I was in a warehouse waiting on material to be loaded onto our truck. We were in the breakroom when the news hit of the first plane. All work ceased. We were glued to the TV. Then it happened. The 2nd plane hit. It was surreal...unbelievable. I don't think i ever felt that way in my life up to that point. Our truck was loaded and we were to deliver the parts to a job site. We got a call from our shop that all trucks were to return and call it a day. At the time, i was working for a company that built cell phone towers. All cell tower sites were immediately closed down. No one was to be on them. No one knew what was happening. At that point EVERYTHING was a target.
I left that afternoon for a bluegrass festival. The ride down was numbing. My brother and i were mostly quiet on the ride to Moorehead. The silence in the air was deafening. Seeing no planes in the sky that day was strange as well. Funny how all your life you see planes in the sky...then NONE! It was odd. Once we arrived at the festival i noticed that i was not alone in the sickness i was feeling. I had been attending this festival for many years and this was the quietest and most erie vibe i have ever encountered. That evening the MC had all military vets, policeman and fireman come to the stage and stand in honor of the attack. It was at that point that all the emotions of the day came to the surface. I broke down. Manly pride was out the window. No shame in the tears...just the pain and the haunting images of disaster, pain and death.
No...i will NEVER forget nor do i want to forget!
'You start out wrinkled and you cry...you end up wrinkled and you die.'
Thank you for sharing your story, it's really interesting when I hear someone else tell their side to the event. Mine's rather boring to tell because I was so much younger that I don't remember much.
I was 8 at the time, living in California. I was getting ready early for school because I went to a program before school so that my parents could get to work on time. I remember my mother was already at work and she called the house to tell my father, "Get the television on NOW, there's something you need to see." She was whispering loudly into the phone because she didn't want to desturb the other people in her office even though they were calling people too. When we turned on the TV, it was everywhere, headlined by every channel, even the kid networks were crowded with the streaming banners of the event. I was detatched, emotionless for the longest time as I stared at the screen, trying to understand what was going on. The video clip was playing in an endless loop of horror while newscasters monotoned the information as they heard it, their faces the flawless mask of reporter indiference. It wasn't until I heard my mother say through the phone that my aunt was on an airplane heading for Washington D.C. that I got the meaning of everything. My aunt, the woman terrified of flying, was in an airplane that was destined for one of the target sites. Luckily she was still on the tarmac, frozen with countless others who were making frantic phonecalls to loved ones saying it was "okay".
When I got into class there were students missing, people gone because their parents were scared of schools being the next target. The teacher tried to explain to the kids that didn't understand, then an announcement came on over the PA system saying that there was to be a moment of silence for those lost.
Ever since then, there has been a moment of silence, a dead quite that is announced to the school as "Rememberance". Although I've moved from California to Florida, it's still the same. An announcement followed by that haunting stillness, everyone thinking of where they were the moment they heard, what they were doing...what happened.
And even though we are reminded every year by that announcement...we wouldn't forget if they stopped telling us. We'll remember that day for the rest of our lives...a ghost that hangs over us, a reminder of how cruel people can be to those who are innocent.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lost in a world of dreams,
Waking to the wrong reality.
I was asleep when my husband called from Denver. He said "You won't believe what's going on in New York." He was trapped in the Mile-High City for three days, so I had to send him his meds (like insulin) by courier. My sister was flying back from Milan and they diverted her plane to Gatwick...she ended up in Oxford, which was the closest place she could get a room until the planes started flying again.
My Auntie Rena, who lives in midtown Manhattan, ironically was trapped here. Of course I wouldn't call staying at the Beverly Hilton exactly 'trapped' but when you think your home has been destroyed, yes it is.
I was drawing gorillas escaping from an erupting volcano for a Disney 'Tarzan' DVD, so at least I had something to do with the terror and loss, even in a cartoon way.
Mr. and Mrs. Bowie's story, I recollect, was genuinely awful.
Watched it all on TV, live, at the time, the towers collapsing and all that.
Something you won't easily forget, seen even from thousands of kilometers away.
Just this week, as there have been documentaries and such playing, I found myself wondering if DB was in New York that day.
This may be a ghastly gap for a Bowie fan, but I'm not familiar with his personal account of the event, and would appreciate if someone (Em, you seem to know the story, or anyone else) would bother to enlighten me on his story/a source where it could be found.
I watched a documentary on Channel 4 the other night called 102 mins that changed America where it time lined the whole event via film and video footage recorded by members of the public who were there, it was powerful stuff and a timely reminder of how horrific this whole thing was. I live miles away from the USA here in the UK, but the horror of what happened on 9/11 is still as vivid today as it was when it happened, but nothing like as vivid for those who were actually there and who were involved in one way or another.
To the poster who said remembering 9/11 and stories about it are boring? well! look I'm not even going to go there with you, because to be honest words really do fail me
I just find the whole 9/11 thing dreadfully boring. We've all got 9/11 stories and they're all painfully dull. I watched it on TV while my friend in NYC ran away from ground zero terrified for his life. So what? That was years ago. Get over it!
Here in the UK we'd already endured years and years of US-sponsored terrorism by the IRA, so when a nutjob of a president that YOU, SoftVinyl, voted into presidency decides to create a sham of a bogus terrorist attack to justify a pathetic war that nobody wants, then forgive me for thinking once again that you and your kind are incredible stupid.
<< so when a nutjob of a president that YOU, SoftVinyl, voted into presidency decides to create a sham of a bogus terrorist attack to justify a pathetic war that nobody wants, then forgive me for thinking once again that you and your kind are incredible stupid.
<br>
Will that do? >>
Well no actually, it won't do.
Lets assume for the sake of argument that what you say is correct and it was a bogus sham of a terrorist attack, and the American people were stupid to vote that particular president into power, does that justify the many innocent members of the American public who were either killed or severely traumatised that fateful day, not to mention those who lost love ones being disrespected in the way you have just shown? Many of those affected might even have agreed with you! we will never know.
Either way whatever the views / arguments might be, many people were affected that day in one way or another, and as such your comment was bang out of order.
On the subject of the IRA being funded by sections of America, well yes that's true, but not every American gave funds to the IRA or supported them besides are you telling me that the good old UK hasn't supported evil people / regimes or done under handed things with regards to the world stage in both past and present, as such do the innocent people who died or were injured etc in the London bombings deserve the kind of disrespect you have just shown by whoever.
Of course I felt the pain of the terrorist attacks (and, indeed, ALL terrorist attacks). Unlike most bleating hearts on here, I've had direct experience having been floored by an IRA bomb. Not hurt, thankfully.
But do I bore the world about it? No, I do not. So here are the facts: 1) the 911 attacks were not good. 2) It was an inside job orchestrated by a madman elected by fools. 3) It was years ago. 4) Complaining about pious posts on a forum does not equate to disrespect for the dead. But I'm quite certain that a dozen recollections along the lines of "I was watching TV and I couldn't believe my eyes..." does not add anything of any value to history.
Probably not, but then neither does anyone else I should imagine unless it were to specifically come up in a particular conversation between whoever. In light of the fact that this post was started on 11/9/2009 and as such this particular date is an anniversary of the event, I don't think it's too much to ask to show a bit of understanding do you?
BTW it isn't pomposity, but a simple case of common decency, you having experience of a similar type of thing should be the first to be able to offer a bit of compassion and understanding I would have thought.
It's a pious few trying to write their way into history with a 'I was driving my van when I heard on the news...' type comment.
You know how everybody can remember where they were when Diana/Kennedy/Kennedy/King were murdered? Well that's just swell. But keep those thoughts to yourselves. They're dull.
<< It's a pious few trying to write their way into history with a 'I was driving my van when I heard on the news...' type comment.
<br>
You know how everybody can remember where they were when Diana/Kennedy/Kennedy/King were murdered? >>
Some people quite possibly, but you can't know that for sure. Some people might still be affected by the event and find it a comfort to either talk or write about it on this particular day. I mean are you saying it's time we did away with remembrance day? after all a lot of wars that are remembered on remembrance day happened a very long time ago.
that nobody on here was more deeply affected by 911 than any other TV viewer. And while there were many nationalities who lost lives in the combined 'attack', the Americans - particularly the blinkered Christian right-wingers - will always feel more hard done by than anybody else.
These people, typified by some of the comments above, are trying to carve their own little slice of sympathy. It doesn't work with me.
I was driving for Royal Mail at the time, i think it was just shy of 1pm, and the local radio station announced a light aircraft had hit a tower and two were feared dead. By the time i got home the horror was unfolding. A dreadful day, and something thats still palpable when watching any footage of that time.
I remember being at work too and hearing it around 2:30pm UK time.
Just saw the rest of the work day out numbly and I remember thinking on the way to get the bus home that there's a possibility that there's going to be a nuclear war stemming from all this. My family was foremost in my mind.
Bizarrely, I remember the Sophie Ellis Bextor song 'Take me Home' playing before the news came over. Now I will always attach that song to that event.
I watched the '102 minutes' programme too. Those girls screaming as the second plane hit was absolutely unbearable. Everytime I see anything on 9/11, it keeps hitting you again and again: 'it's not a film, it's really happening'.
I haven't watched the 'phone calls from the towers' - I dare not.
i was stuck at boarder crossing at Fort Eire Canada to NY State for 3 hours, the border patrol had to search every single car. I believe that was the first time in history the boarders from Canada to the USA were shut down.
There's an account in Mr. Buckley's book that Mr. Bowie was recording Heathen when the Trade Center was attacked (I believe Iman said she saw the second plane hit) and when he tried to get back to his family he was stopped at the police line. They knew who he was but NO ONE was getting in, so it was days before he was reunited with his family (his daughter was only a couple months old, come to think of it). Everyone thinks of Reality as inflected by the tragedy but it was Heathen that was made in the immediate context of the event.
96dbWife and I were at The State Theatre seeing Bjorn Again (the Abba covers band). It was a great night and a good laugh.
Came out, got the train home, got in the taxi and the guy was unusually quiet for a taxi driver. Got in the house and oddly the mother-in-law was still up. She's usually in bed by this time. WTF? She's got CNN on and it all becomes clear. We got in about 10 minutes before the second plane went in.
I wanted to nuke the ragheads the next day, quite frankly.
____________________________________________
Please try not to reproduce son as this can lead to boredom reiterated.
> I wanted to nuke the ragheads the next day, quite frankly.
Of course that was a gut reaction. I knew full-well that the vast majority of Muslims are Allah-fearing, hard-working, peace-loving decent people who would be equally as abhorred by these events as I.
That said, a strange thing happened to me the next day. I went to work as usual and the office that I worked in is on the adjacent block to the MLC Centre where the U.S. consulate in Sydney is situated. Out of my window I could see the escalators that lead you up to the main entrance to the building and I watched as first a few and then hundreds and hundreds of floral bouquets were placed on those (still) escalators.
On the way home (I must have left early for some reason because I remember the train wasn't crowded) I was in a carriage with three other people. One was a Caucasian guy, like me. he was standing by the central doors of the commuter train. Next to him, and facing me, were two young men of middle-eastern appearance. They couldn't have been more than 20. They were clearly observant Muslims because they were wearing white robes and white kippahs (skull-caps) typical of the religion. There are an estimated 300,000 people of middle-eastern origin living in Australia, many of them in Sydney.
My attention was at first distracted. I was reading a book and listening to my Walkman. Then I looked up and noticed what they were doing. They had the newspaper open on their laps. It was full of horror stories and horror pictures of the devastation at the World Trade Center (Sydney is 14 hours ahead of New York, so the Sept 12 papers were full of it).
These guys were exalted. They were smiling and laughing at the pictures of the devastation. They clearly thought it was wonderful. The Caucasian guy and I looked at each other in complete disbelief. We could tell we were both thinking the same thing: What is wrong with these people?
I was waiting for the part where you and the other guy begin beating them while yelling "you like violence, bitches?".
All in all, those reactions sound alarming and sickening.
This message has been edited by AdamD on Sep 12, 2009 6:40 AM This message has been edited by AdamD on Sep 12, 2009 5:53 AM This message has been edited by AdamD on Sep 12, 2009 5:44 AM
I'll never forgot that day because I had to go to Oklahoma for my uncle's funeral.
What I remember most was waking up around 8am maybe alittle after & turning on Good Morning America. The first image I saw was one of the tower's and black smoke in the air. The anchor said that a plane had struck the building(just don't remember now if it was the 1st or 2nd one) all I could think of(since I wasn't quite yet awake) was what the hell how could somebody run into that . It wasn't until later that day I found out that it had been a deliberate act & not an accident.
I think this lyric describes perfectly how I felt:
did you open your eyes hope it never happened close your eyes and not go to sleep
Even now I still have a hard time understanding it.
------------
Sometimes people have a problem & you are NOT it.
Rhoda (yet ANOTHER multiple login)...there just wasn't any need in you poisoning this thread with you bullshit. If you can't contribute to the thread in a decent manner...why post? You just wanted to start shit. And...you have no proof if i did or didn't vote for Bush!! Stick to one login, moron!!
'You start out wrinkled and you cry...you end up wrinkled and you die.'
And I think the point I have made is as valid as anybody's. If you disagree with it, perhaps you'd like to explain why in an intelligent way. Ask a grown-up to help you.
(edit: sp)
This message has been edited by RhodaB on Sep 13, 2009 12:35 AM
Your sole intention was to respong to the post in a negative manner. It wasn't needed. Everyone responded with a story about the day...you had to come on and try and ruin it all. Take your negative shit and crawl back into your cave in the desert, moron.
'You start out wrinkled and you cry...you end up wrinkled and you die.'
and try to take some (a lot) of the negativity out of your attitude. Perhaps, if you are so perturbed by the concept of discussion, you should try to avoid interaction of any kind. You might find it easier.
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