Saturday, September 11, 2010

Where were you?

Today is Sept. 11, 2010.

Where were you on this day nine years ago?

(Here's how people answered that question at the Washington Post. You can also go on Twitter and search the hashtag #wherewereyou.)

46 comments:

alice.stainedglass said...

I was on a ladder cutting in around the ceiling before painting the living room of Brian & Laura Hankins. I'll never forget watching the 2nd plane crash into the WTC or the buildings coming down.

Occasionally, I would walk to the WTC on my lunch break when I worked downtown. I never did get to the top of them though.

Jessica said...

In Brooklyn, getting ready to house sit for my cousin that had gotten married over the weekend. I was walking to breakfast and was going to give my sister on the west coast a wake-up call wishing her a happy birthday.

The phone call was never made and my cousin and his new wife never left on their honeymoon.

Anonymous said...

Driving from Arlington, VA to Baltimore, MD for a staff meeting. I was running late, as usual, and in fact if I'd been even 20 minutes later I'd have been on 395 right across the way when the plane hit the Pentagon. As it was I was just getting on 295 and heard the news on the radio, 107.3 FM in DC - no one seemed to know what was going on for a while. When I got to the staff meeting, the company bigwig we'd all been called there to meet seemed either clueless or unconcerned [although many in the audience had the news sites up and were watching that instead of listening to him] and proceeded with the meeting as usual until a very, very junior staff member spoke up (none of the rest of us, including Partners, had the guts) and said, Look, this is happening Right Now and many of us have family or friends who might be directly affected by this. Fortunately, bigwig got the message. We all spent some time watching the news and many went home - I couldn't early in the day because where I lived was so close to the Pentagon that most (if not all, according to the news) of the roads near my apartment had been closed (many stayed that way for weeks). I went home with a co-worker/friend to her house near Baltimore until around 3:00 p.m. and then drove back to my apartment in Arlington - I couldn't take the exit off 395 I usually did, it was closed, and there was still smoke and debris blowing over the highway from the Pentagon. I've never seen 395 so empty (even in the middle of the night) as it was that afternoon - it seemed to me that I was, except for the police cars blocking the exits, almost literally the only car on the road. I finally found a back way to my apartment. Little diligent worker bee that I was then, I went to work the next day as did a few others, but it didn't last long.

Anonymous said...

I was talking to my brother on the phone while at work. I said to him that a plane had hit the world trade center. We had been speaking on the phone prior to the attack and the whole thing occured while I was on the pnone with him. He didn't have a radio so I gave him an account of the events as they unfolded. I advised him of the second plane and that this was a planned attack.

Anonymous said...

I was visiting Belgium. People there were both sad and stunned. Like everyone in the world we were glued to the tv and I wept every time I saw the faces of those brave firefighters as they trudged up stairs in one of the towers. We later left on the first flight back to the states. The Brussels airport was hushed.

Anonymous said...

I was a flight attendant at the time. I was working that day flying into St. Louis when the first flight hit into the WTC. I documented the entire day and have never gone back to write what I wrote.
The entire week is all very much a blur and in fragments in my memory. I do recall that upon arrival, officers and airport personnel were awaiting our flight and quickly charged into the cockpit to converse with the flight crew. Passengers were rushed off of the aircraft and we were briefed on the situation at hand. My immediate reaction was to vomit.
I recall walking through the airport and watching passengers looking around as if they were in a war zone. They looked lost, scared, shocked, and confused unable to comprehend announcements that no flights would be taking off and that airports across the U.S. would be closed indefinitely. As we exited the airport, I saw hundreds of people on the sidewalks and listened as many tried to make arrangements for accommodations at local hotels, many of which had already been fully occupied.
We spent days in St. Louis watching the news, awaiting clearance back to CLT. I attended church services, crafted ribbons for flight crews to wear on their lapels, and kept in constant contact with my family.
Two months later, I met my husband on a flight to NYC. I was working the first class cabin. He is a federal law enforcement officer who had been upgraded to the first class cabin as a precautionary measure.

Anonymous said...

At work on the phone with my mom in Raritan NJ, she stopped the conversation to say they said a plane hit...everyone thought it was a small plane like the last time...no live footage just yet, we were on the phone with the news playing on the TV behind her when the second plane hit she saw it on the TV and told me...the first thing I said was its got to be a terrorist attack no way could it be an accident, she put the phone on speaker..no one could get anything online on MSNBC the site was jammed...broke the news to the group on my floor and they put the call on speakerphone...people huddled around to listen to the news... it was silent and then a co-worker started crying her husband was in the city in meetings in a building near the trade center..we called the kids schools and day care...they told us they were on lock down, had a police officer on site and would keep the kids there until someone could pick them up...sister in law was blocks from the trade center buildings...she stayed with friends and then got out a few days later..we knew too many people that had lost someone..not just in NYC but in the Pentagon...our daughters bus driver lost a son....not a day, week, month went by that we didn't hear more stories and see the pain...a neighbor worked down near Jersey City and watched across the water....everyone was touched and what happened never goes away, no matter how many years pass just can't get those images of the first moments, where we were, what what we were doing out of our minds...and those that lost a loved one remain in our hearts.

Anonymous said...

20 Exchange Place, about 5 blocks from the WTC. Saw the blackness outside my window from the smoke, and tons of papers floating down, and I started walking uptown with my co-worker buddy. Got the last train out of Grand Central before they shut the station down.

Unknown said...

I was just 13, in the 8th grade in math class at Crestdale Middle School. The security lady came in the class and told our teacher about what had happened. She turned on the television just after the second plane hit. The normally boisterous class was in complete silence and we were speechless that we were seeing such a life-changing, overwhelming tragedy unfold live in front of our eyes. I remember thinking to myself, "how are these towers still standing after being hit by huge jets going several hundred miles an hour?" Minutes after these thoughts crossed my mind, I witnessed the South Tower fall.

Complete shock. Complete devastation.

For the rest of the day, everyone was hearing so many rumors about more planes and more attacks...we didn't really know what to believe. After math period was over, the principal made the decision to not allow the TVs to be on for the rest of the day. I guess he thought it would scare the kids. In reality, it would have been good for us to keep watching. That was history in the making. That was the real world. If there was ever a day on which my childhood ended, it was 9/11/01. I didn't realize then that the resulting war would end up affecting me like it has. My friends and peers have died on battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq. I never thought it would still be going on today, as a recent graduate of UNC Chapel Hill. This is the price of defending our nation, this is the price of freedom.

I pray that something like this will never happen again, but the realist in me says it is inevitable. I hope I'm wrong.

Anonymous said...

Mowing my lawn in Fl.

Neighbor came screeching down the street, ran into my garage. Grabbing my portable TV he yelled out over his shoulder to call my CO and turn on the news, any channel....

A few had gathered now in our living room, we all watched the 2nd one fly in as well. And what we always denied were people jumping out.

The terrorists succeeded and failed that day.

The world changed that day.

The American resolve, however, went on unscathed.

The entire nation is now among those of us that carry the wounds from the hands of our enemies.

The depth of effort , and degree of sacrifice that went on to prevent further attacks, planned and attempted, and goes on to this day should never be forgotten even though the GP is fully unaware.

Anonymous said...

Sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast... at first I thought I was watching a horror movie on the overhead.... then I figured out what I was seeing was real. Terror built up in me and I lost my appetite.. was terribly afraid.. and went home to a place I felt safe.

Anonymous said...

I had just dropped my daughter at school, stoppped at Dunkin Donuts and picked up my coffee and a bagel and was driving in to the driveway listening to WFNZ when they said "Something is happening at the World Trade Center". I walked in the house and flipped on the TV and spent the day watching how horrible human life can be...

Anonymous said...

My thought was that these terrible acts meant war, a war of methodical, violent, relentless and thorough destruction of the barbarians responsible for the attacks and those who harbored them, a war that we would not end until they had submitted unconditionally or suffered complete annihilation.

Anonymous said...

teaching 6th grade. AP came to my room and said do not turn on your television. I thought that was weird because I never watched tv during a school day. She had a strange look on her face. I followed her into the hallway and asked what was wrong. She said, "They are bombing everywhere and people are jumping out of buildings." then she walked away. Did she mean in Charlotte? Where? I had to return to class and teach as normal until lunch time when I picked up bits and pieces from other teachers.

Anonymous said...

I had just arrived at my office and powered up my laptop. I saw the headline about a plane crashing into the WTC. As a native of NJ and quite familiar with NYC, my first thought was that it was some publicity stunt gone bad. I went to the WABC NY website, and they were streaming footage from a traffic helicopter. I watched as the second plane hit. At that moment, any concept of innocence was lost. Many of us gathered in the owner's office, watching the coverage on television. I remember driving home, with the roof down on my car, as it was a spectacular day in Charlotte, thinking "so this is what it feels like to be at war." So calm, and eerily quiet without any air traffic.

Anonymous said...

I was still living 30 miles north of Manhattan in my native Westchester County, NY getting ready to go to work when I saw the first plane hit the towers on the news. Knowing that no flight plan goes over Manhattan, I called my manager at IBM and told him to turn on the news ...as I was speaking to him, the second plane hit. I left for work and decided not to go near the local airport, but did drive by a reservoir that is the NYC water supply. Police had already block the bridge over the dam and it is closed to this day. I got to work and everyone was talking about 8 planes being the original plan. We were dismissed from work early....but I will never forget the funerals that weekend, the sadness, and also the show of patriotism and kindness. Also, waking up in the middle of the night when I heard a jet fighter overhead -- frightened at first because I knew that there was no air traffic. But then recognized the sound as we got used to the jet fighters patrolling the Hudson Valley area. Another memory is that our eyes burned from the debris in the air carried all those miles away. Since then I was always on edge, especially when I had to go into NYC for work and all you saw were soldiers patrolling Grand Central and Penn Stations. To this day, you cannot take a taxi from Vanderbilt Ave as you could for years. It changed our lives forever in ways large and small. Always remember, never forget.

Anonymous said...

I was working at my new job in public relations at the American Red Cross--Carolina Blood Services Region. I'd been on the job two weeks and my boss was on vacation. The building manager came to the office and turned on a tv and said that a plane had crashed into the WTC. We thought (like most others) that it was an accident. We were watching when the second plane hit. I was so proud to be a part of such an amazing organization during that time. The employees never rested for days on end as the lines began to form outside and people manifested their grief in a desire to help, to give blood, to be with others. It was catharsis. The Red Cross was there.
My other memory of that day was driving to work and specifically praying (God, protect us from the deeds of evildoers). I'd never prayed that specific prayer before. Also, I had noted in the days prior a few stories about the Taliban for the first time. One was the murder of the leader of the Northern Alliance and the other the kidnapping of Christian missionaries. It was very surreal.

Gary Morland said...

Getting ready to play Ten Little Trivias in the morning radio show studio at KASE 101 in Austin. The first plane was a sideline news distraction -- "hm, wonder what happened?" When the second plane hit during commercials my partner shouted. "OMG another plane hit the other tower!"

We were an ABC affiliate but couldn't get the network feed on the air fast enouhh. My partner stood on the counter and held a microphone to the TV speaker for about 10 minutes -- that's what our radio listeners heard. It was another day before we did anything local again.

The whole radio station gathered in the studio watching on TV for those first two hours. No one said much. Some got emotional and left. You could tell people were reflecting on life and family and what does this mean?

A few days later we did a public memorial in a park with local firemen lined up on stage. During the ceremony, one of the firemen standing next to me muttered, "This is a little awkward--we didn't do anything." I told him, "Yeah, but you would have."

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUOJqSPir40

911 was rigged.

Anonymous said...

I had just gotten out of my 8am writing class in college and was in my dorm getting ready to take a quick "mid-morning nap" when one of the girls on my floor screamed for everyone to turn on the TV, that a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I turned my TV on and watched in shock and horror as the second plane crashed. I remember right before it did, I was saying "oh my gosh, please don't crash" over and over.

When the towers went down, I sat in my desk chair sobbing. I could not believe what I had just witnessed. And to only think I was on top of one of the two towers just a couple of years before enjoying lunch with my family.

I must have talked, or tried to talk (as it was so hard to get cell reception that day) to everyone in my family. We reminisced about our wonderful times visiting New York and how fun it was to have lunch together that day.

We will always remember. We will never forget.

Anonymous said...

I was teaching at a community college and we were in between morning classes. People started coming out of offices and classrooms to stand in the hall and watch a television monitor. I thought the first plane was a strange accident. When the second plane hit there was a gasp and I remember saying "terrorists." The usually noise in hallway fell silent. The students watched the coverage for a half hour or so and I remember the parking lot starting to empty as students left. My wife called me from her job. I went to my 11:00 class and only one student was there with a somber look on his face. I told him there was no class today.

Dougiefix said...

I was at work in Roselle, NJ, when a coworker told me he heard that a plane had been flown into the WTC. Several of us made it to the roof; from the southeast corner, we were able to see down the road and across the river. The sky that morning was a vivid, cloudless blue save for the ugly black scar drifting away from the tower. Just as I was wrapping my head around what I was seeing, I watched the second plane hit.

Chaplain Margaret said...

I was at the Lutheran Seminary in Columbia, SC, attending my first week of classes as a full-time seminarian. I had gone to some materials I needed and the manager, a good friend, was gazing in dismay at a small TV he had brought out of the back room. AS i saw the first tower in smoke and flames, I remember the overwhelming grief and horror that flooded over me. I choked out, "Oh my God, it's a terrorist attack---thousands are going to lose their lives." At that moment, the second plane struck. We had students and faculty that had family and friends who worked in and around the WTC. The entire seminary from the president to the maintainence crew gathered in the chapel as we prayed for all those touched by this atrocity. To this day, on 9/11,my congregation, wherever I may be, prays for all the victims and their families. May God bring us peace.

Anonymous said...

A at large financial firm in Charlotte that had offices in the WTC. People in the WTC started calling our office after the first planet hit so we could tell them what was going on. I had a live video feed going from NY when the second plane hit and we all then knew it was no accident. Also watching the video in my office, a Muslim lady co-worker started praying her hope that it was not a Muslim led attack. Very sad. We knew lots of people just like us were dying. Some we may have known from work conference calls. People of all job descriptions, nationalities and faiths were in those towers.

Anonymous said...

I was at working in Shalom Park in Charlotte and the delivery man informed us that a plane had crashed into a building in NYC. I continued to work on, but when the second tower fell, the office was closed. I went home and every single channel on cable featured coverage. After watching for the news for hours, I kept flipping around until I found "Leave it to Beaver" and watched it thinking about innocent times.
I remember my feelings of sadness and my boyfriend's anger about what happened that day. I remember the National Day of Prayer Service and the anger and tears of the attendees.
Here we are nine years later and I feel somewhat safe, but I still freak out if I see a plane fly anywhere near a building.
Today I am flying my flag and changed my profile picture on facebook to a flag. I will always remember.

Anonymous said...

I was at a Sheraton near Metro Center in Washington, D.C. getting ready for the TCT--worlds largest cardiology convention. Our idiot management insisted that we remain focused on training and our prep work because that was what we were there for. They couldn't believe we were not focused until the second tower was hit. Tom L

Unknown said...

I was at work and received an AIM message of the attack. We had teleconferences going on from all over the world, but had to break the news to our folks. From that point on we all turned on our televisions and got internet feeds to see what was going on. Our company also initiated a huge task of determining whether everyone who was traveling in the NY / DC areas and determining if they were safe. Otherwise, I just wanted to be near my family. This one event has affected everyone I know in one way or another. I attribute 9/11/01 as the primary event that has led my son to choose to join the Marines.

Anonymous said...

Dont you just want to barf when some just cant contain themselves from making 911 a politically correct "diverse" situation with "people from all nationalities and faiths" dead or involved? Does that make it better? What a joke. SICKO !!

Does it make a damn? What if they had all been white christians? or black muslims? or jews? Would that lessen the tragedy? Apparently so for many brainwashed fools.

Get a grip on your putrid ignorance and mindwash. It seem every situation these days is required to be a mix or else something is wrong. Things are what they are.

Liberalism is a socially engineered pretentious terminal contagious disease with little hope for those control freaks afflicted.

Get a grip.

Ann Cook said...

My daughter and I were in Lockerbie, Scotland, where the bombed PanAm plane came down. We were on our way to England's Lake District. There, the inn's proprietor was in tears and invited us to make any phone calls we wished to the U.S. We had been on our way to Heathrow, but now all flights to the U.S. were cancelled, and London hotels were filling up. My daughter had never been to York, so we went there. We entered Yorkminster as they were having a memorial service for 9/11 victims, and the service ended with a rousing organ rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in that fabulous cathedral. I cried. When flights resumed, the British were
extraordinarily efficient in managing departure. You sat in a huge tent until their security was ready to handle passengers for your flight. The tent was heated, and food was free. I will always remember the British folks' sympathy and kindness.

Alex said...

In Vienna, Austria, on an IT trade show. My friend, who was in her office and had Internet access, sent me text messages about what was happening. I remember a colleague of mine asking: "Is this now World War III?"

I had a (newspaper) interview scheduled with an American business man for the afternoon (European time). When I went looking for him, I found him in one of the conference rooms, together with other Americans, all of them gathered in front of huge projector screens, watching CNN. And then the first tower collapsed.

Although not being American and not even living in the US at that time, it seemed that from now on anything could happen any moment. Nothing seemed safe anymore.

Frankie M said...

I was working in my office in midtown, 40th and Broadway when I received a phone call from my mom saying she heard a "small plane" possible a single engine hit the WTC. I looked immediately outside my window downtown and saw the smoke and fire, I said mom that is no small plane. Watched thousands of people on the street head uptown in a mass exodus. It was a nightmare that made the day seem like a week.

Anonymous said...

I was working a grant job and I got an email from a friend saying two planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center. So I walked down to my boss's office to ask her if she'd heard anything, because my first reaction was that it was impossible. At about that time people from other offices started coming out into the hallway asking if we had heard about what was going on in NY.

Then everyone started scrambling to find information from anywhere on what was going on. The CNN website was down due to the amount of traffic to it, so I went to the Observer's website to find out what I could. I couldn't get reception to any of the local radio stations but I found what must have been a NPR affiliate that was carrying the BBC, so I listened to their coverage for a while.

Most folks went home about an hour after it happened, but I'd only been in the area a few months so I stayed because I really didn't have anywhere else to go. Finally they kicked me out of the building at around 1 or 2 PM and I went back to my apartment to watch the coverage on TV.

Esther said...

I was a freshman at Texas A&M. I had an 8 am strength training class. The radio was on in the weight room and they were talking about a plane crash in New York City, but no one knew how bad it was.

I was feeling sick to my stomach for some reason and headed back to my dorm. When I walked in, my roommate had the TV on and was screaming about a second plane hitting. We stayed glued to the TV for the rest of the morning.

I was in engineering at the time and our classes were canceled for several days because there are two working nuclear reactors under the engineering building and they needed to keep it locked down.

I was only two hours from my parents, but home felt very far away that day.

Carol said...

Just back from working out, I called a friend to pick her up for a church meeting. She was not responsive to my reaching out, to say the least. Then she asked if I had the TV on (I didn't), so I turned it on and was transfixed for hours.

Art Rouse said...

I was at my company attorney's office in the Charlotte Plaza when his secretary interrupted us with the news. I listened to the account of the second hit on WBT in my car on the way back to my office.

The only other event so clearly imprinted in my mind is the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was in 10th grade and all classes were frozen and Walter Cronkite's account was piped through the school's intercom.

Anonymous said...

@ 8:20 a.m.

You're thoroughly retarded.

Timothy Whitson said...

Just had dropped my son off at school when my wife at the time called to tell me a plane had crashed into the WTC New York. I rolled over from a nap and switched on CNN in time to see the second crash. I watched until I had to go to work at 3, and then almost non-stop for about 3 days. I remember so much uncertainty about the state of our security, and so many rumors in the days and weeks that followed. The only thing I can compare it to in my life was the Challenger explosion.

Anonymous said...

On the morning of 9/11/01, I was teaching kindergarten. When I walked by the teacher workroom, a colleague said something about a plane crashing into a building in New York. Moments later, another teacher stepped into my classroom to tell me about another plane crash. It was incredibly difficult trying to teach a roomful of small children knowing that something terrible was happening but having no details.

Lynne Stevenson said...

That Tuesday morning I was watching Katie Couric and Matt Lauer on The Today Show when all of the sudden they announced that there had been an accident at The World Trade Center and a plane had reportedly flown into one of the buildings.

They showed video of the first plane hitting one of the towers and then suddenly, out of no where, the second plane struck. This was when the realization hit that this was no accident.

Not even ten minutes later my son came home from his class at a local technical college and announced that his college had shut down for the day because of a reported terriorist attack. The government had essentially closed down and the employees at his school told students to go and stay in their homes until further notice.

We were talking when all of the sudden the first tower came down. I remember saying to my son, "Oh my God! Imagine what those poor people are going through who showed up for work this morning and won't make it home tonight."

Prior to that, one of the reporters made the comment there were people jumping to their deaths because there was no way for them to be rescued in time and they could not broadcast pictures of them because of the possibility that children were watching.

I sobbed when the second tower fell because I knew that those people had no idea what was happening to them, either. All of those people were innocent victims who were only going about their daily lives when those lifes were needlessly snuffed out.

Then the reports came in about The Pentagon and The White House also being under attack. The one targeting The White House ended up crashing in that field in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard that flight also. I wondered if the end of the world had come. For all practical purposes, the world as we know it did come to an end that day.

I know that experience spiritually and emotionally damaged me and I was watching from my home in SC, no where near NYC, Ground Zero, Washington, or PA.

Even now, nine years later, whenever I hear an airplane flying overhead, I automatically stop whatever I am doing and watch to see where it is going and to make sure that it flies off into the distance without mishap. Ten years ago I would have never given another thought to an overhead aircraft. Now it is second nature to stop and watch it fly overhead.

Anonymous said...

When the first plane hit, I was finishing up stuff to leave for work. Thought is was stupid traffic controlers. Got in the car, put on the radio about 10 minutes later. Was on the DC Beltway going to an area near the Pentagon when I heard what happened (second plane, PA plane, Pentagon plane). What took me 20 mintues to get to on the beltway took over 8 hours to get from back home. Never made it to work that day or the next. DC was a mess, barb wire, snipers on roofs, really a mess. Like a war, which is was and still is.

then about 10 days later, was almost at ground zero, helping people try to "find" their family, let someone know they were ok, just in shock walking around, getting stores to send us socks for the rescue and search workers, food and water for them, that sort of stuff. For NY, it was surreal. People were more than kind and loving. Stores sent more than we asked for, fast. Restaurants, the finest ones around, sent food and supplies without even being asked.

The survivors and victims were what really is stuck in my mind like a movie. The eyes, pain, suffering, shock. Tears without crying, they were cried out. Paths of the tears giving white streaks of gray faces (we all had ash over us). I lived there, and pointed to rubble, is my cat ok? My daughter was in there (the towers), did they find her. Where can I put her picture, my husband, wife, child, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, best friend and so on picture, information.... You hugged and were hugged. You gave out blankets, pillows, bottles of water, paper, pens, everything and anything. Nothing was enough, nothing was going to make it better. The smell of smoke, fuel, dust, dirt was everywhere, taxi drivers took you to hotels from where we were w/o fares. Hotels didn't charge. You were told, "We love you." as you tottered off to your room to shower and maybe get an hour of sleep only to do it again the next day and the next.

Anonymous said...

You're thoroughly retarded.

3:26 PM


Christians will pray for your ignorance mocking the millions of Americas real mentally challenged human beings under care for this condition.

Tish

Rob said...

I was just getting up for work, and happened to leave the radio on from the previous night. I was waking up to the Morning show talking about how the 2nd plane just hit the tower. I was thinking to myself that I must still be dreaming. I went to work and we were watching the continuing coverage of the attack. I left work early and went home and was glued to the TV for the entire day.

Janie Meyers said...

We lived in Princeton, NJ then. Heard about the 1st plane on the radio just as I pulled into the parking lot at work. Soon we learned of the 2nd plane & I drove back to my home to get a small TV as I lived nearby. When I got out of my car to walk into my house, a couple of air defense planes roared low overhead flying north toward NYC! They sounded as if they were only a few feet above my head & I was terrified as I had no idea whose planes they were! I dove down & hit the ground like an Army soldier - trembling - in my skirt & heels! We did a lot of crazy things that day until we understood what was happening. On my way back to work, I passed several emergency vehicles headed toward NYC. Some of them were giagantic vehicles I'd never seen before -- it was truly like we were at war.

dar456 said...

pulling an aerifier across # 3 green at the peninsula club. my boss came on the radio and said we were under attack in NYC

Stephanie Tolan said...

Got back from walking the dogs and was having coffee when my son, a theatre director who lived and worked days in Manhattan's financial district, called. He and his wife were due to fly to Charlotte for a visit on Friday, so I thought he was calling to give us his flight info. "We're okay," he said.

"That's good," I said.

"You don't have the tv on, do you?"

Then he told me they were under terrorist attack and he and his wife had fled through the debris cloud of the first tower to the end of the wharf at South Street Seaport, where he'd left his wife to come back and feed their 4 cats. While we were on the phone the second tower fell, shaking his building. "I may have made a mistake coming back," he said. "I'd better go now."

The second debris cloud was so dense he couldn't see, but made it back to the wharf. They walked to Brooklyn later that day, with thousands of other Manhattanites and were, thank goodness, able to call us from the bridge to let us know they were okay.

They couldn't fly here that week, of course, but finally found a rental pickup truck in NJ and drove to Charlotte, after smuggling their cats out of the forbidden financial zone later in the week. They were a bit shell-shocked during their time with us, but after a few days went back to New York so he could open a play he was directing and help show the world that New York was still on its feet.

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