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phoggie

Lest we never forget..

phoggie
8 years ago

14 years ago tonight most of us went to bed as usual, but when we woke up, our lives were forever changed! Our freedom had been attacked and so many lives had been lost.....let us never take the freedoms we have here in the USA for granted.

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the dreadful news?

I had just gotten home from the hospital the night before after having neck surgery and my husband came running into the bedroom and told me to turn on the TV just as the second building was hit.

Comments (31)

  • ravencajun Zone 8b TX
    8 years ago

    I was at home, my best friend called me to turn on the TV, she was at work with no TV but some one was saying that a plane hit the tower. I turned on the TV and just seconds later the second plane hit the other tower. I screamed and said omg we are under attack. They were released from work and she came over and we watched TV all day. I immediately called my husband and told him to turn on the tvs in the office. He came home shortly after and sent everyone home from work.

    It was so shocking we just couldn't stop watching. Of course we had all gone through the okc bombing prior to this and we had so many friends in that building, we lived in Oklahoma then. It was a horrible reliving feeling.

  • marylmi
    8 years ago

    I was home and heard it on the radio so turned on the tv. Horrible!

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  • moonie_57 (8 NC)
    8 years ago

    I was sitting in the Dr.'s office and when it was realized that this was a terrorist attack, it upset me so badly that I went home. To this day it still shakes me up. God bless America!

  • gadgets
    8 years ago

    I was at work. Fellow worker's son called to tell her. Most of us just wanted to go gather family members and be together with them.

    Shirley


  • plllog
    8 years ago

    This is the one time I was in denial. My brain couldn't handle it, and kept trying to tell me it was a movie special effect, though I knew better. I was up early because my washer and dryer were being delivered at 8 a.m. pdt, and I had turned on the morning show to hear the weather, only to see the second tower fall. I hadn't even realized that the first tower wasn't hidden behind it until then. I, too, called some folks. It felt like the end of the world.

  • nicole___
    8 years ago

    I was running the Gods. Another runner came up .....running next to me said "no planes"....I said "what?" She said you haven't turned on a TV or radio have you? Nooooooooooooo........

  • bob_cville
    8 years ago

    I had just reported for Jury Duty at 9:00 A.M. that day 13 of us were randomly selected from the jury pool as potential jurors, each lawyer was then given an opportunity to ask questions of the potential jurors and based on those answers could each dismiss three potential jurors. One question I remember them asking was, "Is there anything that your mind might be preoccupied with that might preclude you from paying attention to the trial?" Which seemed like an odd question. Another question was whether any of us had been injured in an auto accident, which seemed more germane, since the case concerned a women driving on a suspended license who caused an accident injuring another driver. I responded affirmatively, and was dismissed.

    I left the court and walked the block and a half to work, and found all of my co-workers huddled around a static-y TV trying to watch what was happening.

  • Texas_Gem
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I woke up late for school and rushed out the door. On the way there I was listening to a CD in my car instead of the radio.

    When I ran in the school to go check in the office I noticed how quiet it was and it was offputting. Every room I passed by had the door open but no one was talking, they were all staring at the TVs.

    When I got to the office, I found out why. The second plane had just hit.

    I signed in and went to first period.

    When the bell rang for us to go to second period, everyone seemed quiet and in a rush to get to the next classroom.

    As soon as I walked in my second period class, I asked my teacher if I could use his phone to call my mom.

    When I got her on the phone, I asked if she knew what was going on and when she said no I told her to turn the TV on. She asked which channel and I told her any one of them. The south tower collapsed just as she turned on the TV.

    Third period we had no teacher and no substitute because my English teachers daughter lived and worked in NYC and she couldn't reach her. The principal came in our room to sit with us.

    I had to work that day after school and I could hardly reach my job because every gas station had lines coming out and snaking down the road to get gas creating deadlocked traffic.

    My mom wasn't able to talk to my dad until the next day. He was on a camping trip with his cousins high up in the mountains. They didn't find out until the next morning when they came down off the mountain to shower and restock supplies.

    It was my senior year and for my big senior trip from my parents, I was supposed to go to NYC in the spring. My mom had already bought one of my birthday presents, a shirt with the NYC skline printed on it, with the twin towers prominently in the middle.

    I never went, and have still not been to this day. I still have the shirt though, I doubt I'll ever get rid of it.

    In addition to all the death and destruction from 9/11, I had 2 co-workers and 2 long time family friends pass away within weeks of 9/11. I felt like the world was nothing but chaos and death.

    It was a dark period in my life and I don't even know anyone personally who was killed or had a loved one killed on that day. I can't begin to imagine how horrible it must be for those personally affected.

    I did know though, right away that it was a significant event. I bought a newspaper every day and I have them saved for my kids. I know they will study and learn about it when they are older and I felt it was important to save the first hand documents.

    It's hard to believe that it was 14 years ago. It still seems like it was yesterday and I still have the same visceral response to it as though it just happened.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    8 years ago

    I was at work and one of my co-workers had the cnn website pulled up. It seemed surreal and I too thought it was a bad 'war of the world's' hoax.

    It was so quiet in the days that followed. I had lived in the flight path of a major airport and there were no planes for a week. I knew none of the victims personally, but the image in my mind of their sacrifice still brings me to tears. I try to observe a period of silence every year in honor of those that died that day.

  • jemdandy
    8 years ago

    9/11 of 14 yrs ago.

    I remember the unbelievable, seeing the wrecking of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I had good reason for my own concern, but the personal horror of others trapped on site took precedence. All flights were grounded. It was eerie. Commerce literally stopped.

    I was newly retired and was home when the images lit the TV screen. The home office of the custodian of my IRA and records were in that building. It held my life savings. I was concerned for myself and mortified by the deaths of others.

    And then came the report of the sacrificial heros who crashed their high jacked plane headed to Washington D.C., very likely while battling with the high jackers, There are no words sufficient to honor those souls.

    Yes, I remember that day. It was not a cold day in Hell; Hell had arrived.

  • rob333 (zone 7b)
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I was up and at work. A friend from another business in the building popped in to say hi and tell me a plane had hit the first tower. I just could NOT figure out why she was telling me that. Then I spent the day trying to find out more. I called my husband and asked him to turn on the tv. He watched all day. I tried to work and find out. Bad combination. I finally gave up and went to the post office, and felt like I needed to hug the member of the clergy I saw. I didn't even know them! I finally gave up fully and went home. Got my flag out and decided I'd wear red, white, and blue the next day. The president made his announcement of memorial that matched mine, put up the flag and wear red/white/blue!? Mostly, I remember how bereft I felt the next day when I was listening to What a Wonderful World for the last time because the radio station decided to play it one more time before they had to take it off the air. No planes. No cars. Nothing and no one out but me and the cattle with steam rising from the earth that day. It was even worse than the day before because the reality had sunken in.

  • OklaMoni
    8 years ago

    a friend of mine called and told me. I turned the TV on. It was way beyond of what I could handle, and I turned it back off, after the firs tower collapsed. My husband came home from work, and turned both tv's on. I just could not handle it. I left home and went for a bike ride. Rode with several friends on the bike path around the lake. It was eerie. no planes. Several said, they were recording while they were gone.

    I just could not believe, anyone would record something that was shown over and over and was so horrific.


    I will wear red white and blue today.


    Moni

  • Alisande
    8 years ago

    I was at work. I was a newspaper reporter, so you'd think we'd have a TV in the building. But no. My daughter called to tell me about the first plane. Later, I was sitting in the courthouse in the office of Emergency Management, watching their TV when the second tower fell.

    The Pentagon . . . the plane down in PA, not all that far from us . . . we were shocked and scared. But we banded together to get out the best issue of the paper that we could.

  • janey_alabama
    8 years ago

    I heard about it on the radio & then turned on the TV.

  • Suzieque
    8 years ago

    It's a feeling in my gut that I'll never forget and still feel to this day.

  • party_music50
    8 years ago

    I had just swiped my card and walked through the doors at work -- two friends were standing there and told me the first tower had been hit. My BF was at the Naval Yard in DC for work... he knew immediately what was happening. The second hit caused a total shutdown and all our lives have never been the same since that day.

  • grandmamary_ga
    8 years ago

    i was watching Matt and Katie on the Today show when the first plane hit the tower. they were trying to remain calm and reporting what was happening.........As they saw it. I think of this often. I din't know anyone who was killed that awful day and I called all my family that lived out of town to make sure no one was in New York at the time. One of my sons did travel and a brother in law. so sad.

  • jemdandy
    8 years ago

    The day after 9/11, all over the world, displays were erected in tribute to those who had fallen. One image was 2 US flags flying over the Kremlin in Russia, a flag for each tower.

  • murraysmom Zone 6a OH
    8 years ago

    I was driving to work and heard it on the radio. When I got there, the tv was on and we watched it most of the day. Party, I was thinking about that very thing just this morning. Teenagers today (and younger children) have never known a time without terrorism. Isn't that sad? And for the most part, we have been engaged in war all that time. This is a generation that has not known peace in this country.

  • jim_1 (Zone 5B)
    8 years ago

    We began work that day at 6:30 a.m. (central time - Chicagoland) as usual. I was in the wholesale floral business and we dealt with perishable items. No TV available anywhere in the building. However, some of our customers told us what was happening, that was when we rigged up a radio to our PA system.

    We had to keep working, due to the nature of our business. Flowers needed to out that day and the next and the next. Even with all that was happening retail florist kept our phones busy. We did not have much time to wonder about the situation until the last hour of our work-day between 2:30 and 3:30 when things slowed.

  • sheilajoyce_gw
    8 years ago

    I had slept in. I had a late school board meeting that ran till 1am and then came home all wound up over the discussions of the agenda items and did not go to bed till 3am. We did not watch morning tv here, but our adult kids started calling with the news. They wanted us to turn on the tv, but they also wanted some reassuring. DH did not wake me knowing I had been up late, so when I finally woke and picked up the phone to hear my DD tel me to turn on the tv, I did and she told me that the twin towers had fallen. I did not realize the tv was on replay and told her that they had not as I could see them. "Just watch," she said.

    Our district is known for our instrumental music program, and so we scheduled a student concert a month hence of patriotic music. We invited the military to attend and at the end of the program, the student concert band played each of the various military theme songs, and the MC asked those present who had or do serve in that branch of the military to stand for the duration of their song. It was moving to see old timers in their uniforms, and young people too, and it reminded all of us that we are a great nation and no on can put us down!



  • ntt_hou
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    14 years already and I remembered everything as if it happened just yesterday.

    Coming from a country that was at war, attacks and dying were everyday news. But living here in the US, we never expected such an attack nor to hear about it. I was a bit shocked and was glad that the company I worked for let us all go home to be with family. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to carry on with work. I really thought we were at war.

    Too many died on that day, too depress to think about it... going no further...

  • kathyg_in_mi
    8 years ago

    I can't watch any of the shows today, al ii do is cry. Crying while trying to read these posts.

    We are the United States of America and we will not give in to these terrible things.

  • Kathsgrdn
    8 years ago

    I was in nursing school then, sitting in class when the phone rang. The teacher picked it up, the secretary for the nursing program had called to tell her what was happening and when they hung up the teacher told us. It was so unreal. After class we all went back to the nursing department to do work. We all stopped at the tv to watch what was happening. I was in shock. All I remember is going home and watching the news reports for hours and crying at times. Horrible day. Was walking into work this morning, saw the flag outside our hospital at half mast and thinking, oh no, what's happened....only to remember what day it was.

  • phyllis__mn
    8 years ago

    Would you believe that I heard it first at the KT? I believe it was Ruthie that posted something about turning on your radio or TV, which I never do until later in the morning.

  • colleenoz
    8 years ago

    It was about 9pm here; I was watching TV and had just turned channels to watch a favourite show and the station was broadcasting a test pattern or something. Puzzled, I tried other channels and they were all the same. Then they announced a plane had flown into the Wold Trade Centre and were streaming a live broadcast from NYC.

    To me this was so bizarre because the week before, a TV show we watched, "The Lone Gunmen" (a spin off from "The X Files") had an episode where they hacked a plane's on board computer to foil a plot to fly it into a skyscraper in NYC. DH (a traffic patrolman) was on duty at the time and I texted him to say, "You're not going to believe this, but "The Lone Gunmen" story is actually happening now!" He and his partner went to his partner's parents' home and watched the news broadcasts themselves, as did I for the rest of the night.

    I was so shocked when the second plane hit, and then when the towers started to collapse it seemed so unreal and so horrible. It still upsets me when I think about the poor people in the towers facing inevitable death; I just can't comprehend how awful it must have been for them.

    DD's husband's elder brother was working in one of the towers at the time, and as soon as the first plane hit he and his co-workers ignored advice they had been given to stay put and ran all the way down the fire escape stairs and out of the building and so were OK.

  • Yayagal
    8 years ago

    I never watch tv in the daytime but my husband turned on the news and left the room. I ignored it and was on the internet when I heard the news and looked up. The first plane had struck and my husband walked in and stared and stared and then said "It's terrorists" and couldn't watch anymore. I was numb with the horror of it and the thought of what might happen next and then it did. The day is a blur after that but I watched for hours and hours and for weeks and weeks and cried with all the others. Friends, family etc. all reaching out to find a way to make it not real, a fear I had never known before. It still stuns me to the core to see even a tiny bit of the film footage today. For me, it was bye bye Miss American pie.

  • jewels_ks
    8 years ago

    I was watching tv when I started seeing a building on fire and I thought they must be showing pictures from the Oklahoma City bombing...I could not conceive that another building was being destroyed. I finally realized that something else was happening and called my husband and my mom to talk to them.

  • lily316
    8 years ago

    I had a late night and awoke to find messages on my machine. Just then the phone rang, and it was my son in law telling me to turn on the TV which is never on during the day. It was just a minute later that the second plane hit. I couldn't wrap my head around it. It was like watching a movie, couldn't believe it was happening live. I was still on the phone with him and we worried about the lost plane over PA which might have to be shot down on it's way to DC and we were in the direct path. But the heroes in Shenksville saved us .

  • Texas_Gem
    8 years ago

    Today I was very introspective and began reading and learning more about the victims.

    The majority of them where at the same point in life that I am now; careers, families, in their 30s.

    I don't know why but it seemed to strike me harder than it has in the past.

    When it happened, I was numb with shock but the victims were not relatable to me. Now, I read their biographies and I put myself in their shoes and it somehow makes it 10 times worse.

    We should never forget of course, but I will be grateful in a few weeks when it fades back into memories and not a constant relatable terror that I worry about.


    I guess the terrorists were successful in their mission because even now, 14 years later, I am terrified of living through something like that again.