Where were you on 9/11?

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

On 9/11 as I was leaving the hairdresser's a lady was walking in saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center - I thought it was some kind of accident but when I turned on the radio I heard that we, America, was being attacked.  I felt like the air had disappeared - I could barely breath, my hands started to shake.  I had been heading into my real estate office but I turned around and drove a few miles away to the nearest T.V. - at my dad's house.  By the time I walked in the second plane had already crashed into the other tower.  The scenes on the TV were horrific - I was scared for our country and I was angry at those that could do such a thing.  Shocking to watch as they played the videos over and over.  People jumping from the towers was the worst part - I fell to my knees sobbing.  The Pentagon, the airplane over PA - it just kept getting worse.  As the first building collapsed - I could only pray to God.  All those people, their families - unimaginable.  As the days went by there were hero's emerging from the tragedy, some goodness in the face of all that evil.  10 years later the thing I mourn the most is the loss of innocence, the loss of trust in people, the lost of a sense of security that I will never have again in my lifetime.  I travel frequently and I'm reminded every time I go through the airport.   I stood last week at the World Trade Center site - along with machine gun toting police. 

[Meridith and Lola]

I've lived and worked in NYC my entire adult life and even have had two different jobs in the World Trade Center - the most recent one that I had I had left 12 months before the attach was on the 83rd floor of the south tower of the WTC.  That day however, I was ar a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I had gotten up very early  to hike Camelback mountain because it was so hot that time of year.  I had the TV on before I left and saw the first tower got hit but they said it was a small commuter plane.  It was not the tower where I worked. I was shaken but got in the car anyway to drive to meet someone at the mountain.  I had the radio on and heard the second tower was hit and that we were under attack.  I got out and told the person I was meeting and we both left and went back to the hotel.  Many of the attendees were NY bankers so everyone knew people working in the towers.  It was terrifying.  Somehow I reached a very good friend who still worked at the company I left.  She said after the first tower was hit, she and most (but not all) of the people at the company walked down the stairs - despite the announcements to stay inside where it was safer from falling debris.  I couldn't get back to NY until the following Saturday.  It was very surreal as I was staying at this gorgeous resort while my friends and family were all living through the daily bomb scares, terrible smells, etc.  

I am in NYC now and trying not to let the latest terrorist threat change my daily plans but I will likely stay off the subways today.  I am suppose to drive over the George Washington Bridge to go to New Jersey later and even that is giving me second thoughts.

[shelly]

Meredith - I, too am trying to not think about the threats, but it is in the back of my mind, and I'm out on L.I., but my nephew (19 years old) thinking 'all will be fine' went into Manhattan from Maritime college, with a few friends as they usually do on Friday nights.  My sister was very upset with him.  it's so hard NOT to let this get to you!  My parents are away in Italy and are coming home this week.... that too, just gives me an uneasy feeling.  but we can't live like that... life goes on.  There are so many people who were supposed to be 'there' that day, and for one reason or another were not.  It's hard to say, but I guess, when it's your time - it's your time... but why it had to be so violent for those poor people is beyond anything I can reason!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

I agree Shelly-you still have to live life. Be more cautious and pray.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

I was driving in to work and heard it on the radio, I thought "what a tragedy" because I truly believed it was someone in a little Plane or something because just prior there was a young man that flew into a building in Florida, who knew the horror that was about to unfold.

When I walked into the office no one else had any idea What so we all gathered around the computer just in time to see the 2nd plane hit. Literally we were all in shock, I just wanted to pick up my daughter from high school and go home. My boss said "everyone needs to go back to their offices and get back to work". That's what we did but it was not a very productive day.

The world will ever be the same. May we never become complacent and always remember those people who lost their lives, family members and loved ones. May we also remember all those 9/11 heroes and pray that nothing like this ever happens again.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen.

[Melissa & Porter]

I was on a NJ transit train and the conductor pointed out the fire in tower one.  None of us seemed to imagine the extent of the fire or heat--that it was caused by a gasoline-filled airplane.  I guess we assumed it was an electrical thing that had allowed people plenty of time to evacuate.  

On the 1/9 subway, minutes later, people on their cell phones told others that a plane hit the second building.  There was so much uncertainty about what was happening, but at that point, I realized something horrible was happening.  A bit later, at work in Midtown, the twin towers collapsed one at a time.  Everything seemed hyperfocused and unreal at the same time.  My company consulted to investment banks and we all knew people professionally in the towers, Cantor Fitzgerald in particular 

Cell phones worked here and there--and I was trying to contact my husband, sister and brother-in-law who were in lower Manhattan.  I was also hearing news about the Pentagon and Pennsylvania planes, and wasn't sure if my mom might've been on one of those flights.  I'd dropped her off that morning at Newark Airport for a flight to DC on United Airlines.

My clearest memory of that day is walking 30 blocks downtown against a massive wave of people coming uptown, and making myself buy and drink a container of OJ because I was six months pregnant.  My goal was my sister's apartment because I figured that's where we'd all think to go.  I found my sister and her husband around midday and my husband around 4pm.  He'd gone to donate plasma.  All the blood donations were pretty much useless.  And tons of medical professionals were waiting outside each hospital I passed, thinking they'd be swarmed with injured, but that's not what happened. 

The town we'd moved to from Manhattan two weeks prior to 9/11 lost two residents, one with baby just a bit older than the one I was carrying.

We got home at about 10 pm.  My mom was waiting there--a neighbor had helped her break into our house after she'd come home from the airport because her flight had never left.  

Every day for months, I walked through the train and subway stations and cried looking at the pictures and missing person signs that covered the walls.  I think people knew after a couple days that if someone hadn't appeared, they were dead, but the signs on the walls that multipled and persisted for months were a protest and a memorial and they were heartbreaking.

[Sue & Willy Babe]

 I was in English Class with my students, heard about the crash  immediatly went too my son's room (he was still in 8th grade) to see him  I just wanted to hug him, then I called my husband he was IN Milwaukee for a grand jury duty, they closed and was safely driving back to GReen Bay, My other son was in College I called him, and my daughter was in 5th grade so I could not see her until I got home from work .

  It is my Birthday on September 11th, and all I could do was cry for all of the lives that were lost, for the mom's not coming home to their own kids and the husbands who went too work and would never come home, and For all of the Children how lost a Parent, Aunt, Uncle , Cousin, or a good friend.

 

    God Bless America !!

[Lynda Kamrath]

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was driving to work.  I don't listen to the radio or TV in the morning, so as I headed down the hill, I heard the news and thought it was some stupid program like the one about the invasion of aliens.  Before I turned onto the highway, however, I realized it was for real.  At school, everyone was setting up televisions to listen to the news but we were told not to have the kids watch television.  We could watch it in the lounge during break and lunch, but not to show the kids the news.  It was a very sad day for all of us.  And the day before my birthday.  My husband already had reservations at my favorite little restaurant so we went, but I didn't even feel like eating.  What a time!

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

I remember that I was at school also (a teacher) and I didn't know before my students came in.  I was working with no TV and no radio and no one said anything to me about it.  My students (3rd graders) were coming in my classroom and I heard some of them saying something about an airplane crashing into a building.  I didn't get a lot out of them more than that (again 3rd graders).  So...I didn't really take it very seriously.  I was picturing in my mind that a small private plane had probably crashed into a building.  When I dropped the kids off to lunch was when I first learned about it.  It still amazes me how no one said anything to me - to this day I don't get it.  Maybe they didn't make an announcment right off because they didn't want everybody to panic or something.  Anyway, as I was walking back to my classroom to eat my lunch, I walked past my best friend's classroom (also a 3rd grade teacher) who had her television on.  When I walked into her room, I got the shock of my life as I watched replay after replay of what was going on.  The fear was overwhelming.  All I wanted to do was get to a phone & make sure my baby boy was okay (he was at home with my mom watching him).  I was so scared.  I thought they would be attacking everywhere like Jane said.  Then, later our school principal FINALLY told the teachers we would be on lockdown for a while (nobody in or out) just to be safe.  I'll never forget that day.  It was hard to get the kids back after lunch and actually teach.  We had to try to stay calm and normal, which was very hard to do.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Traci, there are a few teachers on DK and it's interesting to learn how each school handled the situation. Some let everyone know and some sheltered the kids from it. You were maybe saved some of the imemediate horror that others went into a stat of shock from. I wish I learned the news later in the day because we had to stay at work and all the customers who called in had something to say about it-horrible to hear all this from others but not able to see the news for yourself. Honestly I thought these people were making the situation bigger than it was-I sure wish that they were. It was all true when I  went home to watch the news.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

I was at work in Wisconsin with no ties to New York at all. I knew people/customers from work only by telephone and pictures from a previous call center job. I was working in a smaller office with only 6 on the phones for a truck part company.

The office know it all and wanderer came in our office and said that she had the radio on and heard that a plane hit the WTC and as everyone else we thought what a tragic thing for the people on that plane. How did the pilot manage that? Did something happen to him medically? Then a little while later she said that a second plane hit and the hairs stood up on my arms. I was on a call and couldn't wait to get off. I to tell you the truth had no idea that we were under attack until people around me started talking between calls. The same girl then was online describing everything to us. We did not have internet on our computers that we could use.

I was not talking to my mother at the time for multiple reasons and I immediately felt guilty. As soon as lunch came I went to the nearest pay phone (no I didn't have my own cell then) and called my mom. She NEVER watches the news, says it's too depressing knowing all the crazy stuff people do. She instead watches reruns of Little House on the Praire. Anyway, I needed to tell her that I was sorry for not taking her calls and that I loved her. She said what's wrong? I told her she HAD to turn on the news  right now and see, I told her to keep it on because they can hit anywhere and have other plans. I cried with her on the phone, she did not because she hasn't seen any of it yet. I couldn't wait to get home and as much as I didn't want to watch the news I did for days. God bless everyone. I have been up today for nearly 3 hours and have not yet turned the tv on. I just don't want to watch all the news about that day.  Is that bad? I'm still thinking of it and praying for the families and heros I just don't want to see it.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I just wanted to add I am truly touched by many of the stories and experiences some DK members had on 9/11. We all share the common bond of having doodles, but there is just so much more we can learn about each other. Thank you to all those people who took the time to write. God Bless America!