Annual 9/11 Question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that day. I remember how crystal clear and perfect the day began. Those sorts of days freak me out to this day.

Me too. I was here in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that day. I remember how crystal clear and perfect the day began. Those sorts of days freak me out to this day.

Same. Whenever we have one of those fall days I think about 9/11.

+1. It was the most perfect fall day. I remember thinking that as I left the house to go to work that morning.

[Anonymous]

Yes it was a perfect morning and I will never forget that. I remember picking an outfit that I just loved and being so happy as I walked to work that day. I was only about two weeks into my first job. I worked at the Watergate and had a shared office with a window over the river. Early on we had seen the news from NY and were trying to make sense of what was happening there. We were standing around in my office and saw the plane stream by, way too low in the sky, and knew that those people were going to die. We were used to planes landing at DCA so knew where they were supposed to be in the sky. Then we saw the explosion but couldn’t see where it hit. We were so scared and confused. In reading this string it occurs to be that I don’t remember the sound if the impact. I was so close that I had to have heard it but I was so focused on the image of that plane. I frequently think about it. Those poor souls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at work and told to go home and while driving i looked up. I remember the most crisp blue cloudless sky that Sept day.

Yes. I will never forget the weather. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS September day. 70 degrees, sunny, the summer heat had just broken. To this day, I get an eerie feeling with September weather like that.

[Anonymous]

None of you have real memories of 9/11.

I say that as I know a lot of people who died that day and had family in building who did get out.

But I was doing consulting work at KBW shortly after 9/11 (large amount of company died)

The young women I was helping commented so many people claim they were there but if you were watching safely from NJ or even a few blocks away you were not there.

Her story was both her parents and her worked in WTC. When planes hit they were to meet at the pay phone across street by Miami Station Subs (near Burger King) across building.

She got stuck in stairway pitch black and full of smoke and was choking. At this point the second tower already was hit. She knew it was coming down and choking in the dark.

She gets out at this point madness and runs towards pain phone where her parents stayed way to close. She dove towards her and felt searing pain and world went black, she survived but had burns on her back.

She told me unless you were trapped in that stairwell you did not really experience the horror.

My own sister was in building but she was on canal street by time it fell as was walking uptown up Broadway and she was terrified.

KBW is still in business but 1/3 died

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of you have real memories of 9/11.

I say that as I know a lot of people who died that day and had family in building who did get out.

But I was doing consulting work at KBW shortly after 9/11 (large amount of company died)

The young women I was helping commented so many people claim they were there but if you were watching safely from NJ or even a few blocks away you were not there.

Her story was both her parents and her worked in WTC. When planes hit they were to meet at the pay phone across street by Miami Station Subs (near Burger King) across building.

She got stuck in stairway pitch black and full of smoke and was choking. At this point the second tower already was hit. She knew it was coming down and choking in the dark.

She gets out at this point madness and runs towards pain phone where her parents stayed way to close. She dove towards her and felt searing pain and world went black, she survived but had burns on her back.

She told me unless you were trapped in that stairwell you did not really experience the horror.

My own sister was in building but she was on canal street by time it fell as was walking uptown up Broadway and she was terrified.

KBW is still in business but 1/3 died

This. The people who were there or lost loved ones experienced the real horror. Everyone else’s experience is not at all comparable. This is why I am not a fan of the “where were you stories.” They just seem vaguely attention-seeking and tone deaf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of you have real memories of 9/11.

I say that as I know a lot of people who died that day and had family in building who did get out.

But I was doing consulting work at KBW shortly after 9/11 (large amount of company died)

The young women I was helping commented so many people claim they were there but if you were watching safely from NJ or even a few blocks away you were not there.

Her story was both her parents and her worked in WTC. When planes hit they were to meet at the pay phone across street by Miami Station Subs (near Burger King) across building.

She got stuck in stairway pitch black and full of smoke and was choking. At this point the second tower already was hit. She knew it was coming down and choking in the dark.

She gets out at this point madness and runs towards pain phone where her parents stayed way to close. She dove towards her and felt searing pain and world went black, she survived but had burns on her back.

She told me unless you were trapped in that stairwell you did not really experience the horror.

My own sister was in building but she was on canal street by time it fell as was walking uptown up Broadway and she was terrified.

KBW is still in business but 1/3 died

This. The people who were there or lost loved ones experienced the real horror. Everyone else’s experience is not at all comparable. This is why I am not a fan of the “where were you stories.” They just seem vaguely attention-seeking and tone deaf.

I used to think this, and still do to a large degree. But now that time is passing and fewer and fewer people alive now actually remember it, I do think there is some value for the collective memory or whatever, for regular people to share stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of you have real memories of 9/11.

I say that as I know a lot of people who died that day and had family in building who did get out.

But I was doing consulting work at KBW shortly after 9/11 (large amount of company died)

The young women I was helping commented so many people claim they were there but if you were watching safely from NJ or even a few blocks away you were not there.

Her story was both her parents and her worked in WTC. When planes hit they were to meet at the pay phone across street by Miami Station Subs (near Burger King) across building.

She got stuck in stairway pitch black and full of smoke and was choking. At this point the second tower already was hit. She knew it was coming down and choking in the dark.

She gets out at this point madness and runs towards pain phone where her parents stayed way to close. She dove towards her and felt searing pain and world went black, she survived but had burns on her back.

She told me unless you were trapped in that stairwell you did not really experience the horror.

My own sister was in building but she was on canal street by time it fell as was walking uptown up Broadway and she was terrified.

KBW is still in business but 1/3 died

This. The people who were there or lost loved ones experienced the real horror. Everyone else’s experience is not at all comparable. This is why I am not a fan of the “where were you stories.” They just seem vaguely attention-seeking and tone deaf.

Attention seeking and tone deaf would be going up to a survivor or person who lost a loved one and saying "I was in the grocery store on 9/11". People are allowed to share their experiences. People are allowed to try to connect with others over what was a traumatic day for everyone. People are free to not click on these threads if it's triggering to them.

[Anonymous]

I have a weird story that I'm embarrassed to even admit but it sticks with me to this day because of how absurd it turned out to be--I was heading into work in the suburbs of MD. I was in my early twenties at the time. I bought breakfast from our work cafeteria and as I was existing the cafeteria, a guy rushes in and says "A plane has hit..." and because I was existing the cafeteria and almost out of earshot as he was entering, I thought he said, "A plane has hit...Stephen Tyler's house." I walked up the 3 flights of stairs to my office thinking that's strange, why would someone even announce that but was also thinking geez, poor Stephen Tyler, I hope he's okay. As I start to settle into my office for the day, my friend comes rushing in screaming that a second plane has hit the WTC and that this is a terrorist attack. I knew in that instant that what I thought I had heard in the cafeteria was terribly wrong and never admitted to anyone what I initially thought what had happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of you have real memories of 9/11.

I say that as I know a lot of people who died that day and had family in building who did get out.

But I was doing consulting work at KBW shortly after 9/11 (large amount of company died)

The young women I was helping commented so many people claim they were there but if you were watching safely from NJ or even a few blocks away you were not there.

Her story was both her parents and her worked in WTC. When planes hit they were to meet at the pay phone across street by Miami Station Subs (near Burger King) across building.

She got stuck in stairway pitch black and full of smoke and was choking. At this point the second tower already was hit. She knew it was coming down and choking in the dark.

She gets out at this point madness and runs towards pain phone where her parents stayed way to close. She dove towards her and felt searing pain and world went black, she survived but had burns on her back.

She told me unless you were trapped in that stairwell you did not really experience the horror.

My own sister was in building but she was on canal street by time it fell as was walking uptown up Broadway and she was terrified.

KBW is still in business but 1/3 died

This. The people who were there or lost loved ones experienced the real horror. Everyone else’s experience is not at all comparable. This is why I am not a fan of the “where were you stories.” They just seem vaguely attention-seeking and tone deaf.

Attention seeking and tone deaf would be going up to a survivor or person who lost a loved one and saying "I was in the grocery store on 9/11". People are allowed to share their experiences. People are allowed to try to connect with others over what was a traumatic day for everyone. People are free to not click on these threads if it's triggering to them.

+1 There’s a great scene in one of the first episodes of Rescue Me with the lieutenant at the firehouse that lost one firefighter and had many others injured finally going to a support group. All the people there are still traumatized and their stories are all like “I was in Queens, getting a bagel” when he was in one of the stairwells.