Originally Posted by DenverBrian
I had flown UA to Spokane the evening of 9/10, and I still vividly remember the bored expression on the security guard's face as I went through the metal detector at DIA. The shoes, of course, stayed on that night.
The weekend prior to 9/11 I spent in Boca Raton with friends. Flew home Monday (9/10) on Delta. I had bought a painting at a gallery exhibition that weekend. I remember going through FLL security asking the screener to let me carry the piece onboard. The piece was too big to put through the scanner and I did not want to check it. Basically it was canvas wrapped in black garbage bags. I could have had anything underneath there, but of course the screener did not think twice about letting me bring it through. He didn't even bother to examine it. He just walked it around the scanners and handed it to me after I passed through. Nothing like that could happen today.
I remember chatting to a fellow at CVG that day while waiting for the second segment to Chicago. He had saved up his money to be in the audience on the Oprah show being filmed on 9/11. He said since it was such a special occassion he had saved his money to splurge on a nice hotel downtown for his two nights there. He was going to fly back on Wednesday. He had never flown anywhere before, and obviously did not have much money. I always wondered how he lasted in Chicago for those extra days with the very tight budget he was on.
I also remember while I sat at CVG that the big breaking news story was some kind of explosion or fire at Newark airport. Quickly forgotten the next day.
I'll always look back and think of all the nuances of air travel that I experienced that day, which always reminds me how much has changed since then.