It’s sounds cliche, but it’s true.  There are very few days I can remember in as stark detail as September 11, 2001. 

I was working at Marten Transport as a programmer, and Sue our VP came in and said a jet had hit a skyscraper in New York and that it was on TV in the break room.  I went down to see what she had been talking about and watched the second plane crash live on television.  I watched along with some truck drivers and other employees as they looped the second crash and tried to reason how this type of “accident” could happen, I went back to my desk angry and tried to get my mind off of it. 

Unable to concentrate (everyone was up talking about it by now) I returned to the break room in time to hear the gasps as the first tower disintegrated and watch it disappear.  Then I heard of more planes, victims jumping, the second tower, the pentagon, a field in Pennsylvania…

The walk home for lunch was an odd one.  Clear blue sky and quiet streets, with nobody out and about, I imagine most everyone was glued to their televisions or radios.
Jamie was home from school, she had watched everything in Economics class, and we sat on the couch and stared at images of smoldering buildings and dust covered people escaping from ground zero.

That evening cars started lining up out in the street past our house.  We live by two gas stations and apparently in Eau Claire, some jackass raised the price of gas at his station to over $5 a gallon.  Commuters seeing this and knowing the days events, were lining up to get gas before it was gone or ten dollars a gallon and the quiet panic spread to our little community.  We had a single police officer that was parked watching helplessly as Hwy 10 was  jammed in both directions with people waiting to get into the stations on either side of the road.  For my part, I grabbed a flashlight and stood at the bottom of Joel street directing people up the hill to turn around to help keep Hwy 10 clear in case an ambulance had to get by or something. 

I remember feeling good about this, just because I was helping with what I could and not sulking on my couch or sitting in my car hoping there would be enough gas when I got to the pump.

The world changed that day and I haven’t forgotten, because it was just another day, until horrible things happened out of a clear blue sky.