1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Remembrance... and a musical interlude, "Where were you"

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Starship16, Sep 9, 2018.

  1. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2018
    1,348
    1,452
    0
    Location:
    Beach Christmas
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    ----USA----


    God Bless all those lost on that tragic day.




     
    #1 Starship16, Sep 9, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2018
    bisco likes this.
  2. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2018
    1,348
    1,452
    0
    Location:
    Beach Christmas
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    ----USA----
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    i was in disbelief.

    and my daughter had just started college at gw.
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  4. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2016
    11,251
    15,474
    0
    Location:
    Bay Area, California
    Vehicle:
    2019 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    I was in between calculus classes at Penn State when there was a gathering in the lobby.

    My thoughts were with 2 friends I had in NYC at the time.

    Thankfully neither was in either tower that day, but still humbling.
     
    bisco likes this.
  5. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2010
    279
    1,855
    0
    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    It was the evening for me - I was in Hong Kong. I'd just seen my sister and her husband off from HK airport on a flight home to Britain via Dubai. So my first concern was for them, in case things went rapidly wrong in the Middle East. I was trying to call and text her to tell her not to get on the plane, but she'd already turned her phone off. (She said it was weird when she got to Dubai airport and all the TVs were turned off and no-one was talking: she had no idea what had happened until she got to Manchester.)

    I didn't know until the next morning that a company that lots of my friends worked for had been running a conference at Windows On The World. Two of my close friends - a married couple who worked together - who'd just moved from HK to NY died, along with about a dozen acquaintances. Another close friend was supposed to be there, but had had a big night with clients the night before, and was half an hour late to the conference, and another was supposed to be there but had been called to Chicago to meet an angry client. The one who had to go to Chicago lost his girlfriend, who worked for the same company. Both of those two still struggle with survivors' guilt. The company my friends worked for was hit incredibly hard: more than half of the New York office, plus a lot of the London office and some people who floated between HK, NY and London, were killed. While I didn't work for the company, I was often part of the HK office's after-work drinks on a Friday, and I had (and still have) a lot of good friends there.

    So the evening (your morning) of the 11th was weird, sitting watching it. It was just so strange to sit and watch it unfold. I watched it on TV, on the phone to my then girlfriend (now wife) who lived a couple of miles from me. I noticed the second plane hit before the TV reports did, which was weird. But the morning of the 12th was much worse, when we found out how much of our social circle had either gone or been badly affected.

    So, yes. It's a day I remember quite clearly, although I'd kind of rather not.
     
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2004
    8,972
    3,501
    0
    Location:
    Kunming Yunnan China
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
  7. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2009
    17,035
    10,010
    90
    Location:
    Western Washington
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    That makes me think of Cantor Fitzgerald, 658 lost. Though it was merely the largest of multiple companies that lost most of their staff. Some smaller ones lost everyone on duty that day.

    I first heard about it in the late afternoon from another English speaking tourist in a bakery in Kandersteg, Switzerland, while waiting for the train back to our room in Interlaken. We'd spent the day hiking some of the many trails along and above Lake Oeschinen.

    I don't recall any TV monitors in the Kandersteg terminal, but the Interlaken terminal had plenty, and a mass crowd quietly watching. We did too for quite a while, in shock, before walking to our room.

    Kandersteg and Lake Oeschinen and the mountains and ice fields above were gorgeous. But while many other similarly beautiful places I've visited are gradually blending together in memory, this one is seared in separately for reasons beyond beauty.
     
  8. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2010
    7,668
    6,482
    0
    Location:
    Redneck Riviera (Gulf South)
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    I was working evenings for Big Bell and drilling as an active reservist.
    That morning I volunteered to help out with a unit gun shoot (small arms training) and was in uniform and under arms when the first plane struck.
    Just about the time we were noodling things out, Flight 175 hit the South tower and we were off and running.
    I remember calling my wife and saying something like "Turn on the TV. I love you. Bye."
    One of our neighboring units had many of their folks in the air that morning gaggling back from an east coast deployment and so I was kinda busy that day (they all made it back.)
    I remember calling my boss sometime that afternoon and explaining that I would be in to work a little late and probably be wearing a different uniform.
    She said "that's fine, but leave your weapon on base!"

    That would be the last 911 that I would spend INCONUS for most of the rest of the decade......and I was one of the lucky souls who only had to sacrifice a little family time in the years that followed. My company paid a salary differential for 2 years of my career and didn't even move papers around on my desk while I was gone.

    Many in the military lost much MUCH more.
    Careers.
    Money.
    Relationships.
    Health.
    Everything....

    Like everyone else I sometimes remember where I was at, but I also try to think to pause and remember where many of my fellow servicemembers ARE at......
     
    #8 ETC(SS), Sep 11, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2018
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    54,470
    38,103
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    I was just getting up, was going to catch the bus over to my son's: he drove me to our work out in the valley (a small steel detailing outfit). My son phones, saying to turn on the TV. He was incredulous, having seen the second plane plow into the tower, live. I think it shook him, shook a lot of people.

    Later at work, I'd sort of half-forgotten about it, had to phone a general contractor in Oregon, and I could hear a radio going in the background, the ongoing new coverage. I asked him what was happening and he said everything was going to hell, both towers had collapsed by then, and there was an erroneous new item he'd heard, that the White House had been struck. I believe that was the target of the jet that crashed in a field?
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    mrs bisco was in line at dunkin donuts watching on a tv, everyone thought it was a movie until the broadcaster came on.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
  12. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2018
    6,687
    6,375
    1
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    2018 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    I didn't need a TV to see it; I was a New Yorker then.

    I still remember the way it all was before, and I miss it every day.
     
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    y niece was there, now my daughter is. we stayed across the street from the hole, before they built the new tower.
    i never saw the old ones in person, but it was still eerie.
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  14. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2016
    11,490
    14,095
    0
    Location:
    Tampa, FL
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    That was our second day of learning how to run a radio station in Honduras. We had arrived two days before and our manager was showing my wife and me the ropes in the "On Air" studio when our business manger came charging up the stairs, breathlessly telling us what had happened and to turn on the news. At first we thought he was pranking us, but that feeling only lasted a second. He was from Guatemala, but he was really shaken.

    We fed the audio from SRN News via our satellite receiver straight to the control console and that's pretty much all we broadcast that day. Phone lines to the States were jammed and we had no internet either, so we couldn't get in touch with our son in Tampa which is the home on Centcom. Pretty creepy time for us.

    But people were great. They even held a special church service later in the week for all the Americans on the island to pray for us and love on us. In the long run, while the terrorists wanted to damage our economy, they almost destroyed the economy of the island where we lived. Those folks depend almost entirely on tourism and there were no tourists for a long, long time.
     
    Mark57 likes this.
  15. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2009
    2,945
    2,735
    0
    Location:
    OK
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    I was at work, adding capacity to one of the SAN's in one of the data centers when the first plane hit. Being a member of InfraGard with critical infrastructure, we rallied our whole IT group into a Defcon 2 stance when the second plane hit. Nobody knew what was coming next or where so all monitoring and facilities security went to max at all location in all states. We watched the second plane hit on the TV in the operator's area in the data center. It was a real Oh Crap moment. Having been only 2 blocks from the OKC Alfred P. Murrah building on the morning of April 19, 1995 and being one of the people to beat the fire department there, I could see this happening all over again. 9/11 just brought all of that back again like it was the same morning.
     
    jerrymildred likes this.
  16. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2016
    11,251
    15,474
    0
    Location:
    Bay Area, California
    Vehicle:
    2019 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    We had a school field trip there 2 years prior and as part of that trip, we went 100 floors up and walked out onto the glass floor section.

    Still remember experience to this day.
     
    #16 Raytheeagle, Sep 12, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2018
    bisco likes this.
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    i was watching a pbs show on building the new towers, and how they pump the concrete up a high rise. the open walls and incredible winds up high are amazing.
    now that's scary!:eek:
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  18. srellim234

    srellim234 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    1,192
    1,680
    0
    Location:
    Laughlin, Nevada
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    I was on a business trip, watching it all unfold from our division in Indianapolis. My wife and son were home here in California. We had a couple of employees in that division whose siblings worked in the Trade Center so tensions were even higher than what was already tense. Fortunately, their relatives were safe and able to contact them later in the afternoon.

    The company ordered all of us on business trips to find a way home to be with our loved ones in such a trying time. With all of the flights grounded, I was impressed with Avis' response with regards to car rentals. They told members of their club that they could drive the cars home at no extra cost, not even a one way charge. They just requested telling them ahead of time where we were headed, what Avis we would drop the car at and an approximate day we would be there. I appreciated that gesture more than most with my wife being a law enforcement officer in Los Angeles.

    The drive home was eerie with airline traffic halted. I've driven cross country many times but it was strange not having any moving lights in the sky at night. You don't really notice that kind of thing until they're not there. Of all the times to have rented a Daewoo Leganza. Horrible car to drive cross country.
     
    Raytheeagle and jerrymildred like this.
  19. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2009
    17,035
    10,010
    90
    Location:
    Western Washington
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Hiking friends, including one through-hiking the PCT, commented on the lack of contrails in the sky and lack of noise from the overhead jets. In many backcountry areas, those aircraft are often the loudest portion of the ambient noise.

    (I was overseas, so didn't experience this myself.)
     
    srellim234 likes this.