QUESTION OF THE DAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

MoochNNoodles

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I love hearing stories of how "fate" saved someone's life. I bet he was never happier to have overslept than that day.
Fortunately he's always been someone who keeps his head too. He has pictures from a disposable camera; but those went missing at some point. Another stepbrother (technically ex, from my dad's side) was present but uninjured by the Boston Marathon bombing; so gratitude for their safety definitely hits home in a real way.
 

klunick

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Fortunately he's always been someone who keeps his head too. He has pictures from a disposable camera; but those went missing at some point. Another stepbrother (technically ex, from my dad's side) was present but uninjured by the Boston Marathon bombing; so gratitude for their safety definitely hits home in a real way.
My brother was there when the Challenger blew up with teacher on board. He has pictures from that.
 

BellaGooch

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I was born a few years later (ironically on 9/11), so I can’t add to these stories, but thank you for sharing your stories! :redheartpump:
It's crazy to realize there are people alive now who weren't born yet who only know what happened through the TV coverage. I hope they always continue airing the show and the personal accounts of what happened so it is never forgotten.
I hope they do, too. I think it’s very important for us to see and learn about these monumental events, especially if we haven’t lived through them.
 

Tobermory

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It was a Tuesday morning. I had just pulled into the parking lot of the Administration Building at the university where I worked for a 7:30 a.m, meeting of the Board of Trustees (we were on Mountain time). One of the trustees was just standing in the lot, frozen. “Jane? Are you okay?” I asked. “Someone just flew a plane into one of the twin towers in New York City,” she said. I clutched her arm, and we hurried into the building. There was no board meeting that morning. Someone brought a TV into the board room, and several of us sat, horrified, as we watched the news.

Two or three years later, I traveled with the dean of the business school and some students to Manhattan. The students were going to the New York Stock Exchange and to visit some alumni in the financial district; I was visiting alumni donors. I joined them to see a highly placed alum at American Express whose office was on the top floor of a building across the street from the World Trade Center. (No surprise that the security to get into the building was very thorough.) He was there when the planes hit, had an actual window on the event. He told us how he and other staff evacuated the building and the many hours it took him to get home—walking, getting rides.

It was sobering, chilling to look down into that huge gaping hole. We all stood there silently. I could hear one of the students mumbling under his breath. He was praying.
 

artiemom

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I will never forget that day.. never... It was our generation's equivalent of the bombing of Pearl Harbor---never forget.

I was working in Boston, in a teaching hospital, commuted by train...
It was a Tuesday Morning.. a gorgeous day: bright skies, pretty clouds, nice early fall weather.

Our department was having our weekly 'rounds'--discussions of interesting cases, and items.
We were near completion, when the phone rang in our conference room. It was another doctor, who was driving to a satellite of ours.

Immediately, the department head 'ordered' me to put the TV on--I was closest to it...
We all watched in horror... many doctors, techs had contacts with New York.
We stayed glued to the TV, watching the rerun of the first plane hitting, and then, watching LIVE the second plane hitting the tower.

One of our doctors was in NYC visiting his brother who had an office in the Trade Center. It took hours for anyone to get through to him. By luck, his brother was not at work that day!! and the doctor was in a different part of the state.

The hospital immediacy went on lock-down... we rescheduled as many appointments as we could.

I remember, I had to tell my first patient what happened. They were sitting in the waiting room, not knowing what was transpiring..

Horrid was not the word...
We were transfixed to both the TV, in the conference room, and the Radio in our workroom.
We heard everything live.. all that happened.

The hospitals exits were closed... only ER entrance opened. We had security checking everyone in and out of the hospital..

The emails, from hospital head, department heads; were flying..
Rumors of ambulances being hijacked; to be equipped with bombs, in order to suicide bomb the hospitals...
Remember, this was one of the major Boston hospitals.

Rumors were everywhere...

The news kept getting worse and worse.

We kept trying to call home... phone lines were almost non-existent... could not get through.

My dad, kept calling me, telling me to come home! I kept calling my dad.. we just did not know what to say, but needed that 'connection'.

We were all frightened...

A secretarial friend of mine, who lived in the same city, and whose husband is a firefighter; told me that if we had to evacuate, I was going with her.. Her husband would somehow come for us...
He told us which way to try to walk home...
What was terrifying: We either had to take the train, or car through a bridge over water, or a tunnel under the bay.. Great targets for terrorists...

Finally, we were allowed to leave---remember we were essential personnel ..

I remember taking the train home---terrified... not many people on it..

My train commute went right by Logan Airport.. Yes, there is even a stop name Airport...
All I did was pray, the entire way.. Pray for the lost souls, as I went by Logan.. pray for the country, pray to get home safely... just praying....

I will never forget...

I remember, That during the afternoon, when I could get a phone line; I was calling my local churches, to attend a mass...After I got home and made sure my dad was ok.. watched a bit more of the news.... I did go into my church to pray...
I discovered another Church having a special Mass that night. Many people attended... many people in tears... all of us United that Day....

And even the next day! All the staff were calling each other.. do we drive in? do we commute by train? frightened whatever we do..

Later during the investigation; it was learned that one of the terrorists used an ATM right outside the train station I use.... yes.... so frightening...

We had to work each and every day...
Taking the train to work: Daily, we were so suspicious of all people of Arabic descent. They were few and far between, in hiding.. yes... they were. Everyone was under scrutiny for so long. We kept hearing to be 'alert'.. look out for suspicious activities.. suspicious people, backpacks, bags, etc....

NEVER FORGET!!
 
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BellaGooch

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I will never forget that day.. never... It was our generation's equivalent of the bombing of Pearl Harbor---never forget.

I was working in Boston, in a teaching hospital, commuted by train...
It was a Tuesday Morning.. a gorgeous day: bright skies, pretty clouds, nice early fall weather.

Our department was having our weekly 'rounds'--discussions of interesting cases, and items.
We were near completion, when the phone rang in our conference room. It was another doctor, who was driving to a satellite of ours.

Immediately, the department head 'ordered' me to put the TV on--I was closest to it...
We all watched in horror... many doctors, techs had contacts with New York.
We stayed glued to the TV, watching the rerun of the first plane hitting, and then, watching LIVE the second plane hitting the tower.

One of our doctors was in NYC visiting his brother who had an office in the Trade Center. It took hours for anyone to get through to him. By luck, his brother was not at work that day!! and the doctor was in a different part of the state.

The hospital immediacy went on lock-down... we rescheduled as many appointments as we could.

I remember, I had to tell my first patient what happened. They were sitting in the waiting room, not knowing what was transpiring..

Horrid was not the word...
We were transfixed to both the TV, in the conference room, and the Radio in our workroom.
We heard everything live.. all that happened.

The hospitals exits were closed... only ER entrance opened. We had security checking everyone in and out of the hospital..

The emails, from hospital head, department heads; were flying..
Rumors of ambulances being hijacked; to be equipped with bombs, ignorer to suicide bomb the hospitals...
Remember, this was one of the major Boston hospitals.

Rumors were everywhere...

The news kept getting worse and worse.

We kept trying to call home... phone lines were almost non-existent... could not get through.

My dad, kept calling me, telling me to come home!

We were all frightened...

A secretarial friend of mine, who lived in the same city, and whose husband is a firefighter; told me that if we had to evacuate, I was going with her.. Her husband would somehow come for us...
He told us which way to try to walk home...
What was terrifying: We eight had to take the train, or car through a bridge over water, or a tunnel under the bay.. Great targets for terrorists...

Finally, we were allowed to leave---remember we were essential personnel ..

I remember taking the train home---terrified... not many people on it..

My train commute went right by Logan Airport.. Yes, there is even a stop name Airport...
All I did was pray, the entire way.. Pray for the lost souls, as I went by Logan.. pray for the country, pray to get home safely... just praying....

I will never forget...

I remember, That during the afternoon, when I could get a phone line; I was calling my local churches, to attend a mass...After I got home and made sure my dad was ok.. watched a bit more of the news.... I did go into my church to pray...
And I discovered another Church having a special Mass that night. Many people attended... many in tears... all of us United that Day....

And even the next day! All the staff were calling each other.. do we drive in? do we commute by train? frightened whatever we do..

Later during the investigation; it was learned that one of the terrorists used an ATM right outside the train station I use.... yes.... so frightening...

We had to work each and every day...
Taking the train to work: Daily, we were so suspicious of all people of Arabic descent. They were few and far between, in hiding.. yes... they were. Everyone was under scrutiny for so long. We kept hearing to be 'alert'.. look out for suspicious activities.. suspicious people, backpacks, bags, etc....

NEVER FORGET!!
I got goosebumps reading this. You painted such a vivid picture. Thank you for sharing.
 

allmykitties

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I was living in upstate NY at the time, and my youngest children (the twins) had been born in February that year. I was visiting a forum and one of the more notably hysterical posters had posted something to the effect "it's war! we've been attacked". I turned on the TV (fully expecting that poster to be exaggerating something) at that point, just in time to see the first tower fall. I was completely shocked, just held onto the children.
 

vince

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My coworker and I were finishing rewiring a pair of exhaust fans in a school gymnasium when the school district courier came in and asked us if we'd "heard that the towers were falling." We didn't know what he meant. "What towers?" we asked. He had been telling everyone about what was happening and eventually he got called in the office and threatened with reprimand because they didn't want the children upset by the news. We had to keep our noses to the grindstone, but took a long lunch offsite where there was a TV where we could get an update. Radio reporting wasn't very good that morning.

It became obvious that all air traffic had been shut down. The school district was near a large airport and the silence was deafening.

I had a friend who was in the air, returning from England, at the time the hijacks took place. The flight was too far along and hadn't enough fuel to go back, so they landed in St. Johns, Nova Scotia, where they put the passengers up in a Salvation Army camp for a week until they could get them back. They came back on a bus.
 

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I was at work at a Government installation. There was all kinds of stuff going on with security. They closed all but two gates and they started inspecting trucks at the truck gate. The next morning when I went in they had redone parking. I worked at a computer center and they had closed all the parking close to that so I had a bit of a hike from the parking lot to work. It was kept that way for months then they opened up the lot that was across the street from the center. They never did reopen the parking right at the computer center building.
 

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I had just started at college and had only been there probably not more than a couple weeks. I had an 8:30 class and heard something about the first plane at breakfast and we just assumed it was a horrible accident. Class was normal (it was a stupid intro to computers class they wanted people to take, and I knew how to use MS Word so it was pretty much a waste of time), and it wasn't until I got out closer to 10 that the enormity of what had happened was known to me. I wanted to call my family just to check in on them, but they kept saying not to overwhelm phone lines so the people in NY could get through. I think I did call later. Being near the city, I was worried Chicago would be the next big target since it was another one of the biggest cities in the US.

My dad was in Texas for a work thing. His flight home got cancelled and he and his coworkers had to rent a car and drive for a couple days back to Chicago.
 

fionasmom

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I had just gotten to work and saw on the TV in the lounge that a plane had hit the first tower. Like others stated, I thought it was a private plane or even a terrible commercial plane crash....pilot error or mechanical involvement. Very shortly, we all figured out what was really happening and several coworkers burst into tears. A good friend of mine at work was hysterical because her brother in law worked for one of the financial companies whose offices were in the second tower. She went through several hours of sheer torture receiving and making phone calls that said that he had been seen in the tower that morning, that someone thought he had tried to exit, that someone saw him at his desk. He never went home again.
 

sivyaleah

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I was in NYC, further uptown by the Empire State Building.

I am grateful nobody I know personally was harmed, however, it was a terrible day for anyone who was in the city, regardless of where you were.

/waves at my fellow New York'ers on the thread.

A co-worker's wife called the office when she found out. I thought she was joking. Turned on a radio in the office and heard what was happening. Her husband arrived soon after, he had walked to the office from his apartment so he already knew from being in the street.

Then we heard about the 2nd plane, went downstairs to look down Fifth Avenue (we had a clear view down 5th to the WTC) and saw....smoke, and no building. It was horrifying.

Spent the remainder of the day with him and our boss (who arrived in between all this) trying to figure out what to do. Leave the office? Try to head home? Could we get home? Or even cross-town? And worst, what if the Empire State Building was also a target?

To make a very very long story short, getting home to NJ was impossible. Couldn't get into the subway and busses were jam packed with people trying to escape the city.

Another friend of mine offered me her apartment for the night. She, had been downtown when it happened and literally ran out of the area before the dust cloud got to her. She was going to stay at her boyfriend's place instead, and she left the key with her doorman. I don't know what I would have done otherwise.

I remember going out to grab food, somewhere, because in spite of everything, NY is tough and some places were still open despite all this. the streets were pretty much empty, it was a bizarre experience. Went to work the next morning as usual, but did go home back to NJ early.
 
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neely

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I love hearing stories of how "fate" saved someone's life.
The brother of my husband's best friend lives and works in NYC. He had an important business meeting at the WTC Towers the morning of 9/11. He's a very punctual guy but for some odd reason his alarm never went off that morning and he was frantic thinking he'd be late for the meeting. As it turned out had he gone there he would have been in the midst of the attacks. :eek: It still gives me chills to think about it and how fate intervened. Whenever I visited my daughter who was living in NY, however long after 9/11, I always made a point to see him too. We talked about what happened and he teared up telling me the details of that day. 😢 I don't think any one of us will ever forget that date.
 

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I'm in Ontario, Canada.
I was still in college, and had an early class (8:30am), but it was my only one of the day. I was home just after noon and turned on the TV, and that's when I saw all the re-runs of what had happened. I was home alone and I just sat there, staring at the TV in shock. I don't remember feeling anything....as others have said, it was just surreal.
 

fionasmom

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I remember hearing those kinds of stories of others who just missed the attack. One man supposedly went all the way to the ground level to buy a muffin when the attack occurred and was able to just run for his life, and another woman got out because she did NOT go back for her purse. It was that close. I also recall the story of a guide dog who lead his owner down all those flights of stairs safely.
 

denice

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I remember things from around the world right after 911, Like playing the Star Spangled Banner at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and people in the crowd crying.


I remember a German ship with so many of the crew on the deck saluting an American ship.

Remember those men who carried someone in a wheelchair down a lot of flights, I don't remember how many.
 
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