Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Your Turn

Every year I always ask where you were on 9/11. This year, I also want to ask if anyone who reads is too young to remember where they were. I think that is going to happen much more frequently as time passes.

59 comments:

sandybrook said...

I was home listening to my radio, eating breakfast and about to get ready to head into the city to shop at J&R Music World, my favorite electronics shop, which was just downn the street from the WTC. Obviously I didn't get there and ironically the train station I would have gone to just re-opened yesterday, finally rebuilt.

Whitney said...

I was a sophomore in high school, and can remember what I wore and how I felt when we watched the second plane crash on the TV screen. I live in Connecticut, and I vividly remember SO MANY military aircraft flying over us for the entire day, presumably en route to NYC. That was scary.

I always thought of myself as young when it happened...its hard to register that some people weren't old enough (or alive!) to remember!

Ophelia said...

I was just wondering this same question today, Enty. I was very young when it happened but remember all my teachers were so solemn and wheeled the big TV out to turn the news on for all the students and teachers.

I even remember exactly where my parents were since they've discussed the memory of it so vividly.

La La Lady said...

In a college seminar first week of Junior year. I overslept and rushed to class before I found out. Then I was trapped waiting before I could check on my sister who was commuting to work on the subway via WTC stop that morning. Thank god she left a message saying she was okay before all the communications went kaput. Sad day. Never forget.

Truthseeker said...

I was at work. My hubby was on his way out of the army, and just waiting for his discharge papers. My neighbor at work and I were listening to Lex and Terry, when they talked about the small plane hitting. My neighbors husband was military as well, Navy. Hubby was actually helping his brother do some landscaping, as soon as it was confirmed we were advised to go home. ( I worked for a major bank) i drove to my husbands work and told him, about that time, the radio was announcing that ALL active duty military had to report in. Hubby and I were in FL, his last duty station was in KY, he had to immediately call in. Then we went to pick our 7 year old son up from school. After i called and demanded that they NOT share any information with him. Hubby left the next day to go back to his unit, his discharge was cancelled, my friends husband also left the next day, both were deemed need only know as to their whereabouts. It was a very horrible time.

moonagedaydream6 said...

I was only 8 or 9, but I will never forget that day. I actually equate it with the loss of my innocence. I wasn't sheltered before that, I watched the news, I heard about murders and crimes, I watched Law and Order. My parents had explained to me that people are capable of doing bad things. I understood that. But this was different. This was a different kind of evil. I shut down for a couple of weeks after this happened, and it was the first I remember experiencing anxiety.

I had been sleeping, and when I came out in the morning to get ready for school (Western Canadian timezone), the news was on and my poor mother had to explain to me what happened. It was the first time I remember seeing the "breaking news" headline, where they interrupt all programming for further coverage. I think that is also how I knew how serious it was. It was all anyone talked about for weeks. I also remember watching the second plane hit the building, watching the entire WTC fall, and the Flight 93 coverage.

I don't think I went to school until the afternoon, if at all that day, and I think a lot of my classmates didn't go that morning either.

Bec1553 said...

I was in the senior cafeteria in high school. We were watching the morning news and were in total disbelief as to what was happening.

IrishEileen said...

I was on maternity leave. I always tell my kid he might've saved my life as I always passed through wtc on my daily commute, making train connections to midtown to the office. I returned to work two weeks later and the city was on edge. It was like the world had changed.

JMFP said...

I was going to college and came home for lunch and a doobie.
My best friend/roommate was all "Jill,... did you hear what happened?!!".... she turned on the TV and basically every channel had live images of the towers, smoke billowing.
We live just up the coast in Nova Scotia, Canada and all I can remember thinking was "omg, we're so close, what if there is a war?"
Returning to school that afternoon it was all anyone was talking about... very solemn and concerned faces everywhere. People calling home to see if family members and friends were by chance in the area, etc..

notthisagain said...

I was 14. I remember waking up to my mom yelling, because she was watching the Today show and she screamed the moment the second plane hit since it was live on TV

my parents were 14 when kennedy was assassinated. I was 14 when 9/11 happened.

VikingSong said...

I was 21. And was at home in the UK. Watched the whole thing go down on Sky News. Tuned in minutes before the second plane hit. I watched the news consistently for two days. The only other time I did that was when Diana was killed in Paris.

zerooptions said...

I was working in a network closet most of the morning and didn't know what was happening until I walked out for a break.
A secretary told me what was happening.
I went to my office and watched several livestreams for the rest of the day and week.

BestMan said...

I was home. I called my ex on the west coast and woke them. I said we were under attack.

LJNDawson said...

I was at a job where I worked from home in Brooklyn. A friend emailed me about the planes. The Internet kept going out, and I finally got the brilliant idea to turn on the TV (just didn't think of it, because I was "at work"). Whenever the Internet was working, I'd send my friends (trapped in the city) bulletins about what was going on. Eventually went up to a rooftop to look with a neighbor.

My kids were at school and day care. Their dad and I had just gotten divorced; we lived in the same building, and he was working from home as well. He picked up the younger kid from day care; I took her in her stroller to go get her sister at school. My oldest kept saying, "It was raining paper at recess" - all the files in the buildings, papers partially burned, just fragments, really, coming out of the sky. My youngest has no memory of it; my oldest does, though.

The smell is what I remember most. I shut the windows and put on the AC to keep out the dust and debris, and then (counter-intuitively) I roasted a chicken and baked a pie. I never turn on the oven in the summer, but I had to chase the smell of burning bodies out of the apartment. We had friends over to share the food because it was too much for the three of us. My kids went back and forth between their father's apartment and mine.

The smell lingered in the air for months. A couple of weeks later I was on a plane, and we circled over the site - it was still smoking.

Wee S said...

I was in AS Level English Lit after lunch. We were studying Translations by Brian Friel. Our teacher got a phone call from his daughter, saying something had happened in New York & couldn't get in touch with her sister who lived there. We carried on reading the play, I saw the towers later when I got home from school.

alphacranberry said...

I was in a meeting at work when the first one hit. I was watching on my work computer when the second one hit and when the buildings crashed. Most of my coworkers were crowded in my cube because I'd been lucky enough to get a news feed before the internet got too crowded.

LooksLikeCRicci said...

I was living in a college dorm. I woke up to a big commotion in the hallway. I stumbled out and asked what had happened. Someone said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I asked, "On campus?" stupidly because my college had a branch of the World Trade Center on campus. She told me to go turn on the TV.

I turned on the TV moments before the second plane hit. I didn't know what to do, so I went to class. Nothing was accomplished. We could only talk about what was happening in New York. There was a man in my creative writing class who was incredibly distraught. He couldn't get ahold of his sister, who was a student at Columbia and he feared she was in the building. I'm not a religious person, but several of us took his hands and prayed with him for her safety and the safety of everyone in New York. We hadn't heard about United 93 yet...

Muckduck said...

I was in college, my BFF and I decided to skip our first class. We grabbed some breakfast and was hanging out in the student center flipping thru the tv when we saw the 2nd plane hit.

cheesegrater15 said...

College. My roommate and I had a friend who was going through issues the night before, and the morning of the 11th, the president of the school made an announcement during chapel. When he said something like, "I know you've all heard the news..." I thought the friend had committed suicide. I had an 8am class that morning so I missed everything. Classes had been suspended for the rest of the day, and everybody was glued to their TVs. Every television in the student center was on a different news station. My psycho Russian roommate (no seriously, she was unhinged) just shrugged and said, "Eh, America had it coming." First time in my life I literally wanted to murder somebody.

VeeBee said...

I was in my 20s, living with my brother and his girlfriend, going to college, and working as a clerk at a high school. That morning my clock radio alarm went off but instead of music it was news reports. I couldn't make sense of what was being said. I ran out to the living room to turn on the TV and woke my brother up. We watched the coverage, transfixed, for like 3 hours straight. I can still remember that horrible sick feeling washing over me again and again as the towers collapsed. I finally made it in to work at about 1:00pm that day.

bowler_chick said...

I was working the day shift (7am - 3:30pm) at a nuke plant. We knew something really bad was happening, but not what. The place had went into overdrive as far as security was concerned. Eventually word trickled down about the plane crashes. I grabbed my SRV CD's and spun up "The Sky is Crying" in honor of those lost. IIRC, we had to work a double shift that day because they wanted to make sure of what was going on before letting people in and out of the plant. What a horrible tragedy.

MeliticusBee said...

I was on a city bus on my way to work when the first plane hit. I got to work and we watched on TVs in the break area. We had been organizing a national meeting to be held in Las Vegas starting on Sept 14. A couple of people had already left to go to the meeting early and were mid-country when their planes were grounded.
Those of us still in the office spent the day calling other offices to tell them that we would let them know when meeting would be rescheduled for. A couple of executives who had planned to fly their own private planes to Las Vegas, spent a significant time arguing with me over whether or not air traffic really had been suspended. At least one actually called me a liar and said I didn't know what I was talking about at all. Had to get real ugly with him to make him shut up.

the coworkers who had been grounded were stuck in places like Kentucky...those who were lucky, rented cars and vans to drive hundreds of miles back home - those who didn't act quickly were simply stranded when rental cars were all gone. Didn't make it home for about a week.

Took us 2 months to reschedule Venitian hotel for conference...but I had left the company by then. I used to travel 4-5 days a week - have only flown about three times since.

loveless said...

My brother worked at that J & R! He was on his way to work when it happened. The entire subway system stopped and let people out. My brother walked home to NJ from midtown via the George Washington bridge. He didn’t get back until the next day. I was frantic with worry. All the phones were down and we had limited radio & tv transmission. So many people in my county lost their lives. There’s a memorial in every town. Can not escape nor want to forget the memories.

Mindflayer said...

I was at my work when we all heard that an airplane has crashed into one of the towers. When I got home I saw the second airplane hit LIVE on TV.

Groggy said...

My wife and I both work in Manhattan, always have. That day I had a meeting up in midtown and decided to drive. My wife's train commute leaves her in Hoboken, NJ, and she took the PATH, which if you don't know is a subway that goes under the Hudson, to the WTC stop. She would pass through the WTC shopping concourse and then walk to her office a few blocks away.
The time the first plane hit was about 15 minutes after the time my wife usually passed through the WTC. But I knew that if her train was a little late or she decided to stop into one of the shops as she sometimes did, she would have been right there in the lower level shopping concourse or just out on the street.
I was frantic. I could not reach her, as there was no telephone service to lower Manhattan that morning. The land lines were jammed and the cell tower on top of the WTC had been destroyed.
I didn't know what to do so I decided to go home and wait it out. All of the bridge and tunnel crossings out of/into Manhattan were closed but I finally found a way out of the city on the local streets.
I got home and again tried calling her office and cell phone. No answer. Finally, about 3 in the afternoon, she called me. She had made it back to Hoboken and was getting on the train to come home.
The kicker of my 9/11 story is that my wife's office at the time was located near the South Street Seaport and her company had decided to move to the WTC and leased space on the 85th floor of 1 WTC. However, her company was acquired and they moved to a different building or she would have probably been sitting at her desk or on her way up in the elevator when the first plane hit.
So I never forget 9/11, and I certainly never forget who did it and almost took my wife from me.





lynn said...

I was a sophomore in HS, in my English class - one of the office secretaries announced what had happened over the intercoms.

Casting Girl said...

my apt at 17th st and 8th ave...ran down to Washington SQ where friends were.

Mhdz said...

I was still living at home, and in between jobs. I was asleep when it happened, but my sister woke me up once she turned on the T.V.

notthisagain said...

this compilation gets me every time.

its 6 american news stations...watching the pop news, movie trailers, commercials, book interviews, all before its happened and been reported....the normalcy is so...eerie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHcQ89pxjd4

Sunnylady said...

I had just moved from Manhattan to Connecticut a few days before to be closer to family. I was adopting a child and had to undergo a hysterectomy at the same time. I was relaxing at home and watching the Today show when they showed the planes hitting livestream. I remember the newscasters initially saying that they thought the first plane was probably a private aircraft crash originating from Teterboro airport. Then the second one hit. I distinctly remember saying to myself, "the world as I know it will never be the same again". I still feel so awful for all of the victims. Please everyone, during this time of division, let's all come together as we did that day and embrace one another as joyous equals once again!

JBrook said...

I was at my office in NYC (near Grand Central so not close to the towers.) My boss told me that a plane hit one of the towers but at that point everyone thought it was just a small plane that went off course. It quickly became apparent that wasn’t the case, and we all gathered in the big boss’ office to watch news coverage on her TV. We were all frozen in horror. Once both towers fell we decided to get the hell out of there because we worried other planes might be out there targeting other NYC landmarks. Walking home (all the way to Brooklyn) was extremely creepy because the city was so quiet and there was virtually no traffic. People were walking down the middle of the avenues. It felt post-apocalyptic.

Sd Auntie said...

Home listening to Howard Stern. Had Jury duty and took the trolley we were dismissed and an elderly couple with their suitcases said the airport has been closed and a plane was headed to California. Rushed home and watched TV.

Jimbonius said...

I was driving to work when a news bulletin broke in. We didn't have any TV reception at our office, so many of us sat transfixed to the radio broadcasts most of the day. Being in the NY/NJ metro area at the time, there is so much air traffic overhead - but not for that afternoon and days after. The oddest thing was how quiet the skies were... it was like planes had never existed or something.

It was heartbreaking knowing people who kept waiting for word from their loved ones that never came. The stories kept appearing in the local papers and TV stations. The 'missing' posters that went up on the fences and poles around NYC... the voicemail messages people played. Just an awful time.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I was in preschool. I remember watching it on tv and asking my papaw Ralph, “That happened a long time ago right?” Although I remember I wasn’t really old enough to understand the situation but I definitely picked up on the sadness.

Gatorgirl said...

I was getting ready for work at the airline. When I drove in there wasn't a plane in the sky which I had never seen, day or night. At that point we still didn't know which airlines were being used in the attacks and all our flights had diverted. I kept thinking how so sad I was not only for everyone who had been killed but also for my airline family, all the crew who up to that point didn't realize what they would face when they boarded their flights that morning

Cuddlebutt said...

I had just returned from dropping my daughter off at her nursery school. I turned on the tv and was confused thinking it was a memorial show of the bomb attempt 10 years before. A guy from my university is in jail from that unsuccessful attempt. One of his professors expressed disbelief because of how unintelligent he was. Anyway, was watching and saw the 2nd plane hit. It was horrible.

Unknown said...

Hmmm... haven't heard from Geeljire about his whereabouts! Coincidence?

... just sayin

Velvet said...

Being a postgrad student working in my student union reception - a London university full of American students. Very heartbreaking as I knew people that lost friends in 9/11. It was a v surreal experience.

Marianne said...

I was admitted a patient, GMA was on. The studios had their cameras on the World Trade Center, at this rouge airplane flying near the buildings. Next I saw the first plane flying into the first building. For the next several hours it was so difficult concentrating on work. Praying for the souls lost and wondering why? No one deserved this to be the end of their stories.

sinkabella said...

My train in mid-town Manhattan just pulled into Grand Central Terminal at 9:12a. As I got the street walking to my office, I remember thinking there were alot of people walking around, more than usual. Walking to my office, my coffee guy said a plane hit but thought nothing of it. Went upstairs, put on 1010 wins and still didn't get it. Walked to 57th street for a meeting and and in the middle of it a woman burst in saying they hit the Pentagon. My client looked at me and said you better leave. Walking down Madison Ave was crazy. No cell working, finally found a working pay phone! Reversed the charges to my mother to tell her I was ok. I waited at my office till 2:15p when Metro North finally opened. Looking at the smoke from 45th will be in my mind forever. I've been to Windows of the World atop of WTC and I think about that breathtaking view alot. Just heartbreaking for those who were there. God bless always.

Rob Horine said...

I started the day watching infomercials. I was about to go into the shower and my mom called, "A plane just hit the WTC." I told her it must have been a accident. I hung up, took my shower. Turned the tv on the local news to see the weather just in time to see the second plane hit the WTC.

When I got to my building lobby, our building manager said "It had to be Bin-Ladin". I just walked off to my car to go downtown for a doctor's appointment. On the way, both of the towers fell.

I went to my shrink and then to a class. after that, I went home for a nap. After that, I had to get out. I went to a mall and the entire city it's in, was abandoned. No stores open.

I went to another grocery that was open. Saw a Marine in the store. Told him I hope they find who did this and make him pay. He said they would.

I went to BW3 and got some wings and went home.

Land Manatee said...

I was on the West Coast when I awoke to the breaking news after the first plane hit. It was the first time I had witnessed a live catastrophe of that magnitude even though I wasn’t there in person. At first I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the footage I was watching on repeat was in real time. It wasn’t until I witnessed the 2nd plane hit that I froze in sheer terror of the implications of what was occurring. For the first time in my life I did not feel safe in my country. As I analyzed the immediate aftermath of what was being reported, I spoke my thoughts outloud to the family members around me and said it appears to me “they” wanted to cause the most damage possible and actually bring down the towers. Within 5 minutes of stating that, the first collapse happened and I nearly fainted to the ground. I was an emotional mess by the time the 2nd tower collapsed. For the rest of the day, I was transfixed to the reporting. However, by the end of that day, I had ALOT of questions of what had occurred. To this day, the following doesn’t make sense and since then, my eyes have been opened to the reality of power, money and agendas in this country: 1) I grew up watching first hand MANY demolitions. Those towers were demolished...no doubt! 2) Bldg 7 demolition 3) No plane, bodies, convincing wreckage in Pennsylvania 4) same as #3 at the Pentagon - I could go on and on but that is for another day. This day is to remember the collateral damage of the innocent civilians that perished that day. However, anyone who buys into the official 9/11 narrative are probably the same ones that buy into the official Vegas Country Festival Shooting narrative that has been served up on a platter with a side of big stinky side of BS.

gauloise said...

I feel so sorry for the people who are too young to remember, because that means they are also too young to remember a time when the country hadn't gone totally insane, and people had fun and enjoyed life and were nice to each other.

El Roy 13 said...

I was running the chitty, willow dell motel in mohnton, pa, about to pop w my 3Rd child, on the phone w the insane Indian owner, joshu (sp?), when my buddy who was down from vt, to watch my older two (for when I was in labor/delivery), and who was also a GMA watcher (luckily, as I was not a morning tv watcher), called me to the telly as the first plane hitting was being reported.

All I could think of was that Silver Spoons episode where their hotel caught fire and they had to get rescued w a swing type thing hanging from a helicopter and HOW were they going to use that to get the people out! (I never shared that) there were just so many people in the floors above the fires.

It was horrible to watch unfold.

Heather said...

Senior in college at UCONN & was the first day I actually slept in, mom was a principal in NJ & college bf's fam were all firemen and cops in NYC (all ok eventually once located). Besides taking in friends that couldn't go to their apartments in NYC or get to family, just remember my mom saying she had to tell teachers to turn off tvs in classrooms since kids didn't know where their parents were or if they'd come home. Dad was also flying home from overseas that day too. Living in Chicago now & had a millennial say today that it didn't really happen. SMH.

Unknown said...

I don't know if we were any nicer back then, but we sure enjoyed more freedom. It's so strange to think that most of us took it all for granted, and now we will never get it back.

Tigerlily said...

I was a field auditor in Canada, up north for work for two weeks. Saw the first plane hit while in my hotel room getting ready then went downstairs for breakfast and saw the second. I was really freaked out as the town I was in was/is 100% oil/gas based and there was one road in and one road out.

Fortunately my husband was also working in same town while I was there & we had dinner together that night and it was kind of surreal. We all felt that an attack on America was an attack on Canada too.

hhstarr said...

I am a teacher. Today, our 5th graders stood outside by our flag and read essays they wrote about 9/11. These kids weren’t born when it happened. They had asked family members about their recollections. They were deeply affected by it. As I stood there, listening, I heard planes descending to Charlotte Douglas airport. My husband was on one of those planes, landing. It all brought me to tears, remembering the feeling of absolute helplessness, fear, and uncertainty of the future. On 9/11, I was with a kindergarten class in northern VA. My husband was to visit the pentagon the next day for a construction project. Other teachers’ husbands were secret service, cia, etc. (that’s very much the norm up there). They couldn’t reach their family members as the Pentagon was struck. We all felt the world we had lived in was changed, never to return. We also, not long after, were dealing with the beltway sniper. It was a crazy time to live near the nations capital. Now, call me crazy, but hearing those kids today gave me hope for the next generation.

Kay said...

I was working in the newsroom of my local paper, right out of college. Interesting place to be on most days. On that day, a whole wall of TVs played all of the coverage while people sat, stunned.

a beautiful virago named hope said...

I was 25, living in Fayetteville,NC (attached to Ft Bragg - biggest base on the east coast). I worked nights in a 911 center, so I was sleeping. My mom called and woke me up. At first I thought she was exaggerating when she said "The United States is under attack." Because she is a drama queen. But then I turned on the TV. I momentarily freaked out, wondering if Bragg would be a target.
I was already sad because one of the police officers U worked with was killed a car accident on the tenth. I remember being upset on his behalf because he didn't get a parade of cars from other agencies. They had to stay on patrol in their own areas.

Mrs. Gotham City said...

Thank you to him and your family for serving the country when we needed him most!

Stupidpervs said...

Work

Morgana said...

I was on vacation in Warsaw, Poland.

Natsu said...

I remember clear as dat. It was 10:45 pm and I had the news on..

Teaching in the trenches said...

Please accept my love & condolences to everyone affected by this horrific event. So many heroes who may not have had anyone acknowledge your bravery, your hardships, heartbreak, your resiliency, etc....I know you are quietly living your life without accolades but with the knowledge you did what had to be done.



Unknown said...

I went to bed the night before concerned about my 8 year old son because the janitor of his small school had hung himself in the lunchroom and I was afraid it would cause him trauma. I woke up that day to my husband saying, "wake up, someone flew planes into the Twin Towers and they fell." I said, "no they didn't!" ( I had responded the same way in 1993 when he told me someone bombed the WTC) I just couldn't believe it. I got up and watched it for myself. My son wanted to stay home but I made him go to school because I knew I was going to be glued to the tv and I didn't want him exposed all day to this gruesome horror. We live on the west coast, so this it all happened very early in the day here. I live near an AFB and it was weird that week, after hearing NO airplanes, when I was watching on tv and hearing it outside when they finally had a plane take off from the AFB. I don't remember why that plane took off or where it was going...but it was the first in many days.

agcblinditems said...

I was home and just turned on the TV. My son had just left NYU and moved to Chicago the month before. I immediately called him and we stayed on the phone for hours watching TV. It was hard for him because one of his classmates had lost her father in the Lockerbie crash. I think he realized that his generation is going to be forever marred by terrorists just as my generation was terrified of nuclear attacks. I can still remember being told to hide under our school desk. I also live on Lake Erie and there was fear that when it was over Ohio it was headed to our nuclear plant Davis Bessie, which could had caused catastrophic and long lasting devastation.

memyselfandi said...

I was 21 and at work. We had a satellite office in the Sears tower and got a call from that employee letting us know his was being evacuated but didn't fully know why. Then got a call from the corporate office telling us to turn the news on.

We all stood in the "lunch room" watching live footage of smoke billowing to the sky from the first tower. Before then, I'd honestly never heard of the Twin Towers. Having lived all my life just north of Detroit, I always dreamed of visiting NYC, but that day changed my entire understanding and love for a place I'd never even been.

As we watched the coverage live, we were trying to understand how a plane could just smashed into the tower like that. Then we watched in horror as the second plane hit the second tower. I could not even believe my own eyes and just started to cry. The rest of the day and weeks later are a blur of news footage, videos, photos, people, falling, first responders, debris, smoke, satellite pictures, other crashes, terrorists, anger, tears, hugs, heartbreak.

Just two months earlier I had celebrated my 21st birthday over 4th of July in Washington D.C. Watched the 4th of July fireworks in our nation's capital by Iwo Jima. Did so many things that you aren't even allowed to do anymore due to safety concerns.

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