Day 13452, & a recollection...

So, I have a few tears in my eyes.

I was completely caught off guard just now, as I watched the first few minutes of 102 Minutes that Changed the World on the History Channel.  I don't usually watch the 9/11 stuff.  Well, not in the last few years, anyway.

I warn you, this is the floodgate post.  I am letting out some of the overflow.  Beware!

Tonight, for whatever reason, I watched a 9/11 home video compilation.  BIG MISTAKE...

Today marks the 7 year anniversary of the attacks.  2557 days have passed.  The restaurant has been open for almost 5 years.  That seems like ages.  The 7 years since 9/11? A bit like yesterday.

I was the GM at Pleasant Peasant in Atlanta on 9/11/01.  Jay was the KM.  I was off that morning.  Jay, true to form, had gone to work in the pre-dawn hours.  When I woke up, I went through the usual motions.

I dragged myself out of bed (much easier to do back then; no running pains) and made my way by the TV, turned it on, and went to the coffee pot.  I saw the fire in the North Tower.  I thought nothing of it.  Well, nothing substantial.  Nothing compared to what would become.  I called Jay.  I told him a plane flew into a tower.  I thought "small plane."  An unfortunate accident.

And, what else was I doing?

I was thinking that Murphy needed a haircut.  Yeah, I was calling the pet groomers in Ansley Mall when the South Tower was struck by the 2nd plane.  I thought it was a replay.  I thought it was the one plane, new footage.  Still sad, but not the same.  Instead, I thought I would drive my dog to the groomer.

I got to hear the world fall apart on 99X, with Barnes, Leslie, and Jimmy on my way to Ansley Mall from East Atlanta.

So, is THIS suddenly the gayest post ever???

Nope.  Just that part of it...

I dropped off the dog.  By then, I already felt like a schmuck.  Now?  I knew what was happening.  Yet, still? I dropped off the dog.  Well?  They took him!  It wasn't just me with a whacked sense of priority...

The south tower collapsed while I was in my car on my way home.  I am glad I didn't see it right away.  I got an audio preview, a warning.  I got home and called Jay.  He was a block from the Bank of America tower in Atlanta.  They were evacuating (the tower, not the Pleasant Peasant.)  I wasn't really worried.  Downtown Atlanta?  Not quite the target...  But still?  Nobody was going out for lunch...

Around noon, I suddenly started thinking of my friends.  My best friend Lori and her husband.  My friend Catherine (not to be confused with my other friend, Catherine.)  Oh my!  What is going on?  Jamie, Lori's husband, was in finance.  Why wouldn't I assume the worst?  He worked for Lehman Brothers then, I think.  I called Lori's mom.  She was ok, so was Jamie.  I got an email from Catherine later that afternoon.  All good.

Have I ever mentioned that my dad was a pilot?  Yeah, he flew for Delta until 2004.  

Like a good son, I realized that I had no idea where he was.  I realized this at about 4 pm that day.  Oops!  As it turns out, at 4 pm, he was sitting in the captain's seat of a parked 767 on the side of a runway in Nova Scotia.  Funny how the mind works.  The things you forget.  The people... Your dad...

Inventory was done.  Everyone I knew was safe.  I felt better.  Still, there wasn't any sinking in.  I still didn't get it.  I still don't get it.  It is really hard to wrap my head around it.  I sat on the couch all day that day.  I stared at the TV, I knew there was a big change coming.

I had to go pick up the dog.  Jay went with me.  Again, in the event of a new-world-order-type event, do not take your dog to the groomer...

My friend Lori was a teacher.  Her school was the closest one to the WTC, if I remember correctly.  I saw the school on a later visit.  It was close.  Her story is fantastic.  Seven years later, I think she hates to tell it.  She is a New Yorker now.  It is more personal for her.  She isn't at all removed.  

She evacuated a school, and by happenstance, the financial district.  The kids ran fast to Battery Park.  The adults needed some guidance.  She guided...

My dad?  He was over the Atlantic, on his way home from Europe with 200 passengers.  They got diverted.  He heard all the other aircraft diversions on the radio.  Still no info, just worry.  Something is very wrong.  I will always say, though, that we owe a great deal to the northern neighbors.  They took great care of people like my dad for days.

So, today, I was caught off guard.  I cried about 9/11 for the first time in years.  Why?  New footage?  New perspectives?  Maybe.  I don't know why but I feel a bit more human for it.  And, I had a sudden thought.

7 years ago, my best friend was running down a dust filled street.  She spent the rest of the day trying to find her husband, her friends, her house...

And now, 7 years later, I will bet she has a whole new way of looking at 9/11...

I have to wonder how this will change her perspective.  I know that many of you already know the answer to this question.

I probably won't ever know this feeling.  This is a perspective that is not in the cards for me.

Am I jealous?  Am I grateful?  I dunno.

But, I do have to watch out for little Violet...

Vote right, people...