September 11, 2011 Day of Remembrance

9/11 Memorial

Where were you when you found out about the attack on the World Trade Center?



I was at home having my morning cup of coffee. My mother in law called and asked about her son. Why was she calling me at 6 in the morning asking about my hubby? She told me about the attack. I could not comprehend what she was saying. She told me to turn on the television.

I thought it was some kind of story a la War of the Worlds.

Until I saw the second plane hit.

My babies had just celebrated their second birthday the day before. This could not be happening.

I had to turn the television off when they got up. I couldn't have them watching this stuff, even though I wanted to watch all day. I was transfixed.

I tried reaching hubby, but as per usual he had his phone off.

Thankfully, he heard the news and came home before going to the City.

from B.C., yes the comic strip

I was awakened by my best friend (now dead 4-5yrs) poking his head in my bedroom window, literally, telling me to "Wake yer ass up, open the door and turn on the TV. The shit done hit the fan." And for the next eight hours or so we watched, together, me and Rusty, and the rest of the world.

I was in a Gannett owned newspaper meeting. When it first happened all the monitors went to coverage of it from what seemed like a 100 different sources. I stayed till the first tower fell. The sales manager said "we can sell a special edition about this." I looked at him and walked away. Then I went and picked up my children from school and took them home.

A couple people I knew died there that day, including a young man from my church who had been married less than a year. One of my oldest & closest friends was not feeling well that day. He stayed home. He worked in the South tower.
I have family who also live/work nearby. The whole situation still upsets to me.

I was sleeping until the last minute before I went in for the lunch shift at the Country Club. My ex came up and turned on the TV in the bedroom and said "you're not going to f***ing believe this." I was groggy and nothing was registering, and the only thought in my head and the only word that came out of my mouth was "Why?"

Later, a snotnose rich guy came into the Kiltie Room (the bar room at the club) after he got off the golf course, snorted, and said "Who'd we piss off now?" Maybe he didn't understand the gravity of the situation at the time, having just come off perfectly manicured greens and fairways...with birds singing and the sun shining, and not a plane in the sky. It didn't seem to puncture any holes in his view of life at that moment. Maybe he was lucky.

I was talking to my Mom...about when JFK was assassinated and how this is our generation's "that horrible time" and they were all glued to their television sets for days as we were. Of course, there is still plenty of time for more "horrible times" and you just never know from day to day whether you will be safe.

So we live every day the best we can, no? Not perfectly, but with the knowledge that we need to scoop up all the good we can because the bad is just waiting to pounce.

It's not related...but the following January I got my first job in my current career...entry level front desk for a snip above minimum wage. Life began changing for me 10 years ago. I've not looked back.

I was at work, a staff member's husband called, and she spread the word. I thought a private plane had accidentally flown into the tower. The husband brought in a tv, after the second tower was hit. We watched off and on throughout the day. I was amazed at how many people were able to evacuate. They said that on any given day there were 50,000 people in each tower. When they collapsed, I figured they may have been half full - 25k in each tower were dead. My cousin was on the 40th floor, got out, made his way home to Cherry Hill NJ, and was back in Manhattan that night with the national guard.

http://cellar.org/showthread.php?p=264748#post264748

I was working at my old job, an Internet Service Provider, where I was an engineer. (I connected local points of presence in cities back to the main office for service.)

The Internet tech bubble had just burst about a year before and this was many because of too much money and not enough people who understood it. But it was the day I realized that the Internet had become a utility. It meant as much to these people as power, gas, and water. Our ISP went on high alert for support as everyone logged online all at the same time.

Our company was made aware of the first plane hitting and within 5-10 minutes we had a TVs setup in the support room, the engineer room, and the sales break room. During that day I monitored a number of forums, news feeds, and RSS feeds.

There were all kinds of rumors flying across the Internet. Flight 93 that crashed into Pennsylvania was reported to have been shot down by Air Force jets at the time by MSNBC. The Pentagon was reported to have been destroyed at one time. And people were wondering if we were ever going to fly again.

It was a crazy day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by infinite monkey ... Later, a snotnose rich guy came into the Kiltie Room (the bar room at the club) after he got off the golf course, snorted, and said "Who'd we piss off now?" Maybe he didn't understand the gravity of the situation at the time, ...

Quiet Day at Microsoft

I heard it on the radio on the drive into work. I thought that traffic was especially light that morning. I got in to the call center and was greeted with deafening silence; not a single call was coming in. Not one call came in that day. We all watched news feeds and walked around like zombies. I called my parents and told them I loved them. I remember wanting to convert large parts of the middle east to planes of glass, but I knew that was just a bad knee-jerk reaction to it all. I've gone back to church since then and the more important question I ask is "How do we reach them?"

I was on vacation in oc md. Hotel room tv. Saw it from the beginning. Saw the second plane hit and knew it was no accident.

I was surprised when the towers fell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt There was one point where I crossed over a bridge into Georgetown over Rock Creek Park, and I could see the huge cloud of smoke billowing out of the Pentagon. I stopped to watch it for a while and take the whole scene in. Fighter jets flying around overhead, sirens all over the place, oily black smoke filling the sky a mile or two away. It was bad.

Mrs. G and I were celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary and enjoying a pleasant drive along the north coast of s.w. England ( work on that one ) when a news alert came on the BBC saying there would be a special bulletin shortly... we both figured that the Queen Mum had finally popped her clogs but when the bulletin did come on a min. or two later I nearly drove off the road ( I was from Boston where two of the planes originated from )
We spent the rest of the day trying to get in contact with friends and family back in the states.

Sitting in comfort at home watching training videos, evaluating and reviewing, and when one of them ended and I was rewinding the TV picture popped up showing the first tower burning and within a couple of minutes the second plane flew into the second tower.

I didn't really move for most of the rest of the day but later in the day needed to check on family friends living in NY and for some reason the brain wouldn't recall the dialling code so I called the international operator and she was crying.

My friends were fine but their neighbour was a young NY police officer and he hadn'd then made it home. He never did.

Sorry to hear of that Caz.

So sad for his fiance and his family, and friends and colleagues. I remember him tap dancing! Such a funny and bright young man and ultimately hugely courageous, but when there are anniversaries or similar I find it impossible to hold in my mind the numbers - the enormity - the sheer scale of loss and suffering and I focus on him and it is then I grasp the awful pointlessness of it all.

Nobody gained anything from his death but the loss of him and the pain of it will never ever go away.