I was combing through some old bookmarks, and I came across a link to an old convention acquaintance from back in the day, Nikkou. She had some notoriety back then as one of the two people responsible for bringing the infant internets the Anime Web Turnpike, the at-the-time largest weekly updated conglomeration of anime-related links from all facets of anime fandom.
Apparently, a lot like me, she cherished her nerdy friends to to where she would go through the effort to put up some sort of page of reminiscing of past days, going so far as to mention me by name and by an old sketch I had done, portraying an old Otakon web design panel that I was somehow a part of. It was at this panel, or rather afterward, where I would actually meet Nikkou, and she saw it fit to rectify the issue that hadn’t been an Anipike Guest Author, like my peers on the panel. My old collection of links actually exists to this day, on an Anipike classic archive section, which broke on September 11, 2000. To no real surprise, almost 90% of the links I posted 12 years ago aren’t valid anymore, ironically including my own website, which happened to be on a different URL then.
Regardless, this was 12 years ago. 12 fucking years ago.
It’s almost hard to believe looking back that far, and glazing over my social life, the people I knew, the things I did, the way I looked and dressed, etc, etc. Life seemed so awesome, so free and careless back then, or maybe it was the fact that I was just an 18-year old shit at the time who didn’t realize just what in the hell life had in store for me.
Approximately one year later from those nerdy anime links would be a day that we all remember for the rest of our lives. I remember being in my car listening to Howard Stern in the morning, on the way to work, cursing the typical NOVA traffic on I-495, when Howard Stern himself began discussing the happenings of the Twin Towers. Thinking back to that day, I remember not really being that concerned over it, because the suffocating traffic was clouding my thoughts and judgment, but it wasn’t until I got in the office and people were clamoring around televisions and checking the internet, did the realization sink in that something major was going on.
Just minutes later, word broke that there was an incident at the Pentagon, and that pretty much all hands on deck. Since the people there knew I knew how to function a camera, I was thrust out the door with a camera and a press pass and told to go take whatever I could. But by this point, the miserable traffic to get to D.C. wasn’t so much on my mind as much as the thoughts that something scary was going on; at this point, it was still not established that these were terrorist attacks. By the time I reached Arlington, it was easy to get to where I needed to go – because all you had to do was look in the sky and follow the black smoke.
The whole scene was as chaotic as the news made it out to be. People were literally running around like chickens with their heads cut off. There were low-flying helicopters all over the place, and the noise of car horns, helicopter hum, and sirens did their best to muffle out the panicked buzz from throngs of people. I saw a few stretchers actually wheeling casualties, and found it hard to believe I was seeing that kind of visuals. As I got closer to the Pentagon itself, it got to a point where a large portion of regular citizens were all gone, and pretty much anyone left in the area were clearly media people. Nobody stood in one spot very long, because everyone was trying to do what I was doing; except these people were designated, and I had no real direction or idea. I took a lot of pictures from the same spots, and didn’t really do much. I did my best to mimic some of the other professional looking folks, but in the end, I didn’t really have much. Regardless, several of my shots made the paper, and I’m sure if the place were more efficient at utilizing EXIF data, they would balk at the idea that I kept copies of all my 9/11 photos for my personal stash, because shit, this was something major that I had some photos from.
When I left work that evening, it didn’t dawn on me that the entire world was pretty much going in shutdown. I actually went to NOVA, because I had a class scheduled. I-495 coming back was completely deserted at a 5:00 p.m. hour, and was spooky baffling. I actually stopped my car in between the Gallows Road and Little River Turnpike exits, and got out of my car and circled it before driving off, in a completely spontaneous act. When I got to campus, the entire parking lot was deserted. And when I got home, my parents were as shocked as everyone else was. And the rest is kind of history.
The thing is, I look back to 2001, and think about how desensitized I felt during the whole ordeal and its aftermath. Maybe it’s the fact that I had to go on site to one of the disaster zones, or maybe it’s a reflection of the kind of person I am, and my sense of priorities. Sure, I feel empathy to all those affected, but I couldn’t find myself glued to a television, watching in tears and agony as news of death, destruction, tragedy and hate poured through. Maybe it’s because I worked for a newspaper at the time, and that news never stopped, and it was more work than it was grieving.
Either way, there’s my stories of past September 11ths. One nerdy, happy-timed occasion before the date became notorious, and then some recollections of the date itself. Oh my how the times do change, sometimes.
