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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| This is a more gentle reminder than usual. Courtesy of The New York Times. Poignant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/opinion/11ruscha.html?th&emc=th |
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October 2007
Posts: 2711
Location: Vernon CT | I Can't believe it's been 7 years allready!?!?
I remember it like Yesterday. Live and worked in the Hartford Ct area and 5 people I worked with or Know were directly Affected. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | We just finished our annual Minute of Silence here.
All phones, radios, faxes, and computers get completely shut-down for a minute.
A bustling facility of 200 people fall eerily . . . “quiet”.
I was rushing to work “late” on that morning, and it was an absolutey stellar, warm, clear sunny Tuesday morning.
The road that I was traveling on skirts along the Jersey-side of the Hudson River directly across from Lower Manhattan.
Since I was concentrating on my driving, I never saw the first plane hit.
I first “wrote-off” the plume of white smoke coming off one of the towers as “steam” from heating or a/c. Until it started to turn black.
I punched the car radio buttons and there was a report of an “explosion” at the WTC.
I flew into our parking lot, and ran in & asked if we’d had any of our people there.
We were producing a function there at the time of the last bombing. Fortunately, this was not the case that day.
One of the salesman came out of his office and said he’d just heard on the radio that it was a plane.
We all ran outside and watched the smoke plume get worse and worse.
Then we saw the second plane.
You know the rest.
The first Sunday of the following October, Jeanette & I worked-up the stomach to venture back into Manhattan.
We took the train into PennStation, and then took the subway to Lower Manhattan.
The train that normally ran to WTC now terminated at Christopher Street, where we got out.
When we climbed the stairs up to the sidewalk and out into the sun (it was another similarly “stellar” day),
we were somewhat “disoriented” as to where we were and the direction that we needed to travel.
This was “Old Manhattan”, and didn’t follow the North/South/East/West numerical “grid” like the rest of the Island.
By “instinct”, I did what I normally did. I walked out to the street corner and it was then that cold, harsh, “reality” set-in.
The “Magnetic South” that I had unconsciously RELIED upon for “navigation” for YEARS, the two monoliths that were visible from
pretty much ANYwhere in Manhattan, were “gone”. A constant piece of your perceived “normalcy” . . . had vanished.
As a “Tribute”, we still maintain the large, flat drawer of the floorplans & drawings of the WorldTradeCenter.
Thanks for posting this, Schroed. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | 
I took this photo exactly 60 days after 9/11/01. I was as close as one could get. |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | When I got to work the next day, the phones were out. But the state had an independant internet connection (which was later commendeered by the Feds) and I wrote the following letter. Subsequently, we found out that our friends had shown up for work late, and witnessed people jumping out to their deaths, right in front of them. They of course knew people who died. I could write more but it makes me sad. Here's what I wrote:
Before I started work, I wanted to let our friends and family outside of New York know that Sang Lee and I are fine. I wanted to tell you a little about what happened yesterday. Before my calendar started, I heard the news about the World Trade Center and I went over to the Brooklyn promenade to look at the scene across the river. Around 9:10. I saw the two wtc towers billowing smoke and flames. The plume of smoke was so big you could probably see it from outerspace. When I saw that both towers were smoking I realized it had to be terrorists. I went back to work. Shortly thereafter, the governor declared an emergency and sent us home. So I got out of my calendar for the day. On the way home I could see thousands of people streaming across the Brooklyn bridge and leaving Manhattan. I overheard them tell of the things they saw, which I'm sure you are aware of by now. There was no traffic going into the City, just leaving. The subway was shut down. The airports across the US were shut down. Ambulances and emergency personnel were going all over the place. When I got home, Sang Lee and I went for a walk down to the Brooklyn Bridge landing (under the Brooklyn Bridge). When we got there, the two world trade center tower buildings had collapsed. We thought of our friends who worked downtown and wondered. All of sudden boats from Manhattan started to show up at the landing. I and others helped the evacuees off the boats. It was like something from Dunkirk. You could see thousands of people going across the Manhattan Bridge, like it was the partitioning of India. People who were in the debris area were covered with soot. They had no thought of going home, just getting out of the city. F-15 fighters zoomed overhead. After awhile we went home. We were thankful, that my office moved out of Manhattan. I don't really know what else to say. Despite what happened, everyone behaved in a civilized manner helping each other. From what we saw, there was no panic. People were dignified.
Today, I'm back at work.
As far as it can be, things return to normal.
Once again I want to reiterate, that we are fine. There's nothing to worry about.
You are in our thoughts
Love |
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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| I also remember it like it was yesterday. We were remodeling a home in North Carolina. I told the carpenters what I had just heard on the radio. They just laughed at me...didn't believe it at first. Still incredible that the Twin Towers structual steel could free-fall 10 stories per second, from a jet-fuel fire.. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | 
... emotions won't allow me to say anymore... |
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September 2005
Posts: 3619
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | My son was in the pentagon when it was struck. We were not able to hear from him all day, but later heard that he was ok. He was one who helped others get out of the building. Since I'm the City Superintendent here, I am able to do what ever I want to bring remembrance of the incident and all those who lost their lives. This year I broadcast over the city radio the facts about the attacks and lives lost, then I sounded the city emergency warning siren for 1 minute. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Maybe I have told some folks this, maybe not. But as people seem to be sharing...
At the time, I had an office in the Pentagon.
I was actually on a business trip here in Washington that day teaching the folks at Fort Lewis how to use the software my company developed for the Army. I was the project manager, but in incognito as a training facilitator to get closer to the troops opinions of the software and input on what they really needed.
Anyway, I was still asleep at the hotel having fallen asleep with the TV on, I heard this horrific movie in the background as I was waking near morning. At about the same time the phone rang, and it was Lisa asking if I had been up yet and seen the TV. I mentioned the crazy movie, she told me it was live.
Well wide awake I was... I watched a little, and when they showed the plane (or what was left afterward actually) of the plane hitting the Pentagon I instantly recognized that's where our office was.
We had an ex-Marine working for us at the time and although he "should" have been in that office running the morning server logs, he was in his other office (remember there was construction in that wing already) on the phone with his wife or surfing porn or whatever when the plane hit. I found this out much later. I also found out, that once they realized what happened, he was responsible for getting many people out of the building. Apparently the "guards" (rent-a-cops) were directing people to the courtyard and not letting people through the halls that were blocked with tape for the construction. He was a smart Marine that knew which way OUT was, and pretty much mowed down the "guards" and took at least 100 people to safety outside and away from what in his mind, and rightly so was... "the target zone."
I found out the above much later. The reality was that I had no communication with anyone from my office until that evening. We lost no one directly, just by sheer miracle. People were either late, out for coffee, at meetings, moving their office.. they weren't where they would normally have been, and that was a good thing.
I was stranded on the left coast, and feeling rather useless. After a couple of days, and realizing everyone I knew was ok... If it wasn't quite over yet, I decided at least I'd get a front row seat for what was to come, and headed north to Mount Baker and spent a day up there.
It is no coincidence that 4 months later I retired. When I came back from my trip, I made a few decisions. One was that no amount of money compensated for that much stress. My "average" 1 hour commute each way had turned into a 1.5 to 2 hour "minimum" commute each way as no one was "carpooling" anymore. If the world was going to end, I wanted to be in the Pacific Northwest when it happened, just because it's so nice here.
... I really can't continue this without violating the guidelines of the site .. |
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September 2005
Posts: 3619
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | Here's a picture from today's paper ...
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | very tragic day in many respects. other than that, i'm with miles: "... I really can't continue this without violating the guidelines of the site..." |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | This is one of those issues where emotions often turn to politics, so be careful everyone. At the time I was pretty active on another site that was supposed to be about cars, but everyone started talking about the bombings, obviously. When I suggested we should find out who did it before we started nuking people, someone accused me of being Osama Bin Laden. Haven't been back since. We have to keep it so the worst we do is Taylor bashing. I'll put up with a little lawyer-bashing, too, if I have to. |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I'll make this short and sweet. One year later I was traveling. I was killing time in the airport and read through the NY Times with their one year after coverage. One particular story hit me hard ... it was about the memorial gathering at ground zero, and they interviewed one young man who lost his new bride. I took artistic license and wrote a song. I think it sucks, but my one and truest fan loves it so I posted it up on the ning site and will leave it there for a couple of days for those who may want to listen. It is called "And I Turn". It was the human factor and personal tragedies that affected me the most so that's what you get. Bobbo\'s OFC/ning page |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | bobbo ~ great tune, actually. you've got a very natural and easy to listen to vocal style. you should pursue a musical path and i think you could easily make a very decent living doing so. just gotta get connected in the right place, right time.
promote yourself beyond the OFC walls as much as possible. i'm a fan. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | Great tune Bobbo. I'll give you a call in a little bit.
I just remember feeling stunned that day as I just sat and watched the news. It was so far away yet so close. First they said that up to 12,000 people had died and then the number kept coming down. And it was always still too high.
I don't need to talk politics to know that it was a huge tragedy..... |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Another one of those days that everyone remembers Exactly where they were when the heard about it,
Or watched it Live. I seem to have too many of those kinda days in my memory.
Good Song Bobbo. |
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November 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | As I was driving to work, between the time of the 2 impacts, listening to NPR live reports, I recalled Admiral Yamamoto's words, "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant."
The world, and my consciousness, changed a lot in the next 24 hours. |
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August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | I was with my wife and her family on holiday in Ireland. We were driving up from Waterford to Dublin and had stopped at the village of "Ballikissangle" (near The Vale of Avoca) for photos and heard the radio report coming from a small trinket shop.... felt like we got hit in the gut. We jumped back in the van and drove straight to Dublin...we still had 2-weeks left to tour Scotland and England and had no idea when/if we could get back home....
One thing I'll always remember about that trip was that whenever the locals heard our American accents, they expressed their sorrow and showed great compassion and concern for us... very touching. |
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October 2007
Posts: 283
Location: Portland, OR | I got into downtown Portland pretty much oblivious to what was going on. Had a deposition that I was immersed in preparing for. The parking lot was like a scene from On the Beach as were the streets. No depos of course.
Nothing political comes to mind. Just sadness.
OMG, Avoca. I think there's a woolen mill there. What a place! Isn't that on a river? God I love that country. |
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August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | ...yup, it's a gorgeous area:
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January 2002
Posts: 386
Location: nyc area | Bobbo... A very beautiful tribute.. I'm deeply touched.. I was sleeping after a late gig when my phone started ringing off the hook...I turned on the radio and the tv....the thing I remember most was the smell... even after they re-opened downtown to canal street... in the subways, on the street... when the wind would shift just right there was a horrible smell of burned materiel, chemicals and... something else... you know how you can sense when someone is angry with you? the hundreds of thousands of people who loved those we lost in the towers was a overwhelming wave of grief that anyone could feel, and sent many of us into deep depression... I knew our world had changed forever that morning... |
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March 2007
Posts: 698
Location: Cork, Ireland | Haven't heard as single mention of it here this year, in the media or elsewhere. Which was surprising given the huge Irish community in NYC/the US in general, and the many stories with Irish links which came out at the time. |
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May 2005
Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | I recently learned that the younger sister of a girl I dated back in high school worked at the Pentagon. She and her husband had a per-arranged plan that if anything ever happend, they would meet at a certain location. After the 9/11 attack, he showed up.
She didn't. |
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Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Bobbo - that's a very poignant song. I like it alot. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Tim - we went to Avoca as well... truly a beautiful place! I have so many great memories of Ireland. |
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July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | touching |
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nine-eleven