Where were you on 9/11?

Scrabble123

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 1:06 pm

I recently was on a flight from Philadelphia to LaGuardia. The flights had been cancelled because LaGuardia just cannot seem to get their air traffic control wait, so at least 200 people were on standby for a small plane. BH I got on a flight, and while we were in the air, the man next to me started talking about the 9/11 memorial. I didn't know this man, and he didn't know me, but we shared a very special feeling when we were discussing the 9/11 memorial. I think it is appropriate to share on this thread because it's about 9/11 and because it was the same feeling of unity that we felt as Americans 13 years ago.

Sparkly

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 1:32 pm

I was in 4th grade and our principal came in and said "girls we have to daven, a plane crashed into a TALL BUILDING"
I remember snickering cuz I had heard earlier from a neighbor who'd seen it on TV at the dentist.....and I thought it was funny that she was treating us like kids.
but yes, they did need our tefillos.

perquacky

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 1:56 pm

At home on maternity leave. Watching Sesame Street with my oldest son when the station went off the air. Got a UHF channel (Remember those? We didn't have cable back then.) and heard the news. I then had to drive to my lactation consultant to return a pump and as I drove along Ocean Parkway on Long Island, I could see the Towers burning and cars pulling over to the side, the drivers getting out and watching in disbelief.

DH was teaching in the Bronx. He and his kids watched the Towers collapse from their classroom window.

Two years later the City shut down again during the great blackout and I had to walk 9 miles over the 59th Street Bridge and into Queens before someone could pick me up.

But I'm so grateful I wasn't in Manhattan on that very sad day.

suzyq

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:05 pm

I was at work (not in the NY area) when a co-worker came in and told me that two planes had hit the two World Trade Center towers. She thought it was an accident and I told her there was no way two planes could be accidents. Everyone huddled around TVs watching the news while the buildings went down. My boss sent everyone home early that day. It was just surreal. 13 years later, I can remember it so clearly.

sequoia

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:18 pm

wazup wrote:

ill make you guys feel old. I was in 2nd grade and dont remember a thing!! just remember passing the side and seeing all the debris for years after...

Wow, you're only 19?

Emotional

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:20 pm

I had been married a week and a half. 9/11/01 was my second day back at work after Sheva brachos. I worked in a store on 13th Avenue in Boro Park. The sky was raining down ashes like confetti.

DrMom

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:44 pm

At work in Israel. A friend (also American) calls me and said: "You have GOT to get yourself to a TV and look at the news. A plane just hit the WTC!"

"What, by accident? What kind of klutz pilot does that? It's the biggest freaking building there!"

I hang up, go find a TV (internet is jammed), and sure enough I see footage of a plane flying right smack into the WTC. But why is there already smoke coming out of the other tower? Then I realize it isn't a replay, it's LIVE footage of the *2nd* airplane hitting the *other* tower. I immediately think: Islamic terror.

I wander into my boss's room (he's also American) and tell him the news. He says "Hmm. Are we still meeting in an hour?" "Um yeah, okay."

I decide he's nuts for being so indifferent, and call home (NYC area). All phones are jammed. Then people come running in, "The Pentagon's been hit!"

I think: This is it. War.

I meet a former university colleague for dinner that evening. We arranged to meet weeks earlier and he is only in Israel (from Germany) for one day. He calls and asks if I want to cancel, but we go anyway. It's all we talk about. I don't eat much.

Sanguine

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:48 pm

I live in Israel. Heard it the radio and then watched and watched on TV. We were in the middle of an intifada here so terrorism, blowing up buses and pizza shops wasn't foreign to us (if you can ever get used to that - you don't), but I remember that I just kept thinking "I can't believe they blew up the World Trade Center, I can't believe they blew up the World Trade Center, I can't believe they blew up the World Trade Center..." It was just so shocking.

momX4

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:18 pm

DH was in building near the twin towers.

DH did have trouble with the train that morning. After the second plane hit they evacuated his building. DH called me and told me he is coming home. His cell phone didnt work after that call. DH walked and then ran to the brooklyn bridge as the buildings collapsed behind him. On the bridge he saw airplanes flying low. Everyone was screaming, thinking they were next. He heard later they were fighter jets. He BH hitched a ride to brooklyn in a passing van that was driving slow yelling "yidden" and picked up anyone that responded. I did get alot of calls that morning asking if I heard from DH. He finally came home filthy and shaken.

DH hates bridges, and panics when he sees any type of aircraft close by. He actually callled 911 once.

watermelon

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:20 pm

Sitting in 11th grade when a teacher came in crying and told us all a tower was hit by mistake...then updated the other was hit so it was terrorism...everyone was frantically lined up to use the payphone to check on their parents.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:26 pm

I was a junior in university. I remember coming downstairs to the kitchen hearing my mother yelling. She tlls me what happened. She leaves for work (teacher) and I left for uni. I get there and the teacher is unsure if they should teach or not. Many students go to the cafeteria to watch what was happening. I returned home glued to the tv for days.

Barbara

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:34 pm

wazup wrote:

ill make you guys feel old. I was in 2nd grade and dont remember a thing!! just remember passing the side and seeing all the debris for years after...

Did you live in New York?

My son is a few years younger than you, and he and his friends all remember it clearly. But kids the same age who didn't live in NY have no recollection.

WaterWoman

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:34 pm

It was my fourth day of high school. My school was big enough that there were two Tefillah periods-some went to Tefillah and then their first class, some had class first and then Tefillah. I had first Tefillah (8:50 AM) and heard nothing. I was sitting in my first-period class when our gym teacher came in and told us all to go to the ballroom with our Siddurim as soon as class was over. When we did, a friend in another class came up to me and told me about it-she'd overheard it on a radio that some workmen outside had playing. I just looked at her and said, "You're joking, right?"...I could not believe it. The administration talked to us, we davened, and then I had to stay in school the rest of the day-I could see the smoke from my classroom window. My mother drove us home that afternoon and I'd never been so relieved to see her.

Crazy to think that that day was half my lifetime ago.

artz

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 4:20 pm

I was in 12th grade we were told we are having an assembly to talk about rav pam who was just niftar a few weeks before it ends up they told us then. although my father is a rebbe in fifth grade and one of his students came late and told him he thought it was a joke until he went out and heard it on the radio

wazup

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 4:42 pm

Barbara wrote:

Did you live in New York?

My son is a few years younger than you, and he and his friends all remember it clearly. But kids the same age who didn't live in NY have no recollection.

yes I lived in brooklyn. I guess I just have a good memory. I remember the aftermath but not the actual day or the days right after.