It’s 10 years since 9/11, the most horrific, surreal day I, and millions of others, have ever experienced. I find that as I get to know people, I always want to know where they were when they heard the news of the Trade Center. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s just trying to comprehend it still. My story isn’t extraordinary by any means, and I didn’t lose anyone. I just felt the need to write it down, for no particular reason. I am interested in other people’s experiences that morning. Not sure why, but if you feel like sharing, I would love to read your experience. Where were you? What were you doing? What did you think was happening? Where did you go?
My Experience
It was a beautiful day out. Stunning. No clouds in the sky, dry, probably mid-60s in Boston. I can’t experience a day like this without thinking of that day. So beautiful, and such horror.
I was living in South Boston at the time, and my mom was visiting from Florida. That morning, she was taking the Acela train to NYC to visit with an old family friend. Funny, I though I vividly remember the morning, but that is not true. I remember parts of the morning vividly. I can’t remember if I dropped her off at South Station for her train. I feel like I did, but I can’t remember that part of the AM.
The day was a little different in that I wasn’t going work – I was on my way to Quirk Nissan in Braintree to go pick up a used Nissan Sentra I was planning on buying after I had my dad’s mechanic check it out. So, I got down there, and was talking to the guy behind the desk who told me I couldn’t take the car back to Dorchester to get it looked at. I was arguing with him, and saying “I need to get it checked out, I won’t buy the car if you don’t let me check it out, I will walk right out of here.” He told me he’d see what his manager could do for me. He came out and started telling me that he couldn’t let me take the car to the mechanic. I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure they told me that it would be ok to do that when I called them the day before. In any case, I said “Well, I’m not buying the car if if doesn’t get check out by a neutral mechanic.” He told me he would see what he could do.
As I was waiting, and I thinking I might have been playing around with my cell phone (which consequently had an antenna on it, my how much things have changed.) It was then that I heard the first guy I was talking to say “A plane just hit the World Trade Center!” And I remember thinking “in Boston? Or NYC?” So I asked him – he said “NYC.” I figured it was a little plane, someone had just dinged it – this was the image that came to my mind. Maybe the pliot was dead, maybe there was some debris. Figured people probably hadn’t even stopped working unless it was close to their floor.
The manager of the dealership came back to me and told me he had a way to make both of us happy, and we agreed that they would get that car checked out by a local mechanic. I said “fine, sounds good” and went and got in my rental car and felt a little bizarre – head toward 95/128, but decided to pull over in the Barnes and Noble lot and call my pal Bettina – I cannot remember if I knew about the 2nd plane, but I think I must have heard it on the news because I was worried about her as I knew she worked in Liberty Plaza, right in the area.
Dialed her number, I can’t remember if I got her immediately or not – but one way or another, we were soon talking – she was at home that morning because she was scheduled to go play golf with clients. Her husband Larry worked at Marsh McClennan in Mid-town, and she said he was ok. I felt shaky and sick, and she told me that there was a Marsh office in one of the World Trade Center buildings.
I can’t remember how we got off the phone, but we did, with promises of being safe. I was shaky, and my head was foggy. I literally couldn’t think straight. I called my boss at Lycos, but I had to call the main number and dial him through the directory, because I either didn’t know his number or I couldn’t remember it. I said “I’m on my way, but what the fuck? This is really scary!” He said “Dude, don’t bother. Just go home, and be safe. We’re all probably on our way home soon.” It was weird, because I didn’t want to be alone, and I didn’t know what to do.
I knew my mom was ok, she wouldn’t be near NYC yet, but were they going to bring her there? I can’t even remember how I found out that they had stopped her train, and the plan was to drop everyone off in – Stamford? Maybe she called me? Did I call her? At this point, I was trying to call my uncle on the Upper West Side, and my sister in SF. You couldn’t get a free line – “all circuits are busy”….At some point, I had gotten on the highway toward work, and off the highway and had no idea where I was, and I just wanted to get home because you didn’t know what was happening, what was next, were there going to be more? Were we at war? Seriously – everything was so unknown. So scary.
My friend Robin worked in Midtown, and her husband worked downtown on Wall Street. I was so terrified for them and what might have happened, I literally couldn’t call. Even if I would have been able to get a line, I couldn’t call. I was paralyzed by fear. I really feared the worst for them.
I finally made my way home, after about an hour and a half driving around neighborhoods in Boston I had never been in – I literally was controlling the car, but had no idea where I was or how I finally got home. Was listening the radio, learned about the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania plane (I think!) while driving. I think I talked to my sister. I think I talked to my dad who was in sales at the time so he was always driving all over Boston. I told him I didn’t want to be alone. He told me he would come by.
Got home and saw my landlord with her two sons – she same in and we watched some of the coverage on TV. At this point, I think both the towers had fallen and I hadn’t yet seen it – so the TV continued to replay it. It was surreal – at some point during the chaos, I must have talked to my mom and she told me she was hooking up with some of the train people to rent a car and rive back to Boston. She was sitting next to a terrorism expert on the train who she has since seen on CNN multiple times…The woman – I think – said “Terrorism.” before anyone had confirmed it.
Dad came over and he hugged me, and we both just watched the TV, and he was in shock too, I remember him saying “I can’t comprehend what I am seeing. I simply cannot comprehend this. I see it, but I can’t comprehend it.” I must have talked to my aunts, but probably later in the day.
I remember being so scared – what was next, who was doing this to us, and why? I also remember thinking that they would find alot of injured people. I remember wondering how many people might have died, I think I was thinking – and heard on the news – 10s of thousands. It was so surreal. SO_Surreal. It was still impossible to get through to people on the phone. All circuits are busy.
Absolutely nuts. You didn’t know what was happening. I realized how completely defenseless I really was. I had no recourse if we were going to be invaded. But who was big enough to do this to us? Who was organized enough to start this war? And WHY?
I still can’t understand really what we all witnessed that day. I have heard surreal stories of people’s experience that day, and read books about it, watched all kinds of documentaries. It still doesn’t seem real.
Where were you? What were you doing? What did you think? Did you know anyone who dies?
