Hmm, I must not watch much network TV. I had no idea that news coverage from the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 would be replayed until it got turned on in the newsroom this morning. It’s exactly what I wanted to see and I had no time to watch it. If I’d known, I’d have recorded it.

I’m not sure why I wanted to see the planes hit the Twin Towers again or watch the collapse. I just know I was annoyed when it seemed like everyone was afraid to show it again for a while. If there’s a DVD I’d like one, so I guess I should go check that out, huh? I saved magazines and newspapers, but they don’t convey the terrible tension as events unfolded.

The worst moments from that morning for me: When they knew a plane had been headed for Washington but they couldn’t find it, and were talking about sending Air Force fighters to shoot down our own citizens because fewer would die that way. And when people trapped in the towers realized there could be no rescue and jumped out of the windows, some of them holding hands.

The next news coverage to make me cry didn’t come until the next evening, I think, and when my husband first called me in to see it I didn’t get the significance. Big deal, I thought, the guards at Buckingham Palace. I’ve known about them since grade school. Then he told me to listen to the music being played in front of the palace. It was “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

This post originally appeared on ourMidland.com, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.