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#701 | Wednesday, January 30th 2002
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I will always remember. I was walking to the lunchroom all the Tv's Turned on. I sat down and thought to myself how cool it is that we get to now watch TV in the commons...
My friend walked to the table flipping out over planes hitting buildings people jumping out and I cracked up... Now I thought it was a joke becuase he said the pentagon is on fire and I didnt believe that was possible. He sat there laughing one of those laughs a crazy person does. I looked over to the people crowding the TV screen and to my surprise The whole cafeteria was there.
I slowly rose up getting sick. My Uncle is a NYC police officer in a meeting at the 74th floor of the first tower. Then I have a cousin who is a NYC fireman. so I was extremely worried. My aunts work was the smallest building next to the WTC which burnt down.
I saw people rushing for the phones I stared in disbelief. I felt like crying. as I went through the periods all we talked about was the attacks. Teachers upset and students going crazy with questions. I was on the bus and got home and my little sister smiled and walked in the door.
I remember walking with my other sister into the living room noticing the TV was already turned to CNN i sat down. My little sister was in the kitchen and then I realized that she was a in Middle school she wouldnt know about this. I told her about it and she cried. She couldnt believe it either.
I found out later My Uncle The NYC police officer helped save lives in the tower but didnt die. My cousin a Fireman Also survived. My aunt was on her way to work and saw the towers... She is still to this day tramatized...
That was my story...
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Ryan | 16 | Ohio
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#691 | Tuesday, January 29th 2002
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I spent the first thirty-nine years of my life in Brooklyn, and I remember watching the construction of the world trade center from my bedroom window as a child. I had moved to Ohio at the end of August, 2001, to live with my girlfriend. On September 11, my mother called me, and before saying hello, she said "Donnie's Okay."
I was confused by this, because I didn't know what had happened yet, so my natural response was "why wouldn't he be?"
She then told me to turn on my TV,and when I reminded her that I don't own one, she suggested the radio, after telling me that terrorists had crashed an airplane into the world trade center. Neither of the buildings had collapsed at that point, so we made the conversation short, and I tuned in a radio to a local station, which had suspended all programming to report the events. I heard a reporter recount the collapse of the towers, one at a time, as they fell, and I was overwhelmed by what I was hearing. First I cried, and then I became extremely angry.
My brother, Donnie, worked in the world trade center, as he did in 1993 when it was blown up the first time.
I'm glad my mother called me before I heard about it elsewhere, and I was glad my brother was spared. I didn't know at the time that my cousin also worked in the building, and only found out a week later that she was on the 87th floor of the second tower to be hit, but she started running when the first plane hit, and didn't stop. I'm very happy she's okay too, but her mother suffered many hours of panic before she knew her daughter was safe.
I'm a Carpenter, from Local Union #608, so the Twin Towers were definitely "my buildings." To this day it bothers me that I wasn't there to help out, and was so far from home when tradgedy struck.
I'll be back in NYC when the new towers are built, and I won't be watching from my bedroom window this time. I'll be building them. See you in NYC soon.
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Glenn | 40 | Ohio
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#670 | Friday, January 25th 2002
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I was switching from industrial tech to math class when someone in the hall told me that this was happening. I felt so sad and worried and i have become very patriotic.
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Jeff | 12 | Ohio
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#638 | Friday, January 18th 2002
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I work in Advertising Sales for a local news publication in Columbus, Ohio. September 11th was a day I was dreading even in August. For some reason, I had planned 4 appointments for work that day, which was going to force me to go into the office early to get some paper work done, and then fly all over town, from one part of the city to another, and give 4 sales presentations to different clients. Normally I’ll only have 4 presentations per week, and on Tuesday, September 11th, I scheduled all 4 in one day. I woke up early, checked in at the office and left there at 8:15. At 9:08 I walked through the parking lot of my first big meeting of the day thinking I was late, and worried about making a good impression.
When I got up to the 4th floor of the large office building, I walked into the lobby and there were 8 people crowded around a television set. A building was on fire, not a building I recognized, but then I watched in astonishment as the 2nd plane hit the building beside it. Not knowing what to do or think, and standing beside my main contact for the presentation, we decided to go into another room to go over the information I had for her. I gave a 34 minute presentation, trying to sell advertising to this executive, and the entire thing is a blur. After our brief meeting, I went out to my car and turned on AM radio voluntarily, for the first time in my life. Just then, as I listened, trying to make sense of everything….the Pentagon hijacking was reported. I pulled into a gas station (remembering my car was past E) and tried to call my boyfriend. My cell phone wouldn’t even dial. I'd never had cell phone problems before...and did not realize until later that day, that the Verizon Wireless (my provider) building was so close to the Twin Towers. For the next hour, I was unable to make any calls. After a frantic payphone call to my boyfriend, I told him to turn on the t.v. and I would be at his apartment in 15 minutes.
I called the rest of the day off work and watched the news for 3 days straight. At 23 years old, I never watched national news or listened to talk radio. From September 11th to the present, I am addicted to knowledge of world events. There was so much going on that I wasn’t aware of.
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Mandy | 23 | Ohio
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#560 | Friday, December 21st 2001
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On September 11, 2001, shortly after the first plane hit the second tower, I woke up to the answering machine. It was my sister-in-law, crying. My first thought was “ Something is wrong with one of the kids.” I rushed to pick up the phone and my sister-in-law told me to turn on the TV. I asked her what channel and she said, “It doesn’t matter, it’s on every channel.” Sure enough, I turned to a local news station only to see Brian Williams practically speechless for the first time. I remember waking my husband only to see the first tower fall on live TV. I cried. All of those people, gone, forever. I still have a hard time fathoming the number of people lost. I did not see a building fall though. I saw children, mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, and loved ones fall. I thought about all of the family that would not have someone coming home that night. When the Pentegon was hit, I could not move or think. It felt as if we were being invaded. I kept thinking, "What target could they have next?" I clung to my husband as we lay on the couch and watched history unfolding. My husband could only shake his head in disbelief. The next thing I did was to call every one of my family members to see if they were ok and to tell them how much I love them. My families employers’ were, one by one, sending them all home and the only thing I wanted to do was be with them. But my employer said we had to stay and come in at our scheduled times. I was in the middle of teaching a 2-week training class and we were behind. We had to work 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm that day and my whole class was upset that any of us had to be there. We took the first 30 minutes and just shared our thoughts and feelings. I could understand why they could not concentrate. I was finding it hard to concentrate myself. We then sat in a moment of silence and then tried to focus on the task at hand. It all felt different somehow though. Nothing would ever be the same and we all knew that. We got off track a lot that night from the training book and eventually just sat and listened to the radio. When I dismissed the class that night, we could not leave fast enough. I am not sure where everyone went that night, but I rushed home to hold my husband and call my family one more time. Two things are for sure though,if we do not appreciate the value of a human life after this, we are no better off than before this happened. And second, no matter who did this, we will not let them run our lives with fear. We will stand untied and we will fight back. We stand untied and we will not fear!!! I have faith in America and I am proud to have been born in a country where we have the rights that we do. Please don't forget the men and women who have helped us maintain these rights since our country was founded.
I did not know anyone personally in the towers that day, but I feel like America, in some small way, knows all of them. They all, along with all of our veterans, now stand for the very freedom of which this country was founded and they did not die in vain. We will see to that.
Amy/25/Ohio
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Amy | 25 | Ohio
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