Ten years later...

Prepare yourselves folks, it's coming.

In about a week, the country will pass the 10th anniversary of one of the worst days in American history.

I like to say that my parents had the JFK assasination, their parents had World War II and on and on and until Spetember 11, 2001 I thought my generation's legacy would include things like the Challenger explosion, and the Oklahoma City bombing as tragic events.  9/11 leaped to the #1 spot in one fell swoop.

It's hard to believe that 10 years have gone by.

Everyone has a story to tell about that day.  For me, I like to tell people that I had no knowledge of anything going on until I arrived at the warehouse where I worked, and I punched the clock.  All I had heard was that there had been a plane crash in New York City and that one of the World Trade Center buildings were involved. 

Two seconds after I had clicked the mouse on the computer signing on to work for the day, I looked up at the TV in the counter sales area of the warehouse and saw the now familiar image of a fireball was rising from the second tower.    It was my "JFK" moment, like when my folks heard about JFK being shot in Dallas and they remembered wher they were and what they were doing.

From that point, there were the images of the fires, the holes in the buildings, people jumping to their deaths to escape the fires, the collapse of the buildings and every iconic image of the day..  It was literally a surreal whirlwind.  As striking as all of that is now the one thing that I can point out about that day was how quiet it was once the planes were ordered to land.  It was silence.

For my entrie life living in Tulsa, there has been an ambiance created by the airliners that fly over as they take off and land at the airport.  It's always been there and in the nearly 30 years I had lived here it had blended into the background.  Which is probably what made it so very unnerving when all the planes were on the ground and there was no noise overhead.

I remember going home and watching the news until I couldn't stand it anymore and went to bed.  Ever since I was a kid I remember there had been one or two planes fly over after I went to bed.  That night, nothing.  It was eerie.  I had seen many movies in my teenage years that had a dark, silent moment just before the war started and the nuclear bombs went off and more than once it crossed my mind that this was the moment that may take place in real life.

Needless to say that my sleep that night was fitful and uneasy to say the very least. 

Now, 10 years later, I stand in awe of it all.  I live 1000 miles away from the center of the attacks yet I am still dumbstruck by all of when on in that day, like the rest of the country.  If Sean has a child and if he or she asks me about that day this is the story I will tell.  More important than that I will do my best that it is very important to mark important dates in history and how they affected you. 

I wonder what their generation will have and if it will be good or bad?  Sure, my folks had JFK's murder but they also witnessed a man walk on the moon.  My generation saw the horrors of 9/11, and the OKC Bombing, but we also saw the dawn of a new millenium. 

We'll just have to see.