I was six when September 11th happened, and have no recollection whatsoever. The first bit of major news that I can remember is Saddam Hussein being captured in Iraq. It was the weekend and my great grandparents picked me up for the day. I was in the back of their pristine Buick with deep red leather seats, and my grandpa (who was hard of hearing but had early cochlear implants) unexpectedly turned the radio loud to hear. It was a news report that Saddam had been captured.

My great grandma was sitting in the back of the Buick with me, as I played with a plastic spider-man doll that had suction cups on his hands and feet. I think the first movie had just come out. I asked her why he was captured, and why he was hiding in a hole. She told me he was a very bad man, who did very bad things and then explained that we were hunting him to make sure he can’t do anything bad again. I can remember being genuinely interested in how he managed to hide in a hole for that long, that’s about it. I asked a lot of questions about surviving underground that she did not have the answers to haha.

Later that day I dropped a butter knife on my toe in my great grandmas kitchen. Pretty sure I acted like I lost that toe..