September 11 is a hard date. On Sunday, our pastor aptly said that that no matter how we are getting along now, a shadow falls on that day. I was not around for Pearl Harbor, or the Kennedy assassination. Until 9/11, the most profound moment of shared memory for my generation was the Challenger explosion in 1986. I still vividly remember where I was and what I was doing at that time.
9/11 is, of course, more akin to Pearl Harbor in that it is not just tragic, but scary in its implications. Plus, 9/11 took place on the continental soil, in heavily populated areas. Worst of all, thanks to television and the internet, we all had front row seats to the destruction, in vivid color. The information overload softens the edges of my memories, so that there is very little that sticks out other than recalling that I spent hours in front of the TV that first day, and the many days of hitting the "refresh" button on internet browsers to get the very lastest from CNN or MSNBC.
The one clear, specific memory I have, though, is of turning on the Today show at about 7:26 in the morning and the very confusing scene that came up. We couldn't tell immediately whether what we were seeing was in LA or elsewhere. Right about the time we figured out that this was New York, and that it was big, the second tower came down in front of our eyes. That's an image that will not go away. Even all of the video disclosed later, dramatic shots of airplanes inexplicably flying into buildings, cannot compare to my memory of looking at the TV in confusion and disbelief, which was closely followed by the realization that this was going to be a very different kind of day.
I was reminded this morning of the other strong memory I have of those days, something I hadn't seen in a while but which was common five years ago. Today, someone put up an American flag on a pedestrian overpass over the freeway. Simple, unadorned and a little sad.
And beautiful.
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Interesting point. I have no doubt that there are studies that cast doubt upon the strength of personnel recollections. Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable. However, I think that the "vivid memories" that I refer to are limited enough that they should remain valid. For Challenger, for instance, I have a lot of general memories that I would never claim to describe in detail, but also a very specific memory of the head of the science department sticking his head into our biology and, with a stricken look, telling us the shuttle exploded. To clarify the point further (that my "vivid" memory is actually quite limited in scope), I do not remember exactly what he said, just the general outline.
Similarly, my "vivid" recollections of 9/11 are that I turned on the TV unusually late, at 7:26 am (for some reason, I tend to notice stuff like that, although I can see how that would be one of those details that becomes more of a "learned" memory), that the images on the screen (of the north tower burning) were confusing because there were a couple of sets of text overlays, that I wasn't sure whether we were looking at an LA skyscraper, and that the tower came down a couple of minutes later. I also recall being fearful specifically because I work in a tall building, and calling the office to say I wouldn't be in. There is a whole bunch of stuff I remember that is much more general, but these very few things are memories that are quite clear.
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