9/11/01--Where were you when you heard the news?

Was sitting in the lobby of the local arena waiting for a press conference to announce the formation of a minor-league basketall team. Press conference was supposed to start at 9 but it was delayed. TV people started slowly disappearing and I was wondering what was up. My buddy, a former colleague who was now the GM of the local hockey team, is leaving the arena when he tells me a small plane hit the World Trade Center. No big deal, I think. Then he comes back about 20 minutes later and said another one hit the other tower. We go up into the hockey team's office and watch everything unfold. Weirdest thing was driving home through downtown and seeing basically nothing going on. Drove past the federal building and it was shut down. Spent the rest of the day glued to the TV. The basketball team, by the way, was a dismal failure and lasted only one season.

 

Was up, saw on the AOL welcome screen that a plane had hit the towers and thought it was just a small prop plane gone astray or something. Didn't think to jump up and watch the news. Did a bunch of other stuff online then saw the welcome screen update that it was more serious. Ran into the living room, flipped on the TV and minutes later saw the second tower come down. Then the replays of the first tower collapsing and the endless replays of the planes hitting the towers.

 

The phone rang at 9 a.m. CDT. I figured whoever it was could wait until I returned the phone call later. The phone rang solidly for 10 minutes before I finally answered. It was my girlfriend at the time, calling from Dallas. "Momentous things are happening!" she said. Now, my TV was on the fritz so I spent most of the morning in a state of disbelief, sitting next to the radio like some scene from the 1940s. I went for a run and sat on my porch, sweating, for about an hour afteerward, just thinking and praying.

Only when I got in to work did I finally see the actual disaster. That was easily the most shocking thing I've ever seen. We pushed sports early so news could have all the late spots to update the story as often as they needed to. Very bizarre and harrowing day.

 

I was bunkered down at home on my day off, and I didn't turn on the computer, TV or radio all day or talk to anyone. I luv me my quiet days off.

And so I'm in that rare 1 percent of the country that didn't find out about it until the next day. Got up early, didn't know why the paper was late (press problem, I figured). Paper arrived about an hour later, and I opened it up and said HOLY SHIT. I think I said it about seven more times in the next five minutes.

I did watch TV for the next two weeks, though.

 

Doesn't matter where you live in the world, if you're over a certain age, this is right up there with the Kennedy assasination.

Me, driving to work, listening to the FAN 590 and they interrupt their "Bob from Scarborough" call to announce the first plane hitting. After the second plane hit, to their everlasting credit, there was no more sports talk.

 

My wife had just left for work, I was taking care of my 13-month-old daughter, and I supposed to be off that day because it's my anniversary.
So I'm watching the Today show and Matt Lauer is about to interview an author when he says "Do we have the video?"
They didn't, so NBC cut to a commercial.
I flick to CBS where they're showing the first WTC building on fire.
You figure it's a small plane, right?
Then, at 9:03, you see the second plane come in and hit the second tower.
You're in disbelief because you can't imagine something like that happening on purpose.
I immediately call the paper (we're a PM with a 9:30 a.m. presstime) and ask them if they have the TV on, nope, tell them they better turn it on and wait before starting the presses.
I have a friend who worked in WTC 5 and I spent the day trying to contact him for an interview on locals who were there. I reached him at 3 p.m. and he gave me some good stuff. He wouldn't go on the record about seeing the jumpers but said when the second plane hit, the force knocked him down. He got the hell out of there and walked back to his apartment.
Then, my boss, a real ass hole and psycho, tells me I have to come in at 4 p.m.
I tell him, 1) Every sporting event from MLB to preps will be canned and 2) it's my anniversary.
He replies, "It's my anniversary too."
So I went in and of course, like I said, nothing going on, we gave some space to news and I was left with a 3-page section, which I finished at 8 p.m. and went home.

 

Asleep when the phone rang at 8:45 in the morning. I let the machine pick it up, thinking it was my best friend calling me early just to razz me. The phone stopped ringing before the machine got it, and then rang again two seconds later. I jumped out of bed, screamed, "Mom! Dad!" and ran down to the phone. The machine got it and my brother shouted at me, "Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone! If you're not going to pick up the goddamn phone you'd better turn on the fucking television right now!" I turned on the TV to see footage of the towers in smoke, and then watched the towers begin to collapse. It was as close to hell as I ever thought I would see.

 

In our newsroom, had just finished a couple of radio news reports. As soon as the second plane hit, somebody yelled "terrorists" and within 45 minutes the newsroom was full and we were in full scramble mode. We put out an afternoon extra. I got home in the early evening and watched the TV coverage until 1 or 1:30 a.m., even though I had to be up at 4 for my early-morning shift.

 

I had an 8 a.m. class that day (central time zone) and when I left class at 9:15, I noticed the campus was eerily silent. When I got to Middlebush (for you fellow Mizzou alums), there were some construction workers across the street, and I noticed their radio was not playing music, as usual, but it sounded like talk radio.

I saw a couple of dudes stopped talking, looking a little shell-shocked, and knew something was up. So I started hoofing around campus looking for a TV. I ended up in Memorial Union, where they wheeled out a couple of TVs and we all watched in disbelief.

I went to my next class, but we talked about the news for about 10 minutes, then left. I think they canceled the rest of the classes.

Later that day, I quit quitting smoking and sucked down about a pack and a half of Marlboros. About five or six of us sat around my apartment, just talking about what was going on, watching the news and making regular trips outside to smoke.

What an awful fucking day that was.

 

Was on vacation from my tri-weekly newspaper and woke up at my then boyfriend's house. Turned out of bed in time to watch Days of Our Lives. Flipped on the TV and saw a building on fire. Turned the channel and saw the same building on fire. Everywhere I looked. I stood in stunned silence as I slowly began to realize what was happening. I managed to get through to my mom in Nova Scotia who was able to fill me in on what was happening.
I cried. My boyfriend looked at me like I was nuts and said 'so a few people have died, what?' I immediately knew life had changed forever. I went home and watched CNN for the next 30 or so hours ... no sleep.
My best friend, who is still the production editor at that paper, called me and said, 'you'll never believe this. Our editor doesn't think this is page one material. He's putting it on page five.'
I left that paper three months later due to unrelated issues but this was probably one of many of the proverbial straws.

On another note, the boyfriend left three weeks later for firefighter academy in Connecticut. Got to visit Ground Zero while he was out east. Somehow he came back a changed man and instead of 'so a few people died,' he had become 'my brothers in firefighting perished.'
That relationship is over, too.

 

Rolled out of bed and turned on the TV moments after the first plane hit. I was still trying to comprehend what happened when I watched the second plane hit. Stayed glued to the TV fpr the rest of the morning watching the horror unfold before going to work on my day off to help design news pages.