{"id":468,"date":"2015-09-11T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2015-09-11T13:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:24:21","slug":"september-11-2001-where-were-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/?p=468","title":{"rendered":"September 11, 2001: Where were you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"11947577_1046117962099576_8837530418249039435_n\"<\/a>I’m sure that each of us can remember where we were on September 11, 2001. \u00a0I was on a TWA flight that had taken off from Dulles around 9:00 a.m. bound for St. Louis. \u00a0My flight was work related and was a day trip. \u00a0I was defending an expert witness deposition. \u00a0Mid-flight our pilot announced that no one was permitted to leave his or her seat. \u00a0No explanation why. \u00a0The flight attendants were also unaware of what was going on. \u00a0Then the pilot came back on and announced that there had been a “National Emergency.” \u00a0A woman seated a couple of seats in front of me began to cry. \u00a0I later learned that she was on her way to her father’s funeral. \u00a0The pilot came back on the intercom and then told us that we were being diverted to Indianapolis. \u00a0He said that he didn’t know the nature of the “emergency” but as soon as he had the information, he would share it with us. \u00a0I gave my cell phone to the distressed passenger so she could call her family. \u00a0After we landed in Indianapolis, the pilot spoke with his wife over his cell phone. \u00a0He shared the information about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center but he didn’t have much more information other than we would be deplaned on the tarmac and then transported into the terminal. \u00a0In the terminal there was chaos as everyone headed for the rental car counters but there were no cars available. \u00a0I tried to call my family but I could not get through. \u00a0But for some unexplained reason, I was able to get in touch with my wonderful secretary Cristi who called everyone for me. \u00a0There were cabs at the airport so I caught one and asked to be taken to a hotel. \u00a0He took me to the Hyatt. \u00a0In the lobby, the TV was on. \u00a0A pretty large group of us surrounded the TV and then got the complete story. I think we were all pretty much speechless and tearful. \u00a0 By this time it was around lunchtime. \u00a0I decided to check into the hotel as there would be no flights out of Indianapolis in the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I got to my room, I called the witness and told her that the deposition would not be happening. But when I called the opposing attorney, she basically told me to pull myself together and we could go ahead with the deposition by phone. \u00a0I demurred and told her we would reschedule.<\/p>\n

With nothing but a briefcase full of paper and the clothes on my back, I took a cab to Kmart and picked up what I needed. \u00a0Although the hotel was connected to a mall, the stores had closed and remained closed for a day. \u00a0I forgot to mention that on that particular morning, my husband was going to buy a car and asked for my driver’s license. \u00a0Yes, I gave it to him and, yes, I drove to Dulles and parked my car. Little did I know. \u00a0I spent the next 2 days in the hotel room watching the news.<\/p>\n

The next day, I was on a mission to rent a car. \u00a0I explained the issue to all of the rental car companies that had offices in downtown Indianapolis including Hertz, Enterprise and Budget. \u00a0 No luck. \u00a0On the third day, I went to the airport and found the Avis counter. \u00a0The Avis manager said that if I had a copy of the license faxed to him, he would rent the car to me. \u00a0After he received the fax, he called and advised me to be at the airport the next morning to pick up the car. \u00a0When I arrived, the car was ready. \u00a0He had mapped out my route and explained how I would return the car to Dulles the next day. \u00a0Needless to say, I got in and drove home to Manassas nonstop. \u00a0Along the way, my family and Cristi called to keep track of my progress.<\/p>\n

I cannot ever remember being so relieved when I pulled up to my house. \u00a0 But my experience was a mere inconvenience. \u00a0The tragedy for the the victims cannot be minimized. \u00a0It makes me sad every time I think of the occupants jumping from the Twin Towers as their only option. \u00a0I just can’t get it out of my head. Take a quiet moment and remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m sure that each of us can remember where we were on September 11, 2001. \u00a0I was on a TWA flight that had taken off from Dulles around 9:00 a.m. bound for St. Louis. \u00a0My flight was work related and was a day trip. \u00a0I was defending an expert witness deposition. \u00a0Mid-flight our pilot announced that no one was permitted to leave his or her seat. \u00a0No explanation why. \u00a0The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mmpcdc"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":false,"total_views":0,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassascitydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}