Five Years Since 9/11

[SteverinoNY]

It's been five years since September 11 and the tragedies surrounding the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. It's amazing that the time has passed so quickly. This is for all the firemen, police officers, rescue workers, and soliders who have served and those who have lost their lives making this ocuntry as great as it is while protecting the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. This day has become more than another fall day...it's one that will be forever burned in the minds of all of us who lived through it. I won't ever forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice or who go out on a daily basis to protect us from all the evil in the world.

9/11/01 - Never Forget

Gerard Dewan, Firefighter, Ladder 3 FDNY...one of the brave 343 Thanks for everything...we miss you

[Greenday]

When I was a little kid, older family and friends would always tell me about how at such huge events, you would always remember where you were when you found out it happened. Stuff like assassinations, etc. I never realized how vivid those memories would be until 9/11. I remember that morning crystal clear to this day.

I was in 8th grade, my Algebra I class, when the computer teacher came in and whispered something to my math teacher. She had to stop class and compose herself before starting teaching again. We knew something odd happened but we had no idea.

It was around 9am and I had been in Chemistry for a few minutes when once again, the computer teacher came in and whispered something to my chem teacher. This time, my teacher just turned around and turned on the news. We watched in awe as we saw the first building on fire. After a few minutes, we saw a blur move across the screen, hit the second building, a huge ball of fire erupting from the other side of the building, then the cable went out. My teacher, realizing that maybe one of her students had family or friends working in the WTC immediately, turned the tv off and apologized for even turning it on. Class just stopped from there.

My class section went to history and we refused to let our teacher teach. We discussed what happened, which we knew it had to be a terrorist attack, as it'd be too much of a coincidence for two planes to hit the two buildings and it be an accident. Amazing how easily a bunch of 13 year olds can figure this stuff out.

Went to English and the phone in the room went off about five minutes in. I was sent home for dismissal. Immediately I feared that something happened to one of my relatives who work in the WTC but my mom just didn't want me in school that day anymore. We went to my sister's school and picked her up and went home. Watched the news all day. Went to football practice. We had football practices in these open fields with no buldings really close. The smoke from the towers was visible in the sky. I live on the coast of New Jersey, about halfway down the state. That's pretty far and the smoke was very clear to our vision.

Without a doubt, no other day has been burned into my memory such as this one was. It was nice to see how patriotic everyone became and it would have been nice if everyone could stay that way all the time.

[Crosshair]

Hate to sound selfish, but when we heard the news we where hoping they would cancel school.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I had been deeply asleep when the phone rang. Husband at work, sputtering, "Turn on the TV! Go! Now! Something's happening in New York!We're under some kind of attack or something! "

I stumbled into the living room and turned on the tv just in time to see the first tower implode.

I really don't want to post my first thoughts. I had been asleep, and anyway very secure in my very wrong belief that no country in the world could do to us what I was seeing. So my disoriented brain's attempts to make sense of what I was seeing are frankly embarassing. I'm not sharp upon awakening.

The place my husband was working sent everyone home. While he was driving, the second tower collapsed. Watched the news the entire time, feeling ice inside my body. I made coffee, more to give my hands something to constructive to do than anything else. I digested what I'd seen.

He came home and I told him the second tower fell. This is what is etched into my brain: He said, "Thank God everyone could get out. They did get out, right?"

And I said "No." And that's when I started crying.

[thegiraffe]

I was in my junior year of high school. It was about the last 10 or so minutes of my 2nd period AP American History class when the classroom phone rang. My teacher picked it up, said "oh my God" and turned the TV on. We were all dumbfounded, because she never turned the TV on. A sudden hush fell over the class when we saw what was going on. No one spoke until we saw the 2nd plane - we thought it was surveying the damage or whatever. Then, it hit. Simultaneously, about 5 people including myself said "Oh my God....it hit". We just sat and watched in disbelief and then the bell rang. An announcement came over the intercom stating that classes were still in session, but no instruction was to go on. Basically, just watch the TV and watch everything unfold. My 3rd period Algebra teacher tried to teach for like 5 minutes, but we told her to sit down and be quiet, and turned the TV on. There was no way anything productive would happen with it all going on. I live about 20 minutes from Kennedy Space Center, so there were rumors flying about them going for Disney (about 45 mins away) and KSC, so it was an incredibly tense day. I'll never forget it.

[ArenaBoy]

I was in 8th grade, we were in the middle of changing classes and when I walked into my science class the TV was on and I witnessed the events happening. The teachers were told to turn the TVs off, I'll never forget about how most of the school was worried about their family and friends in NYC. I was a mess that day, I know three people who live out in NYC and I couldn't even pay attention in class. My mind was on my cousin and my next door neighbor's 2 kids who lived out there and they were all I could think about.

The two kids grandfather designed the WTC and for the entire family it was grief. I can't even bring myself to visit Ground Zero because of my neighbors and my cousin, it's too upsetting for me.

[Erin]

I slept thru the attacks. The towers had probably been down for an hour or two before I woke up and saw the news. (worked late at WM the night before)

Back then, I slept with the tv off (I sleep with it on now...tuned to FoxNews) and the first thing I usually did in the morning was turn on the tv. When I turned on the tv, it was just in time to see a replay of one of the towers burning, while the second plane was flying towards the other one.

It took me a few minutes to figure out what I'd seen and to read the "breaking news" blurb on the screen. I freaked. Called my dad at the hospital he works at and he had to calm me down. Little bit later my mom said she was having chest pains (stomach related) and I had to call my dad back. My dad told me to bring my mom in, just to make sure she was ok. So I ended up driving my mom to the hospital. Dropped my mom off, told my dad they'd just said on the news that part of the Pentagon had collapsed and then got back in the car to go home to get ready for work.

By the time I got home I realized I was going to be late for work anyways, so I decided to take the shower I missed and go in late. (called in and told them I had to take my mom to the ER)

I watched the news while getting dressed...saw President Bush on the news as he arrived at Offutt Air Force base (which is about 15 miles from my old house) I was driving down the street to the WalMart I worked at and freaked out when I saw a huge airplane flying low across the sky...until I recognized Air Force One (seen it at air shows at Offutt) and then saw the fighter escort meeting up with AF1. Seeing the fighter jets made me feel a little better for some reason.

Got to work...got yelled at for being late (uhh...mom had chest pains, had to drive her to the ER) Then I was made to wear a fugly hat with American flags stuck all over it and walk around with a basket that had a sign asking for donations to the Red Cross (ummm...I could have done that without the hat, and they could have stuck the flags all over the basket I was carrying)

I worked in the Crafts department, and we did about the most business aside from the stationery aisle (people were buying paper, fabric, ribbon...anything patriotic looking) We sold out of ribbon before 5pm, most of our patriotic fabric, and solid red, white and blue fabrics were gone by the next day. All we had left was yarn.

At the store meeting in the Radio Grill, I remember sitting and staring at my box knife, trying to figure out how something like that could be used to murder people and crying. My supervisor was watching me, and he took my box knife away from me (not sure what he thought I was going to do with it) and said he'd find me something else to do aside from what I regularly did.

The store manager and my supervisor came over to me to ask if I could figure out something patriotic to make and sell for donations (I was the only crocheter they knew) So I crocheted a circle with 3 strands of yarn (1 red, 1 white, and 1 blue) and put a pin on it. They said great, grab a table and a chair and sit at the front of the store and start crocheting. I sat at that table for 3 of my shifts...crocheting my fingers to the bone for three days. Raised probably about $2500 to $3000. I felt pretty good about that. I'd also used some of my own yarn from my stash at home to make pins in my off time two of those evenings so that I would have a large pile to sell. I was thinking at the time that WalMart was a good company to work for, the way they responded.



Imagine my surprise when 2 weeks to the day after 9-11 I was called into the managers office and fired. (still unsure why, I was in shock and quit listening after they said I was fired...I just remember signing a green piece of paper and being told to clock out and leave)

[SteverinoNY]

I was in 11th grade and in Spanish class at the time it occurred. I remember the school chaplain coming over the PA System and syaing that "There's been an accident in New York City...a plane has struck the World Trade Center." When the second plane hit, the school's principal came over the PA and told the teachers to turn on the TV. At the moment my teacher turned on the TV, we saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Almost immediately, we all thought that there was no way this was an accident. We just sat there stunned watching the TV. Although I do remember my Spanish teacher furiously trying to get her son on her cell phone (he worked in the Pentagon). Luckily, he didn't go to work that day as his child was sick. I certainly won't forget where I was that day and the damage it did to this nation, but five years later, we may not be over the hurt, but we have a strong resolve as a nation and we will recover and be stronger than ever.

[MadMike]

When I was a little kid, older family and friends would always tell me about how at such huge events, you would always remember where you were when you found out it happened. Stuff like assassinations, etc. I never realized how vivid those memories would be until 9/11. I remember that morning crystal clear to this day.


Agreed. I wasn't around when Kennedy or any other president was assassinated (I do remember the attempt on Reagan, but I imagine it doesn't have the same impact as a successful attempt.) After 9/11, I understood what the older people meant when they said they'd always remember where they were when...

My wife and I had returned from our cruise/honeymoon only three days before. For some reason, I felt uneasy getting on the plane that day. In fact, after it happened, my mom called the house freaking out because she wasn't sure which day we were getting back, and she was afraid that it might be that day. She was quite relieved when she found it we had arrived home three days prior.

9/11 was only my second day back from work after our cruise. It was a nice, late summer day, just like you'd expect at that time of year. I think around 10:00, I got up from my desk to use the bathroom, and I started catching bits and pieces of different conversations that all seemed to be about the same thing. I was hearing "plane crash", "World Trade Center", "attacks", etc.

By the time I got back to my desk, I had heard enough of these that I thought maybe I should see just what was going on. I was about to bring up one of the news sites, when my supervisor came around and told me he was sending everyone home.

Apparently almost all the other businesses in the area had already done the same thing, because the city was a ghost town as I drove home. As soon as I got home, I got on the internet and brought up one of the news sites. It was slow-going, even for my crappy dialup connections. Apparently everyone else was doing the same thing. Of course, I could have simply turned on the TV, since it was on every channel, but I didn't know that at the time. I had no idea just how big this was. When I finally got connected, there it was, right on the front page. In fact, I think it was the only thing on the front page.

Hate to sound selfish, but when we heard the news we where hoping they would cancel school.

I'm surprised they didn't. While they didn't actually close my son's school, they told all the parents they could take their kids home if they wanted. I picked my son up, and he wondered what was going on. He was only 7 at the time, and I think he understood how some people can be bad enough to kill other people, but he couldn't understand why someone would also do it to themselves in the process.

My neighbors, a middle-aged couple, had their adult daughter visiting from the midwest earlier that week. 9/11 was the day she was supposed to go home. They drove her to the airport and put her on the plane. The plane was on the runway, getting ready to take off, when suddenly they called all the planes back in. I don't think she was able to make it home until the following week. While that had to be a pain, at least she wasn't in the air, on one of the planes that got hijacked.

[protege]

I still can't believe it's been 5 years.

What's still pretty scary, is that it started off like any other day. The commute to work was uneventful. Little did I know that things were going to change...

One of our guys was on the phone with a company we did business with. They were in WTC. At the time, he said that the phone just went dead. Not too long after that, we heard on the radio that a plane had just hit the first tower. Nobody thought it was a terrorist attack...until the second plane hit. When the phone (to the office in WTC) went dead, the plane had hit the tower. In fact, it hit their office during their morning meeting :eek:

What really sucked, was that the boss wouldn't let us leave! Because our headquarters at that time was in NYC's financial district, all contact with them, and everybody else we did business with, was cut off. No phone, no quote service, nothing.

At around noon, I had an appointment to have some minor work done on the car. The plan was, I'd go to the dealer and eat my lunch in their waiting room. Getting there was interesting. It took a freaking hour just to get across the river to the 'burbs.

Since the 4th plane was still flying around downtown Pittsburgh, plans were made to evacuate the city. As if that wasn't enough, with 300 bridges in the city limits, quite a few of those, and some of the tunnels had been closed. To help with the evacuation effort, some of the older city buses were pressed into service, along with *all* of the subway cars--usually the system can't handle them all. Even that wasn't enough--they were all packed tight.

From the dealership's waiting room, I could see the horror that was 9/11. Replayed in my mind, I can still see the horror on the faces of the mechanics and other customers. We couldn't believe that something like that could happen. Within hours of the towers falling, there were *many* calls for people to rough up Muslims--several (locally) had reported they'd been harassed simply because they were (or appeared to be) Muslim.

Getting home from there was a new experience. Because of the evacuation, traffic was much heavier than normal, and I had to take some interesting routes home. Cops tended to look the other way about speeding and 'sliding' through stop signs. Most of us were slowing down to look, and then going through them.

When I got home, my mother was in tears. She was worried about my cousin...who was living on Capitol Hill then. There was a reported carbomb explosion, and since she couldn't reach my cousin...had assumed the worst. That was about the time the plane hit the Pentagon.

9/11 changed our world forever. Not only did it take a few thousand of our citizens, but it wrecked our economy, and started 2 wars.

[Greenday]

My wife and I had returned from our cruise/honeymoon only three days before. For some reason, I felt uneasy getting on the plane that day. In fact, after it happened, my mom called the house freaking out because she wasn't sure which day we were getting back, and she was afraid that it might be that day. She was quite relieved when she found it we had arrived home three days prior.

Three days before the attack, my cousin and I were on a ferry my uncle worked on. We got to walk around NYC during the day. At the end of the day, we walked past the WTC and I remember just standing there, amazed at them. To think, three days later I'd never have a chance to see them like that again, just never even occurred to me at the time.

[Rine]

I remember that my school was switching classes and I went out into one of the main halls and looked up at the TV that was tuned to CNN. This was before I got my glasses, so all I could see was what looked like a box with smoke coming out of it. Then, I went to my next class and told them to turn on the TV to CNN and everyone went silent and we all stood there and watched. They tried to switch the TV to the school tv session and we switched it back right after the pledge. We watched in real time as the second plane slammed the second tower. I remember vividly the teacher next door slamming the door open and screamed, "did you f-ing see that?! Did you see that?!" The entire day, we watched the television. In was on in the cafeteria during lunch and the mood was very somber and it was so quiet in the room. (There was nearly 800 people in that room and we were usually so loud.)

When I arrived home, both my parents were home, which was odd. They work for the Department of Defense and everyone was ordered home in light of the attacks. All the military bases in the area went into a lockdown of sorts and I don't think they went back to work for several days. They were sitting on the couch, just watching the television and my parents were both worried for those friends they had working in the Pentagon that day.

Today I watched a reshowing of the real time 9/11 broadcast of CNN that I watched five years ago. It still makes me cry when I see that plane slamming into the tower.

[Ljt09863]

i was sleeping. i was homeschooled then, and we just started school whenever we got up. i woke up because i heard my older brothers and my mothers t.v.'s both up really loud. i got up, went to my brothers room and told him to turn it down. he said,"Leah! terrorists just attacked new york and they are on their way to chicago!" we lived only 45 minutes away from chicago. but my brother told me lies then, so i didn't believe him. i went to my mom and repeated what my brother said. my mom said,"leah, they aren't coming to chicago, but they did attack."


i sat on my moms lap watching it. i was 15, but i was so upset, that i needed my mom to comfort me like that. that is the last time i ever sat in my mothers lap, and was the first time i had done it since i was about 6 or 7. i remember watching them fall....it scared me alot.

i hated how it was afterwards. my father was in the navy, and we lived in off-base housing. hardly ANYBODY was abe to get in there. if you were in the car, and didn't have a military i.d., you were not allowed in offbase housing, let alone on base. EVERY delivery truck was searched all over. random car checks, huge blockades.....it was really scary living in that. i mean, you go home, and you have to pass by the big tough guys with the really powerful guns strapped to their shoulders.

but considering what had happened, i got off lucky. but to this day, i can't watch anything about it, because it hurts too much. its just really hard for me to do it for some reason.

[XCashier]

I was seven months pregnant at the time. I had just gotten out of the shower and I heard my husband saying, "Oh, no...OH NO!!!" I got dressed as quickly as I could and went to the living room. He pointed to the TV and told me that someone had flown a plane into the WTC. I sat down and watched in horror as the events unfolded. My cat Red sat on my lap and purred; I think he knew I was upset and was trying to comfort me.

At work, the store next door had their TV on CNN (we didn't have a TV in our shop), and all talk was about the attacks. That whole day was so surreal. And for weeks afterward, I had horrifying nightmares about terrorists taking over the USA and making us live under Taliban law, or poisoning our water, or any number of things.

[El Barto]

I found out in the begging of my 3rd period computer class in the 10th grade. The TV was on in my 4th period history class when the second tower fell. I had gone on an 8th grade trip to New York City, one of the places we visited was the WTC. It was weird watching the building I had been to the top of less than 2 years before collapsing.

[Kiwi]

It was around 4am NZ time, I had a major english exam (like my entire years grade depended on it) that morning at school and I was already up early going over my notes and mum rang through on our intercom "turn your tv on" I saw it even from before the first plane hit, when the planes where just highjacked and they didnt know what was going to happen just that they were headed back to NY

I cant even watch repeats from that day, when they show the planes flying into the buildings I turn the tv off, Ive been to ground zero (before they started building again) and all I could think about where those people I saw leaping to their deaths before being burnt alive.

I think everyone from our generation will always remember exactly where they were when they found out. That image of the plans is burnt into my brain.

[ditchdj]

That morning was a hell of a way to wake up. I was staying at my mom's going to college and when I woke up she just said a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I saw the replays of the crashes and then saw the second tower falling live and I was like, "What the fuck is going on here!" Then I started hearing all these false reports of bombs at airports and other hijacked planes. Realizing that we were living only 40 miles south of Detroit Metro, I decided to sit out in my van with the radio on to see if anymore planes were gonna fall out of the sky. I was honestly ready to go to the nearby school, get my kid and get the hell out of there. When they finally grounded all planes nationwide I was strange to see absolutely no planes at all in the sky. I finally figured that oil prices were gonna fly through the roof so I decided to fill up my van and my mom's gas tank (thankfully BEFORE everyone else decided to also!) and got back home to keep watching the coverage. Later I had to work the closing shift at Wendy's but we had hardly anyone because everyone was too busy scrambling to fill up their gas tanks because there were then rumors that gas was gonna be 6 bucks a gallon.

[JuniorMintz]

It was sometime around 6 am out here, and my mom ran into my room to wake me up. It was freezing, which was wierd because it's not usually that cold this time of year, so she started a fire and we watched the news together.

My dad works at Lawrence Livermore Lab, and the whole place was shut down and everyone was sent home because it would be a pretty huge target for an attack of it's own. He was home by 11.

While we waited for him to come home, I went online and talked to my best (internet) friend, who lived in New York. She was hysterical because her dad was supposed to be flying home from a business trip that day. Turns out he was supposed to have been on the second plane that hit the towers, but was late and missed his flight.

We lived by an airport, and the skies were dead quiet-it was really, *really* eerie.

I was off and on the phone with my boyfriend (now husband) because he stayed at work but wanted updates.

I forced myself to do my Psych homework, boyfriend came to pick me up, and we went to our night classes. Almost no one showed up, but the instructor gave a half hearted lecture just the same.

When I got home, my parents were already in bed watching the news. I told them I loved them, then went to bed myself. It was really early for me, (about 10), but I just curled up in bed and stared at the ceiling. The weird silence outside made it hard to sleep.

My dad was told to stay home the next day, too. They allowed everyone back to work the day after that. We heard rumor that even Disneyland shut down because they feared they would be a target, too. How sick would that have been?

In the next couple of weeks, our local alternative radio station did a fund raiser for the Red Cross called Pay for Play, where you could make a donation and have ANYTHING played. ANYTHING (that was censored for radio, anyway). People went nuts with it, too. I heard everything from the Charlie Brown theme to Debbie Gibson to Metallica to Pavorotti to the New Kids on the Block to Jingle Bell Rock to local indie artists to Puff Daddy... it was really weird to be participating in such a funny, cheerful fundraiser for something so awful. They raised an assload of money, too.

Anyway, you guys all know the rest of the story so I'll stop here.

[Seanette]

I lived in California at the time (still do, just in a different city now), and was a full-time homemaker with a slightly scrambled sleep cycle. I got up around 10:30am that day and headed for my computer. Every newsgroup, every mailing list, and several Web sites were talking about the WTC, so I turned on CNN. Promptly got glued to news coverage for about two days, before I decided my mental health dictated turning off the news. I did have to go out that day, to the nearby Ford dealership to pick up a part my husband had ordered. I kept looking around/up the whole time I was outdoors, wondering just how good an idea it had or had not been to move that close to a military facility (we lived in Lompoc at the time, about five miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base).

[RecoveringKinkoid]

This old friend of mine, Bill, a wonderful old man who has since gone ahead on to the next leg of his journey, told me his story about what he was doing that morning, and I'll share it with you. Bill was an artist, and he got up early in the morning to putter around before starting his day. His wife liked to tape her soaps and stay up late watching them with a headset on, so not to wake him.

Bill rolled out that morning (he was in a wheelchair) to see that his wife had left the tv on and her headset plugged in, so he could see it but not hear it. World Trade Center burning and collapsing in silence. He got a little annoyed, thinking "what the hell kind of dumb violent action movie are they playing THIS early in the day? Gaaah."

And something struck him as not quite right and pulled the headset out of the jack.

[Lvl_9_Gazebo]

It was my family's tradition to got to Bojangle's, a Southern fast food place that sells the best breakfast biscuits you've ever even thought about trying, and so we did that morning like we always did. Sat there listening to the radio and eating. The birds around Bojangle's have gotten wise to the people who do that and swarm around you en masse looking for crumbs. We fed them, finished up, and drove the 10 miles back home.

I was off work that day and was planning to go visit my boyfriend at the time, so I took a shower and was heading back to my room to get dressed when my dad yelled from the den that something was going on -- he said New York and Washington were being attacked, but because he exaggerates a lot of things I didn't pay him any attention. My mother didn't either. She was in the kitchen making pickles.

It was only after I got in my truck and was heading the 40 miles to Greenville, SC that I was listening to the radio and was hearing about the whole thing going on. I stopped for gas and people were standing around in the parking lot talking about it. Rumors were flying around -- especially one that a plane had crashed either into the Capitol Building or onto the National Mall.

I got to Greenville and my boyfriend and I took a nap. By the time we got up that afternoon to go in search of some lunch, Greenville was a ghost town. We found on restaurant open and ate then tried going to the mall, but it was closed, so we headed back to his place and just spent the rest of the day not doing anything at all.

I remember reading the next day that Asheville, packed with tourist attractions, had basically just shut down. The museums, botanical gardens, arboretum, Biltmore House, the malls, downtown... People emptied out and stayed home, and the tourists stayed in their hotels. There was a brief worry that Biltmore might be a target, but it passed -- it may be the largest house in the country but nobody's ever heard of it all the same.

The only burst of business was when the planes were forced to land and one after the other they landed at Asheville Regional Airport until it was full and nobody else could land. The same thing was happening at Greenville-Spartanburg International. After the passengers got off the planes, there was a flurry of activity as they made their way to hotels and then the whole area shut down again. It was like the aftermath of a plague, and I kept thinking about Stephen King's The Stand.

I broke down and cried about it twice. The first time was the next day when I got back home and my parents and I went to Bojangle's again. The birds were out looking for crumbs, and for some reason that made it seem like everything was okay, and I cracked. The second time was later in the week when I was watching a news story about a toy drive down in Anderson, SC for children of victims. One of the toys they showed was a "Protect Me Panda" which is sometimes given to children who are abuse victims. I saw it, thought about what kind of world this is where children hope that a teddy bear can protect them and then I went into the spare bedroom to get away from everybody else and I covered my face and just howled.

[Myra]

I was in college at the time, and I got up and went to the health center to get a prescription filled. As I was leaving, the TV in the waiting area was tuned to CNN, and I saw the first tower with smoke rolling out of it. I look at the lady at the front desk and ask "Is this for real?" she just nods. I sat down in the waiting area, and I don't remember much of what I was thinking watching the second plane hit, and the towers going down. I was just in shock.

The college was right down the road from the Air Force Base where they house all but like 2 of the stealth bombers the U.S. has, so I was a tad worried as nobody was sure if the attacks were done. I went back to my best friend Drew's dorm and called my Grandma and my Dad and we just sat, watching CNN all day. It was just so eerie.

The sky usually buzzed with jets from the Air Force base taking practice runs, but it was silent for a while. Then the bombers took to the air, and I have a couple pictures of them doing their practice laps really low over my dorm building. They made the walls shake. Then the sky was silent again after they flew overseas. The base usually had an air show every summer, but that next summer, there wasn't one. I guess the planes and the airmen were too busy to have one, and that's understandable.

It's amazing to me how fresh this still is. I was watching a special on Discovery Channel told by the survivors of the WTC towers and the Pentagon, and I was still tearing up, five years later.

[Rubyred]

I was a sophmore in high school and I was in 2nd period Sign Language class when the teacher from down the hall came running in and told us to turn on the TV. At first everyone just thought it was and accident but we realised what was going on when the second plane hit.

My current boyfriend (I didn't know him then) was there. He worked about 10 miles away and watched the whole thing happen.

[ditchdj]

When I hear about Flight 93 I just hope that the terrorists see it as a message that we as Americans WILL fight back and fight for our freedom down to the last drop of blood even in the face of death when attacked and NOT take it laying down. I hope they realize it's NOT gonna be like the Taliban overpowering and brutally destroyng a village in a remote corner of Afghanistan.

[Sunsetsky]

It's amazing how fast the time went. It seemed like yesterday when I found out about it. I was a junior in high school. I was driving to school when the first plane hit but I didn't find out about it until second period. Our first period teacher hadn't realized how serious it was (he didn't really know what happened basically). I walked into second period and saw the tv on the news. Me and my friend asked another student what was going on and he told us that a plane hit the towers. At first I figured it was a small plane that hit the tower accidentally but what actually happened became clearer.

My mom called the school while I was in class and made me come home. My friend came with me (after her mom gave permission). I saw in front of the tv all day and watched what happened. I found out from other friends that the only thing that went on in school today was news watching. There weren't really any lessons going on. I was pretty nervous I admit. I live in a city with five military bases surrounding it (if you count Norad). I heard planes all day coming from the army base over by where I lived. I knew that there weren't supposed to be any planes other then military planes out and flying. So when I heard the planes I wasn't sure if they were planes that was supposed to be out flying or not. I was worried that one of the bases was going to get attacked.

I was in NYC with my family and family friends a month and a half before the attacks. We were originally going to go inside the WTC but never had the opportunity too. We met a fireman while we were there too. Our family friends had a little boy who was with us and got to sit in the fire truck. After the attacks I wondered about the fireman. I also had nightmares several times after it.

My dad worked at Norad at the time. I think he was working that day. However, I never really thought to ask him what went on in the mountain that day.

[dendawg]

Oddly enough, I had awoken right at the time the first plane hit. What had happened was on the news, and I just wrote it off as an accident. I headed to the computer and was dialing in (I have broadband now) to check my email, when the second plane hit. :eek: I hadn't yet turned on the TV in the computer room, so my wife yelling in surprise was quite a shock. I turned on the TV and sat there in shock.

I was scared to go to work that day, as I work as a janitor in the MI House of Reps building, and eventually ended up going to work as usual, only to find out the building was closed. I went home and watched the rest of the day play out.

[Cyanocobalamin]

Being on the West coast, it was pretty much all over when I woke up around 10 or 11am. The first thing I saw when I turned the TV on was images of the Pentagon. I flipped out and called my mother who apparently had no idea what had happened as she had left for work very early and hadn't watched TV that morning. She shouted 'OH my god', hung up on me and rushed home to console me. I called my grandmother who also comforted me.

I had that day off from work so all I did was watch the TV... I remember the strange quietness of there being no airplanes in the sky for a few days and seeing the US Flag at half-mast at the fire station down the street making me choke up.
I had already been reeling from breaking up with my first boyfriend, and the attacks just made my stomach hurt worse.

9-11 affected me indirectly in that my mother's longtime partner (who is in the IT industry) took a contract job to help do data recovery at the WTC site. Making a long story short, with him not being around to make timely mortgage payments, we eventually lost the house and my mother got fed up and left him.

[Caveat Emptor]

I was living in my first apartment, a studio with one living / bedroom and a kitchen. I had woken at about 9:03, so I didn't actually see the planes hit on TV. I was walking into the kitchen to get breakfast when my mom called. She asked if I was watching TV. "No" but I reached around the corner and turned it on. "Planes hit the Trade Center. They're saying it's terrorism." she said. "Osama bin Laden?" I asked, "Maybe..." she answered. "God..." I said, watching it on ABC. Mom mom answered "Yeah..." I said "Thanks" and we hung up. I just stood there in stunned silence until the phone rang again, this time one of my coworkers. He was supposed to come ove that morning to help me build my new PC. "You watching the news!?!? Isn't this f---ing nuts?!?!" I recalled to him how I had recently been reading parts of Debt of Honor and Executive Orders by Tom Clancy - one ends and the other begins with a 747 being crashed into the Capitol. He came over, and by the time he arrived the Pentagon had been hit and the first tower had collapsed.

[Caveat Emptor]

Did anyone watch The Tonight Show on Monday? I knew that James Woods had previously talked about seeing two of the hijackers on a flight before 9/11, and telling a cabin attendant about them "acting suspicously," but then he repeated what had "slipped" out from the mouth of an FBI agent post 9/11 - about "it's a good thing the FAA grounded all flights because of the other planes we found with box cutters taped under the seats." :eek: There was also a flight that refused to take off (from Boston, IIRC) around 9:15, and several men ran from the plane. Their luggage was searched and copies of al Qaeda manuals were found...

[protege]

When I hear about Flight 93 I just hope that the terrorists see it as a message that we as Americans WILL fight back and fight for our freedom down to the last drop of blood even in the face of death when attacked and NOT take it laying down. I hope they realize it's NOT gonna be like the Taliban overpowering and brutally destroyng a village in a remote corner of Afghanistan.

Right after the attacks, several local places had signs with the Statue of Liberty giving Osama the finger. Right below that, the text reads "We're coming, motherfuckers." From what I was told, that sign sold pretty quickly :)

[MadMike]

Right after the attacks, several local places had signs with the Statue of Liberty giving Osama the finger. Right below that, the text reads "We're coming, motherfuckers." From what I was told, that sign sold pretty quickly :)

That reminds me of something else I saw -- I forget where. It wouldn't have been in the paper, because I'm sure they'd never print something like that.

It was a "Proposed new WTC." Instead of two big towers, it was five smaller towers, varying in size, with the tallest one being in the middle. Basically, it looked like a hand flipping the finger, presumably at the terrorists.

[Seanette]

That reminds me of something else I saw -- I forget where. It wouldn't have been in the paper, because I'm sure they'd never print something like that.

It was a "Proposed new WTC." Instead of two big towers, it was five smaller towers, varying in size, with the tallest one being in the middle. Basically, it looked like a hand flipping the finger, presumably at the terrorists.
I loved that idea (didn't like any of the designs actually proposed for the new WTC). Another good one, which I saw on a mailing list I was on at the time:

"All of the rubble from New York... all the huge blocks of concrete and steel, the old busted up computers, refrigerators, hot water heaters, air conditioners, fire trucks, Lazyboy recliners, broken glass, etc., should be shoveled into C130's and C5A's, flown over Iraq and Afghanistan and dropped from 32,000 feet.

An old Coldspot can do a heck of a lot of damage from 5 miles up!

With each assault we can drop pamphlets: "Greetings, from the 110th floor of the World Trade Center". The next day it could be from the 109th floor... Then the 109th floor, the 108th, etc., etc. After 110 days of this, I can't imagine much left standing on the ground.

Can't ! you just see the headlines now: "WORLD TRADE CENTER STRIKES BACK!"

What wonderful irony this would be and think how much money we wouldn't have to spend on new bombs or missiles!

... Not to mention the 100-million tons diverted from the New York City landfill. "

[AFpheonix]

Because killing Iraqis and Afghanis who really had nothing to do with anything will right the wrong that was 9/11. [/sarcasm]

Anyhoo, back on topic, I was a senior in college that day. I am and was in Oregon, and by the time I woke up~9ish, it was pretty much over. I didn't have a tv at the time, so I relied on NPR until I got through lecture that day and could get over to my boyfriend's to watch his telly.
I remember for days how quiet the skies were. It was so eery, not having any jet engines in the background. I was training horses at the time to make tuition and rent money, and my trainer and I would talk about how, if it ever came to it, these creatures would be the ones that would enable transport and everything else if we could no longer use planes or cars or other automated means of transport.

I also remember talking with my roomie at the time, who was an exchange student from Taiwan. It was interesting hearing her point of view, in that she was very prescient about the possibility of average Afghanis getting caught in the crossfire when when we invaded there.
Even more interesting was a year later, taking a class at another school, I was talking with a Persian student about the possibility of invading Iraq. Just about everyone I knew wasn't too amused at the thought, but she was the only one that was in favor. Why? Because of the feuds between Saddam's Iraq and Iran.

[Luna]

On a Mod note - let's not turn this remembrance thread into one of being for or against war and into a controversial debate session. Let's please just keep it at what you remember that day, where were you and honoring those lost and those grieving. I hear your anger, and I have lost too, but this forum isn't the place for it. http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=913
Thank you.


I was living with my MIL at the time. I was due in at B&N at 11am, and shuffled downstairs right after the first plane hit. MIL was sitting on the couch in silence watching the TV. We both thought it was some sort of movie being filmed.

It wasn't until the plane hit the 2nd tower that she started to scream, "Oh my God! Chris is in there! Chris is in there!"

http://www.legacy.com/Sept11.asp?Page=TributeStory&PersonId=111590

The rest is painful. Work sucked. The SM who was a raging bitch - demanded continously why we were wasting time "doing nothing but shit" as she liked to say when there was so much work to be done. Customers came in asking for picture books on the WTC only hours after it happened and screamed at us when we had maybe one or two in stock and they had already been sold. Many customers of Middle-Eastern lineage came into the store wanting books on airplanes and piloting and then laughed at staff after we brought them to the section timidly. (NO, I am not kidding I wish I was.) When we finally did close around 1pm, customers kept calling the store and screaming at us wanting to know why they can't buy their books. Even as we were walking to our cars - (some were sitting on the sidewalk/curb just talking numbly) cars would pull up - we'd say we're closed and they'd start yelling.

We'd point to the THICK BLACK SMOKE over the horizon and say "Thats why".

Weeks later, the SM still complained about how we were all a waste of payroll that day b/c nothing got done. :eek:

[SteverinoNY]

Thanks Luna for posting that site...this is the profile for my uncle, Gerard Dewan, who was a member of Ladder 3 in the FDNY

http://www.legacy.com/Sept11.asp?Page=Story&PersonID=118226

Five years later and its not any easier...we can't forget!

[protege]

Speaking of the FDNY, one of my future projects is an American-LaFrance hook-and-ladder fire engine that I plan to do in FDNY's paint scheme, simply to honor those who were lost on 9/11. Even though I'm a few hundred miles away, and didn't know any of them, I still want to thank them somehow for risking their lives.