9/11 Memories
Open thread for posting your memories of where you were and what you were doing on 9/11 eight years ago.
There will be no–I say again, no–posting of political opinions in this thread, including but not limited to “Truther” theories.
As for me, I was working nights at the time, and had gotten up around 1 pm to get ready for work. I turned on Fox News, saw what was happening, and immediately called my parents with the question, “why didn’t you call me and wake me up?”
Work that night was very somber. We dealt with a lot of stuff that came in via airplane from nearby states, and of course with all flights canceled, there was a mad scramble to figure out how to get the stuff to us, since most of it was time-sensitive, and at the time we had no idea how long the planes were going to be grounded. At least half the staff had brought in portable radios (including me), and were listening for news of another attack, which, at the time, we thought was at least possible.
Okay, enough of my memories… where were you and what were you doing that September morning?
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International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
A Conservative Wanderer 
I was dressing getting ready for work when I turned on the TV and saw the reportage of the first plane. While watching and finishing dressing, I watched as the second plane hit.
I was numb. Then I was angry. Then I was numb again when I watched the first tower collapse while at work…and then the second.
I left work shortly after the collapse of the second tower to donate blood at our local donation center.
When I got home after doing a ‘double’ donation (O-neg blood like mine is known as the ‘universal donor’) I put out my flag and watched the coverage until I couldn’t stay awake any longer.
My dreams that night were of exploding planes, collapsing towers, and burning alive. I woke on 9/12 with a glowing coal of anger warring with sadness for those lost and my country as a whole and with the knowledge that WAR had been forced on us…again. And that, this time, it was a war that would not be won with a treaty signing or any surrender.
I was working at the hospital and I was in recovery watching the TV as the second plane hit the towers.
For the next few hours I found myself with my coworkers huddled around that small tv watching the events as they unfolded. Some of us cried, some of us hugged each other, some of us just stood their in complete awe.
At one point there was an announcement overhead that we were going on lock down. In Toledo Ohio!! Because we heard there was a plane flying over Cleveland that would not answer radio calls. Well we now know that plane is the one that went down in Pennsylvania. It was a very stressful morning and as we continued to be glued to the tv for the next several days it almost became too much to bare. Our in house patients needed us though so we tried to be strong for them.
Those patient only had their tvs while they were up in their rooms trying to get better. They saw the events unfold over and over and over. We had many many patients who just wanted to talk about things. Everyone was scared and just wanted to be reassured that we, as a country, were going to be ok. We did our best in telling them that, but at that time no one really knew.
I was commuting long distances to and from work, but on the night of 9/10, I was too tired to drive, so I spent the night at my mother’s and stepfather’s home. I was getting ready for work and when I went upstairs to the kitchen, my mother and stepfather were glued to the TV set. I asked what was going on and they both told me that a plane had accidentally flown into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. They stepped aside so that I could watch and sure enough, one of the WTC towers was obviously damaged and on fire. My folks were saying that it was most likely an air traffic control error or something like that. My folks walked out of the kitchen in order to finish getting ready for work.
As I was watching the news on TV (I believe I was watching the Today Show), I saw a second plane fly into the other WTC tower, immediately after which a huge fireball erupted from where the plane struck the building. I remember yelling at the top of my lungs, “Uh-oh. Oh no. This isn’t an accident!” My folks ran to the kitchen and wanted to know why I was yelling. I told them that a second plane flew into the other tower. I recall telling them we’re being attacked. “It’s a terrorist attack,” I said. My folks didn’t believe me, but they saw for themselves that the other tower was now burning and black smoke was billowing out of a massive hole in what was identified as WTC South. “This is too much of a coincidence to be anything else but a terrorist attack,” I said. Before we all left for work, my mother mentioned that they (the terrorists) don’t know who they are messing with and that will be it for them. How true her words were.
When I got to work, nobody was working. We had two TV sets where I worked and everybody was watching them. When the towers collapsed, people were gasping, moaning and starting to cry. Having worked with various metals and metal alloys and with my knowledge of architecture, I wasn’t surprised when the buildings came down. We all thought about the people who were still in the buildings or the immediate vicinity. We started thinking about all of the emergency workers and first responders who were trying to perform rescue operations. Some people had to take time off from work that day because they were too distressed and saddened to do their jobs.
I decided to stay over one more night at my folks’ place. I and my folks spent most of the evening and night watching the news. After seeing pictures of the people who were missing and of friends and family members posting pictures and descriptions, the emotional stress was too much to bear for me and I started crying. I stayed up until around midnight. I didn’t want to stay up too late because I wanted to be well-rested for work.
The week after 9/11, I was able to find the pictures I took of the WTC towers when I was in New York City back in September of 1996. I showed them to my co-workers and to my family. My family knew I had been in NYC, but I didn’t realize they had never seen the pictures. I treasure those pictures to this day and will never forget what happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001…another day that will live in infamy.