How time flies. How easily time forgets.
25 years ago. I was 26. Jesus, to be young again, but at the time I was in Orlando, working as an intern for the UCF athletics department.
One of the cool things of living in a new city, outside of Georgia, was the variety of programming on the radio we had. I listened to Howard Stern on my drive in to work each morning, and when he was talking with Robin about planes flying into towers, I thought he was doing a schtick.
When I got to the office, the coordinator was pulling up images on a dial up modem and I watched the images slowly, methodically unfurl. First the tops of the towers, then billowing plumes of flame and smoke. It was real, and at the moment, it felt we were all doomed.
I had my first trip to New York City a year or so earlier, and went to the top of the World Trade Center. It still stands out as one of the modern wonders of the world that I got to experience in person. Amazing. My mother’s birthday is September 11th, and we had planned a trip to NYC around the same time of the attacks. We had to cancel because of an event at UCF. Weird how time and chance works.
I loved my time in the City. Dean and Deluca, Patsy Grimaldi’s, Katz’s Deli, street hawking faux cologne, walking in to a Chinese gambling parlor by accident, drinking at “Irish” pubs. MOMA. Street fights. It was exciting, real, and raw. When I was trying to get back to the Paramount I thought I could cut through Little Brazil and walk the one single block, but found myself surrounded by crackheads and prostitutes so I walked into the middle of the street and took my chances. On the way back to JFK a cab hit a pedestrian in front of us. The driver saw it and said “that’s normal”. I was shocked, disturbed, but the plane left on time and the cab driver received his fare and a tip.
It was life and it was what it was. Another day of life and death in NYC.
+++++
In my time, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve had a charmed life. I consider myself lucky, regardless of divorces, medical events, or whatever. I watched in Mrs. Bibby’s third grade classroom as Challenger went up in flames. I watched Columbine unfold on live TV. I saw 9/11 in the coaches room at UCF’s basketball arena.
I was sitting there with a bunch a 6 and 7 feet tall monsters, basketball players, watching on a big screen. One kid jumped up and ran from the room screaming about his mother, who worked in the vicinity of the WTC on the day of the incident. I should’ve known who he was, but I didn’t. I can’t imagine his fear or his pain, but I can understand.
It was an event that called me into teaching. I wondered what I was doing throwing out free t-shirts and cups at games. I was running the clock for football games and announcing the down and distance at the Citrus Bowl when Tennessee played Michigan. The referee sitting next to me at the clock and PA told me I had a future in this field and a talent. It didn’t matter. It didn’t seem to matter to me, anyway.
Next thing I know, I’m teaching sixth grade science at the school I attended for junior high, because that seemed to matter, and that made the difference. I married, and would divorce, two fellow teachers. It is what it is. But, at the end of the day, I’ve lead a charmed and purposeful life.
People were thinking they were doing that in New York 25 years ago, and they’re gone now.
So it goes, as Vonnegut said.
25 years. How quickly we forget.
I appreciate your perspective, sir. We have to remember to be thankful we’re still keeping on after all that has happened in the last 25 years and longer. I was a senior at UGA and remember everyone huddled around a tv watching and wondering what we were about to face in the world as we prepared to enter into our working lives. I have a friend who had to evacuate his apartment in NYC and walk to safety. Scary times, something my parents and grandparents had dealt with on a larger scale with the wars of their time. I like the drone display. We should never forget that day and those we lost.
Well done. I still remember how I heard what happened. I was dropping my oldest off at school. We had been listening to a Disney CD and singing along. As soon as I left the car pool line, I’m refocusing on getting to an appointment. My flip phone rings, and my wife asks if I’m listening to WSB. I say no because I just dropped off our daughter. She tells me a plane has hit the Trade Center. My response is “No way,” and then it became “This was terror.”
My firm’s HQ had been in the towers but had moved to WFC a few months earlier. Given how high those offices were, not many of my colleagues would have escaped that day if they had gone to the office. Only 1 colleague passed in the attacks because he had a meeting in the towers.
After 9/11 Museum opened, my wife and I went to see it (it’s truly moving … similar to boat ride to the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor). They were having a special exhibition on sports in the aftermath of the attacks. Right there in full display was a goal post pad from the first game in Sanford after the attack. I went to the memorial and cried even though I knew no one who died in the attack 17 years before.
A few years ago I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, I saw Alan Jackson’s handwritten lyrics to “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” on display. That flood of emotion came over me again.
That day still makes me sad and angry 25 years later.
I was working for a defense contractor that morning. A coworker and I were looking at the tv in the break room after the first tower was hit. We were puzzled trying to figure out how such a tragic accident could happen. Then the second plane came into the tv screen hitting the second tower. My emotion changed immediately from how could this happen to rage at the pilots of that second plane and how I was ready to fight them right then. If I had been younger, I would have enlisted in the military that day. I was a volunteer firefighter for my local community also, so it really hit home. Never forget and FTMF.
I was running my 8th grade band class that day at the Lovett school. Toward the end of the period admins started flooding my classroom and taking kids out, after class we turned on the news. Being a vet meant my rage was deep and real and hard to deal with.
My students didn’t lose any fathers or mothers that day but there were several that were in those towers.
Headed to campus, got on the bus and everyone was quiet listening to the radio. Right as we pulled up to the Library, the first tower started to collapse, and the bus just sat there for 2-3 minutes in silence as we listened to them describe the tower coming down, then everyone shuffled off in silence, and they cancelled classes about 10-15 minutes later…. Hard to believe it has been 25 years and to think how the world has changed so much since….
Whether it’s sad or amazing, the stories and those with experiences that come forward year after year is remarkable…more forth coming information concerning those involved with the planning, execution and the coming and goings of those terrorists, how they were harbored, how those involved exited the USA to go back to their country of origin….Always Remember, Never Forget!
Great story, JP. I still remember every single moment of that day. I was on a work trip out west and the hotel alarm clock was set early by the prior guest using radio, and it was cranked up loud. The news of the first tower being hit jolted me up. I called my parents because we knew what it was right away, and then my girlfriend back at home. Then I watched the rest unfold on TV in the hotel room alone. Then I called my boss who said I needed to keep all my meetings in the trip before going home. The awkwardness and tinge of dread in those meetings. Then the shortest drive from San Diego to LA during rush hour that will ever occur, because almost no one was out. A total ghost town. Then never leaving the house for 2 days watching the news with despair and anger. All consuming, unforgettable.
My company led by a business celebrity CEO was hosting a national conference in Chicago. I witnessed the fear, panic and uncertainty of how many reacted. A handful of us got immediately focused on getting everyone home and secured 8 busses run by a local husband & wife team to head out in all directions across the country the second morning to get 300 folks as near to home as possible. Was impressed by the cool headedness of some not in charge and failure to lead by others who were. This happens in every crisis yet we seem so unprepared as a society whenever the next event comes along. We remember 9/11 to honor the stricken and those who bravely acted and pray the lessons can be learned. I fear they are not.
I was in high school when President Kennedy was assassinated, then at UGA when Dr. King and Senator Kennedy were murdered. 9/11was more profound for me. I left work and went straight to my mother’s house. She was standing in her beloved kitchen crying. Her only words were that it was like Pearl Harbor. I could only hold her.
Dad was a Marine stationed at Millington outside Memphis when Dr. King was murdered. They went into lockdown. Thankfully he was not called to do anything off base. Elementary school, we watched the Challenger on live TV.
I was a Senior at Georgia State in Atlanta for 911 and had a Morning class when everything started. Messages started to trickle in. Remember this was before smart phones. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it when the class was released slightly early. Was it an accident? No it was 2 planes? I think the prof let us go early and did not receive direction from the school. You could hear the hallways getting louder than normal with people leaving class.
I walked over to the student center where TVs were set up. My first thought after the shock of seeing it was to head back up to the suburbs. We were between Government buildings and tall towers. So expecting the connector to be grid lock I cut up north west to Northside Dr. and was again shocked to see how empty the highway was. I made it back home and went over to my parents house for much of the day.
I went out that night to a Starbucks we used to hang out at which is in the landing path of an airport. Thinking back, I’m not sure if Starbucks was even open or we were just hanging out. The skies were eerily quiet. We all knew the world had changed and not sure what was next. It was a somber night in an atmosphere that would have normally been more like a 20 something version of Cheers.
I got out of the subway on 28th and Lexington around 8:55 AM. As I walked to my office on 7th and 27th, I looked and just thought ‘oh a building is on fire’. I was relatively new to NYC at the time. I got to work and realized what was happening. Tried to call my parents, but the phones weren’t working. We watched the first tower fall on TV in the office. We all decided to start walking towards a hospital to try and give blood. We were waiting to cross 6th at 28th street when we saw the second building fall. I’ll never forget the collective gasp I heard at that moment. I will also never forget seeing someone in a cab driving north on 6th, covered in ash, looking like a statue. It was a long walk back to Prospect Heights that day.
I was in a coffee shop next to work. I remember walking in and seeing an image on the TV of smoke coming out of the first tower. In my memory, it was only a minute or two later that the second plane hit. All I remember the rest of that day was sitting in front of my computer and watching everything unfold. It was utterly surreal and still gives me chills when I think about it.
I was in NYC 4 and a half years afterwards. We went down to Ground Zero. Upon first sight there was just an indescribable, surreal, horrible feeling about the place. It was still just giant two holes with fencing around it.
I saw a woman crying at the fence and being led away by others. Couldn’t get away fast enough. Felt like I was at a funeral I didn’t belong at.
Now there is a Memorial, Museum and the Freedom Tower. Definitely take it all in if you get the chance.
I also think we should reflect on the site in Shanksville, PA and those events. Those few bad ass American heroes made the decision to fucking roll and should never be far from our minds.
Absolutely on Shanksville. That group knew they weren’t likely going home to their families, so they made sure no other families had to deal with loss. American heroes … every one of the passengers who fought back on 93 should receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
Where I was when the news broke the president JFK had been shot and 9/11. Are very different yet forever changed our world. Both events are etched so clearly in my mind I still remember the small details of both days. I’m currently watching the reading of the names with pictures of the victims of 9/11. I hope we never forget them.
Got a call from my wife at my office in Chattanooga about the first plane to hit a tower. Seemed like maybe a crazy accident, but after my secretary told me about the second one getting hit, I let her go home and so did I, getting there just in time to see the towers collapsing. Called my mom in Athens who also said it was like Pearl Harbor all over; “we were asleep then just like now” she said. Worst of all was a call from our brother-in-law in Long Island who told us his brother, a member of an elite Brooklyn firefighter unit, had turned around from his drive home after a night shift to go directly to the towers, because that’s the kind of guy he was. Our brother-in-law predicted we’d never see his brother again. Sadly, he was right. His brother was going up the stairs in the North Tower when it came down. That family was never the same. But we all knew Dave Fontana was a true American hero. God bless him.
I was blissfully asleep that morning when the now ex-wife called, and told me to turn on the TV. She was working for the Red Cross at the time and was at a blood drive. I was working at the Best Buy in Athens near the mall. I called the store to see if we were closing (we weren’t, someone might need a car stereo that day…). The next few days/weeks were hell for the ex, as they were turning away potential blood donors, because they lacked the staff and supplies to meet the demand to SUPPLY blood.
I remember the Challenger, as it was on a snow-day/prep-day for teachers, and I was at a friend’s house. 9/11 is/was just as surreal.
As a small child, I recall my parents saying they remembered exactly where they were when certain life changing events occurred like the Kennedy assassination or the Apollo Moon Landing. I often wondered how that could be until that beautiful sunny Tuesday morning with clear blue skies on September 11, 2001. I was sitting on an airplane at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT. waiting to fly home to Chicago, IL after a 2-day Arthur Andersen employee meeting. We were scheduled to pull away from the gate and depart at 8:55 AM when the pilot came over the intercom and told us there would be a slight delay without any explanation.
Cell phones with internet access had just started to become available and someone in the row ahead of me said “a plane just hit the World Trade Center”. The pilot then came on the intercom again and told us to remain seated because we would be taking off shortly. A few minutes later the same person with the cell phone told us a second plane had just crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center and we all knew it wasn’t any accident. Word then began to spread that one of the planes was an American Airlines flight flying from Boston to Los Angeles and the guy sitting next to me said that his brother was supposed to be on a flight flying from Boston to Los Angeles that morning. None of us knew what to say as we were still in a state of shock and disbelief.
I looked out the window of the plane and saw the baggage handlers starting to take all the luggage off and said to those around me we weren’t going anywhere. Right after that the pilot told everyone to get off the plane and return to the terminal and wait at the gate for further instructions. Once back inside the airport we were told all flights were cancelled and to grab our luggage at the baggage claim downstairs. The scene was like a mad scramble as people hurried through the airport while Connecticut state police troopers were everywhere fearing the possibility of additional attacks. For all we knew the plane I was on earlier could’ve been targeting the Sears Tower. There was one small bar in the airport open at the time that had a TV and tons of people were gathered around it watching the live footage from NYC.
I grabbed my bags and quickly decided I needed to get a hotel room and a rental car ASAP. I booked a room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Hartford and then hopped on the rental car bus to the Hertz lot where I had dropped off my car just a few hours earlier. As we pulled up to the lot, it was full of cars and I remember the bus driver saying “in a few hours there won’t be a single car left in this entire airport”. Little did I know how right he would be and that rental car would eventually be my ticket back home to Chicago a few days later. I was waiting in line at the Hertz rental counter watching the TV when the first tower collapsed. I picked up my car, drove to the hotel and checked-in. After checking into the hotel room, I turned on the TV just before the second tower collapsed. I had been in these buildings several times both as a tourist and as an employee visiting friends and co-workers because my former employer Aetna used to have a large field office in the building. Fortunately, they had moved the office out of the building after the prior WTC car bombing years earlier. Then the news broke about a plane crashing into the Pentagon and finally United flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania as the passengers fought back against the hijackers. Flights were being grounded in and out of the entire country.
I spent the next 3 days watching the news while eating hotel room service food and trying to figure out how to make my way back home. When it became apparent that buses, trains and planes weren’t going to be an option, I eventually decided to drive home. I woke up early Friday morning and was on the road to Chicago by 3:00 AM. The roads were practically empty and it was an eerie feeling not seeing or hearing any planes in the sky. I remember seeing fire trucks on the highway heading towards New York City while driving thru Pennsylvania and Ohio. I arrived in Chicago and dropped off my car at a Hertz location in Schaumburg where I was picked up and taken home. It took awhile for the magnitude of everything to sink in. After that day, I could understand what my parents meant when they said they’d never forget where they were when…
I appreciate your perspective