9-11 Exhibit

What follows may be slightly disturbing to some. It is my response to seeing an exhibit of things from September 11. There is nothing graphic, just emotional. Consider yourself warned.

The Washington State History Museum here in T-town has a Smithsonian exhibit with things recovered from Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and things left at the site in Shanksville, PA. The museum also has free entry on Thursdays after 5. Jeffy and I took advantage of that deal yesterday. Man, what a powerful exhibit. It was very silent and reverent in the exhibit. There were a couple of things that really spoke to me in big ways. The first was 2 pieces of an airplane found at Ground Zero, one of the pieces was the window opening of the airplane. All I could think about was that someone had gotten on that plane that morning, looked out that window, and had no idea that they were about to die. Who knows, maybe they looked out that window as the plane was flying into the WTC tower. It was like looking into someone's soul. No words to really describe my emotions. The other 'artifact' I saw was a pair of shoes, much like a pair I own, that a survivor had taken off as she was trying to get down the stairwell in one of the towers. She had taken off her shoes because she thought she could go faster in bare feet.

They also had a 10-minute video presentation with footage from Good Morning America, and ABC News' subsequent coverage of the events of that terrible day. Watching that was like turning back the clock. I just sat there, with my hand over my mouth, silently crying and gasping at times as I watched the events play out on 'live' television. The report of the first plane to hit the WTC, the report of the second, listening to the reporter's reaction as he watched the second plane fly right into the tower. (I had just woken up on the actual day when this happened.) The live coverage as the towers fell, the coverage at the Pentagon. It brought back a flood of memories. I was wondering through the whole experience last night if I was glad I am old enough to understood the full impact of what happend that day, this brought on by the families there with young children who really didn't grasp what they were seeing. I still don't know whether I'd rather be blissfully unaware of the significance of what happened or not. Maybe I should be glad to have lived in a simpler time and to be old enough to have that in my memory.

There were so many things to take in. I suspect I'll be going back, and likely paying to go back so as to avoid the massive crowds which are sure to be there on Thursday nights once the word gets out.