9/11 Remembered

I watched the tape of the Today Show from that horrific morning and it chilled me to the bone. It may have been seven years ago but it was yesterday for me. I was standing in the copy room of Voorhees High School when the door to the audio-visual room opened and Kevin whispered to me, "Come in here fast." The principal and several teachers were standing around the big screen TV watching the burning World Trade Center. We watched the second plane slam into the building. Funny, in retrospect, the name Osama Bin Laden was mumbled a few times. High school social studies teachers are usually smart, savvy people who keep up on current events. A guidance counselor's husband was killed, along with several relations of people I know. Our school is just 35 miles from Ground Zero. The world was forever changed. I found a phone and called Matt on his job site, which happened to be in plain view of the Manhattan skyline. I said are you alright, and he said, with that typical blue-collar spunk, "Ain't no towelheads are gonna get me, baby!" I couldn't help but be reminded that the average WWII soldier was 5'8", 140 lbs, and a high school drop out...and they saved the world. AJ joined the National Guard - to guard Yankee Stadium and the GW bridge, I think. I'm not surprised - my kids were raised on stories of my family's service to this country dating back to the Colonial Wars. Matt dropped him off in the Border's parking lot at 3 am not long after that, to be swept off to Brooklyn and Army testing by the recruiter. His unit went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, thankfully, for a year. I think that's where the seed of clergyhood was planted. Soldiers loved to tell AJ their problems, and he loved to help them. AJ was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by his high school senior class. Why not? He had beaten the star quarterback of the football team (who drove a new Land Rover Defender!)for Senior Class President. Who knew he would be called to serve his country. AJ's unit was re-deployed to Iraq, but the Company Commander, God Bless His Soul, decided not to take the college students with them. He wanted them to have a chance to graduate - and AJ did get his Rutgers degree. The Army still has him, and who knows where this Chaplaincy path will take him. I am so very proud.

Okay, I'm back. The power went out for several hours last night, with the moon and stars blocked by thick clouds. I had done most of my chores, but still felt I had to go out into the barn to check things out. Nothing but glowing eyes reflected in the flashlight. Black as pitch in there. I actually had the nerve to walk the dogs down the driveway into the mist. No visitors from the past, but it felt like that kind of night. I lit enough candles to make me sweat in the apt. and hunkered down on the sofa with the doggies to read a book. The power came back on in time for me to go to sleep. Foggy and nasty this morning - decided to skip the market when I saw a wall of green on the weather radar, headed this way from Ithaca. I have a sink full of dirty dishes and a million bars of soap to wrap for next weekend.