September 11, 2001: Personal Stories 10-Years Later

I was sitting in class in 7th grade when it happened. Everyone was going about the morning as usual until the teacher got a phone call and we were told that a plane had crashed into the WTC. We were of course confused. Was it a freak accident? Were we about to witness a war break out on American soil? If it wasn't an accident, who was to blame? We hoped and prayed that the people would get out alive. It seemed like no one was talking at all, we just didn't know what to say. We turned on the TV and watched in disbelief as they talked about it on the news. We saw the live coverage of the second tower being hit and that's when we knew for sure that it was no accident and that something big was happening in our little care free world. When the towers collapsed we all knew there had been a massive loss of life and we were in a stunned silence.

At lunchtime came all the speculation. I remember a friend of mine insisting that Iran was behind it and was starting a war. We threw out the names of a few other middle eastern countries, plus Russia and China and said maybe it was them. Back then, we probably couldn't have pointed to any of those middle eastern countries on a map, but now we will never forget. In any case, whoever did it was going to be blown straight off the face of the earth, we said. We are America, no one F's with us and gets away with it! We were sad and angry at the same time, wanting to know who did it so we could get swift revenge. We talked about how we wished we were old enough to join up and go fight whoever it was. And we were still in disbelief. This must be a bad dream, can I wake up yet? The whole day felt like that, and it was the next day that it really sank in for me at least that yes this really happened and yes we had to deal with it, but how no one knew.

I live in the Southeast USA, and I can't say I wasn't affected but obviously because of my age and where I lived, I could never fully understand what happened. Well in 2006 I visited NYC and saw Ground Zero with my own eyes. At this point it was just a large pit in the ground but it was like I could feel the energy and sadness around me and I couldn't look at it and imagine what once had been there without tears coming to my eyes. My heart truly goes out to those involved in the rescue operations and those who lost loved ones.

I was working second shift at the time and my wife and I were still in bed when the first plane hit. My stepdaughter called from her job to tell us to turn on the television because the WTC was on fire. I turned it on just a few minutes before the second plane hit and as soon as I saw it, knew it was a terrorist attack. The first thing out of my mouth was a variation of "Holy Excrement!!" The second was "That sonofab**** Bin Laden."

Before long, the news came about the Pentagon. My brother worked in DC, commuted from Virginia every day and it was right around the time he would be driving to work. It wasn't uncommon for him to drive near there on the way. I tried to call but didn't have any luck getting through to him. It was hours before I finally did and he told me he drove by there and twenty minutes after he did, the news hit that it was on fire. I remembered a friend I had back in NJ whose husband worked in the WTC. I called her to find out if he was all right and she told me he hadn't gone to work that day. He may have been saved by a hangover.

When the first one fell, I couldn't believe the collapse was so complete and happened so soon after being hit. The debris cloud was so immense it was almost unimaginable. After the second one fell I just sat there stunned. I grew up in NJ, lived there from the 60s to the 90s. I remember when they were being built and when they were completed. I was never a fan of the architecture but you had to admire their stature in the skyline. I tried to remember or imagine what that skyline looked like without them but I couldn't. Then there was all the footage of the people running from this wall of dust, smoke and debris. I can never forget the looks of the faces on the people, coated in dust, shock on their faces.

Went to work early that afternoon and it was the quietest pre-shift meeting I can ever recall. The brass were all in the meeting room and after everyone got settled, started to discuss the morning's events. In the end, we went to work and tried to make it business as usual but things moved at a painfully slow pace relative to normal. I worked in the IT department and the company was pretty loose with internet rules so my one coworker and I tried to keep up with the news. One of my stand out memories from that period was when this one kid, twenty or so came in while she and I were talking about it. He said something to the effect of "That's all anyone is talking about and it's getting kind of old". She and I turned at looked at each other than both gave him a look that basically said "Are you an idiot"? We were both older and this kid just had no idea of just how big what had just happened was.

I remember when the first images I saw after the dust cleared came across and how empty and just wrong it looked. I remembered all the times I went up to Yankee Stadium for ball games, seeing them for miles away and now they were just gone. The whole week afterward was replete with coverage. Some of the visuals were just surreal, like you were watching scenes from a movie.

A less discussed aspect of it are the anthrax attacks a week later. While separate from the destruction and loss of life in NYC, DC and PA, I just remember it adding to the tension which hadn't really subsided. In my case, it didn't help that the letters were mailed from the PO branch that served my mother as well as my one brother and sister-in-law. On top of everything else, there's basically another terrorist attack where some whack job was handling anthrax near my family sending it out at the place where their mail arrives.

After awhile, things returned more to normal here in Indiana but I still hung on every word that I heard about it. I guess my ties to the area are strong enough that I couldn't help it.

Like most people, we watched horrified as events unfolded on television. And I'm not ashamed to say that it was the first & only night in my adult life I've been so scared that I kept the lights on overnight.

The following day we travelled two hours to sign the book of condolence at the US Consulate in Edinburgh. The line was round the block and some more. One of the local Scottish papers had printed the UK & USA flags entwined. Some people had cut it out, put it in their windows. Either that day or the next, my cousin Eoin (a guardsman in the army) participated in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London. A friend (a council employee) she & her team helped stranded US citizens get into emergency accommodation, helped them with food & telephone facilities.

I found that ceremony on youtube, the one in which Eoin participated, it's very moving. Very simple too. I guess it's how most of us felt in those first few bleak days, when we all felt overwhelmed by the relentless incoming tide of bad news. You & us together, through thick & thin, almost like it was ordained to be.



Selfish as it may seem, I also look at the passage of this last decade in personal terms. Where I was working then, where I was living. The friends & relatives of my own who have passed since then, whether I'm better or worse off than then. The whole event was deeply shocking.

The ghastly thing now is this ; were this event to happen again, that instinct we had then to rush to the aid of the USA ... and despite you guys being the world's only superpower, that's how many of us foreigners felt ... we wanted to help in any way we could ... that's all gone now. The goodwill's completely exhausted, it's been squandered by subsequent events. But that's for another time & another thread.

I'll be thinking about your nation & the families when the ceremonies start in a few hours time. The Queen said, "Grief is the price we pay for love" & it's as true today as it was ten years ago.

With love & affection.

I haven't had a chance to read through the thread yet, as I've been avoiding it. I realised that if I was going participate it would have to be from a place I've stored away.

In my own life, a few things had happened long before that would bring out the suffering reality of the hopelessness many others may never understand.

I've experienced those losses. If you have too, then you know. If you haven't, you couldn't, and that's the way it is.

My story begins earlier when my fiance tragically lost her life at the age of 28, and my sister a year before that.

Driving to work the following week, it hit me like a brick, I completely lost my fear of death. It was just gone, and hasn't come back. Struggling with myself, I didn't want it to be true, but it was.

That isn't to say I'll live the rest of my life doing wreck-less things without any reprisal though, I still don't like pain. When you lose someone so connected, a part of you dies, but you can also gain the understanding just how finite and valuable each and every person's life is.

Ten years in, and I still can't accept the fact that there's nothing in this world I can do to bring her back.

I couldn't possibly leave out this part of the "story", as it was the single most important part that made that day such an emotionally powerful experience, because I knew.

I knew that tens of thousands of family and friends were about to go through what I had been dealt, and I lived it with them. I've never talked about it until recently, and with people I don't even know, here on ATS.

On to the events.

A couple weeks before 9/11, a game called WWIIOL was set for a release on 9/12. They had created a chatroom where many of us gathered in anticipation of the unveiling, I went by the name of "leadman". One night a person joined the conversation and started furiously damning the U.S.A. and spewing some of the most incredible hatred I have ever heard in my life, hands down.

He specifically said, "We're going to use your own planes against you"!

I tried talking to him, but there was no reasoning whatsoever. The dialogue, and his demeanor went from bad to worse. I was so disturbed by his violent remarks, that I actually tried to copy and paste the conversation, but the text wouldn't copy to a clipboard. (I hadn't learned the alt-insert trick yet.)

Fast forward to 9/10...


I was back east for a birthday party, and boarded a plane for the trip back to Los Angeles where I snapped this photo. I didn't get home until about midnight.


As tired as I was, I layed down on the couch with the TV on and quickly fell asleep. When I awoke, I was laying on my right side and wrenched my left eye open a bit to realise I was staring at the smoking WTC building.

I jumped up, called my dad, and told him to turn on the TV. As we were talking on the phone we watched the second plane hit the other tower. I cancelled work that day, and sat there glued to all that was happening with a couple friends.

I'll never forget the screams over the phone of my fiance's mom saying, "We thought we lost you!" as she knew I was on a plane into L.A. that day.

I knew the world had forever soured, and told myself we were about to go change the name of a country.

I also saw Tom Brokaw say "Now is the time to be angry", and remember feeling wronged when it didn't even take 20 minutes to introduce the word "but" into the broadcast.

Just knowing what so many of the survived were about to go through made my heart grieve. It wasn't a weight I could even offer to carry, and my own emotion was taxed until it hurt.

When I went to the closet and put on the only shirt I thought could honor those fallen, I knew it didn't mean much, but it helped... a little.

I almost didn't post, as the story is as much about myself as it is the day, but it's the only one I have, so no regrets.

another thousand words...

Remember, remember, the 11th of September
The Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

I was but in my teens
In school wearing jeans
when news of this day was brought
I watched in confusion
Without resolution
As I tuned on the tube
teachers... once sought.

Tears that escaped
anger boiling to rage
Justice is what I shout
with a salute to my flag
Troops in Afghanistan
"go get em"
...the words I sprout.

Now ten years later
The blindfolds enabled
Lifted from my sight
I watch in disbelief
to know that the traitors
were always...among us.


The insult to memory,
how this has been weary
to those lives that once were lost.
with justice withheld
the truth being snared
Peace and love is all I want.

Remember, remember, the 11th of September
The Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
...I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever...be forgot.

May the victims of this failed system rest in peace. Not only from sept 11th, but from all parts of the world.

May God, Source or our higher-selves bless the true America.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/56f90962b529.jpg[/atsimg]

/salute to the flag
/salute for the well being of humanity


Ps: I wrote my story in a form of a poem using some inspired words. I just thought it would fit this occasion.

Peace and love everyone.
Namaste

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


September 11, 2001 was one of those days most Americans will never forget, including myself. I was living overseas at the time (country name is not important) and having breakfast/meeting at my usual spot with a fellow American and two locals of that country. I was sitting facing one of the three televisions in the deli and noticed the breaking news, and interrupted the conversation in progress with the comment, "excuse me guys, I think something serious is going on in New York." To which everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. One of the locals, quickly stated, "no, it's just a movie", to which I said nothing but continued to watch. The other American I was with quickly confirmed my concern, and said "guys this is serious, we need to reschedule this meeting for another time", etc. to which they immediately agreed seeing the great concern on both our faces.

I had no way of knowing it at the time, but the effects of that day would forever impact/change my life, at least indirectly, unlike the numerous families and their friends who were effected directly by the loss of loved ones. I shall never forget that day, and neither should any other American.

For me, this video from youtube.com says it all:

This will probably get buried deep in the thread but I'll say it anyway, I don't have much time:

My first day of basic training was August 1, 2001. I turned 19 two days later. I had no higher desire than a job and an education, also, an easy way out of a rural, remote town I grew up in. Stories of heroism and sacrfice never mattered to me.

Fast forward to the first week of September, we were out in the middle of nowhere one morning surrounding one fo our instructors who, simply stated the following, "We're training you this week in this way because right now, someone, somewhere is training just as hard to kill you." It was a poignant moment considering he looked right at me as he finished his sentence. That was the only time I realized that, as some put it, # just got real.

About a week later I'm in an office building on base walking from office to office for signatures and briefings on my next duty location. Murmuring and whispering led to a great revelation; the world trade center was hit by a plane. I'll admit, here and now, I was far too naive to know what the world trade center was. I grew up on the west coast and paid little to now attention to the world outside of the town I grew up in. A plane hitting it made little difference to me at the exact moment. Then we were told we couldn't leave the building. Then we were told we'd eat lunch in the hallways, a couple kids from the east coast were very distraught. Eventually, hours later we were back in our barracks watching the television with two buildings I'd probably only ever seen once burning and then falling.

I was told we'd be going to war. We would lose lots and lots of people and I would never do what I was going to be trained to do because I'd be sent to fight in some foreign land in a few months. That didn't pan out, we annihilated Afghanistan and a few years later we destroyed Iraq.

That's all I've got time for.

On That Morning, my niece (who was 4 at the time) did not understand the images on the TV. My sister explained to her that, "Bad People crashed an airplane into that building." My niece thought about it and asked, "Were there Good People in the building?"

www.postroad.com...

I was in the 8th grade. I don't remember too much from that day but there is one scene that I will never forget.

Let me back up and start by saying I lived (and still do) in central NJ. It's a region referred to as the "gateway" region because most of the people who live here either work in Philly or NYC.

All I can remember is that we were in chorus that morning. I think we started off with our warm ups, everything was normal. First we heard a plane hit the WTC, but we didn't think too much of it, because a week before someone had crashed a small two person plane into another building somewhere in FL I think so we all thought it wAS something along those lines. No big deal. Somehow we got to turning on the TV and saw that it was a little more serious than we all thought. And then the second plane hit. The rest is a blur save for one moment. Someone from the office called into my classroom and called one of the kids from my class down. We all knew his dad worked in the WTC, but we were hoping it was because his dad had called the office to let him know he was okay. I'll never forget the look on his face as he walked out of the classroom... Sadly, his dad never came home. Ever since, I've always listened for the victims names and have said a little prayer for his dad when his name came up. It's sad too because my classmate's mom ended up being one of the Jersey Girls in the 9/11 Press for truth movie. Her whole story is there and when I saw that it was her in that movie I cried through the entire thing.

My brother was also already in the Army and I knew he was going to get sent off to war that day. I don't think I had ever been as scared as I was starting that day and for the next, well... long time. Thankfully he made it through two tours in Iraq. I can't say the same thing for one of my friends. He joined right after 9/11 and died in Iraq.

I bought the whole story - hook, line and sinker until I watched Zeitgeist. After realizing that we had been lied to, I became so ill I threw up. My life has changed since then. I lost my innocence. I lost my belief that I would be able to grow up in a normal world, marry, have children - the whole nine yards. I stopped believing anything the government had to say. Now, I am engaged, but honestly I don't think I'll make it to my own wedding (it's in 2013.)

God bless us all.

Alright, well seeing as i've gone through each and everyones stories, i'm compelled to tell you my own.
First off, I'm Lebanese/American. Keep in mind that Lebanon is a very westernized arab country.
K, here goes... I was in Anaheim, California at the time. Sophomore in hs.. My mom woke me up for school and it was around 7:00 ish. The news had started reporting the first plane hitting the tower.. I remember feeling strange and uneasy about the whole thing, and i distinctly remember my mom telling me that this is gonna change america. anyway i still had to get to school.. so we get on our way and by the time i get to school, this kid, idiotic jock, comes up to me and says "See what your people have done to us?? We're going to war YEAH!"
This bothered me. I remember thinking this kid should not be allowed to breed. So anyway, i get to my first period class, still not fully understanding what was going on.. the teacher had already had the tv rolled into the room, you know the one, with the wheels and the vhs player underneath, and she said that something terrible is happening and we can forget about the lesson plan today. So there we were, the entire class glued to the tv.. we watched as the first tower collapsed, then the second.. nothing made sense, and i remember the vibe i was getting from people, not good. I was now labelled a terrorist. Now, i don't look like your average arab.. my mom's from san francisco, i have a perfect american accent, i was raised christian in a christian arab country and went to a british sponsored quaker school in lebanon before moving to the u.s to continue my high school education over there... you would never suspect me to be fluent in arabic, english, french, greek, and some written latin.. "our education system is a little different over here" anyway, i say over here because i moved back to lebanon in 2009...it was a personal decision, and i feel like i made an excellent choice... i've done alot of research and have been through my tin-foil hat idiotic days, but one thing i know for certain is that there are really messed up things going on over there. I'm still an american citizen and am proud to be one, but this post 9/11 world we have created for ourselves is not a healthy one. Living in fear is not for me. I have my personal beliefs on what happened that day from doing extensive research and would love to get into that on another post. but this is not the place for it. all in all, as an arab american, my life was changed in a little bit of a different way than most, i couldn't travel with out going through high security lines (born in lebanon) i always had a feeling that someone was listening to my phone calls when i would call my dad in lebanon... I later learned this to be fact. Eventually i just moved back to lebanon as i am an artist and audio engineer and don't think it really matters where you live anymore with the whole internet age reaching its prime. sorry for getting a bit off topic but that's my story. My condolences to everyone who was lost, and lost someone 10 years ago.

Love
J

I was on Northwest Flight 246 (Phoenix to Detroit) which had left Phoenix Sky Harbor at 5AM (PST time) on 9/11/01. After about 30-45mins into the flight the pilot came on and made an annoucement that there was some kind of "National Emergency and all flights were ordered to land at the closest airport" and we were going to land at Albequerce, NM. Everyone on the plane was just kinda looking around, some checking their pagers and most asking others what was going on. Once we landed at Alb. I saw everyone in the termeinal looking at the monitors and saw the planes hitting the buildings. We were then told the airport was shutting down and would close in 3 hours. I tried to see about getting a rental car but they were 'sold out". I was able to get some food and finally got a call to my wife in Phoenix and told her I had no way home. She said she would drive over form Phoenix and pick me up. About an hour later I was told that the airport was physically closing and I would have to go outside and wait. It took my wife about 4 hours to get to Alb and pick me up.

I was working in a nuclear facility when the news broke that sunny morning. As I write this, almost exactly 10 years later, the moment when I became aware of what happened is as clear in my mind as the sky... there are no clouds in my memory either.

At first, there was disbelief and then a growing anxiety as the news was verified.

Some found excuses to go home and I couldn't blame them for that because, in my heart, I knew the world had changed. Coming home that evening, after my shift was done, I was glued to the television as those awful scenes were replayed a hundred times over, burning themselves into my brain to be replayed a thousand times.

Almost 3000 died that day alone. Over the intervening years to today, many of those near ground zero are now dying of cancers developed by the toxic dust. What the final tally [is] of those killed directly from 9/11 will be will likely never be known. What the overall effect of that attack was on all our lives is unfathomable. We changed... all of us... and perhaps these 10 years are going to be a historical reference point for centuries to come.

The decade was filled by wars, the deaths and misery of which will be measured in the millions.

I was at work, could really believe what had happend and didn't really see the scale of it until i got home. but i remember thinking one thing. America are going to bomb some poor country to hell and back.

i was right.

Well, kind of right. 2 countries.

Ain't revenge funny.

edit to add a post 911 anti war song.

www.seizetheday.org...

I remember i was in the 1st grade in Queens, NYC. i dont specifically remember where i was at 8 AM - 11 AM, but i do remember how we all (the whole school) hot dismissed at about 1.30 PM instead of 3.00 PM. At first i thought sweet this is awesome. We were being dismissed in the lunch room, remember the rush, and how all of the parents wanted to get their kids and go back to home, back to safety.

But then when i got home, my dad who was a General Contractor at the time was also home early, and then i saw the news, airplanes were crashing into some buildings. Me only being 6, had no idea where or what the Twin Towers were. But i also remember how everyone kept on saying this one word: "Osama" he did it, they had accused him in under an hour of the attacks.

My dad at the time was working at a house in Lower Brooklyn, he tells me how he saw the planes crash into the towers, and the smoke. He then tells me he gave everyone of his workers an early day off and then came home.

With a heavy heart my story starts the day before September 11th on the 10th.
A close friend my husband and I sat on the beach at Sandy Hook Nj enjoying the last of what
summer could offer us as we drank, swam and just enjoyed being alive and talking away about everything and anything we were having fun.

We were sitting on the beach where you could see the twin towers so tall and proud! I turned to my friend and husband
and made a comment that will haunt me for the rest of my life.... I said why would they ruin such a beautiful view with those huge towers it takes away from the beauty of the ocean if they weren't there I could swear I would be sitting on the beach at some beautiful vacation spot.

The next morning I awoke to a burning tower on the tv with them reporting that a airplane had crashed into it
at the moment I didn't think terrorists, but when the next plane hit the other tower I was so over whelmed with grief
needless to say when they both fell and all the loss of life I couldn't bear it I cried and cried well into the night if I could just possible take those words back
I would but I can't and the pain of that will stay with me for ever.
To this day I have never been back to Sandy Hook beach and I never will!
God bless the families!

I was in 4th grade. Class was going as normal, and then the teacher's phone rang. She then briskly walked out of the room. Around 20 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that New York was under attack or something (this part is fuzzy now). She tells us that the buses are being contacted, and we're going home early. So the buses arrive, take us home, and as I walk in the door, I see the TV on with the towers smoking.

I even remember the exact moment when the first tower began to collapse. I was walking between two rooms with TVs tuned to the towers, and just as I was passing the room, the collapse began. Naturally, everyone was dumbfounded and I didn't even know how to react, being as young as I was.

My father being an engineer, he immediately began trying to figure out why this happened, and we were absorbed in the towers for weeks.

I remember when Bush was on television, giving his speech about how the United States has to fight the war on terror.

It was a very intense day.

September 11, 2001 was a day that I will never forget. It is so etched in memory, as it is in the memories of nearly every American who was alive when it occurred. God bless those that lost their lives during that day as well as during the events that occurred because of it (Afghanistan and Iraq).

I was a freshman in high school during first period woodshop class when news came of the attacks. My instructor was a little "off-the-wall", so it was hard to glean any information from him. At the time, he really didn't know himself. Our principal had a daughter in a New York school, which was what the teacher focused on. My second class was health and PE. We were in the health portion of the class then (it was split across the semester); the teacher held class as usual, but left the radio on so we could hear news as it came in. At the time, I remember the main focus was on the Pentagon attack, although it turned out to be the least deadliest of the attacks.

In third period, Algebra, we had some semblance of class but also listened to the radio. On the way to lunch, a fight broke out between two of my friends (who obviously weren't friends). I remember one shoving the other into a locker, but it was stopped before it could get much further. Fourth (and last) period was Biology. We had no "class"; we all discussed the happenings of the day (as we knew them) with our teacher. None of us truly knew what happened, since we had no TV access.

Going home, the events of 9/11 were on my mind. However, I didn't know the significance of what had happened. I didn't know that both towers were wholly destroyed. I didn't know that 4,000 people had died. Walking in the house, I recited to my mother about the fight that happened during lunch.

"Fight? Do you realize what happened today? Do you know that thousands of people lost their lives?"

Then, it sank in. We watched the coverage. I flipped through channels, amazed that very few had regular programming. ESPN had a credits-type feature on the screen in remembrance of what happened that morning. Our night consisted of watching coverage and more coverage of the attacks. I remember the shock of seeing replays of the planes hitting the towers.

Even as someone who wasn't there and who didn't lose anyone in the attacks - that day had a major impact on my life.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Continued from above...

I started this post, with the idea of just sharing my story... A sort of "where was I" type of thing... But I just don't think I can continue in that direction. This thread is a mess, I apologize, my thoughts on the whole subject are so many though, it is hard to get them organized. Just know I am speaking from my heart.

Look, so many were hurt. So many died and so many lives were changed for ever. It hurts to watch the footage of 9/11. I get teary eyed every time and I am sure I always will. To see those people jumping out of the buildings, because their only chance of survival is to jump 90 stories and hope for a miracle...

Can you imagine how scary it must have been? 10 years. A decade... and it still hurts. It still hurts.

I long for peace, yet I see the world falling apart more and more... We see hatred and war, and fighting. Racism, bigotry and anger. Hell, we are even dealing with a pastor who is hell bent on burning Quran's here, despite massive world wide protest...

I am unsure of how to end this thread really, so I guess I will just end with a plea. One that I am sure you have heard many times.... I love you all. I am asking you all, across the world, to take my hand in peace and love. For the sake of the world. Please, take my hand.

Walk with me in peace. Everyone. Just try it? We have tried war and anger... that does not work. Why not try peace and love? What is it going to do, kill you?

Regardless of who you think did it, or what story you believe or buy into. One fact remains. And that is that around 3,00 innocent people died. Needlessly. Let us all put aside our fighting... For just a while... Join hands in peace, world wide, and just for a moment. Try peace.

I dedicate this thread to those who died on 9/11 as well as their family, friends, and everyone else who has been hurt from the events of that day. May the world overcome and join together in peace.

Peace and love...

edit on 7-9-2011 by gimme_some_truth because: (no reason given)

I cry every time I hear that phone recording...they literally had no idea it would happen...and all the firefighters going up to save them too...

Anyway...I was in the first grade and just like most others in school at that time, the teacher gets called out and she comes back in with this look of shock on her face...word gets out that we were "under attack" and planes flew into some buildings in NY. Shortly after, parents start coming in to pick thier kids up and my mom pick me up and I ask her whats going on and she looked shock and said essentially what everyone else would know. We drive over to somewhere just across the river from NYC and for the first time I saw the huge billowing cloud of smoke rising from the WTC with my own eyes, not on TV or in a picture but I actually was looking at the towers burning. We watched up until the towers collapsed along with many others, people were screaming, crying...and to then think of the people in those towers most likely totally unsuspecting to it all trying to deal with the lack of oxygen and the firefighters coming to save them...its a horrible thing to imagine.

One day there will be REAL justice for these people...but thats a different topic...w/e