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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNancy Berry TranscriptionCity of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Nancy Berry Interviewer 1 & 2: Unknown Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt Date: 2013 Place: College Station, Texas Project: Mayors and City Council Interviewer (I): Day, might be some of that. 00:03 Nancy Berry (NB): It’s, wasn’t a good day but. Okay, let it roll and I’ll just wait on you guys to, do a spectacular job in the editing department. Where, where should my hands be? Interviewer 2: (I2): Right where they are. Just talk to Colin. 00:17: (NB): Okay. I: Looking back on, on 9/11, where we were you? What were you doing when you first heard about the, the planes going into the? 00:25: NB: I was in Rochester, Minnesota. And, I was there visiting and I was going to head to Minneapolis to have lunch with a, a good friend’s daughter. And, as I was leaving the building, an older woman said, “Did, did you hear? A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.” And I said, “Oh that’s awful!” And she didn’t seem very concerned and I was thinking, “Oh probably you know, a private pilot in a small plane and it might have taken out a, you know, window or two, and you know, crashed into the building.” But I really didn’t think you know, what it was. That was just my thought. I got in the car and I was headed to Minneapolis and I was listening to a music C.D. and the C.D. stopped and I thought, “Okay, I’ll just listen to the local radio.” And then, I mean I don’t know what happened but the car just turned around and you know, I went straight back to where I was staying and then you know, I just total disbelief because by that time, the second tower had not fallen yet. But you know, we were seeing it all live and it was just unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I: How do, how do you think that day changed the country? 01:49: NB: Oh I don’t think we’ll ever be the same, never be the same. My, my husband was, I was visiting my husband who was doing research at Mayo Clinic then. And he called me that afternoon and, he said, “I’m in the emergency room.” And I said, “Okay.” And he said, “Will you come over?” And he was studying the emergency room that week. And I said, “Any particular reason?” He says, “They want to admit me.” And he, it, they thought he was having a heart attack. And went through the stress test and he failed it and kept him overnight. And it was just stress because he was hearing all the respondents and, and one of the, the masterminds ended up being in Minneapolis and so they had closed the Minneapolis airport and then the Mayo Clinic was on high alert and they went into their protective mode. So, it really sedated, changed the world. I: Looking back now, ten years later, looking back at that, just what goes through your mind you know in, in retrospect? 03:10: NB: I, you know I’m, I’m getting on a plane tomorrow and all the things I’m gonna do to get on the plane, I didn’t have to do. You know, I didn’t have to have a picture I.D., I didn’t have to have my middle name, I didn’t have to have, take off my shoes and go through the x-ray machines and put my purse down and take off my jacket or a sweater and I, I’m, I’m happy to do it. I mean if, if that in fact prevents one person from doing something that will harm someone else. But you know it’s changed the whole way I think all of us live now. I: Okay, is that it? I2: That’s it. Good enough.