Where Were You?

September 11. The question I always hear on this day is "Where were you when the Towers Fell"? In fact, there is even a song with that name. On this day every year, I don't think about the business I sit in daily, I think about the business my husband sits in daily, our flag store, Flag-Works over America. In 2001, we were newlyweds and both worked at Flag-Works. Many ask how can we be married and work together and that is surely a story for another day. For now I can say that we both have a great respect for each other no matter where we are, home or work.
On my way into work that day I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My husband had already left to run errands on the way in to work so we weren't riding together (See, we don't do everything together!) When I got in to the store Patrick was already there and I mentioned the incident. When I went up front into the retail section and turned on the radio I heard that another plane had crashed into the WTC and yet another into the Pentagon. Something was surely going on. The radio announcer had a slight tone of panic, not quite sure how to explain the events as they unfolded to his listening audience. I also had a slight tone of panic as I scurried back to my new husband to try and relay to him what I had heard. We new this was big as Patrick left to get us a TV to keep at the shop to stay abreast of what was going on. We did the best we could with the little TV, which had no cable hooked up, and tuned in to a fuzzy news program. All was quiet at our flagshop. We watched and as the word "terrorist attack" started being tossed around, we knew the quiet would soon end at our little store. You see, we'd had the flag store long enough to know how Americans would react and we needed to be ready to help. After placing a few phone calls to our flag manufacturers, we settled in and waited while the Country was still figuring out how to deal with this.
Then it started....at about 11:30am, a woman came into the store sobbing. She had to have a flag. I'll never forget her face. She was going to head right home and fly her new flag as a show of support and strength. It was only a few minutes after that people, Americans, started streaming through our front doors looking for a flag to fly. Within 1 hour we had a line and within 2 hours we had a line that went out our front door. By the evening the line went around the block. We normally closed at 5pm but not today. We had a responsibility to our fellow Americans, as the only Flag store in town, to stay open late, real late. I think it was 9pm before we finally closed, having to get home and let out our dogs. Of course, we came right back after feeding and letting our companions out, with them in tow. The flag store was a mess from all the people, and we had to prepare for the next day. When we finally got home at about midnight, we watched the news to catch up on the latest as our little TV in the shop went unwatched once we got busy. We heard President Bush ask everyone to "fly the flag" as a sign of unity. Finally we fell asleep for the night.
Up we were at 6am the next day to be in the store for 7am and get ready to open early at 8am. When we turned the corner to park at our usual spot across from the store, we couldn't believe our eyes, there was already a line of people waiting to get in. When we found a parking space and walked to the door, from the reaction of the line of people, you would have thought we were rock stars. "They're here"! Yeah! Patrick & I looked at each other, obviously the honeymoon was over, we had an important job to do.
For the next 2 days were were straight out with lines winding through the store and out the door. Our phone was ringing off the hook but we felt it was more important to help the customer in front of us, in Concord, NH, then the one on the phone. We could only do so much. For that reason, we hired temporary help for crowd control. Patrick would occasionally jump up on a ladder in the store to get above the crowd so everyone could see him and he'd explain where everything was and how to proceed through the line. I was at the register and never sat down or took a break. I don't think I could have even if I wanted to! We had to get flags out to everyone. We felt it was us doing our part. It was an incredible few days. We stayed open late, headed home to get our dogs and bring them back in with us to prepare for the next day. We'd open early and so on. After 3 days we ran out of flags and had to wait for shipments from our manufacturers. That's what the phone call was that Patrick made right after we heard "terrorist attack" for the first time on TV Sept. 11th. We knew we had to get in more flags and fast. So did many of the other flag stores and the manufacturers couldn't keep up, so we went days without flags.
What I saw during those first few days and weeks to follow I'll never forget. Americans would come into the store to choose their flag, pole, bracket, bunting or whatever they needed and head out the door to get into line. We have pictures of the line outside the store with everyone holding their items to purchase. We really didn't worry about anyone walking off, there was an aura of patriotism and honor and I don't think any of the people in line would have allowed it anyway. The line got so long that people had to wait 1 1/2 hours to make their purchase. I received not 1 complaint. What I saw were Americans who all had something in common, no matter who they were or where they came from. When they finally made it to the register and completed their purchase, you'd think the person in line next to them had been their friend forever! There were handshakes, hugs and tears. These people had shared their feelings when they needed someone to share with who understood, and everyone understood. Unfortunately, we all had a shared sadness that day, week, month, year..... We'll never forget.......