Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Where were you on 9/11?

I was at school my junior year of high school--it was 1st period (Washington state, so PST) and I remember instead of having class like normal, we all went over to the classroom across the hall because they had a TV set up and we crowded in there to watch. It was very surreal--I don't know how much I really understood of what was going on. I think we saw the second one hit while we were watching . . .

My mom's second cousins were a bit more worried--one of her relatives worked at the Pentagon, but thankfully he was in a totally different area from the one that was hit, so he was unharmed. It was awhile before they heard from him though, so there was quite a bit of worry there.

Last Sunday night I got to sing in a choir for a concert that commemorates 9/11 annually (normally we sing ON the 11th, but this year it didn't work out that way), which was really neat. They extend the concert's theme now to honor servicemen of the military and of the civil services (police, firefighters, etc.) who've gone above and beyond the call of duty. It's very inspiring.

I always got to school somewhat early so my friends and I could hang out a little before band (and get our chairs and stands out so we would be ready to start at the right time). When I went into the band hall, however, one of the band directors and a small group of people were standing in front of the tiny television. This being an unusual occurrence (that television was almost never used), I stopped to see what was going on.

I'm sure I asked what was happening and was quickly told, but the sight of that billowing smoke mostly spoke for itself.

I'm pretty sure we didn't play any music that day; I think we mostly sat around solemnly, perhaps whispering a little.

In one of my later classes (third period, I think), my history teacher had us write down our reactions, and we continued to watch the television. She told us this was a day of history, and so she didn't teach; we just listened to the news. In classes for the first half of the day, I think we watched television. I can't remember if we were dismissed finally--I think we might have been--but I feel like a teacher in at least one of my classes tried to teach.
I'm not sure where it is, but that history teacher got our "thought sheets" back to us (maybe mailing it a year later) at some point. I know in one of my psychology classes I read that people remember strong emotional events strongly--but that their memories often contain falsifications. Because of that, I guess I often sort of doubt my memories of 9/11, but I know that I'll always have that sheet of paper from my history teacher to look back to.

Years later, in a creative writing class, I read in Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual that " . . . some weeks after the [9/11] attack, . . . the rescue dogs at the World Trade Center got badly depressed because they couldn't find any living bodies in the rubble, so people hid in the ruins and let the dogs find them."

There is a poem about this by D. Nurske, found in that book and here , that I find really poignant:

-----------------------------------

Searchers
We gave our dogs a button to sniff,
or a tissue, and they bounded off
confident in their training,
in the power of their senses
to recreate the body,

but after eighteen hours in rubble
where even steel was pulverized
they curled on themselves
and stared up at us
and in their soft huge eyes
we saw mirrored the longing for death:

then we had to beg a stranger
to be a victim and crouch
behind a girder, and let the dogs
discover him and tug him
proudly, with suppressed yaps,
back to Command and the rows
of empty triage tables.

But who will hide from us?
Who will keep digging for us
here in the cloud of ashes?

-----------------------------------

Even now, I find that poem so incredibly sad. But bless the people who were willing to hide from the dogs--the people who waved the flags that Shallowford saw--the people who worked so hard to save those in the rubble--the families who lost loved ones--all those who died and all those who showed how much they cared. It's strange how the dark side of humanity can make the light side shine so much brighter.

By the way, our U.S. President and Commander-In-Chief said, "We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_pf.html)

I don't have polite words. This is a little like saying that a soldier “absorbed” a bullet but more offensive.

Sorry for posting off-topic but I think it deserves to be mentioned.

I live in Northern New Jersey, about an hour's drive from NYC. I was at work and worried about my husband who was making deliveries at that time. I didn't know where he was scheduled to go that day and he could very well have been there. Unfortunately, all the phone lines were tied up and I didn't talk to him until we were both home that night.

My office did close early, but I ended up watching a video tape because EVERY channel kept replaying the crash and I just couldn't watch it anymore.

The next day, Craig came home from work and told me that his office, a pharmaceutical distributor was sending a care package of bandages and other first aid supplies to the workers. He took a couple of our blankets to send, too.

I bought a book sometime later called "Be Still, America. I Am God." It's all different stories of people who should have been there but something got in the way...alarm clock didn't work, missed the train, etc. I still haven't read the entire book yet, because each time I've tried I just start crying all over again.

I don't personally know anyone who was lost that day, but I still feel for the families who do.

Even nine years after, it still hurts to read about your experiences. I remember turning on the TV and getting the message that every show has been cancelled "because of the terrorist attacks in New York". I thought to myself "terrorists? yeah right".. people here (Sweden) didn't seem to understand at first. It's so unreal. The day after, our teacher in school told us that 9/11 would change the world and that we would remember that day for the rest of our lives.. I guess she was right.

Yesterday, Sweden had it's first terrorist attack. I thank God/the Universe/whatever-you-wanna-call-it that it didn't end as bad as 9/11. It's a miracle he didn't succeed in killing anyone apart from himself and I am so grateful for that. For the fact that we didn't have to suffer the way people did due to 9/11.
My heart goes out to you all, and to everyone who has suffered from something this horrible.

One of the few consoling things about terrorism is that most of them are staggeringly incompetent - the Swedish incident yesterday isn't an isolated case, there was the attack on Glasgow Airport in 2007 where the only serious casualties were the terrorists themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Glasgow_International_Airport_attack

Marcus, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that. I think that any terrorist is an id-ot per definition, but I'm glad that a lot of them are failing as well.

I was re-reading some of this thread and started thinking about all those people who should have been at the WTC, or on one of the planes, or the pentagon, etc. on 9/11 but weren't able to for some reason (slept in, traffic, fight with spouse) and did a google search to read their stories and found this book: Be Still America - I am God It sounds really good - I think I'm gonna buy it.

Edit: Derrrr, Anne you totally just mentioned that book in your post! Send me a PM telling me about it, if you can.

It was about midnight or something like that and I was asleep when my dad woke me up and asked me why I didn't tell him about it. Of course half groggy I wondered that the hell he was talking about. I thought it was some late night movie or something at the time probably more due to my sleepy state then anything else so I wasn't really processing anything.

My first class the next day was religious studies and we were currently on the topic of religious ethics and coincidently my teacher had chosen to compare Islam and Christianity (being as I went to a Catholic high school). It was an interesting first hour of school to put it mildly.