Now what did we do to deserve a visit from Mr Barch? Go figure, he's defending Tequila.
Quote:As I recall, it was originally being reported as a small prop plane and, not just by Tequila.
I didn't say that he made it up or anything. Just that that was what he reported.
Quote:When the guy in my office told me I laughed.
Then you're as big a fucking idiot as Tequila is.
Actually, I lied.
I was in a PATH train under the South Tower, and they just held us there for about 5 minutes. People were getting impatient because the doors weren't opening. There was a faint smell of smoke, but everyone just thought it was a track fire.
Then some fucking idiot announced that they were not going to open the doors, and passengers would not be allowed to disembark due to "police activity". Well, they redirected us toward 33rd street. (why they didn't just bring us back to Hoboken at this point I don't know, I mean it was like 8:55 a.m., they had a clue that something very wrong was happening).
So, <---- Idiot, gets off at 14th Street, switches to the #3 and heads downtown. The subway was crawling, so instead of getting off at Cortland Street, I get off at Chambers. I exited at the Northeast corner and what do my eyes behold? The North Tower with a huge hole, flames and smoke everywhere.
Not believing my eyes, and still thinking in my mind that the fire department will put out the fires, I ask this scared shitless female police Seargeant if I can get to 120 Broadway. She looked at me like I was a fucking idiot and told me to move North.
That's when I put on my radio and found out the Pentagon had been hit.
I thought I was going to have bombs dropped on me any minute because I just did not know what was going on.
The rest of the day, after seeing people jump, the buildings fall and the panicked flight from the dust clouds, was a fucking numb, tense and scary day.
It still helps to talk about it.
holy fuck<font color=EEEEEE>
Edited By Galt on Aug. 01 2002 at 10:57
Quote:I saw the second plane come across the harbor. As soon as I said something like what is that stupid fucking plane doing, it disappeared behind tower 2 and we saw the explosion.
Same thing here.
The second plane was moving so fast, I barely had time to think anything. My friend actually said "Hey, is that plane trying to get a closer look?"
That was the moment right there, when the second plane hit, when we knew that this was no accident, that I felt fear for the time that day. That was absolutley the crappiest feeling I've ever had, up until an hour later when I watched them fall. Then that took the top spot on the list.
It was so wierd after they fell. People were screaming and yelling as it happened, but after it was finished collapsing, no one made a sound. There were 100 people there, and not a peep. No screaming, no crying, nothing. There was complete silence for what seemed like forever as we just watched in utter disbelief while a cloud of dust covered the entirety of lower Manhattan.
It was only after a minute that everyone started crying. Then it was the desperate scramble to locate my friends who work in Mahattan. The fact that Giants game on Monday Night Football went into overtime saved their lives. They worked in Tower 2, but because we were up late watching the game, they overslept and weren't in the building when it got hit.
--Edit--
Buttmunch, my friends who I just mentioned above were on that same PATH train. They said it pulled into the station, the doors didn't open, and it got the fuck out
Edited By Doc on Aug. 01 2002 at 11:03
Quote:It was so wierd after they fell. People were screaming and yelling as it happened, but after it was finished collapsing, no one made a sound. There were 100 people there, and not a peep. No screaming, no crying, nothing. There was complete silence for what seemed like forever as we just watched in utter disbelief while a cloud of dust covered the entirety of lower Manhattan.
Doc, the weirdest thing for me was also the silence. But, for me, I just didn't remember any noise. It wasn't until I saw some television shows of the Towers collapsing, and heard the noise again that I remembered what the sound was like.
The brain is a funny thing sometimes.
One of the ironies we had was the night before. Took the whole team into Little Italy for dinner. Ate at Puglio's. We had a great time, lot's of wine, everyone feeling good. One of our managers is a well noted gospel singer from Chicago. We always coax her into a song or two. Monday night, September 10th, in the shadows of the towers, she chose to sing "God Bless America".
After dinner, I took a carload of firt timers to the city for the nickle tour. First stop, the towers. One guy from California asked me to open the sunroof so he get get a picture. This guy is about 6'4" He stands up through the sunroof and takes a couple of pics looking right up the towers. He sits back down and says, "they will never have buldings like that in LA. Could you imagine how they would crumble in a quake?" He was shaking and in tears the next day.
i was sitting at my desk
as i am now
wanted to just check the newz on cnn.com
and thier front page was a pic of the Towers on fire
i immediatley told all in my office
then i went out to my car to see if I could hear anything on the radio
crazy that it's almost been 11 months
Quote:Then you're as big a fucking idiot as Tequila is.
Sorry.... I don't mean to be offensive. Just I honestly had no idea what was going on. Nor did you or anyone else at 8:55, by the way. Obviously I don't think it's funny now. But, my initial reaction was to laugh.
Oh, there are some ironies for me too.
My girlfriend at the time had wanted to Windows On The World for her birthday, which was on September 1st. She got really sick on about August 30th with what turned out to be encephillitis. She had to spend that weekend in the hospital so we didn't go to Windows on the World. A few days after she got out and everyone was sure that she was going to be OK, I think it was the 7th, we somehow got to talking about how we weren't able to go. She said she was sorry about getting sick, so I said it was OK, she was sick...normal sympathy crap, and then I said something that I will probably remember for a long time, "Don't worry, we'll go another time, the buildings will still be there next week."
i too was alseep when the first plane hit. i was walking out of my room and in to my living room, and i saw my father and sister staring at the tv with a horrific look on their faces. i glanced back to see what they were watching, and for a split second i thought they were watching the end of fight club. once my eyes ajusted, i was like, wait, in the movie its night time when the buildings explode...and then i realized that it was twin towers. at that moment i fell to my knees , and watched the second plane hit. i remeber just gasping and looking at my dad and i saying "daddy make it stop..." i felt like i was a little grrl and that my dad could make this all stop and make it all ok. but he couldn't. no one could. i remeber just being completely numb that whole day...i didn't want to talk or look at anyone. even though i had my people around me, i just felt so alone and so sad. at about noon, i called all my friends and some family to just make sure that all of them and their loved ones were ok...i feel so lucky that everyone i know was not harmed on that awful day. i remeber the silence i got when i talked to a few friends that live in hoboken and were like Doc, up on the point at stevens when it all went down...seeing it on televison was bad enough...i could not even imagine actually seeing it happen, or to be like BM and actually be there.
i woke up around 7AM that day and called out of work cause I was feeling ill. i had Stern on my clock radio which i was half awake, half asleep listening to. i remember hearing them at first mention it like it was some small plane that hit the tower, no big deal, and as the seconds and minutes passed the seriousness of what had occurred became clearer and clearer. i remember getting out of my bed, turning on the tv to see the first tower in flames and then soon after watching the second plane hit.
once the first tower collapsed i ran outside and across the street to see if my friend who works downtown had gone to work that day. i was relieved to find him there, freaking out and crying, this big macho italian construction worker reduced to tears, yelling and screaming in anger and rage, worrying about countless people we both knew who worked downtown. the next few hours all we did was try and locate them the best we could. it was a sad, frightening, and stressful day. it was the end of the world as we knew it at the time. being so close to manhattan we thought it was only a matter of time until there was a full scale attack. the feeling lingered for weeks, even months afterwards. there is still some worry but that day and the weeks after were almost surreal.
the panic and fear is not as sharp now but the saddness and anger remains.
i was at school, second period.as class ended, we had announcements as usual, but then the assistant principal came on and said that a plane had hit the world trade center and that anybody with family working there should go to guidance.after that, i kinda went on as normal, because i was thinking a small prop plane or something, and i'll say right now i made a few jokes.as i was walking through the hall, i saw a shitload of people sticking their heads into the AV room, so i join the crowd, watching the tv in there, where i found out the second tower was hit and so was the pentagon.i was just shocked, and immediately thought we were going to war
Quote:i could not even imagine actually seeing it happen, or to be like BM and actually be there.
I hate to sound like a dick, but fuck that. We all watched it, we all experienced it. What I can't imagine is what is was like for the people in the buildings. My roommate's ex (who died that day...still no sign of her body) worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. Her office was a few floors above where the first plane hit. The best they can figure is that when the plane hit, it took out all the elevator shafts and all the stairwells, which were located at the center of the buiding. She (and a bunch more people) were trapped on the upper floors. Then they got to see the second plane hit, but couldn't do anything about it. I can't even image what I would do if I were in her place. Being trapped there, feeling the building start to shake as it begins to fall.
I'm also reminded of what a firefighter said when he saw people jumping. "How bad must it have been that your two options where to stay in the building or jump and people chose to jump?"
That's the shit that scares me.
--Edit--
I just realized that I am posting a lot in this thread. And long posts too, which is kind of out of character for me. Sorry if it's getting annoying, I guess just talking about it helps. I don't realize how much that day screwed me up until I start to talk about it.
Edited By Doc on Aug. 01 2002 at 11:59
I actually had arabs in the crew that was working at Pearl River. I just remember the way they looked washed over with fear by the time I left after more details were coming through. I was just now talking to Barch in IM's and something odd came to me. At that time, I felt bad for the guys. I feared for them that they would get hurt or killed. I didn't look at them as arabs, I looked at them as guys who worked for me and I feared for thier lives. By noon, almost all of NYC and the rest of the country wanted to just nuke the whole middle east. I was one of the gung ho kill em all fucks as well. Amazing how much changed from the time I left the site till the time I got home.
My best friend was in Building $ that day, he worked there. The guy didn't get out of the city totaly till 3am. He knocked on my door, rubble in his hair and drunk out of his skull asking for his spare keys. He was an absolute mess in every sense of the word. I actually woke up about ten minutes before he got there. I had fell asleep with CNN on and they just broke the footage of the first plane hitting, the shot from the street and I think I was just numb at that point.
Quote:I hate to sound like a dick, but fuck that.
that's not the way i ment it at all....
what im trying to say is that i was greatful that i wasn't there...yes, we all experinced it...oh never mind...i give up.
Quote:that's not the way i ment it at all....
what im trying to say is that i was greatful that i wasn't there...yes, we all experinced it...oh never mind...i give up.
I think we're agreeing on the same thing...just in a screwy way. I meant to say that you shouldn't feel bad for someone who was closer to it. It fucked all of up the same, whether you were on Church street or in Michigan
Quote:I had fell asleep with CNN on and they just broke the footage of the first plane hitting, the shot from the street and I think I was just numb at that point.
I had a similar feeling when CNN aired for the first time around 1 in the morning footage taken by someone in Battery Park. Some guy filming the first tower fire and you could hear the second plane comming in. The guy raised his camera just as the plane came overhead tilted left and crashed into tower two. You heard all the people scream and actually heard the jet rev full throttle when it went in. I think I just sat there for a good 15 minutes or so thinking through what I just watched and wanting so badly to join my old ranger unit and go execute somebody with a towel on their head and a beard.
Quote:I think we're agreeing on the same thing...just in a screwy way. I meant to say that you shouldn't feel bad for someone who was closer to it. It fucked all of up the same, whether you were on Church street or in Michigan
exactly.
Quote:--Edit--
I just realized that I am posting a lot in this thread. And long posts too, which is kind of out of character for me. Sorry if it's getting annoying, I guess just talking about it helps. I don't realize how much that day screwed me up until I start to talk about it.
Doc, to quote Kid Blackula: Nigga pleeze.
No need to apologize for expressing your self at all, man.
It's not annoying in the least and those who think it is can post in another thread and happily go fuck themselves.
Fuck that Doc, I still find myself thinking of what I watched, what I felt, the hatred that still sits inside me someplace. Everytime I see that another Palestinian blows up some Jews, I know that 9/11 was just the beginning. I know it will not end until we get involved in the middle east. I still feel anger knowing it's only just begun. The anniversary next month is going to be rough for many people.