Memories and reflections on 9/11

[Dytchdoctir]

I was visiting my brother and his wife and kids. My brother yelled downstairs and woke me up. We watched the news and comforted the kids. I remember wondering if more attacks would occur, and if the terrorists would follow up with a nuclear bomb.

[Maria]

My preteen sister called me around 10am, but since I'd only had three hours' sleep, I couldn't make heads or tails of her or what I was seeing on my TV. Finally something about the way she said "twin towers" finally managed to sink all the way past the sleeping parts, into the bit of my brain that was awake. Twin towers. There's two of them. Why could I only see one building rising from the smoke? Where in the ever-loving hell was the other one? And just as she explained again that it had collapsed, its twin followed suit.

I remember The Husband finally stirring to my yelp of shock, and my brain shorted out and I told him to walk the dog, just like it was any other day. He completely ignored me. Just before I got mad, I got my wits about me enough to realize why. He's from Manhattan. I walked the dog for him. We couldn't raise any of his family. We couldn't find our New York friends. I didn't hear from my father, who worked for the department of defense, for days.

But what I remember most is last September, when my big sister took me to New York for the first time. As we walked the last block or so to the site, I looked up at all the concrete behemoths and asked her how anybody could hit anything with any degree of accuracy in this man-made forest. She told about how they were so easy to pick out, she used to use them as a marker for making landings in New York. Then she found pictures on her phone to show how much taller they were than anything else around, and of the area, in the days after. It literally took my breath away to realize the magnitude of what happened in this place.

She sat me down right then and there, so I could absorb the shock before I passed out from it. It was in that moment, sitting on a cold, damp sidewalk at a half-constructed intersection adjacent to the site, staring at a picture of this same corner under what seemed like a mountain of debris, that I finally understood these things I'd watched from afar, a decade before.

[KiaKat]

But what I remember most is last September, when my big sister took me to New York for the first time. As we walked the last block or so to the site, I looked up at all the concrete behemoths and asked her how anybody could hit anything with any degree of accuracy in this man-made forest. She told about how they were so easy to pick out, she used to use them as a marker for making landings in New York. Then she found pictures on her phone to show how much taller they were than anything else around, and of the area, in the days after. It literally took my breath away to realize the magnitude of what happened in this place.

She sat me down right then and there, so I could absorb the shock before I passed out from it. It was in that moment, sitting on a cold, damp sidewalk at a half-constructed intersection adjacent to the site, staring at a picture of this same corner under what seemed like a mountain of debris, that I finally understood these things I'd watched from afar, a decade before.

There really is something about visiting it. I've seen it in multiple stages - smoking pile of debris, cleanup, hole in the ground, and now as a construction site. The enormity of it never fails to smack me upside the head. And you know what gets me every time?

There used to be a walkway between the Winter Garden and the towers that stretched over the West Side Highway. I spent a lot of time traversing that walkway from the underground mall to the Garden, loaded down with books I just bought, looking for a spot under a palm tree to sprawl out.

That side of the Garden is just glass, now. No walkway anymore.

[Jester]

I woke up late. I'm pretty sure I had the day off. We lived at the old apartment.

I finally woke up because of someone knocking on the door or ringing the bell. I answered it in my lounge pants (aka Joe Boxer long underwear, ridiculously comfortable stuff!), and it was the cable guy. And he was half laughing as he said, yeah, they knocked the Towers down.

I had no idea what he was talking about, as I had just woken up, and hadn't seen the news. But after he fixed whatever was wrong with the cable, I was transfixed, and watched it all unfold. Or more accurately, I watched the replays of it all unfolding, as I woke up either after the second Tower had been hit or after it had collapsed. I think the latter. I think both Towers were down. But it was all replays and recaps, so I got brought up to speed pretty early, sitting there on our crappy couch in our crappy apartment in the flood zone of Key West.

And before anyone attacks the cable guy, his half-laughing attitude was the same nervous laughter many of us get in horribly bad situations. I myself had the same demeanor at my own father's funeral. It was not laughing at the situation, but simply not finding any other way to deal with the enormity of the events. I have never, not once, had a problem with that cable guy. He was just struggling to comprehend.

And I watched it all unfold in front of me, the whole reaction, everything, the unconfirmed rumors and uncertain stories from other parts of the country, etc., etc., etc. And I talked to my friends online, on my roommate's computer (I didn't have one at the time), as the phone lines were a complete joke, and you couldn't get through to anyone, even from Florida to California....the national network was just fucking jammed.

I quickly found out that my older sister, who at the time lived in NJ and worked in NYC, had had a dentist appointment that morning and so had been running late, and missed the attacks completely. And old friend ME, who not only worked for the Manhattan DA office, but commuted from NJ via trains and disembarked at the WTC terminal, had been early that day, and so had gotten to work long before the strikes.

And I watched the goings on for days, as we all did. And watched GWB speak at the smoking site of the WTC, and for the first time in my life, thought "Right on, George!" Whatever you may think of the man--and I didn't think much of him for most of his career--that was probably his best speech ever. And days later, when he ordered the strikes on the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, I supported the decision, though I had never supported him. We were striking back against those who had struck us. As a vindictive bastard, I was all for it.

And those four days when flights were grounded, living as close as I do to a Naval Air Base was just amazing. Because every single flight we saw or heard go over us we knew was U.S. military, and we were happy, secure, and proud. F-whateverteens doing maneuvers overhead, constantly, for four days. The only birds in the sky, but they were in the sky constantly, more than any other time I remember living near an air base. And it was Good. And it was Right.

And even ESPN was covering the attacks, rightly so, as they realized that sports would and should take a back seat for once. And the ESPN anchors, including Keith Olbermann, offering their perspective.

And no political bias, no spin, no bullshit. All the networks, all the pundits, all the politicians saying as one, "This is wrong. This will not stand. We will not be bowed." There was a unity then that was stronger in this nation than all my time before or since. We were one, and for a very short time, the World was with us, not against us, sympathizing with us for the cowardly attack against us. And it was devastating, sad, depressing, horrible....and yet uplifting, heroic, unifying, and galvanizing.

More than any other time, that is when I knew what it was to be a proud and defiant American.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

I was in 8th grade when it happened. When the attacks were actually happening, I was in science class I believe. After class, I was walking through the hallway when a couple of my friends came up to me to tell me what happened. I didn't know what was really going on until after lunch, though, when I went to my social studies class and my teacher had the television on with the news. We watched it for a bit until the bitch vice principal came around and told the teachers to turn off the televisions because it was "inappropriate". I remember some kids being picked up throughout the day, but school wasn't canceled or anything. I went home after school and my mom and I put on the news and watched it for the rest of the night.

I believe my mom also talked to our relatives in Pennsylvania that day/night. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania crashed into the hill right next to the hill where our vacation property is back there. Only a couple of miles away. We have some relatives who live near our property. A couple of them heard and saw the plane fly overhead very low.

[Racket_Man]

I was working tech support at the time and had a long car commute (about 90 minutes one way) . on the ride to and from work I always listened to the local NPR station.

Around 7:50am ( was a short distance from work) they broke in with a bulletin saying that a plane (they did not say how big or little) had hit one of the World Trade center towers. My first thought was about the B-25 that hit the Empire State building back after WWII. "Some dummy pilot got waaaayyyyy turned around" I thought. B-25 hits the Empire State building in July 1945

When I got to work (about 7:55am) they already had a TV out and plugged into the cable box (I literally was working in some guys converted garage). The commentators were commenting about the size of the plane that hit one tower.

at 8:05am the TV showed a live shot of the 2d plane hitting the other tower.

One strange thing that happened a little later in the morning. I was standing out in the driveway/yard around 10:30am central daylight time ( a little after both towers collapased). I was just standing there, surrounded by trees and there was NO breeze blowing. all of a sudden I felt a huge wave crash over and through me. again NO wind or breeze blowing. The "wave" knocked me sideways and I staggered to remain standing. and felt dizzy and disorientated. no one was around me at the time.

I guess that many people being killed at one time sends out a powerful wave . I still do not know what that wave was or WHY it effected only me (no one else made any mention of the "wave")

[Marmalady]

My son was still a baby, so I was at home with him. I remember switching on the TV to see the news and the first thing I saw was the first tower having been hit... I remember looking for the remote control, thinking 'Where's the news? why are they showing this disaster movie at this time?' And then finding out that it wasn't fiction, and standing there in tears holding the baby.
And I remember the American flag being flown at Buckingham Palace, and the American National Anthem being played by the Coldstream Guards there at the changing of the guard, and so many standing at the gates singing with the music or just crying.

[DeltaSierra]

I was living in Oklahoma with my ex-husband. At the time, we didn't have a TV, but were chatting in a chat room on IRC with some friends when all of a sudden everybody started talking about a plane hitting the WTC. My husband and I thought it was probably just a small cessna or whatever, but then the news of it being a jetliner...followed by another was shared in the chat room. An hour later, I had to go babysit for a neighbor and she had a TV, so I was practically glued to it the entire time I was there.

My fiance - his parents live on Long Island. His Mom's cousins from Germany were visiting NYC, and wanted to meet them for lunch - they planned to meet at the WTC and tour around it, then have lunch at the "Windows on the World" restaurant. They missed the train from Long Island into the city, so had to cancel the meeting and luncheon. I still can't believe how close they came to being in the WTC when this all happened.

[BroSCFischer]

I was in the military (tech school) when the planes hit. When we went to lunch we were there for about 2 hours before we were told to NOT form up and head for the dorm. We were locked down in the dorm for days, only allowed to leave for class and meals.

A few days later my roommate got annoyed at me because I wasn't in the dayroom watching the president speak, but was instead watching WWII propaganda films. I told him that I never liked political speeches, and didn't see the point. He "informed" me that this was my Commander in Chief. I replied that when he wants to tell me what to do, he will send me orders, until then there is no need to waste my time watching what we all knew was going to be the president declaring war.

SC

[kansasgal]

I had (literally) just moved to Pennsylvania the night before for a new job. Hubby had driven across country from Oregon, and my sons and I had flown on September 10th from Oregon to Pennsylvania. Original tickets were for the 11th, but I changed them because I wanted an extra day before starting work.

I had gotten up to go get coffee (we hadn't unpacked yet) and was listening to the radio when I heard about the first plane, didn't really think anything of it (I thought it was a small plane like a Cessna) then I heard the announcer say we were under attack..the second plane had hit and there were other planes in the air heading for other targets.

I went home and was crying, told my husband what happened and we unloaded the TV and watched it. We had no phone, no way of getting ahold of our families to let them know we were okay. It was just surreal.

We saw the Shanksville plane go down.

I thought my world had ended. I had moved my family across the country for a job that ultimately didn't pan out (we moved back a year later) and I still remember the shock of hearing the words "America is under attack"

[MamaMootz]

I was at work that morning in my call center. My husband was unemployed at the time. He called me and told me that someone drove a plane into the first tower at the WTC and that it was on CNN.

I told my coworkers about it, and one manager started making fun of me for even thinking that a full sized plane would hit the Trade Center, because it was "impossible" and "didn't I know the building would collapse if a full-sized plane hit it" and I kept telling him that it was on CNN. He was so vocal in his disbelief that my group went to the fitness center where there was a TV to tune into CNN to watch the coverage. It was there, standing in a group, that all of us watched the second plane hit the second tower.

We were shocked. We didn't know what to think. At first, we thought a commercial pilot had a malfunction that caused him to crash into the first building, but 2 planes hitting the two towers was something entirely different.

As the news spread, our manager came to us and told us to go home and be with our loved ones. Some of my high school alumni worked in the Trade Center, and as I drove home, I kept hoping they were OK and then I was trying to take in the enormity of the situation.

We found out later on in the day about the Pentagon and the crashed plane in Pennsylvania.

I live in CA now, and I was grateful to see that my daughter's elementary school had a ceremony for the fallen yesterday - they Navy came and did a formal flag presentation ceremony, as did a group called the Rough Riders, who are a group of bikers that support veterans and veterans' causes.

My 10 year old asked me last night about what exactly happened and I tried to explain it to her the best that I could. All she could keep asking me was why people would be so horrible to other people and who could think like that? I had to keep telling her that it was people who weren't in their right minds, over and over again.

[dragon_wings]

I was a freshman in high school and I didn't know anything was amiss until I entered my Bible History class around 10 am. The teacher had a tv hooked up and we watched during that class and the next. But my 4th block teacher wouldn't let us watch and insisted we study.
A few years later we went to a 9/11 memorial while it was in town. I just remember bursting into tears and someone asking me if I knew anyone that was killed (I hadn't).
My ex boyfriend is NYC born and raised. He lived/still lives in Queens but it brought the whole public transit system down for a while.

[Dasota]

Phi, it sounds almost the exactly the same as what happened at my school. I was in 8th grade as well, though I was in study hall and our TV was on as it was happening. The vice principal tried to get us to turn off the TVs as well, but there were classmates who had family in NYC being as we lived on just the other side of the state.