9/11 is coming up this week

[TrudyCampbell]

Sept 9, 2013 20:49:03 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

Try this again.

Oh wow I'm surprised they have them lit already. I should go look from my roof.

[fryjack2]

Sept 9, 2013 20:28:16 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

Was just in a taxi on my way home and saw the lights. Thought I would share.

We saw Passion Pit on Friday night on Pier 27.  The blue light was shining and H got some great pictures.  I'll have to get them off his phone and post them later.  He got pretty emotional for awhile, and got into getting some good shots.

[bigapple]

Sept 9, 2013 20:50:47 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Sept 9, 2013 20:49:03 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

Try this again.

Oh wow I'm surprised they have them lit already. I should go look from my roof.

I didn't know they were lit either. That looks really cool.

I think of One World Trade as Carter's building because it became the tallest building in Manhattan while I was in labor. I had a clear view of it from my hospital recovery room, and I remember marveling at it for hours while holding my tiny baby.

[lolaburns]

Sept 9, 2013 20:49:03 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

Try this again.

This brought me so much solace and lifted me up when they first did the Rays of Light. It still does. I'm so thankful they still do this.

I've thought about this and DH and I discuss it fairly often. I want him to see the memorial before we move, but at that age I will be guarded with the details and basically just say immense heroism happened there on that day. In the wake of it, brought together mom & dad in a very profound way. I don't want him to be fearful so I'm not going to specifically mention death or terrorism. When he is a teen and old enough to grasp exactly what happened , H and I will tell him our individual specific stories from that day with all sensory details. This living history is very important to us.

I've never felt disconnected from it because the threat if it happening again is still very real to H and me due to his job. I can only hope that in 10-15 years from now these acts are a thing of the past. At the same time, here we are still technically fighting it and being vigilant to be protected 12 years later. I hope it is a thing to remember and reflect on and not something to experience for our children's generation.

[cat19]

I still can't watch footage. I was woken up by my housemate telling me after the second plane crashed. I couldn't get in touch with my sister. I had to go into work at Hollywood video. All I did was listen to the radio and kept calling my sister. People wandered in not knowing why. I remember handing out sandwiches and water for days at the blood center. Every year I ask Linz if they spoke about it at school. Every year she tells me not really. Every year I ask her if she has any questions. Living where we live, I am shocked by this, but the youngest kids that would have lost a parent are going into 6th grade and she's only in 4th. I feel as if that is making a difference.

[AndyCohen]

Sept 9, 2013 17:01:18 GMT -5 bigapple said:

I already feel disconnected from it. I moved to DC in the fall of 2001 and have only lived there and NYC since. I worked in the U.S. Senate through Anthrax and Ricin, and the war joint resolution. I spent two years working with Afghan and Pakistani refugees who had been brutalized by the Taliban. A close friend fortunately made it out of the Towers that day. Despite all of that, I still don't feel much emotion about 9/11. Like PP said, it's like Pearl Harbor or the Vietnam War in my mind - something to remember and learn from, but not something I routinely dwell on.

Same, but I was in Brooklyn when it happened. I saw it on TV before class and wasn't sure if it was real or a movie. I've never felt emotional about the event and I don't know what that says about me but I know so many people who were deeply impacted by it.

[Deleted]

I'm really curious, NY'ers. Would you mind sharing your story? Where were you when you found out? What do you remember most about that day?

I was in 5th grade. I remember being called to the front office to go home early. I was really scared something had happened to one of my parents, mostly because we never left early. My dad told us that today, something very bad had happened and he wanted us home with him. He works at a nuclear plant, and they shut it down for the day in case of attack. I didn't know the magnitude of what happened, even as I watched it. It didn't affect me emotionally at that age. My mom took me to NYC for my 16th birthday. My uncle is a Broadway director and we stayed with him. He took us to Ground Zero. That is the first time I felt it. I broke down and sobbed, hysterically. It really took being there, seeing the cards kids had sent from around the US, seeing those names... All of those names...

I really recommend the book There's a Big, Beautiful World Out There to read to your children when telling them. It was written on Sept. 12, 2001.

[Deleted]

I was 12 so it really didn't 'hit' me until years later. I just didn't understand at 12... I couldnt fathom it. I agree with pp's that our children will just see it as another tragedy and won't connect to it like we do.

[Deleted]

Sept 10, 2013 7:58:05 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

I was at work in midtown, a few miles away. My mom called me because I used to work right next to the WTC and she was scared I was still close. She told me it was on the news that a plane had crashed into the WTC and I blew it off thinking it was probably a small private plane, sad as it was, I had work to do. Then all hell broke loose at work and we all watched the 2nd plane hit on the TV in a conference room. My company sent everyone home who lived in the city but I was still commuting at the time and all the trains were shut down. Many of us camped out at work for the night holding hands and watching news and crying. They opened up some trains the next day and I went home. I moved to Queens 2 weeks later.

I was already a volunteer with The Salvation Army so I volunteered right away. I worked almost every Friday night and Saturday for about 8 months and then slowed down from there once I started college. I did various things at the first aid tent and food tent set up for the workers who were looking for survivors and eventual clean up. I have had numerous tests by the World Trade Center Health Registry but it was deemed inconclusive as to whether I got lymphoma from being a volunteer or some other reason.

This is exactly what I thought. I was in 7th grade health class and some of the students were freaking out and I just kept thinking, 'But it was an accident? A plane flying too low or something'.  Then once the 2nd one hit I realized it probably wasn't an accident.... I was just very confused.  

[orriskitten]

It was my first week of high school. We could see the whole skyline from1/2 of the classrooms. It happened while I was in English class. Our teachers didn't tell us anything. Then an announcement came over the loudspeaker that anyone with familyworking downtown should immediately report to the auditorium. The kids that went in were not allowed to leave and they were the only ones who knew. This was second period. We went about our day and just knew there was an accident at the wtc. 4th period I had a class that faced the city and all we could see was smoke. I went to a huge high school and that was the only time it was completely silent, as we all tried to see anything.

Then kids started to get called to the office to go home. It took my mom4 hours to get to me since she walked from her college campus to my school, probably about 12 miles away.

We just went into a class with a teacher who allowed us to watch the news. 4hours later, I found out and then my mom came.

Her best friend, partner and the only father figure I had growing up was an emt and he got called in immediately. We had no phone service, but his short call made it to her, "I'm going to the world trade. I love you and tell Jessie I love her." We walked through the streets crying. In the end he was okay, thank God.

We got to a bus and I went to pay and the driver said "its free, its a national emergency." As we rode home, we saw people wearing gas masks. I remember thinking oh Shit, I'm going to die a virgin lol.

When we got home we watched the news. I asked my mom what we would do if something else happened and she told me we would go outside, hold hands and wait for it to come. If it was something terrible, better die than to suffer the worst if we survived.

I remember seeing the buses sent to help transport the bodies and that has stuck with me. I knew so many people who went in for the rescue efforts and I don't know how my momheld herself together for me.

We had paper from the buildings land all around our house. School was closed for a long while. I was too young to do anything after, but it sure stuck with me.

[Deleted]

Wow. I really cannot imagine how much of an impact that had on you guys who experienced it first hand. I can't fathom something of that degree happening in my backyard.

[rjamz]

I copied this from my post about it on TB from last year (edited with a few more details bc I know you guys better now)

I was in 2nd period high school on the 2nd day of school of my junior year. My school was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I went to a Jewish day school and I was in a class about the books of Prophets. I remember my teacher dropping her book on the floor, which was surprising bc we're taught holy books can't touch the floor.

We went to our classes for a while, but didn't really learn anything. In the Jewish classes, we prayed a lot. Some people were acting like it was no big deal, but I knew something big was happening. My father called to tell me the first tower went down and I sobbed on the bathroom floor for a while. When the towers started to fall, we were all sent to the lunchroom while they contacted our parents. CNN was on the big projector tv.

I lived in NJ, so I was stuck on the island because all the bridges and tunnels were closed. I went to my friend Sherri's house for the night, where we watched the news all night. We could see the smoke and ash from her roof. I'll never forget how blue the sky was that day when I left my house. I'll never forget having to shut the windows and turn off the AC because even on the Upper East Side, 5 miles away from the Towers, the smell of burning flesh was seeping in.

I remember waking up the next morning confused as to why I was in Sherri's room. I was convinced it had been a horrible dream. It wasn't.

It wasn't until last year, the 10th anniversary, that I really dealt with all my feelings about that day and broke down and cried.