It Should Have Been Just Another Day

I remember...I was getting new tires on my Explorer that day, because I was worried about the Firestone ones exploding...I bet some people wished that was their biggest worry that day.

I was sitting in Big Boy's restaurant, reading a book cause I didn't want to sit at the Ford dealership for two hours. There were some retirees having what was certainly a weekly ritual...they were talking about random things over coffee and eggs. One of their friends came in and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I remember thinking that he most certainly must have meant just the radio tower on top of the building...and that maybe it was a helicopter instead. Nobody else had heard anything at that point though, but he seemed to think it was more important that people were acknowledging...he sure was right about that. I figured taht whatever was going on would probably be on the news, so I paid my bill and went back to the dealership because I remembered that they had a television in the waiting area. I walked into the waiting lounge and I thought that they were having some sort of meeting. What I saw next changed this country forever. It wasn't just the radio tower and it certainly wasn't a helicopter. Surprisingly, they finished working on my tires. I went to work, where we watched more of the unfolding terror, but really everyone wanted to be at home with their loved ones, so we cancelled the few appointments that didn't already call to cancel and closed the salon early that day. I spent the rest of the day watching every news channel possible with my mother - we kept changing the channel hoping to get more information than the last channel had given us. We cried. A lot. I remember after that day we had a "contest" at work. It was for our customers. They could purchase raffle tickets for like $5 or something and all the money that we collected would go to help out in the rebuilding afterwards. The customer would "win" a free haircut or something like that...it was a cheesy contest, but so many people wanted to do something that they bought the tickets. I know that there is so much more to remember from that day...and so much that we will never forget. I know this is how I would rather remember NYC.


My brother flew to California today - from Florida. I knew that he would be fine, but there was a small part of me that was really worried about him flying on the fifth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack this country has ever seen. He said he figured it was probably the safest day to fly...he's probably right.

So, if you have an open mind and you are okay with knowing that our government isn't the squeakest clean government out there you should check out "Loose Change". It really gives you a new perspective.