How do you remember September 11th?

[Hottub]

First. A few notes.
I put this thread in the "That's Life" forum for a reason. OK? I also want to apologize to Liddy for not being topical in his thread.

Second. I called the thread September 11th. Not 9-11, which the media jammed down our throats, and frankly, sickens me.

I know some of us lost people that day. Some of us survived that day. And some of us helped others survive that day. It was extremely painful for anybody who had to live through it.

It was a gorgeous morning. Warm, with a nice breeze. Cloudless. And the sky was the most amazing shade of blue. I remember sitting in "Stugot's Studio" with my coffee and almost speaking out loud what a beautiful day it was.

I showered, shaved, got dressed, and whistled a happy tune on my way to the car. 7:20 A.M.

The mood at the office was light and friendly. I had an early meeting with a client/friend. The beauty of the day seemed to have everyone in good spirits. Another customer came in. "Tub. You got a radio? Something is going on in the city!"





As I have done for the last 5 years, I just lit my candle. I will spend tomorrow not doing much work. Mostly thinking about the innocent people we all lost, and, of course, their families.

[Kris10]

Is it bad to treat it like any other day? :down: Don't get me wrong, it was a horrific day & I am saddened by what happened but its always in my thoughts and I think its a shame to just think about it on the anniversary.

[IamPixie]

September 11th I was a senior in high school sitting in my 3rd period spanish class. My teacher was giving her lesson and another teacher walked in the class and whispered something in her ear. She pretty much breaks out in tears and tells us what happened. How a plane flew into the first tower. I remember sitting there thinking to myself "Oh shit, my dad works in the world trade center" but I didn't know which one. So I go up and I tell her this and she excuses me from class. Then a period or two later I learned that the other building was attack as well. No one in my family had heard from my dad all day. We had no idea if he was dead or alive or what because he hated his cell phone and never brought it anywhere with him back then. Long story short we didn't hear from until 5 o clock that night. He worked in the second tower and he had momentarily went outside to smoke a cigarette. That cigarette pretty much saved his life. That was the second attack on the world trade center he survived. So yea...very scary day for me.

[PapaBear]

As Tub said, the weather was absolutely amazing. I was running late for work at Wal Mart. I was listening to Elliot in the Morning on DC 101. He had Ben Folds in studio, as he was going to do a show that night in DC. They announced a plane had hit the WTC. At that point, they thought it was a small plane and didn't feel like it was anything at all like it ended up being.

Folds played an acoustic song. When it was over (and I was just pulling into the Wal Mart parking lot), they had the news on in the studio. They were discussing it, when all the sudden they all started yelling. The second plane had just hit as they watched.

I went into work and started telling management what was going on. At first they didn't quite get what I was saying. For the first time ever, all the TV's went to news instead of regular WM promos. After a few hours of continuing developments (Pentagon and Pennsylvania) and all the rumors that were going around (car bombs going off everywhere... even a report of one about 30 miles away) WM management told all non essential associates to go home to their families.

[Hottub]

Is it bad to treat it like any other day? :down: Don't get me wrong, it was a horrific day & I am saddened by what happened but its always in my thoughts and I think its a shame to just think about it on the anniversary.

For some, it is an anniversary of a tragic attack on our country. For others, it is an anniversary of the day we lost a family member, or a friend. And if you happened to have lost somebody, they are always in your thoughts. But this day in particular can be painful.

[mikeyboy]

I arriver later than usual for work -- 9:30ish rather than 9:00, and later than I had planned. I had been on DC's metro system for the previous 40 minutes, so I was oblivious as to what was going on. I was expecting a call, so I was more pre-occupied with getting to my office to check my voicemail than noticing the people around me. I had one message, and it was from my mother. Cryptically -- at least to me at the time -- she only asked how close my apartment was to the World Trade Center. As a bit of back story, I was working down in DC but living in NYC. I called my mother to ask her what she was talking about and she explained what was going on. She had tried to call my wife but couldn't reach her. While on the phone, I tried to get more info on the major news sites, but they were either really jammed up or giving very few details. I ran out of my office to let my secretary know what was going on, but then realized that she and another secretary were hovering around a radio and It all started to sink in.

I tried to call my wife a few times and finally got through. Over the next couple of hours, certain details came into focus. It's hard to remember how and when I learned them, but my brother in law worked downtown on certain days and no one could reach him on his cell phone, and my father was in the air piloting an American Airlines plane coming in from Europe. I remember it all as chaos trying to make sure that all of our friends in New York were accounted for. Eventually, I found out that everyone was okay. My father took a little longer because the airlines weren't really giving out any info on what was going on with their planes. They re-routed his plane to Newfoundland, and that night we got a call telling us that he was okay, but he really couldn't tell us anything.

I consider myself incredibly lucky. I didn't lose anyone on that day. I also won't even pretend to compare my experience that day to the people who were down at the scene that day. That said, it is a day I will never forget.

[TheMojoPin]

I was going to school here (http://www.ehc.edu/cgi-bin/MySQLdb?FILE=/index1.html), in the very southwestern tip of VA. I always find it striking how so many people here on the east coast talked about then and ever since about how unbelievably clear and blue the sky was, because I remember that vividly as well, even where I was. The weather was absolutely perfect.

[drusilla]

it was my first day of work at a brand new job at a physical therapy clinic a few blocks from my house in queens. i started at 8am. we had the radio on some adult contemporary music station. i was working on a cop with a broken leg when we heard that a plane hit the first tower over the radio. none of us had any idea what was going on. then we heard about the second tower. i knew that one of my close friends worked at wtc, but i didnt know which building. i tried to call his office & no one answered. i tried his cell phone & just left a message saying hey gimme a call if you're ok because i was too afraid to call his mother & start her worrying. the cop made some phone calls & found out that the city was pretty much in lockdown. this day was also supposed to be my first day of graduate school at columbia. not knowing how bad anything was at the time i was like "oh shit how am i going to get to my first day of class?" he just looked at me like "you ain't getting to school today" i had to call my boyfriend at the time who was home sleeping to let him know that he wasn't going to be able to get to class at john jay & he better turn on the tv. it was soon after that that the towers each collapsed. we kept hearing all sorts of weird reports about other things happening. including bombings at court houses. my brother is a lawyer, so i called my sister in law right away & she said he was fine. a lot of patients started to call in & cancel their appointments. i continued to try to call my friend. the clinic was very slow, but we tried to keep everything going for the old patients who were still coming in. around noon or so my boyfriend showed up to tell me that no one has heard from our friend & that no one can find another friend who also works down there. my bosses let me go home for the day since they were going to close up early anyway. right as i was leaving work my friend finally called me to tell me he was ok. it turned out that he worked in building 7 & they were evacuated pretty fast. he did have to make a run for it when the towers came down. a few hours later i heard that our other friend was lucky enough to be working in new jersey that day & was no where near his office in one of the towers.

[The Silencer]

i was in art class in grammar school...I went to the bathroom and all the cool 8th graders were like...we just got attacked...the twin towers are down! So the whole school were called to mass and everyone was making up rumors about how our principle died or the pope died hahaha...But when we made that turn to the church and i saw all the smoke in the air from Bay Ridge...I knew there was something fucked up!

[drusilla]

Is it bad to treat it like any other day? :down: Don't get me wrong, it was a horrific day & I am saddened by what happened but its always in my thoughts and I think its a shame to just think about it on the anniversary.

i guess since that you didn't have the fear that two of your friends were dead for many many hours until you heard from them, or that you didnt have to smell the air the next day, i can understand. but its something i will never ever forget about.




I consider myself incredibly lucky. I didn't lose anyone on that day. I also won't even pretend to compare my experience that day to the people who were down at the scene that day. That said, it is a day I will never forget.


exactly. i know what i had to go through just not knowing what was going on for those few hours. but a girl i worked with lost her newlywed husband. & my boyfriend lost a friend from work. i hated how i felt & i can not imagine how much worse it was/ is for them.

[IamPixie]

i was in art class in grammar school...I went to the bathroom and all the cool 8th graders were like...we just got attacked...the twin towers are down! So the whole school were called to mass and everyone was making up rumors about how our principle died or the pope died hahaha...But when we made that turn to the church and i saw all the smoke in the air from Bay Ridge...I knew there was something fucked up!

good lord..how old are you?

[hunnerbun]

I was on a company retreat. We had been away from the city in a small conference center for 3 days. One of our guest speakers was from California and had left the resort at 5 am for a 7 am flight.
We were all coming into the restaurant for our breakfast buffet before the buses brought us back to the city.
All of a sudden people started running into the restaurant saying something terrible happened in New York. A few of us went down the hallway to a room that had an open door and we all crowed around the tv set as the lady from housekeeping was cleaning the room. We all watched in horror as the second plane hit the South tower.
We went back to the restaurant and sat in stunned astonishment that this could be happening.
Soon after that we had our final assembly before getting on the buses home. I remember ppl crying and being very upset and worried that as a major military base in Canada, Halifax may also be a target. I also remember that once we found out the hijacked planes came from Boston that we were concerned for our guest speaker, he was leaving Halifax and flying into Boston enroute to LA. He ended up being fine...he flew out of Boston and was in mid air when the attacks happened. he got grounded somewhere in the mid-west and ended up renting a car and driving the rest of the way home.

Lots of planes were diverted to Canadian airports, the majority to Halifax and St. John's. I also remember ads on the tv and radio asking for help in putting people up since the hotels were all full.

I don't think I will ever forget that day.

[The Silencer]

ahahaha i am 15 Pixxxiee :laugh:

[waltermitty]

I won't even tell my story of the day because I watched it on tv. Some People on the board and their friends and family lived the events of september 11th. My channel surfing in disbelief doesn't matter compared to what some people went through.

I do remember it like it was yesterday, as I imagine I will until the day I die...

[BalzacWB]

My friend mike called me at like 915am and woke me up and told me to turn on the news, so I turned on CNN and I was like "this has to be fake". We bullshitted on the phone until it sunk in then I started thinking about things... my friend pat was an EMT in the city, my friend sean had just graduated from the fire academy and AngelF was a student at NYU.

For next hour or so I spent the whole time trying to get in touch with her, since everyone was in a panic the cells were crap that day, finally I got her on the phone and apparently she was in the subway when the planes hit and she had just gotten to class as they fell.

NYU is pretty close to the trade center so she left school and started walking, the way she described it was insane... people covered in dust, some bloody, just walking like fucking zombies. She made it to the staten island ferry and go ton the last boat out of the city. No other public trans were running and you couldnt drive into our out of the city since the bridges and tunnels were closed... later on I heard alot of people had to sleep in shelters that night or in the ferry terminal because they couldnt get out of manhattan

[A.J.]

Remembering that I could have been killed that day had I gone to the Pentagon a few minutes earlier.

[Don Stugots]

i had to run for my life that day. it is something i can never forget. i will pass the day trying not to think about it and try keep myself busy.


how i remember the day:

it was nice that morning. i drove to my foremen's house on the other side of Staten Island to go to work with him since he drove. We drove across the bridge and couldnt believe how nice it was. we both questioned banging out for the day and go fishing on his boat instead.

[AJDELAWARE]

I was in college outside of philadelphia, freshmen year, and I got woken up by a phone call from my ma, asking what building my cousin works in in NYC. I have no idea what shes talking about, and she tells me to turn on the tv, and a minute later the 2nd plane crashed in. My school still had classes that day, I mean why wouldn't we. A lot of people used it as a reason not to go to classes though. Most classes I had that day were spend watching the television, with the exception of the math teacher, who was foreign and didn't want to waste any class time.

I really remember the amount of dis/mis-information that came as things were happening.

[topless_mike]

both of my wife's parents work in the city.
my mil worked a few blocks from the empire state building. my fil drives a limo, and was stopped behind tower 2 when the first plane hit. he watched the 2nd plane hit the tower.
he drove as fast as he could to queens, where his parents live. my mil was stranded in her salon until like 3am, when she and the janitor in the building (who also lived in union city) were able to take the ferry.
something they'll never forget. and as for my wife, she worked in edgewater, and was able to see the burning towers just outside her office. she didnt hear from either of them until around 5pm that day.

scary shit.

for me, its is just another day. my sympathy to anyone affected.

[Kris10]

i guess since that you didn't have the fear that two of your friends were dead for many many hours until you heard from them, or that you didnt have to smell the air the next day, i can understand. but its something i will never ever forget about.

Excuse me, what the fuck are you talking about? When did I say I wasn't worried about any of my friends or family? FYI, I did lose someone close to me that day but I think about what happened every day of my life not just not the anniversary of the day it happened. And yes I did experience the smell of the air, the smoke in the sky, and then being locked down at work because I am considered essential personnal for the company I work for in NJ. The only thing I said is I treat it like any other day because I'm not going to sit here and let it get me down when its something I think about often. You and I have 2 different opinions, it doesn't make either one of them right or wrong.

[mendyweiss]

Trying to explain to my kid why his school was let out early was a very difficult thing to expalin to an 8 year old. Also people can bash O and A from here to eternity, but I will never forget how they handled themselves during and right after the tragedy. THey were a ray of sunshine, and I will always remember that

[Furtherman]

I watched the whole thing from Hoboken. Waiting for friends to come home, some did, some didn't. The memorial I went to last year was very poignant and heartfelt. Probably the last one. I don't know what I'll do tonight, maybe a silent toast, but the fact is what's done is done and who is gone is gone. Life moves on.

[Crispy123]

I was in the USMC at the time stationed at the Stewart, NY INTL airport. I had flown late the night before and had the morning off. I woke up right after the 2nd plane hit and started watching the news. I rushed into work, it was insane. All the US airspace was in lockdown everyone was trying to figure out what was going on, I had friends working at the pentagon, just nuts. Later that day we figured that the plane that took off out of Boston passed right over 2 squadrons of Air Force & Marines, flying down the Hudson to NYC. Everyone felt just sick. The next couple of weeks we brought supplies down to the city, many members of the reserves were cops, firfighters and emt's so we were trying to figure out if everyone was alright. I will never forget. I also believe that yes there are terrible people in the world but we as a nation let our guard down. I can't believe that people are still letting there guard down when it comes to the government infringing on civil liberties. I can only hope we as a people will wake up and truly live.

[EliSnow]

Right now, I'm at my mother-in-law's place with my wife and daughter. My wife lost her brother on that day, and she thinks about it every day, but it's always harder on the anniversary.

I never met my brother-in-law. At the time, my wife and I had not yet met. I was an associate at my old law firm, and when the planes hit, I was commuting to work. I didn't hear about it until I hopped on the elevator, and when I heard that two planes had hit the WTC, and like a lot of people, I was thinking of small planes.

I could see the smoke from my office on 59th and 5th, and sat in my office listening to 1010 WINS. I really didn't listen to O&A or R&F (nor can I bring myself to go back and listen to the recordings. I heard the first Tower went down, and that's when my wife's brother was killed. Then a partner sent us home. I remember walking home, seeing a mass of people heading north from midtown. Most of the streets were empty so that emergency vehicles could get downtown. By the time I got to my apartment on 90th street, the second Tower went down.

I remember more the days after. Work was called off, and I spent my time around my apartment on the Upper East Side. I remember when the wind shifted and we could smell the smoke from downtown. I remember signs everywhere, several miles from the site, asking people if they had seen family members. I remember getting panicky phone calls from relatives and friends making sure I was alright. And I remember talking to my brother about his wife's cousin who was missing. And I remember my heart going out to his family.

About a month later, at my brother's wedding in MN, I met that cousin's sister, and realized we lived a block from each other in NYC. We talked a little about her brother, but mostly just talked. And I asked her if she would have drinks with me at Rathbone's pub, which she took as a sign, since that's the last place she saw her brother alive. When we got back to the city, we started dating and she's now my wife.

I remember an aunt speaking to me at the wedding telling me that she understood what we were going through since she lived right across from an Air Force base in Montana, which she assured me was also a potential target. I wanted to punch her so hard. Luckily, I maintained my cool, and said she really didn't know.

Anyway, these days are always hard for my wife and her family. Michael was her best friend, and even now, I think that she and he may have been closer than she and I are now. I wish I had the chance to meet Mike Duffy, and also wished he could meet his niece.

So as you can see, my feelings are so of weird, given that the person closest to me now, lost a loved one, that I never knew.

[drusilla]

Excuse me, what the fuck are you talking about? When did I say I wasn't worried about any of my friends or family? FYI, I did lose someone close to me that day but I think about what happened every day of my life not just not the anniversary of the day it happened. And yes I did experience the smell of the air, the smoke in the sky, and then being locked down at work because I am considered essential personnal for the company I work for in NJ. The only thing I said is I treat it like any other day because I'm not going to sit here and let it get me down when its something I think about often. You and I have 2 different opinions, it doesn't make either one of them right or wrong.



easy killer. don't forget that you started off your post by asking if it was wrong, so my answer was yes. it sounded like you made it a regular tuesday where you went to go get your nails done. which is weird for me to think about considering how heinous it was. i too do think about it pretty much all the time & thinking about it today is inevitable thanks to all of the coverage. i am sorry that you did have to go through shit like pretty much everyone else from around here. but when you first responded, it kinda looked to me like you couldn't have given a crap. i admit when i'm wrong. no need to go jumping down people's throats.

[tupper65]

I used to work 2 blocks from the towers and went through them every morning after getting off of the PATH train. I remember thinking about how Clemens was going for his 20th win that night and admiring the beautiful day. When the first tower got hit, my friend and I went down to the street and saw Tower #1 burning, just thick black smoke and a fountain of papers spewing out. I watched as the towers came dowm in our conference room and felt my building shake each time. I remember when they evacuated us into the hallway and how surreal it was with the smokey haze and the silence, except for a few people quietly crying. I remember bringing water cooler bottles of water down to our lobbey and saw how they were bringing in people, covered with ash, in from the streets. I remember walking towards the ferrys through about an inch of ash and seeing odd things lying in the street like shoes and blinds.

I didn't see the horrific carnage that others saw that day but I saw enough. The worst for me was that my son was in second grade and word got out about what happened. He knew that I was close to WTC and thought that I might have been killed.

[Thebazile78]

I was going to school here (http://www.ehc.edu/cgi-bin/MySQLdb?FILE=/index1.html), in the very southwestern tip of VA. I always find it striking how so many people here on the east coast talked about then and ever since about how unbelievably clear and blue the sky was, because I remember that vividly as well, even where I was. The weather was absolutely perfect.

The juxtaposition of the perfect summer day with the horrific collapse and dust cloud aftermath of the attacks made it that much more horrible for some of us.

I know it did for me.

[AKA]

I actually choose to remember September 10, 2002 more, although I have very vivid memories of being downtown, seeing the smoke from the Pentagon cut across the blue sky, over the mall, of driving my friend and coworker home and seeing the flames from the highway as they fought to put out the fire. I remember calling my parents constantly, and feeling slightly helpless because the traffic was at a standstill all over the area, and I couldn't travel 8 miles to their place. I remember, later that day I walked down as close as any civilian could get to the Pentagon and prayed - that night I cried when I saw the memorials from other countries sprouting up - I went to sleep with the sound of helicopters hovering over Arlington (I am right across the street from Ft. Meyer, and a mile from the Pentagon).

A year later, I had completed the most rewarding and difficult project of my life - a 9/11 website for the Smithsonian. On the one year anniversary, we "presented" it to a group who were there for the opening of the museum's exhibition - a group composed largely of survivors, rescue workers and family members of people who had died.

We had the website in the corner, and showed the full collection to anyone who came by. To have firefighters thanking us for doing what we did just destroyed me - that afternoon, when everyone had left (including Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and Laura Bush), all of the museum staff involved in the project met to debrief and exhale. Everyone began sobbing - for most of them, it had been a long, personal year of meeting with people involved, and collecting their stories for future generations. It's not for current historians to interpret history, but to enable historians 50-100 years from now with what they will need.

The widow of someone killed at the Pentagon was so moved by the experience of that day, she had given one of the curators his ID badges, which was given to me to keep so they could be properly catalogued. For an evening they were locked in my office. This morning, they, along with that story (minus me! - haha) was on local Fox news. Made me feel very proud, and still very sad.

I called my former coworker - the one who I drove home - who still works at the Smithsonian. We hadn't talked in about a year. It was good to touch base, and while I never will forget that day it happened, I will also never forget the feeling of having one year removed from it.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/

[ralphbxny]

I was living in Knoxville TN and was up late smokin pot and drinkin beer watching WWE and TV on Sept 10 cause I didnt have to be at work till late on the 11th. I had blown my mom off the phone and the last thing she told me was she was going to a meeting with her boss on windows on the world with a friend of mines old man. My phone didnt stop ringing that morning and I was pissed cause I had a hangover and didnt have to work till noon. When I turned on the TV and saw the buildings on fire I drove right to work to tell my boss I wasnt coming in. My Roomate who was from Queens grabbed me and stopped me from driving home. He was like you need to stay here till all this gets figured out. When I saw the Towers fall I felt like the worse son ever. I couldnt call into my friends or family. I found out on the Evening of Sept 14th my mom had missed her meeting to Vote but her boss and my friends old man were not so lucky. I drove home that night on the 15th morning. I was back home for Thanksgiving. I dont ever plan on leaving this area. I love it too much, it was just a shame it took a tragedy to show it to me.

I lost some awesome people that day. I know others on here lost people closer too them than me. Others were trying to save their lives. I just like to think of it as the day I decided I needed to get my life together and stop being a loser.

[Thebazile78]

I can tell you exactly what I was doing that morning, how I was late to work so I took the Amtrak instead of NJ Transit, what I wore, the rumors that spread around the office, the fear and panic that started to rise . . . and when the first Tower fell, how everything moved in that weird slow-motion speed-up and I ended up on a train to Hoboken, rather than in a car towards my dad's or on another train (before they stopped running) back to my apartment in New Brunswick (NJ).

Like many of you who live (lived) and/or work (worked) in areas close to the WTC, I could smell the jet fuel when the wind changed.

Like many of you who might have been in Hoboken or Jersey City, I saw the locked-down Holland Tunnel.

I remember Hoboken Terminal pin-drop silent while emergency workers set up triage ports near the PATH exit.

I saw two men in business suits, covered in that grey dust, sitting in the back of a pickup truck that had managed to get them out of the City. I think that one guy was bleeding from his head, because I remember people rushing over to him to check him out.

As we got into Jersey City, there were a lot of people were staring across the Hudson at the cloud of smoke and dust. There seemed to be just as many packing their cars to head out of town, somewhere safe and secluded.

I was numb and unresponsive by the time we got to the apartment. Like the rest of the area, maybe even the country, we flicked on the TV for the news. I wanted to watch Dan Rather, hoping that somewhere this little memory of, as a kid, watching the CBS Evening News with Mr. Rather would make me feel safe. It worked for a little while and allowed me to raid the pantry for some dinner.

Not that we were hungry, but I thought that if we skipped a meal, we'd be worse off the next day.

On the (pretty empty) PATH the next morning, a guy had a video camera and was taping the smoke.

At work, most people hadn't come in, despite the office being open. It was incredibly distracting to have an empty office and not much work to do; most of my coworkers had spent the night away from home, so their priority was getting back to their homes and families, not working.

I had a bunch of e-mails checking on me from people who'd last heard I was working in NYC; the company had moved to Newark three months after I'd been hired and this detail hadn't been communicated to all of my extended network.

Then, before making the decision to go home, I called my dad's house to check in and let them know I was OK. My sister answered and told me about one person who'd made front page news . . . he'd been working in the Towers and hadn't come home. She wasn't upset and didn't understand why I was. . .he was 2 years ahead of me in school and his younger brother was in my class. We were in the drama club together in high school; when his sister joined the club, he'd already graduated, but I shared all of my fond memories with her. I learned so much about dedication, creativity and how to lead quietly from him that I modeled my involvement with the drama club on his example. On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, I learned that he hadn't made it home on Tuesday.

Ouch. I'd just started to feel relieved that I didn't know anybody who worked there. Nope; I knew one. On Friday, September 14th, I learned that I knew another.

This is the first September 11th that I've been in the office since 2001. It's really hard to be here and I went numb when the radio broadcast their moments of silence at 8:48a and 9:03a.

Fortunately, it's raining, overcast and nasty-foggy, so I didn't have to see any planes taking off or landing on my ride to the office today. It doesn't change the fact that I'm still trying to control the waves of anxiety I'm feeling nor does it change the fact that I won't be watching TV when I get home. Most of the reminders are the basest and most maudlin (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maudlin) filth on the planet. Many of them make me angry, especially when they catch me off-guard.

On the first anniversary, I was getting x-rays before having hand surgery in January '03, but went to donate blood after lunch. It helped to have something positive to do so that the memories of the folks I knew would be honored by helping others.

I've tried to donate blood on or about the anniversary every year. I don't always make it, but I do try.

[Ritalin]

I got off the E train on 26th Street seconds after the first plane hit, and the only thing that tipped me off were people standing on 8th Avenue looking upward to the south, where the plane hit. At that point I thought it was probably a private aircraft (like Cory Lidle), and I was shooting in a studio on the 16th floor facing south from 601 W. 26th Street, so i just wanted to get to the studio to take shots. I remember as I was half jogging down 26th that there were some maintanance workers standing in front of a building and I shouted out to them that a plane had flown into WTC.

The second plane hit while I was making my way down to the studio. When I got to the building, there were a lot of people coming out, scared I'm sure to be in any building at the time. I didn't think one way or the other about being afraid to be in a building, I guess I felt that it wasn't any safer on the ground than it would be in a building.

We stood in that studio and watched the whole thing unfold. Watched both towers fall, one after the other. Watched FedEx and UPS trucks line up on the West Side Highway in front of Chelsea Piers, ready to be used as makeshift ambulances. Watched as Naval ships came steaming down the Hudson (remember, it was Fleet Week), and watched fighter planes crossing the sky within an hour of the crashes.

I ended up walking uptown and across the 59th Street bridge home that day, and the smell and smoke lingered until Thursday or Friday. My experience wasn't any more or less important or intense as anyone else's in New York that day. I didn't lose anyone and I'm sorry for anyone who did.

What I think about when I think of 9/11 is how the city felt afterward. The general anxiety, the posters in Grand Central. That nagging feeling I felt the first time I flew on a plane afterward. Eyeballing a cab driver with unwarranted suspicion, changing subway cars on a hunch. Serious conversations people where having about moving. People I knew who did move.

Someone showed up at one of my shoots a couple of days later with a gas mask in his messenger bag.

Remember the day on your own terms, and don't argue with each other. It's not about right and wrong.

[buzzard]

Remember the day on your own terms, and don't argue with each other. It's not about right and wrong.

What a fine way to put it!classy,Ritalin!

I like many saw the events unfold via the T.V. I was nestled up in the mountains of N.H. Littleton,N.H. a very Saturday Evening Post/Norman Rockwell type setting..the old church steeples and such...I remember getting up from my computer desk repeatedly looking to the mountains to see If the planes were coming...you can go ahead and laugh at my stupidity for thinking that any terrorists were coming to Northern N.H. I was scared shitless! If they could attack the pulse points of our country was anyone safe...anywhere?I called my Dad in AZ. and told him simply;"Dad,they're killing us" I don't like to remember this day much,however,I'll never be able to forget.I moved to AZ shortly thereafter so as to be closer to my Dad.

[boobieman]

Hello,
Don't know anyone who died that day. Sort of thankful for that. Just remember feeling angry, scard and sort of confused. I remember where I was exactly when it all started. I remember calling my wife and asking her if she can see the fire. I could not get through. For almost 3 hours I could not get in touch with her. When the 1st tower fell, I remember screaming...praying that they did not fall on the world finacial center, where my wife works. I rememember all of my family and her family calling me, asking if I spoke to her. Everyone knew that she worked in the area. I remember getting to my parents and wonder if maybe she contacted them. I rememeber them getting upset as the 2nd tower fell, I am tring to keep it together, just not knowing what is happening. Not knowing at that time if she was their or not. Where is my wife. why has she not called. Finally Finally she called. She never was over their, they stopped the trains on the manhatten side of the Brooklyn bridge, Cops told everyone on the train to please go up to the street, where another cop told everyone to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge back into Brooklyn. Where she was when she heard a rumbling, and as everyone on the bridge turned and looked and saw the first tower fall, and a big puff of smoke rolling towards the bridge. Everyone took off at once, no knocking over anyone, actually helping one another to cross that bridge, but in a scared frenzy.

I remember jumping in my car, after talking with her, going to 4th avenue in Brooklyn, and just meeting up with her, and grabing her and hugging her.

I did not know anyone who died that day, but I cry for everyone who did. The worst part of it all is how I feel this city and a lot of it's people have forgotten.

http://home.earthlink.net/~fcastle a small tribute page.

[King Hippos Bandaid]

Randy has a cooler story because He was in the city..


I remember quiting "the Cheese" 2 days earler. I normally woke up at 11am or later if had no work. For some reason, something told me to wake up Early I was up at 7am watching TV when the first plane hit, Iremmeber thinking it was a freak accidnet. As the events folded, I watched like everyone else.

My Dad and Randy were in the City, so i was Worried for their safety. The phone lines were scarce at best, was worrying all day. My Dad was in harlem, he immediately went over the GWB and stayed over at a co workers house. Randy works next to the UN, so He was fearful , he had to walk accross the Williamsburg Bridge, walk thru Brooklyn until Finally getting a Bus to Staten Island. It took him 12 Hours to get home. I found a spot in Staten Island where I could see everything.

A side note, My 2nd Cousin (Whom I met once or Twice) had the same Middle and Last name as me. People who saw his name as one of the Casualties quickly thought it was me. We got tons of calls of condolence. It was very awkward when I answered the phone.

Scary Tines, WNEW (O & A and R&F ) helped calm my nerves big time

:king:

[IamPixie]

Scary Tines, WNEW (O & A and R&F ) helped calm my nerves big time

:king:

WNEW was a huge comfort to me that day.

[topless_mike]

i think its ok for some people to see sept 11th as a normal day.

some people move on (usually those who did not lose/know somebody lost, such as myself). for those that did lose a loved one, its a sorrowful day of rememberence.

so please, lets lay off the personal attacks and bickering.

[Landblast]

already a thread (http://www.ronfez.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56975)

[Freitag]

already a thread (http://www.ronfez.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56975)

Actually, there are multiple threads based on the topic, some of which even predate yours... let this one continue without the snark, thanks.

[Freitag]

September 1tth actually strengthened my bond with my family.

When the attacks occurred, my family was spread out all over the US. My parents were stuck in Arizona and my brother in Atlanta, so they all had to drive home.

I was still living at home, and I spent that week in my parents house, sad, miserable, depressed, and most importantly - alone. It freaked me out. I remember drinking OJ and tequila and watching MSNBC, hoping, praying they'd find people alive.


It made me appreciate those closest to me that much more.

[Don Stugots]

I remember walking from the brooklyn bridge to a friends house on catan and e 3rd st. pretty far walk. people were crying the streets and strangers were hugging. no one knew what was really going on. I got to brians house and his mom let me in. she was crying. I sat and looked at the news and cried. she asked me where was I and I told she church and chambers on a sheetrock delivery.

what a crazt fucked up day.

people get over yourselves with the bickering and already a thread shit for one fucking day. please, its not worth it.

[Kris10]

easy killer. don't forget that you started off your post by asking if it was wrong, so my answer was yes. it sounded like you made it a regular tuesday where you went to go get your nails done. which is weird for me to think about considering how heinous it was. i too do think about it pretty much all the time & thinking about it today is inevitable thanks to all of the coverage. i am sorry that you did have to go through shit like pretty much everyone else from around here. but when you first responded, it kinda looked to me like you couldn't have given a crap. i admit when i'm wrong. no need to go jumping down people's throats.

Done and over with....lets kick back and have a few! :drunk: