9/11 Memories

[Kivam]

Where were you on the day that changed the world? What do you remember most about it?

 

For me, it was my first real week of law school. I was living in Queens at the time and commuting to the city. It was an hour and a half long ride, so I got on the bus before the first plane hit and got off the subway after the second one hit, knowing nothing about what was going on. I still remember walking up the stairs at the 116th street stop and having some stranger say, surprised, "the trains are still running?" Knowing nothing, I looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course they are." And I made my way across campus in blissful ignorance.

 

I didn't find out what was happening until I was walking down the stairs to my class when a classmate barreled past me, almost knocking me over in her race to get down the stairs and connect her laptop.

 

"Hey!"

 

"Sorry," she shouted back over her shoulder. "Another plane just hit the Pentagon."

 

"What? Wait - 'another' plane?!"

 

I vaguely remember sitting in that shell-shocked classroom, a bunch of silent students and a torts professor who had no more to say than any of us. After give minutes our so he dismissed us all to go watch the news, call loved ones, or do what we would.

 

I remember watching the news in the student lounge, packed with people yet preternaturally silent. Somber newscasters already struggling to deal with the event struck dumb by images of people leaping off the towers to escape the flames. Images they replayed over and over, unable to comprehend what they were seeing, or unable to process it.

 

Some things stand out in my memory. The collective gasp in the room as the first tower came down. The sobbing as the second tower fell. Watching video of people celebrating in other parts of the world and wondering how they could be so stupid as to not see the shape of events to come. Heading to the nearest hospital to give blood - and being turned away because there were already so many volunteers they didn't have the capacity to take blood from us all. Scrambling to find a way out of the city so I could get home that night. A 45 minute car ride that took three hours.

 

Most of all, I remember the next day. The eerily silent subway rides, with people who couldn't bring themselves to smile, as if enjoyment was sacrilege. The sense of unity, which would soon dissipate. And the sense of determination, which would not.

 

Hard to believe it's been ten years already. For me, for many New Yorkers, it still feels like yesterday.

 

That's what I think about, today. How about you?

 

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[Niniel]

Me and my bf were going to pick up his daughter from the bus station. We were a bit early so I turned on the radio. It was only one or two hours after the first crash. I couldn´t believe it at first. It sounded so unreal. How could anyone do such a thing? Then I guess I had a shock reaction. I just shivered. I was thinking that this could be the start of a third world war. When my bf´s daughter arrived we drove to my father in law. I turned on the tv and watched the news for several hours.

 

At that time I was working as a teacher so the day after I had to talk to the children in school about what had happened. I didn´t know everything that had happened but we talked about what we knew at that point. Some of the kids didn´t care at all because it happened so far away from us but others had a hard time to focus on school that day.

 

I can´t believe it was ten years ago. It seems like it was yesterday. I don´t think I will ever forget that day.

[Dewairah]

I was asleep and i woke up and turned on the tv and saw it on tv and saw the frantic reporters and the second plane crash into the towers.

 

I thought i was watching blockbuster hollywood movie that i'd never heard of and i was like "woahh.. this movie is f@#$ing awesome... " .... until a few minutes later when i realised it wasnt a movie.

 

The same movie doesnt play on every channel on TV.

[Wayward_fool]

I was returning to my hostl room in Singapore when we saw it on the news on the tele in one of our neighbour's rooms. We were terrified, horrified and in absolute shock. Yes, even on the other side of the world, we felt it. We felt the devastation, the panic, the fear, the senseless waste of lives.

 

I couldn't watch alot of it. I was... well... I didn't know what I felt then.

 

We couldn't sleep that night. I called my 2 cousins who were in the US, even tho they weren't in NY, just to make sure... I dunno what I'd do if I'd lost them. I know 3 people who died in the tragedy. 2 of whom were online aquaintances and the last was a pri sch mate, whom I didn't know very well. But we found out she was in one of the towers working for one of the banks there.

 

My prayers for all of you. *hugs*

[bhskeeper11]

I was in the fifth grade.

 

As part of an advanced learning program, a small group of us were pulled out of our regular classes for a couple of hours in the morning to go to ACE. We got to ACE right after the first plane crashed.

 

My teacher's husband was on a flight back from Chicago, so she was naturally quite on edge. She already had the television on the news when we walked in. We sat in our seats and, oddly, picked up on the feel of the room instantly. There was none of the usual cutting up or banter. We sat in our seats and watched.

 

Shortly after, our principal gave an announcement over the intercom system that all teachers were to turn their televisions off and resume teaching as usual. From what I heard from many of my friends, most teachers did. My teacher told our class that history was not always nice and that we deserved to see what was happening. We continued watching.

 

I remember being particularly numb to it. This occurred just a few months after my brother died, so I was already in a very different (for lack of a better word) place when it came to death. I do recall watching seeing the smoke and dust rise from the ground as the towers fell, hating that so many would be going through the personal sense of grief that I felt.

 

At the time, I did not really comprehend what this meant for my country as a whole. I was thinking much more small-scale. However, that mind-set rapidly shift as time went on...my grandparents were never shy about explaining to me things like that. One of my grandfathers retired from the military (Army) and we would talk about this new thing "war" and what it meant for us as Americans.

 

Now, 10 years later, with a huge group of childhood friends various branches of the military...with two of my best friends in the Army...it all still feels very personal. It started the snowball-effect that led us to where we are today. All in all, I pray we have seen the worst of it.

 

 

 

((I apologize if this all reads completely discombobulated...with things like this, I find stream of consciousness kind of writings tend to get the most accurate feel to them.))

[ed2funy]

Honestly, I don't remember much of that day. I, too, was in the 5th grade. I can't remember if I saw anything about it on the news before I left to school, though I want to say I did.

But we did watch the news at school for awhile.

 

I didn't quite realize what it meant at the time, and in fact, it would took me time before I did. But I do know now, and it is a big part of everyone's life, imo.

 

 

 

Even if you don't think it is, something you do everyday or take for granted is probably a direct result of the attacks on 9/11/01. Whether you're a frequent flier or someone who lives in New York.

 

 

This day will never be forgotten.

[Leyrann]

I was only four years old then. No, five. I didn't even know what the Twin Towers were before that day. But I can remember my older brother (who has a job with newspapers, he brought them to people, don't know what it's called in English) running in, yelling my mother should stop cooking (it was something like 5 pm for us, it happened at what was 3 pm), while he clicked on the TV. My mom was shocked, but I just thought, "why is everyone so upset?".

 

But now I know why...

 

I'm with everyone in New York.

[SinisterDeath]

I had only seen an hour if that of the news at around the time it happened. The only thing most us thought at the time was.

"LOL that pilot needs to learn to fly"

No one knew till the end of the school day, what had actually happened.

Teachers were very 'quiet' about it.

[chuckievi]

The first plane hit while I was driving into class for the day. I arrived and walked into the classroom to 7 or 8 people openly sobbing. Having no idea what was wrong I asked why they were crying, and one of my classmates told me a plane had flown into the WTC. I didn't believe them as it seemed too incredible to be true. At that point the professor walked in and turned on the TV in the classroom, changing the channel to I believe it was CNN. Not 2 seconds after he changed the channel the second plane hit. Having no frame of reference I assumed that it was just a replay of the first plane hitting, until I noticed that BOTH buildings were smoking. Right about then the gravity of the situation hit me, one plane could be an accident, but two?

 

I don't remember much of the rest of the day until I went to work that night. At the time I worked at Best Buy, and that night we had only 5 customers in the store, which in and of itself is strange. But all 5 of them were of Middle Eastern heritage. The police ended up needing to be called on one of my coworkers, an ex-marine, who went out to his Jeep for the handgun he kept there. Needless to say that isn't a morning OR evening I will soon forget.

[Winterwinds]

I was 10 years old, and had been sleeping soundly having rather nice dreams when my father came in and woke me up at about...oh god 7am I think, and told me nothing but to come downstairs. I didnt register it at the time, but looking back I can remember the tone of shock, disbelief that filled his voice as he told me to come downstairs to watch the TV.

 

What I saw shocked me to my core, even at 10 years old I was no stranger to warfare dispite living on the West Coast of the US. I recall not really eating anything as we watched the 2nd plane hit, too numb and sick to really stomach anything. I recall just before I went to school the first tower fell, and the screams of horror, panic, and sorrow from those who were in the shadow of the Twin Towers haunts me. I went to school, I think I was in like...5th perhaps 4th grade (I was held back a year due to my autism) and everyone was crying, or deftly quiet from shell shock. Our teacher told us nothing, we knew nothing save for what we saw on TV...

 

I recall, the entire week after that, we worried about what would happen next. Would more places be attacked? Was Seattle next?

 

Looking back, all I can think is "September 11th, 2001. A day, that shall foever live in infamy, as the United States of America was ruthlessly attacked in an unprovoked decleration of war....."

 

I doubt those words will ever go away, nor will the images of what I saw that day on the TV...

[Turin Turambar]

I found out what had happened after arriving at work for the day. I drove in with my CD player on so I did not hear any news. We have a TV in our driver lounge. Someone told me about it and to go see. I remember seeing all the people running around, and then the Towers fell. The reports about the Pentagon and then about flight 93. The report that the people on the flight fought back and saved how many others.

 

I served in the US Navy during the time of the first Gulf War. My ship was actually one of the first on station to help defend Saudi Arabia right after the attack on Kuwait. It made me think back to those days in the Red Sea wondering what would happen.

 

My wife called when she found out and asked if she should take the kids to school. I told her there was very little to fear but to do what she felt best. Mostly I just remember feeling a profound sadness for all those people who just went to work and lost their lives in a senseless tragedy.

 

I still feel that sadness anytime I see a movie that has a picture of the Towers.

[SBoydW]

I was a senior in High School and I was home sick on the sofa flicking through the stations. I had a similar reaction as Dewairah. I thought it was a movie until I realized that I had stopped on CNN. This was just before the second tower was hit. I was just stunned, shocked, disgusted... not sure what to feel. I remember seeing the second tower get hit, and then hearing reports of the pentagon getting hit, the south tower collapsing, the flight 92 crashing then the north tower collapsing. Still, 10 years later, I don't have any words to describe the range of emotion from grief to fury. I remember going to school the next day, and walking the silent halls, and the classes being nothing but discussing what had happened. Still, 10 years later, I don't have any words to describe the range of emotion. At the time I believe it was just pure shock, and the sadness came later. To this day, watching a documentary about that day, and hearing the stories of loss, sacrifice, and heroism is one of the few things that chokes me up.

September 11, 2001

Never Forget.

USA

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

i was at work. it was a perfect day. blue skies, white clouds.

 

someone called out to the office that a plane had crashed into the WTC. most of us thought it was some kind of joke, because she was that kind of person. but within a couple of minutes, we were all watching this horror play out on the tv in the training room. we thought it was an accident for a little while. and then the second plane hit, and then the others... and there were rumors of more.

 

i thought it was world war III.

 

those of us with family in NYC, or on planes that day, tried to reach them, but the phone lines jammed very fast. i managed to contact my mom, who had heard from everyone, and we were OK. my stepdad had a near miss, but had cancelled his appointment in the tower that day. there are a lot of stories like that. it's such a miracle that there were as few... well. few is quite a word to use... but it could have been so much worse.

 

so the morning went on with more and more news, and confusion, and people crying, and spreading rumors, and trying to figure out what was going on. my manager tried to get us to get back to work. at the time i was working as an unemployment examiner. she thought people were going to be calling about their unemployment disputes. on dead phone lines. because that's what they'd be thinking about.

 

the governor ordered us home a little while later.

 

the next day, and for months afterwards, we all worked 60+ hours a week trying to manage the unemployment claims from the disaster. it wasn't much, but it felt like we were doing something. what we could.

 

two weeks later i moved out of my apartment near work, and moved next door to my best friends, because i didn't want to be that far away from them anymore.

 

the next few months, we just watched this thing happen over and over again. and the next few years...

 

well. interesting times.

 

 

while i'm here - just thank you, to those of you who run into disasters instead of away from them, and to those of you who serve and protect us in any and every way. i know there are a lot of you here. G-d bless and protect you all.

[SinisterDeath]

I had only seen an hour if that of the news at around the time it happened. The only thing most us thought at the time was.

"LOL that pilot needs to learn to fly"

No one knew till the end of the school day, what had actually happened.

Teachers were very 'quiet' about it.

 

just like to also state that at the time i hadnt any idea 'what' the twin towers were, why they were important and quite simply the biggest thing i remember about it was the utter confusion of it all. Litterally for the first 3 hours everyone i knew, teachers included didnt really know what to think. Living in the north-central usa "aka midwest" and having no real connections to NY i really didnt have any real oppinions onit let alone any reason to get emosional over it.

 

And not to detract from 911, i do remember Oklahoma bmbing, though i was younger there was less utter confusion about it. We knew what happened and it was traggic.

Teachers also kept tvs on but did not say anything.

 

Then there was columbine.

That one wa scary as a student, because

A) they hasd the tvs on again.

B) Teachers were hused.

C) the school went on lock down.

Mind you, no where near columbine.

Iroinically, a week later a family friend,practically family was arrested andschools went on lock down agaqin, becazuse they thought he was going to do something like columbine. Total police over reaction.

Police litterally targetted that family becuase of it.

[Dewairah]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

[Amadine]

I got up on the morning of September 12, 2011 as usual. I flicked on the TV to entertain my almost 2yo while i made his breakfast. That was as far as i got. I could not drga myself away from the footage. I sat on my couch hugging my son close and crying as i watched. I was also pregnant at the time and i remember thinking "oh my God what am i bringing another child into?!"

 

It was truly devastating, the fact that i am halfway around the world from the USA made no difference, much of the world cried with the USA that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red2111]

i was at school. i was actually on the bus going back to highschool from Vo tech when we first got wind soemthing was wrong. the teachers woudln't let us listen to the radio or even put on our headphones to listen to our CD players; i remember thinking about how odd this was. i also remember than on the way back to school there was a load of state troopers on the road flying down the road. i thought jokingly to myself that there must be a donut convention somewhere, not knowning what was going on.

 

the reason they did this ws because most of us kids had parents who worked in DC, so they didn't want to cause a panic. i didn't hear about the fact we'd been attacked until i reached school, by this time the plane had hit the pentagon, though people we're thinking it was a bomb. i rushed to my ROTC room, my only thought was to make sure my mom was okay. she worked 15 minutes outside of DC with NOAA; Gunny let me use the phone to call and check on her, and thats when i learned about the twin towers and it was about the time the plane went down in PA.

 

at that point, it was just numb shock and i stayed int he ROTC room until school was let out.

 

 

the one stark thing i still recall from that day was how nice outside it was, i mean the weather was perfect in my area which made the attack all the more worse for some reason. something like that happens, for some reason i'd expect the weather to reflect it with pouring rain and thunder heads ya know.

 

 

for me, 9/11 is still yesturday; i can see see the images from the TV like it just happened and just as clearly, and my memory of that day in its entirety has yet to fade. my feelings from that day once the shock of the attack went away still havent changed; i only have three feelings; i deep sombering sarrow for those innocents killed in this needless attack, a sarrow so deep in makes my stomach feel sick. a pride so emense for all the rescue workers and especially those on flight 93, a pride i can't put into words honestly. and a deep seated primal rage at those who attacked us and killed so many for a something so stupid, the type of rage described by Perrin when Hopper was killed by the Whitecloacks.

[SinisterDeath]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

 

Have to remmeber, I was far younger than, but if I'm not mistaken didn't the 'media' know what happened/was going on, within an hour of it happening?

Eitherway, its possible that we here didn't know about it until after they found out, and didn't watch it 'as it happened' so to speak. So the way I remember it, it wasn't as confusingof a time, we knew something bad happened, and that it was Deliberate. Unlike 9/11 when for the first 1 hour I just thought it was pilot error. (mind you, all the news footage i saw at the time, was 1 plane hitting it, and one tower smoking, I didn't even know two had hit, let alone pentagone until well after that school day was over. Hence, the teachers 'silence' about it, and through-out the day, wasn't making sense to anybody.

[Rufae]

I was working at Dell Computers in Nashville, building laptaops. I went in for my break a few minutes after teh first tower was hit. The tv in the breakroom was on and I saw the burning building and the caption "Plane hits World Trade Center" I thought they meant a small single engine prop plane had flown off course and smashed into the building. I said to myself, "Wow, that's something!" Then went to get my breakfast.

 

I came back to the tv with my food and I saw the second airliner strike the WTC LIVE. I nearly spit my food our! That was an airliner! Not some small plane. It was also the second plane to hit the same buildings. I knew it was deliberate and we were under attack.

 

My first instincts was that they wer eflown in from over the Atlantic but then they said that they were domestic flights.

 

Then they said that there were other planes still unaccounted for. Dell was situated right next to the runway of the Nashville airport so people were gettign scared that something may happen here.

 

After the plane hit the Pentagon, all work production stopped and people just stood in front of the tvs, waiting for the next hit to come.

 

I called home to tell my wife that I love her and see if she was watching. Of course she was.

 

After the plane went down in PA, they sent us all home and I was off work for three days due to the grounding of all flights since airplanes brought our supplies in on a daily basis.

 

But the biggest feeling besides the fear of the moment, was the feeling of commraderie with my fellow Americans. People were genuinely willing to help you for a time after that. I later read that the crime rate in Nashville dropped for the following week as even the criminals were shocked. I tmade me proud to see the American flag on cars and buidlings and angry at Mexicans who flew their Mexican flag.

 

I hope we can regain the unity that we felt after the attacks once again.

[Rufae]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

 

THE OKC bombing was a single explosion in (pardon the expression) a small corner of the country. With 9/11, the airplane bombs made you feel personally in danger. You felt as though you did not know where the bomb was coming from with the news reporting "There are still four planes still unaccounted for". It made you look up in the sky and hope you didn't see a plane. The OKC bomb was a single blast via truck. It was terrible but it was not fear inducing on a national level.

 

Then the horrific images and stories of two buildings that were icons of America at the time.It created a deeper impact than OKC.

[SinisterDeath]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

 

THE OKC bombing was a single explosion in (pardon the expression) a small corner of the country. With 9/11, the airplane bombs made you feel personally in danger. You felt as though you did not know where the bomb was coming from with the news reporting "There are still four planes still unaccounted for". It made you look up in the sky and hope you didn't see a plane. The OKC bomb was a single blast via truck. It was terrible but it was not fear inducing on a national level.

 

Then the horrific images and stories of two buildings that were icons of America at the time.It created a deeper impact than OKC.

 

That is a good point, though Iwould say that OKC is still a City, it may not be NY, or LA, but not every city is to that scale.

I could say in all honesty, that OKC is probably far closer to me, (distance, not emotional attachment) than say, NY.

 

I believe one of the biggest factors in that is OKC bombing, we knew it was an 'attack' we may not have known who right at the beginning, but we knew it wasn't an accident. If anything our reactions of confusion is what the terrorists wanted, (from 9/11) Confusion is the starting point of Fear.

 

As to the Twin towers, I didn't even know they existed prior to 9/11, didn't even know they were a 'national icon'.

to me, a National Icon would have been, Golden Gate Bridge, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, or NPH.

Like I said though, not trying to detract from 9/11, simply stating why I wasn't as 'affected' as some were.

[Rufae]

As to the Twin towers, I didn't even know they existed prior to 9/11, didn't even know they were a 'national icon'.

to me, a National Icon would have been, Golden Gate Bridge, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, or NPH.

Like I said though, not trying to detract from 9/11, simply stating why I wasn't as 'affected' as some were.

 

Maybe I am showing my age here, but their construction was a huge project that really symbolized Americas greatness at the time.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

yes, they were

[Red2111]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

 

THE OKC bombing was a single explosion in (pardon the expression) a small corner of the country. With 9/11, the airplane bombs made you feel personally in danger. You felt as though you did not know where the bomb was coming from with the news reporting "There are still four planes still unaccounted for". It made you look up in the sky and hope you didn't see a plane. The OKC bomb was a single blast via truck. It was terrible but it was not fear inducing on a national level.

 

Then the horrific images and stories of two buildings that were icons of America at the time.It created a deeper impact than OKC.

 

 

that and the fact that the OKC was localized and there was only 1 attack. 9/11 hit 3 states (Pentagon is technically in VA) with 4 seperate attacks giving the apperance that the planes could hit anywhere at any time. that and the imagery from it and the fact that it was live had a greater impact.

 

 

SD the other reason why WTC was an icon is because of the business the towers dealt in; its was the headof wall street and the head of the world trace commerace here in the States. this is why you often here that an attack on the twins is an attack on the entire free world, where as the Pentagon was souly an attack on the USA.

[SinisterDeath]

Why was the okhlahoma bombing less confusing?

 

THE OKC bombing was a single explosion in (pardon the expression) a small corner of the country. With 9/11, the airplane bombs made you feel personally in danger. You felt as though you did not know where the bomb was coming from with the news reporting "There are still four planes still unaccounted for". It made you look up in the sky and hope you didn't see a plane. The OKC bomb was a single blast via truck. It was terrible but it was not fear inducing on a national level.

 

Then the horrific images and stories of two buildings that were icons of America at the time.It created a deeper impact than OKC.

 

 

that and the fact that the OKC was localized and there was only 1 attack. 9/11 hit 3 states (Pentagon is technically in VA) with 4 seperate attacks giving the apperance that the planes could hit anywhere at any time. that and the imagery from it and the fact that it was live had a greater impact.

 

 

SD the other reason why WTC was an icon is because of the business the towers dealt in; its was the headof wall street and the head of the world trace commerace here in the States. this is why you often here that an attack on the twins is an attack on the entire free world, where as the Pentagon was souly an attack on the USA.

 

Yea, I knew that after the fact, but at the time, I didn't even know the buildings existed. ;)