September 11th

Cowboyinexile

Cowboyinexile

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Tomorrow is the 20 year anniversary.

I had an optometrist appointment that morning. I was in college and didn't have a class until 1030 so I saw the eye doctor that morning. I was in the waiting room and the receptionist had the radio on. I wasn't paying close attention but it didn't take much to hear that what was happening was big. I asked her what was going on and she didn't know. It was just confusing. But we both knew it was worth listening to.

I get back to campus for my morning class and I'm just numb. I run into a buddy and he is talking about random stuff and he has no idea. I don't recall the conversation but I was numb. HS and college friend I haven't talked to in years but for all I know I'm part of his 911 story. I don't remember my morning class but one of the clubs I was in was organizing a blood drive and I wanted to help so I called my prof for my afternoon class and told him I wasn't going to be there because I had to call people. He was fine with it and after the call I felt guilty because I thought he was thinking I was trying to get ahold of family when in reality I was ditching because I wanted to do a good thing. I still feel bad about that but honestly I could have told him I'm taking a mental day and hitting the bars and that would have been an unhealthy yet appropriate response to the situation.

I miss what we were then. That was a hit, but for a few days we weren't Republicans or Democrats. We were Americans. It's sad that a generation later we've turned into a bunch of pussies when it comes to our current threat.
 
Second day at a new job, in a new city that I had just moved to.
 
Didn’t sleep the night before.

Was the first night I was able to get back into my house after the cops tear gassed it.

By the time I’d ran back home that morning, the news vans were all off my street, finally. My neighborhood quickly had lost its hold on the national news cycle.

Craziest four days of my life.
 
I took off out of Boston on an American Airlines flight 45 minutes before the first hijacked plane took off. I was probably walking around the same terminal as some of those assholes.

I was flying to Tampa with my then business partner (he has since retired). We get up in the air and the pilot comes on and says “it’s a beautiful day for flying. Clear skies... nice weather. Our route of travel will take us down the east coast to Jax where we will then cut across the state of Florida to straight into Tampa. In about 15 minutes we will be flying by NYC and those of you on the right hand side of the aircraft should have a great view of the NYC skyline.” Sure enough we did. We may have been one of the last people to have that view.

We land in Tampa and have no idea what has happened. We were walking thru the terminal to the rental car counter when we overheard the guy in front of us talking on his cell phone. He said “what do you mean a plane hit the World Trade Center?” I thought he meant the one in Boston and I thought “how does a plane hit that? It’s only 2 stories high.” Then my cell phone started going off and everyone started calling me. Back then I flew a LOT and everyone I knew was worried I had been one of the planes. I would routinely take that flight 11 out of Boston to LA.

We get to the rental car counter and people are freaking out! When we initially got to the Hertz counter nobody was there. Then a panicked female employee showed up, grabbed her purse and said “a plane just hit the pentagon. We are under attack!! I’m outta here!!” We said “wait... we need our reservation.” She grabbed a set of keys, threw them at us and said “this is the best car we have... take it”. She then left. No paperwork. No contract. Nothing. We get inside the car and called the 800 number to give them the info. They said keep the car as long as you want. Return it anywhere.

We were driving to our hotel and listening to the events be described on the radio. It took us almost an hour to get to our hotel where we saw everything on a TV for the first time. That’s when the full impact hit us.

We spent the next few days in Tampa and then had to drive back to Boston. No planes were going anywhere for days and Boston was one of the last airports to open. When we got to NJ we were driving on I 95 and just across the water you could see lower Manhattan. You could still see the smoke from ground zero as we were driving.

We just dropped the car off at the Boston airport Hertz location. I think they charged us only about 160 bucks which was the cost of the original rental but we had the car for over a week. Having a rental car on 9/11 was like having gold because they just set planes down everywhere abs people were scrambling for cars.
 
About 3-4 weeks AFTER 9/11 I had a big meeting at AIG which (at that time) was located on Water St in lower Manhattan. The AIG building was only a few blocks from ground zero.

The meeting had originally been scheduled weeks earlier however, given the events of 9/11, the limited access to lower Manhattan, etc it had been pushed back to early October.

I arrived at the AIG building and immediately noticed how few people there were walking around on the streets. This was in lower Manhattan and ordinarily there would be people swarming around everywhere but on this day there weren’t many at all. I went into the building and up to the offices of my meeting which were on the 18th floor. The meeting was first thing in the morning and I arrived early yet there were very few people in this large office. I asked the receptionist where the men’s room was and she gave me directions to it. I had some trouble finding it so I asked a woman working in a cubicle where it was. I told her I was sorry to bother her but there wasn’t anyone walking around for me to ask. She said it was ok, that many people hadn’t returned to work yet and she commented that it was her first day back at work.

I went to the restroom and on my way back I stopped by the large windows to peer down the street towards ground zero. Thru the buildings you could partially see the cranes working. As I looked out the windows the woman came up to me and commented “it was unbelievable here that day. The sky turned to night and there were “things” swirling all around in the air.” She was visibly shaken. I commented “yes, I can imagine. You can almost see it from here” and I motioned towards the cranes that were slightly visible thru the maze of building. She then said “no. You don’t understand. We are on the 18th floor. The planes hit on the 90th floors” and she pointed out the windows to the then open sky above the surrounding buildings where the towers formerly were. Only then did I get a sense for how much those buildings were literally looming over the surrounding buildings and offices including the one I was in.

The woman then started to cry. I tried to console her but she said “I’m sorry. I have to leave.” She then grabbed her jacket and purse and left. That exchange has really stuck with me thru-out the years. I recall it each time I hear witnesses describe what they saw. Lotta victims that day... not just the ones who lost their lives.
 
I was just coming out of a meeting at work when the chief engineer said to me as we walked pass each other in the hall..."them damn Muslim terrorist bombed the world trade center". I thought he was mumbling something that happened a few years earlier when they had a van with explosives detonated in the basement garage of one of the towers. It was another hour or so before I became aware that this attack happened that morning.

The one thing that did surprise me was just how many people had a TV in their offices. I was happy with a radio in my office...these fuckers had little TVs!
 
broncosmitty said:
Didn’t sleep the night before.

Was the first night I was able to get back into my house after the cops tear gassed it.

By the time I’d ran back home that morning, the news vans were all off my street, finally. My neighborhood quickly had lost its hold on the national news cycle.

Craziest four days of my life.
Click to expand...
lol
 
I just remember going to 3rd grade gym class after a school aide told our teacher about the Pentagon (didn't actually know about the WTC until after we all got picked up early, and at that age didn't even know what those buildings were) and we were all talking about it. Old enough to remember but not old enough to really have a grasp on it.
 
A few weeks after that meeting at AIG I had to fly from Boston to Buffalo. It was sometime in November and travel was still weird. I was a seasoned traveler so I knew what seats to request when traveling. For this trip I get to the airport and ask if the seat “on the aisle in the exit row is available”. The ticketing agent just smiles and said yes. At the time I didn’t understand the smile. When I got to the gate it was empty except for just a few people. When I got on the plane it was empty except for 5 people. I then realized why the agent had smiled at my request.



Anyway, I get on this plane. It’s about 25-30 rows with 2 seats on each side. There was an elderly couple sitting together up front. There’s me on the aisle exit row. Across the aisle from me was another guy on the other aisle seat (He was obviously another seasoned traveler - haha) and there was one lady sitting alone several rows behind us. That’s it. Nobody else on this flight.



The door is open and we are just waiting for it to close when at the last minute this 20 something year old Middle Eastern kid carrying a backpack gets on the plane. He sits a couple of rows behind the old couple and about 10 rows in front of me. I’m looking up the aisle at this kid and I notice that the guy sitting across from me is doing the same. The kid puts his backpack in the overhead and sits down. I look at the guy across the aisle and he looks at me and we both just nod to each other. We never spoke but it was clear that if that poor kid got up for any reason (go to the bathroom, check his backpack, etc ) me and this guy were gonna be ON him!



The flight is about 90 minutes. This guy and I were both working but every once in a while we would each look up to check on this kid. He didn’t move an inch. Haha. We land and we just let him get off the plane first. The guy and I just nod to each other again and leave.



It was truly a crazy time to be flying.
 
beardown07 said:
lol
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Broke out my front window, to throw tear gas inside my living room.


Had long been hiding, on my roof. Which they eventually tossed a can of tear gas on also. Another dude kicked it out of the gutter out into the lawn.

Was straight up chaos.
 
I arrived for work early that morning and was dangerously low on fuel. I had the option to go ahead and pit, but decided to wait until after work. Turns out, that was a bad idea as events of the day caused people in town to freak out and start loading up their rides at the various gas stations.

I wound up getting home that afternoon a lot later than I wanted from having to wait in line to fuel up.

After getting home, the whole thing reminded me of the Challenger disaster and how every channel with news kept replaying the 2nd impact and collapses. I became numb to the footage by the same time a week later while sporting events were being canceled or postponed and people online being angry and pointing fingers of blame politically.

One of my bosses was actually in DC that day and was at the Capitol at around the time United 93 was supposed to slam into it. That flight being delayed for takeoff likely saved more lives than we'll ever know.

Trivia: Seth MacFarlane was supposed to be one of the victims that morning, but he arrived too late at the airport after being hungover from a party the night before.
 
i was in the fourth grade, and nobody bothered telling us what happened. i didn't find out about it until my mom told me when i got home.
 
Back then my airline of choice was American. Primarily because I had a friend who was a supervisor at the ticket counter and could help me with seats, book tickets, exchanges, etc. On 9/11 she was working when a female passenger arrived at the ticket counter late. The original ticket agent told the passenger that it was too late to make the flight. The passenger asked to speak to a supervisor and when my friend arrived she pleaded he to help her catch the flight bc she had a business meeting in LA later that day. My friend called down to the gate to tell them to hold the flight. She then rushed her thru the ticketing process and security (it was nothing like it is today). They get thru security and they run to the gate. This flight was a big plane so those are at the end of the terminal.

They get her onto the jet bridge and just before they close the door the passenger turns to my friend and thanks her profusely for helping her catch the flight. She promises to bring her back a gift when she returns from LA. They then close the door to the jet bridge.

My friend was devastated when the events of that day happened. She was haunted by what happened. She tried to go back to work there but despite being in therapy she just couldn’t do it anymore. She had to quit. It’s too bad. She loved that job.
 
Hitman Hart said:
i was in the fourth grade, and nobody bothered telling us what happened. i didn't find out about it until my mom told me when i got home.
Click to expand...

I watched the Challenger blow up in 4th grade.


I am ok with them not telling you. With that said, we were waaay too cavalier about going on with daily business that day. Working was a colossal waste of time, money and resources, as in most industries, jack fucking shit got done. We pretended to work all day, but sat glued to the TV. Parents should've been excused, along with their kids.
 
beardown07 said:
I watched the Challenger blow up in 4th grade.


I am ok with them not telling you. With that said, we were waaay too cavalier about going on with daily business that day. Working was a colossal waste of time, money and resources, as in most industries, jack fucking shit got done. We pretended to work all day, but sat glued to the TV.
Click to expand...
i never thought about it until other ppl would tell me that they found out at school

like wut
 
Hitman Hart said:
i never thought about it until other ppl would tell me that they found out at school

like wut
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I was 25 at the time, with no real concept of kids or family.


I can tell you now, having two littles...if something like that were to happen again, me being with my family would be all that would matter. I would drop everything to get to them. Work can suck a fat dick.
 
This is my birthday. I was lousing around in bed after having had some birthday pussy. We stayed in bed all day watching all of it unfold on the tv.
 
beardown07 said:
I watched the Challenger blow up in 4th grade.


I am ok with them not telling you. With that said, we were waaay too cavalier about going on with daily business that day. Working was a colossal waste of time, money and resources, as in most industries, jack fucking shit got done. We pretended to work all day, but sat glued to the TV. Parents should've been excused, along with their kids.
Click to expand...
I remember that by the time the towers started falling many of us were huddled in a conference room over a ridiculously small TV….the only one in the office.

Big boss came in and told us all to go home to our families. As I’ve read more of these stories as they apply to work that day I realize that while I thought most offices did like mine, many didnt.

I don’t mean that to sound like folks that had to keep working are legit with “wah….why do I have to work?” in the face of what was happening. It’s just that this quickly became a time where productivity was shot and people need to go to those they care most about to absorb this.

I always thought that any people that wanted to be around co-workers predominantly in a moment like this need to re-evaluate their life.
 
Hitman Hart said:
i never thought about it until other ppl would tell me that they found out at school

like wut
Click to expand...

beardown07 said:
I was 25 at the time, with no real concept of kids or family.


I can tell you now, having two littles...if something like that were to happen again, me being with my family would be all that would matter. I would drop everything to get to them. Work can suck a fat dick.
Click to expand...
This is interesting. At the time of this tragedy I had a 1 1/2 year old and another one about 5 months from birth. I wanted to get home and hold my child. That was all (any wonder a decade later I got divorced….)

It’s an interesting aspect of not telling the kids in school. I’m not sure I would feel one way or the other if my kids teacher told them. But many parents would.
 
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