September 11th

Today is the tenth anniversary of September  11th...
I had a day off that day. My oldest daughter went to school and I took my youngest daughter to pre-school. It was her first day in pre-school. After that I was running all kinds of errands.  I wanted to go to Home Depot to get some lumber, but I didn't know if I had enough time. A few days earlier I had put my wristwatch trough the washing machine and it had stopped working. I turned the car radio on, hoping to hear a DJ announce the time.  (Days later I realized that I had a clock on the dashboard.) I was listening to WFCR (local NPR station) and they were recapping the day's events: " ...8:46 AM an Airplane crashed to the North Tower of the  World Trade Center....9:03 AM another airplane crashed into the South Tower....
10 AM the South Tower  collapsed ...10:28 AM the North Tower collapsed...."
This was unreal... like the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded.  I turned the car around, drove home and started to watch TV. I watched in a stupor the events unfold on live TV. It looked like a Hollywood movie, but this was real.
One section of Angry Johnny's song "Tennessee Air War" came to mind:
"...real planes, real flying,
   real people really dying...."  

I went to get my daughter from the pre-school. Many upset-looking parents were picking up their kids. My daughter was very quiet.  I didn't know if she was this way because it was the first day or because of the day's events.
Later I went to get my older daughter from school. This was a Catholic school. At the door I met that O'Brien kid, who was studying to be a priest. I asked him if the kids knew about what was going on, and whether someone had talked to them or done any counseling. He didn't know. He was just coming in. I got my daughter and we went home. She had heard about a big fire in New York.
I later learned that all the experts seemed to agree on how to talk to children about this: answer all their questions honestly, but don't volunteer any information. Sure, I can do that.
   I called my parents in Finland. I didn't think they would worry about me - after all I was three and half hours from New York City - but I felt that I should call them. They were watching TV too. I called my buddy Kari, in Lohja, Finland. He said that "... it is really nice to hear your voice today... "