9/13/2006

Post 9/11/06



I would like to thank my Blogosphriends who heeded my call to share their experiences here regarding where they were and how they felt and what they did on the morning of September 11, 2001. I am not sure that the circular aspect I was trying to create happened, but no matter. The main thing was that we got to think about it together as the five year anniversary approached, arrived and left us. I am going to try to coalesce the comments I received and respond to them here in a new post, rather than in the comment section of the original. I hope that is OK with my fellow bloggers. I will respond as I go along and my responses will be in blue (oh, surprise! surprise! ).

Diane S. said... I sort of collect 9/11 stories...in part I ask, because people almost always want to tell you what that day was like for them. It's like we're all waiting for someone to ask us.

I thought a lot about that statement and I so much agree. I realized that in fact. I had been waiting for someone to ask me.

I've never been as frightened as I was that day. I've never wanted someone to hug me as badly as I did that day. I never wanted my mother as badly as I did that day.

Dave said... I also thought of my dad, who had died at the age of 88 four months earlier. He had been so confused and appalled near the end of his life at so many aspects of the current era; I was grateful he hadn't seen this one. And I thought of my mother, so far gone in her elderly dementia that this day would be just like any other.

mark said...I watched the news all day and called all of my family members. My cousin was actually stuck on 95 when it happened. He was stuck in traffic for hours as they had closed 95 down where the pentagon is.

Behind Blue Eyes said... I remember looking at my daughter and feeling so sad because I knew that the world had irrevocably changed....or maybe not changed but intruded, my son was in contact with people from England and they all e-mailed him expressing their sorrow over what had happened.

Sherril said... I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Do I call my husband? Do I call my kids? My hub's niece from Israel and her boyfiend had been staying with us. They were to take the bus in from NJ and then subways to the WTC. I freaked. I had absolutely no clarity of mind and all I could think was that I had to get home to warn them, hoping and praying that they hadn't left already.


Penny said... We got off on Rt. 46 and called my Mom to pick us up.

Ricardo said... I recalled my grandparents telling me about how a plane hit the Empire State Building in their day.

When tragedy hits, often the first thing many people think of is family, whether because we need them to comfort or rescue us or that we are glad that they are no longer here to have to witness what is happening. Whatever the specifics, family is a common thread.


Maritza said...
with a panoramic view of NYC , we saw it all happen. It was surreal, we saw it and experienced the horror but the windows framed it and the glass kept out the sounds and smells. It was as if we were watching it on TV. I had to watch it on the news later that night to get a real sense of what happened.

Penny said... When we got home and watched the first tower collapse on TV, it was surreal. But it was real, and we all have shed so many tears over this tragedy.

I had said in my post that when I heard the "World Trade Center Was No More", I simply could not get my mind around it, that my imagination was not big enough to take it in; Why? Because it was absolutely surreal.


KA said....The truth is, I'd never even heard of the WTC until Black Tuesday It was mostly numbness. Shock. Tears. Rage. Some religious fervor.


Clay said... I watched it on tv over and over just feeling numb, angry, and sad.......seemingly all at once.
It was one of the worst days of my life.

mark said... 9/11 was definitely a defining moment in the lives of all Americans


Behind Blue Eyes said...I turned on the TV and saw the people jumping out of the windows and saw the people running down the street as the buildings collapsed behind them. Those were the scenes that chilled me the most. I couldn't believe that this was happening here...


Ricardo said... Then the replay of the second plane hitting came on, then a big explosion, a sick feeling in my stomach and wobbling of the knees

We all talked about how it made us feel watching over and over those horrific scenes of the planes crashing into the towers and the billowing clouds of smoke and thrashing flames and then those people jumping from above the flames...nauseated, disbelief, horror, numb...the adjectives are endless. But as deeply as we all feeled, it gave me a moment of pause when I read what
Clay said... It was hard to comprehend what must have been going on inside the minds of the doomed.

The odd things that come to mind:

Diane S. said... I remember thinking the oddest things that day. I remember thinking that I was glad Ronald Reagan was too far gone to know what had happened. Me! A liberal democrat! Worried about Reagan! But it would have killed him to know. Say what you like about Reagan (and I could say plenty), he loved this country.


Dave said... My politics are the opposite of Diane (first post above) and of Sherril, but I thought of Reagan, too, although in the sense of (in my opinion) how smoothly and definitively I thought he would be handling the problem, with thoughts of the fired air traffic controllers and the reciprocal bombing over Libya.

Penny said... I was dressed up in a suit. I still think of it as my 9/11 outfit.

Behind Blue Eyes said... I stayed close to the Radio and remember a reporter saying Fuck on the air


So, I asked the question where were you on the morning of 9/11/01......


Maritza said...
I was at work which is only a 1/2 mile across the Hudson River.
Ricardo said...
I was at work at ESPN and it was like any other day
KA said...
I went to work, was told there was a terrorist attack
Clay said...
9/11 I was actually off work and getting my car serviced
Dave said...
I retired last April, but on 9/11/01 I was still working in my local broadcasting career. I was in the newsroom of a local TV station in Billings, MT,
mark said...
I was at home when it happened because I work the night shift
Behind Blue Eyes said...
I used to work at the Red Cross...National Testing lab ... I worked midnight shift and at 8am..
Diane S. said...
Some time after first hearing the news, I found myself wandering like a lost child in a supermarket
Penny said...
I was on my way into Manhattan on the morning of 9/11/01. I was meeting a sales rep at a client's office
Sherril said...On that Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I left my house for work at about 8:35 AM. on the way to the day care center...

And when all was said and done on this particular post of this particular blog, Maritza kindly said...
Sherrill, Thanks for dedicating your blog to this event these past couple of days. You did so respectfully and with sensitivity

6 comments:

Maritza said...

This is a great wrap up. Everyone's comments are so great. I'm happy that so many people chose to participate and share their thoughts and feelings.

Sherril said...

Yes, Maritza, I was quite satisfied about it too. I love how you change your identity pic so often, BTW.

Unknown said...

You did an outstanding job covering this. I'm glad I shared my story and others did also.

Sherril said...

Thanks Ricardo.

Unknown said...

*%#@^!%#^

I had a pretty extensive reply going and then I mistakenly closed the wrong window. Aaarrrgghh!

Sorry, but this is going to have to be short.

I was just outside of Taipei in an internet cafe with my roommate, Musab. Yes, he's a fundamentalist muslim. He's a Canadian who converted from Christianity. It was night for us when the attacks happened. I had just gone over to see what was on CNN (the only English channel the cafe had) and I saw the first smoking tower.

I apologize for not having as vivid a memory as most seem to, but I do remember thinking, once it was determined that the crashes we're accidents,
"They finally did it." Right or wrong, I was impressed. (I have this innate need to always root for the underdog.)

I certainly didn't spend the rest of the night wondering "WHY?!?"

Wow! Talk about people not paying attention to what their government has been doing for the past half century.

Sherril said...

Robert,
I've missed you here. You know, when it comes down to it, Americans are not used to battling the consequences of our government's actions right here on our front steps. It finally happened and it happened in a gigantic way and it pretty much scared the hell out of most of us.

I hope your personal life settles down enough for you to come back every now and again.