September 11th memories

Khan the Warlord · Sep 12, 2002

I was stuck in Tennesse for my brother's stupid wedding on Sept. 10. My wife, parents, and my youngest daughter (Gabrielle) drove to my grandfather's home in Kentucky that night to rest for our trip back north to Ohio the next day.

The next morning, we're spending quality time with my grandfather and one GRAND breakfast (a tradition of his), when we begin to hear blurbs on the TV in the living room about some "bombing" (soon after, we learned the truth).

I'll never, ever, forget that ****ing day of loss. We quickly left London, Kentucky and listened to the news on the radio for the 200+ mile drive home. Once we got home, we watched the news on the television and did so for the next few months.

Before I left my parents house for my own, I made sure they both knew just how much I love and care for them -- hell, I even got a kiss and hug from my invincible father out of the deal (who felt his mortality and ours and worried). When we finally got home to our quaint little house, I put my daughter to bed, made love to my wife as if it were the last time, and talked to her until sleep took her. Then, I decided to go into my daughter's room and just WATCH her sleep for what must have been an hour or so. I finally broke down, retrieved her from her crib, and just HELD her. I carried her to the coach, continued watching the news, and began to cry, wondering how I could have brought her into this world with it being the way it is. I finally fell to sleep around 5 am, with my angel sleeping soundly on my chest.

The saddest part of it all on my end (and no lie): My angel, Gabrielle, watched the entire footage before we did and we unwittingly subjugated her young and fragile mind to the constant replays of the event -- to this day, she screams and cries whenever an airplanes flies overhead and she can either see/hear it.

I honestly had no clue, nor even gave it a thought, that my sweet daughter could have perceived and remembered what happened to this day, let alone be scared as Hell of it happening again -- she wasn't even 2 when it happened.

Neowolf · Sep 12, 2002

Though my story isn't nearly as dramatic or involved as many others' (Chairman Kaga's for example), I guess it wouldn't be out of place here.

I was a senior in high school then. The day started like any other: I got up, drove to school, got my books, went to class. The minute I stepped into my first-period English classroom, I knew something was drastically wrong. I looked up at the TV (wall-mounted) just in time to see the first plane slam into the building. A few minutes later, I watched in horror, not fully comprehending, as the second plane hit. I think I was in mild shock by the time the plane hit the Pentagon. Maybe I was already overdosed on emotion by then, but by that point I seemed to already be at the bottom, and couldn't go any lower emotionally. The days and weeks that followed were a nightmarish blur of emotions: rage, fear, worry...

Who would bring themselves to commit such an inhuman act? Moreover, who could manage to convince themselves that God himself wanted them to do it? Last time I checked, one of the few things that all major religions agree on is that God teaches love and compassion, not hatred and murder.

Another thing that shocked and disgusted me was how eager my fellow Americans were to lash out at any and all Muslims and even non-Muslims of middle-eastern descent. I have several Muslim friends, and all of them made it very clear to me that this was not the act of a true follower of Islam, and whoever said it was must be twisted beyond redemption.

As I'm sure is obvious by now, I'm not at a point in my life where fatherhood is even an issue yet. However, as sad as it is to say, I don't know if I would want my children growing up in the world we got a glimpse of that horrible morning.

Even now, a year later, just thinking of these events makes me grit my teeth even as my eyes fill with tears.

Isida Kep'Tukari · Sep 12, 2002

I was in my college physics course when the planes hit. Two classes later, and still not a hint. However, then I went home and check my e-mail.

There was one from my mom, an elementary school music teacher that said something like this:

"It's such a tragedy. The kids are asking questions that I can't answer. Be safe, I love you."

I zipped over to CNN.com and looked at that for the next half-hour.

None of the things I was responsible for were cancelled, so I had to go to football practice (I'm a student athletic trainer). To top off this day, one of the players got hit wrong, ended up with neck pain, and had to be spine boarded and taken to the hospital.

Very emotionally draining. After practice I kept the TV on while I surfed the news sites, trying to piece together what had happened

William Ronald · Sep 12, 2002

I was at home and woke up after the planes hit the World Trade Center. My first reaction was stunned disbelief, then realization that this was nightmarishly real.

As a Chicagoan, I feared that my city's downtown would be a target as well. I worried about friends who worked downtown.

For most of the day, I was glued to my television set. I prayed that people would make it out of the buildings. I was stunned when the Towers fell, and after a few minutes called my sister.

I had to run an errand for her, and saw her after she got off of work. We cried, and wondered who was responsible for the attacks. I was grateful that my family and friends were safe, and wondered how many families and friends would never see a loved one again.

I went home, and watched the news until about 4 a.m. When I slept, I went to bed with a heavy heart, full of grief.

Now, a year later, I find myself still saddened by the loss of life. If September 11th has changed me, it has made me appreciate even more the people who are dear to me.

darkdancer · Sep 12, 2002

I had just moved from New York City to a new job in Japan about a month before. I actually had already gone to bed (it happened about 10pm our time - I was coming down with a cold or something). The next morning I was awoken by a Japanese friend who was trying to ask me if my family is ok. Surprised, I said of course until I began to understand through her so so English and my awful Japanese that something catastrophic had happened back home ... something impossible involving maybe bombs, planes, the twin towers ....

Most of my family lives in and around New York - a brother in Brooklyn, sister in New Jersey, another sister and my parents and my husband's entire family in Westchester ... needless to say, I had a lot of trouble getting through on the telephone, and all I had for information while I was trying to get through was a television in a language I could barely (with subtitles) understand and a situation that I couldn't understand at all.

I finally got through to the one sister in northern Westchester: yes there were hijacked planes - they're all accounted for ... only four and they're all gone .... no, the twin towers are no longer there ... yes, really, they are gone.

Suddenly I became a representative for my country when I had never really felt especially American before (more sort of world citizen and all that). Everywhere my friends and coworkers wanted an immediate response to something I was still too shocked to respond to.

My sister's kids in NJ were locked in their schools with their classmates, watching on tv the towers falling, over and over again. Just like watching Armageddon, my nephew said, but more. My sister tried to drive from one side of her town to the other, to get home, and ended up getting onto the Jersey turnpike, eventually getting stuck for hours directly across from the smoke in lower Manhattan.

ninthcouncil · Sep 12, 2002

This time last year, I and my partner were out of Britain, having just started our 3-month "last big adventure before thinking about having children", to China, Nepal and Japan. After a few days exploring Beijing independently, we joined our China tour group on the evening of Sep 11. Because of the time difference, we went to bed that night unaware that anything had happened. Next morning, we bumped into some of the others in the corridor and overheard a rather garbled version of what had happened, before the tour leader appeared and ushered us into his room, where he had his laptop linked to the internet, showing recordings of the second plane hitting the WTC.... Most of the group were British, Irish and Australian, but there were also a Canadians couple, and they had a cousin who worked in the WTC. After some frantic calling, complicated by the time zones, they established that he had not yet arrived at work when the first plane hit, so had not been harmed.

The next few days were a bit unreal; we were thousands of miles away, trying to do the tourist things, but worrying that all hell was about to break loose back home. We could get the basic details off Channel 9, the English language news on Chinese state TV (none of the hotels we stayed at had CNN), but it didn't give much feel of how things actually were in the US or Britain at the time. I had a little short-wave receiver with me, and could therefore get a bit of BBC World Service, and it sounded like everyone was extremely paranoid, and expected London to get hit at any moment. We felt rather guilty to think that we were in possibly the safest imaginable place if things did escalate - after all, the Chinese would never get involved, would they?

In China, foreigners always get approached by people who want to practice their English, and of course 9/11 was the major topic of conversation, so we couldn't get away from it even there....

alsih2o · Sep 12, 2002

looking up into the sky that evening, and for the first time in my life, ther were no planes....

Melkor Lord Of ALL! · Sep 12, 2002

Not caring is one thing, but tasteless comments are another...
- Darkness

Pielorinho · Sep 12, 2002

One of my main memories of that morning was the confusion.

When a coworker called the office and told me that a plane had crashed into the WTC, I almost didn't turn on the TV. I thought she meant a little Piper plane, and maybe a half-dozen people would be hurt, and that it would just be sensationalistic news coverage.

But I turned the TV on anyway, and saw the smoke, and began hoping desperately it was an accident. Then the reporter said there were rumors that a second plane had hit, and that they were trying to ready some footage to replay it, and as we watched, they played the footage of the second plane striking, and the reporter and I and everyone else knew it couldn't be an accident.

Then there were reports that a helicopter had blown up on the Pentagon, and that a car bomb had blown up outside the Capitol building, and that the White House was being evacuated, and that a plane had crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania, and that it was a plane and not a helicopter that had crashed into the Pentagon, and that it was a bomb and not a plane that had exploded at the Pentagon, and that there were an average of 70,000 (?) people in the WTC every day, and that there were two planes missing somewhere over the United States --

and just as, half an hour earlier I'd been hoping desperately that this wasn't terrorism, now I was hoping desperately that this wasn't a government coup. Nothing made sense, and nobody seemed to know what was happening, and I didn't know if our government would be intact at the end of the day.

That confusion, that terror of not knowing just what was happening, is my strongest memory.

Daniel

Maraxle · Sep 12, 2002

My thoughts probably won't be very popular, so if you're easily offended, maybe you should skip my post.

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I remember being angry. Angry at the evil people who could commit such an act. Angry at the US government, whose foreign policy, in my opinion, prompted these attacks. I wanted to be Canadian very badly, as they are so much less hated worldwide.

I also remember wishing that we would become isolationists. Close the borders and expire the visas. We have the resources to continue to live well, right?

I also remember that it reaffirmed my strong dislike of flying. I have never liked setting foot on an airplane, and now I never will. When I had to fly just two weeks later, made an effort to sit near the front so that I would be the last line of defense before the cockpit. Nobody was getting past me without a fight. I was distrustful at that point.

I remember my frustration when I was searched at each and every security checkpoint. I was "randomly" selected on each and every flight because I have dark hair and dark eyes. I viewed each time they searched me as a waste, as they could have been searching someone who might actually want to cause harm.

Now, just over a year later, my anger has softened a bit. However, I still dislike our foreign policy and admittedly still hate those who could commit such vile acts. I still wouldn't mind being Canadian. I still would love to see our borders more restricted, though not completely closed. And I still hate flying.