[JimmyDimples]

(Cross-posted to my deviantArt journal)

I was still working away in the sock factory's distribution center, lugging boxes for the trucks to pick up. Or that would've been my task, if the orders had come in.

But the work load and my wages were either overtime and a feast or, like now, famine. I was feeling the morass of a slow economy, and I was afraid I'd have to burn yet ANOTHER vacation day to fill out the check and pay the bills on time. I was looking around for things to sweep up, neaten up, and pick up so I wouldn't be sent home sooner than absolutely necessary.

When I'd gotten back to the line where I stacked the boxes on the pallets, about 9:30 AM or so, Mike the floor manager told me the news: that an airliner smashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. He said that it was suspected that terrorists were to blame.

When he moved on, I admit, I was a cynical jerk. I figured it was reported that way for the sake of spiking the news network's rating's bar. And later, it would be reported as a pilot or autopilot error, and that it was going to simply be the Terrible Tragedy of the Year, like the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine shooting.

***

Since I had no computer, TV, or radio in my work area, I heard absolutely nothing more on it until I finally got home at 12 noon for lunch. It was less than 1.5 miles from the workplace, so I was fond of driving back home and getting a quickie web fix. Then I logged into MSN, and found one of my online friends. The messages went more or less like this:

Him: Are you all right?!

Me: Yes… shouldn't I be?

(I was thinking it was just one plane and an accident then.)

Him: Man… haven't you seen what's going on?!

Me: Uh… no, I've been away from the PC and TV… is it about the plane crashing into one of the Twin Towers?

Him: No, man! Two planes! And the Towers are GONE.

Me: What?!

Him: Dude, turn on the TV!

So I did. And that's when I finally got a clue on the magnitude of Sept. 11.

He eventually let me know that the Pentagon had been hit as well, and a plane went down somewhere in Pennsylvania (his home state). And once I saw MSN's official news article on it… well… I was numb.

At 12:30 PM, I finally came back to work anyway… and saw my other workmates huddled around the radio, listening in. I didn't know what to do… then I started praying. For God to keep my e-friends safe. For the people who might have survived in the rubble. For the rescue workers hustling to save them. For the families whose hearts were ripped apart there and then. For the families of those whose loved ones weren't ever coming home.

Then finally, I decided, I couldn't do much by myself, and my prayers would do something… but it shouldn't be just me.

So I tapped my foreman Lee, and said I wanted to take our next 10 minute rest break, and instead of going for snacks or coffee… to meet somewhere and have a prayer for the nation, and the whole mess. He said yeah, and to meet in the accounts office.

1:50 PM. I didn't how many coworkers were born again believers like myself. I knew Lee, and Cindy and Nancy in the office, Pam the cleaning lady, and a couple of the forklift drivers were. I counted on maybe five or six people showing up, including myself. I figured that'd be enough.

Dang if almost the whole freaking DC didn't show up.

The office walls were completely lined with employees. Order pickers. Managers. Forklift drivers. Unskilled labor noodges like myself. And we were all here to pray for our nation.

I admit, I never saw myself as a leader, even then. (Still don't, really… I'd like to think the Lord led this, and that I was just the first guy to make a move.) So I stammered through why we were all here. And we got to praying… for our nation. For forgiveness if our sins had somehow invited this assault on us. For the police, firefighters and EMTs in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. For the citizens and families caught up there. For our military and other civic forces across the nation. For President Bush, and our other leaders. For protection against any further assaults, and that whatever evil plans Satan had on us fail miserably.

And somehow, we even prayed for the miserable souls that were behind this, that they repent and turn to God.

I think we went overtime with the break there, but hey… things were kinda slow at the center anyway.

And we'd had a prayer session on September 11, 2002 and 2003 while I was still with them. I don't know if they continued it when I went to China back in November 2003.

It just occurred to me… that company had been bought up by a Canadian textile corporation, and the place had been shut down. All the workers were ever dismissed or relocated to other places in the firm. This'll be the first Sept. 11 that no prayer has come from within those walls AFAIK.

Still praying for my nation today.

[Mimi]

[font=Times New Roman]~Mimi[/size”>

[Silent One]

I was on my way to college.  I had some big paper for English I had to turn in and I didn't have a stapler at my apartment so I stopped by work on the way to class.  I was standing at the front counter and stapling together my papers, shooting the shit with my co-workers when our mananger came out of his little office with this really weird look on his face and said "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."  Fuck, how do you react to a statement like that?  I laughed.  I thought it was his idea of a stupid joke. 

English class wasn't even a class.  When I got there everyone was huddled around talking about the second plane that had hit.  Someone had a radio and then a TV got dragged into the classroom.  The most surreal part about it was the school photographer.  The college had scheduled a photographer to go around taking candids of people for the yearbook that day and he was still gamely wandering around snapping pictures of students giving him glares or ignoring him to watch CNN.  I remember weeks later having to sign a release for some pic he had taken of me when I apparently wasn't paying attention and the expression of anger shocked me.  I still don't remember feeling angry that morning, just empty, but my eyes in that picture were so filled with anger.

I remember the drive home to check on my girlfriend after morning classes were over, the only planes in the empty sky being a small cluster of what I assumed to be military craft, so high up I really only saw the contrails.  The contrails hung in the air and looked ominous long after the planes were gone.

I remember getting home and changing my shirt.  I had been wearing one of my favorites and to this day I can't bring myself to wear it again.  I have no rational reason not to, I just don't.

I remember.  I will always remember.

[David C. Matthews]

9:00 AM.  I was sitting in front of my computer as I am most mornings doing my daily news/comics surfing.  The radio was on, and coverage of the first plane crashing into the WTC was already in progress, and I thought, "My God, what a terrible accident!" – for at the time, I thought this was an airliner that had accidentally gone off-course.  Someone – whether an eyewitness, or a professional commentator, I don't remember – was talking about the crash, when he suddenly began screaming "My God, my God!! Another plane has hit the other tower!!"  That was when I turned on the TV and saw for myself the full magnitude of the horror and the evil that was perpetrated that morning, and knew at that moment that this was an enemy attack.

I spent most of the rest of the day creating this drawing, which encapsulated the three stages of my reaction to those events, and which I posted to my website that day:

Satin Steele represents my shock at seeing the scale of destruction; Tetsuko, my grief over the loss of life; and Starburst, my sense of outrage, and my desire to see the subhuman bastards who did this brought to justice.

I have not forgotten, and I will not forgive.

[ScottG]

I was at work that day and distinctly remember seeing a headline on Yahoo's homepage saying that an airplane had hit the WTC.  I didn't think much of it at the time honestly (I don't think the magnitude of such a situation really registered.)  A short time later I saw that a second plane had hit the other tower and decided to click the link.  After skimming over the article I realized that others were realizing what had happened and we spent most of the rest of that day huddled in a conference room in front of a 19" television watching in horror at the events unfolding.
The next morning on my way to work, I heard Lee Greenwood's 'Proud to be an American' on the radio and started to sing along only to stop because I was crying so hard.  I still get goosebumps and a little choked up when I hear that song.

[pumpedmuscle2]

well I was at home in Vancouver doing some stuff and my sis calls me from college franticly telling me to turn on the TV a plane had crashed into the World Traid Center in New York and I pause and she knows I think it is a joke but she insits that I watch the news so I do and as I do I see the second plane crash into the center. By this time I am numb and scared and I go to work. I am trying not to tear up as I type this but it is hard because for three days after I had kept my anger and sadness bottled in and I had a nightmare a really awfull one that I will never forget ever. I had a dream in where I was trying to save people from a nucular bomb that was about to go off and I was trying to take them to safety away from the area but I was too late the bomb went off and there was a flash and then bloody rain it was raining blood and I was all alone. I woje up and nearly screamed my head off but I went to a couch that we had in the living room and balled my eyes out and I was shaking and in tears and I went back to sleep never really telling anyone untill now. I know that in my dreams you can not predict the future

[pumpedmuscle2]

on a side note I would have been totaly messed up if I saw the people jumping out of the buildings I mean I saw enough but thank god not that

[Hunter S Creek]

I was in the car taking my dog to the Veterinarian when I heard the first sketchy radio report.  It was thought by the news reader at that time that the catastrophe was an accident.  I knew the Vet well and knew that his daughter worked somewhere in the WTC complex.
While he was examining my dog, the Vet told me that his daughter worked in the WTC's "other" tower; and that he had just heard from her; and that she was OK.
As I was shaking his hand to leave, we learned of the second plane: the plane that hit the tower in which my friend's daughter worked. 
I will never, … ever, … as long as I live, … forget the look on his face.

She did not make it out.

[Jon Saul]

I was working at my last job, and looking at the news reports. I distinctly remember seeing the picture of the first plane impact on CNN.com… Most of that day is a blur, I know we got sent home early. Then there were hours in front of the television, trying to make sense of everything.
Thank goodness there were friends around, I spent many hours talking to them, describing what was going on.

I remember how it felt like everything in the USA stopped, while people tried to process it all.

There was a post on a website I read this week, from a man in Poland, expressing his best wishes for America, and how every year they commemorate the lives of those who were lost.

[fm07]

I was in the train headed to Midtown Manhattan. The towers were hit while I was in transit. I remember the train was a typically crowded commuter. A man was standing in the isle next to me who I overheard on his cell phone

"What? A plane flew into the WTC? And now you're telling me someone bombed the Pentagon? Yeah yeah, you're not funny. I'll see you in a bit"

A few minutes later the announced on the train that PATH train service had been suspended going into the WTC and people willing to go straight into Midtown would not get charged. As the train cleared Newark, I saw a black clod in a clear blue sky. As my eyes followed the cloud, I remember the silence that descended in the train as people saw it connected to the two tower on fire.

We slowly rolled into NYC and as I walked out of Penn Station, cell phone service was barely operational (alot of NYC's cell towers were on the WTC). I made it into work and the floor had people standing around TV screens that were mounted on walls. Everyone was watching the news. Thats when I saw the first of the two towers collapse.

The city was in lockdown, all outbound train services were stopped best I knew, the Bridges were closed. That evening a group of us walked over to the only way we knew home, the Ferry service across the river to NJ. From the water we had a clear view of Downtown, and the massive pillar of smoke rose high into the sky.

A few months before that I had changed jobs. My previous job had me commute through the WTC everyday (it had subway/PATH trains in the basement). I feel blessed to be alive today and am saddened to this day over what happened six years ago.

[Author]

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