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#1449 | Sunday, July 7th 2002
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I had just dropped my Daughter off at daycare and was heading into the office. I was listening to the Bob And Tom Show on the radio when the first plane hit the tower. It was Tom that said something off-hand about a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center, that he caught it out of the corner of his eye on the studio TV...
I got to work about 3 minutes later to find a hushed, pallor atmosphere. Some people were crying and others talking a mile-a-minute trying to make sense of the events unfolding before our eyes and ears.....
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DSJ | 35 | Wisconsin
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#1444 | Friday, July 5th 2002
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On the morning of September, 11, 2001, I was alseep, when my phone rang. It was about 0940 am and my alarm was not set to go off for another 30 minutes, so I just let the machine pick it up. I could here my boss leaving a message (I'm an RN and I work at a Nurse Advice Line). She sounded strange and she said: "I just wanted to let you know that we cancelled today's staff meeting in light of todays events". I'm laying there thinking: "what is she talking about? Today's events? She knows I have school all day on Tuesdays, so I don't go to the staff meetings. Before she hung up I grabbed the phone and said, "Hi, what are you talking about?" I heard her say to my other boss, "Denise doesn't know what happened? We are under attack. They are bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon". Talk about a wake up-call. I felt like the floor in my bedroom had just been pulled out from under me. I ran to turn on the TV in the living room and could not believe my eyes, there was a Hollywood-type movie of desctruction on every channel. I came back to the phone and prayed with my bosses and then felt another wave of fear. I live in a suburb of Los Angeles. What was going to happen here?
I called my mom and she said my dad had already left for work (of course it was almost 10 am PST). She was going to call my dad, so I called my sister-in-law. She had already called my brother who works for a cartoon studio near Warner Bro's studio. I was shaking and could not think of what else to do so as any other helpless red blooded American would do, I put my flag out on the front porch. I called my boyfriend who was also going to school that day, and he came right over. I called school and to my amazement they were not closing classes for the day (I'm in a graduate nursing program at Azusa Pacific University). Never mind that the news was reporting that all UC's in So Cal had closed for the day, as well as most private U's. The City of LA had basically shut down and they were asking people to stay home. I could not miss this nine hour class so I drove to school in tears and met my classmates. We cried, we prayed for our beautiful country and we watched alot of TV in our class room. In the afternoon we met with the rest of the school in the student union for an hour of prayer and song. That evening our professor stopped lecture so we could watch G. Bush on TV. For days I felt anger and fear.I am still angry! Words can't describe it. I realized some satisfication when one December morning I was sitting in mass with my boyfriend and the priest announced in a very somber tone "the president has authorized attacks against Afganastan". I wanted to stand up on the pew and shout "it's about DAMN time". I am an American Girl to the core and like Tom Petty sings: "I will not back down." I believe God has a special place for the people of Islam and they will know there fate when to their surprise they go to meet with St. Peter. Meanwhile, this is one county, UNDER GOD!.
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Denise | 35 | California
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#1440 | Friday, July 5th 2002
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I remember the feeling of the day so well. It was a beautiful early fall morning, cool and comfortable. I had just dropped my four-year-old off at his Montessori school in downtown CincinnatI.
As I turned out of the dropoff, I turned on Howard Stern. It was about 10 minutes after the planes hit and Howard and Robin Quivers (his sidekick) were astonished, incredulous, that a plane had just hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I listened, confused...a few minutes later, they were saying "OH MY GOD...ANOTHER ONE!" (or something like that) and Howard immediately said, "This is war. We're going to war" or something like that. I was surprised at his insight; I was just thinking the first was an accident and the second...dumbfounded me.
I hurried a few blocks to my mother's condo to watch CNN. (Because she lived nearby...although she was at work so I knew no one would be there) I went to her apartment and watched about a half-hour, then went down to get in the car to drive the 2.5 miles to my house and continue to watch.
As soon as I turned on the car, I heard (also from Howard Stern) that the first tower had crumbled. I ran back inside to my mother's and watched for another hour, then finally headed home. My husband had just awakened, having finished a 12-hour shift at 7 a.m.
My mother, a stockbroker, had just called to tell him and say, "Gather the family..." She thought we should go get my son at school in case there was any more trouble. My son's daycare was a few blocks from Procter & Gamble's offices and my mother feared that large corporations would be targeted too. (That's a stockbroker for ya!) My husband and I spent the next three days watching television and finally went camping for the weekend to get away from the news.
We have since moved across the country - just because we wanted to. We sold the house and moved to an apartment; life is too short to be a slave to the man. I found this site looking for thoughts on flying September 11, 2002. I was making airline reservations and didn't realize the date until my itinerary was given. I didn't buy the tickets.
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Amy | 35 | Arizona
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#1421 | Tuesday, June 25th 2002
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My husbands family was driving in from North Carolina and arrived minutes after the first plane hit the towers. My brother in law, his wife and little boy along with my oldest niece were coming in for the funeral of my husbands sister who had killed herself the Thursday prior to Sept. 11th. My oldest niece was her daughter. The circumstances surrounding their arrival were hard enough to cope with and then for all of this to unfold was overwelming for my niece as well as our whole family. At a time as sensitive as this for our family, we could relate to those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11th. It is most definently one of those times we will never forget in our lifetime.
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The | 35 | Florida
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#1259 | Tuesday, May 7th 2002
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I remember getting on a bus for work and hearing that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I wanted to get to work quickly (there is a first)to find out more and to see if my sister was ok. She lives in Brooklyn and her subway route goes right underneath. Fortunatley, my sister was ok. The second thought was somewhat selfish. I wondered how this would affect our wedding. I was getting married in 10 days. Would guests cancell? What would the mood be? What about the honeymoon? How would this change those plans? If there was any good that could be found for me is that it Sept 11th put things in perspective for the wedding. If the flowers aren't perfect, big deal. If the music was not just right,so what. We were close to cancelling it, but many people came up to me and said, "don't you dare cancell because I want to celebrate something and your wedding is at the right time and reason."
Now it is nearly 8 months later and I am looking back. What have we learned? What have I learned? I personally am trying to enjoy life. I am trying to sweat the petty stuff and pet the sweaty stuff. I support the positive things (art museums, building preservation organizations) I not participate in the crap of society. But I think as a nation, we have returned the state of mind of Sept 10th. The best example was in early December, not three months after Sept 11th. The University of Colorado football team was not asked to the Rose Bowl. Nebraska was invited instead, eventhough CU had beaten NU a few weeks earlier. A CU student uttered the words "this is the worst day in my life." The nerve. I wanted to find him and tell him that my sister saw the second plane hit and both towers fall, but you are right. That day is nothing compared to your football team. For Christ's sake. How shallow are you?
Sorry for the rant, but I wanted to say that and get it off my chest.
Thank you for reading and feel free to email with any thoughts of your own.
JG
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jg | 35 | Colorado
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