Friday, September 11, 2009

Where were you?



I remember very clearly opening the door to Shiloh's knock. He was coming in from work for lunch. I hugged him and he said "We are at war" "What?" I asked. He asked if I'd been watching TV. I hadn't. I was very involved with whatever book I had been reading. I don't remember now what it was. He flipped on the TV and we watched while eating frozen dinners. He explained how at work no one was working. They were all crowded around a small TV watching the towers as they fell. By the time I heard,they were gone of course. We had no phone in our temporary apartment. We hadn't gotten things like cell phones or DVD players. Not everyone had them yet. You could still rent VHS. We had an air mattress a TV and our clothes. Everything else was in storage. We had to walk downstairs to the gas station with a hand full of quarters to call anyone. I don't remember if it was still 25 cents or not. We had green carpet in our hotel turned apartment. One side was like a hotel room with a small kitchen the other side was the same with the kitchen torn out and a bathroom instead. All bills were paid in our month to month rental. We could leave the window air conditioner unit on all day in this muggy town if we wanted. And we did. Once we rented one of the new PlayStation's from Hastings. Hastings was close enough for us to squeeze past the fence and walk to. During that week we had the rental I could walk over and rent a DVD. I think this is the first time I ever watched anything on DVD. All the extra features were amazing to me. I could watch in french if I wanted to. I didn't want to but still I could've. At night Shiloh would come in and shower and we would eat more frozen dinners. Swedish meatballs or fried rice and we would play Twisted Metal Black. Everyday we did this until our rental time was up. A week maybe ten days was all we had it. Such was our life during 9/11.


Shortly after we moved to a house

View Larger Map
(click on view larger map then once it loads click the down arrow 4 times then the left arrow 3 times...walah...our yellow house on Eloise)
and I taped the flag that the newspaper printed to the front window and lit candles underneath. You couldn't spot a car without a flag. This was the first time I ever realized that the flag actually goes both ways depending on which side you see it from. I just never noticed before...I remember feeling sad and kind of in shock. I had never even heard of the twin towers before they fell. I remember so many of the stories that I heard during that time. It is for those families who remain the reason why we should Never Forget. So where were you during it all?

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