It’s September 11 today…

mommy3b2c

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 1:00 am

Rappel wrote:

I remember.

I was a child, so my strongest impressions at the time were things related to the main story ,- the reactions of the adults around me, the news, the ashy papers snowing down for weeks, the missing persons signs, the American flags we counted on our way to school, and the images of the crying eagles.

At the time, I was just curious and taking it all in. But today, I can't watch a video about it without crying over the pain and fear of everyone.

How old were you?

DrMom

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 1:01 am

ewwpeas20 wrote:

I was 4 when it happened and I remember my parents looking at the television in horror. In school we saw videos and clips of 9/11 on 9/11 to remember that horrible day. A year or so ago I saw a very graphic photo then a video of human remains on top of some buildings and the floor. I can’t forget that horrible sound and visual, the most memorable one was the firefighters reaction as he stood by helplessly as people jumped to their deaths. They They completely pulverized upon landing.

I remember some footage from near the large fiberglass awning covering part of the plaza near the WTC. Against the background of sirens and horns you could hear thumping as bodies of jumpers rained down on the awning and crashed through.

One reporter showed one of the bodies on the sidewalk. It was a flat stain, a body flattened into 2 dimensions upon impact.

ewwpeas20

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 1:09 am

DrMom wrote:

Yes. That’s the one I saw also. Horrifying. I did some reading on it and supposedly they wouldn’t have felt the impact, because they died on the way down.

Kraizy

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 1:24 am

I was 7 and we heard sirens all morning. We found out about it during recess.
I remember being upset that we had never visited the towers and will never get to see it now.

Ididnt realize that there were people in their who died.
I only realized that later when people were talking about falling bodies.

The air smelled for a long time and there were scraps of papers and documents floating all over.

We definitely felt less secure after. I would that year made us mature from babyhood.
Things were never as carefree again.

cnc

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 2:04 am

seeker wrote:

I'm not going to go through relating my personal experiences of the day (did that in a couple of other threads in the past) but what strikes me is just that there's a whole generation that never knew the security I grew up with. War was something that happened in Israel and in history. We had felt so safe. It changed so abruptly - maybe there were some people less naive but I think most Americans were completely blindsided not just by the attack but by the whole concept that there were people so out to get us.

Besides all the details and the tragedy and the images and the smells, what stands out in my mind the most about that day was the confusion. Somewhere around the web is an audio of I think 911 dispatch that day, or if you listen to the live (at the time) news radio or TV, you hear it so clearly - how deeply and thoroughly nobody knew what hit them. And why, and where from, and what next. I don't know what was scarier, the confusion or the fire. You didn't know if the world was ending or what.

Exactly this.

I remember that someone in my class came late that day. Her father drove her to school so she was following along with the events on the car radio. She probably got to school at around 9-9:30 AM. We saw ashy papers flying into our classrooms through the open windows and then this girl came in and started telling us that she heard that a plane crashed into the Twin Towers. We thought she was nuts.
To make it more confusing at that point , there was a lot of confusion in general- there were rumors that the Pentagon and White House were struck etc … so she herself seemed a bit unsure of herself when she told us this. We basically were just confused (not even afraid!) Because at that point what she was saying made absolutely no sense to us…

WhatFor

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 4:31 am

mommy3b2c wrote:

I did think about it for a moment today . But honestly I try not to think about it . It’s very traumatizing for me , I remember it like yesterday . My kids were discussing it with me on Shabbos and it was an interesting conversation but at want point I startled choking up so I kind of ended the conversation.

I felt like this for many years. I remember when I could smell our neighbors had a bbq about a week or two later, and I suddenly felt so sick at the thought of what we had been smelling for days after the attack. The sight of the cloud hanging over the area every time you passed it for ages afterward. It gave the grim feeling like the souls were still there. At least in my young imagination.

I don't know why but for some reason, this year, in the days leading up, I started listening and watching things more (obviously can't do the horrific graphic stuff.) There's a 4 hour audio on YouTube of the FDNY dispatcher from that morning. It's heartbreaking but also inspiring how the dispatcher was able to continue communicating, even while the events unfolded.

Busybee5

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 5:38 am

My son and dh pointed it out. I'll never ever forget that day. And I don't live in the US, I didn't even know much about the towers beforehand.
My parents were watching it live when we got back from school (they hooked up a TV somehow, we didn't actually have one, they used an old cable...) and I was 14. Saw people jumping to their deaths. Horrible tragedy!

I was in class when the teacher told us. It was towards the end of the school day b us.
Then we all said Tehillim in the hall before the end of the day.

My parents had been in the towers when visiting many years ago.

seeker

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 7:17 am

The moment when the switch really flipped from Before to After: when the *second* plane hit. I believe a very very few people knew something bad was up sooner - some air traffic controller for sure picked up that more than one plane was off course, and way off course, and with no reasonable reason for being there, and they probably also had some audio communication from the cockpit that something was up. And they would have reported that to someone higher. So a handful of people ahead of the game. But for most people it was more like this:

OMG is that smoke? That's a lot of smoke.
Look there's a huge fire in the world trade center! Omg!
Yeah someone said a plane crashed into the building.
A plane? So freaky
<visualizing maybe a small personal plane with an inexperienced pilot. Or maybe a helicopter)
Whoa oops a plane went too low and crashed into the tallest building around.
How did that happen? What a freaky accident.
<gawking at smoking building)
<see a literal whole airplane fly straight into the other one)
Immediately and strongly obvious... not an accident.
Not an accident.
Everything goes cold.

I didn't see it in person but hearing on the radio was the same idea. "Good morning everyone. In today's news, there's a fire in the twin towers from a plane crash. Blah blah." And then an interruption in the middle that there was a second plane and the entire tone shifts completely and utterly.

watergirl

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 7:51 am

The thing that struck me just now is that it's now 22 years later and there are women on this site who were not born on 9/11, who could be here at the same stage of marriage I was at on that day. I got married when I was 21 and 9/11 happened shortly after. I was at work... it was the scariest day of my life. I've written about where I was and what I was doing on this site before so I'm not going to again, but the thought that there are people here who were not even born yet... it's a shock to my system and I'm not sure why.

Highstrung

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 8:16 am

My brother was a rescuer and was there when the towers fell. Unfortunately quite a few people that were there with him have since passed away from developing all sorts of cancers that they believe was caused by what they breathed in on 9/11. My brother was miraculously saved by laying underneath an ambulance . The ambulance was crushed but he was ok. We did not hear from him for 3 days. Someone else let us know he was alive. I will never forget that awful day as long as I live.

seeker

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 8:27 am

Highstrung wrote:

3 days! I can only imagine what that must have been like for you! Hug

(I think we need a hug that is less smiley. The current ones can be awkward sometimes)

mommy3b2c

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 8:37 am

seeker wrote:

This . I was in 11th grade. I remember arriving at school and hearing that one of the towers was hit and thinking it wasn’t true and kind of giggling nervously and feeling a weird kind of thrill. Then we heard the second one was hit and panic started setting in. Then when we heard of the collapse, hysteria set in. I was sobbing in terror trying to reach my father who worked across from the Empire State Building . I thought for sure the next plane was going to hit there in any moment. Typing this up is bringing back the trauma and fear. I have tears in my eyes .

Highstrung

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 8:41 am

seeker wrote:

3 days! I can only imagine what that must have been like for you! Hug

(I think we need a hug that is less smiley. The current ones can be awkward sometimes)

The saddest thing was that he stayed and worked non stop because he was so determined to find survivors. He was devastated and I think has suffered PTSD since. He never talks about it. Though he did post a photo yesterday of him wearing the type of mask that looks like a gas mask . Don’t know what it’s called . He and his boss were both members in Hatzolah and they were together on that day . He happened to have had that type of mask with him in his truck and that’s how he had one. Many other people weren’t so lucky . His boss who was like a father to him passed away a few years ago and the doctors said the type of cancer he had was due to 9/11.
I still remember calling him when I heard on the news that all emergency personnel are called to assist . This was even before the second tower was hit and they had no clue what really hit the first tower . When I called him, he was already almost there. After the towers fell I felt so guilty thinking that I made him go there . But really he had already gone. It was a crazy day and week for me. Yesterday I remembered the day but I realized that I almost intentionally don’t want to remember that day . It’s very hard for me to relive my emotions and fear of that day even though I was home safe in my apartment .

Busybee5

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 9:05 am

The streets were eerily quiet that entire afternoon and evening in England. Everyone was shocked, and glued to the news. It was really scary, and absolutely shocking!!
My friends and I went to art class that night after school and supper etc, but non of us could concentrate, and it's all we spoke about.
We watched documentaries of it as they were released. It was crazy. A relative of mine worked nearby, she ran and ran home as fast as she could (lives in flatbush) and she was covered in white soot/dust from head to toe.

Busybee5

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 9:06 am

Highstrung wrote:

Omg!!! That's terrifying Crying

keym

Tue, Sep 12 2023, 9:19 am

I was in seminary.
It was a rough year, intifada in EY, Sbarro's had just been bombed, and I remember that there was a security that if things got too rough, we can go home.
And then 9/11 hit, and all security went out the window.
There was an extra level of panic. Not being able to reach anyone, not really knowing what was going on, fear that the Arabs would do something.