Quotes of the day: Remembering 9/11/01
posted at 1:46 am on September 11, 2009 by Andy Levy
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The following was taken from Allahpundit’s twitter stream, over roughly a two-hour period on the night of 9/10. This may be the first time – no, it is the first time – that I’ve ever seen anything on twitter that reads like poetry. For this reason, I’ve preserved the form as best as possible.
Eight years ago, I remember opening my eyes at 8:46 a.m. in my downtown Manhattan apartment because…
…I thought a truck had crashed in the street outside
I remember pacing my apartment for the next 15 minutes thinking, stupidly, that a gas line might have been hit in the North Tower…
…and then I heard another explosion. I hope no one ever hears anything like it.
All I can say to describe it is: Imagine the sound of thousands of Americans screaming on a city street
It was unbelievable, almost literally
I remember being on the sidewalk and there was an FBI agent saying he was cordoning off the street…
…and then, the next day, when I went back for my cats, they told me I might see bodies lying in front of my apartment building (I didn’t)
We held a memorial service in October for my cousin’s husband, who was “missing” but not really…
He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. They found a piece of his ribcage in the rubble not too long afterwards.
This is the guy who conspired to murder him: http://is.gd/38h7y
Had a friend from the high school speech and debate team who disappeared from the 105th floor
Had another friend of a friend who worked on the 80th floor or so, married six weeks before the attack…
Speculation is that he was right in the plane’s path, and was killed instantly when it plowed through the building
Did a bit of legal work for a couple whose son worked in the upper floors. Was dating someone else up there at the time…
I was told that she managed to call her parents while they were trapped up there and that the call “was not good”
Never found out if it was cut off by the building collapsing or not
I remember opening my eyes at 8:46 a.m. thinking “I hope that was just a pothole.” Then I heard a guy outside my window say, “Oh shit”
Opened the window, looked to my left, saw huge smoke coming out of the WTC
Left at around 9:30, decided to walk uptown thinking that the buildings would never collapse and that…
…I’d be back in my apartment by the next night. I never went back. It was closed off until December.
I remember thinking when I was a few blocks away that the towers might collapse, and so I walked faster…
…although I sneered at myself later for thinking that might be true and for being a coward. Although not for long.
To this day, you can find photos of thousands of people congregated in the blocks surrounding the Towers, seemingly…
…waiting for them to fall that day
When I got to midtown, rumors were that Camp David and the Sears Tower had also been destroyed. I remember looking around…
…and thinking that we had to get out of Manhattan, as this might be some pretext to get us into the street and hit us with some germ
I callled my dad — and somehow miraculously got through — and told him I was alive, then headed for the 59th street bridge
To this day, the scariest memory is being on that bridge, looking at the Towers smoking in the distance,
and thinking maybe the plotters had wired the bridge too to explode beneath us while we were crossing it.
I remember talking to some guy on the bridge that we’d get revenge, but…
…you had to see the smoke coming from the Towers in the distance. It was like a volcano
I remember being down there two months later. There was a single piece of structure…
…maybe five stories tall of the lattice-work still standing. It looked like a limb of a corpse sticking up out of the ground.
They knocked it down soon after
At my office, which I had just joined, I was told that…
…some people had seen the jumpers diving out the windows to escape the flames that morning
There was a video online, posted maybe two years ago, shot from the hotel across the street,,,
…and it showed roughly 10-12 bodies flattened into panackes lying in the central plaza
Maybe it’s still online somewhere
You have to see it to understand, though. You get a sense of it from the Naudet brothers documentary hearing…
…the explosions as the bodies land in the plaza, but seeing it and hearing it are two different things
I remember after I got over the bridge into Queens, I heard a noise overheard…
…that I’d never heard before. It was an F-15, on patrol over New York. Very odd sound. A high-pitched wheeze.
I remember on Sept. 12, when I got on the train to go downtown and try to get my cats out of the apartment…
…the Village was utterly deserted. No one on the streets. Like “28 Days Later” if you’ve seen that
We made it to a checkpoint and the cop said go no further, until my mom intervened. Then he took pity…
…and agreed to let me downtown IF I agreed that any exposure to bodies lying in the streets was my own fault.
Didn’t see any bodies, but I did see soldiers, ATF, FBI, and so on. The ground was totally covered by white clay…
…which I knew was formed by WTC dust plus water from the FDNY. It look like a moonscape.
There was a firefighter at the intersection and I flagged him down and asked if I could borrow his flashlight, since…
…all buildings downtown had no power. He gave me a pen flashlight.
The doors to my building at Park Place were glass but had kicked in, presumably by the FDNY, to see if there were…
…survivors inside. When I got in there, all power was out. No elevators, no hall lights…
…I had to feel my way to the hall and make my way up to my apartment on the third floor by feeling my way there…
…When I got there, the cats were alive. There was WTC dust inside the apartment, but…
…for whatever reason, I had closed the windows before I left to walk uptown that day, so dust was minimal. I loaded them…
…into the carrier and took them back to Queens. That was the last I could get into the apartment until December 2001,…
…and then it was only to get in, take whatever belongings were salvageable (i.e. not computer), and get out. I lived…
in that apartment from 7/2001 to 9/2001, but given the diseases longtime residents have had…
…I’m lucky I decided to move
My only other significant memory is being in the lobby of the apartment building on 9/11…
…and trying to console some woman who lived there who said her father worked on the lower floors of the WTC. I assume…
…he made it out alive, but she was hysterical as of 9:30 that a.m. Who could blame her?
I do remember feeling embarrassed afterwards that…
…I initially thought the smoke coming out of the North Tower was due to a fire or something, but…
…it’s hard to explain the shock of realizing you’re living through a historical event while you’re living through it.
For months afterwards, I tried to tell people how I thought maybe the Towers…
…were going to be hit by six or seven or eight planes in succession. Which sounds nuts, but once you’re in the moment…
…and crazy shit is happening, you don’t know how crazy that script is about to get.
When I left at 9:30, I thought more planes were coming.
I left because I thought, “Well, if these planes hit the building the right way, it could fall and land on mine.”\
I remember getting to 57th Street and asking some dude, “What happened?”
And he said, “They collapsed” and I couldn’t believe both of them had gone down. Even after the planes hit…
…I remembered that the Empire State Building had taken a hit from a military plane during WWII and still stood tall
So it was never a serious possibility that the WTC would collapse. I assumed…
…that the FDNY would get up there, put out the fire, and the WTC would be upright but with gigantic holes in it
It took an hour for the first tower to go down, 90 minutes for the second.
Even now, despite the smoke, I’m convinced most of the people trapped at the top were alive…
…and waiting, somehow, for a rescue. The couple whose legal case I worked for told me that…
…their son and his GF contacted her father very shortly before the collapse. Which makes sense. As much smoke as there was…
…if you have a five-story hole in the wall to let air in to breathe, you’re going to linger on.
So for many people, the choice probably quickly became: Hang on, endure the smoke, or jump
If you listen to the 911 calls, which I advise you not to do, some of them chose “hang on”
Although needless to say, if you ever saw the Towers…
…you know how dire things must have been up there to make anyone think the better solution was “jump”
They were ENORMOUS.
Another weird memory: Shortly after I got my apartment in lower Manhattan, on Park Place…
…I remember taking my brother to see “The Others,” which had just opened.
And afterwards I remember taking him up to the rooftop of my building to admire the Towers. According to Wikipedia…
“The Others” opened on August 10, 2001, so this must have been within 10 days or so afterwards. Very eerie.
And I remember we also went to Morton’s and Borders right inside the WTC complex to celebrate my new job
That Borders was gutted, needless to say, on 9/11. You could see the frame of the building in the WTC lobby after the attack
I was reading magazines in there the week or two before
One of the weirdest feelings, which I’m sure everyone can share, is that I remember distinctly feeling…
…in the month or two before the attack that “important” news no longer existed. It was all inane bullshit about…
…shark attacks and Gary Condit and overaged pitchers in the Little League World Series. To this day…
…I try never to grumble about a slow news day because the alternative is horrifyingly worse
After the attack, maybe a month after, I remember going to see “Zoolander” in Times Square and…
…coming up out of the subway tunnel having the distinct fear that…
…the sky would light up and a mushroom cloud would appear instantly above my head in my lost moment of consciousness. No joke. In fact…
…I ended up going to bed around 6:30 p.m. for maybe three months after 9/11.
Even when I ended up working downtown for years after that, with a luxurious view of upper Manhattan from the top floors…
…I always feared looking out the window because I was paranoid that at that precise moment, the flash would go off…
…and that’d be the last thing I see. And in fact, for a moment in 2003 when the power went out city-wide,
…I did think that was what was happening. The wages of 9/11.
I leave you with this, my very favorite film about the WTC. If you’re a New Yorker, have a hanky handy. No. 3 is golden http://is.gd/38qsT
One more note: If you’ve never seen a photo of the smoke coming from the Trade Center after the collapse, find one.
Watching it from the 59th bridge, it looked like a volcano. There was so much smoke, it was indescribable. Just *erupting* from the wreckage
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Thank you, Allahpundit, for sharing those memories. I know it must be unfathomably difficult to re-live and I’m so grateful that you shared your powerful words.
We must always remember. Never Forget.
Thank you.
(and thank you Andy Levy too)
Lori_Z on September 11, 2009 at 1:52 AM
Thought, I’d repost these on this thread.
I used to go into the towers many times a week.
I was at the Borders bookstore in the North Tower 5 days before, where I bought the book “Killing Pablo” by Mark Bowden. The “E” train stopped right underneath that Borders, there was a Sbarro’s as you came up from the station into the shopping level. I would always grab a couple of slices all the time too.
Interestingly, I had interviewed at the small investment bank, Raymond James (in the North Tower) about 2 years before but got turned down and I went to work for JPMorgan.
Fate.
elduende on September 10, 2009 at 11:57 PM
A few more my observations of 9/11.
I remember about 5 days after the attacks I first noticed a layer of yellowish dust caked to the window sills of my apartment and the cars and taxis the streets outside of downtown.
I also remember being on Wall Street about 3 weeks later and there was still paper everywhere, so much paper, and white dust coated everything, there was a heavy smell of smoke and a the pungent smell of roasted flesh like nasty BBQ…it was bad.
I also remember the faces and clothes of the “rescuers” that worked the site for months afterwards, extremely dirty and long ashen stares, very dark.
elduende on September 11, 2009 at 12:26 AM
elduende on September 11, 2009 at 2:12 AM
Grrrrrrrrr……
cthulhu on September 11, 2009 at 2:56 AM
I followed AP’s tweets real-time, with a lump in my throat, obsessively clicking the reload button.
All the more poignant was the stream of tweets from @SOCN interlaced with AP’s:
Hundreds… and as I post this comment, they’re only up to names beginning with “C.”
I’m not going to be having a good day.
Russ on September 11, 2009 at 3:06 AM
Thinking too much about what happened eight years ago.
Followed Allah’s posts after he was about a third through. Each one painted a perfect picture in my mind. Intensely poignant and gut-wrenching. Those that were there truly experienced history like the rest of us count not, that day.
MadisonConservative on September 11, 2009 at 3:35 AM
*could not
MadisonConservative on September 11, 2009 at 3:36 AM
Thank you for this, I have been thinking about this day all night…
I have a good friend whose brother-in-law was in one of the towers, he is one of the names being read today…I have been to New York and visited the site. I have been to the New Jersey side where there is a memorial to the firefighters who died…
We will never foget those who died, those who were heros, and those who did this horrible crime.
lovingmyUSA on September 11, 2009 at 5:48 AM
Thank you for this. God bless all those who lived through this and who didnt survive. God Bless the 1st responders who worked hard trying to save people. Such a sad day for all the country. I watched the towers fall at work, which was at an assisted living facility. The residents were angry, scared and one old man was calling them bastards.
Im from Pennsylvania and I remember the fear when they reported that Flight 93 had gone missing. The reports on the radio were saying it was reportedly over Clearfield county, which wasnt far from where I live. My youngest was at school, which went into lockdown. NO one knew where the plane was, parents were taking their kids home. Then we heard that it crashed in Shanksville. 100 miles away. Ive been to Ground Zero and last yr went to Shanksville…both sacred ground.
I was deeply affected by this as was the entire country. I will never forget. All are heros.
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 7:01 AM
I was reading this too in real-time last night…remembering that day still makes my heart ache. I grew up across the Hudson in NJ and work in DC and I remember that surreal feeling of “this can’t be happening.” Even when our building was shut down and we were all hurriedly evacuated I just couldn’t believe it was real. Then I drove up to NJ to visit family about a week later and all I saw was a hole where the Towers stood…
Anyway, thank you AP for sharing your experience, and thanks Andy for putting up the post. Never Forget.
Skt510 on September 11, 2009 at 7:08 AM
Thank you. Thank you for your words. As one who watched this on snowy video in a tiny news room in New Mexico, I felt horror and fear. But I did not live it.
Your words helped me to understand the real magnitude of it. Your words gave me insight into the absolute terror and grief you all felt and are still feeling.
Thank you for telling us. Thank you for reminding those of us who needed reminding.
Just … thank you.
Mad Mad Monica on September 11, 2009 at 7:47 AM
Thank you, AP, for writing this, and thank you, Andy, for getting this up on a HotAir thread.
steveegg on September 11, 2009 at 8:16 AM
Thank you AP for sharing your story about this horrible day.
Lance Murdock on September 11, 2009 at 8:32 AM
Thanks Allah, for writing, and Andy for posting.
My family lives and works in NYC. It took a whole day of frantic calling to find out if they were alright. The stories of walking across the bridges, the terror that another plane would strike the symbolic Brooklyn Bridge, the fear of a stampede, the realization that the ashes that fell for days in the boroughs were all that was left of so many murdered innocents…and trying to explain the horror to your kids…
We’ll never forget.
Nichevo on September 11, 2009 at 8:59 AM
thank you for sharing this AP.
God Bless the people lost on 9/11, their families and friends and all the incredible heroes who worked to save them who were and are still being lost today, and the troops and their families who sacrifice so much for all of us.
ginaswo on September 11, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Thank you AP, and I as you, will never forget.
CBarker on September 11, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Thank you Andy -and thank you Allahpundit. I’m eternally grateful to you for sharing your experiences and thoughts.
Some day, you will need to remove your mask. Your talent and contributions call out for recognition.
Some day soon I hope.
At any rate – thanks again.
juanito on September 11, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Thank you AP. I too have some terrifying and painful memories. This was an eloquent steam.
eaglesdontflock on September 11, 2009 at 10:15 AM
That’s pretty powerful, AP.
I can’t even remember what I was feeling, watching footage of the towers on the other side of the continent, forgetting to turn off the game consul I was going to use while waiting to hear about jury duty. I’m sure I was feeling something, but its like I’ve blocked out the memory of it.
Count to 10 on September 11, 2009 at 10:20 AM
AP,
Powerful. Thanks for sharing this.
John on September 11, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Thank you Andy for putting this together.
Thank you AP for giving us this gift. You didnt have to do this but we all appreciate it.
I cant imagine the sounds you describe..it had to be horrific. I wish you had never had to hear them, I wish we had never had to read this. I just hope we can someday find that monster bin laden.
labwrs on September 11, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Thank you for sharing AP. And thank you Andy for compiling
these rememberances.
mkm19602000 on September 11, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Very powerful. Thanks for posting it.
jewells45 on September 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM
I followed this last night as AP wrote it and I was bawling my eyes out. I wished my husband was home so I had a shoulder to cry on. It was the eve of September 11 and I was crying already. Every year it gets worse, it seems, as I remember how terrified and sad I was.
pookysgirl on September 11, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Thank you, Allahpundit. And thank you to Andy for compiling it.
Missy on September 11, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Wow.
AP’s experience makes mine trivial…as I has been negotiating a contract with people from Marsh that summer on the 99th Floor of Tower 1. Luckily, most of the people I knew moved to midtown around Labor Day…and I was in my apartment on 60th street when the planes hit.
I’m not forgetting anytime soon.
CP
cranfordpundit on September 11, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Goodness. Had absolutely no idea. Are the cats still with you AP?
+1 stevegg & all.
Am also thankful for both Twitter and the Green Room, which have opened up some new doors. AP it’s great to see in you in such good company.
An aside: God only knows what we’d have seen had Twitter been active 8 years ago.
RD on September 11, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Allah, thank you for sharing this. Very, very important…and, now, immortalized.
Diane on September 11, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Thank you, AP.
lonesome_pine on September 11, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Moving.
Very moving.
Tom_OC on September 11, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Thanks Andy and AP, that was great reading last night. I’m glad I have a place where I can print it now.
JeffreyLloyd on September 11, 2009 at 11:52 AM
My home town dentist lost his son on this day 8 years ago. He had just graduated from an ivy league school and had a job in the towers. I am not sure what company or which tower. For years afterward, until he recently retired, the ladies in the office had a sign posted in the outside entry way to NEVER ask the dentist about that day or his son. The employees never use that entrance so I am not sure he even knew it was there.
Earlier this year before he retired, I mentioned that I am an avid supporter of the troups and am always grateful that they are protecting and preserving our freedom. The dentist looked at me and said, “me too” and then told me about his son and how grateful he is that the troups are ensuring this will never happen again.
I told the dentist that I supported the GWB war on terror and feared that this new administration was going to take us backwards. I also told him how I was so angry that Obama wants to close Gitmo and try the terrorists in the US Court, thus opening up the potential that some mistrial will occur and these slimeballs will end up with the right to stay here at taxpayer expense. The dentist is very agitated at this possibility. He does not want these people moved from Gitmo, particularly to be brought onto US soil.
He had tears in his eyes, very sad eyes, but that day we had a connection. Later, his dental assistant said that this dentist had NEVER mentioned his son or this day ever before to any patient. We had that special moment and I think it warmed his heart that an ordinary American like me still remember the victims of that day and support the mission to ensure it never happens again. I have not seen him again, as he retired a few weeks ago.
I can’t imagine losing a loved one in this disaster, but I think it is especially hard to lose your 22 year old son 1000 miles away on a fateful day, just 3 months after graduating from college and beginning his life. There are 3000 similar stories of that day, all lives cut short, the promise of their futures snuffed out, all because of a crazy fanatical fringe of a “religon of peace” Peace, myass.
karenhasfreedom on September 11, 2009 at 12:02 PM
I was sobbing as I read that last night. Something about the slow but steady way it poured forth really made every word just… sink in. It was therapeutic. My story is more common, but I hope you don’t mind me sharing for my own therapy’s sake:
*
I’ll never, ever forget that morning. I was up uncharacteristically early, chatting online with a friend overseas. Good Morning America was playing in the background, just noise. Then the announcement of breaking news. I turn to see smoke billowing from the North Tower. Awful, definitely, but was it an accident?
Then the 2nd plane hit.
Seeing it live… I’ll never forget that shock … that sharp pain to my chest…
The blood drained from me, the hair at the nape of my neck stood up; I knew.
We all knew.
This was deliberate. This was beyond terrorism — this was an act of war.
My mom was still asleep (she worked nights). I ran to her room and shouted “Mommy, wake up!!!” I couldn’t tell her what happened in words, I had to show her. I fumbled for the remote, turned on the TV right at the moment CNN was giving the re-cap. Mom gasped, her eyes big, hand to her mouth.
We watched in horror.
*
Even though I wasn’t in NYC, my heart absolutely was.
Never forget.
EarthToZoey on September 11, 2009 at 12:15 PM
I was there two months after the attacks, and the I-beams they were taking out on trucks had to be hosed down, because they were still that hot. Two months later.
Beautifully written, as always — and thanks for posting it, Andy.
Tanya on September 11, 2009 at 12:20 PM
No words come. Just tears and trembling.
SouthernGent on September 11, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Thank you for posting this.
Laura on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
September 11th, 2001 changed my life in many ways. It woke me up. It woke me up to the fact that our nation is a hated nation. Hated for our freedom,our values,our economical power and our standing for what is right in the world. I never was interested in politics or what our military really did to protect us and our way of life. I sure am now. Eight years later and it feels as if it happened yesterday…..
sweet92169 on September 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM
I was in NYC the weekend of October 12-14, 2001. A friend of mine took me down to Ground Zero that Saturday morning. We had to stay back about one or two blocks because they had set up barriers. It didn’t matter. A broken section of one of the building’s facades (don’t remember which Tower) was still visible, jutting up out of the pit, partially clouded by the smoke and haze still lurking over the devastation.
It was overcast and damp. I remember looking at the windows of the buildings nearby, some with businesses on street level: from my photos, Payless ShoeSource, GNC, Modernage Custom Photo Lab. Grayish-white sludge still caked the tops of awnings and window sills; it still coated windows themselves.
I didn’t take a picture of it, but I saw a display window with golf bags inside. I noted the layer of sludge piled up in the bottom of the window and on top of the bags. A dark thought came to me as I looked at that particular display window: within that sludge were brick, mortar, water from firehoses, jet fuel, incinerated office furniture, and…the people, the victims themselves, whose bodies will never be found. That is one of two images that are the clearest in my memory of Ground Zero on that day.
The other is what I saw–the visual perspective–when I looked up from the street at the tall buildings still standing. I had never been to NYC before that weekend, so I had never seen the Towers in person. I could not imagine their height. The Chase Tower in downtown Houston has 70 or so floors, and looking up at it from the street is impressive, for lack of a better word. When I tried to picture my 33-story office building placed on top of the Chase Tower…. Well, I cannot imagine what those who fell…who jumped…must have been thinking, feeling, seeing….
We should not forget. We cannot forget.
tkinTX on September 11, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Andy Levy: Thank you for collecting and posting these.
Allahpundit: Thank you for taking the time to share your most personal reflections of that terrible day. And thank you for taking the risk of opening up. You’re not just brilliant, talented, and clever with words, there’s a whole lot of goodness in you.
And for all who experienced the horror of that horrible day, whether in person or from afar, regardless of politics or any other personal characteristic, may peace be with you. And may we work, each in our own way, to ensure such a day never happens again.
Loxodonta on September 11, 2009 at 1:45 PM
thank you, allahpundit.
Loxodonta said what I needed to, mostly. I did the DC trip that year, which while surreal and awful, came nowhere near what New Yorkers went through … what you went through. I do believe there is a large group of us out here who remember that day, those days, and will choose to never forget.
I appreciate you, and your perspective in the discussion here. So thanks.
WraithRat on September 11, 2009 at 1:59 PM
This made me cry. Thank you for writing about this, Allah.
I was on the other coast on 9/11, but I lived near an airport at the time and it was horrifyingly eerie to not hear any air traffic. I remember jumping, expecting something horrible, the first time I heard a plane again after they resumed flights.
BakerAllie on September 11, 2009 at 2:21 PM
That’s exactly how I felt, but I was partially glad. I thought 9/11 would end all the stupid tabloid BS.
But I you’re right. No news (no “real” news) is good news.
Thanks, AP.
Esthier on September 11, 2009 at 2:27 PM
I’m so sorry for anyone that had to experience such horror up close, and I thank you for sharing your thoughts. It’s almost too much to bear sometimes but we can’t forget what we’re fighting for.
scalleywag on September 11, 2009 at 2:29 PM
Thank you Allah for your memories, and Andy for compiling it here for us. I cry every time I read anything about 9/11, and remember where I was, and the awful images of it. Never forget.
Susanboo on September 11, 2009 at 2:54 PM
My cousin worked in the WTC complex and saw the planes hit and then knew to get out of there (having lived thru the earlier bombing of the WTC). He went to over 230 funerals from friends who worked in towers and for friends from Long Island/High School who were first responders.
Now on Sept. 11th he spends the day hugging his daughters and his wife.
This remembrance is so poignant without being sappy that I’m going to share this with him and maybe it will ease some of his pain.
Branch Rickey on September 11, 2009 at 2:54 PM
My girlfriend who worked at the Pentagon had to stop attending funerals at 6 or 7…she lost 33 (I thought that was significant for 1 person). She was outside the 3rd Corridor entrance when the plane slammed into Corridors 4 & 5…first-hand, close-up view of the damage.
A friend from HS worked at Merrill Lynch, 1 block from WTC. I spent 2 harrowing days trying to find out if she was okay, with her calling me back on THU to let me know she’d moved from Bensonhurst to SoHo on 9/10 to a 4th floor walkup and called in sick. Lucky for her, I thought.
My massage therapist and friend, who was from Brooklyn, would spend 3 days in DC then 4 days in NYC providing outpatient social work services for her family, friends, and their colleagues…all of them NYPD or FDNY.
Although I was in DC, trying to get out of the northern flight pattern of Dulles, I only knew a few who experienced this trauma personally until after 9/11…when I changed careers, I gathered more friends and colleagues who experienced 9/11 personally in NYC or DC.
Because I spent a lot of time in the company of those on the first line in both DC and NYC, as well as throughout the country, I’ve heard so many stories of where people were on 9/11…as well as the OKC bombing and international attacks. Too much pain amongst those folks for most of us to fully grasp. Makes them special people to do what they do.
Miss_Anthrope on September 11, 2009 at 3:51 PM
I was listening to Howard Stern of all things when this happened.Needless to say,the show turned extremely serious.They were reporting all the rumors..maybe as many as 2 dozen hijacked planes in the air,heading for various targets…they were extremely excitable,and intense,as we all were.I remember hearing ,then seeing what were obviously military jets (by the time i saw them anyway)fly overhead.When i first heard them I was of course scared to death to even hear ANYTHING overhead…but then seeing them bought a mix of fear,of what was happening,and patriotic pride as in hell yeah go get em!I was in an area of PA that i couldnt see being a target(except possibly TMI)but being in the middle of the philly/dc/baltimore “triangle” and having 2 nuke plants in the area…still extremely scary/intense.It was like a 48 hour head rush…hard to remeber alot.But nothing compared to Allah and others experiences.
theTarCzar on September 11, 2009 at 4:06 PM
Thank you both for posting this. AP, that was truly poetic. I don’t know how you ever moved back to Manhattan after this.
I recently had to explain 9/11 to my oldest two children. My son had just turned 1 in 2001 and my daughter wasn’t even born. For the first few years I deliberately shielded them from video of 9/11. Why does a 4 year old have to know about that? But then my 8 year old son asked me some questions about Patriot Day on the calendar and about the war in Iraq. So we found some news footage online and I explained what happened as best I could. I told him that his aunt’s father had died in the WTC (his cousin’s grandfather). He watched and his sister watched, and they looked at me with big wide eyes and asked me if it was accident. Did the people in the plane fly into the building on accident? No, I had to tell them, they did it on purpose. Why would anyone do that? Didn’t the people on the plane die? Yes, they did. Did they know that the buildings would fall down? Was that an accident? No, I told them. It was a success beyond their wildest dreams. This is why we are at war. I’m not sure they understood – goodness, I’m not sure I want them to understand evil like that. And then they went on with their day in the way that children will. It was difficult to explain it to them so long after the fact. To them, it was eons ago, ancient history. To me, it is fresh and horrible every year. But I have to tell them about it, so that we will never forget. But I wish I could let them stay innocent and ignorant of this evil forever. My 4 year old still knows nothing about it.
TX Mom on September 11, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Allah, I followed this last night, staying up well past my bedtime, anxiously awaiting the next entry. It was compelling, and I am certain, deeply personal. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Thanks Andy, for capturing this.
sybilll on September 11, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Amazing. Just amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us.
darii on September 11, 2009 at 5:57 PM
Thank you for sharing that, Allahpundit, and for posting it, Andy. Starkly, beautifully, & horrifyingly written.
My family and I were staying on Long Beach Island, NJ that week. I remember after we couldn’t take the television coverage any more, we went and sat on the beach, watching the long unbroken stream of black smoke flow from north to south for the rest of the afternoon.
Rosmerta on September 11, 2009 at 6:18 PM
I read more than I post(I really suck at writing) but I have to say thank you ALlah for sharing this very personal memories and feelings of 9/11.
God bless the victims and all the families of this attack on america.
Gracelynn on September 11, 2009 at 7:29 PM
I live in the sticks, in SW Virginia. My wife and I were having coffee and enjoying the beautifully clear sky that morning. I think it was that way in the entire eastern U.S. that day. We had both commented that the sky was as clear as we’d ever seen it. Apart from normal routine, we had neither the radio or news on.
The phone rang and it was a friend of ours that lived in Brooklyn. She was hysterical after seeing the results of the first plane. I don’t remember if her TV reception had dropped or if she just didn’t have one. But she was wanting to know if we knew what was going on.
I ran to turn on the TV and it was almost right as the 2nd plane hit. I was sure we were being attacked. I just didn’t know by who was doing it. It felt as though I’d been punched in the chest.
We didn’t have FoxNews at the time so were watching Today. I saw the first tower collapse. Someone on their crew commented that they weren’t sure what had just happened. I started screaming at the TV that the building had just vanished.
We watched until after the 2nd tower was gone. My head hurt from the thought of what I’d just seen. Having not been gone from the Navy too long, I was sure I’d be called back to active duty.
We finally turned off the TV and called our folks and kids.
TugboatPhil on September 11, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Allahpundit, I appreciate your distilling into Twitter-size bites the experience of watching up close the end of the world as we knew it — as close as one can get to hell on earth. It changed your life forever in ways clearly visible and deeply private. Thank you for sharing both with us.
Watching the news from thousands of miles away in SoCal, we felt like we were being attacked — that we would never feel safe or complacent again. Regrettably, many forgot too readily and some don’t wish to be reminded. Living with the aftermath must keep the memory fresher and rawer.
Even here in Orange County, I know someone who survived 9/11. He had a short-term reassignment from his Newport Beach office to help his company’s headquarters in the first tower and started his workday at sunrise. Around 8:30am, he went down to one of the lower floors for a quick breakfast that saved his life.
I live near the John Wayne Airport and South Coast Plaza, reportedly a terrorist target. I still half-expect an attack every time I hear planes buzzing overhead or any explosive sound. I do think another attack on our soil is inevitable and progressively more likely as forgetfulness invades our institutions of power.
Terrie on September 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM