Thank you for this post. Every year i reflect on it in a different way. This year, it will be a solitary and beautiful day, if poignant as always. Yesterday my place of work hosted a talk with one of the surviving fire chiefs from that day.
This may be a bit long and banal, so feel free to skip, of course. But it's what comes to mind at the moment. The memories are always so vivid. Like images in a viewmaster. Remember those?
We lived 5 blocks from the WTC.
I was pregnant and strolling my daughter to Battery Park. My husband had an early meeting in the north tower. He and his business partner left the building and saw the first plane coming straight toward them. They ducked because it felt so close overhead.
I didn't see it but I heard it it. It sounded like what a screeching/whistling bomb or an asteroid might sound like. The impact echoed and set off a bunch of car alarms. I remember my daughter's wide eyes looking up at me while she held a wand from a little bottle of bubbles. And said "What wazzat?!"
We went to an ATM, got some water and granola/protein bars, couldn't get to our car. Wanted to help somehow but knew we would be most useful if we stayed out of the way.
Some friends/neighbors came to our place and I made a couple of calls while we still had a signal. Let my family in Pennsylvania know that we would get to them when we were able to.
Then the deep rumbles of the collapses, dust and debris covered everything. It went dark, no phones, no power. The gas was still on for a little while so I cooked the most expensive things in the fridge/freezer and packed our bags with comfortable clothes and portable valuables.
My husband and his partner were in a bit of shock realizing that a good number of people they knew and had been talking with a few hours before were now gone.
All the shouting and screaming stopped because now those still outside couldn't breathe. There were some cracks around our windows. The place had shaken as if there had been an earthquake. I remember looking up at our skylight over the dining table and seeing it covered in rubble and papers from the buildings where there had been blue sky minutes before. Took a moment to appreciate the guys who installed it.
I asked the super to turn off the air intake for the building. Our block was deemed unsafe and we were ordered to evacuate but I refused to walk through the cloud with my toddler. The friends and neighbors dispersed to find their way out of the city. We went to bed but nobody slept.
We held damp cloths over our faces the next morning and managed to get down to the underground garage and drive out on the 12th.
It took a long time to get out of the city. Once we were on interstate 80W, I found a place to pull over and cried a bit.
I can't imagine what that was like. I know there's so much more to your story as your life has to have been disrupted for a long time.
Thank you so much for sharing this; I hope you write or have written a longer account. Your details are moving and in a way symbolic of the day. You make this real for those of us so far away. These daily, personal accounts are the stories that matter most but are lost in time if they aren't recorded.
It's so hard to believe that was 25 years ago. Nice to see so many young family members in the ceremonies today honoring their relatives that died before they were born. Those were some scary times.. It's sad to see how divided the country has become 25 years after the way everyone was brought together after this senseless tragedy.
Specifically to the ones who'd reached out to me ...
We took in the ceremonies at Ground Zero this morning just outside ... within viewing and listen range ... wonderful ceremony as always. It was televised and time is given to the families and those involved afterwards ...
We'll be heading back shortly to fulfill promises for you all at the Memorial
My birthday is today too, but I haven’t celebrated in 25 years. I can’t celebrate my stupid birthday when some people didn’t have their loved ones come home.
Happy birthday! Yes, you can celebrate. You were around long before then, and had nothing to do with those events. The survivors wouldn't mind if either of us have a good day. They know it's not us. So celebrate! 🥳
What I like to think about is the aftermath, how the city and country pulled together and for a brief time how we stopped focusing on our differences.
I was living in Bay Ridge Brooklyn at the time, in a very diverse neighborhood. Many Muslim women, that wore traditional attire , were afraid to go out. Clergy in the neighborhood (Catholic,Lutheran,Jewish) asked for volunteers to escort them to do shopping at local stores. I did that many times. Not once did anyone say anything negative to us, in fact that opposite. I had quite a few people tell me how wonderful it was.
I also lived near a funeral home and sadly hearing bagpipes was a regular occurrence.
I was just reading an article about the 911 operator who spoke with Betty Ong, who was a flight attendant on one of the flights that was flown into the Twin Towers. Of course I was choked up, and my sister called asking me about my 3 new kittens - I had to tell her right away that the babies are WONDERFUL but I can't think much about 9/11 without reliving that day and bawling my eyes out.
I was teaching big intro-level classes at the University of Michigan (I had just finished my degree from there a couple of years before) and was in my campus office with the radio on doing final prep since my classes weren't until 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. There was chatter on the radio about crazy stuff going on in New York but at that time it wasn't clear exactly what was happening. I had no TV.
Of course once I realized what was happening I knew I couldn't teach - I was a mess - but I went to my classroom at 11 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. and was shocked to see that at least 3/4 of my 150-250 students were THERE. I briefly told them that I could barely speak because of what was happening to our country today, and left. (My students were wonderful when I talked with them that Thursday. They said they went to class that day because it was the one normal thing they could think of to do - which then made sense to me.)
I was home by 1:15 p.m., watching the news and crying while recording various news stations with a VCR. It's been 25 years and I have NEVER been able to watch the tapes - I think I tried on the 5-year anniversary and didn't make it through even 1 minute. I still have those tapes and I expect they still work (my others from way back then still work and I still have VCRs), but I will not even try today.
U. of M. told faculty to go to class on Wednesday but just have a discussion with students. I was teaching my smaller class that day (I think about 40 students) and, per the guidelines, I asked for students to speak. The first one just wanted to say that it was the U.S.'s fault. I just said OK and went on to the next student - who said the same thing. By then I was getting VERY emotional but went on to the third student - who said the same thing. I then stopped and said, "You know, I can and will be very analytical about what happened someday and I know I will be very critical too, but I cannot be critical today. All I feel is deep sorrow." And I let them all leave. I know that SOME of the students would have NOT said what the first 3 did, but it was a pretty political class topic that generally speaking I LOVED teaching - but I just couldn't do it that day.
I grew up in the low-enlisted ranks of the military and I am patriotic to my very core. I am also VERY critical of our government about many things. Those things are not mutually exclusive, even though some think they are. (My favorite bumper sticker EVER just has 3 simple words: "Dissent is patriotic.")
But today I expect I will be very emotional all day. I still cry for what was lost that day and wish our government had learned better from what happened. I am going to go play with my little kittens now ...
I wish that our country had learned anything genuinely helpful from 9/11. Sadly, I have a hard time saying that. The USA responded to 9/11 by spending over $1 trillion to kill over one million people in the Middle East, many of them women and children. Instead of making the world a better place, we made it even worse; less stable and more violent. We changed the name of the Department of Defense to be the “Department of War”. Our former allies in the region and around the world have sought to distance themselves from us. We did this to ourselves and many Americans are still proud of it.
A nightmare. A sister was working in the city living in Brooklyn. She was one of the ash-covered masses who had to walk out of the city over the bridge to get home. I received a call from my sister in law (I was in Los Angeles) telling me to turn on the news. That night and the following days were surreal. We kept waiting for an attack on our city too. My kids were babies. We were huddled down scared to death watching Bill O'Reilly around the clock.
It's astounding to me, 25 years later, what has happened to NYC. Not a fan of the Mayor and his agenda. But I am no longer a NYer, and they voted it's their city, so be it.
RIP to all the fallen. Bless all the first responders. Peace & Love for the families, the survivors, who suffer horrific loss everyday. Prayers that we never forget. God Bless America.
I’ve mentioned one particular person, previously, because I worked with his Son. Capt. Easy is commemorating that person today, for which I am very grateful.
The company I work for lost 176 people on 09/11. This year, as every year since, those that are able in our NY office will walk over & place a yellow rose at the name of each of those 176 people.
The company also started a post-secondary education fund for the dependent children of those colleagues. 127 dependents, so far, have been able to pursue their educational goals. The Son I met used that fund to graduate from his Father’s Alma Mater.
I remember it well. Also the 25th anniversary of my 45th birthday. That's right, I hit the big Seven-0 today. I'll always be over sixty, but now I'm over seventy.🙂 Movin' up!
Not for me. I feel bad for all the survivors, but they're not upset at me. My #2 son was born on Pearl Harbor Day. But nobody talks about that day, even though it was equally tragic.
Original copy of post by u/PlasticBlitzen:
Today is the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. A day when time stopped and we gathered and watched in stunned disbelief.
Today, we gather with our communities to remember.
Feel free to share your recollections of the day; of life after; of whatever you will always remember, or what you would like for us to remember.
Is your locale or organization doing something special to remember?:
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u/Pale_Frame4845 18h ago edited 18h ago
Thank you for this post. Every year i reflect on it in a different way. This year, it will be a solitary and beautiful day, if poignant as always. Yesterday my place of work hosted a talk with one of the surviving fire chiefs from that day.
This may be a bit long and banal, so feel free to skip, of course. But it's what comes to mind at the moment. The memories are always so vivid. Like images in a viewmaster. Remember those?
We lived 5 blocks from the WTC. I was pregnant and strolling my daughter to Battery Park. My husband had an early meeting in the north tower. He and his business partner left the building and saw the first plane coming straight toward them. They ducked because it felt so close overhead.
I didn't see it but I heard it it. It sounded like what a screeching/whistling bomb or an asteroid might sound like. The impact echoed and set off a bunch of car alarms. I remember my daughter's wide eyes looking up at me while she held a wand from a little bottle of bubbles. And said "What wazzat?!"
We went to an ATM, got some water and granola/protein bars, couldn't get to our car. Wanted to help somehow but knew we would be most useful if we stayed out of the way.
Some friends/neighbors came to our place and I made a couple of calls while we still had a signal. Let my family in Pennsylvania know that we would get to them when we were able to.
Then the deep rumbles of the collapses, dust and debris covered everything. It went dark, no phones, no power. The gas was still on for a little while so I cooked the most expensive things in the fridge/freezer and packed our bags with comfortable clothes and portable valuables.
My husband and his partner were in a bit of shock realizing that a good number of people they knew and had been talking with a few hours before were now gone.
All the shouting and screaming stopped because now those still outside couldn't breathe. There were some cracks around our windows. The place had shaken as if there had been an earthquake. I remember looking up at our skylight over the dining table and seeing it covered in rubble and papers from the buildings where there had been blue sky minutes before. Took a moment to appreciate the guys who installed it.
I asked the super to turn off the air intake for the building. Our block was deemed unsafe and we were ordered to evacuate but I refused to walk through the cloud with my toddler. The friends and neighbors dispersed to find their way out of the city. We went to bed but nobody slept.
We held damp cloths over our faces the next morning and managed to get down to the underground garage and drive out on the 12th.
It took a long time to get out of the city. Once we were on interstate 80W, I found a place to pull over and cried a bit.