Where Was I April 19, 1995

Where was I this morning 24 years ago? ....the day the Alfred P Murrah building was bombed... the OKC bombing...The day The Heartland would never be the same. 9:02am. 

I was teaching. Forty-five minutes away in Weatherford, Oklahoma I was well into the morning lessons and planning my wedding when I had a chance. 

But when news reached our small town, first via a phone call from a teacher’s husband then through the 10” T.V. in the library... the only form of visual communication in our little elementary school. I was no longer thinking of bouquets and dresses and lessons plans were down to a minimum. My only concern were those people...all those poor people. “God have mercy!” I was sure I knew someone that was there. We were drawn to the tiny t.v. like fruit flies to vinegar. This news was bitter and awful. 

All day we walked back and forth down the hall to the library...back and forth...back and forth...back and forth... only staying a second or two. We would pass each other in the hall asking, “Anything new?” “Do they know who did it?” Some with worry on their face, some with fright, some on the verge of tears....all with confusion. 

The back and forth journey from classroom to the library continued...thankful when lunch and recess came (those that had duty were playing Let’s Make a Deal) so we could spend a longer time in front of KFOR news channel 4 to linger than one minute. Or was it channel 9?
If we had fitbits back then it would have logged miles that day. 

I believe we did our jobs well...considering. We kept our cool... taught, encouraged, played, band-aid ouch’s....and prayed. I hope the children left that day as secure feeling as when they arrived. 

When school was over I made a beeline to my house to watch news. “Did they know who did it?”, I wondered. At one time “they” seemed sure it was a terrorist group from the Middle East. “We’re going to war!”...a more than sobering thought.
But, no. Not Middle Eastern terrorists. 

They were terrorists alright...but from our very own country! “How could that be?!?” A couple of our own causing such destruction and death on their very own soil! “Lord, help me understand!” The deadliest incident of domestic 

He That Should Not Be Named was caught on an interstate by OHP headed south...to Texas?, Mexico??... because of no license plate! Could someone... that pulled off such a horrific crime... be such an idiot?!?... Yes! Thank the Good Lord Above!! 

My heart had no mercy that Wednesday. “I hope they fry whoever did this!!”, I cried. 

Yes, I did know people at the Federal Building that morning. People that worked there...people that had appointments...people now gone, some survived... friends scarred inside and out. 

Have you run your hand over one of the 168 chairs at the Oklahoma City National Memorial? One for every life lost...the children...those poor young souls in the daycare. Have you stood at the end of the reflecting pool?... reflecting on the 9:03 time stamp? The time that recovery efforts started by the innocent? Reflecting on the almost 700 injured? Lives...a state...changed forever. 

“Time is filled with swift transition...”, says one of my favorite hymns. As our world swiftly changes.....“Hold to God’s unchanging hand” 

                                                   Torrey Longnecker

April 2019