Schultz Party of Four

Friday's Memory

September 11

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My mom says that she can distinctly remember the day Kennedy was shot. She was just pulling her chair up to the TV, following a long day at kindergarten, to watch Captain Kangaroo. She was not happy that the program had been interrupted to announce the assassination.

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I remember always thinking that an event of such a calabor, as to burn a memory in the minds of an entire nation, must really be amazing to live through. I vaguely remember the Challenger Explosion, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, but I think my generation was defined as our memories were seared on September 11, 2001.

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Everyone has their story, where they were, who they were with, how they learned of the first plane - and then the second. My story is not a stand-out amongst the millions, but it is mine.

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Sitting in a classroom on the second floor of Learned Hall, my professor came in to prep for our Surveying course. He mentioned, calmly, that his wife had just called to say a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I imagined a small single-engine plane with some kook behind the controls, maybe a handful of unfortunate casualties and that was it.

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He ran back to his office to grab a few papers and came back with a baffled look, 'She said another has hit, and they were both commercial jets - she actually saw the second plane hit'...We were stunned, and confused and not at all fully aware of the severity of this day.

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The hour passed uneventfully, Strengths and Materials was next and Professor Thomas was somber. The towers had fallen, the United States was under attack, all planes had been grounded. Had we been students in any school besides Engineering we'd have probably been dismissed to head to the nearest radio or television - but Engineers are like mailmen, snow, wind, sleet or hail - the mail must go through. As I walked out of a surreal 50 minutes of distracted learning I felt vulnerable and desperate for more information.

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The campus was deathly quiet, people murmered the details that were mainly speculation and hearsay 'The Washington Monument is destroyed' 'The Pentagon is destroyed' 'So-and-so's mom was in the World Trade Center, she can't reach her by phone' 'There is a plane missing, no one knows where it's headed'. The world was ending, as far as I could tell...and in a way our world, the way it used to be, did end.

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I watched the news non-stop for the next three days, women sobbing holding photos of their spouse, firefighters covered in ash, and worse. Finally on the third day, I let down and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. So much hurt, so much change, so so ugly. To this day I turn off any news cast or special program about 9/11. I can't handle it, I live thousands of miles away and I still feel a deep scar in my soul from the day I realized our vulnerability, the day I saw how ugly humanity is. It's not a fond memory, but this is my generation's defining moment and I will never NEVER forget where I was that Tuesday morning.