Where Were You?

September 11, 2008, 2:22 pm; posted by
Filed under Bwog, Steve  | 4 Comments

Seven years ago I was a few months removed from college, a few months away from my first job, foundering about in the uncertain void that seems to precede every important decision I face. My brother was sick or feigning, home again after only four days in fourth grade, and I was awakened early that morning to keep watch.

I was at my parents’ computer when my aunt called our home phone. “I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center.” I turned to CNN and saw the replayed clips and the President’s news conference.

John remembers that I came out to the living room and made him turn off his video game. Twenty and nine, together the two of us watched, for the rest of the day. First one crowded tower fell. Then the other.

Where were you?


Comments

4 Comments to “Where Were You?”

  1. Brian on September 11th, 2008 3:14 pm

    (Written December 2001)
    Where were you on 9/11?
    By Brian

    We were at home doing school when my dad called from work and told us to turn on the TV. We missed seeing the first plane hit, but saw the second one in a replay seconds after it struck. We saw the first and second buildings go down, live on ABC. At that time there was rumor of a car bomb going off at the capital, in addition to the confirmed Pentagon crash. The fourth plane was still unaccounted for. All that day—our second day of school—we watched [Peter Jennings on] TV except for a brief trip to the orthodontist, and we even listened to the radio all the way there. That was all we did for school that day.

    A few days later I was asked to design a web site for our church’s New York relief effort. I had a design that I had been working on, so it was ready quickly. Since we are only two hours from the city, our church is coordinating volunteers from churches around the country. The web site gives directions, contact information, updates, and testimonies as well as pictures.

  2. David on September 11th, 2008 5:36 pm

    I was at work getting ready to take a copier to Auburn University’s Director of Football Operations. My Bosses brother kept yelling for me to come into the Bosses office where a TV was always playing to see a plane that had crashed into the Trade Center. When I finally went in it had just started showing a 2nd plane and we slowly figured out (like everyone else) that this was not an accident. We stayed for quite a while and then went to the AU Athletic Department and everyone ended up congregating in a huge lounge reserved for special occasions in the Media Relations area and watched it unfold on a huge projection TV. The Director kept trying to call his Son (who worked at the Pentagon) on his cell phone but couldn’t reach him. We found out later he was OK. The most searing moment was when they kept listing the flights missing and it dawned on me why they were all bound for California. They would have the most fuel on board. For some reason that realization produced a moment of pure rage toward those men that I can still remember vividly.

  3. Hoss on September 12th, 2008 8:22 am

    It wasn’t a video game, it was Ed Edd and Eddy. I was sick that day. I was told that it was played in school for part of the day. And yesterday at 8:46 A.M we had a moment of silence.

  4. Connie Maxon on September 12th, 2008 2:43 pm

    I was working at school a notetaker for a deaf student, and as I entered Chemistry class I remember the teacher being uncharacteristically serious. She explained that one plane had crashed and that it might’ve been on purpose, and then she turned the class into a study hall. I was freed to go head for a computer. I logged on just before the second plane hit. I remember wondering if our whole country could be under attack. I spent the rest of the day feeling very sick.

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