Where were you Sept. 11th, 10 years ago? archived

I had planned a Mothers & More picnic at Liberty State Park, but not enough people had signed up, so I had cancelled it.
Betsy Geiger was coming over to interview my 3 year old for preschool at Prospect Coop. I was very anxious and excited about the interview. Betsy was playing Barbies with my daughter when the phone rang. I could see it was Mr.Q and I felt irritated that he would call during the important interview. so I didn't pick up.
After Betsy left, I walked out into my back yard and my neighbor came out and said, "I was on the train and the conductor told us to look out the window because one of the twin towers was on fire, and when I did, I saw a plane fly and hit the other tower."
"What?"
I go back inside and start trying to call Mr. Q but of course now can't get through. I didn't think he was anywhere near the towers, but wanted to hear his voice. I did feel relieved that he had tried to call.
I called someone in my daughter's playgroup and we gathered at someone's house. We didn't want the kids to see the images so we just sat and talked while they watched videos.
Mr. Q finally showed up after taking the ferry to a bus in weehawken to hoboken and then a train.
The next day was the first day of preschool and my daughter's 4th birthday. Every single parent was there and it was very difficult to sing Happy Birthday.

I was at a Weight Watchers meeting in the Women's Club just as the news was crystallizing. The leader, Marnie, said her son was at work in the towers and she was not able to reach him - so please understand if she seems a bit distracted. We finished the meeting and she flew out of there.

When I went back home and turned on the TV, they had already fallen. They just weren't there any more. I went up to the Annex to get my son from Kindergarten. All the parents were there waiting, and it was very quiet and somber. But there was this annoying Mom going on and on about the PTA ice cream social she was planning for that weekend. She just kept talking about this stupid ice cream social, and trying to engage people. I had to move away, or I would snap. Did she not watch the news? Jesus!

I found out later that her husband, Chris, was at work at Cantor Fitzgerald that morning. I hadn't really grasped the power, or the protection, of denial until that day. It allowed a freshly-minted widow to pick up her kids at school and get lunch ready, when the natural response would be to melt into the earth.

I was at home that day because the company I was working for in the city was behind with our pay and my business agent told us all to stay home otherwise I would have been right next to Battery Park Pier A which at the time we were using as a makeshift workshop. It took almost a month to get back in.

My family was still living in Cincinnati at the time. I didn't have to be at work until 1:00 that day, so I was home. My mother called me from work and asked me to turn on the television, that her secretary had just told her that they were saying on the radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I'll never forget telling her that it was a commercial jet, not the prop plane I had in mind.

I was on the Hoboken train heading into the station when I saw the burning tower and witnessed the 2nd hit.
It was all so unreal--watching from a distance.

People on the train where crying and calling people frantically all around me. Then, people started yelling out any news they heard from people they were talking to on the phone.

I was at work in Rutherford, NJ reading MOL! I was waiting for a colleague to arrive on the company van coming directly from the World Trade Center. George Berkley had just posted about something going on at the towers, which he could see from his office window. I also had a big view of the towers and so I went over to the window where there was a crowd forming and we could see the smoke pouring out of the tower. Someone said that there had been an accident and a plane had crashed into the building. I watched awhile and then started back to my desk. Then, as I was walking with my back turned I heard the whole crowd gasp and say in union that another plane had crashed. I ran ran back to the group by the window and together it dawned on us that it was no accident. Someone said it was terrorists and someone else said that we were at war. The rest of us were nodding our heads. The colleague never arrived and I found out later that she had been standing at the van stop in front to the towers when the planes hit and even years later did not want to talk about what she had seen.

Working from home in Brooklyn Heights on the phone doing an executive coaching session. Heard the first plane hit and told my client from Italy that something was going on. Hung up and looked out the window. Saw the second plane hit and the towers fall from my window and the roof deck of my building. Finally. ( after about an hour of frantic calls and chaos) reached my husband (boyfriend then) whose client base was in the towers. He was headed downtown to the towers from midtown but not in the morning as he had been every day the 2 weeks before. Morning meeting in the office in midtown. He was safe. He walked home from midtown a few hours later. The four things that will haunt me forever. 1) The sound and sight of ambulance after ambulance, fire truck after fire truck rushing across the Brooklyn bridge that day. To this day, I hold my breath when I hear a fire truck or ambulance, waiting to make sure dozens more aren't screaming right behind. 2) seeing the lights and smoke that night and for a few nights after from the site. Waiting across the bridge for them to bring the survivors to the hospitals that were set up and ready for them. Then, waiting for the bodies to be recovered and taken. Neither ever happened. 3) the Silence that followed the chaos. Days later, the silence of the NYers on the subway or walking down the street was deafening. We winced in pain together, supported each other, loved each other yet no one spoke. And 4) for weeks and weeks the sound of bagpipes. Funeral after funeral, service after service. First anniversary and the haunting sound of bagpipes at 6 am going across the bridge. I hate the sound of bagpipes now.

May the victims rest in peace and may we never forget.

Driving east on 78 ready to get on the tpke to GWB, and had already heard about the 1st hit, then believed to be a Cessna/small, errant plane. Beautiful clear, cool fall day...I can always "feel" that, my favorite weather. Just thru the tolls I saw the second plane hit, and had to drive for miles in a panic before I could pull over and call my office on Roosevelt Island to say I am turning around, going home.

Most of the rest of the day was spent with my goodest friend, watching the reports and waiting for calls from our loved ones, and the buses to deliver the younger kids home.

Funny, in a weird way: I got a call from a friend later that day to check up on my both my MW friend and I, and our families. She was panicked, for us, for herself. She'd just learned, very late in age, that she was pregnant. I probably said some pretty stupid (but positive) things to her.

Building Two of the World Trade Center.

I was teaching at Ferris High School in Jersey City. The second floor corridor had a clear view of the towers. We walked the corridor every day, most of the time, not paying attention to the towers or anything else in view from the windows.

I was teaching 1st period history when Charlie Corcoran poked his head into the room to tell me a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I remember I chuckled a bit... Charlie was known for making jokes and the idea of a plane hitting the center was too much to absorb at one time. I didn't get his joke but so what. The scene he just described was too much to take in.

About 25 minutes later, the bell rang and I guess there was a couple of hundred of us trying to look out the window. I didn't have a class the next period so I stayed and saw a building collapse. Again, it was too much to take in.

It was about 11 a.m. when the superintendent directed the dismissal of schools. Kids were dismissed and teachers were directed into the auditorium in preparation for dismissal. Someone suggested a prayer and we all joined in. I don't recall what we prayed or what we sang. Then we went our separate ways.

The school became a relocation center for people stranded at the airports so we weren't able to return to school for the rest of the week until the stranded people were able to board planes and complete their journeys.

Ferris H.S. had about 10 Muslim faculty members and about 10 percent of the kids were/probably still are Muslim. When school reopened, there was never any antagonism against Muslim faculty or students.

Yes, it was a really beautiful day. I remember for a long time that when there were really big dramatic clouds it would remind me of smoke and destruction.

I have a friend who is a nurse. She said the whole hospital was on emergency alert and waiting for patients, and no one was coming in.

bobk said:

Building Two of the World Trade Center.
wow.


It was my first day of work at my first job out of college. I was picking out office supplies. I was working for a school district and the superintendent and I went around to the schools to talk to the principals and guidance counselors, then she sent me home. I prayed the kids' parents were ok (big commuter population). But I couldn't get home because I lived in Bayonne and all of the bridges were closed. I went to my parents' and wore my mom's clothes to work every day for a week before I could get back into my apartment. I cried every day for two months since I was working a job I hated...until I quit for my dream job, realizing that literally life is too short.

I had just parked my car near the S.O. train station after dropping my son off at preschool. As I was walking to get coffee, a man in the parking lot mentioned that a plane had hit one the the Twin Towers, but it was still a little sketchy - not really known what was happening. I was on my way to weed and tend to the herb garden at the Durrand-Hedden house on Ridgewood road in Maplewood (I'm in the Maplewood Garden Club). When I arrived at Durrand Hedden, several other volunteers were in the garden and were unaware of what was unfolding. I informed them that something terrible was happening. We went inside Durrand-Heddon House and all gathered around a small T.V.. For some reason, it had been on a spanish station and the newspeople were speaking in Spanish. The photographs/live shots told it all. We were transfixed to the T.V. for awhile and watched one of the towers fall - can't remember which one. My parents were in CA visiting my brother at the time and were scheduled to fly home to Newark that day. Well, since all air travel was suspended, I let them know they weren't coming home that day... I'll never forget.

We had flown into Newark on Sept. 10 from Disneyworld. When we were arriving there was a small fire at the airport that we were observing. It was especially haunting to imagine how people on the plane felt since we had been travelling with a small child only the day before and had been in the same airport the planes were hijacked from.

A few days later, reading MOL, weren't there some first person accounts of being in the towers?

Bobk just wrote he was in Building 2.

I was running late, so I was still at home. Hubby called me and told me to turn on the TV. I watched the TV forever, not caring that I was super late now. At about 10:30 my boss called and said I still had to come in, work needed to be done. So I managed to get from Millburn up to Hackensack. I was at work less than 30 minutes when he finally decided that maybe we should close up for the day and called me again to tell me to close up and go home.

Hubby was working at his part time job cleaning swimming pools. He knew EMS workers would be needed, so he called his boss and said he had to go. His boss gave him a hard time about leaving, saying they had a schedule to keep, pools needed to be cleaned. He finally said he was leaving and that they just needed to deal with it. He ended up not being sent into the city, but he was instead sent to Bayonne to cover the city as all their ambulances had been sent into the city. One of his patients that day was a woman in labor. She kept apologizing, saying she should really be taking a taxi, but Bayonne was completely closed down and no non-emergency vehicles were allowed anywhere, so she really had no choice but to call an ambulance.

After about a year or so a lot of his co-workers started making up stories about being in the city. It was pretty common knowledge at the time of who went and who didn't, but as time passes people forget, and they counted on this to make up false stories of heroism. That really sickens me. One of his "friends" who wasn't in any type of emergency services even started claiming that he had "borrowed" someones credentials and went into the city to help. Hubby might not have been in the city that day, but he still helped provide a service by covering the ambulances that were there, and he never felt the need to make up any courageous stories to boost his ego.

"a lot of his co-workers started making up stories about being in the city"
Are you serious ? how pathetic is that. question

I know three other people in town who were in the towers, or on the street in front, when they were hit.

METALART said:

"a lot of his co-workers started making up stories about being in the city"
Are you serious ? how pathetic is that. question
Yes, quite pathetic. I have no respect for people who make sh*t up like that. And the "friend" who claimed he was part of the recovery efforts? It wasn't his first lie, but it was his most unbecoming. We no longer associate with him. While I understand that people who make up lies like this do it out of some deep emotional need and have serious issues, my understanding why does not give me enough sympathy to tolerate them.

Nicely put, debby. I'm not sure I can ever get over the raw, limitless emotion of that day.

I was at home with the tv on but not watching it - when I heard the tone of the comentators change - and I could tell something was very wrong. My ex husband was in charge of facilities for Dean Witter which was the largest single tenant of the World Trade Center. He had been in charge of construction and design of the interiors of the 26 floors the company occupied and his office was on the 66th floor of the south tower. I remember before construction of the interiors began, he gave me a tour of the unfinished floors and shared his vision and excitement for what the space would become. He explained that each floor had over an acre of open space and that the core was strong enough to withstand the impact of a 707 jet plane. Years later, when the attacks occured he had been seriously ill and by an twist of fate was home when the Trade Center was hit. I went to his house to be with him as we watched the towers burn and collapse thinking that many of our friends and his colleagues had likely perished and I didn't want him to be alone. For hours we made call after call to the cell phones of his co-workers, unable to get through and hoping against hope that they had survived. Finally, in the late afternoon his 61 year old secretary was able to get a call through and told us that they had gotten out, and walked uptown en mas to 42nd street where they were holed up in a hotel bar, unable to get out of Manhattan but thankfully safe and out of harms way. Sadly his good friend Rick Rescorla, head of security for DW had stayed behind and perished saving others. Rick had called my ex every week during his illness, and the tragic confirmation of Rick's passing was when his calls just stopped. Years earlier - Rick, my ex and a few others had attended a three day "disaster planning" course held at Trum Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. I remember thinking - yeah sure - disaster planning -more like an excuse for a 3 day party, but the evacuation plans they made as a result of what they learned there saved hundreds of lives. When the towers were hit Rick stayed behind to supervise the evacuation and make sure everyone got out.

spontaneous said:

METALART said:

"a lot of his co-workers started making up stories about being in the city"
Are you serious ? how pathetic is that. question
Yes, quite pathetic. I have no respect for people who make sh*t up like that. And the "friend" who claimed he was part of the recovery efforts? It wasn't his first lie, but it was his most unbecoming. We no longer associate with him. While I understand that people who make up lies like this do it out of some deep emotional need and have serious issues, my understanding why does not give me enough sympathy to tolerate them.

Sounds like something my ex girlfriend would have done, she was a compulsive liar and couldn't stop if her life depended on it. How tragic.


I was on Naval Air Station Lemoore California. I had gotten to work very early that day, as I had just been promoted to the day shift supervisor of our work center. My job in the Navy was Aviation Electronics Technician. I worked on the F-18 Hornet. We repaired weapons systems, navigation, communication systems etc on the airplanes. Once word came down about the 1st plane hitting the towers, base was locked down. If you were on, you couldn't leave-if you were not on base, you couldn't get on. So, this left the entire base (6 squadrons of 10 aircraft per squadron) EXTREMELY under manned. Since part of my daily job was to program the weapons used on the airplanes (GPS location for bombs etc) I was immediately chosen to work in a small group of people, loading every F-18 on base with a full compliment of missiles and bombs. Each weapon station (approx 8 per aircraft) had to be checked for functionality before a weapon was loaded. Paired with 1 other person, who I didn't even know, got to work. It took us about 18 hours of straight work to check and load GPS data on every plane for the entire West Coast of the United States. It wasn't until about 3 AM when I finally got home, that I saw the 1st images on TV. Being from North Jersey, and all my friends and family here, I couldn't wait till daybreak to start calling home. Thankfully, everyone I knew were safe. I had broken up with my GF a few days prior, but when I got home, she was waiting for me on my front steps. I remember laying in bed with her that night, holding on to each other, crying-not knowing what the hell was going to happen next. It feels like just yesterday to me, hard to believe it was 10 years ago. Since I wasn't here in the Tri State area to witness this first hand, sometimes I feel kinda detached from it all. I mean it was just so surreal to me, I was involved in all of it to a certain extent. I wasn't a first respond er, firefighter or cop actually on the scene. But here I was on the other side of the country, preparing our Navy for an all out assault on whoever did this to us. It was believed by the military higher ups that our base could possibly be a target. We housed about 85 percent of the West Coast's fighter/attack community. If the terrorists managed to knock us out, they would have had a major stranglehold on the US Navy. Looking back now, that is a very scary thing. I was young and ignorant back then, and it's taken a long time for that fact to really hit home to me. Sorry for the long winded post here...

Don't apologize...it is a very powerful story.

debby said:

I was at a Weight Watchers meeting in the Women's Club just as the news was crystallizing. The leader, Marnie, said her son was at work in the towers and she was not able to reach him - so please understand if she seems a bit distracted. We finished the meeting and she flew out of there.


Oh, wow. I remember those meetings, and I remember Marnie. I used to attend those while on maternity leave, and then for 2 months as I worked part-time. She was so upbeat. Had to switch to evenings, so I wasn't there that September morning.

It was indeed one of the most beautiful mornings we'd seen in a long while. I had dropped my son off at daycare (he was 1) and my daughter at kindergarten at the JCC, and was running a bit late. Leisurely, I drove without a care up 287 to my office in Franklin Lakes, marveling over and over at how lovely a day it was.

NPR had always been on the radio on my way to work. 11 September 2001 was no exception. As I was cruising along, I heard out of the corner of my ear that a "small" plane seemed to have hit the World Trade Center. Alarmed, I started listening more closely. Then a report of (another) plane hitting the towers. My first thought was, didn't they just report that? But then the sickening realization sunk in that it had been, in fact, a second plane hitting the second tower.

When I finally arrived at the office, I found my colleagues huddled around computer screens and radios. I will never forget the sound of the announcer reporting in somber tones that the second tower had fallen. Unfathomable.

Never before had I been so grateful for my husband's heavy travel schedule, for he was on a train to Baltimore when this happened. My brother lives in the city and worked at Deutsche Bank, but had luckily left that position maybe a few weeks before. I had friends nearby, and one in particular in the building; it was all day until I found out that he had made it out. Later, several other of my friends told me of being stuck in the subway underneath, or even running to work, but deciding to get a bagel that morning, and being late, etc., etc. So very grateful that my own friends and loved ones had been spared.

Sadly, terribly sadly, I learned shortly thereafter that a boy I'd known a bit in high school (full disclosure: he was a cutie and I had a major crush) perished in the attacks. He'd grown up to be successful in the finance world and left behind his wife and four young children. My heart breaks for him, his family, and all of the families affected by this....even all of us, some who were stuck in the city and walked home, others who were in the air elsewhere and had to be diverted, and didn't know why, and those who walked in the reservation and stared down and out at the smoking remnants of those fine towers.

Reality has never been the same since.


I was going back to work for the first time after maternity leave. I had my older children with me (5 and 3 at the time) because they were starting at the preschool at my job. I It was my first day back to work and their first day in their school. I'll never forget how blessed I felt that morning that I had been able to make arrangements for the new baby and my two older kids. I remember looking up in the sky at the really clear, sunny morning and saying, "Wow. What a great day," and then having to explain to my 5 year old WHY I thought it was such a great day.

Of course, looking back, it was a horrific day, but for twenty five minutes on the morning of September 11, 2001, I was the most contented person in the world.

After the attacks, the preschool workers were talking in front of the children about how airplanes were hitting tall buildings and they needed to get out fast. My kids - in a new situation - were completely panicked. I wound up getting them and taking them back to my office and staying there, glued to the windows (we had a clear view of the towers from Newark) until around 5pm because the traffic was so bad getting out of Newark that I felt it best to stay put.

When We finally got home, my husband was there, glued to the TV, as were we all thereafter.

That night, my 3 year old awoke with a nightmare that we were being attacked by a dragon with a long neck and flames coming out of his mouth (a tower, perhaps?). I spent the next two days agonizing over having allowed my kids to watch the footage.

I assure I was there. I was also in WTC2, the South Tower, for the first bombing several years before.

Luckily my company was on the lower floors, in the twenties, so we were not directly impacted by the second plane hitting our building.

When WTC1, the North Tower, was hit I was in the "throne room", bringing memories of the scene in the first Jurassic Park movie where one of the characters was in a similar position.

Many of my co-workers and yours truly decided to stay in the building, listening to the instructions that came over the fire control communication system until the second plane flew into our building. Everyone thought that what happened to WTC1 was a horrible accident.

We left at that time via the fire stairs. My boss, our support staff supervisor and I ended up stopping at the China Town Holiday where we saw our "home" collapse on TV.

Communications were almost non-existent. I called home and left a voice mail assuring my family I was OK after the initial attack. I wasn't able to contact my family again until we had walked to midtown and found shelter at my boss's daughters office on Lexington Avenue and I could get an email through to our daughter around 11:00am. By that time my family was pretty sure I hadn't made it.

Personally a tough day, but not as tough as for those who perished.

Bobk, very powerful account of your day. Thank you for sharing.

BobK... long face We worked next door to one another 2WTC (South Tower) long face

I was not there though. Had missed my regular train and was on the one after. Online for the Ferry when the first plane hit. We thought..wow..what a freak accident. Halfway across the river, we all were on the upper deck, I saw the second plane come over the city and I knew something was terribly wrong. I used to be a stewardess for Lufthansa. There is no way that plane wouldnt have been diverted out to open water immediately. I watched it come across the city, i knew something wasnt right, it crossed over the river almost right above the boat. The it made a left turn over NJ and went out and around. For a second it looked like it disappeared, like it was gone and I took a deep breath thinking how strange that was and then Boom. We all knew then that this was no accident and we all knew that thousands would loose their lives that day.

:-(

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