My September 11th Memories & Climate In D.C. 2008

I was in bed when I got the call from my roommate, at about 5 a.m. or so. She worked at a woman's health gym and rang me up to ask if I had heard the news. I hadn't. She said a plane hit the tower in NY, and then, as she was watching t.v. and on the phone with me, said "Ohmigod" and told me another plane had hit. She said, "there are people jumping out of buildings" and that they were saying it might be a terrorist attack.

I told her I had to go and that I was going to find a t.v. to watch.

We didn't have a television. By choice, I had sacrified my t.v. to the BoobTube god 6 years earlier. I had a t.v. which only played movies and I'd watch movies and foreign films, but no t.v.

I drove to the nearest store which I knew had t.v.s. It was a thrift store. I went straight to the back where there was a variety of television sets from the 1950s to the 1980s. Big and heavy boxes. They were all on, some in color, some in black and white, and they played the same footage. Emergency warnings and people jumping out of buildings. People running, and ashes and dust. I stood there, pretty much by myself, just watching. One man came over and watched with me. Otherwise, no one was there.

It was surreal, thinking about that scene. With the modern events playing on these old television sets, covered in dust and worn.

I left, looking left and right, paranoid and vigilant for terrorists driving about on the road. Even though I was on the West Coast, which wasn't quite as scary, it was scary. If they were there, they could be anywhere and everywhere.

I wanted to help out in some way, immediately, so that same day, I drove to a Red Cross organization and gave blood, standing in line with others who were like-minded. I had to do "something" active, to give in some way. This was a very good, communal thing to do. We were a lot of strangers, together with a common interest and idea, and just watched footage on overhead televisions, and talked. We talked through the scariness. I am a very firm believer in talk therapy. Whether one talks about things, or writes about it, it's a good way to process things and "work it out".

I later volunteered to work as a nanny for a family that had been affected, for free, if they needed my help. That effort was recorded by a journalist who passed along my information, who worked out of D.C., actually (I think). It was E.J. Dionne Jr. ?

Yesterday, I noticed the climate in D.C. It seemed subdued. The town seemed quieter than usual. I didn't think it was my imagination, and I asked some people, who agreed they had thought the same thing. People didn't forget about it. They were going about their days, but they were remembering.

God bless those who lost someone they loved, and those who are still recovering from the trauma of that day (workers, service people, first response, medics). We wish you well.

On that same day, at that thrift store, I bought a t.v. It was black and white. But I wasn't going to go through whatever was happening, without access to a televison. At night, I fell asleep to talk radio. I listened to the news until I fell asleep, and sometimes I couldn't fall asleep until I heard the fighter jets overhead.

For some reason, it was comforting to me to hear the sound of fighter jets at nights. It made me feel protected.