I was still in bed while my wife was getting ready for work. She had just gotten out of the shower and had heard on the radio that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, she saw me stirring and told me. I figured, at first thought it was some tiny two-seat propeller plane accident, but turned on the radio to listen. Just then the second plane hit the second tower, and I sat up in bed like a rocket, this was no accident!
I watched several hours of the television coverage, glued to the set. The boys came home from school early and so did my wife from work. This gave us a chance to sit down and talk together and deal with any fears or anxieties in a rational way, and at the same time exercise our family bonds making them stronger.
That afternoon we headed down to DesPlaines Conservation Area to train our dogs like we did every Tuesday. There was a surreal feeling about doing the norm on that day, continuing to listen to the coverage over the radio in the truck. It didn't help that there were much fewer people outside and cars on the road. It almost felt like we were behaving wrongly.
While we were out training, a single airliner flew high above us in the sky, when all other had been grounded. It was Air Force One accompanied by two fighter jets heading back to Washington, D.C., from Offutt AFB in Nebraska where the President was first taken for safety.
Nine years later and I still remember it like it was yesterday. It is true when they say you will never forget where you were when we were attacked in our homeland, September eleventh, two-thousand and one.
Copyright © 2010 by Kevin W. Walker
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