9/11 Memory

It was a Tuesday and it was a beautiful late summer morning in northern Wisconsin the day the Towers fell. I was at Roselawn Elementary here in Chetek reading to kids as I have been doing since Christine was in kindergarten. I had just left one classroom and was heading down the west wing when Mrs. Neuman, a third grade teacher there, stopped me in the hall and said, “Have you heard? The World Trade Center has been hit by a plane?” That is my first memory of 9/11 and the second was wondering how could that happen to such a tall building. Like a lot of people far removed from New York City, I did not realize until later that day that the WTC was, in fact, seven buildings not one.

As soon as I was done reading that morning, Linda and I were scheduled to meet up with Don and Chris Fritz, friends of ours, and drive to Eau Claire to pick out and purchase a new keyboard for our fellowship. When I got home, they were sitting in their vehicle listening to the news on their car radio. We listened enthralled to the report the entire 45 minute drive. At the time – 10:00 o'clock in the morning-or-so CST – there was a lot of information being passed along that had not been confirmed. I recall one little bit of trivia – beyond realizing that we were talking about 7 towers and not 1 – that each tower had its own Zip Code and at capacity could have up to 25,000 people within. I remember thinking, “50,000 people! That's like the entire population of Eau Claire!”

Meanwhile in Eau Claire...

Perhaps the most prominent memory I have of that day, however, occurred at Morgan Music where our salesman was making his pitch about which keyboard would be best for us. He had us wander around the showroom and sample the different models. Half way through this little exercise I remember asking the rest of our small group, “Is anyone bothered by what we're doing?” When they all looked at me quizzically I said, “I mean, half a country a way 50,000 people may be dead and we're plunking on keys listening to tone quality.” It was and still is bizarre to me. But we continued our sampling and before we left had purchased the keyboard that now sits in our sanctuary. It arrived just in time for Troy and Tina's wedding that was held that Saturday.

Like everybody else that day, I sat mesmerized in front of the TV watching the news feed of the Towers falling, the Pentagon burning and the smoking remains of the plane that landed in that Pennsylvania field. I called my dad that night to talk about the events of the day and tell him I loved him. And when I tucked my kids into bed, I prayed with them and gave them an extra long hug good-night.

While local news carried reports of churches being opened for people to pray, in Chetek that wasn't the case. However, the next day Pastor Keith from Chetek Lutheran and I spoke together about them hosting a community prayer gathering on Thursday night. 50 people showed up – and mostly old people at that. It was, in my mind, a curious response to such an emotionally overwhelming week

Lynsee playing on the keyboard we bought that day

 Last summer, while we were vacationing in D.C., we rented a van for a couple of days. We had drove out to Mount Vernon earlier in the day and we were hoping to get to the Iwo Jima Memorial before dark. I got turned around on the Beltway and had pulled off to get directions at a convenience store. The man behind me was wearing a Pentagon I.D. badge and must have overheard me because when he came back to his vehicle he stepped over to me and said, "Hey, have you seen the Pentagon Memorial?" When I told him I didn't even know that there was one, he suggested that if we had the time we should take a few minutes to

stop by and see it as it was just over the hill and around the corner. It was a serendipitous find while lost just outside our nation's capital. But it brought back that weird juxtapositional feeling I had that morning of plunking on keys while meanwhile half a country a city was in turmoil and our country was now at war.