Remembering 9/11 archived

Today's weather is very appropriate for what we're remembering today. One of the things that made that horrible day somehow more horrible (at least for me) was that it was a beautiful, bright, crisp, crystal-clear early fall day--absolutely perfect. Not a day for ANYONE to have to die. Not a day that should have been so horrific.

Peace.

I remember the day so well.

Are there any local observances happening today in SO/Maplewood? Anyone know?

I remember--clear as day--my boys, one at the table, on in his high chair, barely 2 and 10 months at the time, waiting for breakfast, and my husband called to tell me a plane had crashed in to the WTC. At first, everyone thought it was a small personal aircraft. Didn't take long to realize that wasn't the case.

I just noticed this thread and right below, the "wont toast bagels" thread...sometimes, it takes a day like today to put things in their proper perspective.

This is a nice set of essays on remembering: http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/views-of-a-day/?th&emc=th.

I remember that I still had a kitchen hand-towel over my shoulder while I watched the TV in horror.
Then the TV went dead. The cell phones went dead. I waited for news to hear that my husband and friends were OK. And yes, all the while the sun was shining on that crisp clear day.

Chris Faughnan had been a part of our life and we were devastated when it became clear he wasn't coming home.
God Bless Chris. God Bless Cathy and the kids for carrying on without him.

So true Hank. I was working in the Advertising office of The Star Ledger and we saw everything and the smoke from our office windows on that clear morning. The phones were crazy and the mayhem that errupted (with the fear of the unknown) is something I'll never forget.

RIP Douglass Cherry of Maplewood and peace to his family.

Just seeing this thread title made me cry. I was in my midtown office in Manhattan when a junior designer came it to say a plane had crashed into the WTC. I thought he was joking at first, even if the joke seemed in very bad taste. I'll never forget the fear of not being able to get out of the city that day, the fear that there might be more coming and that the Empire State Building might be next (a few blocks from my office). I remember the smell of the smoke drifting toward our offices and the eerie quiet as the city emptied and came to a complete standstill, except for fighter jets overhead. And I remember crying for days, thinking of the poor, poor innocent people who lost their lives that morning. I remember literally sprinting to Penn Station when the trains began to run to NJ again, and sitting in a bank of four seats facing a woman whose face was streaked with soot and who appeared to be in shock.

I still cry from time to time. And now I feel beyond sad for the people who were on the scene that terrible morning and who are now very sick, some dying.

Yes, it's a day to remember.

I just told my 6 and 8 year children about what happened that day. My younger one, a boy, woke up a cranky selfish little kid, but just marched off to 1st grade, a proud American.

http://www.legacy.com/GB2/default.aspx?PersonId=139416

I just turned off the TV. It made me begin to bawl. I knew and had worked with many that were in the WTC. Remarkably more made it out (or by some trick of fate were not there that day) than didn't. My best 'business' friend didn't. She stopped to call and tell her husband that she was ok. Then, the second plane hit.

I get so angry about the past years. Right now I'm reading The Great Deluge about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on NOLA. I need to .....

The radio commenters this morning were saying how after 9/11 for very many months, New Yorkers were kind, polite, and caring. It was so true how everyone pulled together. It did seem like we had changed forever, but now I'm discouraged thinking that we haven't really changed or learned from this experience.

I so agree, meand. That has always been one of the things that stands out the most to me about that horrible day. At the time I lived in Astoria and worked in the GM building at 59th & 5th. I so clearly remember walking up the subway steps, thinking about what a perfect, gorgeous day it was. Then I walked around the corner into chaos. They had already evacuated our building as a precaution and everyone was standing in the plaza watching the screens for the CBS morning show. Time seemed to slow down as I processed the people, the TVs and realized what was happening. I lived in Oklahoma City during the Murrah Building bombing and it was interesting how that experience affected my reactions that day. I instantly knew I had to get out of Manhattan immediately or risk getting trapped there. I was in a cab on the Queensborough Bridge when the first tower fell. It was horrifying and surreal to listen to on the radio. I remember thinking, "It FELL down? Where did it fall to? I just don't understand!"

I should add I STILL don't understand. It's still incomprehensible to me that those buildings are gone.

8:50am passing over the Hackensack River East bound facing NYC in Secaucus with the radio announcer saying a small craft just hit the north tower. I looked up and saw the billowing smoke and could not imagine how anyone could have mistakenly flown into the building. The day was beautiful, the visibility was exceptional, the terror was real.

May we remember all those who have suffered in this despicable act of crazed fanaticism.

Posted By: PeggyCI'll never forget the fear of not being able to get out of the city that day, the fear that there might be more coming

That was hubby's big fear that day. And mine was that there was more to come, and it could be nuclear and we were so close we wouldn't have a chance.

Posted By: PeggyCAnd I remember crying for days, thinking of the poor, poor innocent people who lost their lives

Seemed I couldn't stop crying. I went to a service at our church, and I never go to church.

Posted By: mcgoeyI just told my 6 and 8 year children about what happened that day.

I told my 3 the story this morning, making sure to include the older two, as they were babies at the time. The room is hardly ever that quiet. Of course the fact that I was crying also had an impact on them. The youngest, who wasn't even a sparkle in our eyes that day, came and gave me a hug.

Posted By: NotFromMuskogeeI should add I STILL don't understand. It's still incomprehensible to me that those buildings are gone.

You and me both. When they were hit I couldn't even conceive of how something so big could be reduced to dust.

I still have many difficult thoughts on 9-11. 8 years ago at this time I was standing with my friends from work watching the fire burn -- and none of us thought the buildings would come down. We all thought that it would be a bad fire, nothing more.

I don't recall exactly when -- but before the towers fell (I was standing by a subway stop) -- a young woman had come from elsewhere in Manhattan. She came from underground, saw the buildings burning, and collapsed to the ground crying and sobbing that her sister worked in the top of the tower. (I am haunted not knowing if her sister made it out or not)

Had not turned on the TV -- until a few minutes ago and I'm once again overwhelmed by the events of that day.

It wasnt until many hours later that day I realized how cut off I was from my family. As a single Dad with 2 littles ones at home, I was very upset. Fortunately I got ahold of my parents who were able to drive up to be there for the kids.

As the day wore on -- a coworker and I went to a nearby Duane Reade to buy contact solution, toothbrushes, etc -- since we didn't know when or how we could get home. By then the phones were jammed, but some family & friends were able to call me.

I used to love New York City -- my feelings for the place were not the same afterwards.

The days afterwards the reservation outlook became such a draw for so many of us here. The candles, pictures, drawings. I appreciated the man with the telescope who took so much time for people. Watching the smoke and dust rise from the city for so many days -- unbelievable, and the magnitude of all that happened continued to sink in.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all who lost someone that day, my thanks to all the fire fighters, police, EMTs, and others who helped throughout that day.

Posted By: petegliderThe days afterwards the reservation outlook became such a draw

Ah, yes, the reservation. Had forgotten that. I went there quite a few times.

I remember rounding the corner on the street where I used to live in Ohio and seeing this grouping of big burly construction guys standing around a truck, standing still, absolutely not moving and intently listening to the radio. Hurrying into the house, shopping forgotten, to turn on the television to try to understand how what the radio announcers said could possibly be true.

I remember later that day seeing air force fighters racing through the sky as they left Dayton Air Force base.

And not being able to turn off the TV, shocked, appalled, scared, calling family who weren't even near NYC just to be touch, reach out.

My son had been kept awake all night by his new baby, so he was late leaving for work. If he had gone to work on time, we would have lost him.

Oh jeez lizziecat. So many stories like that. I guess you're grateful and sad all at the same time.

Ah, Lizziecat, I know of so many stories of people who should have been there but somehow missed being there. And so many about people who were there on a whim or for a meeting and never got out. I am so glad your son was one of the lucky ones.

My building handyman is out today--his father was a Local 32 BJ worker who died in the South Tower. My superintendent's cousin was in Cantor Fitzgerald and never made it out.

Everywhere I turn in this great City (and I include NJ in it as well), there are memories and ghosts of 9/11.

Posted By: USMNTFanAnd not being able to turn off the TV, shocked, appalled, scared, calling family who weren't even near NYC just to be touch, reach out.

I remember being so touched by the steady stream of phone calls my parents received from dear and even not-so-dear friends and family who were worried about me. It was comforting in the face of so much horror.

I think I became an internet "junkie" that day.
I could no longer remain clueless about why others hated us.
I could no longer think that we were far, far away from bloodshed.
I could no longer wait for the "news hour" I would log onto news websites and refresh, refresh, refresh.

I was determined to NEVER be caught off guard again.

The one recollection that has stayed with me was walking by the West 4th Street basketball courts that morningand they were empty. Also, I was on the corner of 32nd and Broadway when the second tower fell and at that point I didn't realize that the first one had fallen - I think that happened while I was evacuating my building. I walked from 57th and 5th to the village with friends there I borrowed some sneakers and walked by myself back uptown. I remember standing alone around Washington Square Park looking downtown and thinking "this is like a scene from fvcking Die Hard". I stood in line at an ATM. Used a pay phone and found my best friend and went to meet her on West 34th - we walked back downtown along the West Side Highway and I remember all the ambulances just sitting there and I was thinking "why are they just sitting there". I remember the jets overhead and seeing a really cool looking guy ride by on a motorcycle with a FBI jacket. The whole day is a weird jumble of images.

I don't know if I want to go there today, but remind me to tell y'all my own story of that day. I was working in a building directly across the street from Tower II and walking up West Street as the second plane approached us from the south. I got out with two other colleagues on the last ferry to Jersey City, where I was living at the time. Yes, it was an amazingly beautiful day. Hard to sync together with all the carnage and mayhem I witnessed.

OK, I just got a chill through my whole body, so I need to stop telling my story.......

I was the property manager of a 50 story midtown tower at the end of Central Park--9 West 57th Street. My chief engineer was on the roof working on our cooling towers when a large plane flew right overhead, so low he felt he could touch it. We later figured out that the terrorists were flying by eye, using Central Park and our building as a sight line, then the Empire State Building, and then to the North Tower. When he called me to report the low plane, I was in the subbasement. A few minutes later someone called to say a plane had hit the WTC--I did not put the two together and figured it was a small plane. When I heard a second plane had hit, I ran for the owner's suite on the 45th floor and watched as both towers burned--we had a perfect view with each tower visible on either side of the Empire State Building. We immediately closed our building to incoming people and put security on high alert, and then we watched as the first tower fell. I asked if it was a secondary explosion, but an engineer next to me said it had to be structural failure the way it fell in on itself. We, who run and build office buildings, knew better than anyone what that cloud of dust meant as it mushroomed into the sky. We knew in our bones that our colleagues and first responders were dead, because that is exactly where we would have been in that situation--in the lobby, on the staircases, at the hoses, trying to help get our tenants out of the building safely.

I have so many more images from that day and the next few days lodged in my mind. One to share: the B of A employee who somehow stumbled uptown to our building, covered in soot and blood, clothes torn and in shock. We took him to our engineer locker room and let him take a shower, and we went to a local sports store and bought him some sweats so he could replace his clothes. He dazedly stumbled out and into the City later that day, and I always wondered what happened to him. Another to share: going in on an almost empty train on 9/12, coming around a bend and seeing only smoke rising where the WTC used to stand. The train was funereally hushed, except for one woman who was sobbing loudly. We were all in shock, all in tears. And then we plunged into the tunnel and all went black.

I still cry when I think of it, am crying now in my office writing this.

I could see the smoke from Tower 1 from my office window. When the Pentagon was hit, my boss closed the office saying "we're under attack, go straight home and stay there". I had to stop at my church - sometimes you just have to be at the altar on your knees - at least I do.

I spoke with the church staff and we agreed to open the front doors and put out a sign "'this church open for prayer". That night, we held a prayer service - sharing the space with Christians, Jews, Muslims - anyone who wanted to share in the grief and shock of the day. A truly powerful moment.