Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The Fire by Randy Sullivan I awoke early on this beautiful Sunday morning following the attack by terrorists in New York City. My first thoughts again turned to the senseless carnage of the previous Tuesday. As I lay there I could hear my son restlessly moving around in his bed. He hasn?t slept well since the great evil of the day that turned our world around and I was hoping that he would begin to settle into his normal routine. But I could tell from the sounds that he was still having trouble. And again I found myself angry that the faceless cowards had brought pain to my son. As I lay there I decided that we should do an activity together that would bring back some normalcy to his life. I would need my chainsaw later in the day and that meant I would have to go up to our land to get it from the shed. I thought perhaps I could take him with me. We could stop at the store and get a little something to eat along the way. The radio in my old truck was turned to a country station as we made the 12-mile journey to the land. Wyatt eating his doughnut and I was sipping my coffee as we went on our way. Then my son said, dad, is that the woman with the cell phone? I wasn?t really paying attention but then heard a woman?s voice on the radio. What cell phone I asked? You know, the woman in the building talking to the fireman. It was then that I remembered the news report about the trapped woman who had called 911 from beneath the rubble. No Wyatt, she?s at home now. I didn?t tell him her home was with the Lord, as the chance of survivors has grown slim. And I knew that the pictures in his mind wouldn?t go away. At least for today. For him, for me or for my countrymen. And I wondered how other parents were dealing with this. The morning was beautiful with the eastern sun still low in the sky shinning through the trees. There was no wind and it was particularly still in the woods. The silence was wonderfully therapeutic and I could tell that Wyatt was enjoying this early morning adventure with his dad. Since we had a couple hours before church I asked him if he'd like me to make a fire in the pit. He was excited about that idea so I did. The wood was a little damp so the fire put out a lot of smoke. As the smoke wafted through the tree's it gave off sort of a misty look. And the sun?s rays were clearly seen coming through the mask of smoke. Wyatt was quite taken with the beauty of it and said, Dad, from now on when planes crash into buildings we will do this. Not quite onto his train of thought I said, do what Wyatt? He said come to the land and have a fire. I asked him why that would be helpful and he said because it's so beautiful that it makes me forget the burning buildings. For the umpteenth time since Tuesday, I held him close to my chest so that he couldn't see the tears rolling down my cheeks and told him that yes, we will do this everytime the planes hit the buildings. And once again I silently dammed the faceless cowards. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6043.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.215.240.43