No matter what you think of the war, the presidential election, or the state of our economy, I hope you never forget what happened seven years ago today.- I remember talking to my dad and him saying "a plane has flown into the World Trade Center.... and Oh My God!!!!!!! Another plane just hit the other tower! Oh My God, Marni, OH MY GOD!!! What the fuck is going on!!!!?!!!" I have never heard him panic like that, and I hope I never do again.
- I remember looking out the windows of my office building toward the skyline of Atlanta and waiting to see if one of our buildings was a target.
- I remember while standing in a crowd around a television screen, the voice of a woman say "My SON is in that building!" and then her footsteps as she ran to the elevator. I don't know who she was or if her son survived and that haunts me.
- I remember going down to the company's auditorium where they were broadcasting the news and then watching the towers fall.
- I remember walking back to my desk as a zombie.
- I remember watching the tv non-stop.
- I remember trying to get on CNN for the latest news, but I couldn't because the internet lines were swamped.
- I remember when my best friend told me her cousin was a firefighter that was lost that day.
- I remember hugging my kids and wishing they could live in a world where this didn't happen.
- I remember looking as American flags appeared on cars, homes, lamp posts, fences over bridges... even on PETS... everywhere. Where are they now?
What do you remember?
Please don't forget...
Please don't forget...
6 comments:
I was at home getting ready for work - going in late because I had to stay late. I called a friend who was at the office already and said "The World Trade Center is on fire". As I was telling her to find a TV feed in the office, the second plane hit and I said "What the hell is going on?". She dropped the phone and started telling people.
I hung up and then decided to get to the office - still not grasping the entire story. By the time I got to my office, everyone was huddled around the one TV. The Pentagon had been hit and United 93 had crashed.
Around noon they told us we should go home as we didn't know if there could be an attack here in Atlanta. I had a meeting scheduled for that afternoon in the BellSouth building in Midtown Atlanta - it is very close to a lot of recognizable buildings that could be targets, so everyone down there was going to leave.
I spent the rest of the day watching TV and trying to get in touch with various friends who lived in NYC and DC. And thinking about what kind of world my baby was going to be born in - I had just found out the week before that I was pregnant.
My friend called me and told me to turn on the tv. It didn't matter what channel, b/c the story was on everywhere.
I saw people jumping to their death - some from the top floors of the WTC. I saw footage of the second plane crashing,and watched the huge black cloud of smoke envelope crowds as they tried to outrun it.
I honestly thought that the world was ending.
I called my brother in Toronto,and worried about my sister, that I had not found yet.
That evening, as I sat in the courtyard of my townhouse complex, an strange man dropped off papers for me.
Geoff was serving me notice that he wanted full custody of Jessica.
That night, I cried myself to sleep.
Even if the world weren't coming to an end, mine was.
I will never forget that day as long as I live....
I was lucky enough to tuck my kids in that night, and there were moms, dads, and family that were missing loved ones.
I was at school. We started hearing the news buzzing down the hallway, and then the principal came on the PA system, and told teachers not to turn on the TVs in their classrooms. Of course, that made people who didn't know what was happening curious, so we all sort of drifted together to whisper about what was going on.
Our town is a military town, so a lot of service people came and yanked their kids out of school, afraid that military bases would be targets. A lot of lives changed, and began to change that day. My town lost quite a few to the war in Iraq.
Thanks for remembering, Marni. We all need the reminder of those who were taken from us.
I'll never forget, just one of those instances where you say "do you remember the day of 9/11" and you can tell, vividly, how your day was.
I keep my flag up all year!
I had taken my son to school and was home watching the news, getting ready for work.
I saw the t.v. go to the first plane hit, and I thought, OMG somebody screwed up big time.
The second plane hit, and I thought OMG somebody is attacking us. Then the pentagon got hit, and my husband called telling me he was on full alert with the fire dept. We have a major power plant and dam that makes power for all the western united states. They had heard our area was in the "top 10 list" of terrorist attacks.
I called the school asking if they were releasing the kids, and they said no. I finished getting ready for work saying prayers, when my mother called and said that the chirporactor told her school was out.
I ran up there to find out they released school with the first plane crash, they had lied to me and I left my 5 year old alone at school for over 2 hours till people got their head out of there ass enough to let me know.
I came home and watched the t.v. non stop. I felt numb.
About the third day of coverage I broke down and cried and cried.
We were on alert and school cancelled for 4 days here. Sorry on allert for a few weeks.
My father works at the dam and it's still patroled by homeland security on a regular basis. It will never end for us. We will never forget.
I was in the car on my way to work. I thought it was a radio prank until I heard the DJ say, "So we're watching this on the tv here in the office and as it's unfolding, I'm just wondering what the heck is happening. What a horrible accident. I wonder...what is that? Oh my God, it's another plane!" And then there was silence. When they came back on the air, the speculation began that it was a terrorist attack. The rest of the day was a blur as I sat in my office, occasionally listening to the radio, but mostly just praying. It was a long day.
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