Remembering those who lost their precious lives...

I still remember that morning

 

I woke up, walked out into the living room

 

My mother turns towards me and says:

"The world trade center has been hit by a plane."

 

I looked at the screen and ask:

"What's that?"

 

"It's the Wolrd Trade Center!"

 

"The what?"

 

"Look!"

 

"Does this mean there's no school?"

 

"Yes, but look!"

 

Then I went and played my Gamcube.

 

 

 

I'm sorry to say it, but that is how the exact event came out to me. It still doesn't hit me. I think this happened to most kids my age.

 

But I did speak to one of the firefighters who was at the scene before and I wrote a short story to what he told me. What he went through was pretty amazing.

 

I say this with the up most respect.

 

 

Standing in the center of the street, watching the grey sky above move about as if within a cloud.

Human nature rallies in mass chaos as the people around you run like lemmings.

People crying, shedding emotions as they were weak. The strong too broken to even feel.

Standing within what seems like a infinite rush of litter. Watching the debris rain down like snow.

 

 

Quite a scene.

Thanks for starting this thread.  At the time, I worked 10 miles from the Pentagon.  It was a day that completely changed my life - and how I look at things.  Ideally, I'd like to do something with my family for 9/11 to remember this event, but we want to stay out of Washington, DC because of the alerts that have been posted for the city as well as New York.  Instead, I just think we'll remain closer to our home and remember the day peacefully.

Ah yes i was 9 at the time. I remember waking up and walking out into the living room where the tv was on. I looked in disbelief at it and didn't know how to respond. I asked what happened and my mother said it was terrorist attack. I have looked down at religion ever since that day.

Hopefully this thread manages to steer clear of politics and religion... *cough*

 

My deepest sympathy to those involved in the event or its far reaching repercussions. I was also 9 at the time, and was woken up by my parents to watch.

 

Religion can be a cause of violence.  So can any of a host of social, political or economic reasons.  

 

The Nazis brainwashed their citizens (especially the young and impressionable) to commit atrocities in the name of Nationalism.  The muslim terrorists did it in the name of religion.  People will use whatever ideal they can to justify and incite violence.  

 

I remember that every class that day was just watching the news. I remember everyone being extremely worried that they would hit us next here in Vegas. I also had about 10 family members in the military at that time so I was worried about them going to war cause I assumed that on Sept 12 we would go to war with everyone.

Let's keep politics and religion out of this, folks. Let's keep this to a discussion of what happened to you that day and sympathy for the victims.

I still remember the day well. Crazy Rita was around at the time and during the morning routine, we had the news on and saw the second plane hit.

I had no idea whether my office was open (no one had called) so I got ready and took the train into downtown LA. A bit scary since I figured LA would probably be a target, too.

Downtown LA was a ghost town; everything was shut down. I'd never seen it so deserted. A security guard at my office told me that it was closed that day.

So I wandered across the street to the Bonaventure Hotel for a coffee. The ground floor was filled with stranded travelers and people turned away from their offices.

It was dead silent in there.

Everyone was watching the news. No one was talking.

My cousin had an even more interesting experience. His team had won the Coupe du Monde (pastry Olympics) in Lyon in 2001. The team was incited to the White House for a meet'n'greet with Bush. That was to take place on September 11. Of course, it was canceled. But he saw a lot from his hotel and had a bit of an adventure renting a car and getting back to Los Angeles. Though the team was invited back and he got to meet Bush and Laura. Sadly, he had several friends who worked at Windows on the World.

Personal stuff aside, all my thoughts and best wishes to the victims.

I met one of the victims a few months later, too. He was in an elevator with me, we started talking, and he managed to evacuate from the first tower after it was hit. Nice guy, glad he made it out.

I remember the events as it occurred on television. My cousin was attending college in Lower Manhattan and not too far from ground zero. She escaped to a church as the event happened. Luckily, she was not harmed. Coincidentally, it was also her 18th birthday on that day. 5 days after the event, I drove into New York and I could see the huge smoke from the New Jersey turnpike. Yes it was still on fire! 

 

When I entered into the city, it was a quiet and somber vibe. People were actually polite and the city was mellow. Wow, I have never seen the hustle and bustle of the city to stop or at least really slow down. Normally, the vibe in Manhattan is cold and busy but this time it seemed warm, slow and heartfelt as if it turned into a small town. 

 

I tried to see ground zero but the whole downtown area was closed and you could not enter the any area below 14th street unless if you were a resident with ID. 

 

One week later, I returned to New York again and I saw ground zero. The surrounding buildings were covered with white powder from the debris of the twin towers and it looked as if it was hit with a snow storm. At the time I had no camera and digital cameras were not as popular as today and I regret not taking pictures of these scenes. I didn't even own a cell phone then too. Yes we were living in the dark ages! Lower Manhattan was a ghost town in a way as many business were closed. So if ya wanted to get a bite to eat, you had to go to uptown.

Edited by Spareribs - 9/11/11 at 5:33am

I'm really too young to even begin to feel or empathise with the pain of that day, but I remember that on that one day, september the 11th, when I was  4 years old, everything was silent. My dad was watching the news, my mom was solemnly making breakfast. Our neighbors were all indoors, silent. It was such a somber day and I didn't understand it. But on a recent trip to New York, we went to the grounds, and went into the Museum dedicated to it, and it was really heart-wrenching.  actually saw a piece of scrap metal from the plane used to hit tower one, I saw a little girls teddy covered in Dust. I truly send my deepest sympathies to any victims and anyone affected.

Peace !

 

I was sick with emphatically identifying with the deaths and fallout of the 9/11 attacks and subsequent war(s) (unending (?) ), from a vets pov.

 

I have a prescription not to follow the war coverage 'case I care too much, and that medias talking heads and pols pov agitates me without resolution ; (perfect training ground is posting on Head-Fi and staying out of pol controversy , or controversy in general as the anxiety raises my level of intesity of physical symptoms associated with this "Lyme Disease" I've been dealing with since before 9/11 ...

 

Peace ~

I had just done a lot of research on the 1993 bombing, and was in the midst of writing a paper about why it would happen again.  

Had maybe a hundred people who I knew who worked there, luckily 80% of them weren't there because of selichos...

 

Like you, I'm very selective on my news sources.  Never would I spend half a day just watching any TV station as the news is not of quality, and it just repeats itself.  Instead, I use Internet sources where I can go straight to the source (e.g. - Business news on Google) for the news I want.  To me, I refer these as "news fasts."  There are times when people will bring up a news item at work and I'm oblivious to what they're talking about.  While I might be misinformed or ill-informed of what they're talking about, I still think that I'm better by not knowing all of the news that happens because it can be infectious to a point.

 

Oh, good luck with the Lyme Disease treatment.  My mother-in-law went for years mis-diagnosed with it.  Finally, she saw a great specialist that detected it and fought it hard with medications and treated it correctly.

Edited by wje - 9/11/11 at 8:27am

 

Paul Simon at Ground Zero 9-11-11

We were actually watching the news special this morning when the showed him perform the song.  It was flawless - yet, very appropriate.  Paul didn't have a pick when he played, but you could see his longer finger nails as they handled the strings appropriately.