Where were you?

[warch]

I was late for work because I stopped that morning to vote. It was a perfect Sept day. Our small office of 20 was gathered at the front desk listening to NPR online unbelieving. I called my spouse then a friend who I knew was home with tv access for confirmation. I called my parents.
I got home from work, It was still beautiful out, and the construction workers we had been waiting for for weeks had finally showed up to demolish our old garage. Mr. Warch and I sat on lawn chairs, drinking beer and pondering the huge stupid hole. Lots of neighbors wandered by looking dazed and just for human contact and to not look at the Tv.

[jinx]

the previous day....just arrived. the jeep has not moved.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

My wife and I were dozing that morning with the clock-alarm radio on, and I began swimming up from sleep to dreaming the strike on the Pentagon as the announcer described it, with the aircraft coming in low enough over the Pentagon's southeastern parking lot (the place is mostly surrounded by parking) to clip the light poles. I came fully awake to the words, "The World Trade Center is gone." We looked at each other, got up, went to the living room and turned CNN on.

The wife's workplace told her to just come in a couple hours late -- business all that day was very slack. I spent a good part of the day seeing if anyone was accepting blood donors, as we were figuring upwards of 25,000 casualties that day and the actual figure, or something near it, wasn't known until later in the week -- there were no extraordinary blood drives being set up, and few facilities available to do so in any event.

I ended up staying awake twenty-four hours straight, too furious to rest. I'm still angry.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

I spent a good part of the day seeing if anyone was accepting blood donors, as we were figuring upwards of 25,000 casualties that day and the actual figure, or something near it, wasn't known until later in the week -- there were no extraordinary blood drives being set up, and few facilities available to do so in any event.

I remember my parents going to give blood after the Kings Cross fire in 1987. I did exactly the same after the Kings Cross bombing last year.

Well, not exactly the same as we were all successful in giving (not sure if we have the same system in the UK - you can sign up to give blood free of charge quarterly, but they issue appeals for extra blood after emergencies)

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

...you can sign up to give blood free of charge quarterly...

They charge you to donate blood?!?

[breakingnews]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

I spent a good part of the day seeing if anyone was accepting blood donors, as we were figuring upwards of 25,000 casualties that day

I thought all the emergency blood drives were ridiculous. I know it helped people feel charitable from a distance ... but most of the 9/11 victims died, there were relatively few critically injured patients to give blood to.

This outpouring of generosity put the Red Cross in the spotlight until one of the news outlets made this point. If I remember correctly, donor blood can only be kept for something like 60 days; while there was a slight shortage pre-sept. 11, apparently much of the blood donated in the days following went unused.

Sorry, that was grim. Anyway, everyone who can should donate blood. Seeing blood drives all over the place post-9/11 just made me feel like time/money/effort wasn't being put in the right place.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not any grimmer than the thread subject.
You're spot on about the blood drives.... just a feel good program But, it might have been a big help to the donors, feeling they could do something, anything, when they were feeling helpless. What is needed is a steady supply of donors.
Can't they separate out the plasma to keep longer than fresh blood? Considering the blood is donated, and the hospital charges the patient a fortune, who's making the profit, the Red Cross or the hospital? Or is that for postage and handling?

[Hagar]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

... But, it might have been a big help to the donors, feeling they could do something, anything, when they were feeling helpless...

...all this talk of blood donation reminded me, I too went to give blood the day after the attacks. I'm a semi regular donor normally, but was way overdue when it all happened. I realise that this action was completely irrational in relation to 9/11, but there was just this feeling like you HAD to do something. I guess it was out of a feeling of helplessness.

That in itself troubles me a bit. I didn't really have any right to be feeling as bad as I did (do) about the attacks; like I said, I wasn't personally affected in any way. The feeling was there nonetheless. I guess it was that all our way-of-lives had been attacked, and that things wouldn't be the same again.

[bbro]

Originally Posted by breakingnews

If I remember correctly, donor blood can only be kept for something like 60 days.....

(Just an FYI)
It actually depends on the product that they are talking about - there are three different products that can be gotten out of a Whole Blood donation (There are 3 other kinds of donation):

Shelf-life
Red Cells – 42 days
Platelets – 5 days
Plasma – 1 year

[wolf]

I was at home, asleep. Someone called and woke me up because they knew I'd miss it otherwise.

I learned about the first WTC bombing because a patient told us. She was usually pretty psychotic and we didn't believe her until we turned on the radio.

[Lucy]

I was at home, trying to put together something suitable to wear to my good friend's David H.'s funeral. I spent that part of that day at the funeral home and then I went to David's favorite bar and had a couple of beers.
I remember thinking that at least David had been in heaven a couple days before the Towers were hit and he would be helpful with all the new souls. He would help them.

[JayMcGee]

I was at home, working, in the UK (for us, it hapenned at lunch-time)

The Wicked-StepDaughter poked her head around the door ' Some airplane has just crashed into some tower in New York' she says....

Oh, really, thinking some Cessna has done a King Kong into the Empire State....

Finishes off the proggie, saves it to SourceSafe (not my choice - corporate policy) and decides to check out the Beeb news-site.....

times out..... as does CNN, Reuters, Annanova....

wow! something big is going down......

dashes to front room and turns on TV to the beeb......


Christ, did the World change that day........

[Pie]

There's an interesting article on "Forbidden Thoughts about 9/11" at salon.com. The thoughts some of us were thinking, but couldn't really share.
It doesn't mention the lack of contrails and the silence, but I certainly did (guiltily) appreciate them at the time.

[breakingnews]

Originally Posted by Pie

There's an interesting article on "Forbidden Thoughts about 9/11" at salon.com. The thoughts some of us were thinking, but couldn't really share.

That was really great. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

When I saw that the towers had fallen, it was a full 10-15 minutes before I even thought to try and contact my brother. I wasn't worried about him. THat's probably because I knew he works uptown (on 15th st) and really wouldn't have any reason to be close to WTC. And at that hour, if he wasn't at the office, he'd be dead asleep in his apartment, which is also far from the site.

My first thought was "holy shit," followed very quickly by, "how are we going to put out the next day's newspaper?" I remember getting to the office and seeing some people crying, some flustered, some just quietly watching the TV. One of the executive editors came out of the ed-in-chief's office yelling, "there's NO way I'm doing production. NO way." I reacted by keeping a cool head and doing whatever was necessary to make sure the day's job still got done: talking to staff who just wanted to chat, pitching in ideas when I saw reporters struggling, letting my assistants out when they wanted to go. We were just students, but we still had a responsibility to the campus community, a large part of which was from the NJ/NY/CT area.

I shed no tears, despite growing up with NYC in my backyard. Thinking about the towers makes me solemn, but I still view it the same way I view the Iraq war - at a distance, with very few direct connections.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Pie

There's an interesting article on "Forbidden Thoughts about 9/11" at salon.com. The thoughts some of us were thinking, but couldn't really share.
It doesn't mention the lack of contrails and the silence, but I certainly did (guiltily) appreciate them at the time.

Working about a mile from the end of the Philly airport runways, the quiet was deafening. Then when they started again, every plane was startling for a couple days.

The whole WTC scene was so surreal it was almost like watching a movie that just kept going and going. I think a lot of people had a hard time figuring out how it would affect them...... their lives in Podunk, Elsewhere. Kind of like it's terrible but it's there, not here, and I have to go to work and pick up the kids and do laundry and, and, and.

I remember a debate going on, when could comedians mention the WTC? What was too soon? Laughter/humor helps us through rough times but the pros don't want to be seen as insensitive like Bill Maher.