Thursday, January 16, 2020

First Line Friday #90


First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines offered up this week.

43821991

"Nearly every American above a certain age remembers precisely where they were on September 11, 2001."



I will never forget this day as long as I live. I was a freshman in college, hadn't even been there a month. I saw the first reports as I was getting ready for class, and the second plane struck by the time I got to class across campus. I watched the first tower fall, and my professor did the unthinkable: he turned off the television because we were not paying attention. Some kids got up and walked out. I wish I would have. I was in shock.


Classes were obviously cancelled. The "preacher" who stood out in front of the Union every day, yelling at us about how we are going to hell because of the homosexuals, was there as usual. I hated that guy, and he's out there on September 11 with same bullshit about how we brought this on ourselves and the people on the planes deserved to die, we all deserve it. People usually ignore him, but not that day. I watched a young woman walk right up to him and get in his face, yelling that if he was any kind of pastor he would be praying for those who were killed, injured, missing. He didn't miss a beat and went right back to his rant about "the gays".

The rest of the day is a blur. I went back to my dorm and watched CNN all day and all night. I fell asleep, finally. It was late but I don't remember when. All I could think about was how the world would never be the same.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Share your story if you'd like.

22 comments:

  1. First off, I really want to read this book!
    Also, that "preacher" sounds horrific. What a jerk.
    As for me, I was in history class (oddly enough). I was 11, and in the 6th grade.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is awful. A fellow teacher at my school finished her degree two years ago or so and said he was still there. What a waste of a life, standing around shouting at people.

      Did your school send kids home? Did your teachers let you watch the news?

      Delete
  2. I was raised in a Pentecostal sect that made me expect the end of the world any minute, and I lived in a state of constant fear and dread about my own prospects. That particular day made me worry if the End of the World had started. When we received the news, I was in 11th grade English, studying the Grapes of Wrath, and we saw the towers fall in world history a few minutes later. We were using "Block Scheduling" then, so I only had four long classes all day...in Spanish we just sat and listened to the radio, and I can't recall the fourth. I distinctly remember going to my online 'home' back then, the 3DO forums, to talk with people about what it meant.


    Glad you've got the book...I'm sure you will find it as captivating as I did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think a lot of people felt like it could be the end of world - maybe a little more figuratively, in that things would never be the same, but also literally, given the fact that everyone has nuclear weapons now. At least, nearly everyone whom the US does not want to have them.

      It was indeed captivating and I could not put it down - though I find myself less drawn to stories of the Pentagon, though I am not sure why, and I feel guilty about it. Maybe because when I think of the Pentagon, I think of military men and women who have signed up for potentially life-threatening situations. It doesn't make the losses hurt any less, or any less tragic. But Flight 93 gets me, every time, almost more than anything else. Those people did not have to do what they did, they did not have to fight back. It's because of them that countless more lives were saved.

      Delete
  3. My first line is from Collateral Damage by Lynette Eason:
    Forward Operating Base camp Charles. Afghanistan, September
    Sergeant First Class Asher James stared at Captain Phillip Newell, sure that he’d heard wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest. I was sitting in my hideout watching cartoons when the news bulletin broke into my video feed, announcing that James Halliday had died during the night."

    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, you're reading RPO? :-D Will be interested in your reaction.

      Delete
    2. Just finished it tonight. Two others to review first. It was VERY different to the movie!!

      Delete
    3. Must be nice to have only two other reviews to do! Perhaps you'd like to chip in and help out on mine, lol.

      Delete
    4. lol, well aren't you just the luckiest man in the whole world. I have four, plus 100. Or something. Lots of review bombs coming up, because I can not write a full length review for all of them, nor do I want to. And this is the list that has already been culled!

      Delete
  5. Happy Friday! My first line is from "A Family to Call Ours" by Merrillee Whren:

    "The sideways rain drenched Caleb Fitzpatrick as he slogged down Maine Street."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy Friday! Today I'm sharing the first line from A Girl's Guide to the Outback by Jessica Kate: "Samuel Payton was an idiot." 🤣

    https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-line-fridays-girls-guide-to.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Friday!
    On my blog I'm sharing the first line from Lone Star Ranger by Renae Brumbaugh Green: https://christianfictiongirl.blog/2020/01/17/first-line-friday-119/. I'm currently on chapter 6, so I'll share the first line from there.
    "Easy, now," Elizabeth whispered, working to keep fear from her voice.
    Hope you have an excellent weekend filled with awesome reading time. 🙂❤📖

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy Friday! I’m sharing the first lines from Guarded by Sara Davison on my blog today, so here’s a semi-random line from Chapter 8:

    “I don’t do relationship advice, so you, Nicole, and God are going to have to work this out amongst yourselves.”

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am currently reading The Source by James Michener. It is amazing. First line: "On Tuesday the freighter steamed through the Straits of Gibraltar and for five days plowed eastward through the Mediterranean, past islands and peninsulas rich in history, so that on Saturday night the steward advised Dr Cullinane, 'If you wish an early sight of the Holy Land you must be up at dawn.' "

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting my little book nook. I love talking books so leave a comment and let's chat!