Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?
Alan JacksonWhere were you when the world stopped turning that September day,
Out in the yard with your wife and children,
Working on some stage in LA?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of
That black smoke rising against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger
In fear for your neighbor,
Or did you just sit down and cry?Did you weep for the children
Who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don’t know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below?Did you burst out in pride
For the red white and blue,
The heroes who died just doing what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself to what really matters?I’m just a singer of simple songs.
I’m not a real political man.
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young,
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love.Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Teaching a class full of innocent children
Driving down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty cause you’re a survivor?
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her?
Did you dust off that bible at home?Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened,
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages,
Speak with some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow,
Go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you’re watching
And turn on “I Love Lucy” reruns?Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger?
Stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family?
Thank God you had somebody to love.(refrain)
(refrain repeated)
The greatest is love,
The greatest is love.Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?
We had just gotten a puppy in August and I was laying on the floor playing and napping with her when the phone rang. It was my mom. She told me to go turn on the TV, I asked her why and she just repeated for me to turn on the TV. So, I went downstairs and stood there in front of our big screen TV numb as I watched the first tower burning. Just minutes later, I watched in horror as the plane flew into the second tower. I cried with my mom and knew in that moment that we would be at war. I was afraid and tried desparately to reach my husband at work, but the entire office was in a meeting, so I couldn’t get through for some time and when he finally did answer, he was a calming force. Still at a loss, I also worried about my girls. They were in 4th and 7th grades and I didn’t want to scare them. I opted to keep them in school so that they would have as normal a day as possible, because their days were going to be changed forever soon enough. When the time came for the girls to come home, I took the puppy outside and we sat on the grass to wait for the bus. I stared at the sky and the houses up and down our street, being warmed by the bright sunshine and wondered how the day could be so beautiful when such horror had happened.
Please feel free to share your memories of that fateful day in comments. It is helpful to share our sorrow on this tragic anniversary. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have this outlet.
I first learned of the attacks when I turned on my computer that morning. It was shortly after the attack on the first tower and Drudge Report had the news up. I didn’t believe it, I thought it was a joke and I went about my business.
It wasn’t until I turned on Fox News that I found out what was happening.
I forced myself to go ahead with one or two appointments which was very difficult for me since I wanted to just sit down in front of the television.
There have been many mornings since then where I dreaded turning on the television or the computer and learning about some new horror.
I thank GOD and President Bush and our brave military men and women that this has not happened.
Today is a sad day. But we must remember the sadness and all those who are lost if we are to redouble our efforts to do ALL, and I mean ALL, to defeat the evil that brought this nightmare to us.
We owe that to those who are no longer with us and to the children and family members who survive them.
Anna,
A lovely tribute. I remember the day JFK was assassinated. I’ll always remember Jackie’s stunned look and her blood stained pink suit. Nor will I ever forget the same stunned disbelief we felt as a nation then, and again nearly 38 years later on 9/11/01.
Maybe that’s a good thing. We should never forget. Ever.
You’re right, Mike, we MUST win this battle because it is not only for our way of life, it is literally for our very lives!
Andrea, I wasn’t born yet when Kennedy was assasinated. I do, however, remember where I was and what I was doing when the Space Shuttle Challenger tumbled from the sky. And though I don’t remember what I was doing when Space Shuttle Columbia broke up, I do clearly remember thinking, “Oh, please, no. Not again.”
We cannot forget because we will become lax and allow our enemies the opening they are waiting for!
9/11 At The Budgie Household
9/11 started out sunny, but unremarkable at the Budgie household.
Good question, which I’ve posted on as well, and thanks for asking.
Tracked ya here, but there are days when WhizbangTrackbackPinger hates me: http://cuppapolitics.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-at-budgie-household.html
Thanks for the link, Budgie…and it did work!
Oh, and I will link back to you because the stories should be shared.
sorry ANNA, it is somewhat too painful to share the memories of this day…
but it was helpful to review your fine expression on this sad day…
the photo is touching, thank you…
Oh, Brooklyn Boy, that’s okay. I know it will never truly be okay for many people to recall that day. Just know that you are not alone in your grief and heartache.
Anna,
I posted this song last year and I’m glad you did this year! It is such a beautiful tribute.
I was asleep on September 11, 2001. My mother woke me up at 7:21am (PST). I saw the 2nd Tower fall on tv. I was shocked beyond all belief at what was happening. I can still remember walking down the halls of my university’s administration building, going to class. The halls were empty and silent. During my Europe: 1914-1945 class, we discussed events in history that were similiar. The whole didn’t really, really hit home until I got home and learned that Barbara Olson, one of my favorite political commentators, had been on the plane that hit the Pentagon. It still breaks my heart. All of today’s memorials and tributes make me cry. God bless our country.
I had to post it, Lady Jane, it just says all that we feel/felt.
I too, cried through the tributes that I read today. I finally had to stop reading them, though as it was getting too much to bear.
September 11 Tributes and Links
Here are some of the countless September 11 Tributes and Links that I found particularly touching or interesting.2,996 Tributes to the Victims. …
Thank you, Lady Jane.
I too wanted to recall that morning with a brief post on my site (http://writingenglish.wordpress.com).
Your post, and the comments above mention three days that will be in my memory forever: The Kennedy assassination, the Challenger disaster, and 9/11.
Those tape recorders that are our minds keep the memories for us. Thank heaven I have more good than bad ones. Though it is sometimes painful, I don’t want to forget any of it. Remembering makes me more compassionate, more grateful, and more determined.
Thank you Judyrose for your wonderful comments. You are so right. Those events have made me grateful that we live in this free country, that we have opportunities many people do not, that when the chips are down, we help each other and when messed with…we fight back!
Where was I? I was at work in midtown Manhattan. My wife was walking our dog outside our apartment, only three-quarters of a mile north of the World Trade Center. She heard the first plane hit the tower and walked out into the middle of Greenwich Street to see the hole in the side of the building. She came upstairs and called me. That’s how I heard about it. I walked outside my office to find a co-worker crying because her boyfriend worked on one of the upper floors and she couldn’t reach him. He didn’t make it out.
Those of you who think our country is being led in the right direction today by our President, those of you who think it’s okay that we got Saddam and never got Osama, I ask you to look inside yourselves. I ask you to think. You may not agree with me, but at least have respect for those who disagree with you. Many of those people are the folks who lived in that city. They are people who, like me, not only had our Country attacked, but also had our own Neighborhood attacked. The attacks were VERY personal to me. I wanted — and still want — those responsible to be brought to justice. After five years, that hasn’t happened yet, and it’s okay for me to question why.
Yes, C.R., you’re right, you have every right to question why. Osama should have been caught/killed before taking on anything else, unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. We can only hope that he will be caught or killed in the near future. Thank you for sharing your story with us, C.R.
The Day NYC Became Smallville
I write this 11 minutes to midnight NYC-time with the thought of how so many things changed just five, seemingly short, years ago. We all became slaves to televisions and anything, literally anything, that held good news as a glimmer of light in a val…
Thank you for linking with your personal memories, Emile.
Like JudyRose, watching some of the coverage today reminded me there have been only three such wrenching moments in my life — events when time literally stood STILL: when Kennedy was shot, the fall of the Challenger & 9/11.
Having just seen my husband off to his work in Los Angeles, I was up early the morning of 9/11/01. Taking a moment to enjoy my first of coffee, I turned on the early AM news (mostly to check the day’s weather) & there it was. The first plane had just gone into the first tower. Chaos. Utter confusion. Immediate (but futile) mental eforts to try & figure it out! How could a pilot make such a mistake? It was a beautiful & clear day in NY… Even the national news commentators were at a loss.
Then, live, the second plane hit the second tower. Instantly, like most everyone else, I KNEW it had to be terrorism! All those innocents plowing into one of America’s most beautiful, iconic structures was completely hideous.
Thank you for these 9/11 lyrics, Anna. I have been visiting many blogspots, today, & it is truly moving how most of you have been honoring the victims. Somehow, I kept visualizing this “cosmic swell” of love & remembrance which has surely reached the Heavens & brought great joy to those that lost their lives that day.
Sept. 11th: Personal Afterthoughts…
I was upstairs in my clinic office getting change for the front desk and it was on TV in the waiting room. I watched as the first tower burned…we were all wondering aloud what was going on…we all thought it was some horrible accident, until the second plane hit, then we knew it for what it was. When we heard about the hit on the Pentagon, I frantically was trying to reach my dad (who at the time was working there, he’s retired career Navy now). I couldn’t get through, to him, to my stepmom, my aunt & uncle, no one! Finally, my husband got through to my satepmom and we learned that my dad was at a meeting in another building. It was a horrible few hours of not knowing. Nothing compared to the tragedies of others, but very intense none the less. WE WILL NOT FORGET! NEVER!
We will persevere and win this war, no matter what others (home and abroad) want us to do!
Thanks Trish. I think everyone did know what it meant when the second plane hit. I really started to get panicky when the plane hit the Pentagon because I thought “Where will they hit next? Will it be closer?” Then when the plane (Flight 93) went down in PA, I wondered if that could happen in our very neighborhood. Simply for the fact that that plane almost literally went over our house before they changed course back towards Washington DC. It was a horrible, horrible day and one I will never forget as long as I live!
Thanks for the link, Fred!
Chris, thank you for sharing your story! I know how panicked I was not being able to reach my husband and he was working for Circuit City at the time, so I can only imagine not being able to reach your Dad when he was working at the Pentagon!
I will not forget and I will pray that we will be successful and defeat those who would kill us and take away our freedom!
I was unaware, having had the TV tuned to PBS Kids all morning. I checked my e-mail and my sister wrote that she was keeping the kids in school, and wasn’t this awful?
What was?
I turned on CNN (for some reason I remembered the channel number) but by that time the towers were gone. I called my mom and told her, as she didn’t know either. I remember crying and asking her “Why did this happen?”
I held Son, who was almost two at the time, very close until Husband got home from the dentist. He’s my rock, he never said a word, just called the base to see if they needed him. He couldn’t even get through. I started bawling again because I knew he’d be activated soon and who knew what was going to happen? Where would he go?
I remember getting an “award” from the base because I was the wife of a Guardsman who’d participated in Operation Enduring Freedom. Son got a little book called “My Daddy’s a Guardsman” to help explain why he was going away. I still have that, somewhere.
That day five years ago started a chain of events for all of us.
I remember, most especially, 9/11/02. We were in Antietam and saw Marine One flying over on its way to PA. We drove through Shanksville that day too. I bawled all over again.
Vic, that sense of loss is still with me. I wonder, still, how we ended up here and will we ever be safe again?
I cry everytime I hear this song. Anna your tribute is beautiful. Thank you so much for introducing these two very special souls to my family.
Much Love,
Sarah
Thank you, Sarah! I feel the same way about that song. I am so very glad that I became a part of the 2,996 Tribute and I am also very glad I was able to “meet” your family. You are all so wonderful!
My alarm clock-radio ignites my day at 5:19AM. It worked perfectly 9/11 2001. The soothing voices at NPR’s Morning Edition were just announcing that a small plane had hit the WTC.
I quickly moved from bed to the TV in the livingroom and flipped it on to see smoke rising in increasing billows. Choppers were choppering around the Tower, then departed the growing conflagration.
When the second plane appeared, I thought, like everyone else, it was some kind of observation plane assessing the situation. When that plane insinuated itself into the second Tower, disappearing in a ball of fire, I said aloud to no one, “My god, we’re at war.”
Then I got ready for work and left an hour later. Dispite the murders and deststruction, my life and those of millions of other Americans went on. The reality of the morning hit me when I was greeted over-enthusiastically by the companies only Muslim employee. Suddenly, a man who I had trusted and liked was not so trusted not likeable. And so it remains.
I probably would have been able to deal with the day better if I had been working at the time. As it was I didn’t work outside the home, so the TV stayed on all day and for weeks to come. I was afraid to turn it off for fear something else would happen.
It would be very disconcerting to be greeted so enthusiastically after this terrorist act, Indigo Red.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I remember how I felt like it was yesterday. I was in my fourth grade class in Lousiana. When our school found out what happend. Practicly EVERY tv in school came on. I covered my mouth and could baerley breath. I was sooooooooooooooo scard I hope nothing like that ever happens again.
May youngest daughter was in fourth grade 9/11/01 and in their school they didn’t tell the kids. They didn’t want them getting scared. It was a very scary thing and I pray, too, that it never happens again! Thank you for writing your feelings about that day, Laura!
I was working in a factory when a guy who was the work clown walked in from a break and told us a plane hit the Trade Center. I knew by the look on his face he was serious but my mind still couldn’t grasp it. As soon as I could I got away and went to the break room to see the t.v. I watched as they played over and over the planes hitting and I didn’t know what to think or feel.
Later when I saw the videos of people jumping to escape the pain of being burned alive I was so upset I had to work hard to contain the tears. When I think of 9/11 now I can’t get those images out of my head. It hurts me so much to think of this day, but I never want to forget. I wish I could give everyone that lost someone to this cowardly act a never-ending hug. Lean on God, he is not the source of pain but he is a refuge from it.
David, I feel the same way. I don’t want to watch, but I feel that I must. I also want to give these families hugs and tell the families of the Flight 93 victims how amazing I think their loved ones were for taking their fate into their own hands and probably saving 100s more people. May God bless the families and our military.