Where were you?

I wanted to go in a different direction in this post,I want to stay away from politics,and just talk about one day in my life. Tuesday September 11th 2001 is one of those situations in life in which you will always remember where you were at when it happened. For me I was at work,at the time I was working a small town newspaper one of eleven employees , I ran the printing department,and most mornings I did my prep,and finishing from the day before jobs. During this time I would usually have the radio on,and when I heard about the first plane hitting the first tower in was really just a quick blurb on before the commercial break,about 20 minutes later they announced that a second plane hit the second tower. The original report on the radio was that the first plane was a commercial Jetliner,and the second was a small private plane,but they believed that this was now a terrorist attack,before I even started thinking about what was going on I went around the building,and told everyone what was going on,most everyone turned on their radio at that point. About a half hour later I was standing in the front talking to the secretary's about everything,and then we heard about a third plane crashing into the Pentagon,when that was announced on of the secretary's named Carol got very quiet,her Father was a lifetime military man,and was currently stationed at the Pentagon. She was on the verge of tears,but not quite hysterical. She told the owners she needed to find out what was going on,and they told her just stay there,and make whatever phone calls she needed,they did not want her driving in her condition. About the time we thought it was all over a half hour later we heard that a fourth plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. It was also around this time that it was announced that all airflight was grounded until further notice, I guess with everything going on I didn't really even contemplate that would happen. I had a one way ticket for Friday morning to fly to New Orleans, I wasn't to worried about it because I knew I would be able to rework my schedule when flight was resumed. However we already had a Ryder truck reserved in Louisiana for the move back here,and my girlfriend who was living in Louisiana at the time I knew would be freaking out about it. We found out about an hour after the Pentagon bombing that Carols dad's office was moved due to the work that was being done at the Pentagon,and was actually at an office building about a block from the Pentagon,but her mom still had not heard from him,but he was more then likely fine. I took lunch a little earlier that day,and the owners told me they went home for lunch that day,and that both of the Twin Towers had collapsed. I went home from work around five that day which was a little later then normal,looking back I think it was because I didn't want to be by myself,not out of fear,but I think because I wanted to be somewhere with fellow American's. All the local church's in town had big signs out front that said come in and pray, I thought about going in,but since I hadn't been to church in years I thought it would be hypocritical,and I would be more comfortable praying at home instead. Normally when I would get home from work I would watch an hour of the Simpsons,but tonight I was like everyone else I wanted to see what was going on,and I just couldn't believe the actual visual site of watching those planes smash into those buildings. It was after five P.M. And I was just watching these images for the first time. I called my parents,and my mom who is always worried about something was of course worried about me flying after this event. I wasn't able to talk to my girlfriend Angel (who would later become my wife) until she got home from work at around 8:30, so I pretty much spent the rest of the evening watching the news footage,and talking to a few friends on the phone. Angel got a hold of me when she got home from work,and we talked until 2:00 a.m, I tried to just tell her that all we can do is play things by ear. If we loose the rider truck there is nothing we can do about it,and I also felt they probably would understand the circumstances,and either hold it or refund her the money. I tried to play it as I wasn't nervous about flying,but to be honest I was, I had never flown and my flight was suppose to be one of the very first flights allowed back in the air. I remember the anger,and true hatred I had in my heart that day for the people who had committed these acts,and also the pride I had as an American when it seemed that everyone in America was all on the same page. There were no political parties, no racial divides, It seemed that we all wanted the same exact thing, for terrorists in the world to pay for what had happened,and make sure it never happened again . When I got off the phone with Angel about 2:00 a.m, I watched t.v for a while longer,but could feel myself falling asleep as I watched, I went to bed completely mentally drained. When you remember the anniversary of 9-11 remember how you felt inside that day,and remember all of those who died that day, all of them were loved by somebody,they were mother's, father's, brother's, sister's, son's, daughter's, husband's,and wife's, and they were from all racial,and religious backgrounds, business people,emergency workers,and blue color people they were truly what this country is about, the great melding pot. They were Americans. Until next time I'm the Angry American