Where were you 6 years ago today?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Kiki

New Yorker
Joined
Oct 24, 2001
Messages
2,716
Location
mainly in my fantasy land.....ooooo how I wish it
I know there's a remembrance tribute thread for 9/11/01, but I thought I'd ask the question.....where were you when you found out? How did you handle that day and the days after?

For me, I was in Nursing school at the time (first try in Nursing school...now back for my 2nd and final). I had the day off of class actually and didn't have to work. I was getting up to go study at the library, and for what ever reason I'd left my cell phone charging in the bathroom over night. I was blow drying my hair when my phone started flashing at me. My best friend was calling, so I answered. She was hysterical. I couldn't understand anything she was saying or asking, she finally just said..."TURN THE NEWS ON".

I turned the TV on and saw smoke and flames and just.....confusion and a mess in New York City. She kept going on and on saying something about Washington D.C. and I couldn't understand how she was so confused about D.C. and New York. I was dating someone who lived out there and while I was at work the night before, he had messaged my best friend on aol and was chatting with her. He told her that the next day he was going with another one of our friends to see their friend who worked in the Pentagon. I knew he was planning on going over there...but I didn't know he was planning on that day. So he was actually at the Pentagon that day, and thats 1 reason why my best friend was freaking out.

I still couldn't quite understand who or why or what was going on. My mom had taken my grandma to the hospital for an MRI that day and she went in for her test just as the first tower was hit. She had no idea what was going on for that entire hour. When they got home they found me standing in front of the tv, just in complete shock.
My mom was a travel agent at the time and had a huge clientele of business people. She left to get to her office to check on all her clients and to make sure all were accounted for. My dad was working in the Crown building directly across from the Sears Tower in Chicago. He was the head of the credit department for an international business based out of Europe. His office was a corner office over looking Union Station and the Sears Tower. He said that he watched as people ran frantically for the train station, not knowing for sure where the next attack would take place, but following the recomendations of the news anchors to evacuate cities and high rises. He had to wait for everyone in his company to evacuate their departments before he could go. When he finally got to the train station and got on a train to get home, both towers had fallen.

The phone started ringing off the hook at our house, every time I picked it up, it was another accent from another country on the other end, frantically asking if my Dad was accounted for, who I knew of from the company that was in New York City or D.C., what was going on in the States?

Not knowing what else to do and not knowing when I'd get through to my boyfriend or where he was or when I'd get through to any of our friends or family....I drove out to my campus and sat in one of the buildings watching on the big screen, everything that was going on.

Phone lines were down all day, I couldn't get a text message to him, couldn't get a call through. I couldn't reach any one out in the D.C. area.

There were all these news reports going on and on about this man named Osama Bin Laden, and reports about how they kept moving the President and Air Force One, and how the vice president was in hiding.

I remember watching the Presidental address that evening and listening to my Grandma tell me, "Kristen....you woke up in one world this morning.....and you're going to go to sleep in a completely different world tonight. The world you used to know doesn't exist any more. America's been attacked."

That still sends chills down my spine.

I went out for coffee with some friends that night and we just sat outside and looked up at the sky. There were military planes flying over head and surrounding a lab near by.

I finally got a call that night, my boyfriend had been there, he had gotten hurt and had been taken to the hospital...but it was nothing anywhere as serious or life threatening as everyone else.
 
I was in Seattle. I woke up and turned on the computer, and saw a little headline on the Yahoo front page that said a small (I think) plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

I thought at first it was a minor incident, but quickly realized the world was changed forever. Turned on the TV, watched transfixed and horrified for the next several days.

We had a couple of very beautiful memorials over the next week or so in Seattle -- just a tremendous outpouring of grief and compassion.

One of the memorials was at the Seattle Center, where the Space Needle is. Thousands of people came and placed flowers in the center fountain. I shot hundreds of photos. I remember that the Sikh community in Seattle was being targeted with a lot of slurs and so forth, and I saw a lot of Sikhs carrying signs at the memorial saying things like "We are Americans too". The crowd really supported them. Seattle firefighters and police came to the memorial as well, and were roundly cheered.
 
I was in high school, but much to my frustration they kept us sheltered and wouldn't let us know what was going on, even though there was obviously something wrong because the teachers were shaken up.

I didn't fully understand what had happened until I got home and as I walked in I saw it on TV and could barely comprehend what had happened.
 
I was on my computer here in Birmingham when I found out about the attacks. People were posting notes about the bombing, arguing who was to blame, etc, etc. Some people blamed Clinton, accusing him of ignoring the military. I blame the terrorists, not Clinton. They're a bunch of scum. Of course Bush and Co. have manipulated the hell out of the whole thing. It's disgusting.:censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored:
 
I woke to and logged on to interference.Com and began reading threads like these where I first found out about 9-11.

http://forum.interference.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55601&highlight=World+Trade+Center
http://forum.interference.com/t46264.html

http://forum.interference.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55713&highlight=WTC+Pentagon+Attack


My ex wife called me up crying frantically asking "Dave what is going on"?

I tried to calm her and the kids, explaining that it looked like some bad people systematically commandeered planes and used them as weapons against our country.

dbs
 
verte76 said:
Of course Bush and Co. have manipulated the hell out of the whole thing.

:banghead:

Can we please leave this garbage out of one thread?

You see, statements like that make me want to respond to your Clinton statement (which would subsequently lead to this thread going waaay off-topic), but not here, not now, not today.

Can't we just have a respectful, reflecting discussion about the day?

PLEASE?
 
I was in fifth grade, and they didn't tell us anything. All they told us was that we weren't having recess, which led to explanations ranging from wild bears to mowing the lawns. I came home, and my dad was home, which normally he wouldn't be cause of work. They'd been to a funeral that day, so I figured he must have come home instead of going into work. Then I saw the TV, and I recognized the buildings. I'd seen them for the first time three weeks ago on a trip to see a Yankees game in the Bronx, so I'd had them on the mind a bit. I thought that they'd been bombed, seeing the explosions over and over again.
 
i was in college. back in those days, the first thing you did when you woke up was hop on your computer to check messages. everyone's away message (who wasn't at class) said "watching the news" or something to that effect. so i flipped on the telly, and i saw the burning building. then, within seconds, and live on air, i saw the 2nd flight crash into the other tower.

i was in shock. i couldn't believe what i had seen with my very own eyes. i was horrified yet i couldn't stop watching. i heard screams in the hallway, and crying and running.

then i got the 2nd worst news of my life...i heard something similar was happening in dc. i immediately tried to reach my parents' cells & work phones, but i couldn't get through. (they work in dc). i just lied there on the cold tile floor in a pool of my own tears while i kept pressing the green key on my phone.

i eventually got a call from my mother, who said she was trapped in her office and was under her desk. she said she and my dad were fine (although i wouldn't get to speak to him until later that evening b/c the lines were a mess).

once i regained composure, i remembered a good friend of mine was studying in NYC. thankfully, she posted in her journal to let everyone know she was okay. i also found out via internet that the mother of a friend of mine (who worked at the pentagon) was injured but doing well.

it is in moments like these i'm so grateful for the internet. just like the texts irvine posted earlier, it is really a brilliant way to reach out to others and tell them what is up, especially when phone lines are down.
 
As some of you Interlanders know I actually am based in Sarasota, FL, and I was actually at the home office on the morning of 9/11/01. I needed to pick up a co worker and she said to purposely go by SRQ (Sarasota-Bradenton Airport) because we might be able to see Air Force One Pres. Bush as you all know was in town to do a reading at a Grammer School about 3 miles away from our Office complex.

At about 8:30 I received my final emails regarding me to fly to the Northeast for Customer, Vendor and Satelite Warehousing visits. I called our Company's Travel Agency and as I was speaking to the Travel Agent I heard a HUGE commotion coming from our operation center, which was outside of my office. My travel agent just let me know that a plane had just crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings we booked my travel (the very next Tuesday, and flying into Reagan on my way to Boston). I walked into Operations and the employees were huddled around a radio and as we first thought (incorrectly) that a small cessna-type plane hit the Trade Center by accident.

Minutes later we then heard a second large plane hit the South Tower and we all figured out that this wasn't any accidents.

At 9:30 we heard many police sirens (this was Bush's motorcade going back to fly him out of SRQ) and soon after saw Air Force One taking off from the Airport.

As I look back now, I remember this day so clearly because I was thinking that the news couldn't get much worse and as the events were unfolding each news bulletin got worse and worse. We all headed to a nearby eatery/bar that we all frequented at luch time and after hours and I remember feeling so alone in the middle of that crowded bar room as I saw for the first time when the Towers actually fell. It was horrifying, we were trying to get in touch with colleagues and freinds that were in the Towers or nearby - it was just a huge night mare.

And the last thing I remember so clearly as I got on that plane flying into Philadelphia (instead of Reagan) realizing that there was no one on that plane or even in the usually crowded Concourses of these airports and thinking to myself I really hope that I get home to see my family and freinds safely...

I lived to love ATYCLB in those days following these events, I remember not really liking this CD at first and I saw them early on the Elevation Tour and wasn't too impressed, but seeing them in Tampa two months after 9/11 and seeing thos names scrolling down just hit me so emotionally... it was just amazing.

I'm so sorry if this post was rambling and doesn't make much sense but the events of that day touched so many peoples lives that I know so very well.
 
My oldest son had just started kindergarten and was giving me somewhat of a hard time of going. My younger son was starting a mommy and me class with friends of ours. My husband called to tell me to turn on the tv and I couldn't believe it, I didn't think it was that serious I thought it was a small plane that had crashed. By the time I got into the car and put the radio on I realized that this was bad. We got to the class and the teacher said lets not act like we're panicking and we will try to have a class. Some of the other mothers in the group, had husbands who worked there. Luckily, they all got out alive. One women got a phone call that said the tower fell and then the next. Needless to say the class was then cut short. I came home and found that my sons school was in lock down. I kept walking around the block to see if any parents were taking their kids home early. The secretary said it was upto the descretion of the parents. I decided to let him stay being it was only the 5th day of school. Meanwhile, jets were flying over all day, my son got a kick out of it and had no idea as to what was going on. I had called my husband to come home, I guess because I didn't know what was going and I was a little nervous. He came home at 2 that day.

It was such a terrible day, I was glued to the news for days
hoping they would find survivors. I also remembering how much I cried for people that had lost their live and their loved ones.

A girl a knew died that day, we used to go out dancing all the time in our younger years. She was supposed to get remarried and start all over after her first husband was abusive to her. She never started over.
 
2861U2 said:


:banghead:

Can we please leave this garbage out of one thread?

You see, statements like that make me want to respond to your Clinton statement (which would subsequently lead to this thread going waaay off-topic), but not here, not now, not today.

Can't we just have a respectful, reflecting discussion about the day?

PLEASE?

:applaud:

I agree with this. I didn't start this thread to bash a former President or our current one. Today is not about that or about what side of the government you agree with or don't agree with. Give it a rest for at least one day to remember what we should be concentrating on today of all days.
 
I had just finished a university class, and stopped at my credit union on my way to work. It was actually located inside a television building at the time. Every monitor on the wall was tuned to the same broadcast. Shaky camerawork of some building in a large city. Everyone just stopped, as the details started pouring in.

It was a day of absolute contrast, being the most beautiful September day I can recall...not a cloud in the sky. The airport quickly shut down, but not before accommodating countless numbers of aircraft on 'safe' Canadian soil. All roads to the airport were also shut down to traffic, as a security measure. I walked. I had to see it for myself. There, on the runway, were the sleek airliners, the jumbo jets, the small bush planes...all wingtip to wingtip. Colours of every country.

I phoned my dad on my cell, and he said, "You'll remember this day for the rest of your life." How right he was.

That evening, again, not a cloud. But, most strikingly, not a plane in the sky...nothing.

I've never felt more human as I did that day. I got the sense that everything is instantly changeable, for better and for worse. And, how, as a species, we've got the power to control our destiny and our path.
 
I was at home, sleeping, when my phone started ringing. Since I didn't have to get up for another hour or so, I ignored it. It kept on ringing and ringing, and since I was the only one home, I got up to answer. It was my roomie's fiance, and he couldn't get the words out properly. From what I could understand it sounded like he was saying "World War 3."

We didn't have a TV at the time, so I turned on the radio to a news channel, and slowly began to understand what was happening. I was in total shock.

I sat on our living room floor listening to the announcers try to keep their composure, but one woman in particular could not stop sobbing, and she eventually left, I think. I couldn't believe what I was hearing - it felt like it was out of a movie or something.

After a while I clued in that my parents were scheduled to be flying that day, and I began to freak out. I didn't know where in the US they were, and of course I automatically began to believe the worst. I was unable to get thru to their cell phones.

Shortly thereafter my dad's secretary called to say she had heard from them. They were safe, but stranded at an airport. Since they were on standby, they ended up having to stay at the airport for about 5 days until they were able to catch a flight home.

I remember getting ready for my day, and feeling as if I was in a fog. I rode the bus, and could not stop crying. Nobody around me seemed to know or care what was going on, and that pissed me off so much.

Our university cancelled classes for the day, and there was a chapel service in our gym. It was packed - I don't think I had ever been to a service that had been that full before. Half of the school's population is American, so understandably so many people were distraught.

I remember holding onto my friends and crying and praying, and not knowing what to do.

Later that afternoon, after I'd had enough of watching the footage on TV, a few of us went to a park. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. I remember being so angry that it was such a perfect day weather-wise, but everything was far from perfect.

Like so many of you, I remember that day so clearly, and will never forget.
 
I was sitting on a peaceful hillside in the Swiss Alps, living at a spiritual retreat center/community. I had spent my day reading and studying the topic of "if God exists, why is there such evil in the world?" Heavy stuff and very intellectually stimulating. Upon finishing my reading, I walked up to the chalet where we all lived in order to go to dinner. When I walked in, it was eerily quiet and no one was around. One of the other students ran out of the kitchen and asked if I'd heard. Heard what? "About the attack on the World Trade Center!" I thought he was talking about the time several years previously when a tiny plane had been flown into the side of one of the buildings. He kept repeating that no, that wasn't what he was talking about...that it had happened again with bigger planes and that the towers had fallen down.

We all went upstairs to watch CNN on the one television in the house. It was hard to know what to think or feel. The next day I was in Geneva spending my day off there. Complete strangers approached me on the train and asked if I was an American, offered their condolences.

I was very lucky to be where I was. We spent a lot of time talking about the event and discussing the moral, philosophical, ethical ramifications throughout the next few weeks. I feel like we were in such a safe environment and I don't mean that in only a physical sense. We were safe from the mass media and the spin and a lot of that kind of stuff. We had a chance to process the grief and the disbelief together in community. Not everyone was American, but we all came together and supported each other.
 
I was also at school...but during the day I was :mad: at a few people (over two periods) were :blahblah:ing while I was trying to listen to whatever was going on (the radio during my second period....which was when one of the towers fell and during my sixth period when my teacher wanted to talk about what happened.)

I do remember Bush being moved around....cause seventh period was the only time I got to watch tv (I didn't see any of the other footage until I got home).
 
diamond said:


I think this is the thread you may have been looking for.

http://forum.interference.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55651&highlight=turn+on+tv


I was at work and found out from that thread. Then of course looked online and saw what was going on.
 
It was my 4th day at my new job and I was working off-site at our clients company, about an hour and half away from the office. Being the early bird that I was, I went to the clients office and was confined to a little conference room around 8am.

As time went on, I was wondering why no one else from the office was showing up. I attempted to call, and no one answered, and "all circuits were busy." I peered my head out of the conference room and heard all sorts of chatter and didn't quite understand what was going on. I headed out to my car in the parking lot to use my cell phone where I then heard construction workers talking about how "....it's right out of a movie...." I finally got a hold of my father who had told me what was going on. I decided to hit the road and head home. Not knowing what was going to happen next, I made my journey back up the Garden State Parkway. After I got home I checked in with my dad. Turned out that my brother was in the city that morning, but luckily he was in and out prior to any of the events. I also spent some time trying to phone my ex-fiancee's mother to see if he was safe as he was working at the Pentagon. He too was ok. I spent the remainder of the day with a friend glued to the television set wondering what had just happened and if it would happen again. It was incredibly eerie not hearing any cars on the road or any airplanes nor trains. The silence was scary.

I live about a block from a train station that has a direct rail into the city. It was hard to see all the commuter cars that still remained in the parking lot.
 
Last edited:
I was in Math class, in the 8th grade. The class ended, and I went to English. The kids were talking in the halls about how a plane had hit the Pentagon. My class and me listened to the radio and heard all about the planes hitting the World Trade Centers. I walkled home at noon (we had a short day week, it being the first week of school) and remember how silent it was, there were no planes flying at all. There was news on it on ever channel of the TV, and my family and I watched it for most of the day. I asked my dad if this ment that we were going to war, and he said that we already in it, starting 9-11.
 
It was the beginning of my Junior year of high school. I took a vocational IT(Information Technology) block class, meaning it was three periods long - the first three periods of the day. We were in a tech-y classroom, with no windows, sort of a bunker-ish atmosphere. So, after returning to the classroom after the break between second and third period, just a little before ten, one of my classmates said that this other kid had been running around the halls during the break saying something about Washington D.C. being evacuated. This kid(the one that was running around) was known to be a goof-off, though, and no one quite took him seriously, although interest was peaked. And then, during third period, one of the other tech teachers(not that one that taught my class) stuck her head in the door and said 'They got the Pentagon too.' And we didn't know who 'they' were, and more importantly we didn't know what she meant by 'too'. At this point, a few of us logged onto CNN.com(being an IT/Tech class, we all sat at computers all class long), and saw a headline about a plane flying into the WTC. And then my teacher's girlfriend at the time called him at the classroom, very upset, to tell him that the towers had collapsed. Soon after this, third period ended, meaning end of IT for the day. None of us knew what the hell was going on at this point. Like, what do you mean, collapsed? You mean it's GONE? What the fuck are you talking about? I think most of us - certainly myself - first pictured the towers falling OVER, like dominos, and not straight down.

So then, I went to fourth period, English - by now it's 11-ish. This was in a more normal classroom. She(the English teacher) had the TV on. The TV in the classroom was in the upper corner above the door, so when you enter the room, you don't see the TV until you turn around. I hadn't seen any actual pictures or video of what NYC looked like at that point yet. Nothing, NOTHING, could have prepared me for what I was about to see.

I will never forget walking into that room, hearing-but-not-seeing the commotion on the TV, turning my head to look at the TV, and seeing the huge black cloud over NYC. I walked to my desk and sat down, somewhat in shock. The English teacher decided to scrap her lesson plans and just let us watch the footage. I sat there pretty much motionless, watching (for the first time at that point) the replays of the planes crashing into the towers, and then the towers falling down. I watched as they started talking about Bin Laden and about the Embassy in Africa Al Queda had attacked somewhat recently earlier. I thought, 'He did this?! The same guy?!'

Fifth period was American History. Lesson plans scrapped again, although instead of watching the footage, the teacher decided to just start a class conversation about what was going on, the significance of it, why anybody would do this, etc. To be honest, my memory of that period that day is very foggy.

After that was lunch. I don't remember eating(I know I did though), but I remember after eating, walking around the halls, killing time before sixth period, and at the beginning of sixth period, some people were crying, some people were scared about loved ones, that kind of thing. The inital shock was beginning to wear off and fear was setting in.

I myself have a brother who was living and working(and still is living and working) in the financial district of NYC(not the WTC though, a ways away), and I didn't know if he was ok or not.

Sixth period was trigonomotry, but I really remember very little of it, accept that, while a good portion of the students were discussing it, the trig teacher pretty much didn't say a word about it, he just taught the class like normal.

Seventh period was the last of the day, and it was Orchestra. The Orchestra teachers didn't say a single word about it. At the time, I was sort of bewildered because I didn't understand how you could ignore it, but looking back, I sort of get the feeling that they were very intentionally ignoring it because they figured that rather than scare us even more, and rather than try to say something about something for which there were no words at the time, the best thing to do was to teach class like normal.

So, then I went home, and my mother had the TV on, and she informed me that my brother had made contact and that he was ok, completely unharmed, but that he had seen one of the planes hitting one of the towers right as he was coming out of a subway tunnel that morning.

I went outside at around 5 that afternoon, just to hit a tennis ball around and get some air, and while I was outside, I heard a BIG 'BOOOOOOOOOM' come from the sky. I immediatly went inside. My mom had heard it too. There was some real fear for a minute or two. The local news(which of course was only covering the attacks) almost immediatly picked up on it and informed us that that boom was just a sonic boom from a plane that had taken off from the base(Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, where we live), that was going to Washington or NYC(I can't remember which) for rescue efforts of some sort.

For the rest of the day, I pretty much alternated between watching the news - It was the only time I can EVER remember that even MTV and VH1 preempted all of their programming to cover real news - and listening to music - mostly U2, and mostly ATYCLB at that, since it was still pretty recent. Seems like it resonated with the events almost immediatly. I still can't always dissociate that record from 9/11.

So that's pretty much it
 
I was working as a legislative research assistant in a Congressional office in DC. The congressman sent us home before the Capitol complex was officially evacuated and walked to a coworker's house near Union Station where we watched the news all day.

By the way, here's last year's thread: http://forum.interference.com/t164887.html
 
In Australia, local time, it was actually pretty late at night on the 11th, about 10.30-11pm I think. I had been just hanging at a friends apartment, with the tv on in the background.

His apartment is actually under a flight path, the planes fly straight over the top - quite high still - and then we can watch them from there fly all the way in to the airport. From the angle we are on it looks like they are on a straight course for the Sydney CBD, and because the apartment building is both tall and up on a hill, the planes actually become 'lower' than us pretty quickly, or at least appear to be, and look like they're going down too early, if you no what I mean. A visual trick that makes them look like they're either going to land on an expressway a few miles from the apartment, or smack straight into the CBD.

The very weird thing is only the weekend before we had been out on his verandah having a few drinks and were wondering out loud what kind of damage a large plane would do either to his apartment building or one of the city towers should it hit one. If it hit the back of his building, would we be immediately f*cked sitting there on the verandah at the front? If it hit one of the CBD towers, what damage would it do? Could it knock one down? And even the question that became very scary a few days later, I think prompted by the depressed Egyptian (?) pilot who not that long beforehand had committed suicide by taking his commercial airliner and all it's passengers down with him - would someone do it deliberately?

Anyway, on the 11th I left his place for the short 5min drive home to mine, and literally as I was pulling out of his carpark he buzzed me on my phone and said that on tv they'd crossed to live footage of the WTC - a plane had hit it. At that time they were reporting that it was a smallish plane, not an airliner, and the 2nd plane had not yet hit. He actually told me what he was looking at, and we were admittedly kind of lighthearded about it ("Weird that we were talking about this just the other day - so what kind of damage has it done?") A few minutes later I was home, flicked on the tv, and the second plane hit.

It was a very strange day the next day because about half of Sydney had been up at 11pm and caught the news then, and of course watched it all unfold throughout the night. I was up till about 5am. The other half had just woken up to all of this - both WTC planes, Pentagon, the 3rd one crashing, a full day of news and responses from the US - and dealing with trying to absorb it all in one go.
 
I was in my second grade classroom when the guidence teacher came in and told us that something very bad had happened. I had no idea what.
When I got home, my mom told me that we had to go to church on Sunday. I saw the towers on the TV but I still didn't know what was going on.
A year later I understood what had REALLY happened.
 
I remember just completing my morning aerobics session when I got a call from my mom.
She said "we as a nation are under attack, the world trade center has been bombed and thousands of people are dead".
I then turned on the tvto CNN where they showed the second tower had been hit .
 
I usually sleep in til maybe 9-10:30am, but that day I had to get up because my housecleaners were going to come early :angry: So I woke up and turned the TV on at about 8:30am, and was in total shock. I was waiting for my husband to come home after dropping my daughter off at school, and I believe that's when he found out about it from other parents. I was glued to the TV the rest of the day. Tried coming online, but was in a fog, and just couldn't deal with attempting to work or taking calls, etc.
 
I was in my High School french class in southeastern PA, when our teacher left the class to confer with another staff member outside the door who had come by the class. At that time all they knew was that a small plane had crashed into the WTC.

In my mind I was thinking of the bomber plane which crashed into the Empire State Building in the 30s I believe. An accident, not a catastrophe.

Immediately all the TVs were on in all the classrooms and we all just sat there and watched. Some of us were silent, some were on the verge of crying, some made nervous jokes.

It just was very surreal. When the second plane hit it still didn't really sink in. When the towers collapsed we just sat there in silence. For me, I just didn't factor in all the people that died in that instant. It was very materially-oriented and I just registered it as a building collapsing like a CGI one does in a film, at first.

We were sent home by noon, and I just sat in the living room in front of our TV as the gravity of the events set in motion hit me.
 
I was getting ready to walk out the door for work. I took one look at the TV before heading out to drop off clothes at the dry cleaners for a scheduled flight to LA the following morning. I looked at the TV one last time and saw the first tower was on fire and thought that is strange that a plane could hit that building, and thought the news reporters in NY had it wrong. I then left the house. I was at the cleaners telling them I needed my suits by that afternoon, when my friend at the office called to tell me to turn on my car radio. I rushed into work freaked out after hearing the radio announcers report the events as they were unfolding. I was worried about my cousins who were living and working in Manhattan (Thankfully they were fine). I walked into the plaza of the office building and heard lots of sobbing and watched people go into panic modes because they had loved ones working in the towers and near by. As soon as I turned around to look at the TV that was in the lobby, the news coverage cut to the Pentagon. I rushed upstairs to my office to see if any of my coworkers from our Boston office were on any of the flights and if they had been accounted for. Thankfully they were not on any of those flights despite the fact that at least one of them were scheduled to be on one of the hijacked flights. It was a very scary moment.

I left work about an hour later and was met with an eerie silence outside. The skies in Atlanta are always loud and busy with planes flying in and out from Hartsfield and the surrounding airports. The electronic billboards on the highways announced there was a national emergency and at that moment tears formed in my eyes. The only planes I could see flying above me were the fighter planes from Dobbins Air Reserve Base. I cried all the way home. The night before I took my sister out for her birthday to see phantom of the Opera. I never felt so much happiness for buying this gift for my sister. I wanted to share my story to my friends the following morning and never got the chance to do so that day. I was 26 years old. There is my memory of that day.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom