Monday, September 11, 2006

Where were you?

I was living in Phoenix at the time. We had just had our 18 month anniversary 8 days earlier. My husband had left for work around 6am that morning. My job with the cable advertising company didn't require me in the office till 9am so my alarm didn't go off till 8am (PST) that morning. It wasn't unusual to wake up to the morning talk show people talking instead of music but as soon as the radio turned on to wake me up I could tell that something had happened. The radio Deejays weren't their happy, funny selves.

I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room and flipped on the t.v to Fox News Channel. Only one of the towers was still standing, the other had just tumbled to the ground. I picked up the phone and called Christy. She having two little ones I knew she was awake and had probably been for awhile. She told me that terrorists had high-jacked airplanes and crashed them into the towers and the pentagon. I think by this point the 4th plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. I sat down on the couch in shock. Christy told me that Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind it. She had some Pakistani neighbors; they had often said that Osama had been looked at as a hero, Christy and I only hoped that after this horrific attack they might find some way to support the country they live in now.

After hanging up with Christy I called my office. I talked with Sue. I worked very closely with her. She confirmed what Christy had told me and that so far everyone was to come into the office. Sue and my job was to put commercials that didn't air back into the rotation, switching them out with promos and free spots. She told me that for the past four hours not a single commercial had aired on nearly 15 cable channels. Everything was running live coverage of the attacks.

I hung up, got showered and dressed quickly and hurried into the office. By close to 9am most people were in their offices and Phoenix was quiet but there was an erie quietness to the city as I drove into work. There were no car horns rudely honking, people weren't rushing through the street lights; everywhere you looked people were being kind and considerate to each other.

I walked into the office to find the same somber silence. Every tv in the office (it was a cable company there were a lot of them) was tuned to CNN, MSNBC or Fox News Channel watching the coverage. I knew it was pointless to try to put the fallen out commercials back in, so I put started to work on the future orders. I remember looking up at the t.v. watching a reporter giving a live detailed report when directly behind her the second tower began to tumble to the ground and she along with her crew went running for cover.

I found it hard to work and hard to concentrate and it wasn't just me. One of the televisions was right above my desk and everyone else in my department was standing around watching the screen. I was only in the office for 30 minutes when our boss came around telling everyone that they were going to close up the office. Slowly the rest of my department filed out of the office.

My specific job at Cablerep was to build the playlists for all the commercials schedules for all the different channels in all the different zones for the next day. We knew that the cable networks would most likely not be running commercials for a few days. I built the modified playlists, finding myself alone in the office. The tv was still on. I took the tapes with the new commercials into the Master Control and walked back out to my desk.

It felt so odd and unreal to turn off the tv and my computer and walk out of the office before Noon. I went back out to my car and drove home. I don't really remember much about the rest of the day. My husband was at school. Did they let out too? I don't know. Did I stay at home for the rest of the day till my husband came home? I don't know.

I do know that the next few days were a very odd feeling. It felt wrong to be happy, and return to our normal every day tasks. I remember a feeling of patriotism so large I couldn't remember ever seeing the country so patriotic. The radio station arranged a giant concert for charity to donate to the families of the victims of 9/11. For many going back to their regular lives was easy, but down at CableRep it wasn't so easy.

Looking at the computer showing the commercials that played and the ones that didn't was a simple reminder of what had happened. The news channels were still running live coverage almost every day. Our clients felt the need to revise their commercials to include some sort of remembrance of what had happened in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. Some clients asked to have their commercials removed completely, they didn't want to appear as being insensitive for running their commercials so soon. And we in the traffic department did what the client wanted.

A few days later President Bush declared a day of prayer. Churches and organizations gathered together across the country. President Hinkley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints had arranged a worldwide broadcast that would include talks from leaders of the church and patriotic songs sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There were a few Mormons in our office, and just a few that were good friends with members of the church that were interested in listening to the broadcast. We gathered in a small office where a tv had been turned to BYUTV so that we could watch the broadcast. It felt so wonderful to stand there with other members of the church and listen to the Prophet speak and to hear the beautiful choir sing.

It's been 5 years now. You just have to look out on the street to see that people have settled back into their normal every day lives. No longer does every house on the street have a flag flying high. An email was sent out to encourage everyone to fly an American Flag on this the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I want my children to know that today is a special, solemn, sober day. Our main task for today will be to go buy a flag and make sure it's flying high.

This picture was taken by my Brother-in-law Sterling at the house in Idaho.

Eden and
Sariah in Vancouver and
Karen have very good posts about today.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 9/11/2006 07:00:00 AM :: 1 Comments:

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