Sometimes I am asked what I was doing that day, that morning. Like everyone I do not look upon 9/11/2001 with fondness. I know i did not suffer as others did, but my day was still extraordinarily stupid. Let me explain a story from my childhood from a young naive child and my story of that day


That morning I was woken up very early. As always I turned the tv on to watch my morning cartoons and get ready for school. Back then I believe pokemon would have been on around that time, way back when it was a morning cartoon. Instead my shows were interrupted by the news and my shows weren't on. I didn't pay much attention to the tv, nor could I really understand what was going on anyway but yes I was watching as the towers collapsed live. The adults of my family were talking, this and that and I half paid attention to their conversations.

Now, there is a building in my home town called the "Trade Center." As I went to school the bus drove past it. You see Mountain standard time (MST) is 2 hours behind and school started at about 8 am. Therefore, by my calculations the building I drove past would be blown up while I was at school, 46 minutes after I drove past it. This then meant that someone was going to blow it up at 6:46 am, but due to some difference in time the building wouldn't be blown up until 8:46.

Well I thought everyone was saying the Trade Center had been blown up already. I was all, "guys we rode past it this morning, it's still there. Oh did you guys see that really cool demolition job in New York City on the news this morning." With those comments I crossed the line without even knowing it. Let's just say things were not all too pleasant after that. I got into enormous trouble. I spent all day assuming that the adults were just stupid.

You see, none of the reports I heard that morning were using the word "world" with "trade center." I did not know that there was even a place called the World Trade Center in New York City as well. Everyone just said "The Trade Center! The Trade Center!"

I remember something about me saying. "Well of course it was planned. since we knew about this since earlier everyone should have been out of the building. And why am i in trouble for this?" Logically, why wouldn't you evacuate a building before a demolition job? Right? (Keep in mind that I would not have known that the pentagon had been hit, nor that a fourth plane that crashed into the ground.)

I made it look as though there was a planned attack for Colorado or at least several other places still in progress. This was all going on as there were still a few planes in the sky. The grounding order may have been issued but it still took time to get all the planes on the ground.

Gradually, I learned the real story bit by bit as I grew older. That day, I learned that the world was not as happy as I had once thought it was.

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So that is my memory of that day is tainted by a severe misunderstanding. Sadly that was not the only story I have like that from my childhood.