United 93 Friday night. It was a good movie, but we agreed that during the entire movie, right up to the final seconds, we hoped it would have a different ending. How strange is that, to think “If the plane stays in line a little longer, all flights will be grounded, and all those people will be okay…”, or hoping that they could kill the terrorists and land the plane safely, when we knew perfectly well how it would end? I can’t believe it’s been five years. I remember exactly where I was sitting (right here), what I was wearing (my exercise outfit), what I was doing (putting off exercising) when the phone rang and Fred told me to turn on the TV. I remember seeing the second plane hit and saying to Fred “Are we at war? I think we’re at war.” because one plane was an accident, but two couldn’t possibly be. I remember sitting in front of the TV all day, interspersed with running out to take as much cash out of the bank as I could, going to the grocery store to buy water and dried beans, looking at the faces of the people around me, thinking “How can they look so normal?” All last week as I linked to entries from previous years at the bottoms of my entries, I’d see my entries from 2001, and I’d think “We didn’t know. We didn’t know what was coming, we had no idea.”, and feeling sorry for we pre-9/11 Americans who could never have believed what would be happening in a matter of days. Five years. It seems like we’ve lived with the spector of those towers falling for as long as I can remember. It seems like yesterday when I sat in this chair and watched the towers fell and said to Fred, “How many people are in those buildings?” Having no concept that so many people could have fit in those towers, because I’d never seen them up close. I had no idea they were so big. I had no frame of reference.
"These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."
I was having a snooze when my husband phoned and told me. At first I thought he was joking. He was at work and they had heard it on the radio, they had no tv so I was watching tv and calling him at work with updates. My baby was born 3 days later and I have the paper saved from that day and the headline is BUSH VOWS WAR. I remember when I went in to the hospital and we are in the maternity waiting room, all these expectant parents and their families and we are watching all this stuff on the tv there, it was on for days I think. It seemed kind of unreal, waiting to give birth and watching this horror of death on tv.
My wedding was a little over a month away when this happened. Life stood still and anger was replacing the happy thoughts and feelings I was supposed to be having.
Then it hit me—weren’t these feelings the ones that these terrrorists were trying to get me to feel? It stopped right then and there.
In this ever changing world, let us focus on our friendships and families today.
Thanks for being the bitchypoo I have adored for many, many years Robyn. Love to you and your family…
I was working upstairs at my computer and didn’t know what had hit us. My friend from Iowa called me and was hysterical on the phone…I turned on tv, was stunned, but I had so much work that HAD to get done, I went right back to my typing and typed the rest of the day, before I could stop and watch and listen to the horror of that day. I kept hearing low flying planes overhead all day (we live near Boston) and at first I kept ducking when they’d fly overhead, thinking we were next, but then realized they were our jet fighters protecting the seacoast… it was a day to remember, but one I wish we didn’t have to live thru.
I too can remember that day vividly. I know what i was doing when i heard something was going on and i too saw the second plane hit. I bawled all day long. My son at the time was only 19 and i thought for sure he would be sent off to war.
My boyfriend called me at work today and said this is the worst day of the year. Not only did America suffer that day, but my boyfriend lost his mother on that day too.
I was getting the spare bedroom ready for my brother coming into town from Texas, to see our brother for the last time, who was dying from cancer.
My husband ran into the house and turned on the tv and said “we’re being attacked”.
The flight from Texas was cancelled. He came a week or so later. We all watched in horror and tears from the hospice house tv together as all the news unfolded the following weeks.
My brother died (47 yr) that October. So I connect all the terror of the 9/11 attacks to the personal grief we went through, remembering all the families grieving their loved ones lost on 9/11
I was babysitting for my granddaughter then 8 months old and my daughter was at work in a high rise building in Michigan. She was seven months pregnant(with her second baby) at the time and we had the fear of her losing the baby. She came home from work because everyone was just sobbing watching a tv in one of the offices. The stress was not good for her. When the pentegon was hit we surly thought more distruction was going to happen. I made my son in law go to the store for water, diapers, tp, baby food just to be ready for anything. I love that you were thinking like I was and went for supplies. My family always laughs that I have a can goods supply and I could feed 50 people for a few months. The baby I was watching is in kindergarten and learned the Pledge Of Allegiance Today.
I was watching GMA when they broke in and said a plane had hit one of the towers. They reported that they thought it was a small, commuter, plane. An accident. Then the second plane hit. I went to the store and bought food. Didn’t think to hit the bank or gas station to stock up there. Came home and was glued to CNN. Called my husband and told him what happened. What a horrible day in history 🙁
I was in my car and i just turned on my favorite morning show to hear “a plane just hit the World Trade Center building”. i couldn’t believe what i was hearing since that used to be the place where i would sit and have lunch and admire the structure around me. i was on my way to work i still had a ten min drive, i didn’t want to leave my car….i went into work and the tv was already on and we were glued to it the entire day. I remember how helpless i felt being that i am from NY and those are my friends and family suffering while im in IL. my very best friend lost her husband that day and she still is a mess over it. she watches him die everytime they show it. to this day she won’t leave her house. and this is a woman who would ride a harley and ride all night if she wanted too. its very sad and tragic….God Bless us all…..seriously.
Beautiful post, Mom 😀
First off, how nice to see a Spud comment!
I vividly remember that I was reaching out to snap off the radio and head out the door for work, when the DJ said that they had just received a report of a small plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers. I turned on the TV and watched in shock, thinking (as we all did) that this was a horrible accident and wondering if an air traffic controller was to blame. Little did we know the horror that that day would bring.
By the time I got into work, the second plane had hit, and there was speculation that we were under attack. People were clustered around TVs or in groups, talking. Very soon, we were told that all TVs and radios must be turned off, and we were to get back to work. Yes, you heard me correctly.
This large financial institution, whose name rhymes with Hells Cargo, felt that their bottom line was more important than the fear that their employees were experiencing. Dirtballs. They appeased us by sending company wide e-mail updates as the events of the day unfolded. But we could not discuss any of it with our peers. Uncaring and unforgivable.
Today, the talk radio station I listen to rebroadcast a lot of the original national news reports from that day, and I still teared up, thinking of the horror and the heroism that our nation experienced on that day. May we never have another date that is so indelibly ingrained on our country’s conciousness.
I was just getting to work that day, so sat in my car and listened. When I went inside we did no work all day, just listened to updates and talked. It was the first time I had even heard of Osama Bin Laden. Couldn’t even pronounce it at the time. What a household name that’s turned out to be. I remember calling my husband and hugging my kids close and praying for all those brave people who were lost, their families and the brave people who are still with us today that helped. I remember being scared to death and wondering what was going to happen to our land of the free.
I got the kids off to school and was puttering on the computer. Email friend in HI tells me to turn on the tv. To be honest it really didn’t hit me then. I had no comprehension of the devastation as a Canadian. But when I heard the stats on firefighters missing (married to one) it HIT home.
I remember sitting down to watch the morning news after getting the kids off to school while Bill was getting dressed for work. He had just came home from PT and was ironing his BDU’s. I remember them showing the first plane hitting and us talking about it and the shock we felt, then we watched as the second hit and I remember jumping up and yelling that there was no way that was an accident. He jerked on his uniform and ran out the door to work just as the phone started ringing. The unit was calling and telling all the soldiers to get back in right away. I remember my mother calling and her panic over the fact that we lived on a military base. I ran to the school and pulled my kids out and made them come home just in case they started targetting schools like the news was saying.
I fielded phone calls all day from wives and family members of the soldiers serving with Bill while watching the news and I can remember when the Pentagon was hit calling Bill and asking him if he had heard. He hadn’t. It was such a shock to him and all of his soldiers. There were quite a few of our prior command group serving there, not to mention the Pentagon being such a source of attachment for a soldier.
When it was apparent that it was terrorists that had hit the Trade Center, the whole base was in an uproar. Every soldier was ready. Every wife was ready. And we were all waiting. Not one phone call that I recieved from a concerned family member was to say they didn’t want thier soldier to go to defend our country… they all wanted to know if and when. I will never forget that as long as I live. The feeling of patriotism that I felt from all of those people that I dealt with that day still overwhelms me. The vigils on post, the flags flown, the cars with things wrote on them for support. The outporing of love, concern, outrage, and conviction for our country and our people was amazing.
I remember watching the news, hearing Bush state that we were “At War” and knowing that Bill would be leaving to go somewhere. I remember the phone ringing not even five minutes after that statement by the President and the Unit being called up on alert and Bill having to leave for briefings.
I know that we are a country divided in a lot of respects and since my own family has been torn apart by this “war” my views have changed, however.. we do all have one thing in common.. this is our country, our people and when push comes to shove.. we are United in our Love for each other. And we are forever united in the tragedy that our country suffered through that day.