20 Years Later.....09/11

[stealurface831]

My mom was at the OBGYN that morning. She was having contractions when the first plane hit. I decided I didn't want to come into such a cold world and held out another 17 days.

My heart goes out to all of you who lived through and were personally effected by that day.

[Conundrum]

Was close to finishing school and showed up to campus. Got to the lecture hall and all classes canceled with hundreds of us sitting in the halls watching on those old TV carts wondering what type of world and future we were looking at after graduating.

A couple hours later one of our professors came through the halls telling his students to get to class. We all went to the lecture which he started with “If we can’t continue in the face of adversity, the terrorists win”. An older student who had served stood and began the pledge of allegiance and we all joined in. He then told the professor “Sorry, I can’t learn today” and walked out. We all followed. It was a powerful moment in my life. We all joined him near the flag in the quad and sat silently with him for a good part of the afternoon.

12 years later on Sept 10th, I visited my out of town parents randomly for dinner and decided to stay the night after a couple too many beers with my dad. The morning of the 11th, my dad went to work like he normally did but first woke me up for a cup of coffee and told me he loved me and was proud of me and then headed off. Later that afternoon I got a call from my grandpa that my dad had a heart attack and died out at a remote cattle corral. I had to tell my mom. We couldn’t talk much so we went and sat silently under a tree and stared at the flag my dad hung the morning of every 9/11.

The next day I rode out with one of my dad’s friends he was with to get his truck and saw where he passed. His friend told me my dad was so happy we got to see other the night prior and was laughing and had and extra bounce to his step right up to the second he hit the dirt and that he went quick. He went on to say we should all be so lucky to go like that. It didn’t make sense then but it does now.

I’ve never slept well the night of 10th. Last night was no different. I was up this morning about 4:30 and am now sitting drinking a cup of coffee sniffling and drying my eyes. This is truly a morning I doubt I’ll ever shake.

[Skidog]

I had basically just sat down at my desk for the days work, NJ side, maybe 15 min from Manhattan as the crow flies. My buddy who works across the river from the towers in Newark rings me. Says a plane just hit the world trade center. Instantly, like many I'm sure, thought some idiot in a small engine plane made a mistake...hang up phone jump on internet.

Hmmm internet's awful slow, we have a T1....when I finally got a news site up, the realization set in. Hold up ..my cousin works in tower 7, is he at work? Attempting land and cell calls, dead air. Grabbed my shit and left office...cousin is ok...as soon as he saw first plane hit, he got the fuck out, one of the last trains out...years later he went to therapy because of the jumpers he witnessed.
Went home and watched the tube for seemingly hours and hours just sobbing.

I grew up in NY/NJ, I saw that skyline nearly my entire life. It is forever changed for me. I have only been in Manhattan a handful of times in last 20 years, it never felt the same.

Interesting note. This happened during the early blackberry days. They worked on radio frequencies. It was the only usable device that day for communication.

#neverforget

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[liv2ski]

Sorry for your loss Conundrum. My wife still misses her parents and cries the day they each passed 35 years later.

[Core Shot]

[SumJongGuy]

9/11 News was on just now and 6 year old daughter asks what happened.


Woo boy! Was not ready for this.


I said “well, 20 yrs ago some bad people highjacked 4 airplanes and…….”

Then I lost it, got chocked up and felt tears starting and had to stop. Can’t believe the emotions still inside that just creep up. I wasn’t even there.

Very hard to explain these things to beautiful innocent children.

Think I’ll try again next year.


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A couple years ago I was running errands in the morning and saw a father and a young boy walking down the sidewalk. The 6ish looking kid was wearing a Halloween costume, fireman. Then it hit me.. they were a block away from the local fire station on their way there.. on 911. He was taking the little guy to meet the local rescue crew and show appreciation on a 911 morning. Really cool!

[BC.]

A guy in Mount Pocono, PA Planet Fitness this am…

[GiantManta]

Always a hard day. Just when you think you are doing better on this it hits you like a ton of bricks. I lost a college buddy who was 28. They named the soccer field at our college for him with a plaque and when the college posted a pic of the plaque this am - shit just hit me. So many impacted by this.

[old_newguy]

Man, I cannot believe it's been two decades....I couldn't find the other 9/11 thread, but I remember how I felt that day, and looking around at things now......Feeling very melancholy at the moment. Raising a glass to all who were lost, especially the 343 of FDNY's Bravest.......RIP.

I marvel at how disconnected technologically we were back then.

Woke up in my tent to someone listening to it unfold on a AM/FM battery powered radio. We all huddled around truck dash radios and listened. We were scheduled to get ferried across a lake via helicopter to support a 'shot crew. They brought in sat. TV and a big screen TV later that day and we all finally saw the pictures. Sat around for a couple of days while they figured out a new plan. Surreal.

Definitely the formative event in my lifetime. My parents had MLK, JFK, Vietnam etc in their youth.

To this day, I am still disappointed how we asked "who, where, what", but we never asked "why" and instead allowed propaganda to win and engaged in a campaign of vengeance that will certainly come back to us, much like the preceding 30 years came back to us on that day.

[Mazderati]

I just got in my truck and started driving to class. When I turned the radio on the first plane had just hit. The people on air were confused like everyone else and trying to make sense of it. Nothing known about the size of the plane. Maybe it was a private pilot accident, I thought. Second plane hit. Definitely not an accident. Went ahead to class and my professor, and older guy probably close to or past retirement, had the 1,000 yard stare. "Class is canceled. Go home."

Edit: @danny really sorry for your loss.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I watched live as the second plane hit. I was drinking coffee and getting ready to ride to work. Went to work and we did a full schedule of surgery. We talked about it and when details started to trickle out and it was known they were Islamic terrorists I wasn’t surprised. I’ve always thought our reaction to this tragedy was a little out of proportion. I know it affected a lot of people deeply in spite of my personal reaction.


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[BmillsSkier]

9/11 News was on just now and 6 year old daughter asks what happened.


Woo boy! Was not ready for this.


I said “well, 20 yrs ago some bad people highjacked 4 airplanes and…….”

Then I lost it, got chocked up and felt tears starting and had to stop. Can’t believe the emotions still inside that just creep up. I wasn’t even there.

Very hard to explain these things to beautiful innocent children.

Think I’ll try again next year.


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Had a very similar moment this morning after my son’s soccer game.

Such a terrible day that still hits so hard and can’t easily be explained to innocents.

Danny, Conundrum, I’m very sorry for your loss.

[Bunion 2020]

20 years and a whole different world later.

Given how split and dysfunctional this country now is I would say that OBL won that round.

[gravitylover]

You've all brought tears to my eyes and left a lump in my throat. The chaos and sadness we all went through here is still a thing every day. I lost friends, many lost family, we were all touched.

@Danny - here's a virtual hug for ya

[Ted Striker]

I marvel at how disconnected technologically we were back then.

I found out via my landline answering machine.

My best friend and coworker at the time left this message, "Ted. Wake up. The world's ending. Turn on your tv" I looked at the clock radio and it wasn't even 6 am yet. Normally, I'd have blown it off as a joke, but he never deadpans. There's always a little giggle in his delivery. So I dragged my ass out of bed, and as I was walking to the tv I was thinking he didn't even say which channel. I turned it on right around the time the second plane hit.

[highangle]

https://timeline.911memorial.org/#Timeline/2

[ötzi]

It was such a nice day. Just perfect weather on the Eastern seaboard, crystal clear and not a cloud in the sky. Now every really nice day I think of 9/11. I wish I didn't.

[The SnowShow]

My wife had a front row seat across from the WTC. I had just gotten to my midtown office after she got off the subway to go to work down there. She had left a message on my machine that the WTC had been bombed, her building shook like an earthquake, papers and debris were falling from the sky and she and her coworkers were leaving and heading north as fast as possible. After that, all phones went done. I went to the roof of the midtown building and watched the scene unfold miles away. I remember the eerie silence of no plane traffic then the roar of F16s overhead. After seeing them fall and hearing about the pentagon, I remember thinking what’s next? White House? Something else in NYC? Terror washed over me as I frantically tried to call my wife’s cell phone until finally I got a call from her. She was headed to a friend’s place in the Upper West side. We ended up meeting and sleeping there and then, too terrified to take the subway home, ended up walking all the way back to Park Slope Brooklyn only to find ash and the smell of death at our doorstep there. The weeks after were horrible. The signs of lost ones in Union Sq. The candlelight vigils. The military presence in the streets. The fear of another attack.

[Kinnikinnick]

Fuck those pseudo Islamic terrorist assholes.

What kind of monster deliberately crashes a plan with small children on board?

https://www.911memorial.org/connect/...d-peter-rabbit

I hope something like this is true:

https://www.theonion.com/hijackers-s...ell-1819566162


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[AK47bp]

My wife had a front row seat across from the WTC. I had just gotten to my midtown office after she got off the subway to go to work down there. She had left a message on my machine that the WTC had been bombed, her building shook like an earthquake, papers and debris were falling from the sky and she and her coworkers were leaving and heading north as fast as possible. After that, all phones went done. I went to the roof of the midtown building and watched the scene unfold miles away. I remember the eerie silence of no plane traffic then the roar of F16s overhead. After seeing them fall and hearing about the pentagon, I remember thinking what’s next? White House? Something else in NYC? Terror washed over me as I frantically tried to call my wife’s cell phone until finally I got a call from her. She was headed to a friend’s place in the Upper West side. We ended up meeting and sleeping there and then, too terrified to take the subway home, ended up walking all the way back to Park Slope Brooklyn only to find ash and the smell of death at our doorstep there. The weeks after were horrible. The signs of lost ones in Union Sq. The candlelight vigils. The military presence in the streets. The fear of another attack.

Too close for comfort, glad you guys were okay (physically)


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[Brownski]

My wife had a front row seat across from the WTC. I had just gotten to my midtown office after she got off the subway to go to work down there. She had left a message on my machine that the WTC had been bombed, her building shook like an earthquake, papers and debris were falling from the sky and she and her coworkers were leaving and heading north as fast as possible. After that, all phones went done. I went to the roof of the midtown building and watched the scene unfold miles away. I remember the eerie silence of no plane traffic then the roar of F16s overhead. After seeing them fall and hearing about the pentagon, I remember thinking what’s next? White House? Something else in NYC? Terror washed over me as I frantically tried to call my wife’s cell phone until finally I got a call from her. She was headed to a friend’s place in the Upper West side. We ended up meeting and sleeping there and then, too terrified to take the subway home, ended up walking all the way back to Park Slope Brooklyn only to find ash and the smell of death at our doorstep there. The weeks after were horrible. The signs of lost ones in Union Sq. The candlelight vigils. The military presence in the streets. The fear of another attack.

I spent the day not knowing where my wife (fiancé at the time) was also. She called me as I was getting ready to walk out the door and told me to avoid lower Manhattan (my territory covered the whole island back then) and, like so many people, I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. We didn’t reconnect until about 7:30 that night. She was very close to WTC and her job sent her towards it so I really didn’t have any reason to think she was alive while I watched the whole thing on TV. We got married a little more than a week later.

[MTT]

I have a nice American flag and a place on the porch to put it

It’s not up

No one else close by has one up today

I think I’m going to go get it out of the shed an put it out
It’s a beautiful day. “As it was that day “

BRB. Golf is on the tv

[SumJongGuy]

I have a nice American flag and a place on the porch to put it

It’s not up

No one else close by has one up today

I think I’m going to go get it out of the shed an put it out
It’s a beautiful day. “As it was that day “

BRB. Golf is on the tv

I also put flag out for Pearl Harbor Day.

[dcpnz]

Lived ~1/2 mile from ground zero at the time. I was on upper west side early that morning but wife watched the second plane hit from a conference room window and had to walk north thru the debris later that afternoon.

[The SnowShow]

I spent the day not knowing where my wife (fiancé at the time) was also. She called me as I was getting ready to walk out the door and told me to avoid lower Manhattan (my territory covered the whole island back then) and, like so many people, I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. We didn’t reconnect until about 7:30 that night. She was very close to WTC and her job sent her towards it so I really didn’t have any reason to think she was alive while I watched the whole thing on TV. We got married a little more than a week later.

Wow, glad she was ok. Scary memories.