Mixed Metaphors

September 11 attacks began at 7:46 AM (CST) on Tuesday, September 11, 2001

On That Day

It was an absolutely perfect, late summer, early fall day. The sky was blue — almost translucent — clear and cloudless. The temperature was mild, in the 60’s that morning. I was getting dressed for work. Before I left for the office, I called one of my best friends and chosen family, Donna Salverson.

Donna was interviewing for a new job at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on the Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin to manage their gift shop. She managed gift shops in the past at three different hotels and later a gift shop on State Street. I wanted to wish her luck and to remind her that she would be perfect for the job.

When Donna answered the phone, before I could even speak, she said, “Linda, turn on the news. The World Trade Center was hit by a plane and is burning.” I turned on the TV and we talked as we watched the tragedy unfold. We told each other that we loved each other and hung up. In that moment, we didn’t know if this was an accident or a deliberate act, an attack.

I debated for a moment whether to stay home and call-in to work. Instead, I grabbed my portable Sony Mega Watchman TV and AM-FM Radio to take to work with me. I worked for a public relations firm as a project manager, and we had a TVs in our both our executive and staff conference rooms. Though I assumed we’d watch some of the news together, I didn’t want to miss a moment, if we were asked to return to our offices and go back to work.

As the day continued, I watched replays of when the second tower was hit by a plane. Now it was clear that it was a terrorist attack, but by whom? I feared that other cities might be targets. Madison is close to Chicago and we’re also the seat of our state government. I asked, who do I need to call, what do I need to say? What if this is my last day on earth? First one, then the second tower collapsed into a dense gray cloud of smoke and ash, the cremains of the buildings and the people in it.

Next the Pentagon, was attacked by another plane, Flight 93 was still in the air after air controllers across the country, guided planes to land until the sky was clear. Passengers learned what had happened in NYC and Washington D.C. from family members when they called to tell their loved ones that their plane had been hijacked by terrorists with knives. Mayday calls were made from the cockpit.  What’s the next target, The White House or The Capitol?

Then it happened, Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, PA. Was it shot down by our own fighter jets, or did something else cause the deadly crash? We later learned that passengers and crew, heroes, interceded and purposefully crashed the plane to prevent further acts of terrorism and protect the public while sacrificing their own lives.

When I returned home, my partner and I watched the news coverage nonstop for the next few days. Images of the plane’s fiery explosions inside the towers, papers and debris raining down, people jumping out of the windows to their deaths rather than burn alive. First responders went up the stairs wearing heavy gear, while workers tried to escape as they rushed down smoky stairwells. Then the buildings collapsed, one after the other, in gray clouds of concrete, steel, asbestos, paper, and human bodies. The clouds chased people and first responders who were attempting to escape the scene and suddenly the sky went black momentarily. The chirping sounds of the firefighter’s locators became a chorus of loss.

The 20-Year Anniversary of 9/11

Today we mourn and grieve, remember, and give tribute to all the lost souls and heroes, the families who lost love ones, and the first responders who sacrificed their lives that day, and those who suffered deadly health consequences due to their rescue and recovery efforts.

Television Memories from the Past

We each have experienced days in our lives, when time seemed to stop, and we shared a collective moment of shock, awe, or grief, many of us transfixed by the news, as we watched the events unfold live.

I’m 71-years-old, a baby boomer, who grew up with television. My parents bought their first TV when I was five-years-old, my first TV memories, watching the Lone Ranger, Sky King, Roy Rogers, I Love Lucy and The Milton Berle Show.

Later, my parents bought their first house, and the television was a piece of furniture, housed in a wooden cabinet to match the living room décor. Our family would create a half-moon in front of the television, parents in chairs or the couch and most often kids sitting on the floor. Sometimes on Saturday nights, we’d be treated to popcorn, and watch scary movies with our mother, her favorite genre. When our paternal grandmother would visit, we turned on The Lawrence Welk Show and sometimes have TV dinners on TV trays, and on Sundays, watch The Ed Sullivan Show as a family.

When Time Stops & Memories Live On

As we remember 9/11, most likely we remember, where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, and how we felt. It was as if time stopped as the events were etched permanently in our hearts and memories. The memories live on after the lives have been lost or history forever altered.

Here are some moments of historical events and highlights of memories, shared collectively with my family, loved ones, and community:

November 22, 1963 – The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (and the days that followed).

I was 13-years-old and during our after-lunch homeroom, before our next class an announcement was made that the President had been shot in Dallas, TX. We were told to proceed to our next class. Mine was German class and my teacher was an emigrant from Germany. The German people loved JFK, especially after his speech in West Germany at the Berlin Wall. Our teacher was fighting back tears while she attempted to console us and provide updates.

I don’t remember if we finished the school day or were allowed to go home. I do remember the next few days watching events unfold, scenes of the motorcade and assassination, the shock of witnesses, the hospital scene, and Mrs. Kennedy in her blood-stained suit which she wore when V.P. LBJ was sworn in as President.

We witnessed Lee Harvey Oswald be arrested, and later, on live television, be killed by Dallas club- owner, Jack Ruby. The curtains were closed in our darkened living room as we watched the President lie in state at the Capitol, the funeral procession and burial of JFK, including the iconic image of Jackie Kennedy, Caroline and the toddler, John Jr. saluting his father when the flag-draped casket passed.

February 9, 1964 – The Beatles first performance on Ed Sullivan. In January of that year, at the age of 14, I bought my first Beatle 45-rpm, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and later my first album, Meet the Beatles. Three of my middle school friends, Lynn, Joyce, and Sheila and I adopted a Beatle name and persona. I was John. Beatle mania had taken hold of us. Watching the Beatles perform live, I Want to Hold Your Hand on Ed Sullivan’s show was a peak experience, yet paled in comparison to later in the year when the four of us attended The Beatles concert chaperoned by Sheila’s mother during their first American tour in 1964 in Milwaukee at the Arena on September 4, 1964.

April 4, 1968 – Assassination of Martin Luther King. I was a senior in high school and worked at my Aunt and Uncle’s Diner, Bill’s Lunch, in my hometown of Racine, Wisconsin, on weekends, often working part of my shift alone. Riots and civil unrest occurred in many cities, and a curfew was announced. My mother drove across town to pick me up so I could get home safely. She was stopped by police, questioned, and the officer checked her trunk for weapons. She was released after she told the officer she was picking up her daughter who had closed the restaurant and would not be able to get home.

June 6, 1968 – Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Days later, the crowds lined the train route in tribute as JFK’s casket returned home from California.      

May 17, 1973 – The Senate Watergate Committee Hearings. I watched them every day that I could either live or rebroadcast.

August 8, 1974 – Nixon’s resignation. I watched the news and later my sister Cindy told me she drove from our hometown of Racine, so she could celebrate in Madison as people partied, including police officers on State Street near campus and the State Capitol.

January 28, 1986 – Challenger Shuttle Explosion.

April 29, 1992 – May 4, 1992 – L.A. Riots after Rodney King verdict.

June 17, 1994 – O.J. Simpson’s Bronco car chase.

July 22, 1994 – September 28, 1995– Televised Simpson trial.

October 3, 1995 – Simpson not guilty verdict announced.  

August 31, 1997 – Princess Diana’s death.

July 16, 1999 – JFK Jr, his wife Caroline and her sister’s death in a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard. My partner Cindy and I, had arrived that day in Cape Cod, vacationing in Provincetown. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, the Inn at Cook Street in a lovely little garden cottage with porch, a Koi pond, fireplace, kitchenette, full bath and bedroom, plus a reading loft. When we joined our bed and breakfast companions for breakfast, the TV was on and guests gathered around it. Our hosts shared the news that JFK’s plane was lost and a search and rescue were underway. JFK and his wife, Caroline were joining the family in Hyannisport for his cousin Rory’s wedding.

Throughout our vacation, when we weren’t enjoying lobsters and other local seafood specialties in outdoor restaurants, shopping the quaint stores, perusing art galleries, visiting Race Point and Herring Cove beaches, the Cape Cod National Seashore, plus sailing ship, whale and dune buggy sand dune excursions, we watched the search and rescue, then recovery from our garden cottage.

One day we had tickets to see Willy Nelson at the Cape Cop Melody Tent, a semi-outdoor, performance venue with a circular rotating stage in Hyannis, MA, just outside the Kennedy Compound. The cancelled white wedding tents, matched the white family homes in the compound. Satellite trucks for all the news outlets lined the roads just outside the compound. It was a bittersweet time.

February 12, 1999 – Clinton’s Impeachment trial ends, acquitted on both charges.

September 11, 2001 – Known as the tragic events of 9/11.

August 23 – August 31, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina.

November 4, 2008 – Obama elected 44^th POTUS.

February 26, 2012 – Trayvon Martin’s murder.

August 9, 2014 – August 11, 2015 – Three waves of violence and protests in response to Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, MO.

November 8, 2016 – The upset (and upsetting) election of Donald J. Trump as 45^th POTUS.

December 18, 2019 – February 5, 2020 – Trump’s first impeachment trial.

January 13 – February 13, 2020 – Trump’s second impeachment trial.

March 11, 2020 – WHO declares COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic.

May 25, 2020 – George Floyd death in Minneapolis at the hands of police.

November 7, 2020 – Biden elected the 46^th POTUS.

January 6, 2021 – The Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

April 20, 2021 – Derek Chauvin found guilty of murder in George Floyd’s death.

September 11, 2021 – 20^th Anniversary of 9/11.

Final Words, Tributes, & Gratitude

First, I’m grateful I did not lose anyone in NYC, Washington, D.C. or Shanksville, PA. I’m grateful too that family members have not been victims of assassins, police, or vigilante justice. Unfortunately, family members and friends have died in car accidents, from gun violence, suicide, and death from heart disease and cancer, and accidental drug overdoses. We all have experienced loss of some kind which makes us sympathetic and empathetic to experiences and events like 9/11.

This is also a shout out to first responders and all the heroes from 20 years ago and the recovery efforts afterwards, my family members who protect and serve today, our Armed Services who serve and served our nation, both here and overseas, and all the frontline healthcare workers responding to the hospitalizations of COVID-19 and natural disasters.

Additional Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

Beach Boys, Beatles, Bob Dylan & The Byrds

1968: Flashback & Fast Forward

First Taste of Freedom

Red Letter Days (and Nightmare Nights)

Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back

Related Reading & Viewing on the Subject

‘25^th Hour:’ The Best 9/11 Movie Was Always About New York

NYC Epicenters: 9/11 → 2021 ½ (2021)

‘The Rugby Player’ (a film about Mark Bingham one of the heroes of Flight 93)

The Beatles First Performance on Ed Sullivan in 1964