What do my kitchen, the Olympus High Seminary Building, and the Student Center at Salt Lake Community College have in common?
They are all cemented in my memory of 9/11.
I was waiting to take my sister to school just before 7:00 Am when she said "Oh my God, there's a huge whole in the World Trade Center." I ran to look at our kitchen TV, and saw it. KSL had a Live NBC feed for the video, but still had the local morning anchors talking. The text on the TV said "Small plane hit World Trade Center."
We then left for school.
Driving my sister the two blocks to school, we had KSL Radio on. They were broadcasting their sister station from NYC, who was talking to an eyewitness over the phone. He was describing the size of the plane, calling it a "large, twin engine" plane, when all of a sudden, right after my sister got out of the car on the north side of the seminary building, the eyewitness said "Oh my God! Oh my God! It just happened again!"
I picked up my friend Joe, and we drove down to SLCC for classes. We were early, so we went to the College Center to watch the TV. That is where I would spend the next several hours.
My first complete "Oh Shit" moment was when I saw the Pentagon. I have always said that I would join the military if we had annother Pearl-Harbor event and it looked like we would have a draft. (More on this subject in part III.)
We all watched in horror as the towers fell. Complete strangers cried, hugged, and prayed together. THe guy I was sitting next to for most of the time bought me a Pepsi, which was a reassuring act of friendship to a complete stranger.
Coming up in part II -- The week later, and moving on.
-Bob
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