9/11

[Guest ( ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ ) MrGentle]

Many of you are young, many overseas. For me this day means remembering I was trying to work in a building on long island about 45 minutes from the towers while sheltered with about a dozen people trying to get training.

 

We stopped the training and watched the news in horror and eventually evacuated the building we were in.

 

Janice Blaney, a former coworker, died that day in one of these towers and my brother and best friend were among the surviving first responders.

 

I knew they'd have stories to tell so I told them to unload and share the burden of memory and to this day the things they told me still upset me.

 

Where were you?

[mac6531]

I was a freshman in high school when it happened.

It was the start of a school day like any other when we heard the news, and I just remember how surreal it was. It was truly hard to comprehend that it was really happening inside of the US.

I was educated enough to understand that terrorist attacks happened around the world, but I couldn't believe that it had just happened at home.

[Trixie]

i was a freshmen also in highschool, during9/11. All i remember was my name being called on the loudspeaker to come down to the main office then when I got there I saw my mom she said we leaving I don't understand why then we got outside I saw all these people coming in this white substance then we got on the bus which took forever to get home and she was explaining to me what happened. My dad actually saw it on the news the second plane hit and my sister was trying to get home from college in Queens and my grandmother went to go get my little brother.

[Ringdancer]

Was working for a small business at the time.  Suffice to say everything stopped as the events were captured on tv and all of us watched it unfold.

[Guest Scottishdaddy]

Sorry about your coworker. MrGentle.

Ironically, this is also my wedding anniversary. And today is the first since myself and my wife divorced.   

I'll never forget the attacks on the twin towers...I was staying with a friend from the EU in Belgium and I was awoken early in the morning to be told what had happened. I watched the scenes unfold with his young son, and recalled telling him, 'remember this day...everything changes after this day.'

And it did.

[MellyBoo19912015]

I was in the UK at home. None of us could believe the news. At first it looked like some weird movie trailer, until we saw the news and it hit us. I was 10 years old and I couldn't understand why people would do that. Why kill all those people. Four years later in July I was in school, seeing live the London bombings. We were rushing around ringing relatives and friends. Praying no one we knew was there. And you know what even now at 24, 14 years after seeing all that I don't get why people do it. I remember being afraid of planes for a while. I still haven't been on one, for my own reasons now. I remember needing to get on buses for school and despite the fear having to get on with it. It feels strange there are kids now in schools who won't remember any of this.

[Vlad ziva's Owner]

I was in elementary school. I saw a tiny glimpse of the news at the front desk as I was checking in to class, but they quickly hid it from view so the kids couldn't see. Then we were all dismissed and went home. 

[ziva vlad's kitten]

i am sorry for your personal loss of MrGentle.

 

i was only 13, and i was in bed asleep.

i woke up an hour late, and wondered why the house was so quiet. Mom had not gotten me up for school, so i knew something was wrong and went looking for everyone.

i found everyone in my parents bedroom, crowded around the TV watching the news.

Half an hour later as i was still watching, the second tower came down.

i spent the rest of the day crying, glued to the TV watching, praying, and grieving, for those who lost so much that day.