I am sitting here in my office, and I hear fire engine sirens going around City Hall here in Philadelphia. And that triggers a flashback.
Eight years ago, I was just a law cleark at a small law firm located at the Commerce Center building at 12th and Orange in Wilmington. The desk in my office faced out so that I can see my secretary. I remember hearing her say “Oh my God, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.” She had just heard it on the radio. I was incredulous, but not concerned. I tried to go to the CNN site on my computer, but the site would not load for what seemed like forever, and then all of the sudden a picture and nothing else appeared on the CNN site of the one tower burning. My reaction was “That’s no plane” because I was thinking that it was only a small private plane that hit the tower, and that hole and fire could not be caused by a small plane. It was either a huge plane, or something else.
So we went into the conference room and the other attorneys were already in there with the TV on. A lot of small talk about how horrible it was, and then all of the sudden our receptionist screams, we all look at her, and then at the TV. A large fireball was rising from the second tower. My memory after that is a blur of activity. I distinctly remember hearing Peter Jennings react with disbelief when told that the whole South Tower had collapsed. I remember calling my Mom, and of course the line was busy beause she was talking to my Aunt Ginger. So I had the operator break into the conversation to inform them both of the attacks (and they both knew nothing at that moment). I remember hearing a rumor that a bomb exploded at the State Department, which leveled the building (that turned out to be false) and that another explosion occurred at the Pentagon. And then my boss came out and said, “alright, the Governor has ordered the evacuation of Wilmington, so everyone go home.”
Now of course, Governor Minner did not order the evacuation of Wilmington, she merely suggested that businesses close early, I believe. But then I went outside and there were what sounded like air raid sirens going off (it was the strange emergency siren located in Northeast Wilmington). At this point, I am literally freaking out, as I think we are being bombed, right here in Delaware. The rest of the day was spent with my Grandmother at her home in Stanton. Slowly, all of the family arrived to watch the events unfold. But that siren sound will also stay with me as I remember 9/11. And as I remember that, I remember those whose experience on this day was so much worse, and so much more real than mine.
Where were you today when it happened?