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I had just come home from working the graveyard shift and was preparing to go to my classes at college. I turned on MSNBC as I always did. I froze when I saw what was going on. When the second plane it I was moved to tears, and when the plane hit the Pentagon I knew exactly what was happening. I still cry everytime I watch the footage. This will be the first September 11th that my classes have not watched the actual news footage, I have a DVD with all of CBS's coverage on it, and that is because we have the day off from school because of parent teacher conferences.
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Wow, I forgot this date already.
I was at home asleep, actually, and was woken up, being told that "New York was attacked."
I watched the TV live as both towers came down. I was truly rattled. Having suffered and recovering from severe anxiety troubles a few months earlier didn't help much at all.
I remember wanting to know more information but not being told anything, wondering just how secure we are against anyone that really wanted to do something for their own reasons, wondering just how much more would happen (trucks with bombs, market raids...). Thoughts of a crippled government ran through my head, which gave way to wondering what leadership we really depend on.
I was at work when it happened. One of my coworkers brought the TV in and we were all watching the news.
I was at home from college -- within a week I was supposed to go back to the University of Oregon to start classes. I had fallen asleep the night before with the radio on, and was half-awake when the first plane was reported to have hit the WTC. At first, my thoughts were "Oh, great, some idiot in a Cessna decided to be really stupid in Manhattan" -- after all, while rare, there had been incidents where aircraft had accidentally hit skyscrapers -- and went back to bed.
Then, I heard the reports of the second plane. I realized it wasn't just some idiot in a Cessna -- something had just gone horribly wrong. I rushed up to the living room where my mother was watching an old movie on TCM and my bro was playing a computer game, and I fairly screamed at them -- "Turn on the news NOW -- They're attacking the World Trade Center!" Then, the Pentagon was attacked. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day, watching the towers come down in a numb daze, as if maybe by shutting down all my emotions, I'd come to find that it wasn't happening. Then, came the anger at al-Qaeda.
My father has a friend, a college roommate, who was in the Pentagon that day. Fortunately, he was not in his office when the plane hit (he had had to go to another part of the building), or he would have perished.
I was at home, playing Diablo II.
On one forum, some guys started talking about something, planes crashing in towers and all. I was wondering what they were talking about until one of them told me to put on the news.
The strange thing is that morning i was planning to go to the city (i live in Brooklyn) spend the morning in the WTC mall, buy some books at the Barnes & Noble and meet my wife there for lunch.
For some reason when i woke up in the morning i felt too lazy to go.
Weird.
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I was at home, playing Diablo II.
On one forum, some guys started talking about something, planes crashing in towers and all. I was wondering what they were talking about until one of them told me to put on the news.
Weird thing is that morning i was planning to go to the city (i live in Brooklyn) spend the morning in the WTC mall, buy some books at the Barnes & Noble and meet my wife there for lunch.
For some reason i woke up and felt too lazy to go.
Weird.
Real weird, but I have heard a lot of stories like that.
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I was at work, in a business meeting. Someone came in and told us a plane hit the World Trade Center. When they said plane, I thought it was a Cessna, and that some idiot sight-see-er tried to fly between the buildings.
A few minutes later, someone came in and said a second plane hit the building. We adjourned the meeting and went to the cafeteria, everyone was huddled around the TV. I remember seeing people in the windows, and at least one person fall or jump.
We closed the office and sent everyone home. When I got home, my wife was sitting in front of the TV, holding our (then) 3-month old son and crying. It was a HARD DAY.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I just got in the car to go to work on the West Coast, so it was after the second tower collapsed. I turned on NPR and they were talking about all this dust in the NY area. I almost changed the station because it sounded like a boring environmental story and about New York at that (which is a city I generally don't care about) and then other details started coming out and I realized it was much worse. I got most of my news (and quite a few false rumors) that day from ENWorld since the real news sites were all down due to the volume of traffic.
Other countries: Standing astonished watching live TV....
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I was working on a destroyer in Norfolk with two co-workers. We heard the sailors talking about it, and went up to the mess hall to watch the news for a bit. We went back to work for a few hours, then broke for lunch. Afterwards, they had the base locked down, so we went back to our hotel. On Wednesday, since we couldn't get on the base, we drove back to Philly.
I was at work. It was the first day of our annual user's group conference and we were right in the middle of the big dog and pony show that kicks the whole thing off. We were big enough to hold it at the main theater of our local civic center (which has since been replaced by a bigger venue) and the big integrated demo was underway.
Suddenly, the lights came up and one of our company vice presidents came out and explained what was going on. They put ABC News (I thought Peter Jennings's coverage was excellent) up on the huge jumbo-tron type video screen and gave all of our customers a chance to see what was up and call whomever they needed to call (we didn't have many customers in NY yet, but we had some and even more in New England).
We must have watched for about an hour before we wrapped up the main general session. Ultimately we soldiered on for the rest of the user's group meeting with monitors all over the place tuned to the news. We had to do a bit of scrambling to find ways for people to get home at the end of the conference since flights were grounded.
I listened to NPR on the way home to find my daughter (who was all of 3 at the time) all freaked out.
The only time I think I've been nearly as shocked was the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. In fact, save for the scale, I still find that incident more shocking since it was home-grown terrorism.
I was living with a friend near Scotland and had been up all night after a get together with some mates, I think I was a bit drunk.
Everyone left and I had gotten past my tiredness and entered that surreal 'lack of sleep' zombie-like-state so I decided to go on my friends computer, go online, check emails and play some old rpg (Ultima/Everquest or something).
The TV was on in the background behind me but the sound was on mute.
Suddenly the Internet came alive with 'WTF!' and 'OMG!' and talk of a plane hitting one of the towers. A friend in NY messaged me and asked me what was going on as she was not near a TV, I think she was at work.
I turned around and it was all over the BBC and live footage of the towers was being played from some rooftop. Then as we were talking the second plane hit and I relayed the info back to her -we were just stunned. It wasn't an accident -someone was doing this on purpose!
Was this the start of a war or something?
How could someone do this?
I'd seen NY get destroyed a million times in comic books/movies over the years and now it was happening for real.
Watched the TV all day while people phoned/text/messaged each other and nobody really knew what was going on. Could hardly believe it was real.
Unbelievable.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I was asleep in my dorm at ASU when my roommate came in and turned the TV on. When I woke up, the first thing I heard was someone on CNN talking about it and I looked up to see the first tower collapse only a minute later. My roommate then told me that classes had been cancelled for the day. I immediately called my best friend Steve.
"Dude, have you seen the news?"
"Yeah, that's crazy."
"They cancelled class because of it!"
*pause*
"Wanna game?"
"Sure!"
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Ft. Knox, KY. I was waiting outside one of the issue facility buildings to get my dress jacket fitted. One of the drill sergeants came up and told us quietly and then brought a truck over to let us hear the radio. They had the news playing in the day room of the barracks that night, and some of us even got pulled for patrol in a Humvee as well.
7 years and 3 deployments later. Time does move on.
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I was five blocks from Ground Zero, give or take.
I went to college at NYU, and lived in a dorm on Water St., not far from the WTC. My roommate's mother called and woke me up just after the second plane hit. We weren't allowed to leave the building right away since no one knew what was going on, so we went to the second floor watched news coverage on television (I lived on the 42nd floor, but was not about to go back up there). We could feel the buildings coming down, and a few seconds later the dust cloud from the collapse covered our building. My most vivid memory from that day is looking out a few minutes after that, seeing the street covered with dust, with this abandoned pair of shoes sitting in the middle of the street. It was a really terrible sight.
Shortly after that they let us out, so we ran uptown to the NYU gym and stayed the night with friends in the Village. Since then, I avoid watching the news footage or other reminders of the day as much as possible.
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I was sleeping off a hangover (when I used to drink) when a buddy of mine called and told me to put on the tv. I saw the 2nd plane hit the towers and woke everyone else up in the house. We sat up and watched it all unfold. I remember one of the girls we had staying with us made some comment along the lines of "We deserved it.". We kicked her out of the house with nothing but her bra and panties on.
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I was in high school, grade 10 (took a moment to remember that), going from first period (english) to second period world history. we got ot class and the teacher had a tv in there and was showing it as it happened. we spent the entire class watching. it was one of the few times that class was actually silent and paying attention the entire hour and a half. right before the bell rang, the teacher got up, pointed to the TV and said "this is history happening.". I think he even had a tear in his eye, which was disconcerting since he's one fo the teachers known for not having emotions. it was possibly the saddest class i had my entire 5 years at high school. (not counting the english ones where we study the holocaust, but those are supposed to be sad. history is usually supposed to be boring.)
I don't know how this is going to sound but i feel like i need to say it...
I am french.
On september 11th 2001 i was living in US (New York City) for only one year.
At that time i was not fitting in, more or less trying to, but with no real conviction.
Well, when these events happened on 9/11, i was shocked.
Not only from the dramatic blow to the city, but also from my reaction. I felt concerned. I felt as an american, not as a "legal alien".
I honestly admire the way the new yorkers reacted, the way they stood together.
I wish my own people, back in France, would be able to react the same way in a similar situation. Unfortunately i doubt they would.
To be honest, some of them gave some stupid comments about this day.
We all know about the ridiculous opposition between french and americans, joking about each other, sometimes with no real humor but actual despise. That time it was definitely out of place and a shame.
I still remember some of these comments and cannot really forgive them.
/Respect to New Yorkers.
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I was sleeping off a hangover (when I used to drink) when a buddy of mine called and told me to put on the tv. I saw the 2nd plane hit the towers and woke everyone else up in the house. We sat up and watched it all unfold. I remember one of the girls we had staying with us made some comment along the lines of "We deserved it.". We kicked her out of the house with nothing but her bra and panties on.
Mine was similar to yours. I remember not wanting to do anyting but watch the news.
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I was sleeping off a hangover (when I used to drink) when a buddy of mine called and told me to put on the tv. I saw the 2nd plane hit the towers and woke everyone else up in the house. We sat up and watched it all unfold. I remember one of the girls we had staying with us made some comment along the lines of "We deserved it.". We kicked her out of the house with nothing but her bra and panties on.
I canceled my subscription to GQ after they ran an article which said that the worst tragedy of 9/11 was that no one could eat at Windows of the World anymore.
Hmm, I was at my university chatting with people and one guy came to say that a plane had hit WTC. Like some others I figured it was some Cessna which had a random accident...went to a computer class and logged in into a net RPG...where I, or anyone else, didn't do much gaming as everyone was talking on channels, and now a plane hit another tower and Pentagon and it was obvious it wasn't an accident anymore.
After that I kept on being online, and as there were couple of hunder people online who kept on searching news sites and watching various channels on the world, I could read what was happening as soon as it was published somewhere (wonders of Internet).
Now, six years ago today I pointed out in similar discussion that it was also 29 years from death of Salvador Allende. And I can do it now too (it's 35 years from death of Salvador Allende).
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Like magdalena, I was at University starting my second year, chatting with some fellow musicians in the lobby. I kept overhearing something about planes crashing, and since my Dad is a pilot I went back to my apartment and watched CNN as the pentagon was hit. Since nobody knew where the planes were from, I was pretty worried.
Sadly, I was in New York not 3 months before the attack, eating in the concourse under the Trade Center, and taking pictures of the Towers from the Ferry.
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Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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I was at work, teaching a class to some newly hired employees. I sent them on break, and my buddy sent me an email saying the WTC had been hit by a plane. I assumed it was a joke and responded as such. A few minutes later, I got confirmation.
When break was over, I explained the situation to everyone in class, then sent them home. I got home myself and watched video of the plane hitting the building, and I've got to tell you, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen. The image of that second plane swooping in and hitting the building is burned into my brain.
Now I hear all of these yahoos on the internet and on the radio saying that it never happened, or it was orchestrated for the cameras, (heck, there's even one group who claims the WTC is actually still standing) and I want to punch someone.
I was about 40 miles west of Minneapolis, and drove home from school because I forgot my Spanish II textbook for first period. I heard Tom Barnard from the KQRS morning show that a WTC tower was on fire due to a plane collision. WHen I got to school, I told my class about it, and then we heard the announcement over the intercom to stop everything and watch the news. We witnessed the carnage, and I hated the idea that I was here, unable to do anything for those poor people. At that moment, I decided that I wanted to be an infantry Marine. Here I am now, seven years later and an honorable discharge wiser.
I was working KP at Bob Evans. My coworker was on break (it was a slow day) and came out of the break room to tell me what was on TV. I came in and saw the footage of the planes crashing into the buildings. It was a slow day after that.
On the way home a local news station stopped me as I was crossing the parking lot to the grocery store to ask my opinion on what happened. Never saw if it was aired, I just remember that I was upset and irritable about the entire affair by that point (that it had happened, not annoyed at being stopped). So much for my 5 seconds of fame.
Wow, that was a lifetime ago . . . .
*Lights a candle for the fallen*
I was at work when it happaned. It was a pizza place with a sports room with a projection tv. The whole day we watched everyone moved and confused and almost like zombies. on brakes I would site in my car and listen to it on the radio. Some days in your life you can recall every detail this is one of them for me.
In NYC getting ready for work. Worst day I can remember. And that includes the accident that ended up in me now having a metal forearm.
I remember this too, a few days later.
Oh my god. That's still a powerful gesture, even now. British citizens crying and waving American flags... to think how the world lined up behind us. Seeing it, though, instantly makes me wonder if that sort of visceral support would happen today, after everything that's come to pass. Does tragedy still unite, or are we hardened now?
And less comfortably, I have to wonder if Americans would have that same sort of reaction. If several thousand people died violently somewhere across an ocean (and I realize that "if" is a pretty silly word, given the atrocities taking place daily all over the world), would we Americans just keep flipping past it to the sports page?
I was just on my way back from a meeting with a house owner, when the news came in the car radio, and dismissed it as a stupid jerk with a Cessna or something at first. (IIRC something like this with a Cessna had happened not too long before that in Italy somewhere.)
It was afternoon over here, and when I was home that evening and put on the news, I was in a state of shock, being able to do nothing but watching the pictures of this attack. I was stupefied the whole week long, trying to come to terms with this horror. The picture of persons jumping out of the tower into their deaths are burned into my mind.
My sympathies to the relatives and friends of the victims, and my highest regard to those who braved the danger to try and save their fellow humans (and risking and loosing their life all too often for it).
Stefan
I didn't have work that day and didn't get up until after 9 o'clock. I logged onto the Internet, went to one of my usual message board hangouts and immediately saw the posts there. I turned on the TV after the second plane had hit.
I remember watching a reporter interviewing a woman in the street and watching the first tower collapse in the background as they spoke... the woman suddenly becoming hysterical and the reporter whirling around to see what was happening...
At that point, a feeling of numbness set in.
I'm planning on watching this program tonight on the History Channel:
"THE MAN WHO PREDICTED 9/11. In 2001, Rick Rescorla was the 62-year-old head of security at the Morgan Stanley Bank situated high up in the South Tower at the World Trade Center. Rescorla was convinced that Osama Bin Laden would use jet planes to try and destroy the World Trade Center. Long before September 11th, he developed an evacuation plan for the bank, hugely unpopular amongst the city whiz kids who worked there who thought he was mad. His evacuation plan however ultimately saved 3,000 of their lives. Rescorla's plan was put into effect after the first jet hit the North Tower--even though WTC managers were instructing everyone to stay in the buildings. When the second jet hit the South Tower, he averted panic and organized a rapid evacuation. Rescorla went back inside to help those injured and trapped get out. He was still inside when the building collapsed. His body was never found."
I was at home sleeping late, as I was in college at that point and school hadn't started for the year yet. I remember being extremely confused as my dad slammed on my door, and answered my mumbled "...whaz't?" with "New York's been attacked, we're going to war." (I don't think the second plane had even hit at that point... strange to think how accurate that comment has become.) Needless to say, I woke up quick. We both watched the TV for a long time, then he went off to work and I gathered up some friends and acquaintances and drove around trying to find someplace we could donate blood (turns out everybody else had the same idea, and it took a week or two to actually find a place that could fit us in).
One thing that strikes me clearly even now was how it both united and divided us, as a bunch of 18-year-olds completely out of our element. On the one hand, barriers were broken down - some of the people I grabbed for the blood run were folks I never would have let in my car voluntarily (and for good reason). I was a little blue-haired punk kid, but I still went out and put an American flag sticker on my car... not as a political statement, nor a signal of faith in the government to speak of, simply as an acknowledgment of the wider American community (something I struggle more with as an adult).
At the same time, though, it also brought out parts of people I'd never seen before. One of my most vibrant memories from that day is of one of the kids who immediately hopped in the car to go volunteer talking about how "we need to go kill those ragheads and sand-n!$@&*s." It was the first time I had ever heard somebody say "n$#%*!" in real life, and it was mind-blowing - for him, there was absolutely no separation between the terrorists and any person living in the middle east (nor consideration for the fact that "sand-n$$@@@" was also hateful toward an entirely unrelated ethnic group). At that moment, part of my feeling of solidarity gave way to intense fear - fear of what the backlash would be, and whether people blinded by rage and pain would go too far and cast the net too wide in the quest for justice and revenge.
It's not my place to say more on that issue, but that's what I remember first and foremost about September 11th. Unity, yes, both with my countrymen and with all the other nations of the world who tried to support us. But also fear - and not just of terrorism.
Then as now, my sympathies are with everyone affected, and I'm incredibly proud and thankful for everyone who banded together, rose to the occasion, and showed that tragedy can, indeed, bring out our best natures.
I was in the middle of a job search and had slept late. My mom (who was also out of work at the time) called me when the first plane hit.
I spent the next two weeks watching the news, very nearly 24 hours a day, trying to figure out how things could have gone so terribly wrong.
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I was in 9th grade, at school.
I remember that all the teachers had the TVs on, but if we looked up to watch, they would all yell at us to "DO YOUR WORK!" So we had to sit there, doing math problems or whatever, listening to the news and not knowing what was happening. I was pretty shell-shocked, not because the nation was being attacked, but because everyone around me was really uptight and scared. There really wasn't any sadness- just fear, that really thick kind that seems to hang in the air.
It was prbably the most surreal day of my life. The magnitude of what had just happened didn't sink in for a few weeks- I remember talking with one of my friends on the school bus about which cities they'd hit next.
I had just awakened and was getting ready for work when my wife (then, girlfriend) called and told me to turn on the TV. I turned it on just as the second tower was hit. It was all hard to believe.
I went in to work, but everyone was glued to the boss's TV or their radios and no real work got done that entire day.
One of the things I clearly remember about that day was the Enya song Only Time which kept playing on the radio. I teared up a few times because of its haunting melody. I also clearly remember later that day, as news came in about the firefighters, etc. that went into the buildings to rescue people, and the plane that crashed short of the White House because the passengers attacked the terrorists, I wondered how I would react if faced with the same situation.
I kept the NYT for that day - the image of the aftermath still makes an impact on me. Thank you to all the people in the armed forces, both then and now, for making that choice to defend our country, from threats both foreign and domestic. :)
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I was in my Grade 11 Accounting class at the time. This was about 3 hours after the first plane hit. The school was trying to keep it quiet as long as possible. It seemed odd at the time, but I found out a few years later that one teacher on the staff had a relative working at the WTC so everyone was avoiding the subject for him. After lunch, everyone knew, and rumours and exaggeration became widespread. That was the first day I'd ever watched the news with anything more than a cursory interest. Thankfully, the teacher's relative was one of the lucky ones.
It really shattered a lot of the faith I'd had in people. I was a kid at the time, I still had all these idealistic views. I couldn't believe that this kind of attack could happen. And to top it off, on the bus to school the next day, I heard a comment that shook me even more for some reason. The two people sitting behind me on the bus were actually complaining about the fact that they didn't get to watch their favourite shows the previous night because the news was playing on every channel.
Thankfully, the way Americans and the World banded together during was heartening for those of us who were observers too. Even though there are some horrible things that can happen in the world, there will always be those who want to help and heal.
Interestingly enough, today one of my professors in the Teacher Education program I'm in told us about his first day teaching. It was seven years ago today, and he was teaching a World Religions class. He told us that was the most intense day of teaching he's ever had.
I slept through all of the initial events, and the phone calls that were ringing my phone of the hook, until one of my friends and said something to the effect of: "Hey, Dave, thought you might want to know that the world trade center was attacked by terrorists. Also, the pentagon is on fire. Later."
That got me out of bed.
Later I picked up a friend from school who was afraid that planes would start dropping out of the sky to destroy every large building in the U.S. Then, in the evening, I decided to cancel rehearsal for the show I was directing and ended up talking with some of my friends at a bar about how much this event was going to change/screw up our country, and the discussion (understandably) got rather heated.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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At the time, I was living in the Philadelphia area. We were doing some rather intensive stream surveys in the field, so our crew was traveling out to a stream site that morning. We worked pretty much the entire day out in the middle of nowhere, even out of cell phone coverage.
When we were finished for the day, we stopped, and a couple of the women stepped into a quickie mart for the bathroom. They came out and said, "Some plane crash seems to have happened in New York. Something really big." We turned on NPR, and started listening, and couldn't get much info, other than bits and pieces in an on-going discussion and analysis of SOMETHING about two planes hitting the WTC towers and terrorists. We were all pretty confused about what had just happened....
but it all became too real when we hit the city. Philly's traffic is HORRID. The Schuykill "Parking Lot", I-76, is always a mess. That afternoon, it was empty. The City of Philadelphia was a ghost town. I have never seen anything like it. My train home was practically empty.
And then when I got home, I sat down and watched the TV. And was horrified watching those planes hit. And I cried when I saw the images of people jumping to their deaths to escape the flames.
That was just before the weekend that we were going to go to NYC for my birthday, and to the NJ Science Center across the way. We didn't go, of course....and I never did make it to see NYC.
Director of Brand Strategy
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Without going into detail, because the story is too long, and I've finally gotten used to not having to recount it every year on this day, I was in New York, in lower Manhattan.
I was walking to class through Washington Square Park from my dorm in the West Village and I heard a very loud noise overhead that drowned out the music on my iPod. (I hate to admit it, but I still remember vividly that it was Britney Spears at that particular moment). I looked up to see what was I thought was a small corporate jet or other small aircraft flying very low directly over me. I remember thinking to myself that at least it was flying downtown, since there were fewer really tall buildings there than midtown. Then I watched it fly directly into Tower 1. I called my mom back in Kansas City to let her know what had just happened and that I was ok, because I knew she'd worry once she heard it on the news. I went on to class then, not really knowing what to do, and as it was a special session in a different building, I ended up in the wrong classroom for about 15 minutes.
When I realized my error and was walking to the correct classroom, I heard a very familiar sound, and turned to someone else who had made the same mistake and said, "Another plane just hit the World Trade Center." We couldn't see the towers from where we were and she just said that it was a truck hitting a pothole, but I knew. Seeing the second tower in flames when we got to a cross-street was horrifying, but on some level eerily satisfying, as I knew what I had heard. We again proceeded on to class for our special training session, and had no further knowledge of events other than the teacher notifying us as a class that the World Trade Center had been "bombed." We were released about half an hour later, when the school shut down and were told to go back to our dorms.
As I left the building, I came to a cross street where I could see the flaming towers and I just stood and stared in disbelief. There was a lot more smoke and I had seen before, but then, I figured, the fires had been burning for some time. Then I saw a tower come down in an almost beautiful (were it not so horrible) cascade, straight down. I reeled and almost fell over, stabilizing myself on a fire hydrant. I couldn't believe it. I asked a passing woman in tears if that meant there was just one tower left. She stared at me a moment, and then told me that the first had already fallen. That, I then realized, was what it took for NYU to stop classes and why we were released from class when we were. In a daze, I walked the fifteen minutes back to my dorm, though it felt like it took me much longer.
I spent the rest of the day, and much of the next few, glued to the television. I took in a few of my friends whose dorm buildings were only a few blocks from the site, and wandered the ghostland of the city streets. I saw a few movies for free the next day, as the theater was not charging to help people escape and cope, even for a few hours. I went to the various memorials. I guess the details of the days following aren't really on topic, so I won't go into more detail on that, but that's where I was.
I know I had said I wasn't going to make this post too long, but it's one of those tales that can't really be recounted any other way. To say less seems dishonest.
All that said, I wish they'd stop making such a big deal of it seven years later and allow people to move on. The attacks of 9/11/01 have been used by so many people, with so many motivations, to cause more pain and suffering on others the world over and I strongly feel that continuing to relive that day and the state of fear which followed does nothing to stop this awful trend. Having been closer than most and having experienced the terror so much more intensely than people in other parts of the world or nation, or even further parts of Manhattan itself, I don't wish that sort of fear and harrowing loss on anyone. Not even my "enemies."
In the end, I can't deny that it was one of the most horrible days of my life, and that I wish it had never happened, but since it did and there's nothing that I or anyone else can do about it now, part of me is glad that I was here for it. That I was able to experience it so much more viscerally than anyone else I knew. My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked, on one of the few ships that weren't sunk, and I equate that day, as many do to December 7. I am ironically glad that I will have such a vivid story to tell my grandchildren about the day that has already so markedly changed our world.
At the time, I was teaching in New Jersey. I was in front of my fourth grade reading class, when the other fourth grade teacher came back from the lounge with a strange look on her face. She came up and whispered to me that a plane had just crashed into one of the WTC towers. I kept teaching. After I finished my class, I went to the lounge and a TV was hooked up, where I saw that a second plane had struck etc. The next thing I know, I am rounded up by the principal as a group of faculty that has some kind of counseling experience, and we are going form classroom-to-classroom. It was a long day, but amazingly, every parent from our school came home that day or the next--many stories of people who had changes to their schedule that particular morning that likely saved their lives.
For the fallen: +Let light perpetual shine upon them.
PS I kind of think 4th grade was reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but memory is a little fuzzy on that.
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I was walking the collage campus listening to people in awe and disbelief looking at TVs when I walked by those at counter windows and such though otherwise found the place strangely and unusually quiet and empty (University of Tennessee). Didn't know what had happened but caught a few brief glimpses of some towers all smoked up and what not.
Not knowing it was a big deal, I headed down to my guidance counselor kinda thing when someone got with me in the elevator going up. She looked at me and asked if I knew what had happened.
I said no.
She explained it all.
I guess this was the day I first felt inhuman or whatever because the doors opened to the elevator after she finished talking and I just shrugged at the whole thing and told her s&*# happens.
I never watched TV or any news anyway so I just skipped over the whole thing, knowing what was going on but just not caring.
I'm not saying it wasn't a big disaster and a horrible thing, because it was, but I just. Maybe it shallow or callous or ignorant or whatever, but I saw it as a murder, albeit a mass one. Happens all the time. This one was just more big then most.
"But this time it was against terrorists attacking US"
Yea, but I guess I consider any criminal that preys on other people like stealing, murdering, etc etc to be terrorists too. They use terror and alter the lives of those they touch. And with as much screwed up stuff going on in the world, I guess I just filed this away into another piece of "suck".
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At home. I had been up late the night before editing some game stuff for the RPGA. I woke up, had an idea for some other material, and started working on it. When I was about 80% through the draft, the computer froze up. After restarting it and starting to try and redo everything I had just done I turned on the TV, which is set to CNN, to try and distract myself from being frustrated over a computer failure.
The towers were burning.
I kept working, hoping that it would somehow make what was on the TV into a stupid movie, or at least distract me from dealing with it.
After a few phone calls came in from friends checking up on me, that was not enough.
I went online, sent out messages to confirm I was OK and check on some others, and started preparing myself for whatever came next.