9/11

I'm probably going to hell for this, but on 9/11 my first reaction was "that's not fair - they can't do that." My second reaction (after it was confirmed it was hijackers and not an accident) was "now we know how people in the Middle East feel." My third reaction (before the towers fell, and on the assumption that the hijackers had stolen UPS or FedEx planes - surely they couldn't have taken regular commercial airliners) was "since they're crashing planes into things, could they please do us a favor and crash into Veterans Stadium, because it needs to be torn down anyway."

-X

I remember exactly where I was - driving in my car. I had just gotten a haircut since I normally did that Tuesday mornings, and was listening to 610 WIP, the local sports talk station. Pat Croce was being interviewed promoting his latest book, and morning co-host Rhea Hughes was trying to get him off the air. Croce had no clue what was going on. At that point, WIP switched to ABC News. I figured I might as well listen to New York's coverage, so I turned to WABC (770 AM). When I got to work, 1 person had a TV and 1 person had their radio tuned to the news. Rumors were flying that the hijackers were attacking the Federal Aviation Administration building. Then the towers fell. Finally, our boss called us together and let us go home.

The enormity of it all didn't really hit me until the evening, when a TV cameraman walked past a crushed fire department truck, and there was a pool of liquid nearby - I thought it was oil, and then realized it was probably blood. That broke me up.

-P