Where Were You Nine Years Ago Today?

[Gayla]

This seems to be the recurring theme today on most of the sites I visit. Figured it would be a good one to have here, too. So where were you?

This is a copy of my "Where I Was" story from a blog post.

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Nine year's ago today, I was a couple of hours into a night shift at my job. It was a quiet, uneventful and completely forgetable kind of night. At the end of my shift, I headed home. Got the girls ready for school and on the bus. Cleaned up the kitchen, started the dishwasher and headed to bed.

An hour later, my partner threw open the bedroom door and woke me out of a sound sleep saying something about how the country was under attack. Not really understanding what she was talking about, I reached over for the remote and turned the TV on just in time to see the second tower hit.

I got up and we went back to the living room and just sat there, quietly, holding hands as we watched the events of that morning unfold. I will never forgot how quiet it was in our house that morning. There was no traffic on the street or neighbors stopping by for coffee. Even the dogs were laying quietly on the living room floor.

Shortly after the towers fell, she decided to go get the girls out of school. I turned the computers on and found one local NYC station that was streaming live on the Web. I think I had CNN streaming on the other computer and we had one of the networks on the TV.

I left the house once in the next week. It was that same morning. After Cindy got the girls home from school, we realized that we were out of milk. I walked out to the garage to get in the truck to go to the store and I saw our American flag sitting on a shelf in the corner of the garage. We put that flag up for 4th of July and maybe Memorial Day if I remembered to do it, but other than that, it just stayed on that shelf. I took it down, shook it out a little and stuck it in the holder on the corner of the house. I don't think there was much of a breeze that day but I swear it waved in the wind.

As I drove through our neighborhood, I noticed a number of flags already flying. I also noticed that the streets were empty. When I pulled up at our little corner store, the front door was open but I was the only customer. The woman behind the counter, Dee, whom I saw most every day when I stopped for coffee or a newspaper or a lottery ticket, was sitting on a stool watching a little black and white TV. I grabbed a gallon of milk out of the cooler and walked back up to the counter.

I asked her why she was even open today and she said that if she didn't keep the store open she would just be at home, by herself, watching TV. She didn't want to be alone. I paid for my milk and told to come over when she closed the store later that day.

Turns out we knew a few folks that didn't want to be alone and by early evening we had a half dozen or so friends and family sitting in our living room. There wasn't much talking. There was a good bit of crying. And there was a lot of hugging and hand holding.

For the next week, I barely tore myself away from the TV. Like most everyone else, I didn't really know what this meant for our country, for my family, for me. I couldn't imagine things ever being normal again. I wasn't sure a day would come where I would turn the TV off and go back to an ordinary life, much less do something like get on an airplane.

But things did get back to normal in some ways. There were jobs to go to and kids to raise and grass to mow and all those ordinary things that come with an ordinary life. Nine years later, it's more ordinary then ever. The job is different and the kids don't need help getting on the bus anymore. The grass still grows. The politicians are still arguing with each other and the preachers are still preaching their versions of the right word.

And that flag is still waving in the wind out there on the corner of the house.

[SFFemmePrincess]

Nine years ago today I was sleeping in my room in my parents house. My mother came in and woke me up and said something about an explosion in New York. We turned on the TV and just stared in disbelieve as the second plane hit. I decided that moment not to go to class. It was my first semester of college. My best friend and her girlfriend came over. I became a news junkie that day, constantly watching the news for weeks.

[cuddlyfemme]

I was getting ready to go to the Mall right across from the Pentagon when a friend called me and told me the sad news. The rest of the day, I sat in front of my tv in shock. Because I lived in DC, phone lines were cut off and family and friends couldn't call to make sure I was alright. Later that night I was on the phone with my friend, Karen who lives in NYC and we both sat on the phone and cried

[SnackTime]

Nine years ago today, I was in downtown Nashville. As I walked to my car, I saw several people exiting one of the state buildings. I heard someone yell something about a bomb threat. I did not think anything of it. I got in my car and the radio was blaring and all I could hear the people screaming (on the radio). I sat there in my car trying to figure out what they were saying. I finally made out the words, "the towers are on fire". I got on the interstate and went home while listening to the radio. I was in shock as I heard the reporters on the radio. When I walked into my home, the first thing I did was turn on the television and computer. I was glued to the television for days. The company I worked for at the time closed for a few days, as we had a store in the basement of the one tower. I remember spending time on the "dash" site as we ALL watched together.


I will NEVER forget that day!

[Julie]

I live an hour north of the city, on the Hudson River. My boys were at school and I was beginning my day working (from home). It was the first and only time I did not take my father for his Chemo appointment in the city. I had the television on, and what felt like a movie at the time, was playing over and over again - the repeat of the first towers being hit, and then the second towers. I had friends who worked in the towers, and old clients. I was simply numb, as all of us were around the world.

Our cell phones would not work for hours - Our telephones were down. They would not let us get our children from school at that moment. By evening, our phones were working and Islamaphobia was beginning. Friends of mine in the Muslim community were being hurt, both physically and emotionally. Nobody was safe on that day and for days and months and years to follow.

While the streets were being lined with American Flags, by those who could care less about their fellow neighbors on any other day - were holding hands and vigils. Candles burned at every doorstep. Still on that day, I was ashamed to be an American, and I was ashamed to hang an American Flag - In fact, I did not own one. I still do not own one. We were hypocrites.. All of us! We loved one another for a few days, until it was forgotten.

I think what makes me saddest about the events, beside the thousands of lives which were taken... The lack of respect for humanity. That we have learned NOTHING from this, that we do not honor those who lost their lives... We continue to mock them, by slandering those who are innocent as well - Our Muslim brothers and sisters.

What have we learned? Sadly... Nothing! We continue to perpetuate the violence and ignite the fires, in the name of those who lost their lives.

I am still there, sitting in front of my television, nine years ago today. And I send my love and prayers for those who lost their lives and to those of us who are still living.

Julie

[pajama]

While I morn the loss of so many people. And the chaos that it has thrown this world in. 9/11/01 for our family is a celebration day. Why?

Nine years ago today, we were in Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital. The Boy had been diagnosed with a sizeable brain tumor the week before that had to be removed quickly. So he was scheduled for brain surgery on 9/11/01. We spent most of the morning in our pre-surgery room getting tested, proded, taught about surgery, etc, etc. When they finally rolled him away to surgery, that's when we finally turned the tv on to help distract us from our fear and pain.

As the tv came to life we were bombarded with pictures of dust and rubble, and the announcer talking about a tower in New York. We were like...WTF?!?! Then within seconds, the second tower collapsed. We looked on in shock, compounded by our delicate state already.

That was a crazy week for me. The Boy spent 4 days in ICU (a week total in the hospital), we celebrated his 6th birthday in ICU, and we found out about ALLLL the changes we would learn to live with over the years, and there was absolutely NOTHING on the tv to watch except the towers and the president.

So while I can sympasize with so many who lost loved ones. This mother was not one of them that day. And for that I continue to give thanks and celebrate this day as the day my baby was saved.

[Liam]

I was in Portland, OR and I called my Mom to say goodbye, because I thought surely the world would come to an end that day.

[theoddz]

I was here in Vegas with my former partner. I remember getting up to go to the bathroom, first thing, and getting stuck "on the throne" with no t-paper. I called to Jan to ask her to hand me a new roll when I heard her yell, "Hey, we're under attack!!". I kept saying, "Gimme some t-paper!! WHAT??!!".

(I think I went drip-dry). :|

Here, in Vegas, they evacuated the Stratosphere tower, they locked down all areas of Nellis AFB, including the hospital where I work. McCarran International Airport was grounded and Nellis was scrambling its fighter aircraft over the skies of Las Vegas and Boulder City, where Hoover Dam is. Hoover Dam provides a good share of the electricity that not only powers Southern Nevada, but also Southern California with all of its military facilities.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[nowandthen]

home in Oakland where It was the day after my cancer surgery. We found out that our friend, father, husband was on flight 93 and we all went and chanted at the ashram. We were a tight community on our street, almost all of us attended the Ashram on the corner, many had friends in NYC as I did and we prayed for all of us..

[diamondrose]

I was just starting my day at work. I worked at a grooming shop. I was 17 years old. Some of the dogs were staying over night so We were loading animals up in the van that were to be transported to the boarding area. One of my co workers said to me " The Pentagon was attacked" and I thought oh thats terrible.. Not even beginning to realize just how tragic the day was really going to be.

[o222Good]

I was in my classroom. No kids were there at the time. The announcement came over the PA that a plane hit the WTC. When they realized it was an attack, teachers were told to keep the kids in their classrooms. I happened to have cable in the classroom for a Kidz News project. I watched the whole thing. It was surreal. Seeing people jump. Hearing people who were trapped above the planes and could not get out. Realizing there would be no survivors. It was so horrible. My son, in school about 20 miles north of the city, wasn't allowed to go home because they didn't know if I was okay.

Driving home was tough. All streets were closed in Manhattan, except Broadway, which was lined with police and military. All buses out of the city were canceled and no one was allowed to walk across bridges or tunnels. When I got to the George Washington Bridge, the streets and sidewalks were teaming with people trying to leave the city. Everyone was beating on windows and windshields pleading to take them across the bridge. It was terrifying! If I wasn't alone, I would have taken some. I was so afraid of getting carjacked. I felt very guilty about that, but eventually everyone got home. My priority was getting my son.

It was such a sad, horrible day. That night, the apartment under me was having a loud, joyous celebration. They were Egyptian Muslims. I just couldn't believe it. Maybe it was for something else.

[turasultana]

i got to work on 57th and 11th and saw i already had a message. My partner at the time had left a message saying a plane hit the world trade center. i envisioned a prop plane or something little, called him back and he said another one just hit. I thought holy shit we're under attack.

Tried to look online but couldn't get thru to any news sites, no tv in the office, we went to the roof and took turns looking downtown at the towers thru binoculars and saw a big hole in the side of the tower with flames coming out. We gathered round a radio just in time to hear them screaming "the tower is coming down." we were in shock. No one know whether to stay put or head home. I headed home.

Home was downtown manhattan, lower east side. I tried a bus - they didn't charge, made it to 2nd ave and wanted to switch to the 2nd ave bus. there was a car parked at the bus stop at an angle and we were convinced it was going to blow up. A bus came, I got on it. Went by the hospitals on 2nd ave, all gurneys and doctors lined up outside - no patients though - they were just standing, waiting. Lines of people already offering to give blood. Bus didn't move much so in the 20's, near the police academy - jumped out - i believe the mayor was there - it was totally crazy with cops.

Had no choice but to walk the 20+ blocks home - 2nd ave at that point was pedestrian only - everyone heading uptown toward me. People telling me i was going the wrong way, but home was that way. People coming toward me were in shock, many covered in ash. white ghosts. by the churches folks were handing out cups of water. I still hadn't seen any images of the towers.

finally got home - a couple people who had gotten stranded in the city were already there - we watched the news and saw the videos of the towers fall over and over. went to my roof and watched the smoke - i live maybe a mile away. it stunk. the wind had pushed most of the smoke toward brooklyn that day so it wasn't until the next day or so that the smoke hit us - my apartment stunk for a month or more. The air was hard to breathe for a week or so. there were flyers all over my neighborhood for ages with "missing" people.

every morning the ritual was go to the roof with the morning coffee and look at where the towers used to be. Mostly you just saw plumes of smoke, but we knew there was nothing behind the smoke.
my neighborhood was considered a "frozen zone" - needed ID to go down my own street.

there's so much more in the weeks after - makeshift memorials in union square, visiting the site and seeing all downtown still covered in this grey ash, the flyers... so many flyers on every possible surface, lampost, windows... so sad. we knew they weren't missing... but...

[Soon]

I was on my prep period from teaching and wandering around the drama room where a t.v. was playing and they were showing the first tower being struck. At first I thought it was some weird accident. As the footage continued, I realized it was more than a random accident.

I remember leaving school shortly after that and driving home where my first gf had slept over. I lived very close to the school and still had a lunch period before my next class. I woke her up and said come out here and watch this. By the time we sat down and turned on the t.v., the second attack had occurred. We just sat there stunned. I went back to school and no one was really teaching--we just talked with our classes and everything had this hushed and surreal atmosphere.

[Leigh]

I was living with a friend at the time, had turned on the tv in the morning and just happened to turn on the news ~ only to see the 2nd tower being hit by the plane. I sat in a state of shock, almost barely blinking as I watched the scene unfold before Me and not knowing what to think about what I was seeing .......... it was a very sad time for My american neighbors, but also for so many of us who just couldn't believe what had happened

[AtLast]

Just returned home from NYC. I had visited family and friends there with my lover and her son. We did the tourist stuff (first visit to the Big Apple for them, both). So, we were in the Towers quite a bit for all of the summer activities as well as it was on the route to so many tourist areas.

Her son called me from school in a panic to tell me about the planes hitting. Then, I was totally taken over by fear of my friends and relatives being possibly killed or hurt. Some were (friends, friends of friends, friends of my relatives).

I know that there are horrible things happening around the world just about everyday. People in many countries that live with this kind of threat on a daily basis. However, when people talk about 9/11 in a way that dismisses the horror of what people experienced, in NYC, in the towers, or as friends/relatives with someone that died or was hurt that day, it pisses me off. It indeed, hurts my feelings and serves no purpose in bringing us to peace.

No, this attack is no more horrible or worse than any other terror attack or other pointless killing of innocent people throughout the world. And we here, in the US need to recognize this- we lived a long time outside of the terror so many experience, but, how I feel and others with a direct connection, do have a hard time on this day. Now, I also believe we need to fight the ugly hate that some people in the US are spouting about Muslims and Islam (and many other cultures, worldwide). In fact, I believe that this is critical because this did not happen in a vacuum. The US has done some of its own ugly worldwide, but, nothing, not one single thing makes these kinds of attacks on any people a justified act.

I wish our lesson would take us to understanding Islam and respecting it. And I hope that respect is displayed for those lost that day here- and thoughts about worldwide victims of terror. many that died in the Towers, were Muslim.

To me, healing is not forgetting, and not taking revenge. It is supporting ways to combat the kind of hate that is responsible for such acts. The US has a long way to go to do this. Please support curriculum change in our schools concerning teaching our young people about Islam and other positive ways the US, as a nation of goodwill can correct our negative history against Islam. Can we not be pro-active and admit our trespasses and change things?

I know, I'm such a hokey idealist... but I am so tired of rhetoric that divides the US and serves no positive purpose in getting at the real problem, here.

[Jet]

I didn't know what happened until I got to work. The entire staff was glued to the TV. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when they kept running the footage over and over. My co-workers filled me in on all the details up to that hour,
and I just stood there stunned. I can see it like it was yesterday.

[bigbutchmistie]

Getting ready for a job interview. Talking to my mother.

[princessbelle]

I was awoke by my mom screaming into the phone "We are under attack, turn on your tv". I couldn't see, i couldn't feel and i completely froze in a minute of complete terror and confusion.

Just as I turned the TV on and focused the second tower was struck.

I have never been so afraid. I have never been so saddened by anything i've seen. I have never felt so bad for so many people and their familes. I was glued to the TV for days...

I just remember crying and crying.

I do recall something though that day that was surprising, sincere and out of character. I called information to get a phone number for a friend that had recently moved. The operator (those faceless people that don't really seem real) had asked if i would take a moment of silence with her for the people in New York....we did, it was sweet and meant a lot to me. I'll never forget that.

IMO we were a nation that came together in shock, fear and grief....flags flew everywhere and we mourned.

[Nat]

I was in a four-hour chemistry lab that morning, so I didn't know what was happening. At the time, I had a job working for an elderly biology professor who refused to interact with computers directly, so my job involved printing his emails and then typing up emails he had hand-written. So I went to his office after my lab, and the University had sent an email out saying that the decision had been made not to cancel classes after careful consideration. I went to CNNs website, and that's when I learned what had happened. Over the next week, I really wanted some sort of response from my profs. I was in all science and math classes that semester, and none of them even mentioned that it happened. I wanted somebody older and wiser to say something meaningful, and there was nobody around me who had anything to say.

I never went back to the lab that semester. I really screwed that semester up. I watched the news all the time, watched the planes hitting the towers over and over again. Eventually I went to the learning skills center and talked to them about it, and they recommended I stop watching the news. I followed their advice. That was the year I got married. Before 9/11, both my now-ex-husband and I were libertarian in mindset, but within a year, he was a hyper-conservative fox-news-watcher and I had become more liberal than anybody I knew (despite constant exposure to the drone of fox news). The next semester I dropped the biology major for english, both out of necessity (because i screwed up that semester so badly) and because I really needed to be around people who would find words to talk about things that are dark and deep and painful.

I remember that day on the University's tv channel, a young Muslim man from our campus was interviewed. He said he always wears a turban, and when he got out of his morning class, another student spit on him. He was understandably upset about it, but when he found out what had happened, he decided the respectful thing to do was to remove his turban for the rest of that week. I often wonder about him and what he'd say now after nine years of experience and reflection.

Soon after 9/11, there was a memorial on the steps of the UT tower. The whole mall was filled with people. I remember there were already anti-war protesters, though I hadn't even heard any calls to war yet. There was a point in the ceremony where we faced new york and sang, "The Eyes of Texas are upon You" with our little longhorn hand-signals up in the air. I am not really a sports person or a person who has ever sung this song in a group like that - and I wouldn't have participated under most circumstances. But in that instant, it felt very moving and very right. I had never considered New York as having much to do with me, my own life or my identity. In those moments, I felt more connected to New York and to the rest of the country than I ever did before.

[Glenn]

On the sofa talking to my therapist..as we watched each other's eyes and the TV ..silently...mere words suddenly lost...the experience never forgotten. Watching so many many heroes...I will never forget all the love and unity. Through the smoke came the couple standing there, holding hands..waving and smiling at the camera..before they jumped down together...I will never forget that.

[Gayla]

I just want to thank everyone for sharing your stories and memories.

[Corkey]

I awoke at about 9 am pdt, my ex told me about it, I watched in horror until I had to go to work. At work they still had the flag at full staff. I put our flag at half staff before entering the building. We had a huge big screen tv in the break room, everyone was in it, 150 people in the room and not a word was spoken. The conveyor belts had been turned off, the drivers told that they would get their loads tomorrow and our distribution center manager was in NYC, she had had a meeting that day scheduled in tower 1, she did not make the meeting. She was desperately trying to get out of NY, and ended up renting a car and driving back to CA.
That day, nothing came in or went out except tears and hugs.
Bless the men and women who died that day, and their families, we shall never forget.

[Rockinonahigh]

I live a mile from Barksdale Air force Base,I was geting off work at the casino
the road that goes to the base is the main road to my place it took me for ever to go two miles to my house.The police stoped cars and checked ppls drivers licences..my raido was busted so I still had no idea what was going on.When I finaly got home I turned the tv on I was shocked at what happened...just then the second plane hit the other tower...I couldnt move,talk or anything else.My pup climbd in my lap and just sat there with a sad look on her face..The base was on full alert..scary it was to think maybe it could happen hear too..

[Kenna]

At work when one of my Project Managers yelled down the hall that they heard on the radio that the "Towers just fell"... from that, everyone swarmed into his little office to listen... in shock and disbelief. As the radio cut out with static, I honestly didn't believe what I was hearing... I was in an Orson Welles fog as if I was listening to his 1938 The War Of The Worlds.

At lunch, I rushed home to watch the news...Watching the planes hit and then the aftermath shook me out of that Orson Welles fog. While sitting there, my old boss from the camera shop called and told me that one of our dear friends were among the missing at the Pentagon. I was in so much shock that I didn't cry or grieve for some time. To add, my sorrow, shock and "flight" response to the news about the plane in Shanksville (not far from where my son was living and from an old family homestead).

I still have a lot of unresolved feelings, grief and PTSD from that day. It's still hard to talk about or express. It still makes my chest tight.

:candle: :candle: :candle:

[Luv]

I was on my way to work pulling up the drive to the entrance gate,,and heard somethin on the radio,,I thought they were bs'n..when I got inside the facility I saw the news,,and was shocked. I guess we never expected we would ever get attacked. I was shocked,,and then I got pissed..

One of my bosses we got the next year was telling how he and his wife were in NYC,,and his wife wanted to stop in a shop,,they were on their way to the Gap store in one of the WTC buildings..that stop in the small shop saved their lived,,that 15-20 minutes..as he told this story he got all choked up. One of the employess at the Fishkill facility had a rental car and was able to get to them some how and get them out of NYC..

[dark_crystal]

i was on my way to work when the news dept broke into the radio programming and announced the first plane had hit the first tower....at that point they weren't even speculating on whether it was an accident or a terror attack...by the time i got to my office lot the second plane had struck...

i feel really blessed that i was working at the time in a mortgage brokerage owned by a Lebanese man and working alongside another lebanese woman and a cuban man married to a syrian woman...it was heartbreaking how terrified they were of repercussions against arabs in general...everyone rushed out to get their kids out of school and barricade themselves in their homes

[Hack]

I was driving to my office in downtown Lansing. I worked for the state Legislature at the time, and had a nice corner office on the top floor of what was, at the time, the second tallest office building in this cow town.

I was just pulling in to the parking lot where I parked and listening to NPR. An announcer came on at the tail end of the news and said something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in NYC. But they didn't have a lot of details. It was 9 a.m. and the BBC News would always come on at that time on the NPR station I listened to every morning. So, as the BBC came on their presenter was in hysterics on the air about the WTC being hit by a jetliner. WTF? I walked quickly the 4 blocks to my office building, went up to my office and flipped on CNN. I had a small TV in my office to monitor news broadcasts. Several of my colleagues started gathering, and we watched the news until about 11 a.m. That's when they evacuated my building because we were one of the tallest buildings (and chockful of politicians) in the city. My partner at the time had already called me begging me in tears to come home. I left with the rest of my staff.

When I got home, we spent the entire day watching the news. We watched the news for the next several days non-stop. I remember by that Saturday, I couldn't take watching the news anymore. And that's saying a lot because I am a total media junkie. The story that really got to me was the one about the woman trapped in the restaurant at the top of the towers, calling her husband in San Francisco and leaving him a message on their answering machine because he was sound asleep. They played the message on CNN and the fear in her voice coupled with the total devastation on his face...that really got to me. They were young, only married a few months, I think. That Saturday, I went birdwatching. September is not the greatest month for birdwatching in Michigan, but the air was crisp, the day was sunny and I needed to be outside. The nature area where I went birdwatching was completely empty of people. Planes would fly over me, and I would stop and look up at every one. It took me months to stop that behavior.

On Sept. 12, my partner and I went out to dinner. We made it a point to go to our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in East Lansing. We were saddened to read a note on the door that the owner put up saying, yes, he was Muslim, but he was appalled by the terrorist attack. We made sure we ate there once or twice a week for several months. We didn't want him to go out of business (he's still open today). I remember being in Detroit a few times for work in the months after 9-11 and sensing the anxiety in the city, which is home to the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East. All the talk of "sleeper cells" in Detroit and being stopped for "driving while Muslim." Scary times.

This past June, I had the honor of visiting the WTC site and the 9-11 Memorial Center in NYC while I was there on vacation. What a poignant and powerful place. I wept in the memorial center, in the room filled with photos of all the people who died. The enormity of it all is what stays with you, I think. Even when you are far removed from NYC, living in Michigan, that day and the aftermath are so indelible.

Jake

[girl_dee]

I was in my office at my company around the corner from the WTC in New Orleans..

My phone rang off the hook as everyone thought it was our WTC..

I never had the TV on but that morning I did, and saw the second tower get hit.

Life would never be the same.

[Medusa]

I worked for US Airways at the Little Rock airport at the time and was 5 hours into what would end up being a 70-hour shift.

I was in my office closing out a flight when one of my baggage agents came screaming through the back door. His name was Herman. He was big and he was crying like a baby.
I jumped up out of my chair and started yelling for him to tell me what was wrong when the phone rang. It was air traffic control telling me to close the counter, close the gate, close everything. My other line was beeping and it was corporate telling me that "Someone is blowing up New York City" and to shut it all down.

I walked out to the ticket counter and the airport was buzzing with people on their cell phones, people holding laptops. Loud speaker announcements. Every TV tuned in. I saw the second plane hit on the ticket monitor above my head. People were screaming. Sirens were sounding.

I heard a loud crash at the back of the ticket office and ran through the security door to see what it was.

"My MOM is in New York City for a conference." It was Matt, one of my gate agents. I remember how white his lips were, I think he was in shock.

I barked orders for the next 5 hours.

Get these people a blanket.
No, you can't use the phone.
We aren't rebooking anyone.
Close the baggage door.
Call pilot control.
Get me every bag of chips and sandwich you have from the planes and give it to these people.
Find this lady's bag.
Call this gentleman a cab.


We had 140 people standing at our ticket counter wanting to be rebooked, wanting to cancel flights, wanting to know what we knew.
The printer was shitting out messages at a furious pace.

"Flight 112, Cancelled."
"Flight 73, Cancelled."
"Flight 3306, Cancelled."
"All flights cancelled until further notice."
"Airport closed"
"Reservation center closed"

I stood at the ticket counter until 10am the next day helping people. 25 hours solid with only 3 short bathroom breaks. When my body finally revolted, both of my legs cramped up and Herman, who was also still there, had to help me walk back to my office.

I slept for 2 hours and went back to work.

They closed the airport and we all waited, watched tv, and tried to call everyone we knew to see if they were ok. I ended up being on shift for 70 hours before running out for toilet paper, drinks, and deodorant for our people working there.

I slept on a tiny loveseat in my office all that week.

I remember people's faces so clearly. Scared shitless. Shock. Anger. Despair. It was fucking palpable.

Even as I write this, my heart is beating fast so I can't even imagine the level of trauma and fear that those poor people felt. It was all so senseless. So hateful.

Such terrible things we human beings do to one another.

[Kat]

June insisted on watching the end of Bicentennial Man (terrible Robin Williams movie) when we got up that morning, otherwise, I would have been watching CNN at the time the second plane hit. She was in the shower when I switched to CNN, and I remember being really confused about what I was seeing, and the commentators still weren't sure, either. And later, after watching the towers fall, we left the house believing that ten thousand people or more had just lost their lives on national televison. It seemed wrong to be going to work, but we didn't know what else to do...

A co-worker left the office sobbing that afternoon when he found out his cousin had been on the first plane...

A couple of days later, June said we needed to get a flag, and I understood the sentiment behind it, but I also knew that jingoism was just around the corner. She knew it, too -- we didn't get a flag. We both feared the backlash against Muslims in this country, and sure enough, the hate crimes began before the week was over.

After the fog of the first few days lifted, I knew that our "leaders" finally had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted in the name of revenge, justice, and patriotism. And nine years later, they still do...

[AtLast]

I was in a four-hour chemistry lab that morning, so I didn't know what was happening. At the time, I had a job working for an elderly biology professor who refused to interact with computers directly, so my job involved printing his emails and then typing up emails he had hand-written. So I went to his office after my lab, and the University had sent an email out saying that the decision had been made not to cancel classes after careful consideration. I went to CNNs website, and that's when I learned what had happened. Over the next week, I really wanted some sort of response from my profs. I was in all science and math classes that semester, and none of them even mentioned that it happened. I wanted somebody older and wiser to say something meaningful, and there was nobody around me who had anything to say.

I never went back to the lab that semester. I really screwed that semester up. I watched the news all the time, watched the planes hitting the towers over and over again. Eventually I went to the learning skills center and talked to them about it, and they recommended I stop watching the news. I followed their advice. That was the year I got married. Before 9/11, both my now-ex-husband and I were libertarian in mindset, but within a year, he was a hyper-conservative fox-news-watcher and I had become more liberal than anybody I knew (despite constant exposure to the drone of fox news). The next semester I dropped the biology major for english, both out of necessity (because i screwed up that semester so badly) and because I really needed to be around people who would find words to talk about things that are dark and deep and painful.

I remember that day on the University's tv channel, a young Muslim man from our campus was interviewed. He said he always wears a turban, and when he got out of his morning class, another student spit on him. He was understandably upset about it, but when he found out what had happened, he decided the respectful thing to do was to remove his turban for the rest of that week. I often wonder about him and what he'd say now after nine years of experience and reflection.

Soon after 9/11, there was a memorial on the steps of the UT tower. The whole mall was filled with people. I remember there were already anti-war protesters, though I hadn't even heard any calls to war yet. There was a point in the ceremony where we faced new york and sang, "The Eyes of Texas are upon You" with our little longhorn hand-signals up in the air. I am not really a sports person or a person who has ever sung this song in a group like that - and I wouldn't have participated under most circumstances. But in that instant, it felt very moving and very right. I had never considered New York as having much to do with me, my own life or my identity. In those moments, I felt more connected to New York and to the rest of the country than I ever did before.


I did too and did get a sense of well-being with how people were interacting right after the attack. I wish we could find that place of solidarity and community again and use it to unwind the present negativity. How I remember the FDNY, and other stickers cars had on them all over the country as a way to tell New Yorkers we were here for them.

[T D]

I had returned from Tahiti on the evening of 9/10. I woke up to a phone call the next morning from someone telling me to turn my tv on, and there it was, all over every channel. I don't think I had ever felt so grateful to be home before or since then.

The rest of the day was more overwhelming than I can even describe. I was forced to drive in to work even though this horrible sequence of events were taking place. We had just seen another plane hit the second tower on tv. As I drove across the bay bridge into the city I remember downtown San Francisco being a ghost town. And I'll NEVER forget wondering why our Federal Government FORCED me to go to work that day (I had already taken the morning off). They foolishly made me cross the bay bridge to come to work to an almost empty building in an almost vacant downtown. All I could think was "please don't let an airplane hit downtown SF as well". I just prayed that nothing happen to the bay bridge as well (or anywhere else for that matter). And of course there was this completely overwhelming sense of disbelief, loss, and pain from what had already taken place on this day.

Nope, I will NEVER forget it.

[MsDemeanor]

I was in Barcelona, visiting the Olympic Village. The news was playing on a TV at the coffee shop, but no one in the place spoke both Catalan and English, so I couldn't know for sure what was going on. I eventually found out.

It was Catalonian Independence day and high tourist season, so the air was festive, and the attack was taken there the way we take in any tragedy that happens outside our borders - watch television for a bit and then move on. I traveled on, meeting many sympathetic travelers from many countries and of many faiths. I spent evenings at my hotel in Paris talking with the Muslim night clerk..his perspective was enlightening, his fear of retaliation very real and very raw.

I didn't return to the US until the media hysteria had been usurped by plans for unfounded wars that would kill even more Americans and tens of thousands of other people and suck billions of dollars out of our economy and lead us to the devastation that we face today. While I understand that the grief is very real for those who lost people on that day and for New Yorkers, and I do respect that grief, for me the loss of tens of thousands of lives in unjust war, the hateful rhetoric being spewed by conservative christians toward Muslims, the ongoing health and financial battles of first responders and victims relatives, the loss of jobs and homes and dreams and lives from the financial ruin brought about by the sucking of billions of dollars out of our economy and in to Friends of Bush accounts in Dubai is also tragic. The few thousand lives lost on that day in those towers are the tip of the iceberg.

[Sparkle]

I was in London.
I had just returned to my office from my lunch break and was scanning the news on various websites.

When I saw the news flash up that a passenger jet hit the WTC, I knew it could not be an accident. Of course, it was only a few moments before the horrors of the day unfolded.

I worked for a fringe theatre company in south London, we were an incredibly diverse group of people from all over the world - I remember all of us (about 30 people) crammed in to the tiny box office watching the only television that was able to pick up an external signal. No sound or words, except the broadcast & sobbing. I sat there for hours.

Outside it was a cacophony - helicopters and police and emergency response vehicles flying through; our site was with less than a mile from Parliament & very near to the MI-6 building; roads were closed down. Traffic was more jammed than normal.

But, I remember the *complete silence* on the tube home that night. The silence of 1000s of people is - immensely poignant & a lot unsettling & exactly how it should have been.

[Miss Scarlett]

I was at work. As he was leaving for Court one of my attorneys casually mentioned the first plane hitting. I called my Mom who filled me in on the rest of the story. We may have been on the phone when the second plane hit. (I don't remember and it isn't important now.) Mom was scared for my cousin - last we heard his office was in WTC. She was afraid to call her brother to check so I did. Was told he was OK - the bank he works for moved their offices over to Park Avenue a few years before. Originally located in one of the towers at the time of the bombing, whichever one was above the garage where the bomb went off, they relocated because of the bombing.

I remember what went through my mind after I got off the phone with my Mom - I thought about Waco, Columbine and Oklahoma City and thinking that, once again, the world would never be the same.

[SexyVirgo91753]

I was getting ready for work and I never ever put the tv on, but
this morning, for some reason, I did. I watched it happen.
I thought, "Okay, I'm dreaming, this is a dream". It was SO eerie
(I live right across the river from Manhattan). I pinched myself.
It took me a looong time to admit to myself I wasn't dreaming.
The shock lasted for days, depression for weeks.

I had to spend a lot of time helping my sister through her own
trauma from this event.

My sister, a psychotherapist was working in an office in Jersey City, her and
her colleague could see the towers from their office window. My sister told me,
"We both got down on our knees without a word and started praying, we watched and prayed".

For days after, she had clients with severe post traumatic stress. The worst case, she had, was a woman who saw ten Arabic men on a a Jersey City corner on September 10 chanting, 9-1-1, 9-1-1, and shouting hurray! hurray! and holding up two-finger victory signs. This was the day before!! It took the witness years to get over the guilt of "I should have said something to someone". While the towers going down saddened and shocked me, this info sickened me. I know now that the mosque where the event was planned was in Jersey City.

I'm Arabic myself, although with a Christian background. The Arabic language is like sweet music to my heart. I felt betrayed in a way I can't describe.

[Heart]

I was heading into my office in Brooklyn, where we can see the towers from our hall windows, when a colleague met me at the door and said -- there's been an accident -- a plane has hit the world trade center. I knew instantly that it was not an accident, (the WTC had been targeted before). I called my son's dad immediately to determine he was safe at school, then started calling others. We watched things unfold on TV, our computers, and out the window. When I saw Tower 1 collapse, I ran to retrieve my kid and head home to try and contact family and friends. It was a terrifying and disorienting day. The city was silent - no planes, trains or cars. Even in Brooklyn, the air was thick with paper and ash and the smell was like no other. I was totally numb.

I lost 3 people I knew that day including the father of my son's best friend. The firehouse in my neighborhood lost 11 firefighters.

It feels insignificant to say that I remember and mourn. We are still recovering from the trauma. Sometimes I wonder if we ever will, and if some of the horrors I see happening around me are a result of collective trauma.

Heart (broken)

[Lillie]

I had just arrived at work and my ex called me..I thought it was all bs..Im a new yorker born and raised..and all I kept saying was..do you know how tall those towers are ? a plane can not miss that!..I thought it was a mistake..until my boss who knew my sister worked in the south tower on the 83rd floor, stood in my door with a look of horror on her face..I hung up the phone and she offered to drive me home..I tried frantically to call my sister..but all it told me was..'all lines are busy"...as soon as I got home..I turned on the tv..and saw the 2nd plane hit..I then knew it wasnt a mistake..my dad called me and asked if I heard from jackie (my sister) of course I didn't...my kids had not left for school yet..and I stared at my son..I knew when he was 18 he would be fighting in a war because of this event..I was numb...it took 2 days to get the news that my sister who took the express bus from Staten Island to NY never made it to work that day because her bus got a flat tire....

it changed so many lives that day..my son has done 2 tours in Iraq..and he is not the same man...his life was changed forever that day.....

[lipstixgal]

I was living in KC MO at the time and turned on the tv. My ex-girlfriend called and said turn on the tv and I said why and she just said turn on the tv then I called my mother who lived in NJ at the time and told her to turn on the tv we were shocked,my mother lived at the time very close to NY so pieces of paper were flying all over the place in our parking lot it was sad to say the least and the clean up effort lasted for a long time...