September 11 Remembered

I remember when I saw the horror of Sep 11, 2001. I was on the road in Detroit, MI, working onsite at my client's ad agency. I walked in and saw TV's on that had never been on before. I saw the image of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and couldn't image what type of crazy advertising campaign they were cooking up. Then I realized this was real. It was shocking and unfathomable.

Everyone was sent home that day.  We, of course, could only go back to our hotel, and so we all gathered together in one room, glued to the television, not really sure what to do. Several of my colleagues were from the New York office, which gave me an entirely different perspective on things.  They tried unsuccessfully to reach family and friends. No one could get a phone call through. It was such an unsettling feeling. I couldn't imagine being in their shoes.

Later that week, several of us got together and shared a coveted rental car home because we could not get flights home.  We drove back and forth from Chicago to Detroit for many weeks because it seemed safer than flying. And with the new security procedures, driving was faster than flying. Would things ever get back to the way they were?

Six months later, I was in New York and decided take a few hours out to visit ground zero. It was eerie. And just plain sad.

And now in 2011, life goes on. Gulliver will have no memory of September 11, just as I have no memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, or the Vietnam War. I can only hope that he will not experience anything remotely close to these events in his  lifetime.

But today -- for those who lost family and friends on that horrific day ten years ago -- today we remember.