Ten Years since 9/11/01

Talk about anything under the sun or stars - but keep it civil. This is where we really get to know each other. Everyone is welcome, and invited!
Jayelle
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 4027
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:32 pm
Title: Queen Ducky
First Joined: 25 Feb 2002
Location: The Far East (of Canada)

Ten Years since 9/11/01

Postby Jayelle » Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:12 pm

Well, folks, it's been ten years. Maybe it's not something we want to talk about on this board, but I'm surprised at how much it's hitting me that it's been that long.

So, if you want to share, where were you on Sept. 11th, 2001?

Me, I was in my 2nd year of university, living in dorms. My roommate was the student president and she got a call early that morning (I was still in bed) that she needed to come to the chapel because "...something has happened in the states."
She left and I turned on the radio. I couldn't really make out what was happening. Something about ash in New York City.
So I went down the hall to the TV lounge and there was a crowd gathering around the TV. The first tower had already fallen, and I watched with horror as the second one followed. We had a special chapel that day where we prayed, and I remember watching TV most of the day, walking around in a bit of a daze.


(PS. I'd rather this thread not get into any heated debates)
One Duck to rule them all.
--------------------------------
It needs to be about 20% cooler.

Gravity Defier
Commander
Commander
Posts: 8017
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:32 pm
Title: Ewok in Tauntaun-land

Postby Gravity Defier » Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:25 pm

I was a freshman in college, living in the dorms, and that was the day of my very first test in math (and possibly any class that semester). I was woken up before my alarm by the landline ringing -I didn't own a cell back then; it was my high school friend asking if my roommate and I had heard the news.

I turned on the tv and just sat there. On the one hand, it was such a horrific thing to have happen and there were some girls on my floor who knew people in or who were themselves from that area of the country. On the other, at that point, I just couldn't conceive of it being real, so I wasn't terribly upset. Numb, maybe.

After I got dressed to go to class, I strapped on my Walkman (cassette/radio capabilities only) to listen to the news and then took my test on which I ended up earning a 'D.'

I remember reading the daily student paper and hearing about middle eastern students feeling unsafe and heading home or being attacked and that, more than the event itself if I'm being honest, upset me. It was closer to home, made it more real.


The thing was, for years after, I felt kind of heartless over not being more upset about it but then, in 2007 Janelle invited me out to visit her in NYC and I refused to fly in there and instead opted to fly into Newark. Even so, I have to admit that flight was the only one I've ever taken where I've been nervous in that sort of way.

Once on the ground, when we were walking around, we went by the former site of it and I stared and stared, unable to fathom there used to be something there, with real people who had been killed in this very real attack. It was so surreal.


Now, I say this last part hoping it doesn't turn into anything but I'm disappointed that the rebuild is pretty much in the same place it's been for a decade.
Se paciente y duro; algún día este dolor te será útil.

User avatar
neo-dragon
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2516
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:26 pm
Title: Huey Revolutionary
Location: Canada

Postby neo-dragon » Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:34 pm

I was in my last year of high school. I first heard about the planes when I entered the cafeteria, after english class. Somebody there had heard about it on the radio. I remember how confused the reports were at first. They just spoke of one plane and made it sound like an accident. I think that by the time I left the caf a clearer picture had begun to emerge...

That's all I really remember. That and the footage when I got home.
"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."
- Frank Herbert's 'Dune'

LilBee91
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 2081
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:43 pm
Title: AK Hermione
First Joined: 10 Jan 2005

Postby LilBee91 » Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:51 pm

I had just started fifth grade. My parents didn't wake me up for school, so I woke up late and wandered downstairs wondering what was going on. They were just sitting in the living room, watching the news. I sat and watched but didn't really get what was going on. My mom was paranoid about something awful happening and didn't want me to go to school. I ended up going anyway (I guess my dad convinced that she was being somewhat irrational). I don't remember much else about that day, except that it was all we talked about at school and none of us knew what any of it meant.

We still have the VHS tape recording of the news somewhere.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Petra456
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 2446
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:48 pm
Title: Actually, I'm Fred (and a monster)
First Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Location: Singing on Krikkit.
Contact:

Postby Petra456 » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:09 pm

I had just started 7th grade but was staying home that day because of stomach problems. I remember sitting up on the couch watching the news (something I normally didn't do because I would have been getting ready for school) while my mom was in the kitchen making coffee. I remember the news first thinking it was an accident after the first plane hit, then we saw the second one hit and my mom said "that's not an accident".

My mom still went to work, and I stayed home by myself. We live right next to an army base and I remember every single time I heard a plane go over my house that day I was terrified. I pretty much just stayed on the couch and watched the news all day.
Member since March 16th, 2004.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

User avatar
thoughtreader
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 834
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:00 pm
Title: will wrestle you to the ground
First Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: Portland OR

Postby thoughtreader » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:12 pm

I lived on Long Island NY about an hour from NYC. I was a Junior in H.S. and sitting in my statistics class, I was the only Junior in a senior level class and all the seniors were in an assembly so it was just me and my stats teacher. I was reading some book or another and my pre clac teacher ran in the room and started talking frantically with my stats teacher. They turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit and both towers fall live.
That day at school in almost every class we watched the news, saw video over and over of the planes hitting, people jumping off the towers because they had no hope, and the towers falling over and over. I remember my english teacher saying the "preverbal s*** has hit the fan". It was a terrible day, just full of the images over and over.
All of our towns firemen went into the city to help and thankfully they all made it home safe. My third grade teacher lost her only child, he worked in one of the WTC towers and went back up to help a handicapped co worker get out and never made it back out.

My first memories of the World Trade Center...
On my first trip to NY the summer after kindergarden my soon to be step fatter took us into NYC and we went to the very top of the WTC (at tat age i remember thinking they were the world TRAIN center). I remember looking down forever from the top floor and feeling so safe even though you could feel the building sway in the wind. they were one of my favorite memories from my childhood.
Last edited by thoughtreader on Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dr. Mobius
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 2539
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:11 pm
Title: Stayin' Alive
First Joined: 17 Aug 2002
Location: Evansville, IN

Postby Dr. Mobius » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:20 pm

I was a junior in high school. I first heard about what was at that point believed to be an accident in the hall between classes that morning. High school gossip being what it is, it was kinda hard to figure out what happened or even if anything happened at all. Then I got to my next class (incidentally, I believe it was US History), which had a TV. The teacher briefly explained that a plane had crashed into the Trade Center and then we watched CNN for the rest of the period and saw the second collision on the live feed, at which point it became crystal clear that this was no accident.

That whole day was a bit surreal. Every class we either watched it on TV or discussed it as a class. I remember coming home from school that afternoon and turning on the TV to find that every channel was carrying one or another of the cable news feeds. Not that I really intended to watch anything else, it was just a bit weird to flip through the channels and see CNN, MSNBC or Fox News on every single one of them.

I remember watching the towers collapse and people flee from the walls of dust engulfing lower Manhattan. I remember George W. Bush giving a speech a few days later in the rubble. I also remember wanting to go to New York to help with rescue/clean up and how annoyed and frustrated I was that a sixteen year old kid simply wasn't able or allowed to do something like that.
The enemy's fly is down.
Image

User avatar
starlooker
Commander
Commander
Posts: 3823
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:19 pm
Title: Dr. Mom
First Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Location: Home. With cats who have names.

Postby starlooker » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:21 pm

I was a senior in college. I had been robbed about a week before, on 9/5/2001, and had been going to classes and things like normal ever since. This particular morning, I decided I deserved some time off and ended up sleeping in a bit and then driving to McDonalds for breakfast. On the way there, I was trying to find a radio station that was playing music, but people were just talking on every radio station, which annoyed me. Gradually, it dawned on me that if the news was on every single radio station, perhaps it meant I should listen to it. So, I listened. And I heard what was happening, and I had tuned in right before the second tower fell. I heard someone in the background yell, "It's going!" and then there was just dead silence from everyone for a while. Finally, the man said, "It's hard to find the words," and then a pause, and then, "But we should try."

Meanwhile, I was just stunned. I went through McDonalds, and ordered my breakfast -- ham and cheese bagel breakfast -- and wasn't sure whether or not to tell the woman at the Drive-Thru, and I didn't, and then felt guilty about it, vaguely. I drove back home and turned on the news, and my roommate woke up and came out and immediately knew something was wrong, as I never watched the news. So, I told her, and then we just sat there and stared. The country's airplanes were still being grounded at the time, and there was still a flight missing, and we were frightened of yet another attack, still.

What really made my blood run cold was hearing about the Pentagon being attacked. Skyscrapers, okay, but the heart of American military strength? That just seemed impossible.

I was one of the people who couldn't turn away from the coverage, at least for awhile. Peter Jennings came to hold a special, special place in my heart for his coverage. I miss him.

Finally, one morning, either the next day or the day after, I turned on the news and heard about Guiliani ordering bodybags, and then turned it to Mr. Rogers and watched that instead.

The next day, I went to my Senior Seminar class, as I hadn't heard it was cancelled. Our project was actually part of something funded by the DoD, and so, of course, everything was down on the computers. So, we just met briefly with the professor. Who told us about the Tuskeegee Syphilis Study. Which, between being robbed, watching the horror of 9/11, and hearing about that study, made the week of 9-5 through 9-12 2001 my worst week ever for my faith in humanity. It was like, "Oh, God, hearing about this atrocity on top of everything? You have got to be kidding me."

I think it was Friday -- a few days after, anyhow -- our school had a candlelight vigil around twilight, and a bunch of students, including some of my close friends and I, went and stood in a circle and prayed and sang and thought. And right as it ended, as we were having a moment of silence, a Fed Ex plane flew overhead -- the first plane any of us, I imagine, had seen or heard. It was eerie, how it just sounded totally different in that moment. I mean, living in Memphis, FedEx planes flying over the college was pretty normal, and suddenly it seemed so different.

Afterwards, most people left, but my friends and I kept our candles lit. There was some kind of Scottish festival thing going on, and so we went and stood and sat outside of Buckman hall, and we heard bagpipers play "Amazing Grace." And that seemed to let us close.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

User avatar
Luet
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 4511
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:49 pm
Title: Bird Nerd
First Joined: 01 Jul 2000
Location: Albany, NY

Postby Luet » Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:02 pm

I was taking a tax class and we found out when we stopped for a coffee break around 10am. We left early. When I got home, I was by myself because my husband worked landscaping and didn't have a cell phone. I got on pweb to talk to people and not feel so alone.
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus in Return to Tipasa

Noodle
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 553
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:18 pm
Title: Pastamancer Tony
First Joined: 06 Feb 1916
Contact:

Postby Noodle » Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:22 pm

I was a junior in college. I had stayed over at my Fiance's (now wife) apartment the night before. I had an early class that morning, so I got up and walked to my apartment (in the next building over). Where my roommate was getting ready. He said something about a plane hit the world trade center, but it was an accident, and I thought he meant like a little private propeller driven airplane. We turned on the footage while we got ready for class, and the second plane hit right about the time we left to get on the bus.

While riding the bus we commented that most of the people on the bus probably didn't know about what was happening. I remember this as striking me as odd, because on a normal day we wouldn't have turned on the TV before class.

We went to class and our professor mentioned something about it and I remember him saying that "Probably 50 people died" he hadn't heard about the second plane, so we told him. Shortly after that, another student came in and mentioned the plane at the pentagon. We had class like normal, finished and took the bus back to the apartment.

At the apartment the cable guy came and hooked up our cable internet and TV. (My first ever broadband). My roommate, fiance and I sat in our living room watching the newscast, and once I got internet set up on my PC I went in and read everything I could about the attacks.

I remember logging onto PWeb and discussing the attacks here that day. I don't remember what was said, but I do remember a lengthy thread here by the time I signed on.

Another one of my friends wrote up her experience from that day, and it's worth a read. 9/11, 10 Years Later: Giving Life in the Midst of Death. She gave birth on 9/11.
Co-Founder of the Canadian Alliance

I'm known as Tony on the internet.

steph
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 2454
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:36 pm
Title: Rocky Mountain Mama
First Joined: 0- 8-2000
Location: colorado, baby!

Postby steph » Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:24 pm

I was a sophomore in college. I came downstairs that morning and my mom told me a plane hit the world trade center. Being really groggy from just waking up, I was confused and it didn't really register. I went to the computer to check pweb and as I was reading here, it started sink in what the heck was going on. I went out to the family room and watched tv.

I got ready for school and drove up to campus. I walked to my first class and found out that classes were canceled. I sat in the institute (our religious education building right off campus) with several other people, listening for news and waiting for my shift at work. When I got to work that afternoon, my boss had a tv out and we just stood and watched the coverage. No one really came to buy smoothies that day.

I have been annoyed in the years since 9/11 that all news stations have news tickers going across the screen at all times. It was useful during the 9/11 coverage, but it's just annoying now. Not only do I stop listening to the news as I read, but it always reminds me of 9/11, since news stations didn't do that before then. (except with stock numbers, but I never pay attention to those.)
"When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time." - Jamie Cullum

zeroguy
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2741
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:29 pm
Title: 01111010 01100111
First Joined: 0- 8-2001
Location: Where you least expect me.
Contact:

Postby zeroguy » Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:27 pm

I was in middle school. We heard about the attacks in the morning, and there was the normal confusion about what was going on, but classes went on pretty much as normal. I remember a lot of kids getting called to the front office, and at first I didn't really think about why, but eventually realized it was to let them know that their parents (or whomever) were okay (we were in the DC suburbs, so many kids had parents that worked for the government and/or in the Pentagon etc etc). Or not okay as the case may be, but I don't think anyone had anyone die or anything.

I remember everything on TV being about 9/11 coverage for a while. I remember posting about it on pweb, and I remember saying stupid things because I was a dumb kid and only 13. Sorry about that.

I've never felt much emotional reaction to the event. I've seen some others say this is most dependent on how old you were at the time that it happened; 13 is pretty young, and I guess many people I knew were the same way. We were cracking jokes about it the day that it happened, and have ever since. For things like this, that reaction seems like a "well you weren't there / you weren't affected" kind of thing, but... I wasn't completely isolated. I saw the hole in the Pentagon and the construction quite a bit, since we lived not that far from it. I've had family members that used to work in the Pentagon, but didn't at that time. I had a family member who was going to work in NYC at the time of the attacks, and had to dive under a parked car to escape some of the ash. But I still haven't ever cared more than I would about.... say, an earthquake.
Proud member of the Canadian Alliance.

dgf hhw

User avatar
Mich
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2948
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:58 am
Title: T.U.R.T.L.E. Power
First Joined: 02 Apr 2002
Location: Land o' Ports
Contact:

Postby Mich » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:21 am

I was 13 and in 8th grade, and the first things I remember was that a kid I was vaguely friends with sighing wistfully and saying "I think it's going to be a boring day." Then, a few minutes later, I heard kids talking about some kind of plane crash, and how hundreds of people were dead, and something about "a gigantic tangle of arms and legs."

I'll be completely honest and admit that I didn't even know what the World Trade Center was. It makes me feel ignorant, but I guess I just never had a reason to find out. I still have never been to the east coast. But seriously, how did I miss the two gigantic buildings in the New York skyline? My brother religiously watched Friends, and it was always in that. Doesn't make any sense.

All of my teachers except for one were completely adamant that we not watch the TVs and the news, because "that's exactly what the terrorists want." I guess I can't argue with them there. I still managed to catch the second plane hitting, so I got that feeling in my gut that it wasn't all just a crazy accident, like we all did.

Finally I remember all of us at home, my sister freaking out that we were going to be attacked, my parents saying "who would attack Boise, Idaho?" and my brother claiming that he had heard an expert saying that Boise would be the perfect target for another attack. Two months later and trick-or-treating at the mall still was almost canceled.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

User avatar
Claire
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 629
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:41 pm
Title: World Traveler
First Joined: 16 Dec 2002

Postby Claire » Sun Sep 11, 2011 7:36 am

I was in 8th grade in the middle of English class when I heard about it; they made an announcement on the loudspeaker. It didn't really register until I talked to friends who said they had family members working in NYC or around the buildings.

It was about 2 weeks before my Bat Mitzvah, and a lot of the out of town guests had to cancel.

Thank you for making this thread. I can't believe its been 10 years either. I still have trouble believing it happened at all.

User avatar
locke
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 3046
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:07 pm
Contact:

Postby locke » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:11 pm

I was in highschool, senior year, first period had not quite started, or had just started, as we were all sitting around still chatting. The teacher had sent the good girl to the office for something and she came back without having done it, in a sort of a daze, reached up as she came in the door, turned on the corner TV, flipped channels for a second and sat down in her desk and stared at the TV. The teacher said, "Chesney, what are you doing?" and she just shook her head and said, a plane hit the world trade center, I saw it on the TVs when I went by the counselor's office. I knew of the world trade center, but I didn't really know it was the twin towers in NYC, I'd never put the picture to the name, for some reason. The TV when it came up was on CNN and when we all looked up it was footage of the Pentagon, saying the Pentagon had been attacked. Pete or Marshall popped up immediately, "oh well done, Chesney, the Pentagon looks just exactly like the World Trade Center. How do you screw that up? they're not even in the same city." Most of the class chuckled, and Chesney spun around furious to stare at the person who said it, tears in her eyes. Then the class fell dead silent as it had cut back to New York and we saw the towers smoking.

The rest of the day was a blur, someone pointed out to me that I was wearing an NYC shirt with the WTC towers prominently on it. It was the first day I'd worn that shirt, which had been a birthday gift from a friend who visited NY that summer. Our fifth period Physics class made us do a lab and we were all furious at the teacher for making us work. I had to cancel film club, a club I started, that was to have it's first meeting that day.

I went home and started reading pweb and hatrack. I remember the dull shock as I read OSC's three essays he posted that day, and the disillusionment that came over me reading those essays. one where he said the only acceptable American response was a permanent military occupation of Iran and Syria and maybe Iraq, but more or less the entire middle east. Another one said the proper christian response was not to turn the other cheek but to go in guns blazing like Rambo, because we were righteous in any preemptive attack (like Ender). Worse still, was a school friend messaged me on AIM that part of our group was meeting our chem teacher/not-at-all-affiliated-with-the-school-book-club-leader at St. Louis Bread Company (this was before they renamed it Panera, which is still a stupid name imo) and when I went over there and met I mentioned the idea that we should occupy the middle east, and everyone thinking it was a reasonable idea, including my chem teacher, who remains pretty much the most liberal person I've ever met (but was originally an East Coaster), so it felt even more strange thinking that military violence was not the right answer but apparently being the only person around who thought that. That made me feel all sorts of conflicted for the next few months and I remember waffling back and forth between whether or not it was right because the prevailing opinion was so strong that it felt very lonesome to think otherwise.
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

User avatar
Mich
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2948
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:58 am
Title: T.U.R.T.L.E. Power
First Joined: 02 Apr 2002
Location: Land o' Ports
Contact:

Postby Mich » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:53 pm

I remember the dull shock as I read OSC's three essays he posted that day, and the disillusionment that came over me reading those essays. one where he said the only acceptable American response was a permanent military occupation of Iran and Syria and maybe Iraq, but more or less the entire middle east. Another one said the proper christian response was not to turn the other cheek but to go in guns blazing like Rambo, because we were righteous in any preemptive attack (like Ender).
Oh my god I completely, completely forgot about this. Not to start any debates, but geeze I remember not exactly being stunned that someone thought that, but someone I had previously looked up to did.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

VelvetElvis
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2535
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:22 am
Title: is real!
First Joined: 0- 9-2004

Postby VelvetElvis » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:38 pm

I was in eigth grade. They turn off all of the TVs and radios and wouldn't let us watch anything.
Yay, I'm a llama again!

Eaquae Legit
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Posts: 5185
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:30 pm
Title: Age quod agis
First Joined: 04 Feb 2002
Location: ^ Geez, read the sign.

Postby Eaquae Legit » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:51 pm

I was in my first week of uni. It must have been a day when I slept in, because when I woke up, someone in the hall told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. I do know that until then, I couldn't have picked the WTC out in a police lineup, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but everything seemed pretty unreal. I think I went to class? Then spent the next several days glued to the big tv in the common room. It's strange, because so many people have very vivid and detailed memories of the time, but I am not sure when I "tuned in" - did I see the tower(s) fall live? Not sure.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

User avatar
Wind Swept
Toon Leader
Toon Leader
Posts: 892
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:09 pm
Title: Just Another Chris
First Joined: 22 Jan 2003

Postby Wind Swept » Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:04 pm

Just before first period, I recall several worried looking teachers rushing into an empty classroom to stare at a television out of my line of site. I thought it was a bit odd, but the bell rang before I could ask about it. As I was settling into my first period English class, another teacher burst through the door and turned on the TV.

After a bit of staring numbly at the TV, the teacher that had barged in said something about how we'd always remember this moment, "the way I still remember where I was when I heard JFK had been shot."

I found myself thinking, well, of course I'll remember it now that you've said that. It would seem I still resent her for doing so.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."

*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)

zeroguy
Commander
Commander
Posts: 2741
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:29 pm
Title: 01111010 01100111
First Joined: 0- 8-2001
Location: Where you least expect me.
Contact:

Postby zeroguy » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:24 pm

I'll be completely honest and admit that I didn't even know what the World Trade Center was.
There are only two reasons I knew what the WTC was before 9/11: I've been to one of the buildings (went up to the top, or however high it is they let you go), and the towers were pretty prominent in a Simpsons episode. I had no idea they're even visible on Friends.
Proud member of the Canadian Alliance.

dgf hhw

User avatar
3nder
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:21 pm
Location: Australia, NSW

Postby 3nder » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:51 pm

I was 8 years old, and I know it sounds bad but I honestly didn't care, I just wanted to watch my morning pokemon but the thing was on every channel.
Never go to bed angry....
Stay up and plot your revenge.

User avatar
Young Val
Commander
Commander
Posts: 3166
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:00 pm
Title: Papermaster
First Joined: 12 Sep 2000
Location: from New York City to St. Paul, MN (but I'm a Boston girl at heart).
Contact:

Postby Young Val » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:17 pm

I struggled a lot over whether or not to post in here, but I'm not sure why.


I was a 19 year old sophomore at Ithaca College in upstate New York. It was Tuesday and I had an 8am painting class that I decided to skip. I was sleeping in my dorm room alone (my roommate actually went to her 8am class that day) and the phone rang at around 8:50 and woke me up. It was my mother and she was sobbing. I didn't have a tv in my room, so I flipped on the radio. I stumbled over to my desk and logged on to AIM, which was an enormous part of my life at the time. Almost no one was on except for my friend Mike, who is a notorious insomniac. Everyone else was either asleep or in class. I watched the second tower fall on a live video feed.

After about 15 minutes at my computer, I wandered throughout my dorm building to try to find someone else who was awake. I lived in substance-free housing, and pretty much everyone in my building had early morning classes that they all attended dutifully. I was alone, and distinctly did not want to be. I remember going into the empty common rooms on all three floors and turning the tvs on (it didn't matter which channel--coverage was everywhere) and then wandering out again, still in my pajamas, still in a daze.

I eventually stationed myself outside at the main door to the dorm and told people as they came back from class. Almost no one had heard the news yet, and many of them didn't believe me at first. When my friend Laura finally came back from class and I told her, I think that is when I believed it for the first time. We went back to my room. Laura sat on the floor, and I sat at my desk and continued to talk to various people on AIM. Several of my friends had gone to college in New York City and of course could not be reached at the time (note: they were and are all ok).

Eventually my roommate, Heather came back to the room, and our friend Emily found us, and our friend Cayle. We sat pretty much in silence for hours, listening to the constant buzz of the radio. We took naps. We cried. We hugged one another. We went in search of the other main member of our group, Stefan, whose father, we finally remembered, worked in the WTC. (Note: Stefan's father was and is, miraculously, ok. He was not in the building at the time). But of course, Stefan didn't know if his father was alive or not at the time. We sat with him while he tried, over and over again, to call his family members, and each time was unable to get through. None of us even considered going to any of our other classes.

Around 2:00 the helicopters started flying in. Cayuga hospital in Ithaca has a lot of highly specialized doctors and surgeons in residence, and they started flying in victims and continued to do so over the course of the month.

At around 3, Stefan had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to get through to anyone any time soon. Some one suggested that we eat lunch. We wandered up to a sandwich shop in the middle of campus--seeing almost no one along the way--and bought sandwiches, chips, soda...food which had once seemed so thoughtless and now seemed so very weighty and surreal. Food that curled like thick, wet cardboard in our mouths. Food we choked down by force of habit and the desperate, insatiable need to do something normal, like eat.

We ended up stopping on a large flight of stone steps outside to sit and eat. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. Sunny and crisp and cloudless. And quiet. Not a single other person in sight. We sat and felt the sun and chewed our chips and tried to figure out what we were supposed to do. How we were supposed to feel. Whether or not it was ok to speak.

Someone did speak, I don't remember who, and said something funny. Something funny! Nothing relevant. Nothing slick or witty or piercing. But something innocous and small and tentative. Something that probably wasn't even really that funny at all. Something that, on a regular day, we would have rolled our eyes at. Groaned. Dismissed without a thought.

But not that day. That day, someone said something that probably wasn't even funny, and we laughed. We laughed, and the laughter leapt loudly from our mouths, bounced down the steps, filled up all the empty air. We laughed in deep uncontrollable spasms, doubled over, gasping for breath, slapping our knees, so hard our sides hurt, so long our mouths were dry. Tears leaking out from beneath our eyes, we laughed like we had never laughed in our entire lives, and felt guilty about it with every new peal. Felt our laughter flare up like flames, thick with heat and smoke and death. We went on forever. We didn't know what else to do.

I remember everything that happened afterward. How we finished eating and stumbled, exhausted, back to Stefan's room. How Stefan picked up the phone again and just kept hitting redial. How we all slept in turns, in a heap, on the floor, the bed, in each others' arms. How we reached the point where we could not longer cry, or sleep, or speak, but just sat staring numbly at Stefan's tiny tv perched atop his mini fridge. How we went to the late night dining hall and sat there, at our regular table, until about 5am in the morning. And none of us went to class or did anything remotely normal for the rest of the week. How Emily and I broke into the art building and each spent one whole night painting--not for class. Just for us.

I have a floppy disk on which I have saved every AIM conversation I had that day, and in all the days following, all the news articles from various online sources, art, and poems, and lyrics, and articles, and anything and everything through September and on until I eventually woke up one day and didn't remember to save anything to that disk. It's labled "The Day The Twin Towers Fell" and I haven't had the courage to look at it in ten years.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

User avatar
Platypi007
Soldier
Soldier
Posts: 399
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:56 pm
First Joined: 0- 0-2006
Location: Columbia, SC
Contact:

Postby Platypi007 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:09 pm

I was in college studying music, my junior year, had an 8am (Central time) class which met in a room just off the main office for the music department. When I got to the office the secretary said there was some news about a plane hitting the WTC. It would have just happened, so news reports were obviously very vague. I assumed it was an aviation accident and also assumed it to be a small private plane. Went to class as usual, not overly concerned. I also thought it might be some kind of hoax.

When we took our break there was lots more news: Another plane had hit the WTC and one had hit the Pentagon while we were in class, obviously no longer an accident. I think the PA crash was still not being accurately reported at the time. I'm pretty sure that the first tower had collapsed but not the second one, by the time we took our break. Actually, looking at the timeline, the second tower probably went down while we were on our break. I had chills, it came back to me just now as I typed this recollection. That feeling that it isn't an accident but an attack. We continued our class, however.

The rest of the day was pretty odd to me, I didn't have any more classes that I remember that day, or the school may have cancelled the afternoon classes, I did work in the computer lab and remember tracking the news constantly. I also remember being kind of in a daze for most of that day.


Return to “Milagre Town Square”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Amazon [Bot] and 49 guests