As we approach 9/11....I remember:

[LJC1861]

.....how crystal clear and blue the sky was that morning. ( an unusual thing in NYC! )
.....how I was filled with excitement about my upcoming WDW vacation.
.....how light I felt as I walked down the hill towards work, looking out on to the East River.
....how confused I was when I heard the incredibly loud "boom" coming from across the river.
....how I simply could not breathe when I saw the second plane hit the towers.
....how afraid I was as I held on to the developmentally disabled folks I worked with, who were all more afraid than I was.
....how I felt like I was lying to them when I told them that I, and the other teachers, would keep them safe.
....how I struggled to keep things as normal as possible until we could get buses back to take them home.
....how I wondered when I would see them again as they did get on their buses to head home. Some of the teachers went with them, to get the teachers home as well as the subways were not running.
....how scared I was as a co-worker and I packed masks, water and snacks as we began to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge towards home.
....how my feet began to throb 4 miles into the walk home.
....how strange my neighborhood, only 1 mile north from the towers was eerily quiet, with no street traffic.
.....how noisy the same streets were with the sound of sirens roaring up the
avenue that was now declared an "emergency zone"
.....how shocked I was to see armed military personnel in my quiet West Village neighborhood.
....how the grocery stores quickly were cleared of food as there were no deliveries coming in.
.....how the thousands of pieces of paper, each with the face of a missing person, fluttered crisply in the wind as they were hung on any available wall, fence or lamp post.
.....how the air smelled, and how I didn't want to think about why it smelled that way.
.....how my hands hurt from clapping for hours as tired emergency workers made their way up the West Side Highway to shelters to rest.
.....how lost I felt as my world was turned upside down.
....how frightened I was, wondering if my many friends who worked in the Towers area, were safe.

There are many more memories of that fateful day.

As we approach this anniversary may we never forget those that lost their lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Linda

 

[akhenaten]

Thank you for sharing!

I live in NJ just outside of NYC...... I have some vivid recollections also...

 

[sorcerormickey]

I can't believe it has been 7 years already.

We flew home the night before from 10 days at Disneyland, attending the last 'real' Disneyana Convention. We were on such a high!!

I was supposed to be the closing manager at my Disney Store on 9/11 - the mall was shut down before I had to go in. The city I lived in in Michigan has a huge Arab-American population, so tension was super elevated. I just kept thinking that the whole thing couldn't possibly be real.

 

[Tracy Savage]

WOW. I live no where near NYC but I too remember that sky. I was taking photos of my sons very first day of school. I remember as I took a picture, my husband yelling that we had to get home, the planes had just hit the buildings. Every time I see those sweet photos, I can't help but think about what else was happening at that very moment......

 

[maddiemom]

I too didn't live anywhere near NYC (I lived in Illinois at the time) but I remember how incredibly clear the skies were that morning and how odd it looked later that there were no trails from airplanes in the sky.

I remember how everything kind of stopped at work and the TV was on and we all were just sitting dumbfounded at it all.

9/11 was one of the saddest days I can remember.

 

[amyhughes]

I was single then, no kids, just a car payment and a job and rent. I remember going into work. The girl who sat three desks in front of mine was on the phone, she turned and said, "Someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center." I thought at first it was a joke. Then I saw the look on her face when I looked up, pure terror. At first we thought, being so far removed, that there was a possibility of a natural cause of events aside from an act of terror. Pilot that had lost the horizon, fallen asleep, suffered a heart attack. Then the second plane hit and there was silence. No one really said anything. I mean what could you say at that point? I hung all company rules about long distance and started calling friends and family in NJ, NY, and my good friend who worked in Washington. The phone lines were jammed.

But, that sky always stands out in my mind as well. It was such a beautiful day here in our town as well. The crisp feeling of fall just starting to set in. All we could do was huddle around the small t.v. in our break room and just stare.

I agree with those whose state that the difference between 9/10/01 and 9/11/01 is palpable. Up until then the thought of anything happening on U.S. soil was far removed from my young mind. In the years since, I have had children and the constant fear is that I will become someone who is used to further a cause or they will be. I know my experience is nothing compared to those who lost their lives or a loved one that day, but I think that day will forever shape our being no matter what our walk of life.

 

[java]

I was in NJ at the time. My husband was driving to work and watched one plane hit the tower. We could actually see the world trade center from our neighborhood- we were about an hour away but we could see it on a clear day. That day and those that followed we saw the smoke.

I lost many friends on that day. My son(7 a the time) lost his baseball coach that day. Went to the memorial in his baseball uniform. His choice. He wore the hat from that team the following year in baseball. His coach was a fantastic guy. He was a fireman and a giver in all aspects of his life. He taught the boys the most important thing in baseball on that first day- how to spit.

There was a company Fred Alger Management. An aggressive money management firm full of very intellegent young talent. One of them had just gone back from maternity. She was brilliant. They all were. The company had recently moved into the Trade Center. The owner was extremely proud of that move. It was "status" for him. He died that day.She died that day. They all died that day.

In the months following we were numb. We attended memorial after memorial. The Red Cross was there with tissues and water bottles. Little soldiers helping us through our grief. I miss so many people. What was amazing was the way everyone pulled together in the days following. You would walk around and know that so many were hurting.

I still have not been downtown. At first, I was afraid I would be breathing in my friends. I couldn't get past that thought. I was imagining my friend Mark in that smoke and debris that was flying around. I still have not gone back. I don't want to. I used to work near there. Wall street. I remember the first time that they tried to blow up the tower. Many of the people that lived through that got out that day- when the announcements were telling you to stay in your office help was coming- those people remember that's not how it happened last time and started walking.

It feels like it was yesterday.

 

[LaraK]

I was a work, in a meeting with the Director and Manager of the Security Department...both of their pagers went off...it was their wives calling to tell them about the first plane.

I worked in a hospital about an hour from Washington. We got a call asking us how many casualties we could take, being a trauma center that was much closer by helicopter.

We got no casualties....those in the Pentagon were just gone, there was no one to treat.

I stayed at work, I didn't have kids yet so I stayed so that the people with kids could get them when the schools closed. We opened a daycare center at the hospital because we didn't know what would happen next and we needed the medical personnel to be close. I sat in the command center and watched the TV and waited for the casualties that never came.

 

[Alaska DogCat]

I can't believe it has been seven years.

I will never forget that day. We are thousands of miles from Washington DC, but our area was on heightened alert. Commercial and private air traffic came to a halt and the sounds of jets flying low and fast in formation over our cities was heard throughout that week. The military bases were on lock down and traffic was backed up for miles as a result. Of course, like everyone, we were watching the TV coverage and staring in disbelief.

We were under attack.

We were in a hypnotic state of mind and I don't think we came out of it for months.

Seven years and I can still feel the raw emotion of that day. Wow.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I live in NYC now but I was in Denver at the time. I was working as a para in a first grade classroom just outside downtown Denver.

I remember driving in to the city (of Denver) from my apartment in the suburbs and thinking it was odd that the traffic was so light. I had my own music in; not the radio, so I had no idea what was going on. When I got to school I overheard the secretary say something about a plane hitting the Pentagon and it was such a wild idea that I was sure I had heard wrong and so I still had no clue.

I did find out some things, but we had no internet and we didn't get the tv hooked up until the kids were about to come so I didn't get a chance to see it. We were relying on radio, which we came to find out was giving a lot of rumors (the Sears Tower was hit, they are coming to Denver, etc). When the kids came to school, they knew more about it than we did, because a lot of them had seen stuff on the tv at home. We had to practice emergency drills all morning and the kids were scared. We were too but we had to pretend everything was okay so they didn't get more upset.

I was so glad when I got off at noon (I worked half days) and I went straight home and was glued to the tv all day.


Now, I live in NYC and sometimes I'll be with someone and something will set off a flashback. I was eating dinner with somebody once at a sandwich shop and a bunch of cop cars went past and she just got all upset, like agitated. We had to leave because she didn't want to be in a building. Her nerves are shot. I don't blame her though.

And the time Lexington Avenue blew up last summer, people got all upset too. I was in Manhattan and at first the rumor was that someone had blown up Grand Central and thousands of people were dead. Thank God the rumors were so, so wrong. I took the express bus home through that area (up Madison) and it was such a mess. It took over 20 minutes to go 8 blocks.

 

[Robmom]

I work downtown and I also remember what a beautiful day it was. In fact, when I was on the bus going to work, I remember looking at the Statue of Liberty and saying to myself how beautiful it looked. Little did I know what was about to happen a few minutes later. I couldn't go to work for a few weeks after. I also remember the smell as well. I remember being scared on the subway for months. We went to visit the firehouse that lost almost their entire company. It was truly heartbreaking.

 

[Robinrs]

I remember how my niece left her job at the WTC 2 on 8/31/2001 to move to California...

I remember how my sister was on the phone with her friend in NY when the plane went by her window....

I remember seeing that plane in the WTC on the news and remembering how another plane had run into the Empire State Bldg years ago and that was the same thing....

I remember running back to my office crying after seeing the second plane hit.

I also remember being a kid watching them build the World Trade Ctr for YEARS outside my bedroom window.... and how it all came down in ONE DAY....

I remember feeling so violated... like someone had hurt something that had always been a part of my life and there was nothing I could do about it....

I remember crying like a baby with all the other NYers in my office... while going blow by blow on the DIS!!!

It feels like yesterday..

 

[nannerbadnanner]

I worked in the corporate side of a staffing company, and I remember callling all of our local offices to let them know what was happening. After telling the receptionists in one office, I remember her saying, "The planes probably had people on them." That just hit me like a ton of bricks because I hadn't even thought about that.

I pulled the TV out in the conference room, and my co-workers and I sat and watched it all day. I remember when the first tower fell, we didn't know what had happened because of all the dust. One of the guys in the office remarked that he thought it had collapsed. Right before it happened there was a woman hanging out the window, and I knew I had just watched her die.

I kept trying to get in touch with m y boss who was in a meeting in Memphis. She didn't find out out it until about 11am, and then she was't able to get home for a day or two.

I ended up leaving work early. I forgot that I had driven my husband's car, and I was so disoriented that I spent quite a while in the parking lot trying to find the car. When I was finally on my way home, I kept trying to figure out how many had died. The enormity was too much to comprehend.

I know what I felt was in no way comparable to those in New York and Washington and those who lost family members.

 

[AmazingGrace]

I remember driving to my kids' school in San Angelo texas to volunteer in their rooms. U2's beautiful day was playing on the radio and i remember that the song truly fit that day. Gorgeous blue skies, perfect temperatures. That was the last song I hear before all hell broke loose that day.

 

[Par8hed]

I don't want to begin to tell you what I remember, saw, inhaled, tasted, wore, etc. for days.

 

[akhenaten]

I don't want to begin to tell you what I remember, saw, inhaled, tasted, wore, etc. for days.

 

[Rebelmom67]

I don't want to begin to tell you what I remember, saw, inhaled, tasted, wore, etc. for days.

I remember crying when I saw the towers falling. I just lost it. I grabbed my son and we sat on the couch trying to watch cartoons. I tried, he succeeded. I still can't watch anything to do with 9/11, it is so raw and painful.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

It's still hard to look back, but thank you for sharing your memories, even though they are not happy ones. I could only imagine what it must have been like to live in Manhattan, let alone work there on that day.

We had been to our company picnic at Dorneypark that Sunday. It was one of the nicest Sundays for the picnic we had seen in a few years, as it had rained the few years before. It was a practically perfect September day. Monday we were back to work, and Tuesday morning word spread quickly that something had happened in NYC. It was so surreal, and news couldn't come through fast enough.
-I remember logging on to CNN.com, and seeing the image of one of the Towers, billowing with smoke. We figured a plane severely misjudged the landing at one of the airports. How horrid to learn the truth.
-and then word of a second plane crashing through the second tower. What?
-as if it wasn't already so bizarre, like something only happening in a movie, we then heard of a plane crashing into the Pentagon, and then wondered what would become of that fourth plane that eventually came down in western PA.

A few co-workers were on a bus, sitting on a bridge waiting to enter the tunnel, when the 2nd plane hit. We weren't sure where they were at the time, and there were other colleages already in the city. We could only hope they all were safe. Thank goodness they were and we were so glad to see them the next day.


-I remember hearing of parents rushing to schools to pick up their kids. I didn't. I stayed where I was and continued to work as normally as possible. DD was in school, where I felt she was safe.
I was so glad to see her when I got home, but dreaded explaining to my then 10yo what had happened earlier that morning. You couldn't help but see it on TV, as every station had coverage. The only other programming was The Brady Bunch on ABC Family.
-I remember how quiet the neighborhood was that night, and the weeks that followed. How strange not to see the flashing lights of a single airplane overhead. The skies were clear, and full of stars...almost like they'd never been that way before.

Each time I see a movie set in NYC, filmed pre-2001, there almost always is a shot of the Towers, and I am drawn back to that day again, and wish it had never happened.

 

[GJM]

I also can't beleive it has been 7 years. I remember the weather also that day it was so nice out, the sky was so blue. My boss came into work and said a plane hit one of the towers, we were thinking a small plane hit the side or something nothing major. And then we knew by listening to the TV and radio in work.

I don't think any of us could imagine anything like that ever happening, I never thought it could.

We could see the smoke from our office parking lot in NJ -

9/11 was one of the saddest days I can remember

I agree

 

[Missy1961]

I work in midtown Manhattan, but I was home that day, watching my 2 1/2 yr old niece while her mom taught a class at the local college. We had planned a trip to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday present for another niece whose birthday was at the end of September. We had been watching the Brandy version of "Cinderella", when it was done, I sent her out of the room to get her sneakers. When the video clicked off, the TV was on MSNBC, there was a video of the Towers on fire, and the first tower fell. There was a caption under the video that said "Terrorist Attack?". I was shocked, but I quickly shut the TV off--didn't want my niece to see it. I didn't want to go out, but I had promised. I remember just having thoughts run thru my head as we walked to the store. Another sister works in Washington DC, but she wasn't in that day because she was having surgery. I didn't find out all the particulars until my niece took a nap.

I still can't watch that version of "Cinderella" without remembering that day.