<p>I thought you were living in the Boston area at that time?</p>
<p>In a Fairfield County town, there were 3 or 4 men from my mother’s church alone who were killed that day. So was one of my K-12 classmates.</p>
<p>Actually, I have always been surprised that the casualties were not higher. Possibly a combination of the fact that there was an election that morning and that NYC is a town where people are more inclined to stay late at work than get there early. If the attack had taken place at 10am, I’m sure the toll would have been much higher.</p>
<p>I observed what Jonri described: people dropped all of the NY-bashing and embraced the city and its people. One difference I did notice on the day and immediately thereafter here in Maine was that those of us with direct personal experience of living and/or working in NYC were much more likely to feel anger about the attack, and express it. This was not considered PC in some quarters., where genteel sorrow was preferred.</p>
<p>I was standing slack jawed in front of the TV as one plane hit the tower, then another, then the Pentagon. They started to ground all the airplanes. I can only describe an internal rising terror as it became obvious my country was being attacked. </p>
<p>That’s what I remember the most. Utter disbelief, fear, rising terror as I began to wonder what the scope of the attack would be. Knowing our lives would never be the same.</p>
<p>In the early reports, only the smoking first tower was shown here in Maryland. The video of the plane hitting the first tower did not come out until later. At first, it was not known whether it was an attack or an accident. Then the second plane hit the second tower. The coverage may have been different in different markets.</p>
<p>I was at a committee chairpersons Parent Council meeting in someone’s home. At first we all stood around a television in a small den slack jawed with shock. Within a few moments we all spread out and began calling the homes of the parents on our class lists. We wanted to make sure everyone was okay and to make sure no one waiting for news was waiting alone. More then half the kids had parents working on Wall Street, several at Cantor Fitzgerald. We watched the towers go down on the television. I remember thinking that we were watching people die. A friend had gone to school to pull her four children out, she wanted them to be there when their dad came home. He never did. It was a minor miracle only 2 parents from our school were killed. The near misses were blessings. One dad was just out of hospital the day before, his wife pitched a fit when he tried to go into work. He stayed home. Another was at a golf tournament, another in the gym, etc…I watch to hear the names of the people I knew read every year and every year I cry. So many people from our area were killed, you couldn’t help but drive past a funeral or memorial service every day for weeks it seemed. The stories of calls made and frantic good byes and promises made would rip your heart out.</p>
<p>Yes and no. The owner of my neighborhood stationery store at the time was Muslim. He left the store to go home on 9/11 and try to protect his family. The next day, he didn’t go to work. He was petrified; he expected violence. The newspapers were dropped off in front of the store, as they always were. An elderly neighbor saw them when he went to get his morning paper. Realizing that the store was closed, he sat there in front of the store the entire day, collecting payment for the papers, so that the owner wouldn’t lose the $. </p>
<p>The grandpa of a young family took his grandchildren there after Sunday mass every week to buy them candy. It was his weekly treat. Their daddy went missing on 9/11–he was among the many whose body was never found. After mass the following Sunday, grandpa took the kids to the stationery store as usual, to buy candy from the Muslim owner, who literally started to cry. (He knew by then that their daddy was among the missing.) Grandpa wanted to make a point of the fact that there was no reason to hold the store owner liable for what a few of his co-religionists had done and that his grandchildren should not listen to people who tried to teach them hate. </p>
<p>Maybe it helped that a Muslim widow in our neighborhood lost her only son. </p>
<p>Most of my neighbors fell all over themselves trying to reassure our Muslim neighbors that nobody blamed them for what had happened. Our local multifaith memorial service included the local Imam.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there were people who harassed Muslims on 9/11, but on the whole, I think most NYers refrained from doing so. Certainly, my own neighbors did.</p>
<p>I can say that SE Michigan (and probably many other places) was a very tough place for Muslims/those of Middle East descent. At the time, I was living near Dearborn- which is “loving” (sarcastic) referred to as Dearbornistan. The reports out of Dearborn were infuriating… as though these people had anything to do with this. Not even all of them were Muslim- many Christians of Arabic descent were targeted. It’s STILL going on to this day. Anti-Muslim groups pretty routinely go to Dearborn to protest. It gets pretty bad but of course never makes it past the local news.</p>