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9/11
- Thread starter Malarcus
- Start date
I was living in Barrió Viejo then, surfed at Playa Linda, it looked like this
but bigger and offshore. Me and two other guys. Got home from the beach and my kid had the tv on with a loop of the carnage. (he had just been suspended from school, little fvcker, turned 31 yesterday)
but bigger and offshore. Me and two other guys. Got home from the beach and my kid had the tv on with a loop of the carnage. (he had just been suspended from school, little fvcker, turned 31 yesterday)
I had a plane ticket to Puerto a few weeks later and went. Was one of the few Americans there besides some who pretty much lived or stay the whole summer there and a bunch of Brazilians. The trip there was mellow and the return flight had full blown security, national guard, etc. But yeah the morning of, got a wakeup call from pops who was in NJ and watching it go down in real time.
sullivan st., between spring and prince. that’s about 18 blocks north of the wtc. our group was at an off-site up in westchester that day so i was working at home. i had the radio on, wnyc, and they said a plane had just hit the tower.10th and University, about a mile north of the towers. Couldn't forget even if i tried. the first plane flying down 5th avenue literally woke me and my GF up with the roar of its jets so close, and a few seconds later we heard the explosion. Right away i thought of that B-52 bomber that accidentally flew into the Empire State building back in the 50's or whenever. When we saw the second plane hit, well, the "tragic accident" theory went right out the window. We tried to go give blood, but the line at St Vincent's went around and around the block several times. We got in line, not really knowing what else to do. I somehow got my mom on the phone (cell service was totally overwhelmed) and she calmly and gently said "Subway, i don't think they're going to need much blood" so we wandered back to my apartment, watching in silent horror as first a trickle and then a flood of ash covered people started passing by on their way uptown, some walking, some in buses...We packed up some clothes and walked over the Manhattan Bridge to make our way to my GF's apartment in Brooklyn, just to get out of lower Manhattan in case who knows what else was coming. hundreds of thousands of people all walking across the bridge, with the giant smoke plume behind us, and so silent you could hear a pin drop. There were nuns on the Brooklyn end of the bridge handing out cups of water. 5 hour trek, and being the young drunks that we were, we naturally stopped at her local liquor store for a handle of Jack, and another stop at White Castle for a Crave Case of cheeseburgers. so much of that era is a drunken grayed out hazy blur, but not that morning.
Added footnote- the guy who my sister was dating (and to whom she is still married, with 3 teenaged kids) worked in one of the other buildings right there across the street from the WTC- he actually helped guide a bunch of colleagues into the basement of their building right before the collapses. He was one of those ash-covered folks on the buses heading uptown.
i leaned out my front window, looked south on sullivan, and directly into the hole in the north tower - you could see fire inside. first thought was that it was some asshole in a small plane flying down the river who fvcked up. there was already a small crowd of people on sullivan gawking...
called a friend in the east village, whose apartment had a window with a direct view of the towers, and told him, “look outside, something bad just happened”...
after the second plane hit, i quick called a girl i used to work with, who was then at amex, located right down by the towers, told her to get the hell out of the neighborhood - she had an apartment nearby too. (she has some wild stories about getting evacuated from her building...)
then checked with a bunch of people, most of whom were already at work - same message “stay away from downtown!”
sbwy - another friend called and suggested we go up to st. vincent’s and maybe give blood, so when we got there the line was about 50 or so, i don’t remember why/when they turned us away, i’ve had cancer, so i ‘m a reject - but i need to give him a call, i’m sure he remembers what happened... (?) i do remember saying to him “i’d bet against anyone coming out of there alive ...”
all bad memories from that day.
i used to have a bank account out in nj, in a town where a good buddy and his wife lived. there was a really pretty/sexy teller there. a young asian girl, good dresser, seemed really sharp, not your usual shlubby bank teller type. she was probably in college at the time.
so a few years later, she was working at cantor- fitzgerald (106th floor, wtc).
a couple of weeks after the attack, when downtown was plastered with xeroxes of
pictures of the still missing, with the phone numbers of the people still hoping to find them, i saw her photo up on a flyer.
it still makes me feel really terrible if i think about it.
r.i.p. - judy
rip Judi . Yeah, I remember that same view. As soon as we heard the first explosion I ran down onto university place in my boxers and t shirt just to see WTF Was going on, and saw the gaping hole in the tower and the fire raging inside. I stood out there for a few minutes with the entire block, and then went back upstairs to report to my GF. it was then, watching the news feed, that we saw the second plane hit
yeah that’s the gist of what my mom said to me. “I don’t think there will be many injuries” with the rest unsaid but clearly implied.
. Yeah, I remember that same view. As soon as we heard the first explosion I ran down onto university place in my boxers and t shirt just to see WTF Was going on, and saw the gaping hole in the tower and the fire raging inside. I stood out there for a few minutes with the entire block, and then went back upstairs to report to my GF. it was then, watching the news feed, that we saw the second plane hityeah that’s the gist of what my mom said to me. “I don’t think there will be many injuries” with the rest unsaid but clearly implied.
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Early AM in Hawaii. I was in bed. Got up to make coffee. My roommates were sleeping. Turned on the TV for the morning news. Shocked, mouth wide open. Uncertain what I was seeing / looking at on TV.
Woke my roommates up and we watched and watched in silence.
Going to work at a bar in Waikiki that night was erie. Manager made the call to close and told us to go home. He bought a round for everyone in the bar and said he was closing, was sorry if anyone knew someone in the WTC.
Woke my roommates up and we watched and watched in silence.
Going to work at a bar in Waikiki that night was erie. Manager made the call to close and told us to go home. He bought a round for everyone in the bar and said he was closing, was sorry if anyone knew someone in the WTC.
This is a safe place , so....
My empathy button must be broken. With the thousand worse things that have happened to humanity since 2001, I can't bring myself to act like 9/11 was a unique and unforgettable occurrence. People killed other people, and for no good reason? You don't say.
At the time it happened i remember feeling confused. Why does everyone care so much, this time?
"But it was on American soil!" ..ooook.
Fvck Puerto Rico, right? Don't see us "never forgetting" all those deaths that we could actually take a helpful lesson from.
Selective sorrows.
-Resident @sshole
My empathy button must be broken. With the thousand worse things that have happened to humanity since 2001, I can't bring myself to act like 9/11 was a unique and unforgettable occurrence. People killed other people, and for no good reason? You don't say.
At the time it happened i remember feeling confused. Why does everyone care so much, this time?
"But it was on American soil!" ..ooook.
Fvck Puerto Rico, right? Don't see us "never forgetting" all those deaths that we could actually take a helpful lesson from.
Selective sorrows.
-Resident @sshole
I don’t entirely disagree with you relative to the expanse of the human story (one of much misery and atrocities both state sponsored or otherwise <looking at you religion>) but I think this thread isn’t about that. This thread is just remembering the shock, the sadness, and the good surf seemingly spanning both coasts on that morning.
If you really want to get into the hypocrisy and horror even our beloved American political-military complex has been responsible for in the last couple hundo years, there are numerous threads where we can discuss the whisky rebellion, slavery, the civil war, the Mexican annexation wars, the Native American wars, the philipines (this chapter was especially horrific and literally flushed down the memory hole for a hundred years) the Caribbean, Latin America, and so on into Southeast Asia, Middle East, etc
and for the record, though it may come with a very dark side, I still much prefer Pax Americana to a Russian or Chinese hegemony. Ideally though, we’d all more or less get along, keep the real evil loonies at bay, and thrive as a planet of cooperative nation states. But as dear old dad always said, with no lack of irony “Peace through superior firepower”
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I was gearing up to surf Scripps with my buddy when he called and told me to turn on the TV. I watched the second plane hit. Don't remember if we ended up in the water or not. The only other thing I can remember from that day is that I was supposed to go out with this summer seasonal worker at Sea World and when I called her up later to try to get laid despite the tragedy she was aghast and told me she needed to spend the day on the phone with her family in [some other state, nowhere near New York]. It remains the only major world historical event I've ever been cockblocked by. I'm sure previous generations of American men had fledgling relationships destroyed by Lexington, Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, the moon landing, Kennedy assassination, or Watergate. That lucky son of a bitch that kissed the stranger on VJ Day is probably the outlier.
On a more serious note, a close family member of mine was a firefighter that flew in ASAP to help with the rescue effort. It gave him all sorts of lung and health problems.
On a more serious note, a close family member of mine was a firefighter that flew in ASAP to help with the rescue effort. It gave him all sorts of lung and health problems.
I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand and it was in the evening. I was walking along the night bazaar street market after dinner with a tour group I was running. As I passed one of the stalls saw on a little portable tv the stallholder had on the footage of the first plane hitting the WTC. Stopped to find out what was going on and saw the second plane hit.
After that all our tour groups stopped and soon after the wife and our 2 daughters moved to Australia so I could find work. It was the prime mover that changed our families lives completely.
After that all our tour groups stopped and soon after the wife and our 2 daughters moved to Australia so I could find work. It was the prime mover that changed our families lives completely.
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Had flown from San Antonio to Houston, early flight to connect to my flight back to Boston.
We were #2 on the runway: would have been in the air, but some bathroom door latch needed fixing so delayed us about 10 minutes, but getting ready to takeoff when the pilot announced a plane had crashed into the tower, we needed to go back to the gate.
Into the terminal to watch the TV with many others, in time to see the towers crumble.
Logistically speaking, was lucky enough to get a car rental, as everyone was stranded, drove from Houston to home in three days. Saw some strange folks in those bible thumping states that left some permanent first impressions; specifically Mississippi.
We were #2 on the runway: would have been in the air, but some bathroom door latch needed fixing so delayed us about 10 minutes, but getting ready to takeoff when the pilot announced a plane had crashed into the tower, we needed to go back to the gate.
Into the terminal to watch the TV with many others, in time to see the towers crumble.
Logistically speaking, was lucky enough to get a car rental, as everyone was stranded, drove from Houston to home in three days. Saw some strange folks in those bible thumping states that left some permanent first impressions; specifically Mississippi.
longer period swell with lots of East in it, west winds. Epic day weather wise. Surfed belmar/spring lake area close outs at dawn, no good, so drove north to sandy hook. Stern on KROK going bananas. Thought it was a replay of 93’ and how messed up it was. Got to the cove parking lot and could see smoke. Super fun. Got a few good ones, head dips. Chatter in the water. couldnt stay in, something pulling me out. Stern still going bananas. Phone lines jammed. Couldn’t get in touch with anyone about my pilot Dad. Later in the day, winds went north and ash started falling. seeing those flyers for weeks.
I still regret not pulling a Tillman.
I still regret not pulling a Tillman.
was at the hospital in Madrid, decided to go for a walk as my wife went under the knife for the 1st time for endometriosis. when I came back to her hospital room, about 30 minutes before she was scheduled to return, my mother in law was stunned watching the reruns of the 1st plane hitting, she grabbed me and asked if this was real. all of a sudden, the 2nd one hit; i turned to her and said that it didn't look like any mid-day movie I'd ever seen. wife's procedure took longer than scheduled, but when she came out of it, it was to an entirely different world.
there definitely was a B9/11, and an A9/11.
just like now, in 2020, there's a BCovid19, and an ACovid19.
can't say I liked either of the A's.
can't say I'm curious anymore to see what the future holds, seeing the way the past has unfolded.
nostalgic mic drop....
there definitely was a B9/11, and an A9/11.
just like now, in 2020, there's a BCovid19, and an ACovid19.
can't say I liked either of the A's.
can't say I'm curious anymore to see what the future holds, seeing the way the past has unfolded.
nostalgic mic drop....
I was sitting on the runway at LAX wondering why the plane wasn't taking off. The pilot finally says there was a terrorist incident in NY and everyone needs to get off the plane. Made it inside to one of the bars in the terminal to see the second plane hit. At that point, the airport was shutdown and everyone was told to leave the airport.