9-11

[kindred]

Originally posted by 60FeetUnderWater

Originally posted by Canadian Tool
http://home.comcast.net/~sept11/

I tried but I couldn't watch the whole thing.

I couldn't either. But the parts I did see...very nicely done.

[Subzero316]

My heart and prays go out to all of the families on this sad day.

The Twin Towers will always be in our hearts.

[Toronto Hottie]

I spent the day watching it on TV. It was like all of Toronto just stopped - everybody stopped working, shut down, and gathered around whatever tv they could find.

All of us, complete strangers, talking like we were intimate friends, and there was a stifling sense of horror and hurt.

I cried, strange for me, I'm not much of a crier, especially when the tragedy does not directly involve me, but it was overwhelming.

I went home and hugged my children.

My heart also goes out to the families who lost loved ones that day.

[Hawt Baux]

I woke up to a phone call from my Brother who was telling me how a "plane just hit the Pentagon" and to turn the TV on etc. Since i was still in a daze from being rattled from my sleep when i turned the TV on i saw nothing but static and started to panic until i found a channel that worked then i sat on the edge of my bed as i watched the second plane fly into the second Tower. Clutching the phone in my hand my heart sank and i started sobbing.

My Mom worked for the Red Cross at the time and they were put on High Alert which was pretty much a lockdown of the building were all of them were told that they would be on 24 hour duty until instructed otherwise. We also lived by a Fort Lee so all of the roads were blocked off.

I was stuck alone in my house for 2 days until my Uncle finally got through the traffic to bring me to his house in Toms River.

Those 2 days were of the worst i EVER had to live through, i had no idea what was going to happen next and all i could do was sit and wait for what seemed like forever. My family had to take turns calling me to keep me on the phone in an attempt to distract me and calm me down.

I also knew a woman who was in the Second Tower, she was 8 months pregnant and didn't survive, no body found, nothing.

It's still surreal to think that i saw her a month prior to 9-11.

As cliche as it sounds my heart goes out to all the victims, intermediate and otherwise. This is truly a day where ALL of Amercia directly and indirectly effected will remember and carry with them forever.

[Flock of Moosen]

I was at my job and then the guy I worked with said a plane hit the WTC. My first thought, like many others, was it was a small plane and it was just an accident. As soon as we heard the 2nd one hit though it was obvious what had happened and that's when my heart sunk. Then when I heard on the radio that there was or might have been a daycare center in the building, that was when I first cried.

I'm ashamed to say in my 35 yrs., I've never once been to the World Trade Center and now unfortunately it's too late. Even though I had never been there and did not lose anyone in the attacks, it still affected me pretty hard. Even now, if I'm watching a documentary on it, if they show the family members holding up pictures of those they lost, I tear up. It's just so sad to know the pain and horror they've gone through.

My heart goes out to everyone lost in the attacks and their families.

[FollowThisLogic]

I got into work early that day, about 8:20. Work, at the time, was split between Lakewood, NJ, and an office between 30th and 31st on 5th Ave - I only went to the NYC office on Tuesdays. And indeed, it was a Tuesday.

When I got in, I started helping an executive with his new Palm VIIx, setting it up, and using AvantGo to sync websites onto it.

Everything is going fine, AvantGo is doing its sync.... then it slows to a crawl. First thought, ah shit, something's fucked with our internet connection. Opened IE, tried yahoo.com.... no go. CNN.com.... nothing. OpieAnthony.com.... what the fuck? It came right up. I didn't go reading any threads, because ya never know what you might find (little did I know that I would have found out what was going on there)....

He also had some Jewish news site in the sync (the company was VERY Jewish, especially the top execs - all family).... so I tried that site. It took a few refreshes to get something to come up, and when it did, we saw "plane hits World Trade Center". We both had the same thought: Eh, some idiot in a Cessna, just another JFK Jr. or something. I even remember mentioning that the Empire State Building got hit long ago, but that was in dense fog... hmm.. weird....

A few more refreshes on the same site produced "two planes hit World Trade Center"......... uh oh. Now something is up. We rush out of his office to find another exec and two exec assistants huddled around a radio, shushing us when we ask what the hell's going on.... but we knew. By then it was 9:20.

The realization only came later, that from 8:45 until we left his office, we'd heard constant sirens on 5th Ave, a major route downtown... we were on the 4th floor, you just learn to ignore sirens, they happen all the time.

I went back to my desk, to look at my laptop, see what I could see. I was still able to sign onto AOL, so that was good, and that's where I got up-to-date on what was happening. I also turned on my walkman, to see what the Sports Guys had to say. The worst thing that came up in all of the news reports was "there are still other planes in the air that haven't been accounted for".

And here I am, three blocks from the Empire State Building, watching footage of 767's obliterating the WTC. So, I got scared.

I helped the mailroom guy set up a TV as best we could - it had no antenna, paperclips and tinfoil was all we had to work with, but it was enough to see both towers go down.

Back at my desk, listening to Don and Mike, there was a moment where the radio went silent. For a good few seconds. I jumped up, and ran to the window facing the Empire State (where the WNEW broadcast comes from).... okay, whew, it was still there.

People were IMing me, telling me to get the fuck out. And go where? I live in Jersey, I'm not walking to the GWB. (Hadn't thought of the NY Waterway ferry, but it still wouldn't have done much good.) So I just waited. It was announced that around 4:15, NJ Transit would be turned back on. My co-worker, Kathy, lived in Princeton, and I was in Trenton, so we took the same train line. We waited for her dad, who walked up from downtown.... he couldn't get his car out of the parking garage. We all walked down to Penn, and caught the first train we could get on, with people from all over, with all sorts of stories. Some had been in the towers.

Going back to Lakewood the next day was awful, because no one understood. It was business as usual, while I was just thinking, are you CRAZY? Don't you know what happened yesterday?! That was the worst part for me.... 75 miles out of the city, no one gave a shit, one day after it happened.

As for right now, seeing pictures of the towers, as they were.... it's sad, but it also pisses me off, because I hate what's going up in their place. It's not the same. It's not New York.

[BITENY]

I remember the next day- I sure as hell was NOT going into work. The fucking dothead ceo of the company I worked for lived all of 10 mins from the office- so you know for sure that he was coming in. Regardless. But at the same time, you weren't sure.
I called up at 8am to leave a msg that I wasn't coming in & what do you know?? The jerkoff is in the office, conducting business and acting all happy go lucky on the phone with me (he's a phony fuck bastard--- and its so obvious) saying "well, we hope to see you tomorrow!" and I'm like "yeah, I'll be back" as much as I didn't wanna go back, I did.
The train ride was eerily (sp.) silent (and i saw someone i knew on the train- we conversated made a few jokes and one lady turned to him & offered him $20 to shut up......ouch.) But when I got in, I didn't feel comfortable at all. I didn't wanna be anywhere near Manhattan at all. I sat at my desk in a daze, my head feeling very light. When it was time to eat lunch, I couldn't eat & read the paper at the same time. I had lost my appetite while I was eating.
A friend of mine worked a few blocks from there in lower manhattan- he didn't return to work for a week & a 1/2. And he was traumatized. Being that close to it as he was, I would be as well.