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i was working in oddjobs in closter..i just made a bail so the fire marshall wouldnt come in and fine us.....and then maryann...(a cashier) started screaming....and then i found out what was going on...i went to the deli cuz i was damn hungry and i watched the news,,,,,it was the hardest bagel to eat that i ever had in my life.....and the store for the day was pretty much desolate i think we only had 20 customers the entire day....my old boss wife and kids were on a field trip they were going to visit either the pentagon or an area near the pentagon...luckily they were ok but they were trapped in washington for two days my boss was communicating with them nervously by phone.it was surreal cuz it was so beautiful out..and yet so sad.....to see my boss dialing and redialing the wife and kids cell with no answer was semi excrutiaiting to watch....the other sad part was all the alzheimer people coming to shop and not knowing what was goin on and greeting us with "its a beatuiful day isnt it"
ignorance truly was bliss i guess...i watched the news when i got home and just sat there emotionally comatose.......this is why i hate religion in general....cuz it brings us so many bloody wars over things we ourselves are not even sure of...i mean ideas are supposed to make us aim higher in ourlives...not tear us apart from each other....for those of you who have lost someone or know of one, my hearts and prayers are with you even though im not much of a praying man....thank you and may the adhesive called time hold you together one day longer... for one smile more can make that day go more quickly into the future....
sincerely,
carl frederich knieriem.................................9/11/2002
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I was out of work at the time, i was in bed with a mile of stubble on my face, i rolled out and flicked my tv on as the news was reporting it, i sat there watching it for a while and then i saw the other plane hit, man what can you say????
all those innocent people, and watching them jump, hand in hand
i felt real sick, nearly as bad as when my father died but slightly different, i was as angry then.
and now they had a tv program the other day and showed all the children whose fathers had died on that day, i mean children who were unborn when it happened,
I mean, theyre gonna have to say one day your daddys dead because a madman flew an airplane into a skyscaper and killed him as well as thouasands of other mummys and daddys.
i think that was a numb day for every civilised person
and I know i'll never feel truly safe from harm for the rest of my life
I always though death on that scale stopped in the great wars
so i was lazing in bed on 11/9/01
but let me just say this,,
I hope i never have a wake up call like that again.
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This is gonna take a minnit, please bear with me.
I woke up as usual that morning, my wife giving me a kiss as she headed off to work. She worked on the 35th floor of the Deusche Bank building...130 Liberty St., directly across the street from the south tower of the World Trade Center. It's easily recognizable now...it's the large black building with the net over it, the largest building left standing, right next to that great gaping pit.
I turned on MSNBC as my usual to watch Imus In The Morning, and started to get my day going. Right about the time she would be getting in to work, they prempted Imus for the news. I was like, "Oh God, what foolishness now", cause they were always prempting Imus for some dumbass speech or something.
They were reporting that a plane had crashed into the north tower and were showing the live video. They were speculating at it being a tragic accident by a private plane or jet and I was thinking "what an idiot", but being the black man that I am I was immediately on the phone to my wife to make sure that she got her ass out of there.
The phones in her building were so screwed up that I either got busy signals, unanswered rings, or on 2 occasions it connected me to other people in the building who had no idea who she was. Her cell phone wasn't working at all. I just chalked it up to alot of people doing what I was doing and overworking the circuits, so I just kept trying. I wasn't really overconcerned with it, cause 1, I figured being the black woman that she was she would have gotten her ass out of there without waiting for me or anybody else to tell her, and 2, it just didn't look all that bad anyway.
As I sat there, watching the live footage on MSNBC and redialing and redialing her number on the phone, a second plane, a big ole fukkin jetliner, crashed into the south tower, the building across the street from hers...and I screamed.
I was now hysterical, dialing and hysterical, and suddenly her line wasn't working at all...just giving a wierd tone that I had never heard before. It was all too clear what was happening now, and I was afraid I was watching her die right there on TV.
I ran into the hallway screaming and crying and my mother ran out from downstairs to see what was happening. She had no idea what was going on, but when I told her she somewhat calmed me down by telling me about a phone call she had just received. It seems that someone had called her but didn't say anything, yet left the line open. In the background she could hear what sounded like a loudspeaker giving building evacuation instructions. We speculated that my wife couldn't get through to me ('cause I was trying to reach her) so she had called my mother's number, but was being evacuated before she had a chance to talk.
Overwrought with worry and grief but no longer hysterical, my mother and I sat down in her livingroom and watched as I continued to call. My niece was calling from her job but I had nothing to tell her. We just sat there, watching in shock and calling.
Then suddenly, completely without warning, there seemed to be a massive explosion as a huge cloud of smoke and dust enveloped first the area and then Manhattan itself. My mother and I screamed, for we knew without a doubt that my wife was somewhere inside of that shit. Then, perhaps the most sickening moment of my life occurred as the cloud slowly dissipated to reveal that the south tower was gone from sight.
Now, both my mother and I were hysterical...me crying and cursing vows of vengance, her crying and praying. My niece called again, took 1 listen of my voice, and said she was coming home and jumped off the phone.
I ran outside for the first time, just hoping and praying for a glimpse of her turning the corner. It looked like we were in the midst of a blizzard, with huge snows of ash pouring down from the sky, and it smelled like the bowels of hell. Most of my neighbors were outside, all of us either crying or with blank looks of shock and bewilderment on our faces. As I was out on the stoop I simultaneously heard a roar and my mother scream anew from inside...the north tower was collapsing.
Soon afterward my niece came running down the street...she had taken off her shoes and ran in her stocking feet the 3 blocks from the subway station...and ran into my arms. That 1 moment was 10 times the reward earned for raising her from 13 years old.
All sorts of thoughts were racing through my mind...the rumours of 4 more hijacked planes still unaccounted for...the very real possibillity of being a widower, and parenting a child just starting college and a special ed child alone...the guilt of not being the person I knew I should have been and perhaps losing the greatest gift that God had ever given me.
The rumour of the plane hitting the pentagon had been confirmed, and we were waiting to hear about the 1 that had hit the supreme court and the 1 that had crashed in Philadelphia. Then, at 11:30, after 3 hours of pure hell, my life started again. My wife called from a payphone in Brooklyn, after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
She had been in the subway station directly under the World Trade Center when the first plane had hit. She said there was fire all in the street and falling from the sky, but for some reason she just figured that she had to get to her office so she could call and let me know she was all right, and then she would come home. She didn't want me to worry... :cuss:
God, I love her.
Damm...I really needed that...thanks Syxx.
EZ
Coz
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My story may not seem as relevant to many in New York and the surrounding area, seeing as how i was 3000 miles away... however, i would like to take a moment to share my memories of that day...
My day started with the phone ringing at 6:45 am. The phone was in the living room, and i didnt really feel like answering it since we had voicemail. I figured my roommate Sunshine (yes that is her birth name) would answer it. It stopped ringing, but then started to ring again...this cycle went on 3 times, and finally Sunshine answered it. I heard her start crying immediately and i figured that someone in her family had an accident or had lost their life from the way she sounded. I got up to go to the living room to make sure that she was ok. The person on the phone was her best friend---the two of them were to leave that day to Las Vegas to celebrate her friend's 21st birthday.
I remember as i went in the kitchen for a glass of orange juice that she said, "We're being attacked"...i was like, huh? What do you mean we are being attacked...then she told me that planes had flown into the WTC and that there were other planes that had been hijacked. I just stood there in the kitchen in disbelief, went back into my room and turned on the tv where i watched the towers burning...
My eyes were glued to the tv...it was horrible but i just stared at my screen trying to make sense of what just happened. I started crying shortly after watching everything unfold...thinking of all the innocent lives that were being endangered and lost...seeing people jump out was very difficult. And just as i was wondering how they were going to put out the blaze...I watched in disbelief as the first tower collapsed. Just crumbled, with dust and debris everywhere. Seeing this i started weeping uncontrollably for people i have never met...then i began to worry of what else might occur elsewhere in the country. I can honestly say that for the first time in my life i didnt feel safe here in my own country...i was genuinely scared...the worst part was that i had to work that day, and after witnessing all of this, the last thing i wanted to do was to wait tables.
Of course i went anyway because i needed to keep things as normal as possible. But it was impossible to not think about it. We have 8 tv's at my work, and of course they all were showing the coverage of the devestation. Normally i am a very smiley, happy person...but i found it very difficult to smile at my customers that day. Everyone was feeling the same way as me i think, because hardly anyone spoke or smiled...the feeling was very somber and heavy...there was an uneasy quiet in the restaurant. I dont know how so many people could go out to eat at Red Robin on this day however...just didnt seem appropriate for some reason...
When i got home i continued to watch the coverage, tried to piece it all together...it was a lot to swallow at one time; for all of us. Thankfully, i personally did not have any relatives or close friends who worked there, but to me, although we might not have known anyone there, we all lost fellow human beings whom did not deserve to die...especially because of a :cuss: terrorist...
God Bless America
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Short story for me...
I was in class...second day of classes I think...happened during my first one (accounting I think), but my second class...waitin for the prof to show, then he walks in the door and says, "we're at war" -- so I got up and left...almost the whole class followed me out.
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i was driving to skool which started at 11:00 so the shit had already happened and i aint know about it, (i don't listen to the radio in the car) i was walking to western civ II n shit was all hectic on campus and i still didn't know what the fuck was goin on till i started talkin to some peeps, n oh shit! i ran to a payphone to call my mom (she works like a block or so away from the wtc) but like coz said aint shit was working, but i only had change enough for one call so i didn't know i coulda made a million calls and it woulda been the same shit, and i jus so happend to forget my cell phone that day (and i've made sure it was the last day i left the house without since) but i can't say i worried much actually, i'm a master of escapism from external situations so i just kinda ignored it, but i did get a phone call when i got home from my sister tellin me she talked to mom n she was ok, so i can't say the day was personally traumatic for me.......as for the days to follow........another story, i think i realized later how worried i shoulda been about her though as she told me about drinkin her coffee and seeing the plane hit out her window and later seeing her whole view blocked as a rush of white cloud ensued when the shit went down, and being rushed to the basement and given paper masks for the soot and her saying fuck this we're all goin to my apartment (she lives in greenwich village, so it was in walkin distance) and being told by cops on the way keep moving don't look back but her being the ummmmm white woman she is looked back as the shit went down again and here came that ensuing white cloud renewed........anyway, it's a good thing i heard all this after the fact, and an even better thing that i was able to hear it from her mouth at all
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i was in class and my teacher started freakin' out. i didn't know what the heck was goin' on. it was scary though cuz he's a goofy, laid-back teacher, so i started gettin' scared.
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I don't think any of us could forget that.
I was at work..medical...on the phone with a Patient when I found out. I thought it was messing with me until word spread like wildfire. Needless to say we had no tv to see this until the Pentagon got hit, as if the replays weren't enough.
Then We got the call.....from the Government...One of our medical assistant's husband was injured. He had been burned 3rd degree. The plane hit not far from his office. He could have got out but he stayed & helped 3 other people out. A year later he is still in his coverings for the skin grafts he had & the therapy he still has to attend.
but.....the main thing....he did survive. Miracles still do happen & I don' think anyone will EVER forget...............
:)
Lisa
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I was still in my training class for the job I'm at now. I was taking a break when I noticed that the TV that is usually on in the lobby had a rather large audience. I stopped and at first, didn't know what I was seeing. I heard people on cell phones. I heard one woman leave crying, and somebody else say in a low tone "she just lost somebody". I was just in a sort of shock. I was scared/sad for the people there, but the real fear didn't come until there were rumors of the major bridges in MY area being shut down.
You see, I work in Jacksonville, which is a huge naval spot. There's a base here and a large percentage of the people who live around here are military.
I live in a suburb of Jacksonville, which means I cross a big bridge every day to get to work. When there was talk of the bridges shutting down, I immediately went to the break room to call Joshua and my mother, to find out if all this was true. My pulse was racing. I think people were theorizing that if an attack struck again, Jacksonville may be another target. Military-wise, I could understand the rationale.
So, I didn't want to be stuck with strange people I didn't love or know well if we were, in fact, about to experience a full fledged war! I seriously thought for a few moments that we all could be dead soon. I was just panicking, I realize that now, but at the time, the state of mind everyone was in was slightly contagious, and I wanted to make sure that if I was gonna die, that I would at least be with Joshua. I didn't want to even THINK about having the stay the night in Jacksonville apart from loved-ones, with no way home. I couldn't bear it. This woman in the break room started ranting to me about Jesus, and the end of the world, and I let her talk (for her own sanity), but I was thinking "shut up!!! I am at peace, I don't need your peace. I just want to go home!!!"
Of course, it wasn't as widespread as I thought it was going to be, and I made it home. I was real nervous about coming to work the next day, though. But I did.
I had 2 girlfriends though, who were home during the summer in Boston, but they go to school in L.A. in the fall-- 2 of the hijacked planes where from Boston to L.A. Luckily, though, they had just gone back to school the previous week. Talk about some fucking luck. I was pretty scared for them.
love
Elizabeth
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My girlfriend and I had decided to take the day off, when we woke up in the morning, so we called in sick not knowing what had happened. When we woke up again around 9:30 that morning, the radio alarm was saying "Again, the two towers of the WTC have collapsed..." What a wake-up call.
Then I remembered that one of my best friends was visiting his sister in Boston and was supposed to be flying in that morining. It was scary for the rest of that day, wondering if we would ever see him again. Luckily, he flew out of another airport a little farther away 'cause it was cheaper. Thank god...
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I was asleep at the moment when it actually happened. I did not find out about it until I woke up later that morning. The first thing I usually do is call my mother at work when I wake up, and when I did, she told me about what had happened. So after we finished talking, I hung up, and immediately turned on CNN. I spent the rest of the day glued to my TV set, unable to believe the whole thing was happening! It just felt so surreal.
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I walked home from school from 68th street and lex all the way to 151st on th west side.I recalled how lucky that it was a uotherwise beautiful sunny warm day,and I was wearing sneakers!
My first and only class of the day Political science was cancelled due to my prof who worked at that university,sorry I forgot the name(I attended a discussion that they held there though,concerning 9/11)He saw the 2 planes with his very eyes.
I remember feeling this eeriness from the silence that overtook the city and the loud low flying airplanes didn't help. and everytime I remember 9/11,I hear LIVE singing "overcome". Then when I got home I watched for about a couple hours them replying the 2 planes going into the building. I stared and wondered why I wasn't touched by all of this? I was a little unnerved but not so much as to be traumatized. Shortly later,like the next week. I found that I was tired of hearing about this and Osama Bin L. And I didn't care. Still don't. I may have lost a classmate as I never saw her again since then(I hope she just took flight and left and is alive out there somewhere)....But I am numb.
I am not trying to be funny and I am glad that no one here was hurt or any of their loved ones. I feel bad that I don't feel anything. But that is how I am in these matters.
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I think after getting over the intial shock of it all was probably the worst for everyone. Plus knowing one of the ladies at work could not get ahold her her husband. That was such a horrible phone call.
Its sad because even people who did make it out made such a drastic change in their lives. The co-workers husband still has to wear compression garments to this day because how bad the burns were. Not to mention his wife eventually having to leave her job because she needed to take care of him.
My prayers definatly go out to all those who lost & expierence 9/11.
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I was in my World Geography class and the teacher in the room next to us told my teacher to turn the tv on and he freaked out and was doing that whole stressed-out-running-hands-through-hair thing
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actually i was watching the normal news program at 10:30 at night here..and i saw the whole thing happen live :sad:
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I was at work the whole morning when someone said the first plane had crashed into the first tower. Then someone said the other tower was hit. Then someone said the pentagon was hit. Then someone said a plane went down 30 miles or so from here! That's when we all went running to a TV set here at work to see what the *&@# was going on! Fun. :sad:
Louis
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I could remember that day. I was asleep trying to wake up but my body was so numb, I couldn't even open my eyes. When I finally managed to get enough strength I set up in my bed and turned on the tv. as I flipped channels, I ended up on FOX News when they had reannounced that the towers had collapsed. I couldn't believe it. I can't even begin to say what I felt when I saw that footage over and over. I turned to CBS news and they replayed the towers being hit and collapsing. My heart went out to everyone who lost their lives and the families an victims who had suffered during this ordeal, and still does. So all of you I say keep your head up, and stay strong.
Peace.
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I can't even pretend to imagine what it was like for those folks actually IN new york when it was going down ...........
but Coz....
What the hell does ... (Edit) eh forget it. Things are too uptight here right now to even go there.
