9/11, eight years later

I slept late as well. Was in the car at about 1, turned on the radio and the station that always played classic rock had a press conference from American Airlines. That can't be good. Then I turned to AM and heard Ed Schultz, who happened to be in Washington, yelling that "everything has changed!" The hell? At the time Ed was a football play-by-play man and conservative talk radio host. When I returned home late that night there were a bunch of messages on the phone from my dad and sister, which I slept through.

 

I'll never forget Dan Rather breaking down when reporting the recovery of a victim and the chants among the firefighters: USA..USA...USA...

I'd like to remember the site of Congress signing "God Bless America" on the capitol steps, but the way they've acted since, I'm all but resigned to know that was for show.

 

They are also showing it tonight on the History Channel in the States, too. 9 EST, I think.

 

I had just finished pulling one of my ussual all nighters. Finally fell asleep around 7 a.m. Next thing I knew I woke up with the phone ringing. I answer it to my mom crying saying can you believe this. I had no clue. She told me to turn on the TV and was confused. The clock said 10:03 and I was groggy. I sat in bed all day watching TV and freaking out. I come from a family of firefighters, some of our friends are NY firefighters. One of them just transferred out there and his family was still living in our area. He was killed going back into the building. Still tough to deal with all of this.

 

It was supposed to be my first day back at work after a week's vacation up to Mackinac Island in Michigan. I was awoken by my brother and I thought he was full of shit. Clearly, he wasn't. By the time he called, both towers were down.

I remember calling my sports staff, many of whom were also asleep, so I was the first to relay the news. There's no way to convey the shock on the other end of the line.

I also remember how useless it was to be in sports for the two or three days after it happened. I gave my other two guys to news side to use, but being a one-man gang was no big deal as nothing was going on. I remember covering our intra-city cross country meet in that period, literally the only event until high school football that week.

I also remember covering the Indiana-Utah football game, one of the few that wasn't pushed back due to the attack. I remember constantly looking at the sky, wondering what might happen. I also recall covering the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis that year, the first international event in the U.S. after 9/11. Drivers, teams and fans alike were all on pins and needles.

I moved to a new job in Wisconsin a few months after 9/11, and you might recall that NFL stadia were supposedly a future target. For a solid year, I remember watching every plane in the sky when I covered sporting events.

It was scary at the time, but eventually, it dawned on most everyone that living in fear is exactly what terrorists want. So I don't anymore.

 

Three things stand out from that horrible day:

1. Getting a call from my ME with the news. I was home with my two-month-old daughter and 2-1/2 year old son. My wife was working. No TV, no radio on. I brought both the kids with me to work until my wife could get them, and that helped ease the tension in the newsroom a bit. Naturally, everyone was on edge.

2. In an age where we were believing that access to information should be instant, it took days to hear about our friends who lived in NYC (both were OK, thank God). Many weren't so lucky, and we all should think about them today.

3. One sentence I'll never forget -- it was uttered by a co-worker at the end of the night, after cranking out a bunch of local stories, a special edition, etc. We were living in the boondocks of northern Michigan, so nowhere near any type of terrorist target. We were a bunch of leftist whackos who literally had passed around petitions to get Nader and the Green Party on the ballot in Michigan; typical small-town newspaper with a staff that was much different than its readers.

Anyway, this colleague pulled me aside and said, "(Coco), ever feel like you were on the wrong side?"

Absolutely floored me, and I'll never forget it.

 

I was working for an airline at the time as a baggage handler. In the middle of turning a flight around the ramp manager called all of us in to the break room. Watching that on TV was one of the most surreal moments I have ever experienced.

What made it even more odd was that all our flights were grounded, most of the people that I worked with wanted to go home, but the director of operations wasn't about to let us go. We all stayed on the clock and watched the coverage until the next shift came in.

 

Reminds me of one of my favorite memories from that fall, and maybe one of my favorite memories ever.
I went to an LSU football game the Saturday before the attacks, then didn't get to another one until the makeup game against Auburn in early December. One of the traditions at LSU is fans singing the national anthem while the band plays it. I knew this, and going back the next time I looked forward to it.
Awesome doesn't begin to describe it.
90,000 fans, all amped up for the school's biggest game in 20 years, all keying down for a minute to sing the Star Spangled Banner together, almost loud enough that the band seemed to play accompaniment instead of leading it, and my ears hearing it for the first time since 9/11 ... damn. It gave me goosebumps and brought a tear to my eye. I will never forget that.

 

Texas A&M's first home game after 9-11 was pretty cool to see too.

 

That is awesome. I'm assuming they handed out placards for that, right?

 

I had to cover an event in NYC just a few weeks after 9/11. I've probably flown into one of the NYC area airports probably 100 times over the years between work and family I have who live there.

Flying in and not seeing the towers made my body feel numb. I knew they weren't going to be there, but it was really strange actually being there.

 

A&M is vastly underrated for being one of the best places to see a college football game.