ugh

about 2000x more powerful than any TV tribute or phony speech

Yeah, it's pretty intense, eh?

That's terrifically intense. It stirred a lot of emotions in me. I try to write about my experiences of that day and this was what I remember. I'm not sure why I'm posting it here, but stories stir up stories...

I had noticed the flameball around the 1st tower around 14th street, but I have thought it was a movie, Dead Hard V or something. I was walking down University Place around 11th street when the 2nd plane hit. A woman ran out of a nearby buidling sobbing and screaming "My brother's in there!"
I went to Washington Square Park, looked at the burning towers, the gaping holes in the buildings, and did the only normal thing I could think of: I went to class. After my first class, I went upstairs for my 2nd class of the day. Routine. No one was in the room. The radio was playing and telling of the planes hitting the building. There was a paper posted near the door that had clipart of a worm, an apple, and some skyscrapers. Written on it: "Taking a Bite out of the Big Apple." I believe it was an advertisement for a dance or some other thing un-related to the day's event, but it was a chilling thing to read at the point in the day. I went outside and back to Washington Square Park. I stood there and saw the 1st tower fall. I quickly tried to call my girlfriend. No luck. No signal. I wander aimlessly. New York was as loud as silence, but people flooded the streets. It was a migration of people walking, zombie-like, from downtown. Some were covered in ash. Some were businessmen and women who had lost their shoes. I found a computer that was free and worked and emailed my loved ones. Via email, I found my girlfriend. We walked home from Manhattan into Brooklyn across the Williamsburg bridge. I don't remember that we said much.

Good god, that was tough to re-read. Thanks for posting it, Clive (and thank Emily for publishing it).

I remember as a kid listening to my mom tell me about when JFK was shot. One of the things that I learned that day is that everyone who was alive at the time JFK was shot can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they got the news.

If the assassination of a president can stir up that much in people, and leave that lasting an impression, how much more so will this tragedy live with all of us forever.

I was managing a Radio Shack store back then. I had just got out of the shower and turned on the TV to catch the morning news. When I tuned in, the first tower had just been hit moments before and CNN was still assuming this was a terrible accident. I watched the second plane hit. Shortly after I left for work and my local AM radio station was broadcasting a live CNN feed that I listened to on the drive to work. I remember that up until that point, the whole thing seemed big and bad, but it hadn't really hit home for me yet. Then I heard that a 3rd plane hit the Pentagon. That's when it sunk in for me that this was one of those "life altering moments" that I'd never forget. I phoned my girlfriend and woke her up. Then I phoned my mom.

My store played CNN on all TVs all day for the people in the mall, and I gave out radios to the stores in the mall that had none. It was happening thousands of miles away from me, but it was a long, haunting day I'll never forget. I'll have to tell my children about it some day, and I can already hear myself repeating much of what my mom told me when she talked about JFK.

I know this is a bit "wordy" for a comment, but it was a big event that changed the world forever.

I'd never seen that transcript Clive. Thanks for sharing.

-j

Not as a grave, but another powerful ECHO moment occurred in 1994 when many online chatted during the OJ Simpson bronco chase:
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/item550.txt

Wow, that was upsetting. I'm glad I didn't read that on the 11th.

Because film production stops for no man/disaster, many film crews just kept shooting on 9/11. I was just on a job yesterday where a friend was telling me the director on his commercial was ranting, "Why is everyone sitting around?! Let's go!" I wasn't working that day, so after I heard the 2nd plane had hit I biked over to Brooklyn Heights, where I could see the towers burning over the BQE. I was just getting on my bike to go up to the Promenade when everyone behind me screamed. I turned back and all we could see was smoke.

I remember sitting in Mr. Pazman's art class. Someone ran into the room and told us to turn the tv on. I said aloud, "Television is not condusive to the creative process." After fully realizing what had happened, I thought it was going to take a long time to clean up. A couple periods later I had French class. The French teacher said the French president was supporting America 100%. My how times change.