9/11

[JimR]

I was working for a national home oxygen company and was in our Hamburg NY office. One of our Customer Service Reps heard early reports on the radio so we put the small TV on in our conference room and watched it all unfold. We started getting calls from other offices around the country to see if we were all right, all they knew was we were in "NY" and were worried. Not a lot of work got done that day, I'm sure the delivery drivers went out, it's tough to cancel someone's oxygen delivery !

 

[Swamp_bucks]

I was in my 8th grade social studies class when they told us.  By lunch uth and 8th grade had an emergency assembly telling us to keep quite on the busses and in the halls so we didnt freak out the younger kids.  

Actually found out last night a guy ive worked with for 10yrs is a volunteer firefighter and spent a week at ground zero helping out.  He was getting choked up talking about it and told me it took him 15yrs to be able to get to the point he could go back to the city.

[XGX7PM]

ł was in history class, it was extremely weird that day at school. The teachers were instructed not to discuss it with the students so most didn't know what happened because kids weren't carrying phones yet.

It was the only day ł can remember that my history teacher didn't have the news on with closed captioning during class which immediately struck me as odd.

It wasn't until classmates began getting excused from school by there parents that we heard the first rumor of disgusting events that were unfolding.

Never Forget.

[bhunterED]

I was sitting in traffic on the Tappan zee Bridge heading to the city for work. My inactive duty reserve end date was on 9/01/2001 and if it hadn't been for my wife being pregnant with our oldest I would have signed the papers to go again.

[Engraver99]

I was at work, went up on the roof to get a better look after the first tower fell and watched the 2nd tower fall from there. One minute it was there with smoke pouring from it, then it was gone. Lost a couple friends that day and still listen for their names to be called every year. Sad day.

[NYBowhunter]

At the time i worked for AIG and was trapped in our building on Wall street, i remember like it was yesterday. I say trapped because we couldn't go anywhere, the dust was so thick that day turned to night in a matter of minutes and couldnt see a foot in front of you. At the time i was one of only a few men that worked in that dept. And had to be strong ( although it was mass chaos) for my fellow co workers. In addition to dealing with the terror and crying that was happening around me, there were people just pouring into my building seeking refuge, some you could only see thier eyes as most were covered from head to toe in dust. People coming in with blood streaming all over them. After a couple hours when the dust settled we were able to make our way home by walking over the brooklyn bridge. I WILL NEVER forget. A co-worker lost his son that day and a friend lost her husband, sad, very sad day.

[Five Seasons]

study hall in the library, junior year. i even remember what i was wearing. principal ran in and turned the tv on the projector. 

my company is a large defense corporation. we did a moment of silence, flag raising, speech and sang the national anthem at 8:44.

America. Never Forget.

[GreeneHunter]

On Active Duty in a Warfare Class !

[left field]

I was in Toronto working on a project and heard about it on the Howard Stern show of all things. My now wife was heading to her office at Fifth and 59th. The CBS Morning Show was broadcast from her lobby and as she exited the subway she saw the crowds gathered around the TVs. The hugs. The tears.  

We were living in Hoboken at the time and luckily our cellphones were working so she spent the day at a friend’s apt in midtown as I monitored the news and was able to let her know that the ferries were running and she could get home. 

I got the first flight I could a few days later. As we circled Lower Manhattan and saw the smoke billowing up, my seat mate told me that she was heading to a funeral for her uncle who was killed when someone who jumped fell on him.

About a week later, we went to a restaurant in the financial district that stayed open to feed cops and fireman. Thought we’d give them as much business as we could. The area was a ghost town as most of the businesses were boarded up and I recall looking in the window of a shoe store to see an inch of dust on everything. Looking as if it was preserved. What I imagine the aftermath of a nuclear war would look like. 

That New Years Eve we we’re at a party in Toronto when someone brought up 9/11. My wife burst into tears. 

That’s what I remember.

 

[First-light]

I worked at Time Magazine. We put out a special issue in 24 hrs. It was an evolving story every minute. Interviewing Cops, Firemen and people who where there. The smoke reached us uptown but that was it. Some bomb scares and street closures. The pictures the public didn't see would turn your stomach. There was unity among us for a while, this says it all.......

Edited September 11, 2019 by First-light

[Red]

I worked at a small online Karaoke store that sold karaoke machines and cds.  Me and the owner watched it on tv the entire day the phones rang less than 10x that day.

Then starting 9/12 the phones were going nuts every one wanted Lee Greenwood God Bless The USA.

Now I work for a flag store and the owner said for weeks they had lines going around the block everyone wanted a flag and flagpole.

[Chef]

I will never forget I was in math class. I had gone to the bathroom and saw my Italian teacher crying in the hallway she told me what had happened and I went back to class. I stopped the teacher to announce what had happened. She told me to stop messing around and sit down. I got pretty pissed but finally sat down. About 5 min later another teacher came in and told her and she told the class. I left and went to the library to watch it on tv saw both towers fall. Growing up in lower Westchester a lot of kids I went to school with had at least one parent working in lower Manhattan. Lots of tears that day. I left school and went down to the dobbs ferry train station. I will never forget the smoke so much smoke over the river.

Route 9A passed right through my town I remember their fire trucks for 2 days no one was on 9A just the fire trucks heading south one after the next for two days straight.

I will never forget


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[johnplav]

I was in class my jr year of high school.  My best friends dad was a teacher and he came down and pulled us out of class.  I remember thinking we were in trouble for some dumb shit we did the night before.  I wish that’s all it was.  

[johnplav]

This revolver was recovered from ground zero and is on display at the NRA museum. It belonged to police office Walter Weaver who was killed on 9/11.


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[catskillkid]

I had a work appointment at Newark Airport on that 9/11 morning. I heard about the first tower getting hit on the truck radio. The airport was shut down when I arrived. I helplessly watched the towers burn from across the river. My next door neighbor's older son, Vince Boland and a young man that I coached in little league football Christian D'Simone perished on that day. A day no one will forget.

Edited September 12, 2019 by catskillkid

[onlybrowning]

I was in high school, junior year, math class. Teacher across the hall ran in and said turn on the tv. From that moment on all day we went from class to class watching the news. I’m a principal in the district now and still the hair stands up on the back of my neck when I walk into those classrooms. The TVs are gone and some of the teachers are too, but the spot where I watched the planes hit the towers causes me to pause and reflect every time. This morning as I read my morning announcements to my elementary kids with the flag at half mast I realized how important it is for us to educate our children about this day.


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[Otto]

I was just leaving for work when reports of the first plane were on the radio.  By the time I got to work, the second plane had hit.  We hosted several flight crews (I work at a hotel) and they were grounded.  I took a call from the wife of a pilot that had stayed at our hotel the night before and had already left on an early flight.  She was worried that he was in one of the planes and he was not answering his phone.  Spent the better part of an hour on the phone with her trying to help her through the unknown.  Thankfully he was not one of those planes.  

I was in NYC a month later at a meeting in mid-town.  One of the other people in the meeting wanted to go down to ground zero to “check it out”.  I remember being pissed at him, saying it is not a tourist attraction.   When the museum and memorial opened a few years later, I went with my family.  It is quite moving.           

[Steve D]

Never forget...I know I never will:

 

Edited September 12, 2019 by Steve D

[Chef]

I have been thinking about this all day and I guess this is a good place for me to let it out. I find it very difficult to talk about this day with people not from New York. I know this day effected the entire country but sometimes I feel non New Yorkers just don’t get it. I have a boss who moved here two years ago. We were given funds to do a team building exercise and he suggested going to the top of the freedom tower and visiting the memorial. He was shocked when I said and I quote” no offense but to me it is not a tourist attraction and I will not visit there in a group setting with a bunch of non New Yorkers” I know that may have been cold and insensitive but I feel that us as a New York community lost so much that day and outsiders just don’t understand.

Friends, loved ones, pieces of ourselves. Many of us saw the smoke first hand, and will live with that for the rest of our lives.


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[hunter]

I was taking my wife to a Dr, appointment in the city from Staten Island after dropping our kids at grammar school when I noticed the traffic was bad due to excessive fire dept rigs all heading to the Verrazano so I turned the radio to 1010 for news and heard that a commercial airline had hit one of the WTC towers. While on the bridge I saw the second plane hit the second tower and I told my wife it had to be terrorism because with the radar equipment we have today it could not be an accident times 2. We turned around on 86 street and went back to get our kids. Now for the amazing part; my wife who just got her RN license in August volunteered for two weeks. Going back and forth on a Police Boat from the St. George Ferry Terminal. She was in the search party where they handed debris in a chain to look for survivors. When it was human remains it was in a bucket. She said they learned not to look in the buckets. She was there when the third tower collapsed and called me in a panic asking which way to run because she could barely see with the dust. After a few days they realized there were no survivors and she worked in the first aid for injured rescue workers. After a week or so they set up a first aid station on the Staten Island side where she continued to volunteer until she was no longer needed. I was a volunteer fireman for five years on Long Island but I learned what real courage is from my wife Gina. 

[tarheel95]

I have been thinking about this all day and I guess this is a good place for me to let it out. I find it very difficult to talk about this day with people not from New York. I know this day effected the entire country but sometimes I feel non New Yorkers just don’t get it. I have a boss who moved here two years ago. We were given funds to do a team building exercise and he suggested going to the top of the freedom tower and visiting the memorial. He was shocked when I said and I quote” no offense but to me it is not a tourist attraction and I will not visit there in a group setting with a bunch of non New Yorkers” I know that may have been cold and insensitive but I feel that us as a New York community lost so much that day and outsiders just don’t understand.

Friends, loved ones, pieces of ourselves. Many of us saw the smoke first hand, and will live with that for the rest of our lives.


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Totally agree. My wife and I have yet to go to the memorial and struggle with that. Probably for two reasons. First, I am not sure even after 18 years we could handle it. Second, I think I probably would lose my mind seeing someone sell I Love New York t-shirts or taking selfies around it. I go to mass instead.

We were talking about it last night. Once she was allowed back into lower Manhattan for work, she still remembers the acrid aroma in the air. Never forget.

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[crappyice]

I too was in English class but in front of the room at a brand new middle school school. I just started at this school with its new to me teachers, kids, policies, etc. we were instructed to turn everything off and were kept in the dark until one of my colleagues listened to a radio.
I remember a parent storming into my classroom without saying a word and taking her child. That happened all day until every student was gone. Somehow this tragedy absolutely and inexplicably missed our school’s immediate family. Not 1 parent of our students perished that day which left and odd feeling of fortune when so much crap was happening.


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[Arcade Hunter]

I had just got the kids on the bus for school and was puttering around doing housework.. had the tv on in the background and saw the first plane hit... thinking what a terrible accident this was, or was it?  Then the second plane hit... then the rest unfolded.  By the time I got to work that afternoon, they already had a big screen tv set up in the cafeteria and they told us to do whatever we wanted... go home, stay and work , stay at work and watch the news with co-workers... I stayed for a few hours then went back home to be with my kids. 

I drove past the towers two weeks earlier, my first time in NYC for a work trip... had it not been for that,  my eyes would have never seen the towers.   In the days after, noticing the absence of aircraft was erie...

[Elmo]

Was getting ready to leave the house when the first plane hit.  Friend called me.  I was a couple of blocks from the WTC when the first car bombing occurred years prior so I didn't think much of it.  I figured a plane hit the building, they'll have it fixed before we know it.  Was stuck in traffic in Manhattan when the second plane hit.  Was sill in traffic when they collapsed.