9/11 memory's

[billsfan89]

I was in school and the whole day was just so weird. I remember that it was like the most beautiful day out clear blue sky and nice mild early fall temp weather wise it started off great. Than as the early morning wore on it was clear something was totally different about this day. Now I live in New Jersey and at my school I could see out the window at the World Trade Center in fact the whole NY skyline was visible on any relatively clear day. I went down for a class and I saw the Tower burning and the other one had already fallen.

 

It was a weird day teachers at first didn't tell us jack about what was going on. Than as soon as everything was known classes were stopped after school things like football were canceled and we were allowed to go home if our parents picked us up.

 

It was a weird and sad day you knew that things would never be the same. On a personal note I didn't know anyone directly who had been affected by 9/11 in terms of loosing a loved one nor did I thankfully loose a loved one on that tragic day. But the area I lived in about 10 miles away from NYC was greatly affected by the whole thing, later on in life I came into contact with more people that were effected by that fateful day.

 

Anyway God Bless America and may we move on but never forget. Its sad that for my generation that 9/11 is the where you were moment, much like for the baby boom generation the Kennedy assassination. A day like that makes you realize how stupid things like Bills football really is yet it makes you glad that you can emerge yourself in something like Bills football.

[shrader]

I had a 9:30 class that morning. Then at around 11:30 I was waiting in line at the dining hall for lunch. I heard the kid in front of me talking on his phone, saying things like "yeah, I'm in one of the tallest buildings in Boston, it's not very comfortable". It sounds kind of crazy to me as I had no clue what happened. I'm not even sure when I eventually found out, but after lunch I was glued to the tv for a couple hours.

 

I eventually had to head to a class, assuming it had been canceled, but I had to play it safe. For some reason, it was the one professor who didn't completely shut down that day. Right at the start of class, he made a comment that will forever stick out in my head. It was something to the effect of "We all saw what happened, but it is no big deal. We need to move on and continue our day." This had to have been one of the most insensitive things the idiot could've said. We had a ton of New York students at BU and I'd say that about 45% of that class was from that area. The room was pretty full, so there was a very good chance that a few people in there were somehow connected to it. Add in the fact that by that point, people knew that two of the planes came from Logan Airport, it was just a ridiculously stupid comment to make.

[Jerry Christ]

I had just woke up, took a shower and was getting ready for a class. I turned on the tv to see where the first plane had already hit one of the buildings. I was like "what the heck is going on and HOW could a pilot not see a building that big." It was still confusing me as I sat and watched and then.......boom, live on tv I see the second plane come across the screen and hit the other building and watched it collapse.

 

I was sick, confused, I didn't know what was going on. Or how this could possibly happen. I had to motivate myself for class, so I left still sick and when I got to school, all the tvs where on everywhere and everyone was just standing watching.

 

I think class was canceled, I don't even remember, I just stood there watching the tv, sick.

 

 

To this day, I try to avoid seeing the towers fall, I remember but I just don't like seeing it.

[dib]

I heard about the first plane and thought it was something light like a Piper, or a Cesna. I saw the second one and was in numb disbelief for the rest of the day.

[Golden Wheels]

I remember friends emailing someone we knew who worked at an investment firm in the first WTC building that got hit.........and not getting a response. Then the panicked phone calls to his cell that went unanswered. Just the most helpless feeling in the world.

 

And not knowing if there were more planes out there.....

[tennesseeboy]

I was going into a very tense meeting on an employment law situation, and turned on the computer and read a post here (as I like to do to get ready for the day!) and read about a plane (piper cub, I thought) crashing into WTC. All during the meeting people kept interrupting with news reports. My brother was supposed to be at a breakfast meeting at windows of the world that morning, canceled that Friday. Years ago I used to try cases in the WTC as many of the offices were state offices. I thought the NYC Attorney Generals offices were still there and worried about a lot of people I knew to find out that they had moved out when the WTC became premium space.

[dib]

And not knowing if there were more planes out there.....

 

 

I live 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport and i think it was more eerie to NOT having planes in the air. It was spooky.

[LewPort71]

TSW was my source for first hearing about WTC.

Then we went down to the conference room and watched

the news coverage for 2 hours.

[Lori]

A couple links for you newer posters....

 

Five years later

 

Back home now - Saw it with my own eyes...

Still remember reading those during those awful hours, and realizing that Guff was sitting right behind me at the Bills game two days earlier. Obviously, it was already a tragedy ... but that made it REAL, instead of something I could try to detach myself from.

 

Jerry, Kevin, Tom, and anyone else directly affected by this -- my thoughts are with you today.

[damj]

I was at work, had just started a new job the week before. I saw something online about the first plane and thought it was a small commuter plane that accidently hit, so I called my wife and told her. A little while later 3 secretaries were gathered looking at a computer and I heard one say "A second plane hit", and that's when I knew we were under attack. When I heard the Pentagon got hit I was really scared because my sister works less than a mile from there ... she called home soon after to let us know it was okay. Went to a conference room just after the first tower fell and nobody was saying a word ... we were all just in shock.

[Just Jack]

Still remember reading those during those awful hours, and realizing that Guff was sitting right behind me at the Bills game two days earlier. Obviously, it was already a tragedy ... but that made it REAL, instead of something I could try to detach myself from.

 

Jerry, Kevin, Tom, and anyone else directly affected by this -- my thoughts are with you today.

That was the weirdest thing for me. It had been an amazing Summer. Went to Canton to see Marv Levy inducted, got to see Jimmy Buffett in concert near Boston, the 2nd TBD Tailgate just two days before, and then life changed quickly.

[HopsGuy]

I was working on a trade desk in Boca Raton FL, so we had TVs all over the room tuned to CNBC. Like everyone, I thought that it must have been an amateur pilot flying a small plane. When they cut to a live shot a sales guy and I were talking. And he said, "That's quite a fire for a small plane." As the helicopter came around to the side where it struck, you could see the size of the hole. We looked at each other and both of our faces fell: "That's a jet-liner", he said. "That's an act of terrorism", I said.

 

A few minutes later, the room was buzzing about how the futures were falling. I looked up at the TV again and I could see a shadow in the background. It was moving fast, but I thought it was just another news helicopter. No one else was looking at the TVs. Then the enormous fireball exploded from the second plane. "Oh My God!" I yelped.

 

I called my folks because that seemed like the only thing to do. A minute into the conversation about how this was like Pearl Harbor, my mom said "Now they're saying the Pentagon was hit by a plane."

 

A few hours later, the SEC announced that the markets would not open. They sent us home for the day. The markets didn't open until the following Monday, so for the next 3 work days we were all like zombies.

 

It was horrible.

[gmac17]

I heard about it while listening to Howard Stern. Baba-booey I think came into the studio and mentioned the first plane hitting the tower. There was a lot of talk of how it was likely an accident, when I finally got to a TV and turned it on I saw the second plane hit and I was sick to my stomach.

 

that show is online - it is fascinating to listen to - you get a real feeling of how everything unfolded for people.

[Guffalo]

I remember it was a gorgeous, sunny day

I remember taking a guest to Penn station and directing him to Port Authority, he only spoke spanish, so it took some time, so I was late getting into the subway to work.

I remember people talking at 14th street about an airplane and the towers

I remember the conductor on the subway saying because of a fire, we were getting off at Chambers street

I remember walking out of the subway and seeing people staring up at the North tower

I remember walking towards the building and trying to use my cell phone

I remember using an old school payphone to call my office

I remember telling my bosses to call my parents and my wife

I remember my bosses telling me to look for a co-worker

I remember Pat O'Shea who I golfed with the day before

I remember walking up to the post office near the Borders at the trade center

I remember looking down and seeing bloody rags in the street

I remember a woman telling me her daughter was in one of the elevators and couldnt get out

I remember standing next to a large piece of aircraft parts (engine or wheel)

I remember picking up a hunk of warm, oily metal and wondering what it was

I remember seeing lots of assorted shoes in the streets

I remember wanting to go home

I remembered trying to find Marcia

I remember Sira Patti

I remember walking towards city hall

I remember the motorola 2 way walkie talki working with my boss

I remember seeing (finally) someone from the office

I remember trying to loop around to the plaza via Nassau st

I remember a rumbling

I remember losing my phone

I remember huge columns of smoke and debris rushing down the side streets

I remember wanting to be anywhere but there

I remember Steve Siller

I remember running

I remember wanting to see my wife and kids

I remember the "snow" after the first tower went down

I remember trying to use the phone again

I remember heading uptown in a cab with some woman who left her purse in the rubble

I remeber looking back and seeing just one tower standing out above the clouds of debris

I remember getting to midtown, covered in dust and crap

I remember ducking into a doorway on 35th street when an air force jet rocketed by

I remember wondering if I would get home

I remember my phone finally working when I was in midtown, my brother from California was checking in on me

I remember the look on my bosses faces when I made it to the midtown office

I remember taking clothes and a backpack and food and a knife from my bosses office and telling him I would walk through the tunnels if I had to, but I was going home.

I remember civilians outside of Penn station directing traffic

I remember Peter Moutos

I remember finally seeing the gates open and a train was there and ready to go

I remember hearing people talk about seeing it from afar

I remember getting home and being picked up by my brother in law

I remember opening beer after beer watching on TV

I remember people calling but not hearing anything

I remember my kids coming home one by one, the look on their faces wondering if their Dad was going to come home

I remember watching the smoke from the site 35 miles away as the sunset

I remember waiting for my wife to come home

I remember John Sherry

I remember watching till the late hours on spanish language TV since the guests were all spanish

I remember wondering if I had a job anymore

I remember going to sleep

I remember waking up as Peters wife Meg asked if I saw him,she said "He isnt home yet"

I remember Rob telling me the same thing about John

I remember walking my daughter to school on the 12th

I remember reading TBD and writing.

I remember Vinnie Danz

I remember going to funerals with empty caskets

I remember being happy they found Vinnies gun and some bone fragments

I remember trying to forget

[damj]

And not knowing if there were more planes out there.....

 

 

 

I live 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport and i think it was more eerie to NOT having planes in the air. It was spooky.

Or living close the Power Project and hearing planes taking off from the Niagara air base ...

[Lori]

Damn, Guff. Hugs to you, and we'll see you soon.

[damj]

Wow Guff ... great post. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Bullpen]

First Guff, thanks for sharing your raw, emotional thoughts. One of the most powerful posts I've read here... ever.

 

I remember kind of being numb all day. I kind of went into operation shut down at work as far as watching the events unfold on TV. I was working for an Anheuser-Busch distributor at the time. Everyone else was in the conference rooms watching it on TV, I tried to stay as busy as possible doing stuff at work, so I didn't have to focus on it.

 

At some point around mid morning I remembered that I had a friend who worked for Bear-Stearns, so I emailed him to see if he was okay. Luckily he was fine. Getting news was sketchy at best for him though, so I forced myself to go online and find out as much hard-factual (read: not speculation) news for him and was emailing it to him as quickly as I could.

 

About noon or 1 pm, a delivery route supervisor started asking anyone and everyone who could get on a truck and help the delivery guys drop their orders to do so, because everyone wanted to get home with their families or pick their children up at school. We all jumped in pick ups and went out and found every Budweiser truck we could and helped the drivers finish their routes that day.

 

On the way to pick up my son, all the gas stations were packed with people filling up their tanks (not sure why that stands out, but it does). I remember a lady hollering at one convenience store that she didn't care if she jumped the line on others because "we're all gonna die anyway." (I'm not proud of this, but I remember wanting to punch her right in the nose, because of the selfishness and the stupidity of her statement in front of my child and others).

 

I remember swilling ALOT of beer that night and watching the TV ad nauseum. By Friday night I had had enough of being prisoner to the TV news and made my family go out for dinner, just to get away from it for awhile.

 

I guess the overall feeling I had that day was numbness...

[Marv's Neighbor]

Having worked for United Airlines for 35 years, I lost many Friends & Co-workers on the 2 UA Planes.

 

I am NOT a conspiracy person but to this day there are way too many unanswered questions about what happened that day.

[MattyT]

I remember the "message undeliverable" that I received in my inbox after trying to send an email to my college housemate who worked in the South Tower. Thankfully I also remember the email that his wife sent later that day to let us all know that he was okay because he had exited the South Tower to look at the fire in the North Tower from the street ...despite warnings from others in authority to stay in the building.

 

He worked on a floor that was directly impacted when the second plane hit.

 

My friend Brian is now a financial manager living in South Carolina with his wife and 4 year old son.