8 years on

thank you, it is comforting to know there are still people out there who
remember and care, Lee


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
8 years ago, I can still vividly remember Joel waking me up at about
11:15pm saying 'A bomb hit New York'. Wearily, I stumbled out to the lounge
to watch the coverage, thinking it was some sort of stunt, a joke, a sci-fi
movie. We watched in increasing horror as the second plane hit the other
world tower, and by the time the next plane had hit the pentagon, we were
both thinking 'here comes world war 3'.

We stayed up most of the night, watching in horror, disbelief and open
grief whilst the tragedy that struck New York, Washington, America, indeed
the World unfolded. My thoughts went out to all those in the line of fire,
all those who would be affected by this.

My heart skipped a beat when I realised my mother was overseas, on
holiday, unreachable (in the days ahead I paid a small fortune in phone
calls trying to track her down - I found her in France). And then another
as I realised a great friend was actually in the air, flying back from
Sydney to NY at the time (she was diverted to LA and couldn't get home -
nor even call her husband - for 3 more days) .

Everyone stumbled into work the next day, sleepless, shocked. People
desperately tried to contact their loved ones not only in the USA but
around the world. Work allowed the use of the busines phones to do it,
they didn't really have a choice - although most of the lines were down
and the ones that weren't were so overload, it could take *hours* to get
through to a US operator, and even then it didn't mean the call could go
through. There was a constant vigil of at least a handful of people in the
conference room, watchign the only TV we have here, coming out after a
while white and shaken, no longer physically able to watch any more. For
the first time, I saw my colleagues, both men & women, openly weep.

Friends gathered to console and support each other - everyone, and I mean
*everyone* I know, knew someone who knew someone that was directly
effected.

The internet connections were flakey at best, but messages of support and
friendship were posted, as well as a 'please check in' for those who had
been disconnected. It took a very long time, even over here, for it to
stop being at the top of people's minds. Even a month later, I saw a
low-flying jet and immediately had flash-backs, had a moment stricken with
fear. I hadn't realised I was so close to the airport.

8 years on, its no longer front page news every day, but the consequences
of that senseless act still reverberate around the world, effecting lives
every day, every minute. To all those who live with the heartache and
grief of that terrible day, as well as the incredible acts of heroism and
sacrifice, you have not been forgotten. Our purrs and prayers go out to
you..

lest we forget.

Yowie

colen powel and someone else that was in the administration then, i heard
that on npr, Lee


"Cheryl" wrote in message
...

"Kyla =^..^=" wrote in message
...

And bless the hearts of the passengers of Flight 93 who lost
their lives taking control of the terrorists who were headed for The
White House.. The World has gone mad.
Thank you for posting this, Yowie

It seems no one remembers flight 93. Even tomorrow, Obama will be at the
Pentagon, and Biden will be in NYC. Who will be in Shanksville?

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
8 years ago, I can still vividly remember Joel waking me up at about
11:15pm saying 'A bomb hit New York'. Wearily, I stumbled out to the lounge
to watch the coverage, thinking it was some sort of stunt, a joke, a sci-fi
movie. We watched in increasing horror as the second plane hit the other
world tower, and by the time the next plane had hit the pentagon, we were
both thinking 'here comes world war 3'.

We stayed up most of the night, watching in horror, disbelief and open
grief whilst the tragedy that struck New York, Washington, America, indeed
the World unfolded. My thoughts went out to all those in the line of fire,
all those who would be affected by this.

My heart skipped a beat when I realised my mother was overseas, on
holiday, unreachable (in the days ahead I paid a small fortune in phone
calls trying to track her down - I found her in France). And then another
as I realised a great friend was actually in the air, flying back from
Sydney to NY at the time (she was diverted to LA and couldn't get home -
nor even call her husband - for 3 more days) .

Everyone stumbled into work the next day, sleepless, shocked. People
desperately tried to contact their loved ones not only in the USA but
around the world. Work allowed the use of the busines phones to do it,
they didn't really have a choice - although most of the lines were down
and the ones that weren't were so overload, it could take *hours* to get
through to a US operator, and even then it didn't mean the call could go
through. There was a constant vigil of at least a handful of people in the
conference room, watchign the only TV we have here, coming out after a
while white and shaken, no longer physically able to watch any more. For
the first time, I saw my colleagues, both men & women, openly weep.

Friends gathered to console and support each other - everyone, and I mean
*everyone* I know, knew someone who knew someone that was directly
effected.

The internet connections were flakey at best, but messages of support and
friendship were posted, as well as a 'please check in' for those who had
been disconnected. It took a very long time, even over here, for it to
stop being at the top of people's minds. Even a month later, I saw a
low-flying jet and immediately had flash-backs, had a moment stricken with
fear. I hadn't realised I was so close to the airport.

8 years on, its no longer front page news every day, but the consequences
of that senseless act still reverberate around the world, effecting lives
every day, every minute. To all those who live with the heartache and
grief of that terrible day, as well as the incredible acts of heroism and
sacrifice, you have not been forgotten. Our purrs and prayers go out to
you..

lest we forget.

Yowie


Thank you, Vicky. Most of you know, but some might not, that this happened
a couple of miles away from me-- our sky was literally black that day -- and
the next-- with the smoke and debris from the buildings-- and blocks away
from my father. This wasn't a distant event for me-- I don't work in lower
Manhattan, but it has been part of my life for many years, a territory I
know as well as any. I didn't lose anybody close to me, but I saw the WTC
every day of my life before that-- my brother and I had watched it being
built as children, and my daily subway trip featured an impressive view of
New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline-- most people just read as the sun
came up over the Statue of Liberty, the Trade Center, and other landmarks.

I was getting ready to go out and vote-- it was a mayoral primary day-- and
was listening to my local NPR station, WNYC, which was located in downtown
Manhattan, a couple of blocks from the WTC-- so I heard this unfold in real
time, from the time station employees on their coffee breaks saw the first
plane flying crazily low down the west side of the island. I turned on the
TV just in time to see the plane crash into the first building. I cannot
convey to you the total confusion and chaos I experienced-- the whole thing
was attended by this powerful and persistent sensation of disbelief, and the
feeling I was going crazy. The whole thing seemed inexplicable until the
second plane appeared, and then I knew we must be under attack. But that
didn't make the crazy feeling go away, and it just got worse as I saw the
craziest thing of all-- first one building then the other-- they were
immense, remember-- turn to dust before my eyes. "All those people!'' I
thought, "my God, all those people!"

It took a long time-- years-- before those images receded from the front of
my mind-- I cannot imagine what it was for the people who lost loved ones.


--
Theresa and Dante

Stinky Forever: http://pets.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

[The horror of 9/11]

I was in my office early that day, and didn't hear anything about it until
my supervisor came in and said, "A plane just crashed into the World Trade
Center!"

My reply was, "It's GOT to be terrorists!"

Then the second plane hit.

All that day, every time I took a breath, I felt my eyes tearing up. Our
CEO insisted that we continue working "just like any other day". Eighteen
people quit because of that.

In a way, the CEO was right, even though we were all dazed and got little
work done - staying at work occupied enough of our minds that we didn't go
into shock, and I think it helped us cope.

Even now, eight years out, it still brings tears to my eyes.


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:01:10 -0400, Yowie wrote
(in article ):

8 years ago, I can still vividly remember Joel waking me up

I had a late start that day, so I was still at home when the first plane hit.
A friend of mine who was on the 40th floor of a construction project in Times
Square and who saw the smoke called me and said "Turn on the TV! A plane just
hit one of the WTC towers."

I did, and that was it for me for that day and forever, really. I watched
baffled as the scene that we're all way too familiar with by now unfolded.

I vacillated as to what to do as the morning progressed; turned off the TV;
turned it back on; tried to pretend I didn't hear sirens everywhere outside,
constant sirens, non-stop; tried to eat something, couldn't.

It was a primary election day and in the state of semi-shock that I was in I
decided I should go out and vote, to "take my mind off what was happening."

I went down and out onto the street. I live just south of Midtown, on 36th
Street, about three miles north and well east of the Towers. The hordes of
dust- and debris-covered people who were marching somberly past, many sobbing
aloud, recalled a scene from a really awful B-movie, a badly produced horror
flick.

I knew the polls wouldn't be open, but I didn't want to go back upstairs
because that would mean turning the TV on again, and having to acknowledge
the events. But the streets weren't providing any escape either.

There was no escape.

Even now when an old movie or TV show pans southern Manhattan and they're
there, I gasp. Those twins, those lost siblings, taken through some horrific
unimaginable, impossible example of just how awful people can be.

But I know there's a God, or a god, because I later learned of three of my
friends who would have been in the towers but weren't, because of a choice
one of them made that morning (he spontaneously decided to make a client site
visit uptown) or one or another of those "damn inconveniences" one encounters
from time to time: one was stalled on late-running train coming in from New
Jersey. It eventually retreated because of the situation. The other friend
left her Brooklyn apartment on her way to work in the tower only to find her
car had been towed, so she was forced to go back home to try to find where
her car had been towed.

I do know people who lost people. Even that is closer than I want to be to
it.


--
Ketzl's Dad

On that day in 2001 I was driving a semi, running with a trainer since I
was new to the company. We had been running the east coast, and had
finally returned home to California. We stopped at the truck stop in
Salinas, CA and went inside for a bathroom break and some coffee. While
we were in the truck stop we saw the news about the first crash (this was
really early in the AM in CA, so just about real-time). Everybody was
assuming it was an accident.

We watched for half an hour or so, then got in the truck and started
rolling again. We heard about the second crash while on the road. Many of
the other drivers on the CB radio were spouting hate-filled plans to harm
the next Arab they saw, others were clearly on the verge of tears, and
everybody was bewildered.

We stopped again in Oxnard to deliver a load of tires. While we were
waiting our turn to unload we turned on the TV in the sleeper and watched
the local news; this was when we saw the footage of the towers
collapsing. Neither of us had much to say the rest of the day. A lot of
the chatter on the CB radio also died off, but the people spouting anti-
Arab hate were still around.

I was really glad to get back to my home yard in Fontana and take a few
days off. I didn't really want to do anything but be home with Nancy and
the cats.

Joe Dee wrote:

I went down and out onto the street. I live just south of Midtown, on 36th
Street, about three miles north and well east of the Towers. The hordes of
dust- and debris-covered people who were marching somberly past, many sobbing
aloud, recalled a scene from a really awful B-movie, a badly produced horror
flick.

That sounds really chilling!

But I know there's a God, or a god, because I later learned of three of my
friends who would have been in the towers but weren't, because of a choice
one of them made that morning (he spontaneously decided to make a client site
visit uptown) or one or another of those "damn inconveniences" one encounters
from time to time: one was stalled on late-running train coming in from New
Jersey. It eventually retreated because of the situation. The other friend
left her Brooklyn apartment on her way to work in the tower only to find her
car had been towed, so she was forced to go back home to try to find where
her car had been towed.

Wow. That reminds me of that Chinese fable about the guy who falls off
his horse and breaks his leg, which is bad luck, but then some military
guys come by and try to draft him into the army, except he can't go
because his leg is broken. (The story goes on like that, good luck turning
to bad, then turning back to good, etc.) I can just imagine how angry she
must have been to come out and find that her car had been towed - and then
later to realize that someone was seriously watching out for her that morning!

Joyce

--
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is
beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but
the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
-- Dave Barry

I have been digging around today for an article I thought I kept. It was a
few days after the attack. This man who worked in the towers, got out, went
into shock and went to the nearest bar where they would let him stop. He
went on a two day drunk.

The other side to his story is that his wife knew he had gone to work, knew
he had to be there. She spent 48 hours looking for him or any sign his
group had survived.

On the third day, he sobered up enough and knew he had to get home. When he
walked in the apartment, his wife was asleep on the couch, totally exhausted
and as filthy as he was from searching around for him.

He walked in, said something akin to "Hi honey, I'm home" She jumped up,
doubled her fist and proceeded to break his nose and jaw all in one fel
swoop! He then went to the hospital. I always wondered if he forgave her.
Prayed he did.
"Kreisleriana" drtmuirATearthlink.net wrote in message
...

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
8 years ago, I can still vividly remember Joel waking me up at about
11:15pm saying 'A bomb hit New York'. Wearily, I stumbled out to the
lounge to watch the coverage, thinking it was some sort of stunt, a joke,
a sci-fi movie. We watched in increasing horror as the second plane hit
the other world tower, and by the time the next plane had hit the
pentagon, we were both thinking 'here comes world war 3'.

We stayed up most of the night, watching in horror, disbelief and open
grief whilst the tragedy that struck New York, Washington, America,
indeed the World unfolded. My thoughts went out to all those in the line
of fire, all those who would be affected by this.

My heart skipped a beat when I realised my mother was overseas, on
holiday, unreachable (in the days ahead I paid a small fortune in phone
calls trying to track her down - I found her in France). And then another
as I realised a great friend was actually in the air, flying back from
Sydney to NY at the time (she was diverted to LA and couldn't get home -
nor even call her husband - for 3 more days) .

Everyone stumbled into work the next day, sleepless, shocked. People
desperately tried to contact their loved ones not only in the USA but
around the world. Work allowed the use of the busines phones to do it,
they didn't really have a choice - although most of the lines were down
and the ones that weren't were so overload, it could take *hours* to get
through to a US operator, and even then it didn't mean the call could go
through. There was a constant vigil of at least a handful of people in
the conference room, watchign the only TV we have here, coming out after
a while white and shaken, no longer physically able to watch any more.
For the first time, I saw my colleagues, both men & women, openly weep.

Friends gathered to console and support each other - everyone, and I mean
*everyone* I know, knew someone who knew someone that was directly
effected.

The internet connections were flakey at best, but messages of support and
friendship were posted, as well as a 'please check in' for those who had
been disconnected. It took a very long time, even over here, for it to
stop being at the top of people's minds. Even a month later, I saw a
low-flying jet and immediately had flash-backs, had a moment stricken
with fear. I hadn't realised I was so close to the airport.

8 years on, its no longer front page news every day, but the consequences
of that senseless act still reverberate around the world, effecting lives
every day, every minute. To all those who live with the heartache and
grief of that terrible day, as well as the incredible acts of heroism and
sacrifice, you have not been forgotten. Our purrs and prayers go out to
you..

lest we forget.

Yowie


Thank you, Vicky. Most of you know, but some might not, that this
happened a couple of miles away from me-- our sky was literally black that
day -- and the next-- with the smoke and debris from the buildings-- and
blocks away from my father. This wasn't a distant event for me-- I don't
work in lower Manhattan, but it has been part of my life for many years, a
territory I know as well as any. I didn't lose anybody close to me, but I
saw the WTC every day of my life before that-- my brother and I had
watched it being built as children, and my daily subway trip featured an
impressive view of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline-- most people
just read as the sun came up over the Statue of Liberty, the Trade Center,
and other landmarks.

I was getting ready to go out and vote-- it was a mayoral primary day--
and was listening to my local NPR station, WNYC, which was located in
downtown Manhattan, a couple of blocks from the WTC-- so I heard this
unfold in real time, from the time station employees on their coffee
breaks saw the first plane flying crazily low down the west side of the
island. I turned on the TV just in time to see the plane crash into the
first building. I cannot convey to you the total confusion and chaos I
experienced-- the whole thing was attended by this powerful and persistent
sensation of disbelief, and the feeling I was going crazy. The whole
thing seemed inexplicable until the second plane appeared, and then I knew
we must be under attack. But that didn't make the crazy feeling go away,
and it just got worse as I saw the craziest thing of all-- first one
building then the other-- they were immense, remember-- turn to dust
before my eyes. "All those people!'' I thought, "my God, all those
people!"

It took a long time-- years-- before those images receded from the front
of my mind-- I cannot imagine what it was for the people who lost loved
ones.


--
Theresa and Dante

Stinky Forever: http://pets.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

On Sep 11, 3:30*pm, "Granby" wrote:

He walked in, said something akin to "Hi honey, I'm home" *She jumped up,
doubled her fist and proceeded to break his nose and jaw all in one fel
swoop! *He then went to the hospital. *I always wondered if he forgave her.


Eventually I should imagine...

I was having a late lunch because the shop I worked at was opening
late to cover the busy period (In educational bookselling- the term
starts in September so it's like Xmas for us), I'd gone down to the
bar/canteen and got a sandwich (cheese and onion it's amazing what
you remember at the time I was a little annoyed that was all they had
left and telling myself off for not having thought to get something
earlier), a can of drink and a paper and I had just sat down, opened
the drink and the sandwich and was about to read the paper when
someone rushed in and shouted at the bar manager "Put the news on!"

So he did and we all sat there, to be honest because of the angle of
the first shots everyone's first thought was a small private jet like
a Cessna was involved so we all muttered "that's terrible. Must be an
accident"and people went back to talking. the bar manager went back to
serving, I went back to my paper but only for a few seconds then we
heard the commentator on the television shout something about a second
plane coming round, jaws and glasses were dropped and because of the
better angle we could now see this was no little private Cessna coming
in but a passenger plane. Someone screamed "No!" and as it hit the
tower everyone of us jumped backwards. I just sat there in complete
shock- never did finish the sandwich then the first tower started to
come down, people started crying and hugging each other- there was one
guy in the bar whose daughter was on holiday in New York and he sat
there trying to call her on his mobile and getting no answer (it took
2 days to make contact when he came to the bar to tell his friends she
was safe, she'd visited the World Trade Centre the day before as 2
days and nights of no sleep and terrible worry caught up on him, he
fell asleep in the bar and nothing was said )

My break was over and I ran up the stairs and into the shop where I
grabbed a phone and in complete violation of company rules called Dave
(I didn't get a mobile until 2002) to ask him what news he'd got- Dave
in those days used to have "News24" on all the time but of course,
he'd picked this day not to have it on so I told him what was going
down and loaded Yahoo to get some news. At this point, Jeff the
acting manager (The bitch queen of the abyss was on leave) ran into
the office and asked me what was going on and I was staring at Yahoo
and I just said "The second tower is coming down"....and he leant over
my shoulder to read the news. He was horrified, he'd more or less
grown up in the States and he stood there shaking his head and saying
"He just wanted this to happen....His daddy didn''t get to press the
button so he wants to" I assume he meant Dubya.

all that afternoon- we had no customers but people were walking round
in shock asking each other for news- did we have any idea what
happened? What was this about a plane at the Pentagon? Another
plane? Who did it?

My shift finished and I went home. London was subdued, people were
walking about asking the same questions, rumours were flying round,
someone told me the Pentagon had been destroyed, someoene else told me
Dubya had been on one of the planes. I got in and Dave was staring at
footage of the people throwing themselves out of the Towers, we didn't
say much, I just sat down and stared at it with him- Isis sat on my
lap and purred softly and we sat there all night watching the news
without hardly uttering a word.

My brother was in the Himalayas and didn't hear for a day then hot
footed back to New York to check on his friends in the financial
community there. He knew about 10-15 of the people who died but not
well

Another friend of mine worked for the London branch of one of the
companies in the First Tower and he and his colleagues did take calls
from people they knew who were trapped, he had a friend begging him to
call his wife and tell her he loved her and their children. He left
the company shortly afterwards and to this day if anyone he worked for
said he had to go to New York he;d refuse- he lost promotions over it.

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:30:52 -0400, Granby wrote
(in article ):

When he
walked in the apartment, his wife was asleep on the couch, totally exhausted
and as filthy as he was from searching around for him.

This sounds anecdotal, perhaps urban mythic. It was all but impossible for
any civilian to get anywhere near ground zero for several days, if not weeks,
afterwards.

--
Ketzl's dad from New York