It's hard to believe that it has been 14 years.
Where were you on that day?
Where were you on that day?
9/11/2001
- Thread starter not_nadine
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I was in my office in Scotland. Due to the time difference it was about 3pm when the news started coming through. We all went to a bar across the street to watch the news because we didn't have TVs in the office.
...just leaving for my side gig at one of the radio stations, it was being talked about on the air-as it had just occurred and everyone was trying to determine what had happened...I immediately shut the Jeep down, went in the house and told racy...we decided to go get the kids out of school and try to comfort one another as a family-because there was no making sense out of it at the time....
I was at home doing housework. I jumped in the car and went to get my kids from school. One teacher said basically, "What's the big deal?" I'm guessing that he has since rethought those words.
I'd had a parent/teacher meeting so was a little late driving into work when they announced on the radio that the first plane had crashed into one of the Towers. In my mind that was a small plane, not a jetliner, as they didn't specify and I couldn't imagine it being anything larger but it did get my spider senses tingling a little. When I got to the office and learned a second plane had hit the other Tower, I knew we were under attack and the Pentagon crash confirmed it. Steve had called to tell us to turn on the TV and we spent most of the rest of that day watching and worrying about people we knew in NYC. At the time, Owen lived in NYC but fortunately he was able to let Steve and Tabby know he was okay as were our other NYC friends and work associates.
Sitting my cube at work, got an email from a friend who had a newsfeed, figured it was a small private plane, then heard about the second plane and got that sinking feeling. I was working in Downtown Pittsburgh in the 2nd largest building and a major financial one at that. I talked to WTC investment manager people regularly and none of them were answering their phones, some of whom were on the upper floors. People in my building started getting nervous when they saw that other buildings were being evacuated, by then I had seen the first tower fall, watching a TV in the bank lobby.
Our boss told everyone to leave the building and reconvene in front of the building an hour later, but by then traffic was a total snarl and people just wanted to leave, period. My wife worked on the other side of town about a 1/2 mile away and at the time I was parking nearly a mile away, we agreed the best thing was to just hoof it out to the car, which luckily was far from the worst traffic.
Spent the rest of the day on my couch on the phone and in front of the television in disbelief. It wasn't for over a week that I found out that none of the people I worked with in WTC had been killed, although one had his jacket catch fire when the 2nd plane hit.
Our boss told everyone to leave the building and reconvene in front of the building an hour later, but by then traffic was a total snarl and people just wanted to leave, period. My wife worked on the other side of town about a 1/2 mile away and at the time I was parking nearly a mile away, we agreed the best thing was to just hoof it out to the car, which luckily was far from the worst traffic.
Spent the rest of the day on my couch on the phone and in front of the television in disbelief. It wasn't for over a week that I found out that none of the people I worked with in WTC had been killed, although one had his jacket catch fire when the 2nd plane hit.
Had the news on TV just before I went collect my son from school. Still upsets me and freaks me out.
My first job was at 1 WTC on 16th floor. Left that place 9 months before the attack only to be working 2 blocks away. On 09/11/01, I was working late shift so I watched the whole thing on TV, never made it to work that day. A lot of my coworkers saw the 2nd plane hit from our office kitchen windows (you can see some of them walking down the street covered in dust in the 9/11 documentary). One was scheduled to go to WTC later that day to our client's office for server maintenance. Another one went looking for his brother after the 2nd plane hit, had to run for his life when the first building collapsed, lost a shoe in the process. I didn't make it to the office until Saturday of that week, had to show my ID to go through multiple National Guard and police cordons - they only let in people who lived in the area or worked in financial companies.
Cantor Fitzgerald was one of our biggest clients. I received a call from a lady who worked there about two weeks later. The words cannot express the sadness in her voice, but the first thing she asked me was whether everyone in our office was OK.
I was barely able to bring myself to watch the documentary a year ago, but to this day I refuse to watch "Flight 93" and "World Trade Center" movies.
Cantor Fitzgerald was one of our biggest clients. I received a call from a lady who worked there about two weeks later. The words cannot express the sadness in her voice, but the first thing she asked me was whether everyone in our office was OK.
I was barely able to bring myself to watch the documentary a year ago, but to this day I refuse to watch "Flight 93" and "World Trade Center" movies.
...I still get nauseous when I see images...the hurt hasn't faded....and I had no personal connection to anyone in any of the places where lives were lost, other than I am an American citizen and part of the national family...which is certainly enough to keep the grief hidden, but not gone....
At work planning an excursion to look at some graves from the iron age when someone said that something happened. Saw it on the TV then.
We spent that morning and part of the afternoon trying to locate my boss's stepdaughter who was working in the WTC. She managed to get out and took a ferry to NJ, but didn't have her cell phone with her. (She later had to go through therapy because of seeing people jumping from the towers and hearing them land close to her.) I also contacted our local hospital that morning, which was designated to receive overflow patients, in order to get a blood drive going... but I later got a call that I didn't need to make it an emergency matter because there were no survivors.
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I was working second shift, so I was sleeping when it happened. The night before, my future late bro-in-law and I spent the small hours drinking, picking guitar, singing old Hank Williams songs. At one point I showed him the Alex Ross painted artwork from Marvels no.2, the whole Silver Surfer/Galactus bit--all those scenes of fire in the skies over New York, all those realistic, screaming crowd scenes--looking skyward, watching the colossal, cataclysmic events happening atop the skyscrapers.
So then he wakes me up the next day. "Man, you gotta see what's happening in New York! It's just like that damn book you showed me last night--but worse."
Indeed it was. As I recall, the Fantastic Four were out to lunch that day. People were dying, and--feeling my blood run cold as I watched the TV--I knew a lot more were going to die before it was over.
Hell, people are still dying.
The Silver Surfer didn't show, but there were heroes. God bless the NYPD and the NYFD. Jesus, what a mess. It took some gonads to do what those cats did.
That's all I got to say about that.
So then he wakes me up the next day. "Man, you gotta see what's happening in New York! It's just like that damn book you showed me last night--but worse."
Indeed it was. As I recall, the Fantastic Four were out to lunch that day. People were dying, and--feeling my blood run cold as I watched the TV--I knew a lot more were going to die before it was over.
Hell, people are still dying.
The Silver Surfer didn't show, but there were heroes. God bless the NYPD and the NYFD. Jesus, what a mess. It took some gonads to do what those cats did.
That's all I got to say about that.
I was watching the Today show, watched over someone's shoulder? Can't remember which anchor as the second plane went in. It was just a surreal moment.
