Ten years ago today, I wasn’t in New York, or Washington D.C. I was Coulee Dam, Washington, the small town that my Grandparents live. I was 4 at the time.
Months earlier, my Grandma decided that her and I would fly down to Salt Lake for my Cousin’s 3rd birthday. I still don’t remember why in the world she wanted to go for this birthday. This was going to be my first time going on a plane.
It was around 6:00 AM PST. My grandma just woke me up. She was too busy to turn on the TV. Being 4, I was really, really bored. She told me that I could watch TV. I turn on the TV and the first thing I see is the local NBC station saying “Again, a plane has hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center”. My grandma rushes in to the living room. Just as she walks in, the South Tower was hit. Tears streamed down her eyes. I had no clue was was going on. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “All flights have been grounded.” My Grandma, crying like I had never seen before, calls the airport. Our flight was grounded. She told me that we weren’t going. She explained what the Twin Towers were to me. The North Tower comes down next. My Grandpa gets up. Tears fill his eyes too. My grandma calls my parents, and my aunt. My Dad still remembers that he had some sort of dream that he was watching the news.
I have never, ever watched that much TV in my life before. All 50 channels that my grandparents had were airing some sort of coverage. The 11th comes and goes. The next morning she calls the airport again. No go. Again, all we do is watch TV. There was hardly any internet at the time were they lived. (I do remember that we flew Delta, which let you buy tickets online and print your pass online.) The morning of the 13th at 5 AM, the airport calls. Those images were still in my head. I was kinda nervous to go. So was my Grandma. But we go. 4 hours later, we are in SLC. There was hardly anyone on the plane. The first ones since the 11th. All the local media was surrounding us. The TV, Radio and Newspapers interviewed us. We got our picture in the local paper.