Jimmy
Grimlock
Posts: 13,317
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Post by Jimmy on Sept 11, 2011 0:04:04 GMT -5
I was in 6th grade in North Jersey about 15 miles from Manhattan and they announced for anybody who had parents who worked in the World Trade Center to go to the office. When they announced what happened we thought somebody screwed up and flew a plane into the tower accidentally. A teacher then told us it was likely terrorism.
My dad was there to pick my sister and I up after school even though by that point we regularly walked home by ourselves. When I asked him about it recently he told me he thought we were all going to die (this is a 54 year old, at the time, retired parole officer who doesn't overreact) so we might as well die as a family. He took us up on the overpass right by our house where we could see the smoke billowing out from Manhattan. I can still see it in my head.
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Post by Rolent Tex on Sept 11, 2011 0:05:17 GMT -5
I remember being at work as a busboy at an island resort nearby where there's no radios and only one television. One of the hostesses husbands kept calling her keeping her updated something that was going on before we found out it was terrorist attacks. The general manager at the time turned the big screen tv on for the guests and most of the staff and guests gathered around.
The one thing I'll never forget about that day was when I was delivering room service to some guests. I was informing each guest about the attacks as I was delivering their breakfast so they could all go over to the TV room. I was delivering to one couple and told the husband what had happened. His face turned white like he had seen a ghost. He was literally in the World Trade Center the morning before getting some work done before he flew down for vacation the same day and immediately went to work trying to contact friends and family. You don't forget that kind of look in someone's eyes.
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mattperiolat
King Koopa
Thank you, Brodie... for everything.
Posts: 11,445
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Post by mattperiolat on Sept 11, 2011 0:20:57 GMT -5
I made this post on another forum for the one year mark in 2002. My feelings have not changed much since that day, so I will just repost it here. My memories of 9/11.
"One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.
'What is the matter, Mr. Frodo?' said Sam.
'I am wounded,' he answered, 'wounded; it will never really heal.'"
- The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
July 1989. My mom and sister and I went with my aunt and two relatives to New York City for two weeks over the 4th of July weekend. We lived in an apartment on 42nd St, right by the UN. Right in the shadow of the Empire State Building. We used it as a point of reference every time we went out. Well, one time, as we were walking the streets at night, my mom said we needed to keep going straight and I knew better. And she was like, how do you know? The Empire State Building is right ahead of us. I needed to point out to her that the buildings ahead of us were actually the twin towers of The World Trade Center.
I didn't see the towers that much when I was there. Once when we took a cruise through the rivers. And again when we were over on Liberty Island, just looking across the harbor at New York and seeing those two giant gleaming towers. I actually DIDN'T want to go up there. 110 stories was just a bit too high for a 12 year old kid. Besides, I'd come back someday and see the world from the top. Lots of time, right?
September 10th 2001. It's funny how well I do remember it. Traditional Monday, with my mom flying home that evening from a weekend in Las Vegas. She actually had the chance to be bumped and fly out on the 11th, but she would make it. I just needed to keep house. I remember how much I looked forward to her coming home. The big stories on my mind were the shark attacks off the east coast, the new Newsweek I had just bought featuring news that if the Supreme Court had had one more day, it would be President Gore. I came home from work to be with my mom and we talked. She was tired of course. but it was good to have her home. We both went to bed, I went to my room to watch WWF RAW, which I was also taping. I was grateful for it because I dozed off as the show was winging down. I woke up suddenly at about 1 AM, rewound the tape, watched the last match and drifted away, thinking how tired I'd be for work the next morning.
I'm not sure what woke me, but at about 6 AM, my mom was at my door and just said "I dunno if you'd be interested, but a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center." I remember groaning into my pillow and the first thought in my mind was "Some idiot amateur pilot has crashed his airplane into the world's tallest building." But, I turned on my radio, always on the news channel and lay there, eyes closed, just listening, hearing how a plane has crashed into the towers, smoke is coming out and I finally rolled over and turned on the TV.
I was stunned when I finally saw the picture. All I could think was "What the hell was this guy carrying in his plane?" because there was a huge gaping smoking hole in the side of the building! At the same time, as I'm watching, I see a plane fly through the picture and a fireball erupt out of the other tower. I think to myself "OK, who's asleep at LaGuardia that this is happening?" But I'm also hearing the newscasters saying "You know, that one looked like a passenger plane.." but both they and I were thinking no pilot in their right mind would willingly fly a PASSENGER PLANE into the World Trade Center. So I finally got up, muted my TV, turned up my radio and just kept pacing from my mom's room to mine, feeding the info as it came filtering in.
I did think it was terrorists of course, using passenger planes to attack, but they had tried to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. They tried, they failed. They were still standing. Didn't help to have the President get on TV and refer to them as "folks" also. But anyway, I was just about to move on with my day when the whole thing changed.
I heard over my radio about an explosion at the Pentagon. Then one single thought went through my mind... "Oh my God, we're being shelled." I remember sprinting to my mom's room to tell her, she was on the phone calling my aunt and NOW I was panicking. Now it went from one isolated event to something that could effect the entire country. If they could hit the Pentagon... what else could they hit?
Then the news just seemed to steam roll. I heard about a car bomb at the State Department, then the entire city of New York being locked down, the Sears Tower in Chicago being closed. I was getting really scared since I had family in Chicago and had been to Sears Tower many times. Plus there was concern about friends in Seattle and the Space Needle.
About this time, my mom went downstairs, I returned to my room and saw this huge brown cloud erupting from the Trade Center. I remember just screaming down to my mom "Mom, look at the TV! What happened?" She shouted back up "If you were paying attention, you'd know another plane hit!" I was shocked. A THIRD plane? But wait... I didn't see a plane. And also, for some reason, I couldn't see one of the towers of the Trade Center. Then I learned the reason why I couldn't see the tower. The tower was gone.
I wandered downstairs in a total daze. How could part of the World Trade Center collapse like that? It just wasn't making sense in my mind. But I was thanking God for something: we still had A tower of the Trade Center. And I remember saying that to my mom. That the one tower would always be a monument to that day. That they couldn't knock us down. We'd still stand. My mom left for work, reminding me to get ready for work. And I went back upstairs to watch a little more before getting a shower and leaving. What I would see next is something I will see in my mind for the rest of my life.
I watched the fires burning around the upper floors of the Center. I dunno what I was thinking, but I was just gazing at the tower. Praying for those who might be trapped, that firefighters might get to them in time. That the fire would be put out soon. That this horror might somehow lessen. Then... I watched as a black cloud blossomed out of the tower... fire... then I watched as the TV antenna just... dropped. Like an elevator dropping into the cloud. I just stood there... staring. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. Then finally hearing over my radio "We have received word here that the remaining tower of the World Trade Center has collapsed."
I wandered into my bathroom, picked up my cell phone and dialed my mom. And I remember just gasping into the phone "Mommy, the other tower just fell down." I felt like such a little kid saying it, but it was all I could say. I then showered, just standing there, somehow hoping the water would wash away what I had seen. I then dried off, dressed and listened to the news. It just seemed to keep getting worse. A plane crash at Camp David, part of the Pentagon had collapsed... I honestly for the first time was starting to wonder if this was not all some nightmare, if somehow I could wake up again and everything would be safe again.
It was funny, as I was leaving for work, I saw a bunch of kids waiting for their school bus. And they all had American flags in their hands. Waving them at cars, waving at cars. And this was just 20 minutes after the collapse of tower 2. It made me think that maybe some good come out of this.
Work was a very strange thing. The TV was on of course, and they just kept replaying the collapses. It have an almost surreal feeling after a while. Was this real? Was this not just a movie? And the stories I was starting to hear... how one coworker and seen on TV people jumping from the upper stories, one pair holding hands... I didn't want to believe that. I wanted to believe that it COULDN'T be as bad as people said. I mean, it was early. There couldn't be a lot of people in the towers. Firefighters would have warning to get out before they collapsed. It wasn't that bad... it couldn't be that bad...
Could it?
I had a class afterward, sign language. The room was virtually empty. The teacher, though deaf, was able to communicate just how big the loss was. How over 200 firefighters were missing in the collapse. He did finally let us go after a half hour since there was no one there and anyone who was was just... not there.
I drove home, sat down and turned on the TV. I had to really hear for the first time what happened. I just couldn't... figure it. Then at the top of the hour, they replayed the events on MSNBC... and I'll never forget two things: first, at the end of the open, they replayed the collapse of the last tower as I had seen it and I heard the voice over of Brian Williams saying "The World Trade Center is no more." After hearing that, it FINALLY began to sink in. Then a live picture of the skyline of New York and Brian Williams announcing "For the first time in 20 years, the Empire State Building is once again the tallest building in New York."
It suddenly became real for me. That the World Trade Center and the people inside were gone. It was so... overwhelming. And for me, too soon to explain. But also far too late to cry. Maybe that's been another pain for me. In the year(s) since the events, I just haven't been able to cry over it. It's almost too deep a hurt to express with tears.
The days and weeks and months since that day haven't made it any easier. Every time I think I'm getting better, that it's beginning to pass into memory, something will happen to bringing surging back. But at the same time, I hope I never forget the day. That someday, when my children come into this world, I can tell them what I have seen, what it meant, why one day of the year, September 11th, will always be important.
I've spent a year trying to think of words to express how I have felt over the past year. And of all places, I have found them in Lord of the Rings. The opening quote expresses what I feel inside, a wound that will never really heal, a pain that must be so small compared to the pain that people who lose someone in the towers and the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania must feel, but is like a canyon to me. But another quote, from the movie, that somehow gives me hope. But it also expresses in a few words what I have spent paragraphs trying to express.
I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened. - Frodo
"So do all who live to see such times but it not for them to decide. All that can be decided is what to do with the time that is given to us. - Gandalf
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001
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Post by Beets by Schrute on Sept 11, 2011 0:34:44 GMT -5
I was in 6th grade in between classes. All I knew about the World Trade Center was the '93 bombing, but like everyone else at the end of the day, I knew what I needed to know. Some guy came where I was and told everyone about what happened. Went back to class to see the Twin Towers with smoke coming out of the and the Pentagon in flames. We just watched for the rest of the moring, and never thought I would see so many adults crying in one day. By lunchtime, half my friends were already checked out. By my 7th period math class, it was just me and 3 other people in there. On the bus home, it was pretty much empty. Came home and saw my mom watching the news and the first thing she did was hug me and tell me she loved me. My dad got home late in the evening. He worked at the Air Force base in Louisiana were Bush first went after the attacks. ( Bush spoke at the building were my dad worked at the base. He got to meet him that day too.)
The next few days were very surreal. My teachers were not interested in teaching and instead talked about how the attack felt to them. I remember going to prayer services at my church and seeing flags everywhere. It will be to this day one week I will never forget.
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Post by Chronos on Sept 11, 2011 0:35:52 GMT -5
I was in tenth grade. Our school was in the middle of our statewide standardized testing (the GQEs) at the time, and I was in the middle of taking a test when the attacks occurred. A teacher came in toward the end of our session and told us of planes flying into the World Trade Center.
At first I thought it was some kind of strange and dark joke or something, maybe to lighten the tense mood that accompanies any examination. Nothing that serious could possibly have happened, it was ridiculous to even begin to take seriously, I thought.
It wasn't until lunch that I was able to see the terrible and horrifying truth. I sat at lunch, frozen and dumbstruck, watching the CNN broadcast the school aired. I didn't have any family or friends in any of the areas affected by the attacks or plane hijackings, but it was one of the worst feelings I've ever felt. I couldn't really even begin to collect my thoughts until I got home that day, and even then it took a while.
Like GDR said, it's something people will never forget, and something many wish they'd never lived to see. I hope nothing like it happens ever again, anywhere.
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Post by Tyfo on Sept 11, 2011 1:19:46 GMT -5
I was a sophomore in high school, it was the day after my birthday so I remember I was in a pretty good mood. My first period class was outside in a portal building, so when it was over, I had to walk from there to the actual building. On my way there, I passed a guy that I talked to here and there at school and he said something about did I hear about the bombing. Didn't know what he was talking about.
Once I got inside and to my second class, the TV was on in the classroom, this was I believe just a few minutes after the 2nd plane had hit and we figured out that it wasn't an accident or something like that.
I remember our school went on a total lockdown. We were about 10 minutes away from DFW Airport, which is a very major airport, and it was still at the point where not all the planes in the air had been accounted for yet, so nobody knew if there were more and if so, where they were heading.
In every class, we just watched the news.
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Post by Sponsored by Groose Wipes on Sept 11, 2011 1:26:59 GMT -5
I was in 5th grade at the time. I was at my elementary school and overheard about the 1st plain hit and thought it was just a freak accident. I was 10 at the time so the idea did not cross me. When I got home, I herd about the 2nd plain and the Pentagon. The elementary school was very hush hush about it. It strange because besides that it was pretty good day. It was a few days later I started to understand how big of a deal this was.
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Perd
Patti Mayonnaise
Leslie needs to butt out for fear of receiving The Bunghole Buster
Posts: 31,965
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Post by Perd on Sept 11, 2011 2:00:50 GMT -5
Left school after the second plane hit. Watched the rest play out on TV with my family.
That evening my mom and I went to Walmart, just to get away for awhile. They were playing CNN over the PA so the employees could know what was happening.
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Post by G✇JI☈A on Sept 11, 2011 2:19:33 GMT -5
Time Passes So Fast.
At the time I was 21 and unemployed living in a small bungalow with my father.
When it happened it happened about 10:45pm EST Australia. I did not see when the news broke because I went to bed just a couple of minutes before it happened. So I pretty much slept through the whole event.
But a strange thing happened that night. At about 11:30pm my mobile phone went off, it woke me up and before I could answer it, it stopped. I did not recognise the number so I did not return the call. Thinking nothing of it I returned to bed. Never found out who phoned my that night. Most likely a family member or friend who had my number but I did not have theirs calling to tell me to turn the TV on.
So I slept while the World changed. Woke up at around 8:50am and turned the radio on. I listened to Triple J back then and the morning comedy duo were really sombre. I did not know why, and then they crossed to the news. The first news story at 9am on Triple J that morning was U.S planes bombing targets in Afghanistan (it was several hours later and I guess the bombing was more pressing at the time). I thought wow why is the U.S bombing Afghanistan all of a sudden. Then the second news story regarding the WTC/Pentagon attacks. I thought holy s*** and rushed out of bed to turn the TV on and then I saw the unbelievable pictures. The TV stayed on for the day.
I did go out at some point to get a newspaper and I noticed the Mornington Grand Hotel had a U.S.A flag on it's mast at half mast.
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MiLB Fan
Fry's dog Seymour
Posts: 20,381
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Post by MiLB Fan on Sept 11, 2011 3:46:23 GMT -5
I was a senior in high school. Before the attacks happened, the big local news story was the opening of a Krispy Kreme. News stations showed huge lines of people waiting to get their free doughnut.
I first heard something was wrong during a class change. People were talking about something that happened in New York but I wasn't really paying attention; I was just trying to get to my next class. I saw my gym teacher and he asked me if I had heard the news.
Each day, we had a half-hour period in which we could study, get tutoring help, or participate in an activity (newspaper, choir, yearbook, and so on). Everyone knew by then because the principal made an announcement on the PA system. I was supposed to have choir practice but we all gathered around a TV to watch the news.
The rest of the day had a quiet, surreal feeling to it. Some parents arrived to pick their kids up. When I had my final class of the day we didn't do any work at all; we just listened to news coverage on the radio.
While most TV stations carried coverage of the day's events, others signed off the air entirely. It was so strange to see nothing but a message that because of the day's events, programming was suspended.
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JDviant
Unicron
XB1 username: lil giant robot
Posts: 3,103
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Post by JDviant on Sept 11, 2011 5:21:16 GMT -5
I remember everything I did that day, and everyone I talked to, even though I sort of wish I didn't.
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Post by "Gentleman" AJ Powell on Sept 11, 2011 5:21:36 GMT -5
I remember, I was only in Year 4 in Primary School, and they dragged us out of science and to the assembly hall, all the teachers looked haggard and tired, then they wheeled out a TV and told us what happened and said you could stay to keep with the updates or go back to class. Being only young, I went back to class, and it's probably good that I did, because everyone came back a small while later, some crying, because the second plane hit.
I just remember everywhere being kinda on edge for a while.
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Bo Rida
Fry's dog Seymour
Pulled one over on everyone. Got away with it, this time.
Posts: 23,528
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Post by Bo Rida on Sept 11, 2011 5:52:45 GMT -5
When I got home from school my Mum said that there’d been a terrorist attack in America, she looked shaken which confused me a bit as I’d grown up with terrorist attacks on the news and she’d never reacted like that, then I went in and saw the TV and understood. I remember being annoyed that some of the presenters kept calling it “an accident” but I know they were on auto-pilot.
Then in the evening I went to a football match which had one of the most surreal atmospheres I’ve ever known.
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Eunös ✈
Dalek
Duck Feet Expert
Tolerated, just not practically liked.
Posts: 59,193
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Post by Eunös ✈ on Sept 11, 2011 7:03:30 GMT -5
Wow, 10 years have passed already, and yet i still remember that day so well like it happened yesterday I still remember coming from College that day and just simply not believing what i was seeing. My thoughts today go to those who lost loved ones on that tragic day. Definatly the worse thing i've seen in my lifetime and i certinaly hope i never ever see anything at that level ever again.
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Post by ellisdee on Sept 11, 2011 7:29:58 GMT -5
I was on a plane, going on holiday, on 9/11 2001. We arrived at the hotel with every TV channel talking about the disaster and showing coverage. My family and i couldn't believe we had been in the air when it happened. We aren't very wealthy and hardly ever go on holiday abroad, so to be fying when it happened, really freaked us out. My dad was already scared of flying and he refused to go back. I think he spent almost all of the holiday in the hotel room watching news coverage.
We were scared and we were very lucky. To be in the towers or on the plane that hit, it's unimaginable. RIP to everybody who died on that day.
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Post by Famous Rocking Chimes on Sept 11, 2011 7:44:42 GMT -5
I was 7 years old when 9/11 happened. You'd think that since it was just in the US that Scotland wouldn't care. Boy are those people wrong. I had never seen anything like that before (until the 7/7 bombings in London but that's for another day) and, I'm not going to lie, was pretty scary hearing all about these terrorists flying planes into buildings just because they felt like it. Imagine trying to explain to a 7 year old why these people are doing this. It was horrible.
I find it very appropriate that today of all days I'm playing John Cena's storyline from SvR 09. RIP to all the people who were lost ten years ago today. Unbelievable that it was that long ago.
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kunswwfmark
Hank Scorpio
Nobody beats Mr. Perfect. Nobody!
Posts: 5,909
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Post by kunswwfmark on Sept 11, 2011 7:56:36 GMT -5
2,983 lives lost. 2,983 families changed forever. As we remember those we lost 10 years ago, let's continue to keep those in our thoughts who've mourned each day since and whose strength in survival will always inspire. Never forget.
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Arrow
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,122
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Post by Arrow on Sept 11, 2011 8:41:36 GMT -5
I remember being ten-years old and in the fifth grade when that happened, was going to go to a baseball game later that day. Was just a regular day of school until one of the teachers came into our classroom to tell everyone what happened and then flipped on the news. She turned on the television and we saw one of the towers on fire. My first thought was that it was all a mistake. I just figured it was an accident (a bad accident of course) and would be one of those tragedies that came around once in a while that would hold our attention for a few months and we'd slowly forget about it. At this point, I still hadn't suspected that it was terrorism. For whatever reason, that thought never entered my mind until another attack happened - either the second tower or the Pentagon. I want to say it was the second tower, but I don't completely remember.
Around the time we heard about the fourth plane crash in Pennsylvania we were told that school would be ending early that day. No more classes or anything. The news dominated almost every television channel that I watched with regularity. We heard about people jumping from the building, about the rescue workers, firemen, and police risking their lives. The buildings had collapsed by that point. I don't think I was old enough to be as scared as others were, and to be honest the next day I was more concerned with the fact that I'd had no school (I was ten, after all). But man, it was just a surreal day.
I know it's ten years after the fact, but yeah, R.I.P. and my condolences to people who have loved ones affected by the tragedy.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Sept 11, 2011 8:42:44 GMT -5
I was a senior in high school filling out a balance sheet in accounting class when the news broke. Our teacher let us listen to the radio during class, and we heard the news directly from our local radio host. The rest of the day was one of the strangest days that I can remember - we spent the rest of our time in school doing little else other than watching TV, and as more and more news filtered in everyone became very fearful that this was just the beginning of something much, much worse. It amazes me and frightens me - then and now - that a few people, working on a very limited budget but with a whole lot of energy, accomplished such a huge undertaking.
Never forget the three thousand people who lost their lives that day, and appreciate the people who have given their time, effort, and sometimes lives in the ten years following 9/11.
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vm88
Samurai Cop
Posts: 2,252
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Post by vm88 on Sept 11, 2011 9:29:36 GMT -5
I was in 8th grade when it happened. We turned on the TV to see the footage of the first plane crash. Then, as I switched classes, they still had the news turned on to see that the second plane crashed and the World Trade Center collapse soon after that.
I got out of class at 11:30 and spend the rest of the day at home. 9/11 was everywhere on TV that day, and rightfully so.
RIP to the men and women we lost on 9/11.
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