Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11

When it happened i was waking up early to head off to football practice at high school.

Heard the news of the first plane on the radio while driving to school, and thought that it was just some tragic accident. As our team lifted weights the news we heard on the radio suggested otherwise.

For the rest of the day the whole school was glued to the TV, watching what had happened again and again and again.

I’ll never forget

I was getting ready for school (I was in 3rd grade) and I walked into the living room, about to tell my dad we needed to go. He said something about a disaster movie trailer he just saw (he’s a movie freak, so that’s normal), but as he was about to turn off the tv, it replayed and we saw that it was real. We were horrified, although I didn’t quite understand why this would happen. Then there was the slow, carefully thought-out talk my teacher gave my class and watching the news for the rest of the day at school.

R.I.P. to all the innocent people who lost their lives on that day

I remember the feeling more than anything. Confusion and terror because they wouldn’t let us turn on the tv’s in class. We never forget

Link

I saw on the news that a plane had crashed into the world trade center, then headed to school. By the time I got to my first class, the Pentagon had just been hit, and the first tower would collapse shortly after. We watched the news coverage on TV during every class period, and little was said.

Towards the end of the day, somebody pushed a Muslim girl down a staircase, just outside the classroom I was in. She was not seriously harmed, but could have been. The student who pushed her said that he was doing it to get even. That ugly memory sticks out the most in my head.

when the radio announcer said that a plane had collided into the World Trade Center. I turned on The Today Show on TV, and watched the second plane.

Interesting about how the school would not allow the television to be turned on. There is a reliable story going around that then Arizona Attorney General Napolitano banned the attorneys and staff in her department from watching the event on television or even listening to the account on the radio.

My friend/roommate Courtney & I worked for Einstein Brothers Bagels in Tucson/Oro Valley at the time and we were there extra early, as Courtney was being trained by our baker to do baker duties (she was shifting positions to become a baker)…so our baker, Eric, was in the back doing baker’s dishes and prepping bagels. Courtney had already clocked in and was helping out front at the counter. I was killing time, waiting to clock in for my shift, when suddenly Eric bolts out into the front and says “You guys will never believe what just happened!”, and he told us about the first plane. Being the joker he was, we didn’t believe him and just blew it off. About 5 minutes later, he comes out again, this time with the most serious expression and a face as white as snow. He told us about the 2nd tower and then burst into tears…it was then we all discovered what had taken place was real…Courtney called home to our other roommate and woke him from a sound sleep, telling him of what had happened…Stuart spent the rest of the day glued to CNN and the local news…

Courtney and I were supposed to attend the Diamondbacks/Rockies game that night with the Tucson Sidewinders Booster Club (we were members), and the game got cancelled…but the Dbacks exchanged our tickets and we were all there for the first game back after the tragedy.

Along the way, we found out from our friend, pitcher Nelson Figueroa, that he had two family members lost in the rubble and aftermath of the tragedy. 1 was found not long after, shaken up but fine. The 2nd one had been buried alive in the rubble, found 3 days later, banged up and bruised, but still alive. Nelson then created the infamous MLB baseball patriotic shirts that the DBack wives ended up selling at the ballpark after the tragedy. I have one and still wear it in Nelson’s honor.