Some Things You Never Forget

There are some things I know I will never forget.

I will never forget listening to the O.J. Simpson verdict in the 5th grade.

I will never forget hearing in Rexburg that Princess Diana died.

And I will never forget hearing about the attacks of September 11, 2001 as reported by Rick Dees In The Morning as I rode in the car with Robyn from seminary to high school.

In Mrs. Switzer's journalism class we brushed the news aside (thinking it was just an unfortunate plane crash) so we could continue learning about how to make our school newspaper less "bubbly," or the difference between libel and slander.

In Mr. Pence's physiology room, we listened to the news on AM radio. It could've been in his class that we learned of the second plane hitting the other tower. At that point we knew it was more than mere coincidence.

The rest of the day was a blur.

I remember feeling comforted knowing that a special meeting had been called in the tabernacle.

I remember watching CNN, Fox News, and the BBC for the latest updates, and I remember flipping through all the channels and seeing that from channel 3 to 73 (except for Nickelodeon), all regular programming had been cancelled to air continuous coverage of the monumentally life-changing news.

And I remember how even in California we knew people that had barely escaped tragedy's path. Josh flew out of Boston that same morning (see here), and Matt and Corey would've been in one of the towers had it been open to tourists.

As a country we all felt vulnerable to other attacks.

In the weeks that followed, I learned that anthrax is more than a castle from Monte Python.

I kind of wish that we all remembered a little better the events of that day.

And that we still all flew our flags every day and took them down with care every night.

It was a terrible, terrible day, but it sure did make us better people and unite us as a nation...

for a month or so.