September 2001 (A Month Like No Other)

The second in my reports from 2001. This cannot compare with the dramatic reports of 9/11/2001, but it is a real life report.  Reading this puts me back in that very spot on that very day. 

SEPT 6 THROUGH SEPT 11, 2001

The month started with me able to have a wonderful three day visit to Gering to see my parents, Dorothy and Lee JOHNSTON in Gering, Nebraska.  We went to Eastern Star the evening of the 6^th and it was so nice to see the folks that belong to my OES Chapter.  I have only been to one Eastern Star meeting since I moved from Gering in 1971.  After the meeting there was a birthday cake for Shirley Smith and ME.  It was a fun evening and we enjoyed it very much.  The rest of the visit was doing fun things like, shopping, and a ride to Torrington to see Paul Reed=s operation up there.  We ran into Ron, a friend of Lee, and he invited us to see the apartment he and his wife rented in Torrington.  It was a very pleasant visit to Gering.  Little did we know that this would be the last week of life as we had known it.  

On the following Tuesday morning, September 11, John and I arrived home from town after having breakfast out.  Our neighbor, Mary, was walking by and crying.  We asked what was wrong and she said AHave you seen TV? The World Trade Center has been attacked!@  

We hurried inside just in time to see the second plane fly into the corner of the South Trade Tower.  We sat transfixed to the TV screen.  It seemed like a horrible movie scene.  I will never forget those first moments as we kept hearing more and more bad news and wondered when it would all end and what would happen to our country.  Next came the images of the third plane flying into a section of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.   A fourth plane went down in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.  This plane was diverted from its intended target, which I am sure was NOT a field in Western Pennsylvania.  Thank God for cell phones, as many passengers on those ill fated planes got messages out of what was happening and to tell their loved ones goodbye.  

Ironically, Somerset County, Pennsylvania is where my Revolutionary Ancestor, Ezra Cary, served in the militia in 1777.  Hopefully we will not have to resort to a militia again in this country, but if we do, I am confident that we will arise to the occasion, just as Ezra Cary did.  

Tuesday is our normal lawn mowing day and after an hour or so of horror, I couldn=t watch anymore, so I decided to go out and start mowing.  Not that I was dismissing what was happening, I just couldn=t watch anymore.

When we finished our chores, we sat quietly at the picnic table in the backyard and listened to the quiet of the World around us.  The sky was painfully quiet.  The Interstate was painfully quiet.  The neighborhood was quite.  I will never forget the feeling of that morning when our World changed before our very eyes.  Laurie called and the first thing she said was, AI love you Mom.@ We seem to need to say that in difficult times.