9/11/2001 Where were you?

[redtailgal]

x

 

[Ms. Research]

I was home with Henry. DH was at work and so was MIL who we cared for. Had no TV or radio on. Henry was watching his favorite tape of Bob the Builder for the Bazillionth time. Beautiful day to get the wash done, but had a few errands to run. Didn't have a clue until I walked into a convenience store to find the clerk mesmerized by a small TV he was watching. I have never felt that afraid before in my life. Went straight home, and called DH. And turned on the TV and watched in horror. Not realizing until later, as I watched Henry play with his toys did I realize that he was really watching what was going on. Henry took two of his tractor trailers and stood them on end. Then taking his toy jet rammed them to make them fall. I had to tell him something. I had to explain to my 5 year old what he actually saw. Henry was big in construction. Loved anything trucks. I took him to the computer and put his Tonka game on. On this game, he can play "Demolition". I set it up, and we listened to the count down and watched the building fall. I looked and Henry and explained. Bad people brought down buildings in New York and Washington DC. WITHOUT the countdown for people to get out safe. I told him how courageous people fought the bad guys to stop the plane in PA. I told him it didn't matter what color, religion, sex, etc. they were, doing something this horrible was truly bad.

Thanks Redtailgal for sharing your experience. We forget those who feel guilty for the loved ones who just missed this destruction. To those I wish peace. It's not bad to feel guilty because your loved ones are still here. Like I told Henry. It's bad to FORGET what really happened. And there lies the guilt if you try to forget.

 

[currycomb]

i was at the chiropractor. sitting alone in the waiting room, turned the tv on, and watched as the second plane hit. i thought what a sorry twisted movie that was, only to realize it was actually happening in real life. i cried. i thought, so glad my parents weren't here to see this happening to their country. (dad passed in'95 and mom in 2000)dad would have been so mad(he spent 25 yrs in the airforce) mom so sad because her parents had left germany between the wars, because they did not like or approve of what was happening in the "homeland". i prayed. and i still do, for all the lives that were lost, and wonder why we have wars, just because we beleive in GOD one way, and they beleive in GOD another way. we all beleive in the same thing, we should be united, not fighting.
this has not affected me directly, i did not lose anyone, but indirectly, we have all been affected, and hope and pray it does not happen again. this is why our forces are fighting in a war we don't agree we should fight, but we must stand behind them and support them. they are fighting so this does not happen on our soil again.

 

[redtailgal]

x

 

[elevan]

I was at home. I wasn't feeling well that morning and decided to sleep in. DH was at work. My Dad called me and told me to turn on the t.v. - that I needed to see what was happening...that was about the time the second tower had been hit. I watched in horror not really believing what I was seeing...I just couldn't believe that it was real. When the towers fell one after the other I felt physically sick and just started to cry. I called DH - I needed to hear his voice. I didn't have family or friends or even know anyone that was there but my heart was with every single one of those that were affected.

 

[secuono]

7th grade history class. I knew something was off when at lunch[I had the early schedule] there were slightly less people, not as loud, teachers were just a bit off and more insistent on straight to the cafeteria and back to class.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Thanks Redtailgal, for starting this thread. And might I say, WOW! I had a hard time reading that, and I'm sure it was 20 times harder for you to write. I had only read part way through before I restarted, reading your family's story to my mom. Praise God for your BIL not getting his hair cut when he "should have"!

Me? I woke up at home to my mom telling me that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. My brain was a little fuzzy at first, and I was saddened for lives inevitably lost, but thought like most people at first, that it had been a cesna or some equally small plane... since it had happened a couple times already that year(small planes crashing into skyscrapers). Then, while sipping my wake up the brain coffee and watching it all unfold on FOXNews Channel, I remember seeing the LIVE helicopter video as they circled the towers, and seeing that slight shimmer off the second plane in the distance, and then the explosion as it hit the second tower... My heart sank into my stomach. I remember hearing the wave of shocked voices echo through the news station... it was almost eerier to me(I was 17 at the time) than what I was watching happen. My Mom was on the phone with my sister who lives in KS... she was crying, asking our mom if the people she was hanging out with were just playing a cruel joke on her. I remember watching and hoping that emergency crews would be able to evacuate everyone and that fires could get under control quickly... and then the omg's from the station crew members as they announced that another plane had hit the Pentagon.... Honestly, I had never been so terrified in my life. As each moment passed, I wanted to believe that I was having some insanely disturbingly realistic nightmare and that I would snap awake and everything would be fine when I woke up... but I knew, thanks to that sickening twinging between my heart and stomach, that it was no nightmare. The most surreal part was after the second tower fell... seeing the people walk out of the dust cloud and the streets surrounding them covered in about 3 inches of dust. I remember feeling halfway sickened by my thought following the crash in PA... I thought, "Thank God." That one thought tore at me... I was torn between incredible sorrow, and thankfulness that that plane never made it to its feared destination of the White House.
I don't recall exactly how much sleep I got that night... or should I say how little... I know it wasn't much, becasue I was awake before the sun rose the next day. The image most in my memory from September 12, 2001... is a reflection on an iconic day in our nation's history... the day that our nations anthem was written. People woke up to a bright and beautiful American flag hanging from the twisted metal of what used to be one of the twin towers. And there the words were, as much alive in all our hearts as they were when they were first penned by attorney Francis Scott Key in 1814:
"Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

For a while anyways, we were the UNITED States of America. There was no, Mexican, Irish, French, Jewwish, atheist, etc... we were all simply and strongly: Americans. Politicians left politics in the rubble and became statesmen of old. Though the world thought we were defeated, America was standing stronger than we had in many years.

God bless America! & love to you all.

 

[redtailgal]

c