane crashing in Pennsylvania that was heading for Washington. How many more? All flights were grounded, and those in the air had to land wherever they could. Our store had opened for a sale, but we didn't have any customers. No one dared to go outside. We were in a mall. Would that be attacked, too?
Our store manager was on the phone with other stores in Columbia and around our region. We decided that it would be in everyone's best interest to close early, because we had no business, and employees needed to be home with their families. So, the decision was made to close at 4pm. I was in the process of closing some registers, when a woman came up to me and said she wanted to buy something. I told her we were closing, and she had to come back tomorrow. She asked why we were closing, and I asked her had she not heard the news about the attacks? She said, "What attacks?". I told her to go home and cut on the TV. We were closing. I thought that was scary that she knew nothing about it. She was glad she got a parking place close to the store. Wonder why?
So we closed, and everyone went home. I was glued to the TV in my apartment in utter shock. The next day, I was off and went to the post office to mail off something. My eyes caught the eyes of my favorite postal clerk there. We knew what each was thinking about the events of the day before, and we both started crying. People were lining up to give blood. There was a wave of patriotism sweeping over our country.
As a post script to that time, I had a friend who lived in Queens. He was making breakfast in his kitchen that awful day and watched the planes hit both towers across the bay from his house. Little did he know that his brother, who worked for the NYPD, was going into one of those towers. When that tower collapsed, his brother was killed. After that, my friend sunk into deep depression. He had seen his brother die, even though he didn't know it at the time. A few years later, my friend killed himself over the grief. I spoke to a New York firefighter years later, and I told him about my friend and his brother. He said that there were similar stories of relatives killing themselves over their loved ones perishing that day. So sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment