#744 | Friday, February 8th, 2002
I was at work....It was a normal day, in Pennsylvania....sunny...kids in school, blissful ignorance. How feeble that all seems, even now....more than 4 months later. I run a sales route, and I was driving to a stop of mine when the DJ's of my local radio station cut in. "A plane has hit one of the WTC Towers" Oh my God...I thought that was absolutely horrific. And....I also thought it was horribly tragic, a mistake, pilot error of an unspeakable kind. I listened, tears welling, of the fire and smoke billowing. It was a sad day, even at that point. I was reminded of the attack in '93, and thought the firemen would take good care of the situation. Minutes later, the next plane. I stopped, pulled over to the side of the road, purely shaken. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON??? Terrified, I realized my surroundings...I was near out local airport. It may seem a bit foolish now, but let me tell you, at that time, I almost peed myself and sped away to what I thought of as a "safer location". I kept on with the next 2 hours of my job, breathlessly listening for the next report. I called my sitter and told her to get my kids out of school. I wanted them all in one place so if I had to get them in a hurry, I could. I raced home, called my husband on the cell phone....told him to come home NOW. He was out front. We held each other, we hugged....God help us, we prayed. Shaken, we turned on the TV. After seeing the utter devastation, we asked our kids to "amuse themselves". They went upstairs, and we watched CNN for what seemed like hours.

It was unbelievable. It still is. My whole soul goes out to those who lost. My prayers, my blood, my money.......it doesnt seem like enough. God bless America. We will not allow this to be forgotten. And I am one of those rare people who think the WTC should never be rebuilt....no matter how economically stressed NYC is, no matter how short of office space ....it is hallowed, sacred ground. It is a burial site of hundreds that have burned to nothing. I cannot see any structure being fit to replace those grand and solemn structures.

God bless.
Sunshine | 26 | Pennsylvania

#745 | Saturday, February 9th, 2002
I was at home getting ready to go to work (late as usual!) in my central New Jersey apartment, with the television on, as it usually is every morning. I wandered into the living room to see on the TV. that one of the World Trade Center towers was on fire, a plane had crashed into it. How horrible, but probably a freak accident, I thought - no pilot would let that happen unless he totally lost control, right?

My next thought was of a girl I knew only as an acquaintance - I knew she worked in one of the towers, but wasn't sure which one. Why I thought of her and no one else is anyone's guess - my husband also has family who work in New York City, and I honestly had no idea where THEIR offices were, so you might assume that my first thoughts should be of them.

On my way out the door, I woke my husband (he works nights) to ask him where his sister and brother-in-law worked, did they work in the trade center. He said no, and asked why, so I told him about the plane crash.

I made the ten-minute drive to my publishing company with a New Jersey radio station on - they were broadcasting eyewitnesses over the phone describing the crash scene. Suddenly one male eyewitness shrieked, "Another plane just hit the other tower!"

At that moment, I - along with the rest of the country, I'm sure - knew this was no accident.

The moment I got to work, amid stunned co-workers asking, "Did you hear?" I made my way to my desk to call my husband and wake him. I told him, "Find out where your family is!" (Not only does he have the one sister and brother-in-law working in the city, but also another brother-in-law is an AP photographer and is in DC on assignment sometimes.) He stayed up the rest of the day watching the news and waiting for word from his family - all were ok.

Meanwhile, at work, I poked my head into my boss's office, and it turned out she and the other editor she had in there with her had no idea what was going on. The other editor said ominously in response to the news, "My brother works in the World Trade Center." We both told him to go call and find his brother, but he said, "No... I think he was supposed to be on vacation this week, I'll call after the meeting." He was incredibly in control for someone who wasn't all that sure... His brother WAS on vacation all that week, but still, if it were me and I wasn't sure, I would have had to leave the meeting and call. Don't know how he stayed so calm...

Somehow amid all this I did manage to get some work done throughout the day, but every time I finished editing a set of pages, I took another minute to e-mail my brother's wife and other people, to find out how and where everyone was. I was able to get in touch with another friend who works in NYC, having no idea where she actually worked... she wasn't in the WTC area at all, but she was understandably shaken, and she had very few options to get out of the city by the end of the day.

The assistant to my company's CEO put the news on in the conference room, and we were all free to come in and watch as we pleased. The news of the Pentagon attack was broadcast, as well as the crash in Pennsylvania, and we all thought, "My God... what next?"

Early on, when no one was sure where those hijacked planes had taken off from, I realized I also had two friends who were supposed to be flying home from Florida that day. Then of course my brother's wife had to mention the rumor that there were allegedly eight hijacked planes in the air. That didn't help. I was afraid to call the families of these guys - I almost didn't want to know - so I e-mailed one of them. By midday we knew there were no more hijacked planes, and where the original planes took off from, so I knew they were probably ok... but I was still glad to get an answer back from one friend's wife that they were fine, just would have to drive home.

I saw one of the towers fall - I can't remember which - when I stopped into the conference room to watch the news on a break. And when I got home, my husband had been taping everything he could all day... We just sat and watched the news, playing the same clips over and over again, both of us crying. In the end, our family and friends were all ok, if very shaken... but we cried anyway, for the sheer horror of it all, and for those people who were not so lucky.

But... the acquaintance I thought of when the first plane crashed - well, she worked on the 89th floor of one of the towers, and she did not survive. What really upsets me is that I KNOW I have thoughts like that sometimes, unexplained thoughts out of the blue that are probably some kind of eerie psychic thing - and I ignored it. Sometimes I think I should have found a number for her company (I at least knew the name of her company and her last name, I could have gotten to her) to call, to tell her to get out....
Maryann | 32 | New Jersey

#746 | Saturday, February 9th, 2002
We had just finished taking notes in Coach Allan's American Government class, when his phone rang, after he took the call he said that we were going to watch the news, because there was histoy in the making. When we heard about the planes we were all pretty suprised. Most of us watched the tv all day in our classes, the only time I wasn't watching was at lunch and switching between classes, and of course when Mrs. Allard wouldn't let us watch it. I even remember running back to English from the Guidance office after I was finished switching classes because on my way back I heard that one of the twin towers had just fallen. Most of my friends and I were nervous for the rest of the day, even when one of the maintenence crew was mowing outside our view a few people took cover, thinking it was a plane. I have become more of a patriot since then, I have a flag sticker on my truck's back window, and a front licence plate with an eagle and teh flag. I have also donated money to our local fire department.
Dani | 18 | Florida

#747 | Saturday, February 9th, 2002
My husband and I were still sleeping at 6.45 am Pacific standard time when we were awoken by a telephone call. It was from my mother in India! She said in a frantic voice - what is happening in the US? Haven't you heard the terrible news? we are watching it live on CNN in Bombay!

we immediately got up and switched on the radio and heard with horror the live report. as we did not have cable tv, we couldn't see what was going on. i tried calling a family friend in brooklyn, NY, to see if she was ok but couldn't connect due to busy telephone lines. Later, we went to the lounge of our apartment leasing office to see the President's message on the TV there.
Shams | 34 | California

#748 | Saturday, February 9th, 2002
hello!
my name is Roi, i am 16 years old,
and i'm from Israel.
im september 11th i was listen to a radio programe, therefor i heard in the radio's news that the a plane crash into the twince and they said that more info will give later, i was shocked and i open the tv and i saw the CNN,
i see it akk the day.

i wish that peace in all over the world will come soon.

goodbye,
roi.
Roi | 16 | Israel

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