The tone of her voice triggered a mad dash to grab the clicker.
The picture came on just as the second plane was 4 TV inches from plowing into the skyscraper.
I was almost numb and shellshocked for the next hour. I was in front of the TV well into the wee hours of the night.
With the collapsing of the buildings, reports of the folks leaping out windows, the people running madly away from the scene....I doubt if there will ever be a day of dramatic live television images, sights and sounds like that day of Sept. 11.
At least, I hope not.
Leni
I had just flown back from Hawaii and my daughter’s wedding to a Marine stationed there. Was on my way to work with her wedding CD in my purse to show my co-workers. I remember the intersection where I sat thinking about how much I missed my daughter, and what a beautiful September day it was, when the announcer on the radio cut into the music.....the first news I had of the unthinkable.
As the morning unfolded, it became apparant that we were under attack. We had one small T.V. at work that we all huddled around. Not much got done that day...That’s the day that I actually felt my heart ache and it’s been aching ever since.
Working in my home office- had one of those little tv’s in the bookcase part of my desk but muted. I looked up and saw the first tower with smoke and unmuted it ..FOX discussing probable terrorist attack. My son was sick home from school and had the tv on in living room. I remember hearing him shout just as I watched the second plane hit. He had visited some friends that summer in NYC and had been to the WTC - he was in shock. We all were, weren’t we?
I had lived in NYC years before and was familiar with the whole area but my cousin worked 3 blocks from WTC and it was a long few hours before she was able to let us know she was well.
After the plane hit in Pennsylvania I decided to go to the grocery store- remember we didn’t KNOW what might happen next. I stocked up, let me tell you. Even down here in Florida people in the store looked dazed. None of the friendly chit chat thats normal. While driving home I was amazed to see MANY cars already flying the little car flags.
My mother was living with us at that time and when I came in with groceries she was in the kitchen washing dishes. I asked why she wasn’t watching tv and she told me what she’d learned when she had one brother in the Pacific and one in Europe during WWII. Pay attention to what’s going on “over there” but stay focused and busy here. It kept her sane.
I will never forget the agony and horror and rage of that lovely September day.
In a chaotic O’Hare concourse after my United flight grounded.
Later that afternoon, it was eerily quiet without all the air traffic. No sound of cars or animals.
I was on Free Republic after going outside to revel in the beauty of the September in Connecticut bright blue sky, all-encompassing greenness of the trees and crickets chirping through the silence. My spouse had a presentation the next day at the North Tower, and was thinking about just attending the first day anyway.
On his drive to Manhattan with his business partner, he heard the radio news and decided to come home. He then called and demanded I turn on the TV. I still can’t believe it. Those towers could never fall in my mind.
The last thing I recalled was the airspace silence for a few days. Typically lots of flights would pass over to airports in the New York area.
God Bless America
I was at home, listening to the TV, getting ready to go to the library. I heard something that caused me to go to the TV, where I saw a replay of the first plane hitting the WTC, and then saw live the second plane hit.