September 11. Where were you?

[wildmaven]

One of the reasons I loved my New York job so much was that we could see the towers from the window of our imaging room. In the winter, when it would get dark early, we could see the lights of the tower and it was beautiful. Then some monsters flew planes into that beauty and we watched them fall. Patients still had to be injected and scanned and we had to go on, though internally we were a mess. Would our building be next? How many of our friends had died? Would we be able to get home? I had never felt such fear, such loneliness, such compassion. At the end of the day, gridlock took hold of the parkways and we listened to more reports while sitting in traffic for hours. I had to find a new radio station, as mine had lost its transmitter on top of the tower. When I finally got home, I tried to call my parents, but the lines were too overloaded. I am thankful for the internet, since it was how I finally got in contact with them. My sister, God only knows how, managed to get through on the phone. We had lost touch for years, and this tragedy made us realize how important family really is. I received tons of emails from people I only knew online...people who knew I lived in NY and they wanted to know if I was OK. The world suddenly got smaller, knowing so many people cared. Over the next year, coverage was non-stop. People complained about some of the images, especially one of a man falling to his death. That image is burned into my mind. The thought of having to decide whether to burn to death or leap to your death is mind boggling.

Other things I remember from the attack:
Rescue dogs burning their feet because the ground was so hot for weeks.
Civilians directing traffic while the power was out.
A diner which stayed open, giving free food to the rescue workers.
Civilians who took in the pets of those who died.
The sudden closeness of all NYers, as if the city was one big family.
The way the mayor took control and handled everything with firmness and speed.


There are those who say "get over it" and they're entitled to their opinion. However, this is something that I will never "get over." The pain may become duller, but it will always be there. I hope and pray that those who say that, never have to experience first-hand something this horrible themselves. I pray for the families who lost a loved one, for the rescue workers who, even today, suffer medically from the toxic materials they faced, and for anyone who was touched by this disaster.

 

[cherrymoose]

That was amazingly said. :hug::to all, victims, rescue workers, and everyone else in this world.

 

[Sideburns]

I was at school and it was kept so-so hush hush...all the teachers were invited to an emergency meeting for 5 minutes...the situation was explained...

our teacher felt it necessary to share the news with us (which I agree with). I remember there being NUMEROUS planes the weeks prior...(I live in the flightpath of my city's airport)....and after that there were ZERO planes for months...yes, months...

I remember it very well, but it was not until I watched a special on this firefighter that it hit me (the video was not meant to be about 9/11...they were following a rookie firefighter to make a documentary...but obviously whoever crashed the planes had a different agenda...and it turned into the most powerful video I had ever seen).

Anyways...of course we should never forget...but we can't let it control us either.

 

[PreludeX]

at that time i was in class, my health 2 class to be exact... first thing in the morning for us, we watched it on the tv, we were angered, terrified, and saddened, now, 6 years later, im in the military, spent my time in the desert (both iraq and afghanistan) and would have to say, weve lost focus as the united states on what our mission is.... many people lost their lives that day, and the way the government repays them is lost focus on justice.... we know who did it, we have the technology to find that person, we have the means to either capture or destroy him, yet we are stuck in one major place doing something else(not saying we still arent fighting in afghanistan because i can tell you there still is good fighting and rebuilding going on there)... and i agree, we should never forget, but we should also move on.. moving on will build our strength as a country, sitting here, letting it control us is weakening us, and we have justice that needs to prevail...

 

[GoM]

Like the two above me, I was in class. Principal came on the PA and explained that the WTC had been hit, and that a tv tuned to CNN would be on in the student lounge.

My first thought was "what the hell is the World Trade Centre?"

After someone explained, I realized what it was. I'm not ashamed of my ignorance, but the severity of the situation struck home fairly quickly after that point.

 

[Puscas]

good story wildmaven. good thread.

My wife and I were on our honeymoon in Mexico. We got married 4 days earlier. We were in the bluest water I had even seen on a pearly white beach, sipping drinks. There was a little building on the beach where you could get your drinks and there was a huuuge television. Suddenly I saw people gather around the tv and I took a look. I didn't really know what was happening: everybody spoke Spanish (the tv-program was Spanish too). "Is this real? Is this live?". I was trying to get some clarity. Somehow I knew this was really going on, so I called my wife and we watched it all happen together. Just a few feet away from that beach and that water.
That day and the next days we stayed in our hotelroom for most of the time, watching tv. It's weird not having family, friend or co-workers around to talk about what you've seen and what that means for you, your country, the world (I lived in Europe at the time). 9/11 will always be connected to our marriage.
Now living in Brooklyn and seeing the lights where the towers stood, makes a deep impact




pascal

 

[chris_arnet]

i was in school. 5th grade. im a junior now. i had now idea the signifigance of what i was watching. to this day, the pictures refuse to seem real to me. the airplane about to hit just seems so out of place. like it was photoshopped there or something.

 

[Icon72]

I was at work going about my normal day. We had a radio on and heard the first reports about a small plane possibly crashing into one of the WTC towers. I remember thinking to myself how crazy that sounded. How the heck could the pilot not see the towers? A little later they said it was an airliner and then everything became somewhat surreal and confused. Kind of makes you stop in your tracks and say, "Wha?" I instantly felt concerned for the people there. Then the reports came of a second plane and terrorists etc. I was very angered personally. Out of natural instinct I desperately felt I needed to do something to help but what was I going to do from Northern Indiana where we lived at the time. There was a lot of emotion that day in everyone I saw or talked to. I'll never forget that morning for sure but as Prelude said, you can't let it control you. Remember those who were taken and continue to live, love and carry on.

 

[Mitica100]

I was getting ready to go to my first week of the new season. Rehearsal in the morning, you know... And I turn the TV on CNN, couldn't believe my eyes. I saw when the second plane hit and I knew immediately there were terrorists aboard. We were let go home from the rehearsal, it was cancelled. The following few hours were horrible, seeing all the destruction and lost lives.

 

[Claff]

I had just gotten home from putting my long-distance-relationship girlfriend on a plane bound for Washington DC - !

It was a much earlier flight (takeoff at 6:30 or 7AM from Albany) so it had already landed before the attacks began, but with all the phone calls going in and out of the DC area it was impossible to get a hold of her to make sure she was OK which caused no small amount of stress. She finally got to make a call to me at around 2PM and you heard the biggest sigh of relief in history.

That day really rattled me, and I was about as far away from the attacks environment-wise as you could (small town in western Mass.) so it's not like we had any local fallout, but the images on TV - I heard the news shortly after getting home and turned on the tube in time to see the second tower get hit - were burned into memory so much I can still hear the gasps of horror in the background of the TV broadcast when that second plane hit. Then there was the Pentagon and all you could think of at the time was "what next?!?!". I probably didn't sleep very well for days afterwards and couldn't watch or listen to the news - and I was a very religious listener of all the NPR news programs in the car - for months.

On the plus side - and I know just saying that there is a plus side shows incredible insensitivity on my part - I realized how very much alone I felt with all that going on and my girlfriend a plane ride away that I was going to marry that girl so I wouldn't have to be alone again. Our fifth anniversary is coming up in a month and change.

 

[Alex_B]

I was in Tokyo, Japan. Actually in the Twin Towers of the Tokyo city government on that very day. But the news only reached me later when watching TV. But it was all in Japanese so first I did not know if this was depicting a real event or not.

 

[Artograph]

I took my baby over to my sister's place where we waited for her to get home from dropping off her little guy at school. While she was out I watched a plane hit the towers many times....all the while I was thinking that this was the beginning of the end. The world was a different place now.... Everyone seemed to be in shock.....everyone.

My sister and I spent the day in front of the TV, and on the phone....keeping our family (those at work without tv or radio) informed each time we learned something new.

My baby was 5 months old at the time.....I spent so much time telling her how sorry I was that I brought her into this horrible world.

To this day when I hear a loud plane fly by I stop in my tracks and shake...I still dream of planes.....some are terrorists, some are "ours", they are trying to keep us safe.

As each anniversary approaches I can't help feel deep sadness and anxiety.

My heart goes out to everyone directly affected...xoxoxoxox

~Kerry from Canada

 

[JDS]

I was at work, in Oak Ridge, TN. We have nuclear facilities here, (Oak Ridge is where the atomic bombs that hit Japan in WW2 were built) and were listed in some of the top possibilities of terror attacks shortly after 9/11. When they bombed the building in Oklahoma City, they shut down Oak Ridge - nobody in or out. So most of us that didn't live in the city went home for the day to be sure we weren't stuck here.

Let's not forget the brave people aboard Flight 93 that took on the terrorists before they reached their target...

 

[Freddeh]

At that very moment I was working at a bakery, cleaning up the ovens and floors and such. Was just a side job for me, but I will never forget. We had the radio playing and suddenly all work was dropped. At first we thought it was a joke, a plane flew into the twins. But just after the news on the radio the broadcasting was canceled for more news. More planes...

Get over it? Never... A thing like this, same as WWI or WWII, should NEVER be forgotten.

 

[Fangman]

Visiting Floors Castle on a beautiful autumn day in Scotland - have a picture of a robin sitting on the sign to the garden centre. Got back to the car to find mobile ringing and Diane's sister in a panic as she could not get our niece on her mobile - not realising we had not heard the news. Our niece usually had breakfast meetings in the towers, fortunately not that morning and saw one go in as she went into the office a block or so away and the second from her window. Came out in dust and rubble and wandered around for some time in a daze before getting to a friends and making contact with the family. My son worked at Morgan Stanley in London and often over in the NY office so knew the security guy who got nearly all of them out. Folk in the trading rooms here are on direct lines with offices in the towers so heard it all happening until the lines went dead. So many lives wasted and others ruined by the loss of loved ones.