Remembering 9/11

Things I remember from the morning of September 11, 2001.

When President Ronald Reagan was shot March of 1981, I was a floor director at a NBC television affiliate in Texas and I remember running to the studio repeatedly, throwing on lights and cuing the anchor to interrupt programming every time we had a morsel of information. The first broadcasts varied, the president had been shot, no he had not been shot but someone else was, the president has really been shot. The newsroom and studio were chaotic again two months later when Pope John Paul II was shot.

School children gather to pray under a flag pole the morning of 9-11.

I remember when President Kennedy was killed. I was in first grade and our school walked to River Oaks Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas to see the president and Mrs. Kennedy's motorcade drive by. An hour later we were kneeling by our desks fearfully crying and praying.

9/11 was like that for me without the crying, but certainly with the praying. 

I do not watch TV in the morning but woke early that morning and for some reason turned on the TV. I hurriedly called my editor while dressing and before rushing out the door to my newspaper office I watched the second plane hit live.

We are a community newspaper and only report how national events effect our area. I learned all schools and government buildings were on guarded lock down so I grabbed my camera and ran to a private school across from our office. 

There was an assembly outside at the flag pole and after speaking with faculty, took a photos of children praying under the flag pole and rushed back to met our deadline. I had box on the lower front page added to encourage readers to report gas gouging to a federal telephone number because some gas stations across the nation were raising prices tremendously to prey on the panicking public.

I also remember emphasizing that we get information correct, because many networks repeatedly referred to “…the attacks in New York and Washington DC.” However, the Pentagon is in Virginia, not nearby Washington D.C. which is across the boarder.

The next morning everything was different, and things haven't been the same since.

You can reach me at amosnews@yahoo.com