Sounds From 9/11 That Will Never Leave Me

I linked to a powerful piece the other day written by Peggy Noonan concerning the sounds of 9/11. Although I was 3,000 miles away on that tragic morning, there are sounds that I remember associated with that event as well, and will always be with me. I may have recounted some of these before, but bear with me.

1. Muted conversations. On the day of the attacks I decided to run over to a Togo’s to pick up lunch. The conversation in the restaurant were all about the attacks, and the people in front of me were talking about the nearby Red Cross blood center and how they wanted to give, but there was a 3-hour wait. They couldn’t help the people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania directly, but they just wanted to do what they could here to be a part of the healing.

2. Silence. My office is located right off the end of John Wayne Airport, which means I have a constant stream of air traffic, from Cessna’s to bizjets to commercial airliners going overhead all day. Sometimes it’s so loud we have to stop our phone conversations until the racket dies down.

I wasn’t in the office on 9/11, but in the next day or so that I was there, there were no airplanes at all as everything had been grounded. After years of hearing the regular roar of air commerce taking to the skies, it was very spooky.

3. Martial music. My family had gotten some free tickets to Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, CA that had to be used by September 15. We’d been so busy with the start of the new school year that we hadn’t made the trip during the summer, and finally planned the trip for Saturday, the 15th. We went ahead with our plans despite the national upheaval going on at the time.

Upon entering the park the first thing I noticed was the background music. Instead of the usual rock or hip-hop stuff, they were playing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, and all through the day we heard nothing but patriotic music. You couldn’t help but think that the country was at war.

4. No commercials. If you watched as much TV as I did during those first few days you’ll remember that all regular programming, including commercials, were suspended on network and many cable broadcasts. I don’t think I saw my first commercial break until sometime Friday night when the broadcasters finally decided it was time to try and go back to normal.

I’m sure there are other things that will come to mind, and if you have particular memories of sights and sounds, feel free to leave a comment.