9-11

[teigyr]

Seems like a long time ago.

That morning I was at home and my mother called. I was half asleep and let it go to the answering machine. She said "call before you go to work, there was a crash and all the airports are closed". I thought "huh?" I turned on the news.

I worked at LAX at the time. The next day (I believe) we had a potluck for the United and American ground people. There were National Guard people we had to go through to get to work (lots of BIG guns). A lot of our planes were grounded for a bit. We had heard LAX was to be a target and I lived right near a fairly big refinery near the airport. Us non-uniform type people started wearing our uniforms (I'm not in uniform but have uniforms from when I wore them) to respect the other airlines and to be able to go through security more easily.

I know there are so many stories out there. A co-workers mother was supposed to be on one of the flights but she missed it.

If any good has come of it all, it has made us more aware of what's going on around us. As an airline person, we look around when we travel on vacation and I know the other passengers do too. It's not good to be paranoid but it is good to work together. The US has been buffered for a long time and this is, unfortunately, an introduction to a lot of peoples reality.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

All morning I have been thinking about this, not really wanting to post.
I grew up in Manhattan. My mother was watching it from her apt window a just few dozen blocks away as the towers fell. I was living here 2 hours north of the city. We were on the phone in a state of shock when she told me one tower was just "gone".
I didn't have a tv (haven't watched tv in 10 years now). Listening to the reports on the radio describing what was going on was not enough. It was the only time in the past 10 years that I felt compelled to see tv news. I went to a friends' house who was out of town, and I watched those news images for hours the next day, alone and in tears.
New York City changed forever that day, you can still feel it. Now, people look at each other more, there is a bond, a strength, a human connection that was not as palpable before.
This morning i have shed tears off and on, remembering that day. There are no words really.

[Aggie_Ama]

I had a News Writing class at 8:00 that morning, we were busy listening to a lecture from the professor (a woman I can see her face but don't remember her name) when it happened and the class was in the basement of an old building, very isolated. I respected the teachers in college so much I would not even leave my cell phone on vibrate, I didn't know about the phone calls from my mom and then fiance. Texting was very uncommon in 2001, not even sure my phone could do it!

I went upstairs to my next class, Women in Media, this building was a very small one for the A&M Campus and often there wouldn't be a lot of people in the halls. We sat down and our teacher turned on CNN, that is how I learned what had happened. We spent the next 1.5 hours discussing the news coverage and alternately just soaking in the enormity of it all. I remember a vry numb feeling and not even realizing class was supposed to end, I was late to the next class. Parts of our campus went on high security alert because of research they do (nuclear, biohazard type stuff)

I had to work that evening at Lowe's, I remember no one was shopping and the few that were just had this look of "what next?" I also remember lines at the gas station that night.

[andtckrtoo]

We had just moved into our current house and had not had cable run yet, so we had no tv (there was no cable from the street so we had to have it dug in). I was on the internet before work - it was 6AM. I remember reading about the first airplane crash and thought, "Wow! How tragic!" Then the second one hit. Oh my. The moment of truth was shocking. I ran upstairs to my still sleeping DH and woke him up. We immediately turned on the radio. A few minutes later DH's brother called. He lives in Washington, DC and works for the government. He was in a state of panic. DH managed to calm him down, but he was very shakey himself.

I worked for an internet company and we had offices in NY right in downtown Manhattan. They had a view of the WT Towers from their lobby window. They sent photos, and for some reason that made it more real. When the towers collapsed, we all sat in stunned silence.

9/11 made me go into search and rescue as I wanted so badly to help in some way.

On September 23rd, 2001, DH and I climbed Mt. Whitney. At the top was a plaque commemorating the victims of 9/11 that someone had carried up the mountain. There was also a flag that was held down by rocks. It was breath taking experience in many ways. Here's a photo of DH at the top of Whitney with the flag and plaque (unfortunately exposures at 14, 500 feet leave a bit to be desired):

[sundial]

Christine, I got goosebumps just reading your post.

I remember that day well. I was doing a load of laundry and cleaning the house when my husband called from work. "You better turn on the t.v.--there's some strange stuff happening!" It was so unusual for him to tell me that because he neverlistens to the news. I promptly turned on CNN and watched as the second plane flew into the tower. As the news anchors sat stunned, I tried to grasp what had just happened. I called my dad. We were glued to the t.v. for the rest of the morning. I went out and bought a flag and mounted it on the front porch. I tried to find the largest flag. We were at war.

[milkbone]

9/11 is a day that will always be remembered and close to my heart.

I was a Marine stationed on Camp Lejeune at the time, was out in our maintenance bay working on a Howitzer at the time, another Marine came out and told me I needed to come into the shop, that a plane had hit the WTC...I got upset at him for wasting my time when I had this gun to fix(I thought he was playing a joke), he insisted I come back to the shop...I did, I walked in saw my whole platoon in groups around several different radios in the shop, all on the same station.

At that time was when the Pentagon got hit, and we were all jaw dropped, angry, sad, and just in a state of shock. We were all held at work until about 9 or 10 that night, I didn't see anything on tv until I made it home, then the next morning we came in with all of our gear, being told be ready to go...

I have since served as a firefighter and now am a paramedic...I feel a close bond with all those who serve the public and remember the 343 daily.

Hopefully we will never have to suffer such a tragedy as a nation again.

[Tuckervill]

I remember it was a beautiful day at my house, too, 1500 miles away. I had extra kids at my house for a couple of days. They and my son were all still asleep. I grabbed a basket of clothes out of the bathroom and walked through my bedroom, where the TV was on. I glanced at it and saw "breaking news" on the screen and then saw the second plane hit. I stopped dead in my tracks. I picked up the remote and checked the other channels--certain it was a movie or something. I don't remember what I did with the laundry basket. I remember Peter Jennings crying.

After I watched a while, and the Pentagon was hit and the other plane went down, I called my husband and asked him to come home from work. He said he wouldn't. I was very mad about that.

The extra kids' parents called and were trying to decide whether to come home, but they ultimately decided to stay where they were. I spent the rest of the day online with others similarly situated, having moved a TV into my office so I could keep up with what was going on. I was so thankful for those extra kids, because I was able to keep them all busy doing stuff and entertaining MY kid while I kept one eye on the TV, and tried to understand. I remember feeling very lonely.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I held my breath all day and the next, waiting for something else to happen.

I happen to be traveling right now, and taking that son to NYC on Saturday to watch the Yankees play in Yankee Stadium before they tear it down. I asked him months ago what one thing he wanted to see in the city if he only had a few hours in the morning. He said he would see Ground Zero. So I guess we're going to Ground Zero on Saturday morning, despite me telling him about dozens of other things there are to see in NYC.

This morning, when we decided to leave a campground and get a hotel, he was glad that he would probably get to see the documentary on the History channel that uses the recollections of people who took videos and photographs that day. That's what was on when I first saw this thread.

He was almost 7, on this day, 7 years ago.

Karen

[maillotpois]

We went for a bike ride. We're in the flight path for planes to SFO (they are still pretty high overhead by the time they cross over us, but there's regular traffic.) There were no planes in the sky that day. It was eerie.

[divingbiker]

I was at a meeting on the top floor of the National Press Club, a block from the White House. Someone came in and closed the blinds, and it wasn't long before the meeting ended and we all stood around wondering what to do.

Finally, I told two other women at the meeting that we were going to walk to my house, 7 miles away. After walking about 3/4 mile, we caught a cab. One of the women (who works for the National Security Agency and really wanted to get to work) lived north of me, so we took her home. The other was in town from Houston, so she stayed with me for four days until she could get a flight home.

About 7pm on September 11, we drove to her hotel south of National Airport to get her belongings and check her out of the hotel. We went right by the Pentagon, and the smoke and smell of burning flesh was something I'll never forget.

Several Cantor Fitzgerald employees that my branch worked with died that day. We think about them often.

One of the reasons I ride my bike to work now is so I have a quick way out of town if something like this, heaven forbid, ever happens again.

[Running Mommy]

I happen to be traveling right now, and taking that son to NYC on Saturday to watch the Yankees play in Yankee Stadium before they tear it down. I asked him months ago what one thing he wanted to see in the city if he only had a few hours in the morning. He said he would see Ground Zero. So I guess we're going to Ground Zero on Saturday morning, despite me telling him about dozens of other things there are to see in NYC.

This morning, when we decided to leave a campground and get a hotel, he was glad that he would probably get to see the documentary on the History channel that uses the recollections of people who took videos and photographs that day. That's what was on when I first saw this thread.

He was almost 7, on this day, 7 years ago.

Karen

If you get this in time, please go by the tribute center and take a tour. The tours are led by volunteers, and they are all people who had some personal connection to 9/11. I take the tour every time I'm there and I always come away with a different perspective, depending on who leads the tour. It's a very moving thing, and IMO very important piece of history being preserved by volunteers telling their story.
The tribute center is very moving as well. I can't walk out without shedding more than a few tears.
Oh- and please don't give the huckster street vendors a dime! Trying to make a living off of a tragedy. Go to the church and the tribute center. Those places are where you will really feel what happened.

Also when there take time to look around at all the buildings in the immediate area. Many of them have visible blemishes where chunks were taken out of their facades in the collapse. Century 21 had big chunks taken out of it.
Also remember that the burger king on the corner served as a morgue. I remember going there in 02 and "Morgue" was still spray painted on the window. Eerie that it's open again. ugh.

[bmccasland]

I was on the left coast (NoCal) working in a fish pathology lab. Heard the news when I was heading in to work - and thought it was "just" a small plane that hit the towers, not a jet. Like everyone, we were numb. Still had to do the work in the wet-lab. For some reason we were having electrical problems, so we had the van down there to provide the electricty to run the centrifuge. We'd get bits of news while we were spinning down fish blood.

Meanwhile at my house I had a contractor coming to cut a hole in my livingroom wall to install a new window.

Boss let us go home after the experiment was run, and I found my contractor at work. He'd started the hole when he got the news, so he was doing what he had to do to install the window so I'd be safe, then he'd come back in a day or do to the finish work.

Later I found out I knew one of the guys on Flight 93. He was the refuge manager at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (and was one of the law enforcement types on the plane).

I lived in the flight path for our local small airport, and the lack of air traffic for several days was eery.