story6650.xml

story6650.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

September 11 2001 ....it began so "normally". Little did I know, my personal lexicon would, in so little time, be so radically, drastically modified forever..."Normal", the word, the context, on September 11, 2001, was deviated and mutated to become something I could never imagine. I was on my way to work in a small Mom N Pop grocery store in a very economically depressed area that was once thriving and beautiful (Dunkirk New York). I was listening to a local radio station, when they interrupted with news that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My brain erupted in small paroxysms...then I immediately clamed myself down. "It must have been a small little Cessna with an inebriated pilot...or maybe he/she had a stroke....Ohmygawsh....a hundred people might be hurt....."...those were my initial thoughts. My thoughts prior to learning, upon arriving at work, what was transpiring....Prior to "normal" being so radically changed....And then, as we watched in horror in the office as yet another plane....not a Cessna, but a 747 airliner...crashed into the second tower....I realized the inevitable. I immediately called my husband, who was at home with my two small children. He was blissfully ignorant of these events, having delved into Sesame Street some time earlier....He immediately changed the channel, to watch an exasperated (yet still unbelievably composed) Aaron Brown of CNN delivering the news...that America was indeed under attack. My daughter, then three, and son, not yet one, continued playing, a bit miffed that their father had changed the station, but completely unaware of the horrific events unfolding in their young lives.....Blissfully (if I may use that term once again) ignorant of the fact that children as small as themselves had died aboard airplanes that had been deliberately, demonically thrust into landmarks symbolizing the essence of America.....I left work an hour later, and as I drove home, I realized the quiescence....the entire area seemed to be completely devoid of any sort of activity...a collective hush had gathered over this particular portion of Western New York State...a drastic antithesis to the events occurring, practically, in our proverbial backyard. I remember feeling numb...trite to say, but....I felt the need to abscond with my children...away from the television...and amidst the backdrop of the agony, the devastation, the loss, the eventual grief....we played miniature golf. All the while, my thoughts retreating....realizing that "Normal" just wasn't normal any longer.