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#1135 | Friday, March 29th 2002
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I had just arrived in Amsterdam that morning, and had dropped my bags at the hotel. Two colleagues and I were sharing a cab ride to the RAI centre for the IBC convention. The cab driver had his radio tuned to a local station, and I was picking out accasional words from the broadcast (which was in dutch)
I thought I was listening to a documentary / commentary about the time that the WTC was truck-bombed, but something didn't add up.... The guy on the radio kept mentioning George Bush, and I knew that Bush wasn't in office when the truck-bomb went off...
I turned to one of my friends in the back of the cab (who is South African and understands Dutch) and said, "Is this guy saying what I think he's saying?"
He confirmed it just as we pulled up to the convention centre.
We rushed inside and within a few feet of the entrance to the exhibit hall there was a crowd of stunned people watching the drama play out on a wall of TV's tuned to CNN. Moments after we started to watch, the second plane hit.
The rest of the day was spent in stunned silence building the booth for the show. I tried several times to phone my wife at home in Canada, but I couldn't reach her until that evening.
Normally IBC hosts some 65000 visitors. In 2002 the attendance was half that.
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Tom | 35 | Canada
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#1130 | Thursday, March 28th 2002
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I had gotten up at 5am (west coast time) and turned on CNN, my usual routine before work. I was getting ready when i heard a reporter cut in to say something had hit the world trade center. I rushed to the t.v. and phoned my mother. I then saw the 2nd plane hit and knew this was terrorism.. I was sickened, recalling a business trip i had taken years ago to NYC and i stayed at the towers. I sat glued for another hour and then forced myself to drive to work.
As I was heading towards downtown Seattle, the radio broke in that the Pentagon was on fire, I noticed other cars driving very slow....
I looked up and saw a plane flying overhead... I felt panicky.... should i turn around and go home? should i go to work? I continued to watch that plane fly over downtown......surreal.
I went to work but no one was working, I went home and pulled out my pictures of the wtc..... remembering eating at the Top of The World Restaurant...
Definately the worst day of my 35 years of life
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Monica | 35 | Washington
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#1071 | Tuesday, March 19th 2002
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I was working on a project in Trinidad. We were in a conference room when mobile phones and pagers began to ring. A secretary came in the room and mentioned that a plane just crashed into the WTC. We thought that it was just a horrible accident until we learned of the second, third and fourth planes. An eerie sense of calm permeated the office and, indeed, the streets of Port of Spain. In the following days, sorrow gave way to anger which gave way to resolve. The Trinidadians were very supportive (including their large Muslim population) and were thankful that a group of their own "usually late Trinis" were once again late for work at the WTC and were spared.
Whereas before 09-11 I might have been complacent and taken the American way of life somewhat for granted, I am now determined to support my country and my government in any way possible to ensure that the threat of terrorism on our shores and towards our interests are exposed and eradicated.
One of the first images that entered my mind when I finally figured out we were being attacked was Benjamin Franklin's rattlesnake flag; DON'T TREAD ON ME!
God bless you and God bless America!
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John | 35 | Texas
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#974 | Tuesday, March 12th 2002
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i was a t home on that faithful day .. just waking up for the morining routine and turnd on cnn and couldnt believe what was un folding in frount of my eyes. i pulled my daughter out od school and thenm broke down and cried as the towers fell. i will never forget and never forgive. i had family that died in the wtc attacks... our world will never be the same........
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peter | 35 | New York
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#972 | Tuesday, March 12th 2002
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I live in the mountain time zone and woke up about 6:30, which was 8:30 in the east. I took a shower and distinctly remember how well I felt. I just had a deep feeling of well being that morning. As I showered, I remembered an odd dream I had during the night. In the dream, someone was trying to call me from an airplane...
I was in the kitchen making breakfast when my husband turned on NPR on the porch. He said something about a plane crash and went toward the television. I hate TV and snapped that we would be fine with the radio and please don't turn on that "idiot box" so early in the morning. But on went the TV and soon I was glued to that awful billowing smoke from the first tower. Then, we saw the second plane hit.
Later, I realized that while I was watching events unfold, my brain was not comprehending what it saw. My mind kept going to the place where everything is alright. "Well, there's a lot of damage, but they'll fix it." When the first tower fell, even though I was watching it, I DID NOT SEE IT FALL. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I realized both buildings were gone, despite having watched them both come down numerous times.
We covered all the bases during the day--calling those we knew who might have been affected and it turned out no one we knew personally was directly involved on any of the flights or in any of the buildings/neighborhoods. But everyone certainly felt the impact.
I am grateful that we had the leisure to stay together all day and we mostly stayed at home with our cats. We went for a walk in the afternoon and stared at the plane-free sky. We were numb and scared.
In a way, I'm sorry that the focus went so quickly to our war overseas. I think a lot of people right here in the US are still trying to comprehend that awful day and the war almost seems distracting. We need a healing that overseas victories will not provide.
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Phoebe | 35 | Colorado
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