Sunday, September 11, 2011

Open Blog - 9/11/2011


We remember.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thing I remember most about that day and the days following was this: I live close to Mitchell Airport. At any hour of the day I can hear or see planes take off and land. I remember looking up at the beautiful clear blue sky, and I did not see or hear not one airplane for about 4 days. That in itself was chilling.

September 11, 2011 at 12:47 AM
kkdither said...

I remember looking up to the skies at the emptiness and feeling that silence and chill of attack, as well. For some reason, I remember weathermen talking about the affect contrails have on climate.

Mostly, I remember sitting alone in my classroom, when I first heard of it on streaming internet radio. It was a rock and roll channel out of Chicago and I believe my first thought was that it was a very bad joke and in poor taste. As it continued, I went and found a television and saw the second building being attacked. My mind raced as to how much more was in store.

I remember the confusion, the inner fear...trying to stay calm. I remember trying to downplay the potential danger to students who were very fearful. Personally, I just wanted to get in the car and retrieve my own children, but I knew I had a huge responsibility to care for every other parent's child.

Point of perspective: entering high school students were 3-4 years old when it happened. Almost all of them have no personal memeories of it. Most were shielded from the gruesome news by their parents.

September 11, 2011 at 8:01 AM
Tender Heart Bear said...

When it happened I was out paying bills and I heard about it on the radio. I had my older daughter with me then and she was two years old. My son was in school he was in kindergarten.

When I heard this I started to cry. When I got home and put the t.v. on I started to cry all over again and then I called my mom to tell her about it and she told me no way. I said put your t.v. on and look. She did and she could not believe it. We cried together on the phone.

With my kids growing up they did know what happened that day. I was the one to let them know. That is one thing with me I do know hide anything or lie to my kids. They will always know the truth about things. I wanted them to know exactly what happened that day.

September 11, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Huck Finn said...

I remember an argument in a new class with a domineering professor. I had a very full day with running the HUGE campus to get to my classes. At no time had my other professors even mentioned the WTC. That morning as I was finishing getting ready for my first class, I saw the news of the first plane strike. The news claimed it was a small plane. I had to leave to run to the first class before the second strike, and never heard that the towers had fallen.

With no lunch in my belly I got to his class where he asked opinions on the falling of the WTCs. I remember blurting out, "What? Both towers? But the TV had said one strike by a small plane!" I was so uninformed. As class progressed and I learned of what no other Professor had talked about, I knew we were at war. When this professor (we never got along from that day forward) made the statement that it was a "criminal act, not a war act." I'm a bit outspoken..... I asked what had he been eating the last several years? WE might not be at war, but THEY were. Until we realized we were at war and took the correct course of action, we could expect more of these Terror atrocities. He was PISSED. I don't think he had ever had a student argue with him.

Six months later he talked about how we were at war as if he had never asserted the WTC was a criminal act. By that time I had learned to keep my mouth shut around him for the most part. We did lock horns several times over the course of my degree though.

September 11, 2011 at 11:20 AM
OKIE said...

One of the things that struck me most was the fighter jets in the sky. I see them all the time as we have Tinker AFB as well as Vance AFB just north of here. But that day I knew it was different. They weren't training, they were guarding our skies.
My husband happened to be near the airport. He called and said he had never seen so many planes landing, just one after another.
I decided to run errands and that was a mistake. People in long lines at gas stations (never understood that) as well as $5 a gallon gas. A person laying on their horn at me and pounding on the steering wheel because I had the nerve to stop and let someone turn left to get to the grocery store. It's not like we were going anywhere. It truly shocked me.
And memories from the bombing came back, especially that night. Watching the coverage on tv and deciding I needed a break from it and turning on something like Nick at Nite. Then, feeling guilty because I might miss someone being rescued.
Even today though I promised myself not to watch as I had seen it before, there I was balling on the couch, watching the coverage.
So many emotions.

September 11, 2011 at 12:36 PM
OrbsCorbs said...

Another day etched into memory, like the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, like the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. Too many days like that.

I was in Chicago. A friend and I were going to visit the Museum of Natural History. He was driving and we didn't have the radio on. As we went along Lake Shore Drive, I noticed cops everywhere. When we arrived at the museum, a cop waved us off and said the WTC had been bombed. He said the Loop was being evacuated. We drove west through the Loop. Thousands of people were on the streets, leaving. Eeriest thing I ever saw.

I didn't get to see TV coverage of it until that evening. I watched it over and over until I couldn't take it anymore.

September 11, 2011 at 6:42 PM
drewzepmeister said...

This what I wrote on my blog about it...

I was at work when this all happened.....

Somebody at work had called in sick, so had to work on another press than I normally do. The day itself seemed to peaceful and calm. Nothing would prepare me for what was to come.

I was in the scheduling office picking up paperwork shortly after the first plane hit. The radio in the office been blaring news. My first impression was an aircraft controller had somehow had messed up and directed the plane at lower altitude causing the crash. Never in my mind was this an attack of terrorism until I was getting ready to walk out of the office when the second plane hit.

I remember the feeling of dread afterwards. News and rumors spread like wildfire across the plant. We had limited access to the outside world. By lunchtime television sets were set up in the conference room across the hall from the break room. These were the first images of terror at the World Trade Center I saw. I was horrified...

I remember the fear growing inside of me as the day went on. Little did I know what was really going outside the concrete walls of the building I was working in. Was a there a full scale war going on? Will I be gunned down as I walk out of the building? Maybe my imagination was running wild with me...

It wasn't until I got home I that realized the full scale of what happened. The repeated images on the TV told me everything. By then, the Pentagon had been hit. Flight 93 had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The towers had collapsed-killing thousands of civilians, firefighters and police alike. I was mortified...

September 11, 2011 at 8:26 PM
SER said...

Last night I had a moment where I was thinking, “10 years tomorrow” will anything happen”? Weird ass feeling, I didn’t like it!

I keep getting this thought in my head, “its not if, it’s when it will happen again”!

I was in London, came home and the following week they bombed the subways, that gave me the willies.

September 11, 2011 at 10:47 PM
Toad said...

I remember someone at work telling me a plane struck the Trade Center, but thinking of something like a small private plane. When I got back In my office I signed on to Yahoo, and saw a 2nd plane had struck, and It appeared to be an act of terror. I will never like the man, but I think my immediate reaction was very similar to what George W. Bush had. I was completely LOST. Of course this was followed by the Pentagon, and PA, so when noon arrived I went to the Catholic Church (not a familiar place) walked In, and was the ONLY person In the building. I said a prayer for the lost people, and went to the Harmony Bar (burned down 2007) and had two medicinal glasses of Vodka, and went back to work. Horrible day.

September 11, 2011 at 11:28 PM

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