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9-11 memories

MMM readers are invited to submit their 9-11 memories in the comments of this post.  If you would like your story published on the front page, start you comment with “Art, put this on the front page.”

MY 9/11 memory, by Charles Measley
It was a morning very similar to this as I sat in my six grade English class at
Holy Trinity School in Long Branch. When a teacher from across the hall came in
and instructed us to turn on the news, that there was some sort of accident in
New York City.

As we turned on CNN we saw a gaping hole on the side of a skyscraper as the
reporters struggled to understand how a pilot could make such a horrific mistake on a clear day like this. As we sat there and watch without warning we saw an airplane coming from behind and slamming into the next tower with a horrific fireball. At that moment the attitude of everyone change , the reporters said with certainty that this was no accident, but intentional.

Shortly after that my father came and picked me up early, he drove me down to the beach in West, a section of Long Branch. As we stood there on the sandy
beach with the crystal clear sky in front of us we could see the smoke billowing
from the city. In the back of my mind I was wondering if my mother,  who worked in the city was okay.

We went back home and put on the news and watch as one tower fell, and then
another, and then a plane crashing into the Pentagon and then another plane
smashing into a field in Pennsylvania. Luckily that day my mother never made it  in, she left late and got stuck in traffic on the parkway by Perth Amboy.

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Posted: September 11th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 9-11 | Tags: , , | 4 Comments »

4 Comments on “9-11 memories”

  1. A Friend Made A Point Today... said at 5:02 pm on September 11th, 2012:

    Reminding me that 9/11/01 was much a similar day as today, weather wise, clear and crisp.
    What I remember are a number of things…

    First, I shouldn’t have; but I had to take a run up the turnpike to see it myself. Of course, it was bumper to bumper; but I remember the hundreds of trucks going up the shoulder full of contracting equipment and flood lights…lots of loads of flood lights.

    Secondly, going into the city about a week afterwards going down town and sensing the burnt smell and the taste in your mouth of grit from the concrete…

    The layer of concrete dust on clothes in the stores

    Sad, very gut wrenching when you got right up close to it.

  2. Bob English said at 6:23 pm on September 11th, 2012:

    –I was outside of Philadelphia when I first heard the awful news and than headed for home. For 2-3 hours my car radio was my only source of info. When they were describing the north or south towers as having collapsed, I imagined it was only parts of the buildings and it was not until I got home and saw for myself on tv that I realized the total devastation that had taken place.

    –My wifes cousin worked for KBW in the south tower. Even though many in the firm did escape the horor, Tommy and a number of his collegues stayed put in the office per the instructions of building ofiicials and lost their lives on that day. He had called his family after the first plane hit the north tower to say he was okay and than……

    –I remember the description of the parking lots in train stations in NJ espeically in places like Middletown where 37 residents did not come home that night. Some families were waiting at the stations for loved ones that never got off the trains. There were cars parked overnight in lots that were normally empty, their owners never to return.

    –In the 1-2 days that followed I remember watching tv and listening to all of the people who were desperately searching for loved ones…walking around NYC with posters and photos of their missing relatives. For the first day or so when people hoped against hope that there would be survivors I remember wondering which of these people would find those that they were looking for. It was only after a couple of more days that we all realized that none of them would find missing loved ones alive as there would be no more survivors.

  3. I Forgot To Mention said at 7:04 pm on September 11th, 2012:

    We decided to get away from the TV for the weekend after, just couldn’t take the gut wrenching nonstop news on it every day.

    Decided to go camping for the weekend, drove back up the Turnpike towards our favorite campground, of course the towers still burning…

    Just about got to the campground near Newburgh Ny and a few restaurants had candle light vigils.

    The next day we drove up to Hyde Park, firemen in almost every town collecting money for relief efforts.

    At several intersections, people selling those clip on window American flags; at downright dirt cheap prices…they must have been giving them away.

    There were lines of people buying them.

    These things I will never forget, as well as the sight of the American Flag being torn down at two embassies today.

  4. Art Gallagher said at 9:14 pm on September 11th, 2012:

    I had spent the early morning at the Home Depot in Hazlet buying materials for the renovation project of the house I had recently bought in Highlands.

    Pulling out of the HD parking lot shortly after 9am I called my office and my assistant Debbie said,” Did you hear what happened? A plane flew into the world trade center.” I had something “really important” that I needed her to do. I was pressed for time and running late for a 9:30 meeting. Why was she bothering me with this trivia. In the back of my mind I had computed that it was a small plane out of Teterboro. Not the end of the world as we knew it.

    “No, but I need you to blah blah de blah and boo de do the bump, I need it by 11 when I get into the office, ” I said. “Art, this is thing is New York is a big deal, its all over the news.” Of course its all over the news, there’s nothing else happening, I thought to myself remembering the one flying lesson in a prop plane I had taken out of Teterboro in my 20’s and how scared I was when going up and not being able to see anything but blue ski. I could imagine some smuck like I was 20 years earlier freaking out and doing some damage. “Really? Thanks, I’ll put the news on the radio. See you at 11” “Art, I could see the fire when I was driving over the Highlands Bridge,” Debbie said.

    I heard on the radio that the second plane hit as I was pulling into my 9:30 meeting. The person I was meeting with was freaking out. I was still operating under my agenda. I tried to calm her down and we tried to get our business done while listening to the news on the radio. 29 minutes into the meeting the second tower fell. We were both freaking out. Meeting over.

    10 minutes later in I walked into my office. Debbie looked like she’d seen a ghost. She was watching the news on the computer. My brother worked for Port Authority and she couldn’t reach him. (He was fine)

    My father was on the phone. He was crying. No one could reach my brother-in-law who had a meeting at the World Financial Center that morning. The phones weren’t working, he was surprised there was an answer at my office. Would I try to reach Jack. I tried, I couldn’t. I couldn’t reach back to my father either. The phone were failing. Jack ended up being fine.

    I was able to get a call out to my wife Lori who was home in Leonardo. She didn’t answer and later told me that my message said, “We’re under attack, I going to the house (in Highlands).

    Debbie and I closed the office and drove together to my house in Highlands. By now the second tower had fallen. When I left the house yesterday there were two towers, a big bridge and a city viewable from my backyard. Now there was an enormous grey cloud expanding from where those towers had been. The renovation crew, several friends and strangers were in my yard, in shock. We all stood there in my yard, watching the clould expand wider and higher.

    There was activity down below us at the ferry terminal. Cops from all over the area, fire fighters and EMTs. I wasn’t yet part of this community, but I was proud that they were springing into to action and how they were doing it. The first ferry with survivors had not yet arrived but they were on there way.

    I wanted to do something. Anything. But I couldn’t even reach my wife, brother-in-law or father.

    …to be continued