09/11/01. What are your memories?

[globalvillage]

On Sept 10, 2001, I was in Boston. I had been there several days, and flew from Boston to DC to Denver on the 10th. I awoke on 9/11 in a hotel room to the sight and sounds of planes crashing into buildings on the TV, thought it was a horrible accident, went to work, and learned the awful news with my co-workers. I took the train back to Pittsburgh several days later, so anxious to see my family and my home.
That is the one thought that consumed me while I was stranded. I was afraid, but I didn't think much about that. What I thought about was being home. Everyone on the train felt the same. All we wanted was to be home.
How must the people of the LA, MS and AL feel? People who don't have a home to go back to?
I can't even imagine.

:cry:

[TayTay]

1. I was at work.

I saw the tiny little AP story go by live news about a plane hitting the WTC. I thought it was a single-engine thing. I looked outside and the sky was so clear and blue that it looked like a postcard setting. I remember a woman from accounting coming over and yelling that we should go into the cafeteria and see the TV. I went in and saw about 15 people standing around the TV set watching the events unfold. Several people were crying.

Later on, as events got worse and the magnitude of the events began to settle in, we were called into a meeting and told to get ready to go full-out on this. We would be putting up a special live web site and putting up breaking news from all sources as it affected the disaster in NYC. We all had to get a fully functioning website up in hours and it had to have regular news and news by topic, as those topics were affected by events. We couldn't even think of going home. We had to deliver the news. I called home and my kids were okay.

We learned about the planes and how they had left Boston for New York. (Shame on us. That thought was with me for many days. A lot of people in Boston felt shame. Those planes originated at Logan. It was hard to mourn, because, dammit, they started those flights here. Shame.) My heart skipped a beat when I found out bout the planes. My brother takes a flight to San Francisco every other week. It wasn't his week, thank gawd, he was safe at the office. Keep working. We have to get the news out. It's our job. Just do it.

Later on, we had a news producer who had to back out. He was prepping a story to go out and read the name of a close friend in the list of the dead. I saw the names of people I knew, including the brave AA stewardess who had called in and had given live reports to the airlines on what was going on. She was from Danvers, MA, my home town. Brave woman. A teacher in town, only 25, lost her husband. The pilot of one of the planes was from the next town over. He was a hell of a guy, worked with some Vietnamese folks in the area on farming concerns.

The day finally ended. No traffic at all going home. Just my thoughts and all that news to read. Cuz it's my job. Most of the time the news just passes over ya in a big wave, and unless I purposely enter the stream, it's just so much data. Not that day. I didn't really want to read the news for a little while. I was afraid to find any more names.

[whometense]

2. I remember the weather.

It was such a perfectly beautiful day.

My older son had just moved to NYC the week before to start grad school. I heard the first news story on NPR as I was pulling into the parking lot at work, and at that point it sounded like a small plane had lost its way - disturbing and tragic enough, but nothing of course like it proved to be later. By the time I'd gotten into my office someone had brought a small tv into the kitchen and everyone was gathered around it, shocked.

My son's school was way up on the Upper West Side and it seemed highly unlikely that he was anywhere near the WTC; as it turned out, the school had herded all the students into a basement-level auditorium (very small school) and kept them there all morning, until they were sure it was safe. The kids passed around the few cellphones they had so everyone could make a brief call home. I started crying when I heard his voice - it was the first time I realized I'd been holding my breath all morning.

I remember when I left work that afternoon I kept looking up at that beautiful clear blue sky, as if waiting for I wasn't sure what. Death from the sky, I guess. The contrast between the weather and the event was so stark.

[globalvillage]

4. OMG. You poor thing.

I knew my daughter was safe, although I couldn't be with her. You must have been terrified to be so far away from your son, and to know he was so close to 'ground zero'.
Shit. bush* is on TV now talking about how there will 'be ample time to find out what went right and what went wrong' with Katrina. We still haven't figured out 9/11 yet, asshole. Well, maybe you have, but I haven't.
This jerk off has got to go. I don't think I can take three more years of this disastrous administration. I know I won't feel safe until he's out of the WH.

[globalvillage]

3. I can't sleep.

I think I'm afraid of what I'll see on TV when I wake up tomorrow morning. Is that irrational? I don't recall feeling that way last year. I guess the govt response to Katrina has left me feeling that we are vulnerable, much more so than afer 09/11/01. The feeling is not a familiar one, and it's starting to tick me off that I can't stop it.
This year on Sept 11, I'm home, thankfully. We still don't plan travel over the 11th, so I guess it's not just me.
I know it must have been horrible to have been in Boston on the 11th, Tay Tay. Many of the people I was traveling with were at Logan, waiting for their flights when it happened. One group was in the air. The rest drove home to Nebraska and Denver.
We went back to Boston several weeks after 9/11. We drove, and stopped in NYC on the way. Lower Manhattan was still heavy with the smell of smoke. We drove because were just not ready to fly. It took months before I could manage to board a plane again.

Sorry for the doom and gloom, but no happy thoughts tonight. Guess I'll try to get some sleep and hope for the best.

[New Earth]

5. I remember, the night before September 11,

....I wrote a poem about an attack and people dying, blood in the streets, and a country in shock that something tragic could happen to them. Of course, didn't think anything of it, it was just a poem.

The next day, I'm at work - well, my job at the time - and i'm in the office with the two girls i worked with. the one girl, her boyfriend's mom called and told her that a plane had just crashed into the WTC. at the time, it was thought to have been some kind of accident, there was no info whatsoever as to how it happened. not long after, she called again to say that a second plane had crashed into it. then i felt so strange, i knew it couldn't be an accident anymore. then one of the guys who worked there came in our office and said that on the news they are saying they think it's probably terrorists. soon after, another phone call. a plane just crashed into the Pentagon. at that moment, i knew it. You hit the U.S. pentagon, that means war. I knew at that point where things were going....then of course, one plane hits the ground in PA which was thought to have been trying to get to D.C.

i was in shock, as everyone was - crying a bit, scared, confused, the whole day and weeks that followed, everyone at work were like zombies. such a somber silence in everyone. but at the same time, such a feeling of unity. everyone was feeling the same thing.

anyway, that night i go home and watch the news - see the planes crashing into the buildings, over and over and watching the stress, shock, and fatigue in Peter Jennings (RIP) - realizing what i had written the night before, as well as learning that my boyfriend at the time had been freestyling the same night i wrote the poem, about the same thing - about an attack, war, people dying, etc. that whole era was memorable for me, not just the Sept. 11th 'attacks', but what was going on in my life. surely a time to remember, or try to forget.

and as a reminder - Iraq had nothing to do with it.

[BlueIris]

7. Know what's strange? I've tried and tried and tried to recall

what I was doing the night before, and I've got nothing. Ever. No clue. It's a lost day to me.

[karynnj]

6. There are so many images of that day that immediately come to mind

Two of my kids were home with bad viruses. My other daughter had switched that year from the public middle school to a local private school. She was dropped off by my husband who then drove to work in a NJ town across the river from NY.

I had a car appointment and decided to keep it, because the two kids would likely not wake up until I got home. It was an extremely clear absolutely gorgeous day with the bluest sky imaginable. After about an hour, my car was ready and I left. Switching on the radio, I started to drive the 15 minutes home. The initial report was very matter of fact and it really seemed like it might be a disaster, but a very small one. As I neared the driveway, they reported on the second plane - and it was obvious it was terrorism, but the radio didn't say so.

I went to my room and closed the door (so I didn't wake up the girls) and put the TV on. Irrationally, I called my husband to make sure he was in NJ - his company is headquartered in NYC, but in midtown. Some people in his company had a view of the towers and while they were looking at the fire, many saw the second plane hit. My husband was lucky not to have. The company opted to close early.

Watching TV, the whole situation seemed unreal. I had worked in one of the small WTC buildings in 1975-1976, while a NJ corporate headquarters was being built. I had not thought of the building for decades, but suddenly I could see in my mind the PATH (NJ-NY rapid transit) terminal in the basement of the WTC that I used each morning and the jumble of stores and food places I passed on the ground level walking to 5 World Trade Center with such clarity I could have drawn an accurate diagram down to the place where I would get a coffee and danish to take up to my office. The horror of people following the normal routine of their work day suddenly being thrown into a war zone was beyond comprehension. (The death toll would have been much higher if it were a half hour later, because a large % of people started work at 9)

My daughter called from school, using another kid's cell phone, just wanting to check that everyone was ok. The school usually banned cell phones during the school day - but they encouraged people to share theirs. Many kids had parents who worked in the city and some couldn't be reached - they all ended up being safe - but many kids were terrified. My daughter's English teacher took the class to the arboretum adjacent to the school and sat with the class as they talked about their feelings. (The school had made the decision to stay open but let anyone leave, because they could provide a secure, caring place and some kids would be returning to empty houses.)

The elemantary and middle schools in our town used the emergency information cards to call parents (or the alternative contact if they couldn't reach a parent) before any of the buses left. The kids whose parents couldn't be reached were kept at school until someone could pick them up -several teachers stayed with them. One of the kids in my youngest daughter's grade lost her dad. (there were 4 people from my town who died - but I knew none of them. I had met the wife of the one whose son was in my daughter's grade, because we had both volunteered to help on the same science project for the then 5th graders.)

The oddest thing was driving around on an equisitely beautiful day where every thing looked the same as it did the day before - except for one thing. On the main road out of the area I live in going towards the east (Morristown), when you approached the crest of the hill, you could see the towers way in the distance on a clear day. I saw them that morning, afterwards I tried not to look because the nothingness hurt.

[BlueIris]

8. I feel for the Katrina survivors, too.

They must be in agony today.

I really, really don't like thinking about September 11 memories. There were so many bad things going on in my life at that time. My abusive ex, my abusive family, my declining health status, increasing hopelessness surrounding George W. Bush and the "future" of America. What's frustrating me today is that for the past three years, I've been going through stressful things on September 11, yet there was always a very positive element to each of those anniversaries. Example: last September 11 sucked as badly as usual, but I managed to register a lot of voters in my area. Today? I've got nothing to mitigate the pain. Well, apart from all that housework I've got to do later. That should take my mind off of things.

All best, everyone. It wouldn't be good for me to remember anything more right now.

[Island Blue]

9. I also remember what an absolutely beautiful day it was

on the East Coast. I was at work and my mom called me to tell me about the first plane hitting the tower. My boss and I went over to the public relations office (where there's a television) and a small group of folks had gathered and were watching in disbelief. It was a busy day (we were supposed to have several meetings that day) so after watching for a while we went back to our office. Almost as soon as we left, the second plane hit. We went back to the PR office (along with everyone else) and just starred (and cried). One of the guys said "there is no way the towers will collapse" but of course he was wrong. Our meetings for the day were canceled.

I also remember trying to figure out where my older brother was. He flies almost every day, and we didn't know his schedule. Turns out he was fine (he was in California). He immediately rented a car and drove frantically back to his family in Kentucky, having no idea what else was going to happen next.

Since 9/11, there have been a few days when I dread that something terrible is going to happen because the day is as crisp and clear as it was on that day. The same autumn smell is in the air. I honestly think that is what I will always remember the most - what an absolutely perfect day it was.

[whometense]

10. There are two absolutely wonderful articles

on Salon today. One is by Bill Moyers

. . . .But it is never only the number of dead by which terrorists measure their work. It is also the number of living -- the survivors -- taken hostage to fear. Their mission was to invade our psyche, get inside our heads -- deprive us of trust, faith and peace of mind; keep us from ever again believing in a safe, just and peaceful world, and from working to bring that world to pass. Writer Terry Tempest Williams has said "the human heart is the first home of democracy." Fill that heart with fear and people will give up the risks of democracy for the assurances of security; fill that heart with fear and you can shake the house to its foundations.

In the days leading up to 9/11 our daughter and husband adopted their first baby. On the morning of Sept. 11 our son-in-law passed through the shadow of the World Trade Center toward his office a few blocks up the street. He arrived as the horrors erupted. He saw the flames, the falling bodies, the devastation. His building was evacuated, and for long awful moments he couldn't reach his wife, our daughter, to say he was OK. Even after they connected it wasn't until the next morning that he was able to make it home. Throughout that fearful night our daughter was alone with their new baby. Later she told us that for weeks thereafter she would lie awake at night, wondering where and when it might happen again, going to the computer at 3 in the morning to check out what she could about bioterrorism, germ warfare, anthrax and the vulnerability of children. The terrorists had violated a mother's deepest space. . . .

[whometense]

11. The second is by

novelist Stacey D'Erasmo

. . . . I don't have an emergency plan, no one I know has an emergency plan, but we all have the idea in the back of our minds that we need to be prepared to walk: walk across the bridge, walk the neighborhoods to get the vote out, walk out of the demolished city. Take the dog, or leave the dog behind. Two days after Sept. 11, the midtown office building I was working in was evacuated, and I joined the crowds walking down Seventh Avenue. Only now does it seem odd that no one was running.

It's so basic, walking. So mundane a movement and, at the same time, so indicative of the epic moment we find ourselves in. Odysseus walked. The Trojans walked. The Israelites walked. Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have become accustomed to images of people in ragged groups walking through destroyed landscapes infinitely bigger than themselves, to images of people dragging what they can carry out of the ruins. We have also become accustomed to images of people falling from unimaginable heights and people clinging to trees or rooftops as water covers the world. To the dead floating, arms and legs spread, through the streets. They look so small. So mortal. Forked creatures, clinging to tree branches and chimneys, or stumbling out of the blast, faces white with ash. . . . .

[europegirl4jfk]

12. It was 3pm in the afternoon here in France...

I will never forget it. Tuesday is the weekday when the women of the European Association meet regularly in a bistro at the harbor, and I was about to leave when my best friend's husband called me and told me to switch on the TV. The first plane had just crashed in the tower and French TV had switched to CNN live. We watched in disbelieve when the second plane hit. Eventually my mom and I left for the meeting and informed the other women there what had happened. They were shocked but I don't think they really realized what was going on. I did. And couldn't just sit there outside the bistro and talk about other stuff. I went inside and watched TV with the bistro's owner, a young French guy, never too serious and almost ready to tell a joke. This day he was totally different. I had never seen him so in shock. Then the first tower fell we cried together. I went home and stayed clued to CNN with Aaron Brown and then Paula Zahn for the whole night.

My life changed this day too. Until then I had some American friends, met mostly on the internet and I had once been to California for one week. But I didn't really know more about your country than other Europeans do. I knew my American friends weren't happy at all when Bush was (s)elected but I didn't think about it so much. We too here in France or in my native Germany had sometimes politicians elected we didn't like at all. But that's life, I thought, and after a few years they are gone again and others come along. Never in my life had I dreamed that Bush could do so much harm to the world.

After 9/11 I never stopped watching CNN International and my heart went out to all Americans. My English became better by watching US TV and I started to have more serious discussions with my American friends. And I soon realized how controversial Bush was. A lot of people here could understand the war against Afghanistan, but when he started talking about Iraq we couldn't follow his reasoning anymore. Not only the people here in Europe but a lot of the Americans I knew as well. I got drawn into your politics more and more and looked at the Democratic candidates when the primaries approached. To be honest, the only one I really knew a bit was Wes Clark from his time in Europe. I liked him a lot but I immediately liked John Kerry too and started to read more about this guy. What a great guy and what interesting life he had! That's how I became a big supporter of JK and the rest is history...

[sandnsea]

13. Sitting on my front porch

In absolute shock, and looking up at the helicopter flying over; knowing that it was not a life saving transport to the next larger town; but that for the first time in my life, the military was in the skies because my country was under attack. Quite unnerving.

But I also had the very secure knowledge that I had a community that would be supportive and protective no matter what. These folks in MS and LA, they don't even have community any more. In the long run, I suspect that will be the hardest thing of all.

[ginnyinWI]

14. it marked a change in my view of the USA

We were no longer a separate, safe island in the world, but a part of it. And I became much more aware of world events, because they mattered more personally to me and my family. In the Midwest we had little fear of an attack here, but I worried more for my two big-city kids off at college (at the time) anyway.

I can remember going to the grocery store that afternoon, and everything looked exactly the same--but it wasn't. Now we knew for sure that we had enemies in the world. People who hated us simply because we were Americans. That's not fair, but that's how it is. Now we were all little Salman Rushdies. Show up in the wrong place and you might be killed.

This awareness led me directly to paying a lot more attention to the next presidential election. I already knew the chimp was a chump, but this time it was serious--we needed grown-ups in charge! And wonder of wonders, a real grown-up, John Kerry, did show up. Sigh. If only, if only.