Flight 93

I was remiss yesterday in failing to acknowledge 9/11, and I appreciated the other bloggers who posted photos and remembrances of that awful day.

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Awhile back, I purchased this DVD of the movie Flight 93. If you've never watched it, I highly recommend it. The events of September 11, 2001, are told from the view of the air traffic controllers who became swept up in the unfolding drama, and, of course, from the vantage point of inside the ill-fated plane which ended up crashing in western Pennsylvania.

I was riveted by the air traffic control room scenes, which were filmed using real air traffic controllers who were there on 9/11.......they play themselves. And, of course, the events taking place on the plane itself are just so emotionally gripping. I hope to watch it this weekend sometime, as a reminder of that day.

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I'll echo everyone else and relate where I was when I first heard news of the Twin Towers being attacked. On the morning of 9/11, I had just walked into my house after taking my kids to school. The phone was ringing........it was my mom, asking if I had the TV on. In rush of words, she related that the World Trade Center had been attacked, and also the Pentagon. My first thought was that it was the end of the world.......I turned on the TV in time to see the second World Trade Tower hit. They kept mentioning that there was one more plane unaccounted for and possibly heading for the White House.

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I recall running outdoors and looking up into the sky. Also, I thought of my daughter who had recently flown to The Netherlands to start her college semester over there; I worried about her safety so far away. I had to fight the urge to drive back to school and bring my other kids home. For the rest of the day, I was glued to the TV.

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My daughter took many photos during her months in Europe. One of the scenes she captured is the mountain of flowers piled outside the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Den Haag (The Hague), the capital of The Netherlands, in the days immediately following the terrorist attacks in the U.S. She said the Dutch people were mostly very sympathetic. The foreign college students were advised to keep a low profile, though, and try to avoid dressing in blatantly American clothing. "Blend in" was the watchword. I wondered about her safety in flying home later that December, and was just so relieved when her plane landed safely in Minneapolis. I was in the airport watching the arrival board, and can still recall the great relief and tearful thankfulness I felt when the screen flashed the arrival of her KLM flight from Amsterdam.

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The little girls and I are having a peaceful day. We're going to read some books now, and hopefully the younger one will fall asleep for a nap. The older one wants to go outdoors and see the "baby cows".

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They wanted to watch a movie this morning. They rifled through the VHS tapes in the drawer and first picked "The Wizard of Oz", but I said "No" to that because it has a scary witch in it, and I didn't know if their mother would approve. Then I asked if they had any movies at home, and then they said their cousin has "Mary Poppins", and since the cousin's parents are Lutheran school teachers, I figured some "Supercalifragilistic Spoonfuls of Sugar" would meet no objections.

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