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View Full Version : [Dixonary] OT: Where were you?


Guerri Stevens
September 11th, 2011, 04:01 AM
Where were you on 9/11/2001?

I was at work. We were all called into a conference room and told that
the first tower had been hit. Later we were called back to learn the
second tower had been hit, and finally that both had collapsed. We were
told that anyone who wanted to go home could do so.

As far as I know, I didn't know anyone who would have been in the
towers, although I later learned that the husband of a friend had been
in New York that day. He had gone down on the train, gotten off and
started walking to wherever he was supposed to be. He noticed a lot of
pointing and looking but had no idea what was going on. Finally people
started to say "run" and people started running. He was fine, but it
took him awhile to get back to his home in Connecticut.

When I got home after work, I turned on the TV and was amazed to be able
to see almost the whole thing played out.

--
Guerri

EnDash@aol.com
September 11th, 2011, 07:11 AM
I was at work in my office -- ears glued to my radio.

-- Dick


In a message dated 9/11/2011 5:01:25 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
guerri (AT) tapcis (DOT) com writes:

Where were you on 9/11/2001?

Judy Madnick
September 11th, 2011, 07:14 AM
I was working at home and was on the phone with a resume client. My daughter called, so I put the client on "hold" and took the call. I thought she said (and perhaps she did say!) that two planes had crashed over the World Trade Center. It could be that that was what made the most sense to me ("over," not "into"). So I completed my business call and turned on the TV. The rest is history.

Judy

Daniel Widdis
September 11th, 2011, 09:15 AM
We had just started a vacation to show off our then 3-month-old firstborn
to both sides of my wife's family in New Orleans and Jacksonville. I was
at my wife's grandmother's house that morning when she woke us up shortly
after the first plane hit; at that point nobody knew what kind of plane
and that it was a terrorist attack. I was glued to the TV all day. I
remember going out to eat that night feeling guilty that we were trying to
live a "normal" life on that day. The rest of the vacation went as
planned, with a bit more hugs to all the people we visited.

Our scheduled flight home fell on the first day the airports re-opened.
We dutifully showed up 3 hours early for our 6:30 am flight, and of course
the gates weren't even open yet. We ended up being among the first to
experience post-9/11 airport security, bleary-eyed with a 3 month old and
a stroller.

--
Dan




On 9/11/11 2:01 AM, Guerri Stevens wrote:

>Where were you on 9/11/2001?

Guerri Stevens
September 11th, 2011, 11:52 AM
Later in September my husband and I went to Acadia National Park, in
Maine. Some person, or persons, had put up a flag on each summit in the
park. I used a photograph of one of them on our holiday greeting card
that year, and am thinking of resurrecting the photo and using it again
this year with the words "we will never forget".

Guerri

Daniel Widdis wrote:
> We had just started a vacation to show off our then 3-month-old firstborn
> to both sides of my wife's family in New Orleans and Jacksonville. I was
> at my wife's grandmother's house that morning when she woke us up shortly
> after the first plane hit; at that point nobody knew what kind of plane
> and that it was a terrorist attack. I was glued to the TV all day. I
> remember going out to eat that night feeling guilty that we were trying to
> live a "normal" life on that day. The rest of the vacation went as
> planned, with a bit more hugs to all the people we visited.
>
> Our scheduled flight home fell on the first day the airports re-opened.
> We dutifully showed up 3 hours early for our 6:30 am flight, and of course
> the gates weren't even open yet. We ended up being among the first to
> experience post-9/11 airport security, bleary-eyed with a 3 month old and
> a stroller.
>

—Keith Hale—
September 11th, 2011, 12:25 PM
I was driving to work (the last real full time job I've had so far... laid
off 2 weeks after the attack) and heard about the first plane on NPR, then
heard them talking by phone to a reporter who happened to be inside the
Pentagon ..... The anchor actually informed the reporter that the Pentagon
had been attacked and to get to safety!

I walked into work and everyone was gathered at a TV, and if I remember
right I saw the second WTC tower get hit live. Maybe it was just the first
time they showed that footage. Someone asked me if I thought the towers
would hold up up, and I reluctantly admitted that I thought one or both
would fall. I pictured it more like a felled tree, which might have spread
the damage further out, but might have also saved some of the people in the
lowest floors of each tower.

We were encouraged to go home and take the next day off too. I worked less
that 12 miles from DFW airport, and as I walked to my car, the emptiness of
the skies was ominous.

On 11 Sep 2011 11:53, "Guerri Stevens" <guerri (AT) tapcis (DOT) com> wrote:

Later in September my husband and I went to Acadia National Park, in Maine.
Some person, or persons, had put up a flag on each summit in the park. I
used a photograph of one of them on our holiday greeting card that year, and
am thinking of resurrecting the photo and using it again this year with the
words "we will never forget".

Guerri



Daniel Widdis wrote:
>
> We had just started a vacation to show off our then 3-month-old
firstborn...

Hugo Kornelis
September 11th, 2011, 03:38 PM
Given the six hour time difference between New York and the Netherlands, I must have been outside my childrens school to pick them up when the first tower was hit. I didn't hear about the attacks until my wife came home (around 6PM), and she was surprised to find me playing some Disney video for the kids instead of watching the news, as she expected. She had of course heard the news at work and simply could not imagine something so huge going completely by me.



&nbsp;



With hindsight, I had heard about the attacks before, but didn't realise what it actually was. That was during swimming lessons, in the parents waiting room. As usual, I was reading a book while the other parents (all mothers) were talking. I did happen to hear &quot;WTC&quot; a few times, but didn't think much of it - probably a husband stuck in heavy traffic in the neighborhood of the Amsterdam WTC, I figured.



&nbsp;



I would like to extend my sympathy to all of you who lost friends, relatives, or other people dear to you as a result of the 9/11 attacks.



&nbsp;



Best, Hugo&nbsp;



&nbsp;



From : Guerri Stevens
To : Google Dixonary;
Subject : [Dixonary] OT: Where were you?
&nbsp;





Where were you on 9/11/2001? I was at work. We were all called into a conference room and told that the first tower had been hit. Later we were called back to learn the second tower had been hit, and finally that both had collapsed. We were told that anyone who wanted to go home could do so. As far as I know, I didn't know anyone who would have been in the towers, although I later learned that the husband of a friend had been in New York that day. He had gone down on the train, gotten off and started walking to wherever he was supposed to be. He noticed a lot of pointing and looking but had no idea what was going on. Finally people started to say &quot;run&quot; and people started running. He was fine, but it took him awhile to get back to his home in Connecticut. When I got home after work, I turned on the TV and was amazed to be able to see almost the whole thing played out. -- Guerri

Dodi Schultz
September 11th, 2011, 04:14 PM
I live about five miles north of where the World Trade Center stood. I
was in my ground-floor office, working. I needed to make a phone call,
but the phone line seemed to be out of commission. (We're talking
landline here; only a few people had cell phones then, and I wasn't
among them.) Mine is a small walk-up building; I headed upstairs to see
if whatever had gone wrong with the phone had affected others as well.
At the same moment, a top-floor neighbor, an artist, had headed
downward: same problem, same question.* We met about halfway, at the
door of another neighbor, who was home with her toddler, a cheerful
little boy named Jared.

Her TV had been on, and she told us that a plane had just hit the WTC.
Of course we thought immediately of the long-ago mishap at the Empire
State Building and supposed it was a terrible accident. Live coverage
had begun, and we watched as the second plane zeroed in on the other
tower. It was clearly no accident. For the first time ever, New York was
being attacked from the air—not with bombs dropped from planes but with
planes themselves.

I think we were, all three of us, in horrified denial. It simply did not
seem real. Not even when the towers fell—one, and then the other. It
felt like a science fiction film, and these had to be clever special
effects, because if it was real, thousands of people would be dead, in a
matter of moments. No human being could purposely do such a thing.

So we sat there, pretty much paralyzed. As little Jared, who was just
learning to walk and had reached the "cruiser" stage of managing to take
a few steps before grabbing for support, lurched around the room
giggling to himself when he plopped to the floor and crowing delightedly
each time he struggled to his feet again with the aid of another pair of
adult knees. For him, the day was a series of small triumphs.

I didn't know any of the victims personally. But FDNY Engine Company 74
/ Ladder Company 25, on the next block, lost nine of its 15 men. 9/11
was a Tuesday. A group of us from the neighborhood spent that Friday
evening in front of the firehouse, in a candlelight vigil.

We didn't really need today's formal observance to remember. The sky
above Manhattan was bright and sunny on 9/11/01, an unusually brilliant
blue. Every time our sky looks that way, the memories return.

__________________________________________________ _____________
*The phone problem, which likely affected many other buildings as well,
was short-lived, and landlines were back quickly. Cells, as it happens,
were dysfunctional for some time.

thejazzmonger
September 12th, 2011, 09:39 AM
I was at home that morning, slowly getting ready to go into the office. My
oldest daughter, Tiffany, called anf asked if I was watching TV. When I said
I was not she said, "Well, an airplane just crashed into the World Trade
Center in New York."

I turned on my TV and we stayed on the phone together for a while, watching
the coverage. At one point I thought that they were re-running the video of
the crash in some kind of reverse image. Then, I realised that it was a
different plane, also flying unnaturally low.

"Oh no! Oh no!" I said.

And Wham! the second plane crashed with a much greater impact than the
first. It looked to me as if the nose of the plane had gone all the way
through the building to emerge out the other side. I almost threw up.

Tiffany and I watched together for about another 45 minutes before I finally
straggled into work to find everyone (small office) grouped around the only
TV on the premises.

sd

On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 5:01 AM, Guerri Stevens <guerri (AT) tapcis (DOT) com> wrote:

> Where were you on 9/11/2001?
>
> I was at work. We were all called into a conference room and told that the
> first tower had been hit. Later we were called back to learn the second
> tower had been hit, and finally that both had collapsed. We were told that
> anyone who wanted to go home could do so.
>
> As far as I know, I didn't know anyone who would have been in the towers,
> although I later learned that the husband of a friend had been in New York
> that day. He had gone down on the train, gotten off and started walking to
> wherever he was supposed to be. He noticed a lot of pointing and looking but
> had no idea what was going on. Finally people started to say "run" and
> people started running. He was fine, but it took him awhile to get back to
> his home in Connecticut.
>
> When I got home after work, I turned on the TV and was amazed to be able to
> see almost the whole thing played out.
>
> --
> Guerri
>

Christopher Carson
September 12th, 2011, 10:33 AM
I was sitting in the waiting room of my eye doctor's office in New
Providence, NJ. They had their sound system turned to one of the New York
radio stations so we heard the news alert break in to announce that an
airplane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. My initial
thought was an accidental strike by a small plane and I wondered how that
was even possible on a clear sunny day and given the flight control that
exists in the airspace over Manhattan. Then the announcement of the second
plane striking the other tower and it was apparent that something terrible
was going on. I went back to the office and was glued to the computer for
the next hour or so before leaving to go home where I saw the unfolding
events on Television.

As I recall, Toni Savage was on the LIRR headed into Manhattan and was
caught up in the chaos after the towers came down. Somewhere I believe I
have a copy of the file of her text messages with one of her associates as
she tried to get back of lower Manhattan. It was a compelling series of
messages.

Chris

Judy Madnick
September 12th, 2011, 10:42 AM
<< My initial
<< thought was an accidental strike by a small plane and I
<< wondered how that
<< was even possible on a clear sunny day and given the flight
<< control that
<< exists in the airspace over Manhattan. Then the
<< announcement of the second
<< plane striking the other tower and it was apparent that
<< something terrible
<< was going on.

This was exactly how I felt -- probably a small plane, etc. When the plane went down in PA and the Pentagon was hit, I thought that no one was safe...anywhere.

Judy

MICHAEL HARRINGTON
September 12th, 2011, 11:38 AM
I was sitting in the break room at work waiting to punch in at 6:00am. As
usual, we were watching the news on the television. When the first plane hit
the tower, I thought of a small plane. But when they started showing the
on-scene video, it was obvious that it was a large plane, and we started
speculating on what really happened. When the second plane hit just as we
were leaving to go to the time-clock to punch in, the second plane hit, and
the chief engineer yelled, "Osama Bin Laden!" My gut told me he was right. I
called my wife and woke her up to tell her to turn on the news.

It fell to me to make the morning rounds, and in so doing, passed by another
break room in another building we keep. It was not yet open, but I went in
and turned on the television and sat transfixed with a workmate as we
watched the horrifying events unfold. We were stunned for the rest of the
day.

Mike Harrington