10 years ago today...

[Persephone]

I was sitting in Mr. Mitchel's 10th grade Geometry class when it was announced over the load speakers for all teachers to turn on their tv's. That was when I first found out about the attacks on the Trade Centers. I will never forget that day or how it changed our history as a nation and the world.

And on a personal note, 2 years earlier I was in NYC with my dad, aunt, and cousin and we all went to the Trade Centers. I can't remember which building it was, but one of them had a massive mall on the main level of the building. My dad, aunt, and cousin all wanted to go to the observation deck on the roof of the Tower, but I was too scared to go on the elevator and travel up that high, so I opted to stay downstairs and shop. That is probably one of my biggest regrets in life, not going up onto the roof, because I can never have that chance again.

Where were you 10 years ago? And do you have any personal stories?

 

[Rampage]

My son was exactly 5 months old. It was a good day; I was playing with him and I can still hear his giggles that morning.

I sang on the way to work instead of listening to the radio...unusual for me. When I arrived, a woman was saying that a plane hit one of the Twin Towers. An old man said it was a Cessna. I told him that that would be no issue.

I turned on the TV we had for little kids while their parents looked for glasses (I was an optician then) and saw this HUGE hole in the tower. I told the old man, "Sir, that is no Cessna." I conjectured an A300 or 747 and we were speaking while I was on the phone with my wife when the second plane hit. I told my wife that I had to go, I loved her and to be safe with my son locked in the house, that SOMETHING was horribly wrong right now.

I went back to the TV and just watched. One of the frame reps came in crying her eyes out...I consoled her as we watched all day long. It was horrible.

The worst part was that I KNEW, I KNEW the towers would fall. I started in Engineering and I knew that the steel would fail under that fire. I told the old man that they would fall and I never hated being right so much in my entire life.

 

[Black King]

I believe i was in the 7th grade when it happened. I was sitting in lunch room hearing some vague rumors something happened but it wasn't until my mom came and pulled me out of school (which was the first time short of me being collapsing can't stand up sick that that ever happened) that i realized something huge had to have happened. I remember getting out of school and watching the tower collapse on TV.

It was rough seeing the towers collapse and the people running from the dust cloud having to march out of Manhattan by foot on the news. That hurt the soul of NY.

 

[s_k]

It really is a day you remember isn't it.

I was out of town working. Was listening to some stupid commercial radio station with a really silly host, so me an my colleague first though he was joking.
When he kept going on with it saying the other building now and been hit etc. we first thought, come on, this isn't funny anymore.

Then we tuned in some real news and not until then did we really understand that it actually happend.

But my big realisation did not occur until I got back to the hotel room and saw it on TV. Quite a chock it was...

/SK

 

[Screen Legend]

To me, personally, this was not just an attack on America but on the world as it happened to the World Trade Center. Even though it happened in New York City, I've heard stories about various Brits, Canadians, French, etc, who were killed too.

I was in class that morning when another teacher ran in wanting to watch the news on tv [we were in the AV room]. I didn't hear all of the conversation but I heard 'twin towers', 'falling', and 'New York'. I was feeling pretty sick so I went home after class. As I was walking, my shoelace came undone. THere was a lady on the front porch of her house and she had the news on. That's when I heard that there was a possible terrorist attack in New York. I got scared and sort of walked/ran the rest of the way. I got home, turned on the tv...and watched live footage of people jumping out of a high skyscraper. That's when my world changed.

A few days later, I was in bed and I woke up crying. I rushed to my mom's bed and bawled. She asked what was the matter and I told her that I could've stopped the attack. See, the month before, my aunt and I watched a movie and one of the previews was for Spider-Man with the webbing between the two towers? Also, I was reading a book by Caroline B. Cooney entitled The Terrorist. There was also one more thing that caused me a great deal of panic but I forget what it was. Anyway, my mom tried to calm me down by saying that even if I told someone, who would've believed me? That helped, but only a little. I still felt that I should've known what was going on and told somebody. I still wonder about that today.

Ever since 9/11, I try to wear red, white, and blue in support of America...even though I believe that it was actually an attack on the world. But it still happened on American soil.

 

[Karma]

i was running late for work.

while driving to work, there were reports of "an accident" at the WTC but nothing was quite clear yet.

@ work was when it became clear what was happening & after the first tower was hit, nobody was at their desks/in their offices. we were all in the conference room transfixed by the TV & what we were seeing. we watched the 2nd tower get hit & it was mind numbing.

probably an hour or so later, our bldg, along w/ other federal & state govt bldgs was shut down & we were ordered to evacuate. ppl were truly fearfull & panicked b/c we didnt know what was coming next.

I remember having to run down MANY flights of stairs b/c we couldnt take the elevators so @ one point I stopped & took my high heels off b/c i could move faster w/o them. By the time we got out side, law enforcement were scrambling to secure federal courthouses & other bldgs deemed important or possible targets. ppl were out in the streets running, on their phones ...it was like a scene from a movie where a monster or some disaster was unfolding over the sky of a big city & ppl were out in the streets in a panic.

All over the city, ppl were jamming the streets, trying to get to schools to get their kids. radio personalities on local stations were URGING parents to "go get their babies" from school. most places of business shut down & it's the first time I could ever recall not seeing a single plane in the sky for several days. traffic was bad, BUT if you knew your way around good enough, you could wind through via backroads, & i NEEDED to get home. I NEEDED to be able to go through the anxiety & fear that was creeping up on me in MY personal space. I needed to be able to reach out to my loved ones but I had to do it from my personal space.

It was fear everywhere.

My aunt, @ the time, was still a regional marketing exec for Givenchy, which is in the Rockefeller Center, near the WTC & of course my family was quite concerned about her. We couldnt reach her for hours & my mother was nearly beside herself. We finally heard from her late that night & in my heart...I just had this feeling she WAS okay but still...moments like that are not easy to get through. I know fear & concern about loved ones was something all of us & everyone else shared that day.

I remember sitting on my indoor back porch that evening looking up at the night sky wondering "what's going to happen to us?!"

I wondered if this was the prelude of some invasion of America & if we were going to be torn apart the way Rome was by the visigoths. I still couldnt fathom the pain of loss the ppl @ ground zero were feeling. those brave souls...the "first responders" , many of whom didnt survive, those ppl who decided to plunge from the bldg, rather than be burned to death.

<<sigh>>

im gonna be honest & say this: i DO believe 9/11 was an "inside job" based on what I've read & researched over the last 10 years. for ME, that makes the SENSELESS LOSS OF INNOCENT LIVES that day all the more tragic , sad & depressing. I feel like there are ALOT of spirits of ppl who were MURDERED that are crying out for TRUE justice & that it will never come. I feel like what happened was far more repugnant than others might think b/c of who was REALLY responsible for it.

Now before anybody gets offended ...i'm not here to turn this into a political discussion, I'm just offering my own thoughts like everyone else did. I'm still keeping it focused on the fact that something DREADFULL happened & alot of innocent ppl who went to work that day & some of whom were probably "running late" like i was, went to work @ WTC, & their lives were destroyed. Ppl went in to try to help...& they were lost too...

Before this, the single biggest loss of American life in "peacetime" had been the Jonestown massacre. Now, in a post 9/11...nothing's the same.

I'll never forget