September 11, again.

I was going to write a post about pickles for today (don't worry, I'll write it for another day), and then I had some thoughts about children and church (again, probably later) and then I realized it was going to be 9-11 when this blog goes "live".  Maybe it's a sign I'm getting older, but all these "significant dates" seem to pass quickly these days.  This is one of those "where were you posts", so here you go...

The Girl was born in early August 2001 and before she was even born we had the date of her baptism planned.  We wanted her to be baptized in the family gown (Mrs. Pretzel did a nice piece on it here) so that had to be coordinated and Mr Ranch's grandparents wanted to come, so another piece of coordination.  The date was set for September 9 at our local parish.

The Girls' baptism day was lovely--beautiful weather,lots of relatives and such.  My brother was able to be a witness/honorary Godparent (since he isn't Catholic) and Mr. Ranch's Aunt and Uncle were able to be the official Godparents.  We had a lovely brunch at the Aunt and Uncle's house and made plans to have lunch with Mr. Ranch's grandparents on Tuesday, before they flew home on Wednesday.  My brother flew home that afternoon, so he could work on Monday.

Four Generations

First Great-Grandchild

It always amazes me in these pictures how dark The Girl's hair is...makes me think again that she must be using my lightening shampoo for blonds.








I have no recollection of Monday, September 10, 2001...I assume that Mr. Ranch went to work and The Girl and I did "maternity leave stuff"--hung out at home, watched Little House on the Prairie, read books, did laundry...but who knows.

Sept 11, Mr. Ranch got up and went to work.  The Girl was happily sleeping in her crib and I was downstairs putzing around when Mr. Ranch called and asked me to turn on the tv because they didn't have a tv at work (and this was before 24/7 live news on the internet).  He and his co-workers had heard that a plane had hit the Twin Towers.  I turned on the news and listened as the newscasters wondered if it was a small plane that had somehow become "lost". Initially, we, like many other folks, thought it was a horrible accident, but an accident none the less. As I watched, the second plane hit, the news media figured out what was going on, and, well, the rest is history.  Fairly early in the day, I hung up the phone and went upstairs, breaking all my own rules, to get The Girl out of her crib, waking her up ("Never wake a sleeping baby, if you can help it!") and holding her for a good deal of the morning.

As we sat there, I realized, hmm, we have lunch plans...I called the Great-Grandparents and was given the message that they "went out to lunch on Sunday December 7, 1941" and they "were planning to go out today!".  (That actually makes me smile...it was just very typical of Mr. Ranch's grandmother...kind of "pull yourself together" and "life is still going on").  We did have a nice lunch, all things considered.  I remember it being kind of surreal--it was fairly quiet (it was a Tuesday lunch, after all) but I could hear conversations around us about what happened and what people thought could/would happen next.

Needless to say, the Great-Grandparents did not fly home the next day, which turned out to be a blessing, as Mr. Ranch's aunt was pregnant and they were a great help to her, entertaining his 3 year old cousin, etc.  Over the next few weeks we had many conversations about whether the baby and I should go to my parents' (in rural South Dakota) rather than stay under the Air Force patrol zone that went right over our house. I watched a lot less tv those next few weeks--even Little House on the Prairie was preempted for 9-11 coverage--and spent a lot of time on the phone with a friend also home on maternity leave, discussing the Air Force's fly patterns over our houses and which types of diaper seemed to work best.  At one point early in the first week, we realized that the last we knew one of Mr Ranch's friends from high school was living and working "somewhere in the financial district of New York".  I called the number we had...disconnected.  We called the friend's parents...no answer.  I left a message, I'm sure I sounded like an idiot, that the last contact info we had was in the financial district and we wanted to find out if he was ok.  No one returned our call for three days.  Then, in typical high school friend fashion, the phone rang at 10:30 pm and the voice said, "Is this Mrs. Ranch?" (yes, he used "Mrs" and our last name).  Mind you, this is before caller ID.  Something about the voice made me have a slight panic attack, as I said, "yes"....I was sure it was someone calling with bad news (remember, I still had all those "baby hormones" raging through my body!).  Turns out it was our friend...as soon as he identified himself, I burst into tears (hormones, man) and handed the phone to Mr. Ranch...who also looked a bit panicked, until I said, "It's M...he's ok".Turns out M had left his "high powered finance job" just a few weeks earlier and moved home, so he was well out of danger.   Geez.  Boys

Now, being a history geek, I quite often buy books "for" my kids that have a message.  These books actually are at school right now, I probably will bring them home this week for the kids to read, since The Girl was only a month old and The Boy was born long after 9-11...to them it is like Pearl Harbor to me, I suppose.  Here's a selection of my 9-11 books:

Fireboat

This was the first "9-11" book I bought--I saw it at the local discount book store and picked it up.  It is about a group of folks who refurbished an old fire boat and actually put it into service on 9-11 as volunteer fire fighters.  They ferried some folks as well, since the bridges were crowed and getting out was tricky. Pretty amazing story, I can usually get through it without crying.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
I bought this one at the library used book sale--it won a bunch of awards and I couldn't figure out why it was in the "sale bin"--looks like someone donated it.  In their defense, it isn't a very "typical" storybook.  It is more about the towers being built, but has a nice "memorial" piece as well.  Nicely done pictures.

 September12th: We Knew Everything Would Be Alright
This one has been my favorite the past couple years.  For a few years, I have taught 11th grade US History, and my students have been about the same age as the kids who wrote the book. I try to have them do some writing/journaling about positive influences in their life and we read this book, where a group of (real) first graders tell about how the adults in their life were positive influences right after 9-11.  I don't have too many more years of the kids remembering the same way the storytellers do though-this year's juniors were only 4-5 years old on September 11.

 I'd love to end with something thought provoking and meaningful, but don't have anything else fantastic to say, I guess.  I continue to be thankful for the safety of our friends and family that day and say a prayer for those who were directly affected. I hope you all had a chance today to do the same today--God Bless you all!