TOTALLY GEEKED!

When I first heard the news, I thought, "Some fool has flown his small aircraft too close and hit the building." Then I got on the Internet.

I was supposed to leave late morning to drive to New Jersey, then Connecticut.

Plan cancelled.

 

DS2 had started a job a week before, on the 7th floor of the Mercantile Exchange. The geography is, walking West from the WTC subway station, pass the Deutch Bank building, and then the Mercantile Exchange and the Hudson River.

I'd given DS a cell phone as a "congrats on your new job" gift a week before.

I started calling him ...

 

 

After the first plane hit, he was ordered to evacuate, and walked down the stairs with hundreds of other people, When he got to the street, he and one co-worker decided to walk North, to New York University, where his CW had buddies living in a dorm. Most of the people turned and looked at the Towers, and just stood there watching.

He called me when he was 10 blocks north, just before the first tower fell and communications went out.

The dust cloud stopped about a block south of him.

Our next contact was from one of his friends in college 60 miles away, telling us DS was in a chat room from a dorm at NYU.

He was safe, with access to food, water, bathrooms, and INTERNET !!!

 

In the mid-afternoon, when it was announced that the trains would start running again, he said he'd like to stay in the dorm a couple more hours to let the rush pass.

I told him to get to Penn Station and get out of the city ASAP, that I would pick him up at any train station.

He walked in the door at about 5:30.

I was frightened for him all day.

 

 

Wow, FNW, you were to close for comfort.

Hugs to you.

Ed, I hope writing about your son's story helps you heal. He IS alive.

I was at work in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, the first town on the Hudson River north of the George Washington Bridge, waiting for my 1 year performance review, when another employee came running in shouting that a plane had hit the WTC. We all thought it was a small private plane, that perhaps had had engine trouble. We had a portable radio as our news source, and when we figured out it was more serious, I ran back home & brought back a transistor TV. Needless to say, I never got my review that day.

DH was driving from NJ to NY, and was caught on the GWB when the NYPD shut down both levels. The police turned every vehicle around, and sent them all back to NJ. It took DH over 3 hours to get back to NJ, and he could see the smoke all the time.

DD #3 was supposed to go in to work for 2nd shift at 3:00 at Goldman Sachs, about 4 blocks from 1WTC. She's been on psychological disability ever since.

Our neighbors across the street in Staten Island lost their son - he was with the firehouse that was destroyed, and he was in the towers when they collapsed. He left behind a beautiful wife and 3 month old baby.

I was teaching class, homeschooling, when my mom called and said to turn on the television. It was just prior to the pentagon being hit.

DH had gone to a metropolitan planning meeting downtown. I immediately started calling his pager. He finally left the meeting and called me. I told him that the U.S. was under attack and asked him to come home. He asked what I meant and I had to explain. When he returned to the meeting, an official had just come in to deliver the news and the meeting was adjourned. He arrived home just before the first tower fell.

Now for something eriee. DS Sunday school teacher often gave the kids that arrived to class early a piece of paper to draw on before class started. On Sunday, Sep 9, DS drew what appeared to me to be an airplane with a propeller and a lot of wheels under the wings. I commented "airplane". DS replied that it wasn't an airplane it was a cross. What I thought was the propeller was a crown and the many wheels were God's hands. God's hands?? His reply was they were God's loving hands, sympathizing hands, caring hands, helping hands, and might hands. I wrote what he said on the back of the paper, folded it and stuck it in the back of my Bible. When I unfolded it a few weeks later, I had cold chills.

I was folding clothes on the couch, Jesse and Aaron were playing. Caitlyn was at school.

I remember watching in disbelief.

When the second plane hit, I became physically ill.

Then the phone rang. It was the schools. Saying the schools were fine, on lock down. If we wanted to come check our kids out, to bring I.D. and they would release the kid to us and it would be excused.

My mom was working at the school. I let Caitlyn stay until mom came home.

The kids had no idea what was going on.

Ikwtd, how awful for your help friend. That is heartbreaking.

Watching the documentary of that morning now.

It isn't any easier to watch now.

The devastation. The disbelief.

It's heartbreaking.

I posted this on FB:

Today, on this anniversary of the horrible terrorist attack that occurred 14 years ago,

I am thankful that my 10YO daughter has been taught about this event in school. We live in a State and a school district that think it is important for the children to know about this attack on America and learn about it.

I have her sitting on the sofa next to me watching the horrid videos that came out from that day. She is so enthralled, intelligent, and mature about the subject matter and is now recording the video on her iPod. I held her hand when the bodies fell. She gets it. She is our future, so are your children. Let then watch the videos and teach them just how humans help each other. Hugs to all my friends and family that were directly impacted by this terrorist attack. Know that our future is in hands such as my daughter's.

Tinydancer wrote:

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I know what to do_sometimes wrote:

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I posted this on FB:

Today, on this anniversary of the horrible terrorist attack that occurred 14 years ago,

I am thankful that my 10YO daughter has been taught about this event in school. We live in a State and a school district that think it is important for the children to know about this attack on America and learn about it.

I have her sitting on the sofa next to me watching the horrid videos that came out from that day. She is so enthralled, intelligent, and mature about the subject matter and is now recording the video on her iPod. I held her hand when the bodies fell. She gets it. She is our future, so are your children. Let then watch the videos and teach them just how humans help each other. Hugs to all my friends and family that were directly impacted by this terrorist attack. Know that our future is in hands such as my daughter's.

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 This is the best quote I've read on this subject. Very well put Ikwtds!

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 Thank you TD, she is so smart and mature it scares me at times.  But she is our future. She will make a difference.

chef wrote:

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I was living in SoCal at the time. I was sitting in my truck at college waiting for class to start listening to K-EARTH 101 (oldies). When the station started broadcasting the attacks, I started to get excited because the way they were doing it made it sound like an advertisement for a movie and it just didn't sound real. I only found out it was real when my uncle called me to tell me to be very careful because the theme parks were potential targets.

The campus was eerily quiet that day. I attended all my classes that day and it was odd for the classroom to be so quiet. Some of my teachers talked about the attacks. Some didn't.

I can't imagine the horror and helplessness those thousands of people felt. I don't personally know anyone who lost a family member that day but I still can't read about the attacks without crying.

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 Wow, they didn't shut down the school for the day?  I think most everything in my area closed, offices and schools anyway.

My kids stayed in school that day.

flan

flan327 wrote:

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I was driving to work, listening to Bob & Tom (they started out as local radio hosts, but I think they're syndicated now). Anyway, they specialized in raunchy humor & I loved to start my day with them.

They were just beginning to report the attacks, and their tone of voice was deadly serious. That really scared me.

flan

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 Yes, I noticed that as well.  Suddenly all my talk show hosts who typically focused on the bad in politics, talked in compassionate ways, not one bad thing said about anyone.  Refreshing memories of a horrible time.

I was particularly proud of the way the nation came together during that time.

I can't help but think how different the thinking is today compared to then.

It's like a big sack has been pulled over everyone's eyes.

And then I think about how it all would have been handled 50 years ago if this had happened then.

ed11563 wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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I can't help but think how different the thinking is today compared to then.

It's like a big sack has been pulled over everyone's eyes.

And then I think about how it all would have been handled 50 years ago if this had happened then.

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I'd really like to know your thoughts on this, if you'd like to share.

 

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 I don't care to share.

I think there would have been a massive influx of military, possibly a bomb dropped. I don't think there would have been the hand ringing that we had.

 

You are older than me. What do you think?

Yes. That's my point.

There is a stark difference in how the two were handled.

jlbear71 wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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I can't help but think how different the thinking is today compared to then.

It's like a big sack has been pulled over everyone's eyes.

And then I think about how it all would have been handled 50 years ago if this had happened then.

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But it did happen a little more than 50 years ago.  Pearl Harbor.

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 Watching Pearl Harbor right now.  Many parallels to what is happening today.  World doesn't change much.

I was in class. With no idea what was going on.

I lived in the central time zone at the time. I had a 7:00 - 8:15 class. I lived on campus, I had rolled out of bed with just enough time to sprint across the street to class from my dorm. So when I got home at about 8:20 CDT, I grabbed my robe and headed straight for the shower. On my way down the hall, I saw someone had drawn what looked like two tall buildings with a plane crashing into one of them on the white board on their door. I remember thinking what a weird thing to draw. I took my shower and turned on the TV when I returned to my room - just in time to see the first tower fall. I stood there, in my towel, dripping, staring at the TV.

I felt so alone. Away at college and all I wanted was my family. I didn't know what to do, so I went on with my day. I was due at work for my campus internship, so I went to work and sat and watched TV in my boss' office with the closest thing I had to family there. The president of the university called a prayer vigil at noon, we walked over together as a group. I had class that afternoon. The professor told us it was our choice, we could A) have class as normal B) watch the news C) cancel class. We chose B. Our professor told us we could leave anytime, and we could stay as long as we wanted. We stayed for over an hour. I think we all needed to be together. At the onset, I felt alone without my family, and I ended up finding I had a bigger family than I knew, as I sat there with my fellow Bulldogs.

It seems every generation has their event. My grandfather once told me exactly what he was doing when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. My mom can tell you exactly what she was doing when they heard JFK had been assassinated. And I can tell you exactly what I was doing on the morning of September 11, 2001. One of the hopes I have for my nephew is that he never has to have one of these events to haunt him for a lifetime.

I know what to do_sometimes wrote:

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ed11563 wrote:

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jlbear71 wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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I can't help but think how different the thinking is today compared to then.

It's like a big sack has been pulled over everyone's eyes.

And then I think about how it all would have been handled 50 years ago if this had happened then.

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But it did happen a little more than 50 years ago.  Pearl Harbor.

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Yes, and when the Japanese attacked us, we went to was with Japan, not India. 

When we were attacked by terrorists based in Afghanistan, we destabilized the Middle East by disarming IRAQ. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

 

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 And now arming them with nuclear weapons?  Talk about stupid...  Regardless of the past, we have to think about here and now.

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Someone will have to arrange an "accident" in their bomb factory.