Where Were You?
They say its therapudic to talk about it, and I think they’re right.
Where were you when you first heard about the planes hitting The World Trade Center? How has your life changed because of it?
I was at work when my (then) husband called to tell me. I called my sister in LA who travels 100% for work and asked her to stop what she was doing and turn the TV on, then croweded in a confrence room with co-workers around a TV with static ridden cable, all of us trying to wrap our minds around what was happening. I spent the rest of the day with a co-worker whose boyfriend was in the Philly airport waiting to come home on the floor of my apartment saying “oh my God” a million times.
The thing I remember most about the days that followed were the sheer number of American flags on cars, hung off overpasses and the GIANT on the building north of the 17th St bride…and my eyes welling up at every one of them.
i was in france, 2 weeks into a year-long study abroad program, and i didn’t yet know the language very well. it was terrifying watching the news and seeing those pictures — the billowing smoke, plumes of fire, falling bodies — and not understanding the words.
in the following weeks it was interesting to see the reactions of the parisians around me. we were told to not wear sneakers or baseball caps, only speak in french, always speak softly. no flags for us. strangers would come up to me in the street and offer condolences, solidarity. some didn’t react so politely when they found out i was american, but most did.
it made me feel very, very far away.
At that time I was working on a weekly newspaper, I was alone at the office and the manager call telling me to turn on the TV and start looking for updates and information for the comming issue. It was a sad number, we put a lot of effort on the cover and all the articles.
I got home until Thursday, impressed with all the images.
I was at the Little Creek Amphib Base in VA and got the call with some teammates of mine to head up to NYC to help with the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Being in the military we would have rather struck out after those who perpetrated this crime against America. Instead, we followed orders and it was a humbling experience.
The outpouring of emotion and solidarity was nothing like any of us had seen before. It not only gave us resolve in the search for survivors but also fueled our want to find those responsible and bring them to justice.
I got back from the Middle East in March of this year. No one serving over there with me that was at Ground Zero hours after the attacks had forgotten why we were there.
On the tarmac at LaGuardia, waiting to fly back to Atlanta. I could see smoke on the horizon (but not the buildings themselves), then cell phones started bleating like crazy on the plane. It ended up being my first (and hopefully last) experience of actually losing my freedom, as at one point we were herded into a parking lot for a couple of hours and watched over by National Guardsmen with automatic weapons.
Believe me, though, I am not complaining.
35,000 feet above memphis tennessee flying to seattle. i got an unexpected trip to st louis.
at HS, first period. My English teacher turned on the T.V., I don’t think anyone believed it was real for a few moments. Then, there it was…the first collapse. The T.V.s were turned off and all off-campus activites stopped.
in bed a few miles uptown. but i could see the smoke billowing from the window and could smell the suggestions of an awful stench in the air later that day.
Waiting for the elevator in a downtown Atlanta office building at around 8:45 a.m., I noticed a large group of people gasping at the hallway TV screen…CNN News showing the image of the first plane entering the WTC. Wondering how many of my consulting buddies were in the WTC at the time. Feeling horrified for all the folks in and around NYC. Turned around and got back on the Marta train.