Sept 11th Remembered: Where were you on that day?

[dg90001]

I am not sure if the coverage has been so heavy in all parts of the country as it is in New York. But for weeks now, I have been watching late night Sept 11th Remembered shows on cable.

Where were you on 9/11/01? How did you find out about the attacks? I am interested on hearing your experience that day.

[dg90001]

I was in Kronberg, Germany on Sept 11th. I had been there for three weeks.

I was instant messaging with a coworker who was working in the Prudential Center in Boston. My coworker was suddenly not responding on IM. After a while she came back and told me that she was away because a plane had hit the World Trade Center then a few minutes later she told me another plane had just hit the Pentagon. I couldn’t believe what I was reading….

Gaile was French and sometimes would get really confused with slang – so at first -- all I could think of was the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast and how people mistakenly took that to be a real newscast. After a minute or so I realized Gaile had to be accurate. I tried to get to the external internet and couldn’t get a connection. I tried the phone systems and apparently all lines to the States were jammed. I can not describe the feeling of being an American oversees when your country is being attacked.

I was one of the lucky Americans trying to get home. My ticket was already booked for the first day that the US allowed international air travel to resume, a week later. With all the uncertainty all I wanted was to get home to family.

I am originally from Staten Island, New York. Many people I knew died in those towers – either because they were working there or they were first responders. Staten Island Firehouses had the largest losses on Sept 11th.

I am reminded of Sept 11th each time I go back to Staten Island. In my old neighborhood, you can not drive more than 4 blocks without seeing a ‘green street sign’ that pays honor to a resident of that block who died on Sept 11th.

[Freebird]

Wow Denise, that is a very powerful story.

In the days leading up to Sept 11th, I had been going to a local hospital to interpret for a long time client (who also became a dear friend) who was hospitalized to have a stem cell transplant to treat his lymphoma. That morning of September 11th, I kissed my husband goodbye as he headed to Boston's Logan airport to fly to Madison Wisconsin on business, and prepared myself to go back to the hospital for more interpreting Little did I know that Mark was in the airport at the very same time the terrorists were.

As I arrived in the hospital room, the deaf client had stepped into the bathroom, and there playing on the TV was the closing credits of the Arnold Schwartzernegger film he had just finished watching. He came out of the bathroom, we greeted each other, and both looked up at the TV to see the credits ending and the TV switch to the news right as the second plane hit the south tower. We looked at each other in disbelief, and for a split second I wondered if the movie had rewound and started playing again. And then, I panicked. Where was Mark?

I didn't have time to act on my panic though, because throughout the morning I was called on to interpret for my client/friend as his chemo was administered. The hospital TV had a lousy captioning system, so that you could either watch the live captions (which are intermittent at best), OR have the voice on, but not both. In deference to my client, we left the captions on, so the rest of the day was an exercise in getting the news piecemeal, even as the horrific images were being played out right before our eyes. It gave me a new appreciation for the lack of inforomation that is such an ongoing situation in a deaf person's life.

Finally by about noon, I reached Mark. He had landed in Milwaukee and of course the connecting flight to Madison was canceled as all the airports were shutting down. He ran as fast as he could and got the very last rental car at the Milwaukee airport, and spent the next two days driving home to Boston. The rest of the afternoon, between interpreting, I contacted family members to assure them that everything was okay. I can still picture it -- I didn't have a cell phone so I stood in the hospital lobby on the pay phone running up my credit card bill.

Finally at the end of the day, I left the hospital. While most of the day I had experienced this horrific tragedy within the confines of a small hospital room, I was now able to see it's impact on the community. The grief-stricken look on people's faces walking down the hospital corridor and on the way home is one of the indelible images in my mind from that day. I arrived home and collapsed into tears -- tears of relief that Mark was okay, and tears of grief and sadness over what had happened during the day. I picked my then 9 year old son up from school and tried to explain what had happened to him. We came home and watched the images on TV together and held each other tight.

[dg90001]

Linda - I got a chill when I read that Mark was at Logan the same time as terrorists were. So glad Mark grabbed the last rental -- so many were stranded for a long while.

You're such an awesome friend. I am not sure I could have kept myself together had I had all the information. I didn't arrive back to the hotel until after 10pm Euro ( 3pm EST) and that is when I really understood what actually happened.

[Wait4it]

My story is much less dramatic. I was at home that Tuesday morning preparing for work. I rarely watch TV in the morning, but that morning I had on the Today show. I sat stunned as I watched what was unfolding in front of me. Forget the primping. That morning those things didn't matter. I had to leave my house at 11:00 to get to work. In that hour commute I drove in silence. Every, and I do mean every bridge overpass had people waving American flags. I remember a bed sheet sign that read "We are all bleeding today".

Working with little children was a blessing that day. Their innocence protected them from the gravity of the morning. They wanted to smile and laugh and have a fun day at gymnastics. Even though my heart was breaking I had to live up to their expectations. I remember little Ashley telling me my eyes were red, just like her mommy's. Some things you cannot hide from the very young.

[TMW]

I was at work that day. My boss at the time had a TV in her office. Now remember, I work at retirement home for Priests. My boss was a Nun. While passing near her office at around 9:30am, she screamed out, "Holy Jesus God and Mother Mary, Laurie...Get in here...Oh my Dear God...it's horrible, just...Oh my God...planes...dammit....they're on fire!"

And I came in to see the Towers engulfed in flames after the 2 planes had hit. We all sat there glued to the TV and then later moved into the lounge where most of us at the house gathered the rest of the day. None of us did a lick of work the rest of the day. One of the Priests got up and said he was going into the chapel to say Mass and we all followed in after him.

As the rest of the info came out...the Pentagon, PA plane crash, etc. it all became too much and my boss said to just go home. I did and found my hubby putting out the American Flag...along with so many, many other neighbors. It was surreal.

[dg90001]

(09-08-2011 11:05 AM)TMW Wrote:  I did and found my hubby putting out the American Flag...along with so many, many other neighbors. It was surreal.

Laurie, Two things struck me when I finally made it home:

1) I had traveled a lot and seen military 'on duty' holding machine guns in many non US airports. Never once did I ever expect to see that in an American Airport. It was very odd for me to see that when I arrived home.

2) On the drive from Logan Airport in Boston to Albany, there were American flags everywhere. On the highway overpasses, on front lawns, people even had them hanging from windows on buildings. It was amazing...

[TMW]

(09-08-2011 12:25 PM)dg90001 Wrote:  

(09-08-2011 11:05 AM)TMW Wrote:  I did and found my hubby putting out the American Flag...along with so many, many other neighbors. It was surreal.

Laurie, Two things struck me when I finally made it home:

1) I had traveled a lot and seen military 'on duty' holding machine guns in many non US airports. Never once did I ever expect to see that in an American Airport. It was very odd for me to see that when I arrived home.

2) On the drive from Logan Airport in Boston to Albany, there were American flags everywhere. On the highway overpasses, on front lawns, people even had them hanging from windows on buildings. It was amazing...

Very true here too. On business, lawns...even had the "God Bless America" signs in every window and home.

[dg90001]

(09-08-2011 08:45 AM)Wait4it Wrote:  My story is much less dramatic.....

Working with little children was a blessing that day. Their innocence protected them from the gravity of the morning. They wanted to smile and laugh and have a fun day at gymnastics. Even though my heart was breaking I had to live up to their expectations. I remember little Ashley telling me my eyes were red, just like her mommy's. Some things you cannot hide from the very young.

Oh Sue - Your experience may not have been dramatic, but I feel it was very touching. Working with children must have allowed you to 'hold onto their innocence." Am I making sense?

[Mac]

The one thing that remains clear in my mind about that day was that the sky was the most perfect cloudless blue.

I was sitting in my office and a co-worker came in and said that just as she was getting out of her car, she had heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I immediately went online and tried to find out what was going on. I tried all my usual sources and the pages just hung. Finally, I typed in abcnews.com and actually got something. Other co-workers began to arrive and started to congregate in my office, asking me to constantly refresh my computer. Five of us were in my office when we found out the second plane hit. We all sat stunned. Our MIS guy, Bob, walked by my office and said the conference room TV, usually used for videos, was now showing ABC news and that we could gather in there if we liked. We all headed there and within a few minutes, the entire company was silently watching the snowy TV screen.

We were together as a company when the first tower collapsed. I remember the gasps of my co-workers and then complete and utter silence as people tried to process what they had just seen. Dirk, the vice president of the company, stood up and said we could go home and be with our families, but we could also stay at the office if we needed to. My company is very young and many of the people who work there are recent college graduates with no family nearby. Before I left the office, the second tower collapsed. I was shaking with fear over knowing NYC police and firefighters and also knowing people who worked in those buildings and in that area. But I was also fearful of what was next and what my 8-year-old daughter knew. During my drive home I listened to the radio, heard more horrific news, and kept looking to the sky.

I arrived at school and stood outside waiting for Cas. It was so eerily quiet with no planes in the air. And then there was this enormous boom that scared the shit out of the handful of parents standing around. We looked up and saw a fighter plane. It was a noise and a sight that would be repeated for the next week as the planes at Hanscom Air Force Base, just 8 miles away, would be sent up to patrol our skies.

Cassie knew something was going on since they canceled her after school program. They didn't tell the elementary level kids what was going on. I heard that at the middle school level it was at the teacher's discretion, and in the HS the kids watched it all unfold. I got her home and tried to explain what had happened. She wanted to see the television coverage but I was hesitant. She said what I was saying to her made no sense, she had to see it. Cas has always been a show me kind of kid. And so we sat and watched for a while. And then we'd had enough. But not before another moment I will never forget. We were watching Peter Jennings on ABC. I admired and trusted Peter Jennings. His professionalism was unmatched. As they came back from a remote piece, you could see Peter hanging up the phone, visibly emotional. My first reaction was "now what". But then, with a catch in his voice, he said that was my daughter, I haven't heard from her all day. She's safe, thank God. He paused for a minute and then he continued on, into his 16 straight hours on the air.

Amazingly, everyone I knew in NY was safe and sound. A cousin was in the streets as the buildings collapsed and was covered in that gray/white dust that we all saw on TV. He was working on the opening of a new hotel and went to that unopened hotel for refuge, not knowing what to do. He got home to his family on LI in the early morning of the next day. He readily admits to not being the same person he was before that day.

My dad spent his entire career with Chase Manhattan Bank, alternating between the 1 Chase Plaza location and 1 World Trade Center. I used to love visiting him at the World Trade Center. On that day he had story after story about the buildings and when the towers were brand new. The other story he and my mom will tell you about 9/11: On August 13 my parents flew out to CA to visit my Aunt. They were on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to LA.