Across the Acres

Matt Radil

Glenwood | Pope County

Where were you when you first heard, and how did you hear about the planes hitting the World Trade Center or the Pentagon? I first heard about the planes hitting the towers on the radio after I left my first stop for the day between the scenic station in Bemidji and a small C-Store a few miles south of town.

What was the immediate atmosphere like around you? I was in total shock hearing it on the radio, and then, when I got to my next stop, I told them about it because they didn’t have radio or TV on yet. It was disbelief that it could actually happen, that somebody could fly into those towers. Comments were, “How could they not see that?” or “What kind of mechanical failure happened for this to have happened?” Then, there was the absolute sadness and shock of how many first responders died when the towers collapsed. Being a firefighter myself, losing 343 fellow firefighters in one incident was devastating to the fire service.

What was the first thought or fear that went through your mind? The thoughts of fear became evident after finding out about the second plane hitting the tower, and just the thoughts of “How could this be happening in our country?”

How did the rest of your day unfold? The rest of my day was just to continue through with my route that I was running. I talked about it at just about every stop, and the shock and disbelief were evident. Then, the fuel price scares happened that night, and the next few days, the panic that everybody had. As I was working out of town at the time, I had to go out to eat that night, and the place that I went normally had a fairly big crowd. But that night, I think there were only a handful of people besides the staff. A lot of people, I think, hunkered down and didn’t want to go anywhere out of fear of what might happen.

How did your community or neighborhood react in the days immediately following? I’m not sure what my community’s reaction was because I had been working out of town and was not really familiar with a lot of people around where I was.

Bonnie Waskosky

Elbow Lake | Grant County

Where were you when you first heard, and how did you hear about the planes hitting the World Trade Center or the Pentagon? I was in my ninth-grade study hall class. I can’t quite remember how I heard, but there was lots of talking in the class, and the teacher turned on the TV, and we watched the news on it.

What was the immediate atmosphere like around you? The atmosphere went from a very chill class of doing homework to all these questions and thoughts that were honestly just weird.  Some thought it was a joke at first, some were worried about our safety, some were just confused, and some didn’t seem to be bothered by it.

What was the first thought or fear that went through your mind? My first thought was, “Is this real?” It seemed so random, and growing up in a small town, you don’t think about things like that happening.

How did the rest of your day unfold? We had an assembly at school. Lots of “Why?” “Who would do this?” “Is this real?” and “Are we safe?” No one really had any answers for us. Some students freaked out. Others, it didn’t seem to bother. We really didn’t accomplish much that day.

How did your community or neighborhood react in the days immediately following? The following days I really don’t remember anything unusual. There was lots of confusion and lots of unknowns. We had counselors at school if we wanted to talk. I feel like security at school really never changed because of that.

Kyle Rademacher

Albany |  Stearns County

Where were you when you first heard, and how did you hear about the planes hitting the World Trade Center or the Pentagon? I remember I was in Melrose framing a house for my construction job. I remember I was actually in the rafters putting the catwalk down when it came across the radio.

What was the immediate atmosphere like around you? There were two other guys working with me, and we all couldn’t believe it. I don’t recall if it was the “breaking news” tones that came across but the broadcasters were talking about the planes flying into the World Trade Center. It was confusing at first, like the plane maybe had just gotten off course, but then we all learned that wasn’t the case. My coworkers and I all parted ways and went home for lunch in disbelief, and we watched it on the news as they reported on it.

What was the first thought or fear that went through your mind? I was worried that there were going to be more attacks; I didn’t think it was going to be in Melrose, but I wondered if possibly the Twin Cities could have been targeted as well. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and thought, you know, this could get crazy. And then, the next attack did happen when the Pentagon was hit.

How did the rest of your day unfold? We listened to the radio the rest of the day and conversed amongst my coworkers how we couldn’t believe that had actually happened and that it was intentional. 

How did your community or neighborhood react in the days immediately following? Nothing I recall; we went back to work the next day, and I remember everyone was talking about it at the gas station. There was a lot of chatter, and we all just hoped it wasn’t headed our way or that there was more to come.