What was everyone doing the morning of 9/11/2001?

[SimMan]

Then you going to get those affected by 'Pearl Harbor' and even to a smaller degree 'Gettysburg' also screaming for a national holiday in America.

 

IMO 9/11 should not be a national holiday but a day of remberence but i would not sleep if a became a 'holiday' as well either. It would be a shame that say 10 years from now, in 2022 Target stating that '9/11 Holiday Sale on jeans and slacks.'

 

Shortline Bus, I can see your point as I do wish that Holidays would be real Holidays with stores/malls closed. Unfortunately we now live in a country where a Holiday is an excuse to go shopping as you basically were saying re: Target etc...

 

Each year, more and more young adults with no hard memories of that day observe the commemorations with second-hand emotions. We recall the tragedy of the attacks with heavy speeches and somber silence. The day feels different, weightier. Most of us go on with our day with that knowledge in the backs of our minds that something terrible happened on this date.

 

Still, there are some would like to see 9/11 declared a full federal holiday in which everything is shut down by the government. States and local areas would follow suit and nobody would end up working as our nation would hit the pause button for the entire calendar square.

 

From a practical standpoint, we already have Labor Day right around this time of year. From a historical standpoint, we don’t usually go out of our way to make full federal holidays out of national disasters. For a long time, December 7th meant one thing to all Americans: The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941. Many people don’t even recognize that anniversary anymore, but this nation never mandated a day of official recognition, and that terrible event is as close as the U.S. has ever come to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

[Shortline Bus]

Shortline Bus, I can see your point as I do wish that Holidays would be real Holidays with stores/malls closed. Unfortunately we now live in a country where a Holiday is an excuse to go shopping as you basically were saying re: Target etc...

 

Each year, more and more young adults with no hard memories of that day observe the commemorations with second-hand emotions. We recall the tragedy of the attacks with heavy speeches and somber silence. The day feels different, weightier. Most of us go on with our day with that knowledge in the backs of our minds that something terrible happened on this date.

 

Still, there are some would like to see 9/11 declared a full federal holiday in which everything is shut down by the government. States and local areas would follow suit and nobody would end up working as our nation would hit the pause button for the entire calendar square.

 

From a practical standpoint, we already have Labor Day right around this time of year. From a historical standpoint, we don’t usually go out of our way to make full federal holidays out of national disasters. For a long time, December 7th meant one thing to all Americans: The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941. Many people don’t even recognize that anniversary anymore, but this nation never mandated a day of official recognition, and that terrible event is as close as the U.S. has ever come to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

 

 

What sad is that some stores like Target and Wal Mart are open 24/7 including Christmas and New Years now so workers/staff spend even less time with families in lower paying jobs. That for another discussion.

 

Back to 9/11 as a holiday. One idea would be to make it a 'state hoilday' in NY/NJ, DC and Va. And for rest of country a 'day of remembernce." Hey Mass. has a state holiday called "Patroit's Day" in early April not celebrated anywhere else. With that said, both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor should be offically from now on become an offical day of recognition.

It's doubtful since 9/11 is only a few days after Labor Day and a bunch of holidays from Thanksgiving-Christmas and New Year's, it's doubtful the Federal Government/Congress and also important coroprate America IMO, will allow an additional national holiday in this economic enviornment.

Hell, it took years for Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday to become one so you can imgaine 9/11 being added as well?:eek:

[SimMan]

What sad is that some stores like Target and Wal Mart are open 24/7 including Christmas and New Years now so workers/staff spend even less time with families in lower paying jobs. That for another discussion.

 

Back to 9/11 as a holiday. One idea would be to make it a 'state hoilday' in NY/NJ, DC and Va. And for rest of country a 'day of remembernce." Hey Mass. has a state holiday called "Patroit's Day" in early April not celebrated anywhere else. With that said, both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor should be offically from now on become an offical day of recognition.

It's doubtful since 9/11 is only a few days after Labor Day and a bunch of holidays from Thanksgiving-Christmas and New Year's, it's doubtful the Federal Government/Congress and also important coroprate America IMO, will allow an additional national holiday in this economic enviornment.

Hell, it took years for Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday to become one so you can imgaine 9/11 being added as well?:eek:

 

Shortline Bus,

I can live with official days of recognition for both Pearl Harbor and 9-11. Something to stay in the hearts of all of us. It would be interesting to see where a day of recognition would rank in a listing of most important to people among our current holidays???

 

All the best!

[Roadcruiser1]

9/11 will never be a holiday. It would be outrageous. Holidays are days of celebration. We as a nation will never celebrate 9/11 like the terrorists did on that day. We will make it a day to reflect, but not as a day to celebrate.

[SimMan]

You are correct. We as a Nation would never celebrate as the terrorist did on that day. We would celebrate the backbone and courage of those who saved the lives of so many others by their heroic acts of bravery and expression of what being an American is all about. This day should not pass as "just another day" of the week.

[Shortline Bus]

As we end the 10 anniversary of 9/11/01 here a great way to remember all those who died.

 

 

 

 

 

9/11 Memorial service St Paul's Catherdal London Sept. 2001

 

[SimMan]

As we end the 10 anniversary of 9/11/01 here a great way to remember all those who died.

 

 

 

 

 

9/11 Memorial service St Paul's Catherdal London Sept. 2001

 

 

 

AMEN!

[mediccjh]

Please, watch the Nazi Banksters Crimes Ripple Effect at http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[R44 CNG]

Where was I? In first grade...went home afterschool looking forward to some Dragonball Z and Pokemon on Toonami but instead saw two buildings (I didn't know about at the time) collapsed

[CaramelFrapp]

I was about to start my second year of college, and I lived in Savannah during that time. I woke up bright and early to watch TV when I saw the first plane hit the North tower. I did believe it was an accident at first, but of course, I was horribly shocked when the second plane hit the South tower. I felt a sense of despair and sadness at seeing the people in danger. My cousin who's an elevator repairman (and lived in LI at the time) was supposed to go repair inside the WTC, and actually his manager ordered him to go to a hotel to fix an elevator before everything occurred. It was a close call, but thank goodness my cousin avoided going there on 9/11.

[Shortline Bus]

I was about to start my second year of college, and I lived in Savannah during that time. I woke up bright and early to watch TV when I saw the first plane hit the North tower. I did believe it was an accident at first, but of course, I was horribly shocked when the second plane hit the South tower. I felt a sense of despair and sadness at seeing the people in danger. My cousin who's an elevator repairman (and lived in LI at the time) was supposed to go repair inside the WTC, and actually his manager ordered him to go to a hotel to fix an elevator before everything occurred. It was a close call, but thank goodness my cousin avoided going there on 9/11.

 

 

Not to ruin your story Caramel but little correction. Nobody in NY, America or the world saw the first plane hit the North Tower(unless you were in Lower Manhattan that morning) 'live" on tv. It was shown on TV about 10 minutes later on replay at almost 9am. You probably (like tens of millions of people)saw 'live' the 2nd plane hit the south tower.

[R68 Subway Car]

There is an incredible video of the North Tower hit by the Naudet Brothers. Look it up online.

[CaramelFrapp]

Not to ruin your story Caramel but little correction. Nobody in NY, America or the world saw the first plane hit the North Tower(unless you were in Lower Manhattan that morning) 'live" on tv. It was shown on TV about 10 minutes later on replay at almost 9am. You probably (like tens of millions of people)saw 'live' the 2nd plane hit the south tower.

 

Oops, my bad LOL. I was so sleepy when I posted that night. I meant to say I was watching the breaking news on TV when the North Tower had smoke coming out of it.

[FamousNYLover]

During the day, I was living near 1st Av/91st St.

Since I had eye appointment at Mt. Sinai and my mom and I were not morning person to watch news.

Not knowing plane hit tower, we went to our appointment.

After the appointment, I went to 5th Av/102nd St for M106 to get to HSES.

When I paid my 1st fare with Student MetroCard, I remember male passenger next standing near male bus operator was talking something about plane.

Not knowing subway wasn't working, I got off at Central Park West/97th St and enter IND Central Park West 96th St Station.

There was no subways aren't showing, so when I was about to exit, I heard man's conversation that there's no subway due to plane hit tower.

So, I darted to 94th st entrance IRT 7th Av-Broadway Line's 96th St Station. 3rd fare taken.

I only saw uptown trains including Redbird going up only.

After few moments, Station Agent made announcement that do to plane hit tower, all subway service was suspended.

When I heard that I darted to M5 bus stop at Riverside Drive/97th St. It was CRUSH LOADED AS HELL.

I took it to 72nd St Subway Station for M57 bus to 57th St/10th Av.

When I got to HSES, female school security thought I was cutting, even though I just got here, so she escort me inside.

My paraprofessional, Yuka Bell, Japanese told her I was at doctor's appointment.

I got here late about 4th period, which was Computer Class.

Everyone was watching 9-11 news mostly.

Every student, teachers, school nurses/librarians were watching news.

After school, my school bus company, Hoyt Transportation called my school. I'm sure other school bus company called our HSES to let us know School Bus was stuck on other side of bridge and tunnel that was frozen for access.

So, my mom came to pick me.

When I used my student MetroCard on M31 at 57th St/9th Av, it was inefficient fare because I wasted fare on suspended subway. I told bus operator, I lost fare on suspended subway.

 

As M31 bus was traveling eastbound on 57th St, we saw Black Smoke coming from twin towers.

After I got home, I stop at fire station, but it was replacement firefighter from other borough that got properly got stuck in Manhattan.

After MET Museum visit, everyone in museum were sorrow. I went back to Yorkville firehouse ad every firefighters was covered with coal and smoke debris.

My mom bought flowers for firefighters.

My best friend, Firefighter Vincient Kane, Captain Walter Hanes has been killed during line of duty.

After home, every channel was 9-11 frenzy.

Thinking there will no be no Pokemon show on Saturday on CWPIX11, I slept good and woke up during Pokemon episode which was on.

It was sad day and THE END.

[realizm]

I guess I might as well share my experience in detail then.

 

When the planes hits I was in a building in Brooklyn Heights, on the clock, writing up MS Excel files as I was reporting on a field tech ticket order reporting back to CompUSA before the company went bankrupt (My start in the IT field) . I was listening to the Howard Stern show when the broadcast was interrupted with the news that the first plane is aiming for WTC. Then I felt the ground rumble within seconds (That was actually the explosion)  but at first I dismissed it as a subway consist running over the Manny B. (I was close to Jay Street in the vicinity of DUMBO). What I didn't realize at the moment was that a jet crashed into WTC.

 

I really thought it was a joke when listening to the news until my fellow tech told me it was no joke and that this was really happening. We both ran up to the rooftop with our clients and indeed it was true! But we were wondering during those moments if it was an accident at first. It became clearly apparent that it was a terrorist attack as the second plane reached it's target which explosion made me see flash spots in my eyes and made my ears ring, it was an deafening explosion even from on the other side of the East River.. At this point I was viewing everything through binoculars and to my shock that I started to see people jump from the towers through the windows to their deaths. Then I saw the second tower fall and crumble, just like that. It was then I obviously split we headed home right away to get the hell out of downtown Brooklyn as quickly as possible in our van back to Queens taking local streets not knowing what to expect next. Obviously our IT manager knew why we did that and gave us 8 hours pay as a courtesy even though we weren't even on the clock 30 minutes.

 

My mind is foggy because I think I deliberately and subconsciously dismissed some of the images from my mind.

 

The disaster area was a burning smolder of flames that blackened the horizon, it kept going for weeks after the fact. I saw F-16's, Little Birds AH 64 Apache's and Black Hawks around the clock flying high as the US Air Force and the National Guard had set up a perimeter above downtown Manhattan with soldiers armed to the teeth with assault rifles (very rare sight) everywhere ready for a pending ground terrorist attack. 

 

That year I quit CompUSA and moved to Pennsylvania for obvious reasons, started work for RR Donnelly and never returned to NYC until 2005 where I resided in South Brooklyn.

[MTA Bus]

The only thing I remember is that I was in school and as I was looking out the window, I noticed that one of the twin towers was missing. I was like "What happened to the other tower"?. That's when the principal announced that there was an attack on the Twin Towers.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I was in college at the time.  I had a Spanish tutoring session and had walked over to the main building on campus to head to the Learning Center. They always have big screen TV's as you come in and CNN was on and that's when I heard about the towers being hit.  I still remember the reporter who had a view of the WTC reporting with the black smoke billowing and nothing behind him.  There had been all sorts of crazy reports about how the towers had collapsed but onto other things rather than having imploded upon themselves and even reports of the Brooklyn Bridge being damaged in the process.  My session with my student was of course cancelled as many of us at my university were from Long Island and New York City and I believe that my student's family may have been caught up in that mess.  Perhaps their father worked in the towers, so you had a lot of people trying to call home.

 

Calling home was impossible, as the lines were tied up.  At that time I still resided in Brooklyn and cell phones weren't still the "in" thing at the time.  I can remember walking back to my dorm with such anger, feeling so violated and wanting to fight for my country at that moment.  At that same time no one really knew what was happening and if more attacks were coming, as by then the attacks that happened to the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania had been reported.  Despite the high level of New Yorkers at the University, I don't recall classes being canceled, which was disgusting IMO, but I went to my classes since I had exams to take and remember somehow being able to score well in one of my Upper Level Spanish courses despite my mind being elsewhere.

 

I think after a day or so, when things calmed down a bit, I was able to call home and speak with my mom who gave a bleak picture of the situation and how bad things were.  I was relieved that none of my family had been harmed, as one of my aunt's actually witnessed the entire event from her office window (she worked right by the WTC) and still gets upset to this day talking about it, as they were forced to relocate after the event.

 

I eventually came back to NYC when we had a break and immediately came by the WTC site, which was still a mess.  The smell of death lingered for blocks and the site itself was still very much in shambles even though the event had occurred months ago. It was a very moving event and one that I still get emotional about.  I have been proud to be a New Yorker and an American during this time and remember the emptiness of not seeing those towers for years as I eventually moved to Staten Island permanently and would take the ferry to and from Downtown.  It's amazing that it's been 12 years but it's one of those events that we can never forget.  We should also be very proud of our Police Department for their hard work in keeping this city safe from further attacks during the course of this time.

 

I was living in Europe during the terrorist attacks in Spain in 2004 and 2001 came back to me all over again.  We should know that our fellow Americans are working hard to protect us and I thank them for their sacrifice currently, as well as in the past.  The one thing I still remember was my flight back from Germany, and remembering seeing this young man who stood out because of how he was dressed. I had a feeling that he was a Federal Air Marshal and my feeling was right.  He boarded our Frankfurt to JFK flight on Lufthansa and his identity was revealed once we got to the check point at JFK. I forget how I figured it out but it came out somehow.  Certainly made me feel good that's for sure.

[Turbo19]

I've elaborated on before, but long story short my classes were canceled and local security and policing was increased.

 

This was in California mind you, which to an extent goes to show the nationwide impact on that unforgettable day.

[Fresh Pond]

I was a little 6th grader back in PS97 (now Bard High School Early College; my class was the last graduating class from there) on the Lower East Side. The first plane flew over my school and I remember hearing the impact of it. They kept us outside in the playground longer than normal and once we got inside, they sent us straight to the auditorium. There were some teachers crying and people were saying that a plane flew into one of the buildings. We were sent up to our classrooms and then we heard that another plane flew into the towers. My teacher had a radio on and we were listening to the whole thing.

 

Fast forward to once the south tower fell, the call was made for the students to be picked up by their parents. No kid was allowed to leave on their own, although I lived across ths street at that time and my mother worked in the shelter behind the school. She picked us upand we was home that entire day just looking at the news. You could see the smoke from my window since my window faced south towards the towers.

[theaveragejoe]

I was in my 1st year of collage (Seneca College in Toronto), after class looked it up on CNN, schools, business closed early that day in Toronto