Community Chat

[kelshar]

I worked at a large hotel at that time and a TV was set in the lobby that day with the news on. We also would have the radio on in our office every day. That day, they played no songs. It was people talking about the tragedy with John Lennon's song "Imagine" playing and news updates.

In addition to that, guests couldn't check out of the hotel because planes were down. Some of them ended up renting cars to drive home.

[Hazelfaye]

My older son was a police officer

in the precinct where the towers stood,he would be a first responder,

my husband was working in the city just several blocks from the towers.

Upon first hearing about the planes hitting the towers,and going down,

looking toward Manhattan, one could see the smoke billowing. Hearing that the Pentagon was also hit,

and the endless, unfounded rumers, that numerous planes were missing, so

It was like being in a grade B movie, and I wondered how it was going to end.

People mulled about in the street, everyone worried about loved ones,

most of the time the phones weren`t working,

the phone system had become sooo overcrowded, the anxiety level was at a fever pitch.

First, worried about my son, he would be amoung the first rescue workers to go in,

oh the long wait till the call came  "he was alright", hubby`s call came in next

and he was fine too.

Then came thoughts of friends who worked in and about the towers,

the evening was filled with phone calls, everyone was calling everyone else, to make sure

friends and family were alright.

Staten Island had sent Rescue Squad #5, the entire Squad, all but 1, was lost that day.

Weeks that followed were filled with watching funeral processions go by,

and crosses on street corners strewn with flowers, lit candles and pictures of

loved ones who had been lost. Days were filled with everyone trying to help

folks who had lost loved ones, and the men worked after work at the site, trying to find anyone

who might have survived, and then finally just to find anyone period.

A special innocence and invulnerability was lost that day..........

So how do we honor the fallen, those who simply went to work that morning, and never returned........

I donno... Someone on TV said that on this day,to honor them,

we should all take the time to perform a random act of kindness.............................................

[OKPrincess]

I was at work and the employees coming in were talking about a plane hit a building in NYC. 

At that times, the internet wasn't available to employees until lunchtime at your desk. 

This day all employees was granted internet access all the time. 

[Group 5 minus 1]

We were getting ready to go to the dentist and Mom called us. Told us to turn the TV on. 

She is no longer w/us,but I will always think of her when I hear 9-11.

As we were driving to the dentist the skies were so quiet.

[DSD2]

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@Jordan2 wrote:

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@DSD2 wrote:

Thank you for posting this very important thread. The stories and remembrances posted are heartening and heartbreaking. 

I was at work in a meeting and remember the shock of finding out what happened shortly after we adjourned. Like most of the world, I prayed and grieved for the tragic loss of life, for those who perished, the missing and their families.

I was fortunate to have visited Windows on the World several times. The Executive Chef was a friend of my brother's. We learned that he did not go into work as he usually did that morning, taking a broken watch to be fixed. He had no way of knowing that decision would alter, change and save his life. Many of his staff died that day including a beloved bus boy who had taken a week's vacation but returned a day early because he missed working.

Gone but never, ever forgotten.

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I never get tired of reading everyone's remembrances of that tragic day, I think it really helps to hear them. @DSD2 life is funny in a way ( not in a ha ha way), why that day did someone break their usual routine for something like having their watch repaired? Must be some people have angels looking after them. 

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Jordan2, I often reflect on the potential far reaching and irrevocable consequences of a spur of the moment decision. One decision here saved a life; the other ended it. I do believe in guardian angels, in hope, in prayer and mercy. But in the end, we are on God's timeline and He calls us home. It just was not Mike's day to die. 

[FranandZoe]

I was at work - no Internet then.  I heard it on the radio.  I called my Mom to turn the T V on.  We were all getting updates from our families at home. 
When Flight 93 crashed about 50 miles from here they evacuated us.   It was very scary.

Thanks for posting - I think it's important too.  I'll be watching shows on the History Channel tomorrow.

[bronxgal1]

Where was I? I worked in World Trade Center 2. I and my co workers heard the plane crash into WTC 1. We didn't know it was a plane at the time. We all felt like there was something VERY wrong! We ran down the stairs (no way taking the elevator)

We were told to NOT leave the building--because something was wrong with Building 1.

But we ran out anyway. It was like a war zone. Pieces of the building crashing all around us--but we kept running. We stopped at some point-And we saw the next plane fly into our building! We now felt  we were being attacked! We all ran down to South Street Seaport. Some crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge. I usually took subway to Grand Central  Station --then Metro North home. But I thought -maybe Grand Central would be next. I miraculously got a cab to drive me home. GOD BLESS THAT CAB DRIVER.

A day never goes by that I don't think about SEPTEMBER 11--and pray. 

[CatsyCline]

September 11th in New England  was a stunning day, bright blue, crystal clear, not one cloud in the sky.  what aviators call "Severe Clear"

.  i had booked airline tickets in July 2001, and played with the departure dates. Sept 10th? 11th? 12th? 13th?  i settled on September 12th 2001.  An international flight  for Wednesday, Sept 12 from NY's Kennedy airport to Europe for my aunt's 50th Wedding anniversary (Mother's sister)  

  I was in Massachusetts, driving to work.    My luggage packed and ready in the garage  at my home to pick up after a half day at my work.  i don't know why i really needed to go into work that day. i had to wrap up some loose ends. (code for impress my boss)

   As I exited enroute to a second highway,  a report came over the morning talk radio - a small plane had crashed into one of the NYC Twin Towers.

By the time i got to work the scenario was dire, We had no TV at my company (F500 company) NOT ONE TV in an Electronics Engineering company! Co workers huddled around radios with bad reception; due to the metal buildings,  transmissions were heavy with static.  it was hard to hear clear updates. then the Pentagon was under attack!

   DH was home.  His hours were noon to 9:00.    He was giving me real-time updates by phone when he let out an unearthly wail as the first tower collapsed. i will never forget the searing emotion and sheer horror in his voice.

At this point i called my Mom. Last minute Louise-  She had just started to pack. She never had her TV on in the daytime.    I said :  "Mom, Mom, turn on the TV"  "Why?"  "just turn on your TV"   No words.

I ended up making my way to the CT Ferry to get to LI (where my Mom lived - we were going to leave for JFK from her house) Peter Jennings was on the boat TV giving the Nightly News as passengers stared in disbelief.    His mouth was moving but everyone on that boat was just on auto-pilot.  The days (and weeks)  after were surreal. An early Fall chill in the air...No planes in the sky.  People coming together in a way we have not seen since -  faces subdued, searching - faces full of sorrow. American Flags being flown from trucks, from cars, from houses . 

[chrystaltree]

1. I was working, I was talking to a patient's mom about a hospital.  I was in Boston, she was in CA.  It was a bill covering months and we were deciphering the insurance payments and denials.  I was not paying attention to what was happening in the office around me.  And then she said Omg the news is showing a plane crashed into a building on NYC!  Then I looked around and all the desks around me were empty.  My coworkers weren't there.  We ended the phone call and I went looking for my missing coworkers who were all squeezed into the big conference room watching the TV.  No one was talking.  Everyone looked like they were in shock.  I went into my boss's office and we sat there listening to the coverage on her radio.  They didn't close the office but people were allowed to leave.  Most of us stayed because we were glued to the news coverage.  There was the Boston connection.  The adult son of one of the physicians we worked with was on one of the planes.  My good friend and coworker in our department was frantic because he couldn't contact his daughter who lived and worked NYC.  He thought in one of the fallen towers so he was inconsolable but as it turned out he was wrong about that. But right to be worried.  It took her mother  a week to locate her in a NYC hospital.  Early that morning before anything had happened, she left her apartment with suitcases for a trip and fell down a long flight of steps in her brownstone.  She hit her head and lost consciousness and some monster saw her and made off with her luggage and her handbag which included her identification.  She was discovered and taken to the hospital as a comatose Jane Doe.  She got the care she required but finding out who she was just wasn't a priority with all that was going on.  There was no staffing or resources for that.  Her mother found her a week later by handing out flyers with her picture at hospitals.  A nurse took a flyer and recognized her as a patient on her floor.  

[goldensrbest]

Never forget,all lost.