<p>I was 12. I went to a K-12 school, and everyday grades 7-12 meet at 10:30 for announcements and such. The headmaster told us that a plane crashed into the WTC in NY and that it was believed to be an act of terrorism. I only had a vague idea of what terrorism was at that point. It was an unfamiliar word not used often in the United States. It was the first many of the teachers had heard of the attacks as well. Our teachers took some time out of classes to talk with us and did not assign homework. We have no TVs in our school (at least not TVs that get cable) but I remember watching the news online with a few students and teachers at lunch. </p>
<p>One of the other posters said that her daughter’s school allowed the children to watch the coverage all day. I find that quite shocking. We were asked not to discuss specifics with any younger students because their teachers had given them only very general information in order to allow the children’s parents to decide what and how to tell them. </p>
<p>I remember several crying or frantic students. Some had parents who worked in or by the World Trade Center, and one of my friends had a father who worked as a pilot for American Airlines and flew out of Boston that morning. Only one member of our school community was touched directly by the deaths. We live near an Air Force Base (the base that sent planes to try to intercept the planes taken over by the terrorists, in fact), and huge jets or planes were flying over us all day.</p>
I want to clarify about my kids watching at school. They didn’t watch coverage, they watched the events unfolding because their school looked directly over the scene and short of sending them home, there was no way to prevent them seeing the fires, the collapses, the panic and the people running off that last ferry ran right past the school.</p>
<p>Oh, Zmom! How awful for them. My heart hurts to think of how this tragedy has touched so many of us. Peace to all as we remember those lost and how I pray that we can work toward understanding and compassion for all.</p>
<p>I was in a back bedroom, that we call the “computer room” cause that is where the home computer is hooked up…I was on my work computer in there when I decided to go out to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup. The TV was still on in the kitchen…and Katie, Matt and Al were all pondering the plane that had hit the World Trade Tower…speculating that perhaps it was a small plane…misguided pilot etc…and then, right in front of my eyes, I watched the 2nd plane hit the 2nd Tower…and immediately the NBC team , I seem to remember Matt said “this is no accident.” I called my husband, I called a work friend to give him a head’s up… and then I called my boss… and continued to watch the news, now back in the computer room, where there was a bigger TV. When the word came that the Pentagon had been hit, it seemed like my heart would explode. </p>
<p>I too had some workers at my home…painting the house… and I went outside and told them what was going on. We are not that far from an airport and while no planes actually fly close to us, one thing that was very eerie was the lack of any air traffic the rest of that week… </p>
<p>One of my co-workers lost his daughter on one of the planes. She was a recent college graduate…working for an accounting firm… her first big 2 week assignment on the west coast… the dad was initially convinced he had sent her to her death because he talked her into changing her airline from another one to the one that went into the first tower. It turned out that the flight she was originally on was the one that went into the 2nd tower. I was always relieved that God spared him from that anguish, knowing that either way, she was destined for tragedy. </p>
<p>I watched the towers implode…I watched it all…and I do feel like my own addiction to news changed that day as I became obsessed with checking to see whether there was new news…</p>
<p>I wish we would build a Religion Museum at Ground Zero. To provide a place for anyone and everyone to learn about any and all religions. The real foundations of each faith. The timelines about religion. Maps showing religious hotspots over time…etc etc…I think a Religion Museum would be the very best memorial to the lives lost in NYC. I also think that the original arches of the lower floors of the Towers evoke the look of a cathedral. And that is how I would design the museum, to echo those lines.</p>
<p>That’s what happened at my girl’s school. The teachers couldn’t turn it off, apparently. We’re not near NY, but are near a big city. Even so, I thought it was irresponsible to show it live to younger children.</p>
<p>But just think of the horrors so many children of the world witness every day. Bad as it was, we’re fortunate to have so little murder and mayhem in most of our kid’s lives.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks something worse will definitely happen someday?</p>
<p>I was on my way into federal court in New Haven, Connecticut. I remember parking on the street, getting out of the car and thinking what a beautiful day it was. A stranger on the sidewalk told me what had happened. When I arrived back at my office, everyone was watching television in one of our conference rooms and many were crying.</p>
<p>Ive been playing my own personal slide show over the last couple of days. Since the attacks, it feels a little bit like the veil between time and place slips a little bit because as much as we’ve moved on, we haven’t really and that day is still a part of our lives as if it were happening over and over.</p>
<p>One of my favorite memories is of the Canadian Mountie who was one of the hundred of police who came from various jurisdictions to help out. He was directing traffic on the FDR Drive, which was quite a task because every truck was inspected, and he had the greatest attitude (not to mention uniform!). My bus driver pulled up alongside this large, cheerful black gentleman and asked “aren’t you supposed to be up north with Santa Claus?” The Mountie laughed and said “I’m here for you New York.”</p>
<p>I also remember Soozievt’s referenced flyers for missing people, and I wanted to mention that some have never been removed.</p>
“Worse” things happen all the time. If you want to include natural disasters, look back at the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 where resulting tsunamis killed 275,000 people. An estimated 400,000 people are thought to have died in Darfur from war and disease. And of course, when we dropped the atomic bombs 220,000 were killed by the end of the year, with of course many others dying from injury and radiation exposure since then. About 3,000 died because of 9/11; if that many people died in another part of the world, we would hardly notice and soon forget. The shock of the attacks in the US, the way the day changed all of our lives, and the images seared into our brain are of course more than the number of casualties. We are nonetheless blessed to live in a country that has largely been spared from the worst disasters.</p>
<p>I was on AOL and saw the news there. A few kids were pulled out of school early, but most stayed put. Parents who worked in Manhattan didn’t have an easy time getting home. They managed to keep the news from the kids in the elementary school for the entire day - though I got some calls from parents asking me to take their kids if they had early dismissal. The middle school heard rumors, my older son came home to ask if it was true. I only know of one parent who was actually in the towers (she escaped) though there were several in the immediate vicinity. I let my kids watch about ten minutes of the towers coming down on TV - I felt like the Kennedy assassination - this was likely to be a defining moment of their childhoods, that they needed to see what had happened. They were in 7th and 4rd grade at the time. </p>
<p>We’d actually been standing on the World Trade Center plaza two days earlier.</p>
<p>I was driving to work early in the still-dark morning (west coast), and the DJs on the pop radio station interrupted to tell about the second tower getting hit. I switched to NPR and continued driving to work. The NPR coverage soon cut over to their Pentagon correspondent to get the military angle, and the third plane hit the Pentagon while the reporter was live on the air. He had to cut off his report and evacuate.</p>
<p>There were rumors on the news coverage of more planes still in the skies. It was beginning to look like a rain of terrorist airplanes that might keep hitting more targets - marching across the country as the sun rose, all the way to the west coast. I thought for a moment: Is this it? Am I witnessing the fall of the Republic?</p>
<p>Once I got to work I was one of the first to arrive, so I dragged one of the televisions from the conference rooms downstairs to the offices upstairs. And everyone stood around all day watching the coverage. We soon saw the live coverage of the towers collapsing.</p>
<p>By time I drove home that evening the freeway overpasses were already beginning to be draped in American flags.</p>
<p>I remember walking home from taking my older kids to school, holding my then 4 yr old’s hand, and thinking what a beautiful, clear blue sky morning, how nice it was that fall was coming. I came in the house and rushed to answer an already ringing phone. My husband, calling from the 43rd floor of an office tower in lower Manhattan, telling me to turn on the TV. A plane, the World Trade Center, and we briefly discussed how could that happen, navigation problem?, but the sky is so clear. He said he had to go, he’d call back later. He and his office mates watched out their windows as the second plane hit moments later. He was unable to phone out after that, but somehow my mother got an email from him around lunch time saying he was fine, his building was holding off on letting anyone out until they had masks. He made it out on the ferry and got home about 10pm, covered in dust. He put his shoes in a bag and right in the trash. He had gone in early that morning. Ordinarily he would have been passing through the WTC off the PATH train at the time the first plane hit. Our kids used to go to a backup daycare place in the WTC that they loved. We had taken them up to the top just weeks before. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the new skyline.</p>
<p>I also remember thinking it was such a beautiful day! The sky was so blue…I had just dropped my youngest daughter off at elementary school when I heard it on the radio. I went home and watched the tv and could not believe it was happening! The way I felt then, Its hard for me to believe that my son, who had just started middle school at the time is now a freshman at NYU…God Bless all of those people who lost their lives that day and my heart goes out to their families!!!</p>
<p>I was on a business trip - we flew out on the 10th, were supposed to be touring the vendor’s manufacturing facility on the 11th, then to fly back on the 11th. We were in the conference room of the manufacturer getting the initial briefing when our salesperson was called out of the room. He came back in with the strangest look on his face, and my first impulse was “They’ve fired this guy, right now, and how will we get back home?” (we the customers are escorted on these trips by our salesperson). Then he said “this is over, we have to go, we have to leave right now” the speaker, one of his superiors was flabbergasted. Of course we all got up and went to the TV in disbelief - everyone in the company from the most senior person - CEO, VP, we were in their executive office suite at the factory was crowded around the TV in shock.
Their very efficient travel office got us one of the last rental cars in Miami, we were held up at the airport rental car gate because we were told Air Force One had to be routed through - remember the Pres was speaking to school kids in Sarasota, we were told he touched down in Miami, don’t know if that was even true.
We drove 12 straight hours back home, the first 3 were listening to the confusion on the radio, and having the sales rep calling all his friends - most of his work friends traveled a lot, and no one knew if they were on any of the planes, etc, or how or if they would get home.
No one was on the highway (comparatively) and no planes were in the sky - I remember eating some meal in a Denny’s and there were only a couple of people there besides us and all the waitresses and cook staff coming out to periodically look at the TV - like a movie, standing there with coffee pitchers in their hands.</p>
<p>We are still known in this particular company as “the customers that were there for the tour, THAT DAY”</p>
<p>Like many of you, I remember thinking what an absolutely beautiful day it was as I was driving to a car dealership in Philly to have my car serviced. When I arrived, someone ran up to the service desk with the news that a small plane had just hit the WTC. We all rushed into the service waiting area and turned on the small TV. The room filled with people as we watched the events unfold. People were sobbing. Many of us tried to call loved ones, but our cell phones didn’t work. When we heard the news that a hijacked plane was flying over Pennsylvania, everyone ran out of the room, absolutely terrified that the plane might crash nearby. I retrieved my car and drove home, watching the skies the whole way. When I got home, several of my neighbors dropped by. We contacted our families and cried together as we watched the TV coverage.</p>
<p>I was in my office when my best friend called to tell me; her parents in North Carolina had called her. She was on the way to work (at the time, we worked in the same building); a few minutes later, after we’d hung up, she felt the concussion of the plane hitting the Pentagon. My manager at the time was also on the road; the plane that hit the Pentagon flew over her car, and she saw it hit the building. My manager immediately turned around and went home.</p>
<p>My then-estranged (now former) husband and I played phone tag with each other and the school; once I knew from a voice mail that he’d be home and could take our son off the bus (school closed early; all kids were sent home), I sat in my office working (rearranging things that needed to be rearranged as a result of what had happened), checking the news on the web, and posting on a music board about the news. Didn’t occur to me to leave until now-exH called and actually got me on the phone (instead of being dumped into voice mail, as all other calls had been), asked where I was, and when I replied, “My office!” (like, “where else would I possibly be?!”), he asked, “WHY?!?!” I didn’t know. Just hadn’t occurred to me to leave, though I was scared to be in the building. (Sooo many rumors were flying around that day, including that the building next to us had been carbombed.) His “WHY?!?!” made me leave immediately.</p>
<p>By the time I left my office, it was afternoon and DC was empty. I’d heard that traffic had been really terrible downtown, but I saw none of it; I didn’t hit any traffic until I got into Maryland. I went immediately to now-exH’s, where our seven-year-old son was making lists of terrorist countries/organizations.</p>
<p>After I got home, I spent the rest of the day on the sofa, watching the news and crying.</p>
<p>I was driving into work, listening to NPR. NPR piped in live CNN coverage…the CNN reporter seemed foolish. After the second plane hit, the anchor asked if there was something wrong with the air traffic control system that planes are hitting the buildings?</p>
<p>I arrived at work and went to the break room and watched the coverage on TV.</p>
<p>I’ll never forget the shock of seeing those buildings collapse.</p>
<p>I was up early and fixing breakfast with the radio on when I heard the breaking story. With trepidation, I took my bowl of cereal over by the TV and turned it on with the volume low. I could not finish eating, and then wondered how I could tell this to my awakening husband and third grade son … and get ready for work since I could not tear myself away from the TV.</p>
<p>My sister, living in WA, awakened and went to her email and thought someone had to have hacked the AOL site until she turner her TV on.</p>
<p>It was a hard day for anyone to concentrate. The teachers at our elementary school did very well in fielding children’s questions, under the circumstances. I worried since I work in finance and knew people who worked near ground zero, and had a sister in law living in NYC. Fortunately for her, she got up early that day to vote and had already taken the train to her job in NJ before the first plane hit.</p>
<p>Two days later, we found that a close friend here in LA had a brother who perished on the plane that hit the Penatgon. It turns out the terrorists were in the seats behind him. He left behind a pregnant wife. His was the saddest funeral of a non-family member that I ever attended. At a later date, the whol extended family was flown, all expenses paid, to the Pentagon for a special ceremony.</p>
<p>My father was in the US Navy and stationed in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. In some ways, we were glad he was not alive to see this destruction.</p>
<p>I was lying on the couch, flipping channels, hoping to find something distracting on tv until the morning sickness lifted enough to let me focus on work. I landed on CNN just as the second plane hit, and lost my breakfast. Spent the morning alternating between gazing at the tv in horror and trying to reach my husband (in midtown) and my goddaughter’s mom (farther uptown, but goddaughter & her brother’s school was very close to Ground Zero). By about three I knew that my goddaughter and her brother had been picked up and were safely home. I wanted very much to go get my own kids, but a friend on the school board called to tell me that both the middle school and the elementary school had made a point of sending counselors into the classrooms to find and talk to the kids whose parents worked in the city (to get a sense of whether the kids knew where their parents worked, etc.). They wanted to leave the office and pickup zones clear for kids who actually had something to worry about, or weren’t sure, so knowing that both kids were very clear on where H worked, and would not assume he was hurt, I let them stay.
Our town lost three or four people - parents of friends of my kids. I lost a college classmate. We know how very fortunate we, personally, were not to lose more, but oh how we felt for many friends and contacts who were less lucky.
Listening to WNYC this morning was especially haunting. Thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the events of that day.</p>
<p>I was just waking up (here in California it was only about 6 AM) when I heard the news on the clock radio that the second plane had hit. Not knowing anything about the first plane, but knowing about the accident in the 40s when a plane hit the Empire State building, my immediate thought was that there was no accident with either plane. The rest of the day is a blur in my memory except for certain possibly indelible images from the TV. I think I went to work (I must have since it was a weekday).</p>