Chances are you know lots of people who have September birthdays.
Nine of the 10 most common days to have birthdays in the U.S. happen this month. So, for most of our nation’s history, having a Sept. 11 birthday was unremarkable.
That changed in 2001.
Now such a birthday means an unwanted tie to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. [I should know, it's my birthday too.]
Bloomington resident Paige Buschman, who turned 6 that year, said, it’s just been part of life for her.
“If you say ‘My birthday’s 9/11’ people are like ‘Wow, really?.’ I’ve had multiple occasions, like, there was often commenting on it, some way or another — whether it was ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ or ‘Ewww, yikes,” she said.
Except for New York City, where the immediate impact of the attacks has been most direct — the somber anniversary has faded from its earlier emotional intensity. But 25 years later scholars still are unpacking how 9/11 changed America, in the broadest of terms.
People with Sept. 11 birthdays continue finding themselves seeking a balance of retaining personal joy with the nation’s collective fear, anger and grief surrounding it all.
One of those is Ryan Bliss, a digital artist who lives in rural Towanda. In 2001, he lived in San Diego. His 30th birthday started with unexpected news.
Bliss’ mother — back in Central Illinois — called surprisingly early, at around 6 a.m. Pacific time. Her first words weren’t “Happy Birthday” but rather an urgent “Turn on the TV.” Any plans for celebrating disappeared quickly.
In the days, months and years that followed, Bliss said it became clear the country had hit a turning point.
“On the totem pole of being affected by 9/11, having your birthday ruined is probably the lowest,” said Bliss, adding, “But you know it’s still there.”
He and others interviewed for this story say the birthday is an interesting connection, albeit trivial. This is especially true considering the thousands of lives lost due to the attacks, as well as the radiating loss felt by their family and friends, noted Bliss.
A person can pick any terrible event from history, and that would fall on people’s birthdays, and other anniversaries. But why is there such a strong connection to this one? Maybe it’s because the date itself is the name.
An early push with the federal government labeling it Patriot Day never really took hold among the populace, and it had its critics. Now, 9/11 is the term for the attacks.
“I can't remember a date in history, you know, other than Dec. 7, 1941 — when Pearl Harbor was attacked — that the date itself is such an inextricably linked part of the tragedy,” said Bliss. “I mean, here it is, still called 9/11.”
The trend could be changing though. Most people now recognize Jan. 6 as the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; and Oct. 7 as shorthand for the 2023 Hamas attack in Israel.
Changing generations mean fewer who knew 9/11 firsthand
Retired speech pathologist Joan Smeltzer, of Fairbury, turned 49 on Sept. 11, 2001. She was working in a Piper City school, when she learned about the attacks.
For several years after, the mere mention of her birthday drew unwanted attention.
“If you'd go someplace and you'd have to tell someone your birthday, they'd all go ‘Ahh’ and give you this big-eyed stare,” she said. That made her feel torn. She said she understood people’s negative associations. But inside, she was happy it was her birthday.
Smeltzer says she’s noticed the commenting has tapered off in the past decade, which she attributes to a subsiding of the collective trauma Americans experienced in 2001 — or maybe a generational shift.
About a third of Americans weren’t even alive. And millions more were too young to remember.
Paige Buschman, associate director for Illinois State University’s Center for Civic Engagement, said that's true for most younger people.
“The difference between Gen Z and Millennial is whether or not you remember life before 9/11,” she said, adding “I'm literally considered right on the cusp,” with her Sept. 11, 1995, birthday.
She was young but remembers a few key details of that day in 2001: When she arrived at her morning kindergarten session in Lemont, she was a bit giddy as the birthday girl. Buschman remembers the mood turning quickly though. As the adults became frazzled and upset, she felt the need to tamp down her excitement. Soon after, all the kids were sent home.
“They didn’t tell us what was going on, we were too young,” she noted.
Growing up, she remembers September 11ths marked by moments of silence in school, and a relatively somber tone. She wonders if the impact of it all played a role in her becoming a sociologist, and working in civic engagement.
This month, her office has been organizing a campus-led Saturday of Service for this weekend.
Buschman thinks telling people she has a Sept. 11 birthday creates a moment where they want to share with her: “It almost immediately sparks a conversation of ‘Where were you on 9/11. I feel like I've sort of like curated histories of 9/11 experiences.”
A baby born into a chaotic world
When someone asks Jo Hundman where she was on 9/11, her answer is a real attention grabber: She was giving birth.
The real estate agent and her husband Brian Hundman, a Growmark executive, both live in Bloomington, and are the parents of three adult children. The couple arrived early that morning at St. Joseph Medical Center, and got settled in a labor and delivery room.
“And then, I was watching the second plane fly into the World Trade Center — live on TV, while I was in labor,” said Jo.
It was way too much, she said.
They decided to turn off the TV and shut out the negativity. About five hours later, their second child, a daughter they named Carley, was born.
“You know, we always say she was a blessing on a bad day,” said Jo, with Brian adding, “A tragic day in the world. But obviously, for us, you know, such a joy.”
That happiness was tempered by the grief and fear that was everywhere as the day unfolded. Brian recalls looking out from the maternity ward, to see Eastland Mall’s then-usually bustling parking lot eerily empty. And the hospital was mostly empty, too, with a skeletal staff and few, if any, visitors.
Jo remembers struggling to process her happiness amid such surroundings.
“Everyone was freaked out and depressed, and it was a really long night, the first night that she was born — thinking about bringing a child into such a crazy world,” she said.
“I mean, even the nurses were crying,” she said, noting one of the OB nurses was worried about her son, who was serving in the military.
9/11 babies turn 25
Carley Hundman Rugaard was one of more than 13,000 babies born that day in America. Most of that group, like Hundman Rugaard, ended up having their own life-altering experience in high school, graduating the spring the COVID pandemic hit.
That batch of babies turns 25 this week.
A graduate of Central Catholic High School, Hundman Rugaard, now a stylist with Elevation Salon, lives in Bloomington.
She learned early on about the significance of her birthday. Each September, the U.S. flags would come out, and 9/11 was the focus of school assemblies and history lessons.
When she was 10, the Hundmans took part in a fundraiser for New York families directly affected by the attacks, and a year later, she joined some of her family on a trip to NYC, to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
But mom Jo Hundman said, overall, they tried to keep the national anniversary out of the family celebrations. The goal was for Carley’s birthday to be as normal as her sister’s and brother’s.
Among Hundman Rugaard’s most memorable birthdays was her 21st, when she was living in Phoenix.
“I met another girl with the same exact birthday, and she was like, ‘Nobody gets what it's like to have a birthday on the 9/11,’ which, it was pretty cool to get someone else's perspective, too, of that day.”
This year's birthday
This year, many of us marking Sept. 11 birthdays will join the rest of the country in recognizing the 25th anniversary. We’ll follow retrospectives like the NPR one WGLT will air Friday evening.
For Joan Smeltzer, she’s planning a quiet evening to watch the documentaries that will be on TV.
But the consensus is, there’s also room to celebrate our own joyous Sept. 11ths.
Bliss and his wife Jessica will meet their grown sons for dinner in Eureka, and Buschman’s taking time for herself, and making pierogis — a nod to her Polish heritage.
For the Hundman family, it’s a full-circle moment. Their very own 9/11 baby Carley marks her first birthday as a mother herself. Carley wants to have a low-key birthday this weekend, spending time with her husband Tucker Rugaard and their 6-month-old, Sonny.
“Now that we have a baby, you know, we get to enjoy him. That's a celebration every day,” she said.
Bliss said each year as his birthday arrives, he heeds the advice his mother gave back on Sept. 11, 2001.
"She told me just remember that it was a joyous day before this happened, and it should be for you. So, you have to learn to kind of compartmentalize what happened and have your day, but also remember, and don’t let the two intermingle too much,” said Bliss.
As for this reporter, I'll go out with friends and family this weekend, but my Friday morning will be more introspective.
I have a longtime birthday morning ritual of sipping my coffee and enjoying a distraction-free listening session of The Rising, Bruce Springsteen’s album reflecting on the 9/11 attacks and the year that followed.
