Remembering September 11th

My memories of September 11th are quite unique for an American, simply because I don't have them. Or rather, I do, but only in a very distant sort of way. When that first fateful day rolled around, my parents and I were camping in the northern California wilderness. Sometime around mid-day, my dad had to take our truck to town to get it repaired. When he got back that afternoon, he told us, in his usual dry way, that terrorists had attacked several locations and there was a lot of stuff going on. For a while, we thought he was joking, and even after that, we didn't really get clued in on the situation for quite a while. We missed the whole cultural upheaval that occurred following that date, and I didn't actually see the full video footage that went on at the time until years later. So, in a way, my memories of that time are rather shadowy and distant. But at the same time, I can't believe it's been nine years! Such a tragedy for all involved.