OT- Where were you? 9-11
I was home on maternity leave. Gibby was just 2 months old. Princess had had a fainting spell the week before, so she was staying home from school that day to go see the doctor. Lazy Boye was in half-day kindergarten, in the afternoons, so he was home. I walked PITA, then in 1st grade, out to catch the bus that morning.
My neighbor came out with his cup of coffee and sat on the curb with me and our kids. "Did you hear they bombed the World Trade Center?" he asked.
"Jeff, you had to be watching something on the history channel. That happened in 93," I said. He said, "No, just this morning! Go see!"
After the kids got on the bus, I ran back into the house and turned on the TV. I could hear Matt Lauer trying to make sense of what was going on, and the first tower has smoking. I called my husband on his cell, to tell him to try to turn on a TV at his school. As I was talking to him, the plane went into the second tower. I started screaming and told him what I was seeing. Princess ran into the room, and we sat on the couch together.
Later that day, I dropped off Lazy Boye at kindergarten. His teacher met me at the car, and said many kids weren't coming today. I told her I couldn't take him and the new baby with us to the doctor, so I wanted him to have a normal day at school, and left him in her safe care. (We live in Missouri, so I wasn't too afraid...) Princess sat in the back seat of the mini-van next to Gibby's car seat, and we pulled out on the interstate, listening to news unfold on the radio. It was eerie to have NO traffic on a major freeway in our city. News had come in of the Pentagon, and the plane had just crashed in Pennsylvania.
I remember praying with our pediatrician, and talking over concerns with him. Headed back home, it took forever! I couldn't figure out why traffic was backed up. I realized it was because people were waiting in line at the local gas station, filling up their cars and extra tanks of gas, just in case.
Loghead came home, and we ordered in pizza for dinner that night. We continued to watch national coverage as well as local aspects of the story. The airport was closed, and Loghead called to offer our home to any travelers in need of a place to stay. Our name was added to a list of volunteers. He went out to buy some blankets and and basic supplies, and delivered them to our neighbor, a police officer who was sent to patrol at the airport.
I sat infront of the TV for days. I think that was my only bout of post-partum. I felt frozen, with this urging sense of "do-something." Finally, several days later, Lazy Boye sat on the stairs and said, "Mommy, do we have to keep watching this? Why are you sad?"
I told him that it was sad because so many people died, and that there were little boys and girls who woke up that morning, and their parents left for work and never came home. (Probably not my best parent moment, but oh well.) He sat and cried with me, and then asked for paper and crayons. He disappeared to the kitchen. A little later, he came back with a card he had made. On the oustide was a picture of a little boy wearing a heart on a t-shirt. Inside, it said, "Dear kids, I am sorry you lost your mom or your dad. You can come and live with me and I will share my mom and dad with you. They are nice."
THAT'S MY Lazy Boye. The little boy with the big heart that I like to remember. (Sometimes hard to do now that he acts like a crappy teenager most of the time.) That letter is still framed and on the wall in my office.
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I'll be dating myself a
I'll be dating myself a little bit but I was in school. Seventh grade, actually. We were in a split grade seven/eight class but the eight-graders were away on a trip that day that the seventh-graders didn't get to go on, so we got split up and put into other teachers' classrooms in groups of 4 or 5 and assigned a poster project that would take up most of our day. We were sitting in the hallway because we needed the extra room for our poster paper and we were colouring.
The school admin caught our attention first - they were walking down the hall very quickly and very seriously and popping into each classroom asking the teachers to bring their classes to the gym for an assembly. I remember my principal saying, "Something terrible has happened." They didn't tell us anything yet, and actually our little group had guessed that something had happened to our former principal who had just retired that year. We were worried he had had a heart attack or something.
When everyone got to the gym and got settled, they told us that there had been an attack on the WTC. As an elementary school in Ontario, Canada most of the students were confused - we didn't even know what the WTC was. They explained some more and pulled in the television to show us some of the media coverage. Kids who went home for lunch came back and gave (inaccurate, but we were kids) recounts of what had been on the news at home and we sat afraid for the rest of the day.
I came home from school and met up with my step-sister, who was two years younger than me. They did something similar at her school, and we sat and watched the news together at ages 10 and 12 until we had to go to dance class.
My mother picked me up from dance, and I asked her if they would come after the CN tower next. It was the only major structure I knew of at that age. She said she didn't know what was going to happen.
PS: Your little boy's card brought tears to my eyes. That is so sweet. <3
I lost family on 9/11 ....
I lost family on 9/11 .... God bless all the families that lost loved ones that tragic day..... NEVER FORGET .....
I had lived in New York until
I had lived in New York until 2000 and moved back home to help my mom who had a stroke - I was working in a nursing home handing out meds when I saw on the TV the plane crash into the 1st tower. When both towers fell I was so stunned I could not move - I lost some friends and it was a horrible horrible day.
I was in 8th grade - they
I was in 8th grade - they brought us all into the chapel and told us what happened and that we were going to have a service right then and there. I just kept thinking 'why would someone do that?'.
I was home sick that day
I was home sick that day instead of at work. My mom called to tell me about the first tower. I was watching the news when the second tower was hit. That was one long day. On 9-20 I was laid off from the company I had worked for for the past 10yrs. Sept 2002 was not a good month for the nation or for the Rags clan.
I grew up in the Middle East. I have all the respect in the world for the Arab people and for the Islamic religion. I have zero tolerance for Islamo Fascist Terrorists just as I have zero tolerance for any person devoid of character who would victimize other people to enhance their own sense of importance.
I was actually proud of how the Saudi Gov't confronted Al-Khaida and hunted down and disposed of them in their own country in the years after 9-11. The Saudi people suffered dozens of attacks in the years preceding and succeeding the 9-11 attacks.
Since 9-11 I have traveled to the ME and worked there. My opinion and love of the culture and people has not changed. All cultures and peoples have value. Sociopathic, evil people in every culture do not.
IMHO of course.
My prayers are with the families of those lost on 9-11 and with those who are bravely defending our way of life and taking the fight to the Islamo Fascists across the globe.
Best regards,
I was in Bermuda working on a
I was in Bermuda working on a jazz festival. The festival was supposed to be the following weekend. So we were in our makeshift production office at King's Wharf. Our Bermuda liaison called our office and said "two planes just hit the World Trade Center!".. and we were stunned. The guys ran over to the closest restaurant to watch the news, and I stayed behind to man the phones in the office, as our home office was in New York City, as well as friends, family, etc. . My Manager knew it was terrorism, but I too, couldn't imagine that. I thought at first there was some weird radar thing or some air traffic control issue.
We were trying to all call out to friends and family and the phones were completely jammed. It was hard to be in another country and find out that the US was under attack.
They started grounding all planes, so anyone that was in the air at the time, had to land. Planes near Bermuda brought in all of these people who were on their way somewhere else that were now "stuck" without any of being sure when they - or us - could get home.
The group that hired the production company I worked for wanted to "go on with the show" but (1) the Executive Producer was from NYC and absolutely disagreed with that thought, and (2) even if planes were flying, no one was about to want to get on one right away. The festival was cancelled, so all we could do is wait.
The scariest part was that the island was now full of people - tourists, etc, and that a local told me that Bermuda pretty much has to import everything. So medicine, food even, is of a limited supply and that at their capacity, with nothing coming in or out, they had about a month worth of supplies. At the time, this was frightening, but of course, we know that travel was back within a week. It still seems surreal to me though, and I wonder if that is accurate?
Getting on a plane to go home after that was also a bit tense. The whole ordeal just seems other-worldly in every sense.
Pat - I'm sorry that you lost family. I had a friend who was on his way to see his wife give birth to their child, and he was in one of those planes. I think of him, and his family, every year. It's heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for your loss.
i was still working as a
i was still working as a social worker then. i was off of work for a few days because of a broken ankle, and a police officer was coming over to my house to pick up some court documents for a case we were working on. i remember opening the door for her and her yelling at me to turn on the tv. i will never forget the deep deep sense of panic i felt, that a police officer was so hysterical-something must be very very wrong. we turned on the tv just as the second tower fell and i remember her and i holding hands and crying and repeating that it couldnt be real. it just couldnt be actually happening. i vividly remember the haunted feeling i had of all of those "lost people" posters that people put up almost immediately. i had a friend who lived in nyc at the time...about 20 city blocks away, and i called her and couldnt get through. she emailed me hours later to say she was ok, but that she couldnt see a thing out of her high rise window-too much smoke billowing everywhere. i also remember how surreal it felt with no planes in the sky. like the world had stopped. it was terrifying.
I was in my bathroom getting
I was in my bathroom getting ready for school when Ryan Seacrest announced on the radio that a plane had struck one of the twin towers. At the time, no one knew the reason for the crash. By the time I arrived at school, the second tower had been hit. I remember being so pissed off in one of my classes because some of the students were complaining that the students in New York got out of school that day and the students in my class (on the other side of the country) wanted an early out day too. That day was so weird- just watching the news in all my classes and waiting nervously to see if anything else was going to happen.
I was in my college dorm
I was in my college dorm getting ready for class and was watching Today and Matt Lauer interrupted Katie Couric (it may be the other way around), but I just remember thinking "How rude!!!!" and then saw why they had interrupted. My whole body broke out in goose bumps and I just knew that it was terrorism. Then we watched the second plane hit and I just sat down where I was standing and watched with my eyes and mouth wide open, tears streaming down my face. Completely surreal.
I was a sophomore in college
I was a sophomore in college with all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning. I got to my third class, physics at 11am, and the prof said it was ok to leave our phones on. My friends and I had no idea what he was talking about. I went back to my apartment at lunch, and a friend of ours was in our apartment watching our tv since we had cable. Her face was in shock. I took one look at the screen and knew it was awful. My uncle was where the first plane went in. He was incinerated. I hate that they show that image. My aunt raised her siblings, and it haunts her. Plus, she worked for the same company. Every year when they read the names, she's there, and she talks about everyone that she knew. The same stories every year. I was there with her last year. This year, I can't talk to her today.
I had a friend from college who lost both her parents. She and her sister had no other family. She dropped out of school because she had to get a job to take care of her sister, who was 11 at the time. I think of them often. She just finished her degree last year.
I had no understanding of why. The grief that took hold of my dad and his sisters was very powerful. I started taking religion classes to try to understand better, and I think I'm way more open minded and forgiving than some because of it. And, every year, I think of the postcard that was sent to post secret years ago. The one that stated, "Everyone I knew thinks I died that day." I always wonder a little bit if that was him.