Your 9/11 Stories
On 9/11/2001 I was still at home when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I had had a bat in my apartment a few weeks earlier, so I was still having some problems sleeping. I felt more at ease with some noise in my house, so I kept my TV on all night. That morning, I remember getting out of the shower and glancing at the TV and since I didn't have my contacts in yet, all I could make out was a building with smoke coming out of it. My first thought was that the Pope had died and smoke was coming out of St. Peter's. What a bizarre thought. Anyway, I pretty quickly figured out what was going on.
I worked in a small town outside of Madison and it took me 30-45 minutes to drive to work. While I was driving, both towers fell. I couldn't believe what I was hearing on the radio and I couldn't wait to be around other people so I could talk about it. I was so happy to be working in the relative safety of Wisconsin.
I feel bad saying it, but 9/11 was an exciting day. I never thought "exciting" could be a bad word until then. But it was. I remember calling BV and asking him if he was relieved that this didn't happen on his birthday (9/10). He was having none of that kind of talk. He was ready for vengeance. My Dad was a little bit more cautious. I guess that's the difference between someone who grew up in WWII and someone who thought they might be experiencing the start of WWIII.
I actually remember the days after 9/11 so much more than that morning. I remember taking part in a candlelight vigil at my sister's house. She didn't know her neighbors that well, but that night it didn't matter. I remember that I still kept my TV on all night. Not because I was afraid of bats, but rather I was afraid of what was going to happen next.
I remember that Fox News had about 10 different things scrolling across the bottom of the screen. One of them was items that workers needed. I still get angry when I think about that. The company I worked for at the time sold ALL of that stuff, but they refused to donate anything. This weekend I saw a story on 60 minutes about how 9/11 workers are having all kinds of respiratory issues. My old employer sold hundreds and hundreds of dust/mist respirators. Right after 9/11 everyone wanted to do something to help and it kills me that they could have done something so tangible and didn't.
So that's where and what I was doing that day. What about you?
Posted by kris at September 11, 2006 09:46 AM
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| # September 11th, 2006 10:09 AM BVBigBro |
| I was in western Kansas at the time. We had a TV at work which we turned on when we heard something had happened. I saw the second plane hit the towers live, I believe.
The jackasses at the gas stations around all raised their prices and there were lines around the block. I was close to empty in my car and had to fill up. I wound up driving out of town to a small station where the owner kept his price. There was still a line, but everyone understood what was going on, so it was all good. The next several days there was no air traffic. Where I was there were always several contrails in the air at any given time, but for the next few days there was nothing but blue sky. |
| # September 11th, 2006 10:14 AM kris |
| Oh, I forgot about the air traffic. I live on a lake and so I can see planes approaching the airport here from pretty far away. It was almost surreal to look outside those next few nights and see nothing at all. |
| # September 11th, 2006 10:56 AM Laura |
| I was working a help desk, and the phone stopped ringing. After a while I went to go ask the control room if they knew what was up. Everybody was gathered around the TV, watching replays of the first plane hitting the tower. The second plane hit, and I went back to my desk and played solitaire for a while. I was being treated for PTSD and dissociative disorder, and even after a couple of years of treatment, I still had a nasty habit of "checking out" mentally when anything really bad happened. About a week later it really sunk in, and I just lost it. I guess I just needed some time to get ready to deal with it. I've had some bad times - hence the PTSD/dissociative - but a tragedy of this scale was pretty overwhelming.
To be honest, I'm kind of struggling to focus today, wanting to check out mentally and not deal with this. That's why I volunteered for 2996, to force myself to do it. I can *really* understand and empathize with the people who blame the government with every conspiracy theory under the sun, and deny that the problem is that serious - like they'll leave us alone if we leave them alone kind of thing. |
| # September 11th, 2006 3:28 PM jsnisu |
| I was still in college and was waiting for my buddy to pick me up to go to classes when I turned on my t.v. that morning. When I saw one building with smoke, I thought they were showing an anniversary of when that bomber hit the empire state building waaaaay back when, not thinking that if it was actually that, how the heck was it in color. Then the second plane hit before my buddy picked me up. Some classes canceled, some said to go watch the coverage at an auditorium, but EVERY one of my classes resumed as normal (I was so pissed). I also remember that EVERY single t.v. station had the coverage, even QVC...I think. I wanted to join the air force and be the one to drop the first bomb on these A*holes. My dad was in Detroit on business and ended up renting a car later in the week. I did about 75% of what Alan Jackson sings about in "Where were you when the world stopped turning (on that September day) |
| # September 13th, 2006 3:52 PM Squibbly |
| I was on campus heading for my first class of the day when I ran into one of my husband's (fiance at the time) friends). He told me that a plane hit the world trade center, and for some reason, I just couldn't get it through my head. He finally just told me to go watch the news. I went to the student center and was shocked by the images I saw (I think as we all were). I watched for a while and then continued to class. I had a great professor who had been teaching for years, and he didn't even try to lecture. He just turned on the tv and watched with us, while trying to answer questions that we had to make sense of what was going on. I don't remember going to any other classes that day, whether they were cancelled, or whether I skipped them, I'm not sure. But finally, after watching news for most of the day, when neither of us could handle it anymore, my roommate and I just went hiking until we were away from the noise of the town and all the news casts. We went up on the mountain and prayed for those suffering that day. What a horrible day, and I don't think anyone older than age 5 at the time will ever forget their impressions of that day. I still think of 9/11 whenever I see my husband's friend who first told me about it. |
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