(no subject)

[seventhe]

I'm stealing this idea from jennyclarinet, because I think it's a really interesting idea. As a pseudo-memorial, and just as an exercise in curiosity -- F-List, what were you doing on September 11th, 2001? It was a very strange day for a lot of people, and I'd like to hear everyone else's stories. (edit: I guess LJ has made this their topic of the day. So now I'm stealing the idea from them, too.)

Jenny's already seen my story, but here it is:

I was, actually, asleep. I can tell you it was a Tuesday, because I was debating whether or not to sleep through Music Theory II, and my friend Chris knocked on the door. A lot. Repeatedly. I am an asshole, and I ignored him, because I wanted to sleep. Eventually the phone rang. At this point I was already awake, so I picked it up. It was Chris. "You'd better turn on your tv," he says. "You'll want to see this."

So I did.

I didn't really know what to do. I sat and watched the news for a while - I can't remember whether I watched the second plane hit or if I was just watching old footage - and then, because I was pretty numb, I realized it was time for class. I didn't want to go, but Music Theory II only gave you two skips, so I got dressed and headed down there. The campus was pretty much empty. I got to the music building, and my prof was sitting there with his head in his hands. "Go home," he said. "Class is canceled."

So I did.

We (my roommate and I, once she got back from her boyfriend's dorm) basically spent the day watching the TV and calling people. I remember walking across campus to meet up with my boyfriend-at-the-time. I remember we met up at the library and just hugged for a really long time. Then I think we both went our separate ways home. Nobody really knew what to do.


I already know from jennyclarinet and katmillia, but the rest of you - what were you doing? What do you remember about that day?

Also, eerian_sadow has a great memorial post here.

Comments

[salarta.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't remember which class it was in that I learned about it. All I remember of that day was watching news reports of it on TV for one of my classes, and feeling so bad during French class that one of my classmates felt bad about me feeling bad about it, if that makes sense.

We kept classes going.

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

We didn't do a single thing in school all day. None of our teachers made us do anything in class. We were all too shell-shocked.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

I can understand that, it makes complete sense. It'd be hard to teach or learn when your thoughts are on something completely else.

I'm pretty sure that aside from that one class session, however, we held actual full-fledged class throughout the day.

Clearly your school was more concerned than mine!

This makes me remember drills for bomb threats though... and I now remember we gathered in the gym for one of those. Excellent work there, gathering a bunch of people in one concentrated place where a bomb could do the most damage in one explosion.

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

I wish they would have just let us go home. I mean, we all watched the second plane hit on live TV because by that point, we were all glued to the news, but after that, there really wasn't much else, and I could have... slept or something haha.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

It sounds like your school was kinda enforcing "hey people this is a big event you must know it" over everything else. It might've been more productive to let you guys head home or something, because overexposure isn't a good idea (some might need counseling, others might not care as much as they should about the event).

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure the murder-suicide of a girl a grade above me in sixth grade was far more traumatic than watching 9/11 on the news, when it came down to things affecting me.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

And that makes a lot more sense, because (I'm taking a guess here) you probably didn't know anyone in the World Trade Center towers directly, but you at least sorta knew this girl. Even if you didn't, the World Trade Center towers are all the way in New York, while she was in your own school.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Were you in college or HS? Because my university canceled all of their classes that day and the next. I'm just curious as to what all the different responses were.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

I was in high school.

Actually, I now remember that was during new construction on the school. We had temporary classroom rooms in the gym for most non-science classes.

[kristinmachina.livejournal.com]

I was just hired as a nurse at North Shore University Hospital the day before. Sept. 11 was my second day of orientation--corporate stuff we had to know like safety policies, fire policies, benefits, etc.
I remember how warm and sunny it was. It was a lovely fall morning, and I had to be indoors in some boring meeting.
It was maybe 45 minutes into the meeting when one of the proctors, a black woman, came in and announced that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. She led us in a prayer.
Days earlier, some nut tried to skydive of the Statue of Liberty, so I initially thought it was a sight-seeing plane that got the sun in their eye and made a bad turn.
No, it was a 737 plane. It was bizarre, but the true horror didn't begin until someone else came in with news of a second plane crashing into the other tower.
No one was paying attention at orientation after that. Everyone had their cell phones out, calling loved ones in Manhattan. Someone's husband was an EMT working in the city. Most of us couldn't get cell phone service, including myself, because the majority of cell phone receptors was at the top of the WTC.
I tried a land-line to call Queens, to check on my grandma, to see if she heard from Mom and Dad.
Mom worked in Midtown. Dad worked on Thomas Street, blocks away for the Twin Towers.
I couldn't get through to Queens. Strangely, relatives in Wisconsin and New Jersey had no problem reaching us by phone.
Someone had 1010 AM radio playing through his car radio. One of the Towers collapsed. Then the other collapsed as we listened.
Orientation was cut short. It took me 90 minutes to drive home on Union Turnpike. Northern State Parkway was shut down westbound to allow for emergency personel.

I got home. I finally saw on TV what had happened. I couldn't believe it.
Mom and Dad finally got home and I hugged them. Dad walked 70 blocks, almost a mile uptown to Mom's building, to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge then get a taxi home.
They were both fine. Dad's shoes were covered in dust. He had to run inside the lobby of Pace University (across the street from St. Paul's Chapel and two blocks from WTC) to avoid the dust cloud that swept across Lower Manhattan when the towers collapsed.

I got a phone call that afternoon from the hospital. I was supposed to be in Syosset for orientation on Wednesday, but instead I was told to come in scrubs and report to the hospital. They weren't sure where they would put me. I might have to attend to patients.

Instead, Wednesday morning came and no victims came from Manhattan. There was no one left alive. I never felt the urgency and importance of being a nurse more strongly than that day.

Dad's still on the WTC Health Registry, which was set up to monitor those who were downtown and exposed to debris on 9/11/01. He's OK, thank goodness.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

...wow.

That's an amazing story. I'm so glad your family was safe.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I was sleeping, too. I think it was around 8:00 or 8:30, Pacific Time, and my clock radio alarm went off. The DJ said something about the second tower having fallen just as I hit the snooze button.

About 10 seconds later, as T and I processed what we had just heard, we looked at each other, woke up completely, and T jumped out of bed to turn the television on. Both towers were gone, and reports about United 93 were just coming in. So by the time we knew what was happening, it was all over, although of course nobody knew that yet. We sat and watched, dumbfounded, until about 10am when I decided I probably ought to go to work. I arrived to a nearly empty office and learned from a co-worker that everyone had been sent home. So I went home, too, and T and I spend the rest of the day glued to the Internet and the television.

My other 9/11 story is that we had, many months prior, bought plane tickets to take our first European vacation. Our flight to London was scheduled for Saturday, 9/15/2001. We talked about canceling but decided against it; still, we didn't know for sure whether we'd even be able to go until nearly the last minute. Finally, on Friday night, we found out that the SF airport and Virgin Atlantic would both be fully operational, so we went. The lines in the airport were stupendous. But everyone was very well behaved, and the plane, which was completely full, was also completely silent. It was surreal. A good vacation, once we got there, but weird too.

(I also happened to be flying on the first day of the "no liquids on planes" rule , but that's a whole nother story...)

[kristinmachina.livejournal.com]

I was flying to Berlin when they just initiated the "no liquids" rule. Lost my deodorant in the security line.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I also lost my deodorant. We were able to take everything else (shampoo, contact lens solution, etc.) back to the car and leave it behind, but I didn't think about that one until it was too late.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

The flight sounds really creepy, actually. I can't imagine. Wow.

...although now I want to hear the other story! I'm so glad that was widely publicized, because -- I -- I liked only having to bring a carry-on with shampoo and underwear!

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

If you'd like some historic on-the-scene reporting, I actually called in a voice post from the airport that morning:

http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/173653.html

We were headed to San Diego to visit T's parents for the weekend. We'd prepared to check our bags, but after about ten minutes in the bag check line, we decided to just leave all our liquids behind. So I packed them up and ran them to the trunk of our car (good thing we decided to drive that time; sometimes we take the train), and then we went straight to security, which was moving much faster. Every single trash cans was overflowing with toiletries and drinks. I saw several cases of wine, too, presumably left behind by vacationers to the wine country. Very sad.

Then we got on the plane and the luggage bins were *empty*. It was amazing. When we flew home a few days later, I overheard a flight attendant telling a passenger that they actually loved the new rules because there was so little baggage, making their jobs a lot easier. I'd never thought of that, but it does make sense.

Wow, was that really only two years ago? I feel like I've been packing my stuff into little plastic bags and arguing with airport personnel about contact lens solution forever.

[eerian_sadow]

well, um...let's just say that when the towers were falling i was still a young fairly newlywed girl with an equally young fairly newlywed husband and you all can put two and two together from there. and since we were, um, busy at the time, we didn't find about about what happened until four o'clock that afternoon.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Your post was good - I thought I'd pass it along. Your story, on the other hand, is hilarious.

[eerian_sadow]

and thanks for linking people to my journal. made me feel warm inside.

[darcenciel.livejournal.com]

Your LJ name wouldn't happen to be a Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi reference, would it? ^^;

[darcenciel.livejournal.com]

I was a cadet in ROTC at the time, a junior officer so I was one of the commanders for the younger cadets. We had formations and drill practice around 11 AM every day so I was actually in the ROTC building getting ready for drill, and I walked into the cadet lounge and someone said, "Some plane just flew into the World Trade Center."

We cancelled drill and the commander sent us home to take off our uniforms. We weren't allowed to wear uniforms around campus for almost 3 weeks after that because they were scared we'd be targeted.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Wowwww. Was there a lot of worry/panic inside the military side of it? (It being ROTC)

[darcenciel.livejournal.com]

There was. Bases were under full alert for a long, long time. It was 9/11 that led to bases being as paranoid as they are now. I remember when I was first a cadet, most of the time they didn't even stop you at the gate going into the base. Which to me was kind of stupid, so I think the heightened security after 9/11 was a good thing in the end.

[churched.livejournal.com]

I was in seventh grade (no lie) and all my friends were spending their recess at try-outs for Volleyball, so I was sitting and reading underneath a tree. Three guys I knew came up to me and were all, "Jes! A plane crashed into the World Trade Tours." My geography class, the teacher managed to get a TV and between her and all the smart people, they managed to get it tuned to cable, and the rest of the grade seven populace kind of filed in, teachers included, and we all watched news reports the end of the day.

A lot of us were freaked out, mainly in a 'what is going to happen next?' kind of way. I think we were all waiting for some terrorist to knock into the CN Tower or something. I don't know, I guess my story is little compared to some of the other ones but it was what started my fascination with American politics. Life kind of continued as normal the next day, although we did have a moment of silence every day for the next week.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

It's the little stories I like to hear. Even my day wasn't anything amazing... but I'm fascinated by how well I remember it, because of what happened.

[deadshrimpblues.livejournal.com]

My mother woke my up by coming in and turning on my television. So yeah, as soon as I woke up, I knew.

I recall just sitting around for the rest of the day on IRC watching shit go down. I got kicked out of at least one for saying Bush was going to milk this for all it was worth. They didn't appreciate that or my theorizing there would be collector's plates within six months, I guess.

A very odd day. Some very odd weeks followed.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Oh, hahaha. At least you could go around with the satisfaction that you were right?

[shanaqui]

I remember it was a Tuesday, too, because I was in my RAF uniform. I'd actually had a vague, unspecified "bad feeling" the night before and during the day, so I wasn't surprised when I got home and saw the news.

I can remember having to explain to my sister why it was a big deal.

At dinner my mum didn't talk much, because she'd been spending most of her day trying to call, because her friends were there and involved. One of them, she didn't manage to contact at all.

I had a really bad cough at the time, too. There was a moment of silence in assembly at school on, I think, the Friday, and I coughed all the way through it.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I am curious as to what the response was over there, overall. Schools had assemblies? That's ...quite heart-warming, actually. XD

[shanaqui]

We talked about it all the time. Particularly those of us in the cadets. Even the least political students had a paper in their hands nearly all the time, that week, talking about who did it and so on.

Well, it was during the Christian assembly, I think. We had a special ceremony to commemorate the year after, too. At one point, there was some kind of minute of silence in a whole bunch of schools and the cadets had to salute during it. Man, I felt like such a dork standing to attention and saluting in Biology class. Even if all the other cadets were doing it.

Also, I can't remember quite when, but it was around then, whenever Britain joined America to fight... all the cadets' weapons were taken and converted into machine guns and went with the British soldiers. It took us years to replace them!

[heybitchmove.livejournal.com]

I was just barely eleven years old. We were sitting in Mrs. Kahn's first period math class, and halfway through Ms. Nichols, the social studies teacher, hurried in, all prim and perfect posture but still looking totally panicked, and she whispered something in Mrs. Kahn's ear, whose face took on an "OMG" expression for all of fifteen seconds. She then whispered what I later realized was a prayer, and went back to teaching.

I remember reviewing long division that day and acing a quiz in science. Things were tense but still relatively normal until we actually reached Social Studies class. Ms. Nichols was on the phone, calling all her relatives up north (some in New York, we later learned). She had CNN on, so we all sat and watched them replay the clip of the second plane crashing over and over.

It was shortly before lunch that we learned that Flight 93 went down in a field 25 minutes from my school. There use to be a park there, I think, and one of the girls in my class (Amy was her name) said she'd had a family reunion there once. A bunch of kids went home early, but my mom worked at a hospital in Pittsburgh, and she couldn't get back because of the traffic. Being a sixth grader with special privileges, I managed to slip down to the third grade wing to check on my sister and direct the traffic of little kids. She was so scared.

When we did get home, we just sat on the basement steps with my next-door neighbor Meghan, who was bawling her eyes out. She thought there'd be a war and we'd have to live in bomb shelters and that everyone was going to get hurt.

I remember just sitting there, staring into space. I was too young to really understand what was going on, the effect that one day could have on a whole country. I thought: "Five-thousand people? That's not that many. I mean, millions died in World War II." Then my brother got a phone call from his dad saying that his business trip to New York, to the World Trade Center where his employer's firm is based, was canceled. It had been scheduled for September 12th.

Mom tried to explain to him (five years old at the time) what had happened. I've never seen him cry so hard, not even that time I broke his wrestling trophy. Ro and I were the only ones who didn't cry.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny how much you remember? I remember everyone in the dorms trying to call home - places like Pittsburgh, which were close enough for everyone to get worried and nervous, even though looking back now it's like WTF IT'S PITTSBURGH.

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

I was sleeping at university. I got up to get ready for class and my suite mate pulled me over to her room to see her television; we watched the plane hit the tower over and over and over again for about fifteen minutes.

I stayed in all day and didn't go to any classes or to eat. I cried and cried because it was my second week of classes and I was homesick and completely alone and I couldn't reach anyone. I had no friends and no family available. I was far from home.

It was a shitty start to a shitty year of school that I later looked back on as a catalyst for me flunking out. I mean, I can't even describe how alone and scared I felt. That feeling stuck—I was coming off a summer of political excitement, because I had registered vote to finally and I was always a "america the beautiful" nerd. Seriously, I had one of my senior photos in front of a flag, I was so hardcore about LOVING MY COUNTRY. So it was just me, alone, confused and scared and not internet-savvy enough to figure out what was really going on; for hours I thought that maybe there were attacks everywhere and they just weren't getting through the news because people were caught up with the WTC and then the Pentagon.

It was terrifying and uncool and my story is lame. Oh well!

[safety-caesars.livejournal.com]

Well for one I remember I was dressed really ridiculously (complete with PIGTAILS. These details are burned in my mind forever), but that wasn't all that uncommon for pre-college me (now I at least have the good sense to save it for parties or conventions!). I first heard the news in Biology class and it was rather surreal. All the classrooms had TVs so we watched the news instead of holding lessons. We really didn't do anything in any of our classes - we watched the news in some of them and in others we just sort of milled around as far as I can remember.

I do remember overhearing at lunch one girl panicking because her Aunt worked in the WTC. I overheard another person say that they had a relative (their uncle I think?) who also worked in the WTC but they knew for a fact that he had called in sick that day. Crazy.

[fudebusho.livejournal.com]

Oh Jesus Christ, again with the OLD.

I was working. At my job. Major Fortune 500 telecommunications corporation. Driving in for a morning meeting when the radio announced the first plane hit -- like many others, I thought it was a small corp. jet or ultralight -- nobody knew it was a passenger jet.

Got to work and they had CNN on the televisions in every conference room. Our company internet (remember, my company OWNED part of the internet) was brought to a near-standstill by thousands and thousands of people watching streaming video all at once. No work got done, no meetings were held, everyone in the building either crying and praying or just sitting in the conference rooms, dazed and silent.

I lasted until 4:30pm and went home to find my husband glued to CNN on the big screen, watching the towers fall over and over.

I went to bed.

[lassarina]

Oh, wow, taking me back.

Northwestern's school year starts very late, usually in the last 10 days of September. We were going to leave to drive to Chicago on 12 September 2001. So I was supposed to be packing on 9/11/01.

Me being me, I'd stayed up until 5 am and snuck into bed just barely before my daddy woke up. I was still asleep when my parents came home at 2. I remember my mother shouting up the stairs, "Meaghan Elizabeth, get up!!" I staggered out of bed and downstairs, confused as hell, because what was Mom doing home now? The next words out of her mouth were "Go watch television with your father."

I can count on one hand - on one finger, in fact - the number of times that phrase has been uttered to me by my mother in my entire life.

I went downstairs and thought Daddy was watching a movie. Then as the sleep-fog cleared, I realized what was going on, and I was stunned.

I went down to the basement, where my computer lived, and I found eighteen different IMs from people I knew who knew I lived near DC, wanting to know if I was okay.

I remember being so angry and just wanting to be able to do violence unto the persons responsible. Slow, agonizing violence.

I'm not sure, now, that what we did in the aftermath was correct, although I remember supporting it at the time. I certainly don't agree with this war we are embroiled in in Iraq, and I wish to hell someone would do something useful about Al Qaeda instead of dicking around jacking off at things that aren't relevant. But the thing I remember most clearly, and the thing that I miss, is the sense of unity and purpose at that time. I wish that we could recapture that without needing that kind of tragedy to galvanize our response. I imagine there are people out there who remember Pearl Harbour, and feel the same.