9/11 memorial thread

[RAsChickens]

I wanted to start a thread to discuss and remember 9/11. I was only 11 at the time, and in 5th grade. I remember my teacher had the TV on and was telling us everything was going to be ok. I was sitting there bawling. We didn't understand it, but knew people were dying. That day was quiet and no one talked. I remember crying until I couldn't breathe. We were on lockdown as a precaution and couldn't go outside the classroom without a teacher escort.

Share your 9/11 story and pay your respects here.

 

[black_dove2]

My friend called as I was getting ready to leave to work"bombing the Pentagon!"
On bus I asked everyone listening to radios and talking what did they know? No one knew anything!

I got to work and told the owner and co-worker, TV got turned on. Owners family from Denmark we're at airport to leave Los Angeles. Flight cancelled, etc

I'm to this day shocked someone attacked The Pentagon! World trade center had it's troubles in the past, but The Pentagon?

Later at end of day at home the magnitude of the World Trade Center attack shocked me

 

[PeepersMama]

I wasnt2 born when 9/11 happened, but my teacher was in 3rd grade - she said that she didnt really understand what was going on, but in the middle of class her teacher got a phone call. Her dad had worked in the north building for 6 years, and that day was the first sick day he had ever taken. God's hand was at work there.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I was 19 and in college. So many days have come and gone and I still remember so much of what I did that day. I went to breakfast in the cafeteria and the first plane had already hit the first tower. I thought "What an awful, terrible mistake. They are going to make somebody pay for that." I was thinking like a lawsuit. I was watching the TV when the second plane hit and I knew then it was no mistake. I went to my first class after that. By the time it was over, the remainder of classes that day and the next had been cancelled and a plane had flown into the Pentagon. I went back to my dorm room and tried to call my parents. Cell phones among college students were still pretty unusual then, I didn't have one. (There was also no Facebook, not for a few more years yet.) I spent the next few hours using a prepaid calling card to call every number I knew for every person I knew, over and over again, never getting through. My parents both worked for the federal government in Washington, D.C. I didn't really think anything had happened to them or anyone else I knew, but it was so frightening nonetheless. None of my calls went through. I went down to the empty basement in the dorm and cried. Finally I realized I had better head back to the cafeteria if I wanted to get any lunch. There I sat alone and a friend from high school approached me, said she'd spoken to her family, had I spoken to mine? I started bawling because I hadn't and she sat there and hugged me for a long time. To this day, we still send each other messages on this day to remember the connection and kindness she shared with me that day. When I got back to my room, I was able to talk with my sister, also at college away from home. She had finally reached our parents. One by one, friends and family returned my calls and emails. Everyone I knew was safe.

Entirely personal and by and large I was not personally affected by events that day, but still it looms very large in my memory all the same. After the fact, I lost a friend. He knew one of the pilots of one of the planes. He was devastated by the idea that the man could have finally found all the happiness he sought only to lose his life like that. The personal effect the attacks had on my friend, and the lack of personal effect on me, led us to conflict over our very different reactions and our friendship ended. He made many changes in his life after that, including moving to New York. So much did change. The opposite of my friend, I would later meet a woman who left NY, traumatized by the events of that day and unable to return. I did get a cell phone not long after that. My mother sat me down to have a talk about what I should do if something catastrophic should in fact happen in Washington. She told me not to try to come home, to go fetch my sister at school and drive to California, where they would meet us if they could. I think it changed people's thinking in subtle ways. I would say most people thought something like that could never happen, only because it never had. But it did.

 

[Yowza Wowza]

Although I was not born, by a few months.
I am grateful to have visited the memorial in NYC 3 years ago. Truly breathtaking and full of deep emotion.
We will never forget those lost on 9/11.

 

[Magical Garden Girl]

I was just awakening to get ready for work (California) and i turned on the TV and I thought it was a movie for a second, then a spoof until I heard the Pentagon was hit and another plane crashed. I called my step mother and woke her up telling her "I think we are under attack " since I still could not tell exactly what was happening. It was frightening to think that way too.
She was half asleep and said "what?!" I'm sure she thought I had gone off the deep end Then said she would check the news and thanks for awaking her. She says she will never forget that call. Literally a wake up call for her. I got ready for work and watched and got caught up on what was happening- chaos.
I worked in critical care surgery so no tv or internet was allowed and cell phones were not as common nor allowed near the technology so updates were sparse.
I was also scheduled to fly a bit over a week after 9/11 and people were afraid to talk about it in the airport in fear they might get dragged in. So we'd be careful of not saying certain words while waiting, but we all wanted to connect (all from different states) and heal. Vigilance was high at the airports

 

[Latitude33]

Much like Magical Garden Girl, I was getting ready for work (California) when the news came through. Transfixed on the news reports all day and the days that followed. I had just traveled for business a couple weeks prior out of Logan Airport so it definitely grabbed me by the throat. Son was only nine years old then but it left a lasting impression. Straight out of High School, he enlisted in the Air Force.

 

[sourland]

We were visiting friends in upstate NY preparing to take a train ride into Canada. Their son come over and said, "Turn on the television. They are bombing the twin towers." We spent the day glued to the television, and yes, crying. Next day the Princess and I drove home staying off of the interstates and taking secondary roads. I was amazed by the number of homes displaying flags. When we got home I purchased and installed a flag. We fly it daily and will never forget.