remembering 9/11

[BigJohn]

BTS - Wow, I spent alot of time on the Prom too! It's a very very small world. I used to live on Remsen Street. I bet we've passed each other. I live out West now. I don't really miss NY but I do miss Brooklyn Heights! It was a great place to live.

I still have issues with low flying craft. And there are hospital helo's that fly often right by where I work. I always worry that they will crash into the building (by accident).

I too had to go back to work a week after. That smell wasn't just outside, it crept into building too. I'm sure it was like that everywhere downtown.

ACH, thanks for the kind words.

Small world. That name rings bells to me. Wow.

[backtoschool]

BTS - Wow, I spent alot of time on the Prom too! It's a very very small world. I used to live on Remsen Street. I bet we've passed each other. I live out West now. I don't really miss NY but I do miss Brooklyn Heights! It was a great place to live.

I still have issues with low flying craft. And there are hospital helo's that fly often right by where I work. I always worry that they will crash into the building (by accident).

I too had to go back to work a week after. That smell wasn't just outside, it crept into building too. I'm sure it was like that everywhere downtown.

ACH, thanks for the kind words.

I lived on Schermerhorn danaf! Wow it is a small world. We must have seen each other at some point.

I loved living in Brooklyn Heights, but wanted a loft "with a view" (that I couldn't afford. )

It's weird, but I am finding that I don't miss New York either. I have been gone since the beginning of the year and I haven't had any desire to go back. But I do miss the connection to different realities that living in New York gives you. Everything is homogenized where I live now. There is no diversity in sight, taste, sound, smell, or experience.

Well, it was great to "connect" with you and have a genuine 9/11 healing moment with someone who went through it like me. I am living in a place where people have forgotten, and it was very alienating this year.

Great to "meet" you!

[danaf]

BTS - Wow, I spent alot of time on the Prom too! It's a very very small world. I used to live on Remsen Street. I bet we've passed each other. I live out West now. I don't really miss NY but I do miss Brooklyn Heights! It was a great place to live.

I still have issues with low flying craft. And there are hospital helo's that fly often right by where I work. I always worry that they will crash into the building (by accident).

I too had to go back to work a week after. That smell wasn't just outside, it crept into building too. I'm sure it was like that everywhere downtown.

ACH, thanks for the kind words.

[AngelinaCatHub]

danaf my friend. My heart also goes out to you. The emergency exits on the high floors would not have saved many as, if you could have gotten through any or all of them, running down hundreds of floors would take more time than allowed when the buildings "pancaked" down.

I was surprised and impressed. Not impressed good, but to see each floor falling one upon another down was a blessing in that, if the towers had fallen sideways, many more thousands including everyone within the towers would have been killed. No account for small favors, but this was a true act of war. Too bad we did not have a stronger pres in at that time. Truman or Eisenhower, or Reagan, or JFK.

In our small town, I purchased years ago (when I had money) a 9-11 monument. It took the City three years to accept this monument but they would not put it into "Memorial Park". Stit, it's called MEMORIAL PARK but I had to give it anonymously and it sits in front of the flag at City Hall. NO memorial was had. Of the three city flags, two were not raised and one was half mast. Mrs. and I put a black ribbon and red, white, blue wreath upon the stone with a picture of the plane about to hit #2.

How easy we foolish people forget. Those who do not learn by History are doomed to repeat it. 'Hub

[backtoschool]

BTS - I was there too. I worked at 1 NY Plaza on the 50th floor....360 degrees of the entire city including the trade center. And at the time, I lived in Brooklyn Heights. It seems like yesterday - everyday despite that I, like many others have moved on.

I wasn't in one of the towers like you and yet, I experienced very severe post traumatic stress. And some freaky spiritual things in the months afterwards. To this day, I have issues with being on higher floors of a tall building.

All of those poor souls. I also lost friends.

And the countless times I was in one of the towers for work, or at Windows on the World for pleasure....I knew it was high but never could I have imagined what happened. When I think back, I didn't even think about where the emergency exits were when I was up there, not that it would have mattered 9/11.

And then the smell - when we went back to work. It was aweful.

I will never forget. I'm glad you posted.

I had post traumatic stress too. I saw people die and jump off the buildings that day. I lived in Brooklyn Heights at the time too, but moved to a loft in Dumbo a few years later.

I still can smell that acrid burning smell. To this day, even a barbeque or someone burning leaves will trigger a flashback. I can no longer use a fireplace either.

I had to go back downtown for work almost immediately, (less than a week after it happened) and I remember the huge piles of melted debris with the tanks and the marines and national guards men with machine guns. I remember stepping around the huge piles of smoking acrid building debris and the endless scattered papers blowing around everywhere, and showing my ID to the National Guardsmen to get to work.

I also remember hearing f-15's flying over my apartment hourly. I also remember going to the Promenade every night to light a candle in by all the dried flowers and the posters of the missing.

I will never forget either.

[danaf]

BTS - I was there too. I worked at 1 NY Plaza on the 50th floor....360 degrees of the entire city including the trade center. And at the time, I lived in Brooklyn Heights. It seems like yesterday - everyday despite that I, like many others have moved on.

I wasn't in one of the towers like you and yet, I experienced very severe post traumatic stress. And some freaky spiritual things in the months afterwards. To this day, I have issues with being on higher floors of a tall building.

All of those poor souls. I also lost friends.

And the countless times I was in one of the towers for work, or at Windows on the World for pleasure....I knew it was high but never could I have imagined what happened. When I think back, I didn't even think about where the emergency exits were when I was up there, not that it would have mattered 9/11.

And then the smell - when we went back to work. It was aweful.

I will never forget. I'm glad you posted.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I still have my dust filled clothes from that day and my trade center building identification card. They are sealed away in a box.

BTS, This is good. It would be sacrilegious to put such upon eBay but in your future, it would be wise to tell the story, and show to the grand-kids. Then as we are doing, put it to a museum so that others can realize that this IN FACT DID HAPPEN!!

So soon, we forget. 'Hub

[backtoschool]

I still have my dust filled clothes from that day and my trade center building identification card. They are sealed away in a box.

[AngelinaCat]

The History Channel showed a lot of movie footage that had been taken by amateur photographers that day as the planes hit and the towers eventually fell. History Channel collected many of these to archive. They began--at least I turned it on at 10:00 PM. I stuck with it until about 1:00 AM and had to give it up.....

[backtoschool]

I am still feeling a lot of grief today. Usually it takes me several days afterward to get back to "normal" (whatever that is).

[HRx]

Seems like yesterday...I was living in DC at the time.

[OhioFiler]

It is not just another day in this household. We will never forget.

[woeisme]

I was born the same day Bobby Kennedy was shot, so don't have the 60's memories. But this was like the Challenger explosion in the 80's for me, will never forget where I was or what I was doing that day. I was watching the Today Show on NBC (central time zone so it was 7 in the morning for me) with breakfast when I saw them break in and the live coverage from NY. It was so shocking. I was teaching at a small University and couldn't stay home to see what was going on so was at school when the towers actually fell, was constantly checking the net for news whenever I could. I was sure there were 30,000 or more dead, and more attacks to come, it was such a sad horrible time.

My significant other at the time worked at a federal building in Denver, and I wasn't able to reach him for almost a day. He said they had Blackhawk helicopters in the parking lot by that afternoon, it wasn't just NYC or DC, the entire nation was in a state of fear and grief.

I'm at a different University in a different state now, but today we stopped all 8am classes for a moment of silence to remember and honor those who were lost in NYC, DC, and PA. The students here were 10-14 years old when this happened, it was one of the defining moments of their life, a big part of their cultural identity. They won't be forgetting, even if we just have quiet moments of reflection as opposed to big memorial ceremonies. It changed the American way of life, and we all still feel the effects, although not as personally as those who were there or who lost friends and family. Know we're all thinking of it today, whether it's verbalized or not, it's with us.

[IBroke]

Back then, me and my family were still living in Germany. It was about 3 PM when my brother from Thailand called and told me what happened. We all rushed to the TV and and started crying when we saw people jumping...

We simply couldn't imagine what happened that day. A few years earlier, we visited New York and were standing on top of that building...

[JRScott]

On 9/11 I was a cabinet builder. This was before I hurt my back a couple of times, actually just before that. We were at work and the normal policy was no radios on during work time on the line. However once word started to spread folks wondered on bathroom breaks by the snack room and listened in.

When Tower 1 fell and destroyed several ambulances and rescue vehicles we had built those. There were several similar ambulances in the line, different colors from the ones that were lost. However the company immediately revamped those by repainting them and getting the cabinets recolored to replace them. One was donated to the fire station can't remember which one.

It was one of the few weeks I actually worked a lot of overtime to cut out replacement cabinets for the replacement ambulances.

Another interesting connection to my family. There was a church at WTC. My aunt's brother was a minister there. He was due in church that morning, his name is Jeff. However as he left home he felt a need to check on a member of the congregation who he hadn't seen in a while. He detoured from his normal path and the tower was hit while he was visiting the member of his church. Had he not stopped to see them he would most likely have died there that day as so many did. He recently conducted a marriage for my cousin which is the first time I'd met him and his wife.