We always go somewhere where there is a public memorial on Sept 11.  This year we are planning to go to Shanksville, PA where the flight crashed in the field.

My husband cannot get through the day without connecting with other people who are still mourning.

I just read the the speaker will be Colin Powell and  the national anthem will be sung by.........................................Trace Adkins.

 

I will first be at our towns memorial for those who died here from this town.
The second place I am going is going to sound odd. Back to my old town. I remember calling many friends up that way that day.Late in the day because we had no phones earlier on in the day. So many worked in the city. As time went by more cars were left stranded at the train station. After a few days we knew they weren't coming home. I believe it was 4 days later we all just met at the train station. The look on our faces to see white paint on tires of the cars not picked up just hit us hard. Every year after that planned or not planned we met and talked and cried and I can't seem to stop going. It has grown to be the unoffical offical ceremony for us.

I so understand how your husband feels. Mine will not go into that part of the city yet. I can't seem to get him to go. He still cannot let go of the phone call he got to pick up the neighbors children. One worked in the WTC and one worked 2 blocks down for a bank. We had NO idea if they had made it or not. Tony the Dad was in the trains heading into work. He was on one of them that reveresed out back into NJ. He still won't talk about it and couldn't wait to get out of the city. His wife still works for the same bank. But to sit here and wait with these two little kids not knowing if the parents were alive or not. Just took the life out of him.

I will never forget that day in IWON never for as long as I live! I will never forget not being able to reach Sable and being so cut off from the world.

Thanks for the beautiful response Piglet. I cried as I read it.

I didn't start this thread to talk about 911 memories. It was to tell people about the really awesome ceremony that is going to be in Shanksville in case any one else is close enough to go.

Once you start on 911 it is hard to stop though. Your story about the cars.........my husband had to abandon his car in Hoboken couldn't get back to it.  We had to go back later that week to  get it. 

Then you mention worrying about the neighbor's children.  My most painful memory of that day is listening to my son scream on the phone "I want him out of there!"  and he was at college and he was comforted by his swim coach who was his mentor and close friend.

The swim coach went home to find out that the husband of the woman who was watching his own children was the co-pilot of the second plane to hit the towers.  His reaction to that news put him in the hospital.

The Iwon chatters will always be part of my life because they were with me that day without ever clicking out.  That's why I am grateful to Jim and Jen for keeping this forum up so we don't lose track of everyone.

It's hard to talk about it without talking about it. If that makes any sense at all? Each time something is mentioned it seems a forgotten memory pops into my mind from that day. I just remembered after that post pulling over on the side of the road and using a pay phone to call Sable to ask about her husband. Damn it reminded me I didn't have a cell phone until 3 weeks after 9-11. I had forgotten about my supvs. brother being in the WTC for a meeting and him freaking out on the phone with me. Which made me think about him not being able to communicate with so many stores because he couldn't understand them and I had to make the calls for him to close us down. But I couldn't get through to any of them. ughhhh such a helpless feeling I had. Almost like I was isolated in a box and couldn't get out to help and see where I was needed.

My own 9/11 story......

I had just arrived from Kansas 3 months prior, June 8th.  I knew no one except my girlfriend, who was at work at the time, and I was not going onto the internet at the time.  I was watching television and was riveted to it all day sitting by myself crying because of everything I was seeing, not because I knew anyone who worked there, but at the shared horror as an American.  I could not stop myself from watching as they worked heroicly to save people before the towers collapsed and then as people kept looking for their loved ones hoping beyond hope that they had somehow gotten out and survived.  I felt an intense loneliness and yet at the same time an inexplicable connection to each person. 

I also remember vividly watching President Bush at the grade school, I won't go into how that image shaped my feelings towards him except to say that they certainly did not make me think of him favorably.  

When I hear the accounts of you posters that were together online I wish I could have been with you, I very much needed that kind of support. 

I know what  you mean Ron about feeling like you were alone.

One of the scariest times was after the second plane hit and we didn't know if there were more planes and what would be hit next.

I kept getting up from the computer and looking out at the street and not seeing a car or a living soul and actually having thoughts like maybe the world has ended and this is all not real.

I remember thinking about banging on a neighbor's door just to see another live human being.

The internet chat board really saved me that day.

One of the scariest times was after the second plane hit and we didn't know if there were more planes and what would be hit next.

That brings back memories many of them! As the phone system was going in and out at work that day. The few times my Mom got through to me when she told me about the 2nd tower. I was so afraid all of NYC and possible NJ was going to be gone. I can remember my husband coming in with this calm look on his face to my store. (i hated not being in my own store that day) When I told him about the 2nd tower and the Pentagon. OMG I never in my life saw my husband scared. NEVER that was the first time. He ran the hell out went back to his schools and started preparing the schools. It was like after that an adrenalin rush took over our bodies. I left that store about 1230-1. I got on the road that I always saw that antena standing so tall and it wasn't there anymore. All I saw was smoke and a line of firetrucks and ambulances heading towards the port of Elizabeth. At that very moment the feeling of being alone hit me hard. I was driving but looking up looking up for planes cause i thought it was the end. I will never forget getting home and shaking so hard and hitting my grass falling to my knees and just crying without even being able to control myself. It was like something else took over my body and I shake now just thinking of how I got that day. My husband had flags already out and I remember running past my Mom and heading straight to all my internet friends. My saving grace of IWON. I so wish you were there that day with us Ron!

I asked my friends who were still teaching how it was handled in school that day and they said they were in a class with no tv access and no idea of what happened.

An administrator came to the door,  asked them to step out into the hall and read a paper that said what happened.  They were  told to go back to class and not say a word to to the children.

So there was a whole building full of crying teachers and they were not allowed to tell the children why and they couldn't see any news themselves till lunch time.

I called my SIL as soon as I had gotten to the store. Or about 1 hour later depending on when I could. The rumor mill had already started about evacuations of schools around here. Never did find out if that was true or not? This district had decided to keep them and if needed they were going to keep them overnight if things had continued. They told the kids here what had happened because she knew by the time she got home. But they pulled the kids out of class that had parents working in the WTC. But parents around here were picking up the kids by the first hour. I asked my SIL to keep my daughter with her. I thought it was the safest place for her to be at the time. If things kept going the way they were that basement in that school would have been the safest place. I didn't know if that was right or wrong who knew?

My husbands school was the central command center (as they call it) for any type of evacuation system in place. So he kind of freaked thinking so many people might be coming. He learned his training that day!
I also remember the driver pulled over on 78 around here that had all this stuff in his trunk. I remember seeing it on the news. But never heard a thing again!

I saw the 2nd plane on the news when it hit as I had just gotten up to get ready for work and had the TV on. I had called my son before it hit because of the coverage of the 1st plane and woke him up. Together we watched the 2nd plane hit and he told me we were being attacked. I knew my brother was flying out of Boston that morning but still went to work. I ended up leaving early because I couldn't reach him and my parents hadn't heard from him either. We finally heard he was ok.

I'll never forget a call I received from an elderly gentleman who had been estranged from his son for a number of years. He knew his son was in NYC and was frantic. I had internet access and they had published the lists of missing and deceased so I looked it up and was able to confirm his son was not on those lists. His relief was immense and this just brings home that if there is any way to mend a broken fence with loved ones you should not wait to do so.

My daughter's friend who was recently murdered had argued with one of their other friends.... the young man who still lives has such feelings of remorse and sorrow about not having the chance to make up their disagreement.

So if there is someone you have been mad at and you really care about them... take the time today to mend that fence so you never regret not having done so.

Just reading your memories and crying like a baby. I had my TV tuned in to CNN and just like everyone else I was horrified. I was worried about my President and I kept thinking the next plane would hit the White House. Glued to my TV,  I couldn't stop thinking about all of the innocent people who died and those who were trying to escape. A friend of my daughters worked in the first building that was hit. He was one of the fortunate (?) ones, running late he had just stepped into the building.

 I was on iwon every day but I had not yet discovered the political board.

I was really expecting to hear of more planes, more cities.  The confusion on how many planes and where they all were seemed to last an eternity.

 

What was strange about that day for me was that I normally didn't have the TV on that early in the morning but for some reason I had switched it on and saw the first tower had been hit and like most assumed it was a commuter plane that had accidentally veered off course or had engine trouble. When the second plane hit I knew we were under attack. My husband my mother and I just watched dumbfounded as if who could possibly be doing this to America? I remember days after looking up towards the sky and seeing total silence and wondering if we would ever return to normal again. I don't think I was on the boards during that horrendous time but I wish I had. I think I found IWON when Bush started to talk war with Iraq.

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"If you are not the LEAD dog, the scenery never changes."

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some don't have film

 

I am also tearing up just reading these terrible, terrible memories.  Being on the west coast, I was still in bed when one of my best friends called and was crying.  I am completely out of it upon waking, so I told her the *plane probably just clipped a building, go back to sleep.* 

That was before the second plane and then.... OMG!!  I don't know how you guys could handle the whole thing, it was bad enough being clear across the country, watching and praying and knowing there wasn't a darn thing I could do to help.  Piglet, I remember you telling me you had ashes on your window sills and about the people you knew....oh, it's just too much all these years later!!

America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.

Barack Obama
Acceptance Speech at Democratic Convention Aug 28th 2008

Mari you are so right, it was a punch in the gut knowing what had happened and the feeling of helplessness that we all felt. After all these years have passed it still feels so raw and painful. I don't know how anyone who actually lived through this personally with the lost of loved ones is still able to cope.

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"If you are not the LEAD dog, the scenery never changes."

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some don't have film

 

And, I remember how days later we were all making sure our little iWon *family* was OK and how we didn't hear from roby for about a week...we were getting frantic by the time he showed up to let us know he was OK.  Yep, we've been thru some traumatic times together....you guys who lived so close must be commended for being able to handle it all.

America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.

Barack Obama
Acceptance Speech at Democratic Convention Aug 28th 2008