Jenny and I had been on one date. Friday, September 7. Our first date.
Tuesday morning Jenny was in her apartment getting ready for the day (Chapel was at 10:00am on Tuesdays).
Tuesday morning I was in Public School Art, seated across from David, another science major who took the fun, hands-on class as a boost to the old GPA (although David probably already had a 4.0 and was just taking it for the girls in class...).
We usually listened to music while we worked - CDs mainly...usually Dave Matthews. I like to think we would have listened to Jack Johnson had he been mainstream at that point.
Larry Thompson's studio was next door to our class. Larry had, just a few months prior, led me and 27 other students throughout Western Europe on a study-abroad course.
Larry had the radio on that morning.
Our professor, Mrs. McDowell (Sandy to all of us), had been in his studio for a few moments while we were all fast at work on a project.
Sandy is terrific. She's a hoot. Truly one of my favorite professors from OBU.
But she had a knack for coming across as a little scattered. And like me - very literal.
I'll never forget her tone - somewhat confused, bewildered, almost not-quite awake.
"Guys, they just said on the radio that a plane flew into the World Trade Center."
I think the rest of us were sort of in that not-quite-awake state as well. I remember thinking, "Wow. Guess a small plane flew off course, or a pilot fell asleep."
I have two uncles who both have multiple small planes. I pictured a little Cessna. Maybe twin-engine but most likely single.
A few broken windows and most likely a casualty or two.
We went on with our work.
Several minutes later, Sandy walked back in from the adjacent studio. "Guys," she stated almost in disbelief, "Another plane hit the trade center."
Whaaaaat? Come on. Someone on the Arkadelphia radio station has some bad information.
Or Sandy's been sniffing the rubber cement.
We still went ahead with our projects. I think we even joked around the table about what kind of idiot flies can't avoid an obvious skyscraper...
More time passed.
Sandy walked in again. Totally different tone at this point.
"Guys," she stated solemnly. "Guys a plane hit the Pentagon."
It was one of those moments. You just froze where you were. For a few minutes, you just froze. And then reality set in. Something's happened. Something's changed. You were at once uncomfortable. You needed to leave. Go somewhere. Just not sit still.
Several of us packed up our things and left class. I was living in an apartment about two blocks off campus. think I had walked to class that morning. I didn't know where to go. I walked to the student center.
The campus still wasn't quite alive - lots of people in class that didn't know, or lots still in their dorms waiting on chapel to start. Lots who hadn't heard.
A crowd had gathered in the cafe area outside of chick-fil-a. There was a large screen tv, and a lot of people were standing around. I watched as the smoke came out of the two buildings. By this point, there were no re-plays of what actually happened. Just steady footage of two burning buildings. Footage taken from a helicopter or a distant tower camera that had been activated.
I don't remember seeing anything of what was going on in Washington - just the two towers.
I made my way back to my second home - the Science Building. Word had spread there and people were starting to leave classes. There weren't any TV's and streaming coverage online wasn't really a thing yet. Professors were in their offices watching msnbc or cnn.com, hitting refresh every few minutes.
I walked up to the second floor computer lab and logged on. More images. More preliminary statements.
Still, I didn't know what to do. I emailed my mother. Something about all that was going on just made me want to be home, or at least touch base with home.
Not knowing what would come of the day, I didn't plan to leave town and head home. I didn't even head to my apartment. I wasn't sure what to do.
So, I did what everyone did at 10 on Tuesday morning. I went to chapel.
The performing arts center where chapel was held was about 50% full. People weren't in their seats. They were standing around talking in groups. Chatter buzzing everywhere. But not the normal pre-service chatter. It was almost quiet chatter.
Someone - it may have been the president, it may have been another administrator - someone came on stage at 10, recounted what happened, or at least "what we know" at this point, offered a prayer, and dismissed chapel.
Everyone scattered. Most to their dorms and apartments.
It was at this point that I decided to go back to my apartment. Something told me the rest of the day would be a little "off."
All of the things that I thought would never happen in my generation began to happen.
Wall Street crippled and closed indefinitely.
Brokers jumping out of windows.
Airplanes grounded.
I remember seeing the president's frantic and panicked speech from Barksdale AFB in Shreveport - I had driven past those gates hundreds of times. Did he really stop in Shreveport?Shreveport???
And that's when it began. Hours, days, weeks of complete and total fixation on the TV screen. You couldn't stop looking. About the time you had seen the same shot 100 times, a new image would unfold...someone's home video footage or a cameraman's new angle.
I watched alone most of the morning. I went from apartment to apartment of friends and fellow students. I drove out to Caddo Valley with hundreds of other misguided souls who had been told that there would be a gasoline shortage, thinking I needed to fill-up no matter the cost. Prices were already being gouged.
One of the things I found most intriguing and have looked back on the most through the years was the Post-9/11 programming on TV.
People were so obsessed with the footage and were being so slammed with violent images, that the type of movies shown on network and cable stations began to change.
One Saturday night a couple of weeks after, Jenny and I stayed in for our first "date night" at home in front of the tv. The list of movies went something like this: Father of the Bride; You've Got Mail; While You Were Sleeping; Pretty Woman; The American President...and on and on.
Our lives had been so infiltrated by terror and violence that violent movies went away for a couple of weeks. That has stayed with me - what a nice break it was to have fairly decent shows on all of the channels at the same time.
So that's what I was doing, and how I remember it. I'm not going to say, "I Shall Never Forget."
I think it's pretty well a given.
Where were you?
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