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15 Years Later: September 11, 2001 Attacks on NYC, DC, VA (2 Viewers)

Had never even visited New York until a few weeks ago and we spent our first day in lower Manhattan and mostly at the 9/11 memorial and museum.  It definitely brought back the emotions I had from that day as well as over the years and that is without having that connection to NY as some do.  Being in the museum with the foundation there underground...the twisted metal of impact from the planes...the partially burnt out firetrucks...the voices of the friends and family...and those pools where the towers once stood.  A beautiful tribute to a horrible event that saw both the worst and then the best of humanity.

Our last night there we went to see To Kill a Mockingbird (story for another time, but a great production for sure)...and the older couple sitting next to us was speaking with us and asking if we were enjoying our trip...explaining that they were from Long Island and so on.  He asked if we had seen the memorial and museum and we chatted a bit about that and you could see the emotion on his face building.  His wife chimed in as he wasn't going to say it...he worked in the WTC 1...was supposed to be there that morning and would have likely died on an elevator if his schedule had been normal that day.  But he missed his train into the city that he normally takes.  And was on his way in when the first plane hit.  Im sure there are people that just tell those stories...similar to those who were at whatever big game just to claim they were there...but the emotion on his face and his reluctance to bring that part up...I believed him.  Super nice people as well as we chatted more during intermission.  Even gave them a few tips for a trip they have scheduled to Nashville.

 
I leave the TV on every year as loved ones read the names of those lost. So heartbreaking to hear some of the tributes.

 
My agent, Sergei, died this year. Can't think of 9-11 without thinking of him. You could literally watch the sun set between the towers from his flat in Lower Manhattan. He wasn't a native New Yorker, but lived there for 40 years and he loved that town. Knew everybody, was equally welcome and comfortable at Sylvia's, Elaine's or Chelsea Hotel and partied it DOWN everywhere and with everyone. He was one of those guys you could meet for a simple date with a couple of record company receptionists he'd hustled up and end up dizzy going a dozen places with an entourage of 40, ending with an improvised party in a hotel suite or a cortege of drunken automobiles gone to watch the sun up @ Montauk. A native Russian, son of diplomats, English was his third language (he'd forget his first 2 when he got loaded and kept a phonetic Russian phrasebook in his wallet, so you could talk him out of trouble) and his greatest pleasure was going down to the piers and translating for Soviet freighter captains in exchange for gossip from home and a case of weird herbal vodka. I felt dwarfed by this man in every way.

9-11 hit him hard. He never got angry or grandiloquent or grievous about it, he'd just be shut down by the thought of it and his severe Slavic brow would melt into soft despair until he shook himself clear to carry on. He closed his NY office (Boston, the other) a few years after (he had dropped me as a client in the 90s, but still managed my financials gratis til then) and threw himself into grandfatherhood on the South Shore of Ma. His big heart gave out early this summer and i mourned, of course, but didn't cry for him til last nite when i was reminded of the upcoming anniversary of the mortal wound upon the city he once owned. RIP, друг.

 
i just make sure my kids know what happened, how it happened and why it happened.

eternally saddened by this day.

 
Had a long conversation about this with my 9 year old son last night. He is old enough now to understand, and of course they have learned about it at school. The one question I couldn't answer that just chokes me up...and hell...it tears me up just to type this:

"Why do people do this to each other daddy?"

:cry:

 
El Floppo said:
19 years. :(

wife asked last night- which is worse: 9/11 or Covid. Tough question. 
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I think I'll be able to watch documentaries about Covid. Not close for me. But it's also comparing a compressed traumatic event with something that ground us down for 6+ months with no definitive end in sight (though some could probably say the same about the wars that we fought over the 9/11 response.)

The best thing about that week for me was being busy. I spent all of 9/11 renting a generator, 10-ton truck, and arranging for fuel deliveries. On 9/12 me and two other executives drove through about 20 army/national guard checkpoints - got through with our business cards - and took a 3' crowbar to the backdoor of our office building to power it back up. We had to get our customers back online.

The first three nights I sat on the Brooklyn Heights promenade with my gf and 10K other people, staring at the smoke plume in silence. On Friday night (9/14) we went to JC and took a private boat north up the Hudson to celebrate a friends wedding. The father of the groom and the maid of honor weren't able to travel. Might have been the only night all month we laughed and danced the night away.

 
El Floppo said:
19 years. :(

wife asked last night- which is worse: 9/11 or Covid. Tough question. 
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covid hands down. 

the thing I remember most about 9/11 is how America became 1 for the weeks and months afterward.There was a huge amount of sadness, but also amazing sense of patriotism and care for each other. I worked in NYC at the time so I saw all of it.

Not to get political, but COVID has had nothing but political finger pointing, people violently turning on each other in supermarkets, incredible fear, and more division in our citizens than ever before seen. 

 
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I remember being on the FFA and getting most of my news about what was happening from that thread since I wasn't around a TV at the office.   It was wild.

I think that was within my first few months in the FFA....  old yellow.    Hard to believe this much time has passed

 
glvsav37 said:
covid hands down. 

the thing I remember most about 9/11 is how America became 1 for the weeks and months afterward.There was a huge amount of sadness, but also amazing sense of patriotism and care for each other. I worked in NYC at the time so I saw all of it.

Not to get political, but COVID has had nothing but political fingerprinting, people violently turning on each other in supermarkets, incredible fear, and more division in our citizens than ever before seen. 
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El Floppo said:
eta: I will say- in spite of the selifishness at the supermarket- the next 6months to a year, I've never seen the city and it's people become as self-less from everything macro on down to tiny micro acts between people. it was amazing, even if we all knew it was never going to last.
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Agree with you.

9/11 was such a surprise gut-punch with such clear cut antagonists. The lasting result, imo, outside of that 10year gaping hole in the skyline, was realizing how much ongoing and deep rooted hatred a part of the world's population had towards us. That was the genuine eye opener for me.

Covids long term affects remains to be seen beyond the tremendous loss of life. Will cities get cleared out as a result of wfh?  I am hoping the extreme political polarization attached to it is confined to this president and that whichever party assumes control this and in future cycles will revert to more normal, less demonized, bi-partisan disagreements.

 
El Floppo said:
Covids long term affects remains to be seen beyond the tremendous loss of life. Will cities get cleared out as a result of wfh?  I am hoping the extreme political polarization attached to it is confined to this president and that whichever party assumes control this and in future cycles will revert to more normal, less demonized, bi-partisan disagreements.
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9/11's direct impact to me as a human has only been the increased number of safety procedures at the airport.    Obviously it affected me emotionally and I feel sorrow for those lost, but not a massive amount of direct impact to me long term.

Covid worries me - it affects my daily life in noticeable ways now, and is going to for the next several months..... and it's not like we're going to wake up one day and it's over.. it's going to be such a long slow decline....  furthermore because of the way the world reacted to this, what's going to happen when Covid-20 or whatever they name the next thing that hits happens?  Same thing?   Because then I feel for my kids who are going to be dealing with this in schools for the forseeable future

 
GreenNGold said:
On 9/10/2001, my biggest concern in life going to bed that night was that Ed McCaffrey broke his leg and hurt my fantasy football team.
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I remember watching that game. Right before halftime, one of the teams – I don’t remember which one - tried an insanely long field goal from midfield. It was short. But with a second or two left on the clock, the other HC figured ‘what the hell’ and tried his own, even longer field goal the other way. That was short too. I’ve never seen that before or since. 

It’s funny, the things that stick with you.

ETA: Elam missed left from 65, then Fassel had Owen Pochman try from 63. 

McCaffery broke his leg in the 3rd. It’s interesting to read his recollection - trying to make sense of the horrible news the next morning from his hospital bed through a morphine fog. 

 
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Like many people, I have a "where were you" type of memory.  I had been traveling back and forth from SoCal to NorCal for work and happened to be in a hotel in NorCal.  For some reason, I slept with the TV on (terrible for your sleep, I suppose), and recall stirring around 6 or 6:30am, waking to ESPN telling me to switch to my local news.  I watched the plane hit the second tower.  I ended up going in to work way late, and very little actual work was done that day.  I had to hitch a ride with a co-worker from NorCal back to SoCal since the airports were all shut down afterwards.  I'll never forget the images of people electing to jump off the buildings.  What a crazy, crazy event.   

 
went out and hit tennis balls with 9yo floppinha this afternoon. 

same blue sky and perfect no-humidity 70s temps as 19 years ago. brought me right back.  :(

 
9/11 was my first foray into the FFA. That thread on ol yellow was tremendous. I worked out some anger and confusion there, along with lots of others. I spent 8 days in Manhattan for work in the immediate aftermath and have some crazy vivid memories from that time. The one that really sticks with me is being right outside the police barricades as 20 or 30 FDNY members trudged through after spending god knows how many hours searching for life in the rubble. Their exhaustion was palpable. Every single person standing there watching them gave a giant cheer and applause. One of the most moving things I've ever witnessed. Choking up now.

 
It’s hard to compare this to COVID for me.  COVID has been a slow and drawn out process, over the span of many months.  It’s exhausting and bad in lots of ways.  Like a brutal marathon we never trained for nor signed up for.  But it’s hard to match the sheer immediacy and gripping terror of 9/11, of what unfolded over the course of and instant, and then minutes and then hours.  

 
Falling Man is a fantastic documentary from a different perspective. I think I found out about it on here and I watch it every year. 

 
flapgreen said:
Awful day.  Seems like yesterday.  I hope we can educate our youth on what happened during this time period and not let it fade with the next generation.  My kids are only 4 and 6 now but I'll sit down with them one day to discuss it with them. 
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It feels like it's faded greatly since that time. I've talked to my 8 and 10 year old about it and we've even watched a documentary on it. My 10 absolutely loves anything to do with history. 

 
The breakdown of "trust the authority" in the last 19 years is really mind-bottling.  Now "we" neither trust the government NOR the media.  19 years, mostly thanks to social media and this internet thing, is all it took to utterly divide our nation.  And no, it's never going back or healing.

 
Otis said:
It’s hard to compare this to COVID for me.  COVID has been a slow and drawn out process, over the span of many months.  It’s exhausting and bad in lots of ways.  Like a brutal marathon we never trained for nor signed up for.  But it’s hard to match the sheer immediacy and gripping terror of 9/11, of what unfolded over the course of and instant, and then minutes and then hours.  
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Well said, O.

 
El Floppo said:
went out and hit tennis balls with 9yo floppinha this afternoon. 

same blue sky and perfect no-humidity 70s temps as 19 years ago. brought me right back.  :(
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One of the most vivid memories I have of that day is how blue and clear the sky was.  It was my birthday, and I remember driving into work thinking what a beautiful morning it was and how lucky I was to experience it.  Never could have imagined. 

 
Peter O'Neill

My wife lived with his sister while we were still dating. He grew up in the Amityville Horror house.

Was his first day starting a new job at his uncle's company. His uncle didn't go into work that day. So many stories cut too short. 

 
I had just written something long and factual, but thought better of it. Better to not even posit things as facts these days and potentially besmirch the memory of a city, its inhabitants, its very construction.

Today I leave you with silence for those who died.

RIP.

 
I teach a college freshman intro to graphic design class here at my local college (Long Island, NY). With class being yesterday and on the eve of the anniversary, I pulled together a short presentation on some of the design and art created at that time. This anniversary hits a little harder as I realized that none of my students were even alive when it happened. 

if you are interested, here are some of the designs I spoke about. 

 
20 years ago today I was on FBG getting live updates because all the news dot coms were overloaded. I remember thinking everyone was getting it wrong or exaggerating, but also thinking well everyone can't be getting it wrong. My brain couldn't process it.  My memories of 9/11 will always be intertwined with FBG. I was in a training class in a tower in Tampa reading posts out loud and others were saying things like "CNN is down" or "I can get on ABC but it won't refresh". Somewhere there's a dozen people saying "I was in a class and we heard about it from a guy reading posts on a fantasy football site."

 
Was living on the Upper West Side. Girlfriend (now wife for 18+ years) watched the 2nd plane fly over her head before crashing. If a helicopter goes over our house low she still looks up with wide eyes. 

Lost friends from Cantor Fitzgerald. Guys I shared beach houses with on the Jersey shore, fantasy football leagues. My apartment became the control center for one family as we combed the city's hospitals in the following days hoping to find him alive. I remember giving physical descriptions and nurses looking at us with such sorrowful eyes, telling us no, sorry, we don't have him. I only cried once, and it was with my girlfriend after the family had left and I knew it was futile. But we kept looking. 

Remember being in a bar with his brother one night a few weeks after, just the two of us, watching the Yankees playoff game and he was trying to come to grips with this massive loss. There were some firefighters from Ground Zero there and we bought them a round and they came over we BSd with them for a while in this somber, surreal experience. 

Still think about these guys fairly often. 

RIP 

 
I try to watch something from that day each year.  Sometimes short, sometimes the actual news coverage or the Air Traffic Control tapes from the day.  Whatever -- just something so that "never forget" isn't just lip service.

And what happens each year is that I get mad.  Mad at the people who did this.  Mad that what I want more than anything is to blow people off the face of the earth.  Mad at how the original war against the Taliban was botched and then turned into a cancerous growth that wasted 20 years, thousands upon thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars.

Hopefully someday we come out the other side of this awful period in our history, but I'd bet on more chaos before it happens.

 
Dinsy Ejotuz said:
I try to watch something from that day each year.  Sometimes short, sometimes the actual news coverage or the Air Traffic Control tapes from the day.  Whatever -- just something so that "never forget" isn't just lip service.

And what happens each year is that I get mad.  Mad at the people who did this.  Mad that what I want more than anything is to blow people off the face of the earth.  Mad at how the original war against the Taliban was botched and then turned into a cancerous growth that wasted 20 years, thousands upon thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars.

Hopefully someday we come out the other side of this awful period in our history, but I'd bet on more chaos before it happens.
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We did the museum 2 years ago ... listening to the live atc is chilling

 
NorvilleBarnes said:
20 years ago today I was on FBG getting live updates because all the news dot coms were overloaded. I remember thinking everyone was getting it wrong or exaggerating, but also thinking well everyone can't be getting it wrong. My brain couldn't process it.  My memories of 9/11 will always be intertwined with FBG. I was in a training class in a tower in Tampa reading posts out loud and others were saying things like "CNN is down" or "I can get on ABC but it won't refresh". Somewhere there's a dozen people saying "I was in a class and we heard about it from a guy reading posts on a fantasy football site."
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I was actually listening to Stern when it happened and they were pretty good

 
The day becomes more and more normalized as the years pass.

I think that's a good thing, even though it's impossible to forget. Thought about it a bunch yesterday and then completely forgot about until I saw the thread bumped.
 
ChiefD said:
Bump for today.

It's hard to believe it was 22 years ago. Lots of memories coming back today. Damn.
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60 minutes had an hour special last night called The FDNY. It was interviews with the Firefighters that were that day and with family members of those firefighters that didn't make it out alive. It was well done. The interviews and footage tugged at the heart strings, and were a reminder of how resilient, brave and selfless those first responders were and are.
 
The news broke to me via listening to Howard Stern..... i remember a bunch of people sitting in my cube listening because he was honestly one of the first to report what was going on
 
simey said:
ChiefD said:
Bump for today.

It's hard to believe it was 22 years ago. Lots of memories coming back today. Damn.
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60 minutes had an hour special last night called The FDNY. It was interviews with the Firefighters that were that day and with family members of those firefighters that didn't make it out alive. It was well done. The interviews and footage tugged at the heart strings, and were a reminder of how resilient, brave and selfless those first responders were and are.
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Did they go into how many have lost their lives since as a result of health damage from working on the pile?
 
El Floppo said:
simey said:
ChiefD said:
Bump for today.

It's hard to believe it was 22 years ago. Lots of memories coming back today. Damn.
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60 minutes had an hour special last night called The FDNY. It was interviews with the Firefighters that were that day and with family members of those firefighters that didn't make it out alive. It was well done. The interviews and footage tugged at the heart strings, and were a reminder of how resilient, brave and selfless those first responders were and are.
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Did they go into how many have lost their lives since as a result of health damage from working on the pile?
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I saw yesterday that the numbers are equal to or just over.
 
We flew out of Austin this morning and right before boarding TSA gave an announcement about honoring 9/11 responders, and victims, There was a memorial event in the airport. Many people flying didn't realize the "anniversary" today.
 
El Floppo said:
Did they go into how many have lost their lives since as a result of health damage from working on the pile?
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No, it was interviews with surviving firefighters who talked about moments from the day of 9/11 and fallen colleagues from that day, and later it interviewed children of some of the fallen FDNY who became firefighters themselves. At the end of the show it said to tune in to 60 Minutes Overtime regarding survivors and surviving first responders who have been battling health issues at a growing rate over the last twenty years.
 
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