I will never forget.

[Joe Gress]

I had to drive my daughter that night about a half an hour away to visit her mother and I remember the drive was surreal. There was almost no traffic on the roads and the afternoon sky was perfectly blue. This was odd because we live just west of Chicago and the sky is always filled with dozens of jets and other aircraft and contrails are always present along with the airplane noise. I remember I stopped my car by the side of the road and stared at the sky for about 5 minutes and there was no sound from airplanes or cars the entire time.

I remember that night being really quiet as well.

 

[Chriss62]

I remember being in my calculus class senior year of high school. It was an early morning study session, and my friend Gus came into our class and told us to turn on the tv, a plane just hit the twin towers. Our teachers daughter had spontaneously flown in from NY the night before. I can still see her just pouring tears and excusing herself to go make phone calls (I assume). Watched on various school tv's through out the day.

8 years. It's still so sad. Whatever way you look at it. From the eyes of the most decorated officer to the most tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut. Just so sad.

Thanks for listening.

 

[hbarcat]

A long time close personal friend of mine had his marriage planned for Saturday, September 15th (September 11th was a Tuesday). The couple's relatives were supposed to start flying in for the wedding from all over the country on Thursday and Friday but with all air traffic grounded they would have to drive.

They considered postponing the wedding but it would have been too impractical and costly (many thousands of dollars in deposits forfeited) so they decided to go ahead on schedule. Many of the relatives simply couldn't make the trip by car as they lived on the west coast and the wedding was in Chicago.

The wedding had an overall pall over it and there was barely a conversation that didn't include something about the attacks. I gave a speech to the couple and included a bit about missing the people who couldn't be there for this happy occasion and this set off some crying among the guests. Then I broke up myself and couldn't even continue with what I had written.

Weddings always contain happy tears but there was none of that at any time of the wedding or the reception. There were very few smiles and most of these were forced. The band music went virtually ignored by the guests and very few people bothered to get up and dance at all. The ones who did didn't seem to be enjoying themselves.

 

[Disraeli Gears]

I've never been particularly affected by the events until today. I mean, I had associations with it in the past (political ones that I won't bring up here), but I guess when it happened I was too young to realize the magnitude of the attack itself (I was 10). Today's the first time I've really seen and comprehended the footage. I guess what really got to me was the people jumping out of the buildings to avoid burning or suffocating to death...

 

[M@ddest_H@tter!]

I was setting trusses on a log cabin....the crane driver stopped and got out shaking his head.....then we took the rest of the day off.

 

[scottice]

I was working freelance (graphic design) from home during that time and I was actually up early and remember turning on the TV just after the first plane hit. There I was in my tighty-whities slurping down some Captain Crunch transfixed to the tube. Was this actually happening? I caught the second plane live and almost spit milk on the hardwoods. *** was going on? My roommate and I were just dumbfounded and numb. Time seemed to almost stand still as more information trickled in. It was a very long day.

I had a business meeting north in Seattle the next evening and listened to talk radio the entire trip up the I-5. My father made the trip with me and we shared more conversation and tears that day then all the years prior. The dinner meeting that evening was very sombre.

 

[jrthebassguy]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in 9th grade History class when it all happened.

The scary part for me was my father was on a business trip that week in New Jersey, and him and some co-workers were planning on heading into New York on their day off, and the WTC was on their list of possible destinations to check out. They didn't plan on going in that particular day anyway, but it was scary nonetheless. One of those "if it only happened two days later, my dad could have been caught up with that" kind of deal.

A few days later when the trip was over, his connecting flight from Atlanta to Houston was delayed because there were so few flights leaving at this time (for obvious reasons), leaving my dad stranded in the Atlanta for well over 24 hours. Our own John Turner actually offered to pick him up/hang out with him just so he wouldn't be sitting in an airport that long by himself, and while that didn't end up happening (he finally caught a flight), that was very cool of him to offer.

 

[tomshepp]

I have a long commute to work. I listened to a CD on the way, and by the time I got there, all planes had hit. My cell phone rang and I talked with my wife who cried and told me as the first tower collapsed.

I wandered around work for about five minutes, told a few people who still hadn't heard and then, felt an overwhelming need to go home and hug my wife and kids.

I remember feeling like it was the beginning of the end..... at least of the world as I knew it. I wondered if I should join the service and thought of revenge, or protecting my family...... my country.

I have a nephew who will be deployed to Afghanistan in a few months. I think we all owe much to those who serve to keep our country safe.

I don't often agree with how our government goes about "Homeland Security" but this is not the forum for that conversation.

We in the USA, live in a country that for better or worse, is founded upon principles of freedom, liberty and the right to go for the American dream. We should cherish that. We should not take it for granted. MHO

There are those who wish they could take that away. There are those who feel they are justified in their feelings and actions. Study history and make up your own mind. As a citizen of this country, I feel that anyone who falls in this category, is my enemy.

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

Also; you guys don't understand that these people ****ing CELEBRATED the fact that they destroyed they killed thousands.

Here's a news broadcast. Now they're innocent.

I'm not fan of war; but I think some things were needed.

These people? None of the 9/11 hijackers were Palestinian...

I earnestly think you, and a couple other more recent posters in this thread, should re-evaluate the facts, before continuing to disgrace this remembrance with fractured, fragmented, and most importantly unnecessary and inappropriate political commentary.


Back to the point:

I remember exactly where I was, and what was happening in my life at the time. I certainly won't forget the grief that many of my classmates, friends, and neighbors were feeling.

I also remember it as an irreversible transition period in this country, one that was highlighted by an awful lot of misdirected anger towards unaffiliated Muslims, as well as other decisions, actions and statements from many Americans that perhaps did not reflect on us as a nation as well as we might have wished. If nothing else, 9/11 certainly raised our country's xenophobia to a new height.

Lastly, and most strongly, what I remember most was how macabre the news stations were--rebroadcasting the footage almost on a non-stop loop days, even weeks after the attacks had taken place.

 

[john turner]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in 9th grade History class when it all happened.

The scary part for me was my father was on a business trip that week in New Jersey, and him and some co-workers were planning on heading into New York on their day off, and the WTC was on their list of possible destinations to check out. They didn't plan on going in that particular day anyway, but it was scary nonetheless. One of those "if it only happened two days later, my dad could have been caught up with that" kind of deal.

A few days later when the trip was over, his connecting flight from Atlanta to Houston was delayed because there were so few flights leaving at this time (for obvious reasons), leaving my dad stranded in the Atlanta for well over 24 hours. Our own John Turner actually offered to pick him up/hang out with him just so he wouldn't be sitting in an airport that long by himself, and while that didn't end up happening (he finally caught a flight), that was very cool of him to offer.

heh heh. i vaguely remember that. he would have come home a bass player if he had, i can guarantee it

 

[von buck]

I also will never forget, nor forgive.

In related story and to lighten things up a bit. a pianist I use to gig with was in bed all bad nursing a hangover. He got up late in the afternoon and half asleep still turned on tv.
For the first half hour he was convinced he was watching a bad tv show (no cable, one channel) until his wife got home.

Andy

 

[WookieeForLife]

I remember it like yesterday. My second grade self thought YAY! school ends early. But why? I asked all the teachers and they all said it was for us to have a half day. I had no idea of what happened till I was on the bus and the fifth grader who sat with me came on the bus and told me that the towers were attacked. Little by little through my own research in year after this I found out what happened exactly. It wasn't until yesterday that I relized this wasn't just a number dead. It was newly weds, honey mooners, and people traveling to visit their family. Then in American Goverment class oour teach read us some of the 911 calls. That really brought it home to me.



EDIT: Call me crazy, but that morning it was a rainy day at the bus stop and I thought,"Something bad is going to happen."

 

[tycobb73]

A family friend worked on the island at the time and saw them fall. I can't imagine.

 

[Eric Perry]

...one that was highlighted by an awful lot of misdirected anger towards unaffiliated Muslims...

Certainly not on the same level, but just as ignorant as the people that went on a stingray killing spree after Steve Irwin was killed.

 

[Thor]

On the CD player:

A little Jamerson. Four Tops. Baby I Need Your Loving.


The tears flow without abandon.




I am not ashamed.

 

[KrisH]

I'd opened the farm market early that day and was enjoying the intense blue, cloudless sky, the perfect fall temperature, the birds singing that morning. On line on a computer at the counter, someone posted "Oh my god, a small plane just crashed into the WTC!" I turned on the radio news channel, and our employee arrived, and we started talking about the accident. Shortly thereafter the second plane hit. Incredulity turned to concern, and we decided it wasn't just an accident, but hoped it was. Then news came that the Penatgon had been hit. That was it. I felt the chill of my blood running cold, and knew that the world had changed. We watched the broadcasts around the clock for the next couple days, and marveled at the skies free of any air traffic (seeing as we were located under the flight path of PHL).

That Friday (my 45th birthday) we drove from south NJ to NW Pa to visit family. We spun past Manhattan to pick up a friend who was going to ride back with us, but she decided to stay with her terminally ill sister, who had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. No wonder why. I remember driving west along I-80 and seeing 3 Warthogs flying a couple hundred feet from the ground, pacing us. Spooky.

I also remember it as an irreversible transition period in this country, one that was highlighted by an awful lot of misdirected anger towards unaffiliated Muslims, as well as other decisions, actions and statements from many Americans that perhaps did not reflect on us as a nation as well as we might have wished. If nothing else, 9/11 certainly raised our country's xenophobia to a new height.

For months afterwards, it became virtually impossible to buy a hot dog from a vendor in the city, because all the carts run by middle-eastern people disappeared. The Indian restaurants had signs in the window declaring "We are American! We are Hindu, not Muslim".

I was amazed to hear the US national anthem played in Red Square -- in honor of the tragedy that had befallen the American people, not some visiting dignitary. The outpouring of good will from nations around the world seemed at a fever pitch. Oh how I hoped for the best of humanity to step forward and deliver! But, as a nation, we took a different fork in that road, and that's all I have to say.

 

[bassrique]

For months afterwards, it became virtually impossible to buy a hot dog from a vendor in the city, because all the carts run by middle-eastern people disappeared. The Indian restaurants had signs in the window declaring "We are American! We are Hindu, not Muslim".

Yeah, don't call a Sikh a Muslim [not that you did]. They got a raw deal too. Lots of Sikhs in NYC. Can't judge a book by it's headdress.

 

[JimB52]

September 11, 2001 was my oldest son's 10th birthday. I wish that was the only noteworthy event of the day.

I was working in Manhattan during the first attack on the WTC, in February 1993. I remember all the TV stations going off the air simultaneously because they all transmitted from the towers. My wife used to work on the 81st floor of the North Tower. We still had friends working there in 2001. One had left the building to get a Starbucks coffee across the street. He was returning when the first plane hit.

I was working at night on September 10, and woke up around 10am on the 11th, and turned on the TV to see what the weather would be like that day. It looked like a beautiful fall day. In my groggy state, I had a hard time making sense of the images on TV, and thought I was perhaps watching a movie instead of the news. As I watched, the second plane hit, and I knew no matter how bizzare, what I was seeing was real. I got up and went to find my wife, who was at a friend's house. We spent the day in shock, then tried to prepare for my son's 10th birthday party. Not the best day to turn 10. I remember a few days later he couldn't sleep and I asked him what was wrong. He said he was afraid there was a terrorist hiding in his closet. I didn't know how to deal with that. It's easy to say monsters aren't real, that there's nothing to be afraid of. Not so easy with human monsters.

 

[lunarpollen]

A couple of things regarding perspective I've noticed over the years that many people don't understand--

(a) If you're not from NY or you've never been to NYC, or to any places that have buildings that size, you really don't realize the physical scale of the towers' destruction. Like here in Sacramento, for instance, the tallest building isn't even 1/4 the height of the former WTC towers. If you are from the NYC area (like I am originally) and are used to the size of the skyline there, you sort of cultivate a sense of how much longer you have to go when driving to NYC by how big the skyline is. For my first several years in the Sacramento area, I would still get thrown off by this, I would be driving back home to the city and would see the skyline and would think "oh I have about a half hour to go", but then 5 to 10 minutes later I was in the city. It took getting used to. I'm just used to taller buildings. So when I saw the towers collapse on TV that morning, I just kept thinking how stunningly surreal and awe-inspiring it was that those towers were just obliterated like that. Just stunned by the scale of it, having driven near and past those towers so many times in years past. It was hard to wrap my head around the image.

(b) Most people have only witnessed airliners at that height going a LOT slower than they were going when they hit the towers. The speed we are accustomed to seeing low-flying airliners fly at (during take-offs and landing approaches) is maybe around 150 mph. Many people wonder how planes lumbering lazily into buildings could cause so much damage. But the speed at which the planes hit the towers was around 500-600 mph. So next time you see a plane coming in for a landing, imagine it going four times that speed. Scary.

 

[Nino Valenti]

Lets just say I have VERY vivid memories of what transpired that day. Unless a person was here, I don't think they could truly understand. I was able to smell burning smoke weeks after it happened. Fighter jets woke me up in the middle of the night flying over my house (I didn't know if we were getting hit again or not those things are so loud) Not being able to contact family or friends was horrific. It was complete chaos. Nobody knew what was going on let alone what to do. I knew a couple of people who perished that day and I will always remember THEM. Don't get me wrong if people want to memorialize that day and it helps them grieve so be it. I don't need to open up old wounds and relive that day on a yearly basis. Just my opinion.

I too have very vivid memories.... I also live in NYC.... My wife works in NYC and when she finally got home it was, words can't describe how I felt...

If we forget, we get back in to living life without a care in the world. Remember so we will never be as unprepared as we once were.

Please don't take this as me being mean towards you. I totally respect your opinion and we all deal with things differently.