9/11

[Nick]

Where where you guys on 9/11? I was in college on the way to class. My wife lost a good friend of hers... She was on United Flight 175.... Www.lynngoodchild.com. We are at a 10 year remembrance dance for her now. Really sad.

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[legalskier]

Where where you guys on 9/11?

Across the river sitting in a traffic jam of panicked motorists as we all watched a huge cloud of dark smoke billowing into the blue sky of a perfectly clear September morning. At one point an opening developed in the cloud, like the hole in a donut. Normally the WTC buildings would have been visible in it, but on this day there was nothing there- just blue sky. There was just a hole in the sky. That was when it really hit me.

Something like this.

 

[drjeff]

I was in my office, glued to the computer screen until we realized about 9:30AM that the day was done and then went home and pretty much didn't leave my couch until about 3AM on the 12th. My wife and I had just crossed over the Veranzano Narrows Bridge on 9-9-01 on our way home from Philadelphia. I so vividly remember seeing the towers that day, and purposely chose that way to get from Jersey to CT, even though I knew from 1010 WINS that the traffic by JFK and over the Whitestone was worse than if I had taken the GW Bridge, just because it never ceased to amaze me the view of the WTC Towers and the Southern tip of Manhattan from the Veranzano. My business partner, who grew up in Bethpage, LI, had 2 high school friends who never made it out of the towers

For thse of you AZ members that haven't read Ski Dork's accoun of what he went through as he was in the Towers and how he got out and the rest of that day, Iwould highly encourage you to read that thread when it gets it's once a year bump tomorrow. It is truly a moving account, and I fully plan on reading it again, as i'm sure many AZ members will. :flag:

 

[snoseek]

Living in Dixeville Notch, working at the hotel. I was completely removed from the world that summer but can't remember a hotel clearing out so fast.....

 

[roark]

skidork was in tower 2, his story is up here somewhere. A sobering and worthwhile read.

 

[deadheadskier]

Moving away campout party for me in VT. I was with a group of about 20 friends camping out at Elmore Mountain State Park, north of Stowe. Had a great time partying the night before, eating lobsters boiled over a campfire. We woke up the next morning and were cooking breakfast. My friend Dave decided to turn on the radio and just as he did we heard commentary, "A plane just crashed into the Pentagon." Thought it was a joke at first until we heard more. Breakfast pretty much halted, everyone packed up quickly and headed home.

I got to my house in Stowe and turned on the TV just as the second tower went down. Spent the rest of the day loading my moving van and watching the devastation/tragedy develop and replay on the TV.

Spent 9/12 & 9/13 traveling in my moving fan to my new home in OH. On the 12th crossing NY State on 90, I'd venture to say 90% of the vehicles traveling east bound were military personnel. Going west there was pretty much no one on the road either. So, surreal traveling hours across NY alone in the moving van, listening to the radio and watching all the military traffic come east.

On the 14th, my first full day in my new home of Ohio, I got a phone call. My college roommate died in the WTC. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, who lost something like 90% of their employees in the tower. 23 years old. Miss you Matt.....

 

[Edd]

Jesus, DHS. Vibes to you brother.

 

[Nick]

Jesus, DHS. Vibes to you brother.

+ 1. I'm heading out in a bit to a memorial mass for Lynn... What a beautiful day out... Feels just like that morning.

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[andyzee]

Hard to believe it's been 10 years, I remember it as if it were yesterday. I had been working for Bed Bath & Beyond corporate. I had setup their Network Operations Center for them. Impressive setup, huge consoles. 40 monitors monitoring the whole network and two large screen TV one set to the news one to weather. This was to keep us informed of any events that could disrupt store operations and business. That day, I remember looking at the news monitor and seeing that the first plane had hit, like many others I thought it was a small plane. I looked at it in disbelief but didn't think it was anything major. After awhile a number of folks started coming into the NOC to watch this scene, then we saw the second plane hit, very bad feeling. Then I hear the Pentagon just got hit. I had been with the company for just a little over a year, but didn't matter. I called my boss into another room and told him I was going home, told him that as the crow flies we're no more than 5 miles for the WTC and this doesn't look good, had to get my wife. He asked what I'll do with her, said I don't know, just need to get her out. I had said I might bring her back to work, He said I can't bring her to work, scumbag. Didn't matter, told him I have to get her.

Left the company, tried to call her, all circuits busy. Driving home had the news on and hear that one of the towers had collapsed, couldn't believe it, thought I heard wrong. Then in a little while I hear the other one collapsed. The only thing going through my head was, oh shit, and get your wife. Going home I have a nice view of the NY skyline, not very nice this day, just tons of smoke. I got home with no delay, by then I was already hearing fighter jets over head. I walk into our apartment, wife was very startled as she didn't expect me. I told her to get dressed asap and that we were getting the hell out of there. She did and we left. I decided to drive to my sister's house which is about 35 miles from NY. On the way I stopped by work and saw that they were now letting the whole company out. Continued on to my sister's, stayed there for about 1/2 an hour and then decided to visit my parent grave in PA. Figured I wanted to get the hell away from this shit. Did just that, we spend the day in PA, drove back that night were we had found a ton of traffic on the NJ Turnpike. Emergency vehicles from all over the state driving to NYC.

Still drive past the skyline most days, I still can't believe those buildings are gone every time I look. Just can't get them out of my mind. For those that haven't seen it, My cousin's husband is an airline pilot for United, the plane that crashed in PA was his. He just happened to take off that day because they had purchased a new house and were moving. The pilot that took his place died, he's had a very difficult time handling that fact.

 

[bigbog]

Yes....kinda eery it being the same type of cloudless day up here...was commuting from South Shore into Boston = wayyy ahead of afternoon shift..hadn't heard till turned on radio. SE Expressway = jam packed...nearly impossible to get onto....and cell phone service?....forget it.

 

[gmcunni]

for those who have not read SkiDork's post - http://forums.alpinezone.com/showpost.php?p=311832&postcount=8

 

[Nick]

At another service now in Pawtucket, RI. Really nicely done.

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[kickstand]

I remember walking into my office on Boylston St., in Back Bay, Boston. I hadn't even gotten to my desk when someone said something about the first plane hitting. Like many others, I thought it was a small prop job and thought "How can you not see those towers?" Got to my desk, starting checking it out online. Heard the second plane hit and knew something was up.

Our office wasn't too sophisticated at the time, so we wheel a TV into the training room and started watching. One girl had a friend whose father worked in one of the towers. Somehow we got a first-person account thru her - people jumping, things on fire, utter chaos. Not knowing exactly what the entire situation was, but knowing we were in the shadow of the Hancock, I thought "time to get out of dodge". The office cleared out by 11am, and it was only that long because people were glued to the TV.

My brother worked for a company who did a lot of work with Cantor Fitzgerald. Apparently, they had some voice-activated line directly from one of their floors. They had to listen to the entire thing play out over this line.

The eeriest thing to me was being home in Newton, MA, and not hearing any air traffic over the area for a couple of days. That silence was scary.

I can't remember if we went back to work on 9/12 or not. Sort of fuzzy. On 9/13, some a-hole called in bomb scare to our building.

This morning, we went to the street fair in Reading, MA. They run a 5k in morning. A bunch of local fire departments ran the race in full gear. It was quite an emotional scene. A woman who worked for United at the time spoke before the race. Lots of tears in the park today, including me. We did everything we could all week to shield our 5 year old twins from everything, since my wife had to get on a plane to Indy tonight. It will be interesting when the time comes to talk to them about it. I wasn't affected by losing someone I knew personally, and I still have a hard time talking about it.

 

[deadheadskier]

Jesus, DHS. Vibes to you brother.

Thanks man

I shared a house with Matt and two other guys for Sophomore year at UVM. It was your typical 'college house' with loads of partying and good times. The 'Animal House' college freshmen dream of having when they first get to school. I moved to Stowe after that year because I was more interested in skiing than my courses at UVM. :lol: We remained pretty close for the final two and half years we were in school seeing lots of Phish shows together. We both graduated in December of 2000. Matt moved back home to Jersey at that time.

Within weeks of meeting him when I was a Freshman at UVM, Matt was very clear that his dream was to graduate from school and get a job working for a premier financial firm in NYC. He got that shot with Cantor Fitzgerald and absolutely loved working in the WTC. Lived his dream for 8 months.

Today being the 10 year anniversary, I reflected a lot about Matt. His family established and continues to maintain a very impressive foundation in his honor.

http://www.mcsfoundation.com/

Driving it all even closer to home, 9/11 is my brother's birthday. Matt's remains were found very quickly after the tragedy and his funeral was on 9/22, my birthday. Being a poor recent college grad in the first week of my new job in Ohio, I had no means of making it to New Jersey for his funeral. The following spring I made a pilgrimage to NYC to visit the site and pay my respects on my own. I bought a cool photo of the towers off a street vendor. Has hung above my desk ever since.

 

[Glenn]

So sorry about your friend DHS.

SkiDork's firsthand account is always an amazing read.

The History Channel ran a lot of good shows on the events that took place that day; mostly from NYC. This year, they had an account from people in the buildings who were making phone calls. It was tough to watch.

Yesterday, my wife and I became Godparents to our niece. It was nice to be in church. I can't beleive it's been 10 years.

 

[drjeff]

I remember walking into my office on Boylston St., in Back Bay, Boston. I hadn't even gotten to my desk when someone said something about the first plane hitting. Like many others, I thought it was a small prop job and thought "How can you not see those towers?" Got to my desk, starting checking it out online. Heard the second plane hit and knew something was up.

Our office wasn't too sophisticated at the time, so we wheel a TV into the training room and started watching. One girl had a friend whose father worked in one of the towers. Somehow we got a first-person account thru her - people jumping, things on fire, utter chaos. Not knowing exactly what the entire situation was, but knowing we were in the shadow of the Hancock, I thought "time to get out of dodge". The office cleared out by 11am, and it was only that long because people were glued to the TV.

My brother worked for a company who did a lot of work with Cantor Fitzgerald. Apparently, they had some voice-activated line directly from one of their floors. They had to listen to the entire thing play out over this line.

The eeriest thing to me was being home in Newton, MA, and not hearing any air traffic over the area for a couple of days. That silence was scary.

I can't remember if we went back to work on 9/12 or not. Sort of fuzzy. On 9/13, some a-hole called in bomb scare to our building.

This morning, we went to the street fair in Reading, MA. They run a 5k in morning. A bunch of local fire departments ran the race in full gear. It was quite an emotional scene. A woman who worked for United at the time spoke before the race. Lots of tears in the park today, including me. We did everything we could all week to shield our 5 year old twins from everything, since my wife had to get on a plane to Indy tonight. It will be interesting when the time comes to talk to them about it. I wasn't affected by losing someone I knew personally, and I still have a hard time talking about it.

I let my kids watch a good deal of the footage on The History Channel yesterday. My close to 6 year old didn't get it yet, as he just kept asking me/saying "so the bad guys all died in the planes?" Whereas as my almost 8 year old got it. She was moved to tears a few times and snuggled up to me wanting a hug as we were watching. She then asked if she could go put on her American Flag t-shirt. A very tough parental moment/topic for sure

 

[Glenn]

Where where you guys on 9/11? I was in college on the way to class. My wife lost a good friend of hers... She was on United Flight 175.... Www.lynngoodchild.com. We are at a 10 year remembrance dance for her now. Really sad.

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That's tough Nick. Hope your wife did ok on Sunday. It's great to see they did some events in Lynn's honor.

 

[Nick]

That's tough Nick. Hope your wife did ok on Sunday. It's great to see they did some events in Lynn's honor.

Yeah, it was really a beautiful day. I should combine this with the other thread. I have so many thoughts on 9/11 but not really enough to post right now... I'll try to come back to it at some point.

A very, very emotional weekend. Filled with booze which probably made it even worse :roll: