when the world stopped turning / on that september day
(Title from a song by Tim McGraw)
I was at work when someone said down the row of desks "Did you hear about a plane hitting the World Trade Center?" I assumed that it was a General Aviation (light) aircraft, and said something to the effect that the towers were built to withstand that, having learned from the incident with the Empire State building and a B-25 bomber... Sadly, I was proven wrong.
But that's not what was imprinted on my brain that day; rather, a little while later, I was standing in the doorway between the main tech bay and the software imaging room when the radio in the imaging room came on with a bulletin about the Pentagon being hit, and I blurted out "My mother works in the Pentagon!" (She was fine - she worked almost exactly opposite the impact point, and initially thought a transformer had blown).
This was the second incident in my lifetime that made that kind of mark on me. The first one being hearing about the Challenger disaster. (though to this day I cannot remember WHY I was home vacuuming and listening to a portable radio via earphones on a school day).
Was this our generation's "where were you" moment, comparable to November 22,1963? Do you remember?