281 20 70359 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I just got out of my first class, Temple University in North Philly. It was about 11:40. I was walking east on Montgomerry between 13th and Broad street. A bunch of people were gathered around a lunch truck listening to KYW Newsradio 1060 am. "Terrorists attack World trade Center." "Planes crash in D.C., New York and a plane crashed outside of Pittsburgh." I said "Im glad were in Philly," half joking, but I was serious. No one heard me. When I realized the enormity of the situation, as I let the news roll through me, I was ashamed that I made that comment. I called my father who happened to be bricklaying at Temple that morning. I started crying a little, I was a little scared. He told me not to go downtown, but I had to. Bob Dylan's new CD came out that morning. I told my dad I wouldn't go downtown, but off i went. I sat on that SEPTA bus and pondered. I was the only white person on the bus. I asked this kid next to me if he heard, he said no. I informed him. I was emotional. He seemed less emotional. Did he care? I got the Dylan CD. Everyone in Center City was getting the hell out of there, rushing out of the skyscrapers and City Hall. Panicking! But I did not feel that Philly would get hit. Philadelphia used to be the economic and political capitol of America. The money moved north and the politics moved south. I walked back to Temple. Same lunch truck..different crowd. Some guy walked by and said real loud "Alright, get over it people. Life goes on." I watched him walk away, stunned. I saw this kid who went to my high school. "Got any weed?" "Na, you?" "Na" "Wanna get a beer?" "Yeah okay." I was 19, but I knew where to get beer, a few blocks north and west of campus, the ghetto, but I wasn't really scared. "Did yous hear what happened?" I said to the crowd of black dudes outside of the small food and beer joint. This guy told me that it was our own fault that it happened. Us, America. Or white people? I don't know. I think he meant rich powerful white men, the few, but that's an assumption. We sat on a stoop and downed these malt liquor pounders, sharing our shock. We went our seperate ways. I made my way to this building that was showing the footage. This was the first time that I saw it. I would see those images thousands more times. It hurt. Life did go on though. I had to start a new job that afternoon. I went in and worked. In the coming weeks and months, September 11th was the issue of the day. For some reason I turned to the American Civil War. I found peace in this bloody event. I related to those Americans. They had their tragedy and we had ours. They couldn't escape history, nor should we. Still it hurt. The music... The Battle Hymn of the republic, Ashokan farewell. Abraham Lincoln. Grant. Lee. The Irish. The slaves. The masters. New York City. Washington D.C. The fields of Pennsylvania. Bob Dylan. I got closer to the past that Fall. I could feel the presence of the Indians of the past. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11295.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-02-15 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 155.247.166.29 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Although we in Montreal were not as affected as those in the U.S., we felt attacked as well and sickened by what happened. Most of us have friends, relatives and/or business associates in the U.S. and in particular in New York, being so close to us. I spent the next few days calling everybody I knew in N.Y. to make sure they were O.K. (fortunately they were). No work was done in our office that day as the news came in. As close neighbours we were appalled by what happened and felt helpless that we could not do anything to prevent these attrocities done to our close friends in New York. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3519.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.71.207.33 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: THE TOWERS (essay on September 11) by Michael Gates "The World Trade Center is _gone_," I said. By then, of course, everyone already knew this sad fact. But I said it anyway. I thought if I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I could begin to accept the unthinkable. It was "that day," and I was talking to my mother on the phone. We had finally reached each other after several dozen tries. ("All circuits are busy" was the phrase I heard most often on September 11.) She wanted to know if my wife, who worked in Building 7 of the World Trade Center, was alive, safe. As it turned out, she was, so my anguish wasn't for her (praise the Cosmic Muffin) but for the thousands lost--and for the towers, the twin monoliths that had been part of the backdrop of my life for 20 years. As anyone who lives in the New York metropolitan area knows, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were a constant, looming presence, visible for scores of miles in all directions. Wherever you were in New York--or in Jersey City, across the Hudson River, where I live--you could orient yourself by looking for the twins. At 110 stories, the towers, designed by architect Minoru Yamaski, were sometimes criticized as too big; their lack of ornament was also disparaged as "bland." That's wrong, I think. To me, they were majestic--so enormous that they transcended architecture. They were New York's answer to the pyramids, two surreal pillars holding up the sky. Whenever I visited the Trade Center, which included several smaller buildings besides the towers, I felt both excited and a bit overwhelmed by the "city within a city." The complex encompassed an enormous underground shopping mall, sprawling subway stations, and a five-acre outdoor plaza modeled after St. Mark's Square in Venice. The twins were the main attraction, though. Standing at the base of one of them and staring up its neo-Venetian facade was a surefire way to induce an oddly pleasant feeling of vertigo--like being mildly drunk on the Promethean splendor of New York. I ascended to the observation deck at the top of Tower 2 three times over the years, if recall correctly. You reached it via a high-speed elevator that was larger than many Manhattan bedrooms. It felt like going up in a rocket--your stomach seemed to have been temporarily left behind. You exited the elevator into a vast, window-lined room with--to put it most prosaically--quite a view. The vista reminded me of one of my favorite childhood fantasies: sitting on a cloud and staring down at the world, like omnipotent Zeus. There were little metal seats next to the tall, slit-like windows; you could sit there and meditate on the roofs of skyscrapers. It was somewhat like looking out of an airplane's window, except that the toy-like world below didn't pass by. Time seemed suspended. There was a stairway to the roof, where you could stand on an outdoor platform that seemed to hover in mid air. The top of the other tower, crowned by a huge broadcast antenna (used by every major TV station in New York), floated nearby. On a clear day you could see the curvature of the earth?I think. I imagined I could, anyway. I wasn't always a tourist at the Trade Center. One of my freelance editing clients, Morgan Stanley, was located in Tower 2, on the 72nd floor. I usually did my editing for them remotely, via e-mail, but one day I was asked to come into the office and proofread some documents. Entering the building involved a complicated series of steps. I had to line up in the lobby with about 100 other "guests," then present two forms of ID at a long desk manned by a score of what looked like airport ticket agents. I was given a stick-on badge to wear. At the elevator, I had to show some ID again, despite the badge. And once I arrived at Morgan Stanley's offices, I had to explain myself to a guard in _their_ lobby. By then, I felt like I was entering CIA headquarters. The massive security--how na?ve and pointless it now seems--was in reaction to the 1993 bombing of the Trade Center. A terrorist named Ramzi Ahmed Yousef had parked a truck bomb in an underground parking garage. When it exploded, six people were killed and thousands were injured. The towers filled with smoke but were otherwise unharmed. It was said that the terrorists had hoped they would collapse. "How absurd," I remember thinking at the time. The towers were so enormous, so permanent a part of the landscape, that I couldn't imagine anything short of a nuclear warhead bringing them down. If that. As if in mockery, September 11th was a preternaturally beautiful day. A cerulean bowl of fresh air was suspended over the city, and the temperature was somewhere in the Mediterranean 80s. That morning, my wife, Beth, left for work as usual, and I made sure my son got on his school bus, as I do every weekday. I puttered around for a while, then sat down at the computer in my home office with a cup of coffee. The phone had rung twice earlier, but I hadn't bothered to answer it. I played back the first voice-mail message. It was my sister, who never calls me (since I see her several times a year at family gatherings), which gave me my first inkling that this would not be a routine day. "I saw on the news what happened at the World Trade Center," she said. "I just wanted to know if Beth is OK. Please call me." For some reason, I wrote down "Sept. 11" and "WTC" on the notepad I use for phone messages. (I look at that note now, and at the mundane phone messages I had scribbled on the page above it the day before, with a real sense of nostalgia.) I played back the second message, which was from my wife: "I'm OK?." With a slight sinking feeling, I went into the living room and snapped on the TV, tuning it to CNN. The next thing I remember is being in the park next to my house, Riverview Park, which has a Cinemascope view of the New York skyline. I had grabbed my digital camera and I was snapping pictures of the towers, which, for the moment, looked like huge smokestacks. Immense plumes were billowing from both of them. The park was filling up with spectators, many of whom were also taking pictures. Someone had a radio, and I heard that the Pentagon in Washington had also been hit. "Am I awake or asleep?" I asked myself. I decided I was, indeed, awake. Then I thought: "I am a witness to history." The clich? seemed perfectly apt. Then the first tower collapsed, accompanied by gasps and a chorus of "oh-my-gawds" from the crowd. I began to have a peculiar feeling that I've only experienced a few other times in my life: a contradictory sensation of time standing still while events rush forward at terrible speed. I'd felt it before, for example, in a car wreck, as the vehicle I was in was rolling over on a highway. Involuntarily, it seemed, I climbed up on the iron fence at the edge of the park that faces Manhattan. So did several other people of the sort who normally don't climb fences. I watched a huge cloud of smoke rise from lower Manhattan, as if an atomic bomb had just exploded. "What about Beth?" I thought. "She was 'OK' before, but what about now?" I ran back into the house and dialed her number at work. "All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later." The recorded voice was maddeningly calm and businesslike. I turned CNN back on, just in time to see the second tower collapse. I tried calling several more times, but only got odd-sounding busy signals or recorded messages about "technical difficulties." Then the phone rang, but it was Trish, a friend of ours, wanting to know if Beth was OK. "I honestly don't know," I said. "The second tower just came down." I ran back to the park. I didn't know what to do with myself, so I took some more pictures of the smoke/dust cloud, which now appeared to extend about a mile up into the atmosphere. I don't remember how long I stayed there, gawking. Eventually I went back inside to try the phone again and to see what I could learn from TV. The phone situation was no better, and what I saw on TV was far more horrific than what I'd seen from the park. I was sitting there, mesmerized, watching footage of people jumping from 100 stories up, of roiling dust clouds chasing people through Manhattan's canyons, when Beth suddenly walked through the front door. She had caught one of the last trains out of the city, she said, just before the entire transit system shut down. For several days after that I went to the park every few hours to observe the ghostlike cloud still rising from where the towers had once stood, trying to convince myself that I had really seen what I thought I had seen. After dark, the cloud glowed eerily, reflecting the stadium lights that had been installed at "ground zero" so that search and rescue operations could continue all night. In the days that followed, the cloud occasionally drifted across the river, giving off a faint smell of burning plastic. F-15 fighter jets roared overhead, but otherwise the skies were quiet, all the airports having closed. On Saturday, I went down to the Jersey City waterfront to help load trucks with relief supplies. There was a huge crowd of volunteers there, of all ages and "types," though the majority seemed to be of college age. There were even some uniformed cops there who had driven overnight from Chicago to help load supplies. The atmosphere was surprisingly jovial as people formed "bucket brigades" to pass along an endless amount of bottled water and packaged food for loading onto trucks. Every so often, a boatload of exhausted firemen would arrive from the other side of the Hudson, to cheers from the volunteers. All of this bonhomie felt a bit forced, however, against the background of the smoking, gap-toothed skyline. I look now at the new breach in Manhattan's jagged profile with a painful sense of loss. I didn't know anyone personally who died in the attacks, so I'm not sure if I can call if grief. Can you grieve for lost buildings? They were more to me than buildings, though, just as they were more than that to the people who destroyed them. Symbols of "capitalism" or "imperialism" to some, to me they were symbols of all that is "over the top" about New York: not just one awesome skyscraper but two, side by side, in relationship, "trading partners" if you will, and tall enough to rattle the gods. To me, their "two-ness" stood for something else, as well: it was a constant, iconic reminder that, though it's possible to be lonely in New York, it's never necessary to be alone. When the towers fell, the citizens of the New York metro area came together, as they always do when disaster arrives. There's a hole in the sky that may never be filled, but, for now, we've filled the gap between ourselves. ### [a copy of this essay, including photographs, is available at: http://www.panix.com/~mgates/towers.htm] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story846.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-07-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 166.84.217.118 Annotation Annotations to this item. Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers WTC, attack WTC, pre-911 WTC, worked in (ever) DOMESTIC feature Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I will never forget September 11th as long as I live. When I woke up in the morning I got ready and went to school as usual not expecting anything unusual or weird would happen that day. I attend Tarpon Springs Highscool. I was in my 2nd period class, which was ironically American History, when our principal, Mr. Nicely came onto the intercom system. He told us that a plane had hit the first tower of the world trade center. At first I thought it must have been an accident, I mean whose crazy enough to purposely fly a plane into that massive building. Then, a little while later, he came on the intercom and told everyone it was terrorism and that they hit the second tower and also the Pentagon. I was in shock. I was sad, scared, and angry all at once. How could these people do this? I looked at my best friend, Carly, who was in the same class as me at the time, and we were so shocked that someone could be crazy enough to do this and literally murder thousands of people for no reason. A lot of people in school were crying. When I got home I just watched the t.v. and cried and cried. Some kids lost both of their parents, some lost sisters, brothers, a father, a mother, a uncle, an aunt, a friend, you name it. I just wished to myself that I could help in someway. My Uncle Ray's wife's sister worked in the world trade center and sadly was lost on that tragic day. My hearts and prayers go out to the families that lost their loved ones. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7311.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-14 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On September 11, I was in ESL class. The school principal came on the PA and briefly summarized what had taken place in New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. This was the first year that I had living in the U.S. so this event had a great impact in my life. I felt little insecure and vulnerable as most people most have felt. I was also very angry and scared that any other attacks that may take place. I was confused because then I spoke very scarce English so I didnt realize of how horrific the event was until we were able to turn on the television in our classroom at noon that day. My teacher told us that we could make some calls to our parents to see how they were but that wasnt enough. When I got home I got to see my parents and they were also terrified. We watched the news for hours and hoped for the best. Later that day I thought that this could be the start of another war like the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some of the reactions to the events taken that they lead to unnecessary consequences, but we all hope for the best of the nation. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20428.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 151.188.16.21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Early morning on September 11th, my husband had just left for work. I was just waking up and turned on the T.V., expecting to see Good Morning America. The image I saw was the World Trade Center tower on fire, with an airplane sticking out from the side. At that time, no one knew that this was not just a tragic accident. Then, while I was watching, the second plane struck the second tower. The shock was tremendous - we now knew this was not an accident, but must be a vicious attack on innocent citizens. My son, daughter-in-law, and 4 grandchildren (ages 12, 4, 3 and 1) were visiting from Florida. My daughter-in-law received a call on her cell phone from her sister, knowing it was very early on the West coast, but wondering if she had heard the news. They knocked on my bedroom door and we all sat together crying and praying. My husband called from work - afraid I was still sleeping but wanting me to know what was happening. Many phone calls after that - "Do you know...", "Have you heard...", none of us being able to talk clearly or make much sense of things, but needing to reach out and make contact with loved ones. My daughter, who lives in Florida, called just to say that she loved us. A very unusual thing for her to do but in this strange world we now lived in she also felt the need to express her love of family. All she could think about was getting home to her husband and children, ages 4 and 2. I know we all gave our kids a special hug and kiss that day. My kids were scheduled to head back to Florida from Oregon in a few days. Of course, at that time, no one knew when flights would resume. My son was able to get a flight out the first day service was resumed. We were all very concerned, but knew security would be very tight. His 4 year old son was especially worried, but we were able to keep him occupied all day until his Dad called to let us know that he was home, safe and sound. The rest of the family stayed for an additional week, but then had to go home. A very hard thing to do, especially for the kids, but they wanted to get home to see their Dad. After a long, tense flight everyone was back together. We are lucky in the fact that we didn't have any friends or family lost in the terror attacks. However, we are all family in a time like this and we weep and grieve for everyone killed or injured. There were so many heroes that day - common people thrust into a situation where they showed how Americans step forward in times of need. I know there were people of many faiths and nationalities involved that day, but, I'm sure in their heart, they were all Americans that tragic day. God Bless the United States of America Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3484.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.241.221.53 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I witnessed history on September 11th. This day was extremly sad. I first found out what had happened when I was attending a bus evacuation drill. The bus driver was listening to the radio when I overheard him tell my teacher what he had heard on the radio. Two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. At that time, I did not know how serious the attack had been. When we went back to out homeroom, we turned on the TV and watched replays of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center over and over again. We were only allowed to watch it for a few minutes because my teacher was already getting teary-eyed, and she did not want her students to get distracted from their work. However, after watching those few minutes of the news, I was already distracted. As soon as I got home I turned on the TV and had no trouble finding news on the terrorist attacks beacuse it was on almost every channel. I watched the news until I could not watch it anymore. My life, as have lives of most Americans, has changed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I am much more cautious and I do not enjoy going on planes as much as I used to. I also learned that I should live my life to the fullest because now I am aware that it could end any second. Although that was a tragic day, not all bad has come from it. Many more Americans have gained pride in their country. I think as a country we are much closer together and more united. I think everything from September 11th should be remembered. If we forget a part of that day, a huge part f our history would also be forgotten. Many people's lives were taken on that day, they should always be remembered. All of the firefighters, police men, and volunteers should never be forgotten for their heroic deeds. I know I will never forget anything from September 11th because if I did a part of my life would be missing. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8550.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-10-22 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.60.58.139 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My husband and I were with a group from my church. We were on a mission trip to help build apartments for elderly women near the Austria/Italy border in the Alps. I called my mom when we had our afternoon break to check on our two children. We had a quick conversation and they were going to eat breakfast. After I hung up, I walked across the street and returned to caulking the new bathrooms. One of the elderly women came over to tell us in broken English that America was being attacked. We continued to work thinking she was mistaken. Thirty minutes later, another elderly woman came over to tell us someone had bombed the World Trade Center. We thought they might be watching an old news clip from the car bomb that went off in the parking garage several years ago. Finally, she insisted our team leader go to an apartment to see CNN. When he came back, he said, "Guys, this is very serious. America is under attack. The World Trade Center has collapsed, the Pentagon had a plane crash into it and there are several flights still in the air that they think are being hijacked. President Bush is on Airforce One." We sat stunned for a moment but we returned to work in silence. Those elderly women were counting on us. We were their help. Nobody in their village cared enough about them to help. If we didn't get their apartments in move-in condition, nobody would. Americans love and help other people. Villagers came to watch the Americans work all week. Apparently it is uncommon for people to work so hard for so long. They came again to watch us work even though our countrymen were dying. The next day, as we worked, an old man with a cane walked down the lane and called to me. He spoke Corinthian so I could not understand him. I said, "I speak English" and pointed to myself, "I am American". He began to cry. He made a motion with one hand like an airplane and his other hand was a building. When he crashed one into the other, tears rolled down his cheeks and he took off his hat and held it over his heart. No words necessary. We cried together and I hugged him. Five days later, we arrived at the Vienna airport. It was the first day flights were allowed to return to the United States. It was so crowded with Americans, the line must have streched a mile long. Austrian citizens showed up in droves with drinks and refreshments and walked around serving Americans and expressing their sorrow. We felt loved. Arriving in Washington and seeing Old Glory draped on the control tower was too much for most of us. Tears and clapping errupted from that entire plane. We had all been stranded in Europe and were thankful to be home. We arrived home, to One Nation Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for ALL. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1553.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was heading to class and had heard some students talking about the WTC had been blown up. I was in disbelief, I couldn't believe that someone would attack America like that. I wanted to cry, but not at the college. After, I got out of college; I went to get my children and called my husband. It was the last call into his AMSA 44 shop located on NAS Jax Base. He said, he didn't know when he was going to be home because they were on lockdown. I went home and turned on the TV. The news said, that some schools had been threatened to be blown up. I called the school where my son was because these threats were within 30 minutes of my sons school. They said they weren't releasing students and if an attack was eminent that they were getting all students on the bus and taking them home. That night when my husband got home, we took my oldest son into the bedroom and told him that there was a small chance that one of us could be called back to active duty but not likely. My husband is retired and I served 12 years. He was scared but understood that we were willing to fight for our country to keep us safe and free. I just thank God that we have people willing to serve their country for the rest of us who live here. I want to thank all who care and support our troops as well. Thank you Cheryl Post Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6445.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My father-in-law was dying. He had diabetes, and was off of his dyalisis machine, he only had a few days to live. The morning of September 11, around 5:00am, pacific time, my husband went to his fathers bedside, he watched his father die. He came home, and I was very upset, because he wasn't home with his children when it happened. I left to the store, and came back to see that the T.V. was on, and it was showing that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, we thought it was a freak accident, then we saw the other one hit. We were devistated. My oldest daughter, she was 12 at the time, was very upset, first to find out that her grandfather had just passed away, and then to witness this. That day will live on in our hearts forever. I just want to say a warm thank-you to all of the firefighters and police families that lost loved ones that day. They were truly heros, also to the families of the plane that crashed into the ground - Your husbands, fathers, brothers, were TRUE HEROS! Thank you for allowing them to follow there dreams of helping people, they truly were angels. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7114.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 198.81.17.173 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My story is similar to most: full of surprise, then shock and sadness, then burning anger. I used to work the night shift for Expedia.com (an online travel agency) and I had slept until 11am on the morning of the attack. Upon awakening, I was reading a Tom Clancy book (The Bear and the Dragon) and I didn't turn on the TV set or radio. At 1pm, I left for work by catching a shuttle to the St. Louis Metrolink. When I boarded the shuttle, I kept hearing strange reports coming over the driver's radio: "Attention all bus drivers! Please check your bus for any unattended packages! Please do this at once!" and "Attention! South County Mall and the Galleria have been shut down....please advise your passengers of this!" I noticed that the bus driver seemed very upset as well. I was very confused; I thought that perhaps there had been another school shooting (!) or something of that nature. Furthermore, when I boarded the Metrolink, I could overhear the (usually quiet) passengers in a stir about "all the things that happened that day" and I finally just asked "what is going on?" to the others. To my shock, they described the horrific events of the day. At that point it was unclear if they were foreign or domestic terrorists. Regardless, I was completely floored. When I arrived at work in downtown St. Louis, they had already evacuated most buildings, and the streets looked just like they do on a quiet Sunday afternoon. I stood in shock for a couple of minutes gazing around at the eerie confusion around me. I entered our office, and only one manager was left on our floor. We began calling employees back to work, and then began the grim task of trying to handle the avalanche of panicked customers flooding our telephone network. Since that day, we have worked non-stop trying to help and advise our stranded passengers around the world. Now we face a slowdown in the travel industry which in all likelihood will mean layoffs, but our mood remains optimistic. Most of all, we remain united as fellow workers and Americans and citizens of the Earth, and we will do our best to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. My thoughts now linger above the rocky hills of Afghanistan, our allied air squadrons raining destruction on the beasts who would sponsor terrorism, our troops advancing toward a victory for all of humankind..... Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1303.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-20 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.100.254.238 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had an interview that day in the morning at 11 am Deutsche Bank across the street from the WTC on Liberty St. I was running late to my current job at Chase two blocks east of the WTC on Liberty St. I was usually walking past the WTC up Liberty to work at 8:40 in the morning. I took my time that day since it was a beautiful day and I was getting focused for my interview later that morning. I thought I might go to the Tie Rack in the WTC for a lucky scarf or something for my interview. My bedroom window in Battery Park City wraps around the room and looked directly north east at the WTC. The blinds were down as the sun was strong. I heard a big boom - sounded like a truck going over a metal plate in the road. My dogs started freaking out. I heard sirens and I went to my living room window which faces the west side highway. I saw fire trucks fighting their way up the highway. I went to my bedroom and opened the blinds to see fire coming out of the north tower. It was the reddest red I have every seen. I thought there was a fire in a kitchen somewhere in the building and I was sure that the fireman would put it out. I thought what a shame it would be to have the building damaged like that and I wondered how long it would take to fix it after the fire was out. I proceeded to continue to get dressed for my interview trying to stay focused. I kissed the dogs goodbye and headed out to the WTC to go to the Tie Rack not thinking the fire in the north tower would effect the shopping area. As I started towards the towers (one block away) the second plane came and slammed into the south tower. I have never felt such an impact before nor seen such a horror. I quickly made my way back into my apartment building to get my dogs out as I was now in a total state of shock wondering what was next. I stood with my dogs and everyone else in my neighborhood as the towers burned and the people jumped to their lives. It was the most horrendous site I have ever seen. Not being able to come to their rescue was very frustrating and upsetting. They waved what looked like towels or shirts. I started to wonder whether or not the buildings were going to come down and I seriously thought they would. I didn't know where to go or what to do and neither did anyone else. I made my way south with no real destination. While standing on the esplanade in front of the holocaust museum the north tower came down. People were running from all directions screaming with their shirts over their faces rolling on the large lawn. Many people had children on their shoulders from a nearby nursery school. Many people jumped into the river. I threw my bag with my cell phone - wallet and everything for my interview - and I picked up my dogs so they wouldn't get trampled. Two small pugs. I threw off my sunglasses and my suit jacket and I ran south. I ran into a building across from Battery Park. A policeman had broken into a Starbcuks in the building and he was handing out water. I met a buy from Deutsche Bank and he convinced me to continue heading south. He helped me carry my dogs. We ended up at 1 State Street. He decided to get on the ferry or train and leave. I didn't want to do that, I was afraid to go underground on the train and I didnt know a soul in Staten Island. I made friends with Eddie Dowling who was working the front desk of the office building at 1 State Street as well as the other men on staff. I called my parents from a newspaper stand in the building -- they told me that the bridges and tunnels were closed. There was no way off of the island of Manhattan. I stayed with Eddie and his boss Richie who was the brother of the head of fire safety at the WTC. He made sure that the guys put a makeshift bed together for me and my dogs in an air-conditioned room in the building as we were covered in dust and my older pug was having a hard time breathing. I think Richie knew his brother was dead. He still remained calm and made sure we- total strangers- were taken care of. One of the guys, Jack Sullivan, gave me a pair of his work pants as my skirt was ripped. He also gave me a bar of ivory soap - to wash my face. He was a former marine and made me feel safe. Another guy on the crew gave me $10 which I put in my shoe for later. This was survival. I stayed up all night hanging out in the lobby with Eddie Dowling as the fireman walked back and forth with their heads down - covered in WTC dust. Eddie told me his life story and that his daughter was a stewardess and his son was a NYC Detective. He was calm and positive and made me feel safe. He was a very sweet man. We sat and smoked cigarettes. I realized at some point that my best friend, Kate, worked for Deutsche Bank across from the WTC and she might very well be dead. A young man came to the building to charge a battery for a golf cart he found at the WTC site. He was on his first day of work as an EMT. I think he was 18 or something. I was one of the few resident/civilians around at this point - it was midnight on 9/11. I told him about throwing my bag in a bush and he offered to take me on the golf cart back to Battery Park to look for it while he taxied some doctors to ground zero. We took the cart and there I was on the west side highway - across from my apt building and a block from ground zero at midnight on 9/11. The highway was covered in metal and ash and wall to wall trucks. It was a very scary scene. All of the lights were out in my neighborhood. It looked as though it was gone - dead. I asked him to take me back to 1 State Street. I slept on the floor of the office in the building on cushions collected from couches in the building. I woke up at 5 am and said goodbye to Eddie I needed to get to my parents outside of the city. I had an absolute nervous breakdown at the Staten Island ferry terminal where they had triage set up. I couldn't get anyone to take me out of the zone - 14th street to the battery - and I was exhausted and disoriented. An official with Fire EMT came over and asked me why I was crying and told him I just wanted to go home to my parents. He had two fire EMT workers drive me home in a burned out EMT SUV. It was a horrifying and exhausting experience. A woman who worked for MCI or AT&T (I think) in the WFC found my bag that day and dragged it home with her to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn bridge. She called me and told me and I went to get it that following week. Everything was in place and she apologized for going through my bag to get my info. She was an angel. I wish I still had her name. That time was so confusing I lost her information. My older pug, Bianca, ended up with severe eyes injuries from the fiberglass and was hospitalized with ulcerated corneas. She ended up dying in April 2005 from severe lung disease. I blame 9/11. My younger pug, Cammie, had three cancer operations in 2005 and 27 weeks of chemotherapy in 2006. I blame 9/11. I wonder what is going to happen to my health as a result. I guess we just wait and see. I hope we never have a day like that in America again. But I fear that we will. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20639.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.237.242.77 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was just before 9am 9/11/2001 when my wife called me to inform me that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Centers. How lucky I was..My last day working at 2 World Trade Center was 6/8/2001. I had worked for the prior 4 1/2 years on the 74th and 62nd floor of 2 WTC. For the 6 1/2 years prior I had worked across the street at the World Financial Center. My first job out of college was on the 96th floor of 1 World Trade Center...12 1/2 years at or around what would become known as "Ground Zero"...How lucky I was. My thoughts immediately turned to my friends and colleagues who were not as fortunate as me and were still working in the Trade Centers. I had access to CNBC on my computer and sat dazed and in shock. This funk would hold for the next 3 hours. I was horrified, confused and emotionally devastated. After the call from my wife I turned on the coverage, only to witness the 2nd tower being hit. I did not see the plane from the angle of the news coverage, all I saw was the explosion. I could feel my heart grow heavy as I felt helpless...all I could do was watch the events unfold in horror. When the first tower gave way (2 World Trade Center - the tower in which I had recently worked) I saw the sudden cloud of smoke and was convinced it was just a large explosion, my colleague said no, the tower had collapsed..I could not accept that...soon, what I had denied in my mind was confirmed on the screen...who would have ever thougth that one of Americas great symbols could be destroyed by such a cowardly act...this would not be the end...as if one tower collapsing was not horrific in and of itself, 1 World Trade Center shortly followed...Oh the horror. While in shock, all I could think of was how lucky I was to have taken on a new job only 3 months to the day (6/11/01) after 13 1/2 years of commuting from Southern Connecticut to Wall Street. I did not know what to do...shock...finally around 12:30pm I left the office to be with my family. My wife and youngest son were home. When I walked in, I realized that life had forever changed. My son Kyle 4 1/2 years old had seen the news coverage and was on the portch recreating the events with his legos and a model airplane...how inocent yet disturbing. I looked at my wife and decided I would go up to my older son (7 years old) Matthew's school just to let him know that I was OK (not being sure he would realize that I no longer worked in the World Trade Center). When I got to the schools office they asked if I was there to take Matt home, I said "no, I just want to let him know I'm OK". They proceeded to call him to the office over the school's intercom...well, that's when my emotions hit me. They built like a tidal wave and when I saw him I couldn't help but hug and kiss him as tears fell from my eyes...Yes, the world had changed forever. Well, like millions of other "human" beings I sat in shock and remained in shock for what seemed like an eternity. It is now 369 days later and the horror of those events are still fresh in my mind. They are no less vivid and troubling. I can only wish and pray for better times and things to come for my wife, my children and all of humanity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7432.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-14 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was a quiet morning--most are around here. South Dayton Presbyterian Church is rather small, and not much happens on Tuesdays. The only other person due in the office had just arrived when he received a phone call from his wife. He disappeared into his office to take the call, and I phoned my mother-in-law regarding some mundane family thing. She told me that she had just got off the phone with my father-in-law; he was watching a breaking news story from New York. The World Trade Center had been "hit." I thought immediately of the 1993 car bomb attack; I was startled, in a rather distant way. A million images of a nation prone to violence flickered in my mind. Just before I filed this one away, however something told me that I needed to find out more. This one would not fade so easily. The church has no radio and only one archaic TV in the building. I went to my coworker's office to suggest we check an online news service for a possible big news story. I poked my head into his office. His tear-filled eyes met my surprised ones. It did not occur to me that he was distressed over a personal crisis or an unrelated matter. The tightness in my stomach told me that this was a disaster deeper than I could yet fathom. He confirmed something worse than my worst fear--a plane has slammed into EACH of the Twin Towers. The information reeled in my head. I only dimly heard him say "hijackers" as I struggled to process the information. We scrambled to snatch the old TV from a back room. We plugged it in right in the church lobby. The grainy screen revealed all--smoke billowing from gaping holes in the giant structures, frantic newsmen relaying the breaking story from the sidewalk of a terrified city. We barely had time to take it in before we saw the first tower begin to crumble. We both talked at once. "What happened?" "Is that an explosion?" "How much of the building fell?" For me, the worst moment of the entire ordeal was the moment, as Jonathan and I both squinted through the debris-filled screen, I realized the first tower was gone. Not mostly gone. Gone. In that moment things I never could have imagined five minutes ago were now completely, terribly possible. It was the moment I accepted the fact that far worse could, and in fact would, happen. We barely spoke for what seemed like years. We watched in shocked silence the fall of the second tower and the endless stream of horrifying information before our eyes. We were alone with our own thoughts, yet sharing the experience as fellow Christians, fellow citizens, fellow humans. We did share our thoughts--as soon as we could make sense of them ourselves--and took comfort in the fact that we stood on very common ground. Things did happen around us--the phone rang, a nearby road worker stopped in--but all swirled around one topic, one tragedy. The everyday things that consumed so much of our time became foreign and unreal. We endured it as long as there was immediate news to report. As the dust swirled around the ruins of the World Trade Center, and the stories began to emerge of individuals both dead and alive, we looked at each other once more, and silently agreed. We were going home. Our thoughts fled to our loved ones. Jonathan's thoughts were of his wife and son; mine sought my husband. This was a long way from over, but in that moment we took the first step towards healing. We parted in the best possible way; we prayed. To this day, the one thing that comes to me in remembering the tragedy of a year ago is what came to me then. God help us all. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3510.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 199.35.244.31 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had started the day as normal, checking in to work as an airport shuttle van driver at about 3am. I was expecting a fairly normal day as the late summer season tourists were winding down their vacations. I had picked up two couples in Kent, a suburb of Seattle, and had started for the airport. As I recall, both couples were headed to Europe for some vacation. I had the radio on low, as I usually did, to listen for traffic reports from one of the local news-talk stations. Even though it was a quarter to six in the morning, traffic could get nasty even then. We were having a friendly discussion of vacation spots, when I heard the "Breaking News" sounder in the background. I quickly turned the radio a little higher, just in time to hear that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We were all quite taken aback by the news, and I related to my passengers that planes flying into buildings was, sadly, nothing new. As we continued to listen through the top-of-the-hour news, we'd figured that somehow, someone made a wrong turn, and the whole thing was a terrible accident. The radio station was simulcasting a New York radio station, so we were hearing what the folks in New York were hearing. At about 10 past 6, we heard about another explosion on the other tower. I said that it probably was from debris from the first tower, and my guests agreed...for all of about 30 seconds...because the next thing we heard was the report of the second airplane. When the story of the second aircraft broke, I felt a cold chill in my insides. I knew that this was a disaster, but I now also realized that it was deliberatly done. Surprisingly, my guests seemed unconcerned. I was within 5 minutes of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac) when we heard news of the second plane. By this time, the sun was up, and it looked fairly normal as I drove into the airport's ticketing area. I wished them a safe journey, collected my fare, told them to make sure to check with their airlines, and pulled out. Not 30 seconds had passed when our dispatchers sent out the message that the airports were closing. A driver called in "Which ones? JFK? LaGuardia?". The reply came back "No, ALL of them!". Another driver: "All New York airports, right?" "Negative...ALL airports, nationwide. We've just heard from the Port Authority that SeaTac is now closed." Until that point, it was just a horrific news story. Now I was scared. Dispatch had said to continue to our next runs until further instructions were received, so I headed north through Seattle proper, all the while listening to increasingly disturbing reports from New York. As I was approching downtown, what seemed like the hundredth "Breaking News" sounder fired off... "It gets worse. We have reports that a plane has crashed into the Pentagon." I screamed "Oh my God!!" to an empty van. I pulled off at the first exit where I knew a payphone was located close by. I called my wife to tell her what was happening, but she'd been awakened by the clock radio, and had simply kept listening to the horrible news. I told her that I wasn't sure how long I'd be working, but I'd let her know. I continued north to the area of my next pickups. I stopped at another payphone and attempted to call my guests to ask if they still wanted to go to the airport. Some hadn't heard what had happened, and I told them. Not surprisingly, everyone cancelled. When I got back in my van, Dispatch made the call "If you've got people inbound to the airport, take 'em home." It was at this point that we heard the news of the first tower's collapse. They then instructed all vans to return to the airport holding area to await further word, assuming the airpiort closings would be only for a few hours. I started back south towards SeaTac in a traffic jam that was unusual for that time of day. While listening to radio reports, creeping along in traffic, I looked out to Seattle's Space Needle. I wondered if I would witness a plane flying into it..or if the whole skyline would suddenly flash white as a hidden nuclear device went off. I had figured if two planes could fly into two skyscrapers, anything could happen. I made two more trips from the airport, taking stranded flyers back home, before I was sent home early. I arrived at home around noon Pacific time, and my wife had the television on. It was then that I finally saw the horror that had transpired earlier that day. We spent the rest of the day watching TV, calling friends and family, and wondering what the next day would bring. When I finally got to bed late that evening, it was more from sheer exhaustion that from a desire to sleep. And sleep I did...but it wasn't peaceful. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1506.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-27 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.82.138.10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had traveled two hours that morning to Portland from my home in Hermon, Maine to visit my mother who was a resident at The Barron Center Alzheimer's Unit. Arriving around 10:00 am without listening to the radio in the car, I went directly to my mother's room to visit with her, staying with her until around 11:45am. As I left the building to get lunch, I noticed a television in another unit with an image of dark smoke. I walked into the unit and saw a replay of the WTC on fire and asked the nurse there what was happening. She couldn't believe that I hadn't heard about this already and told me that the WTC had been hit by suicide planes and that the Pentagon had also been hit. I'll never forget my reply: "Well, they didn't get the Pentagon." And, of course, she said they had. I immediately went out to my car and turned on the radio to find out more as I traveled to the Maine Mall to get my lunch. I kept hearing about suicide planes and envisioned the WWII kamakaze type attack until the announcer finally said something about airliners. Of course the towers had already collapsed and I didn't really hear about that either until later. Even now I know that I do not comprehend (even after seeing hours of coverage on television) the extent of the damage done that day. As I was eating my lunch at the Mall, I heard lots of sirens going in the direction of the Portland Airport. It was then that I believed I needed to get away from the Mall and the Airport. I returned to my mother seeking shelter with her, both physical and emotional. It was not until later that evening that I actually saw the television images of the disaster. Today, on September 11, 2002, I am processing the grief of losing my mother earlier this year and I am remembering her tenderness and love and the sense of security I felt being with her on that day one year ago despite the illness that took her from us. Watching the memorial ceremonies today and hearing the words of kindness and support from the families who lost so much that day, has been extremely helpful to me as I process my own grief. May God bless and keep us all. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4026.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was woke up to my husband yelling to me from the living room, "a plane crashed into the WTC!" I jumped up and ran to the TV and was horrified by the sight of the immense flames and smoke. I remember thinking,"how will they put that fire out? will they have to let it burn? are people getting out safely?" As we watched in amazment, it wasn't too long until we were struck by terror wen the other plane struck the second tower. I knew then that it was no accident. From that point, I was shaken and crying. I was supposed to drive 2 and half hours that day to conduct an interview in Ukiah, CA. I didn't want to go to work. I wanted to watch these historic events unfold. I remember I watched the NEWS until I had to leave and became any later for work. But I remember getting angry at the news announceers and reporters because of their comments. When the first towe began to fall, I freaked out. I was balling and my heart was breaking from the horror I was witnessing. I remember the announcer, calmly and matter of factly saying "oh, it looks as though they have decided to blow up the building to demolish it..." I couldn't believe his ignorance! I didn't understand how he could not SEE than the building was falling on its own! I was really struck by his comment fo rsome reason. Maybe I jsut wanted to be mad at someone. I eventually left for work, and my day was full of more human interactions and sights that I have never experienced before. When I arrived at work, my boss was so surprised that I had not left for Ukiah yet. I apologized, and I think I was more surprised that she said that to me since everyone had been watching TV or listiening to the radio throughout the offices. Obviously, no one was ready to get back to the daily routine. For about 1 and half hours or more of my driving time, I got no reception on the car radio because of the rural location I was driving to. I did see many American flags posted on mailboxes, barns, diesel trucks and tractors as I drove through the Mendocino County hills. The day was a somber day and it felt like it would never end. I didn't want to leave Sacramento that day, I was fearful for my family and friends and the city. I dreaded that drive that day and was praying and crying the whole time I was in that car. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7205.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.190.22.150 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was sitting at home because I am a stay at home mom to twin boys. I was watching Good Morning America on ABC when the news broke. Like most people, at first I thought it was a terrible accident when the first plane hit. Then, as they were filming the WTC buildings, on the right side of the screen, I thought I saw something flying through the air. It looked so small, I thought it was a bird. As it grew closer, I realized what it was, another airplane. I was sitting there watching this unfold and saw this horrible incident, live. I couldn't believe my eyes. In that instant, I realized, America was under some kind of attack. For the next several hours, I just stared at the TV like many in disbelief, fear and anger. My husband called me immediately after it happened. He works in Staten Island, New York and saw the second plane fly overhead. He saw the entire thing unfold. We were both in a state of shock. We both grew up in the NY Metropolitan area. He in Staten Island and myself in New Jersey. We are both in our thirties and these towers have been around almost our entire lives, and within hours, they were gone. It is such an erie feeling to drive into New York and see the skyline and not have them there. They were such a permanent fixture in our lives, or so we thought. I have many friends and family members that worked in the WTC area and of course I was very concerned for their safety. My sister-in-law worked in WTC building number 5 and she used to walk through building #2 to get to hers. She was in WTC2 that day when the first plane hit. And luckily she was on the concourse level and was able to get out quickly. Another friend takes the path into WTC to get to her job. She was running late that day, and decided to take the ferry instead of the path. She was on the ferry when she saw the second plane fly over. I know people that lost loved ones and friends due to this tragedy and in my town of Middletown, New Jersey, we lost approximately 35 people. WE WILL NEVER FORGET!! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6312.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 4.23.161.50 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was riding to work in my car on that beautiful sunny day, listening to the radio on September 11th. An emergency broadcast came over the radio telling about the first plane that had hit the World Trade Center. The announcer thought it was a joke and went back to playing music. When I got to work, I asked my boss if he had heard anything about it. He said no, but it would not surprise him if it were terrorist. I quickly turned on my computer and went to the internet. As I was watching a live broadcast on my computer, the next plane flew in and hit the second tower. I just sat there in disbeleif. How could these people be so evil? Needless to say, I then heard about the plane that had crashed in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. I went and took my kids out of school and went home. It was a very upsetting day and as we were sitting there watching this on the TV, our neighborhood lost their electric. I was in a little bit of a panic with everything that was going on. It turned out that there was an accident down the road and the plant had blown a transformer. I felt so bad for the people that were in those building and sorrow for their relatives. 911 is a day I along with many others will never forget. By the way, that radio announcer was fired. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11715.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-08-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 69.250.12.242 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I live only 5 miles from where United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. I was in my 10th grade English class. We went to the internet lab that day to do research for an upcoming project. When I arrived to the lab, my teacher told us that we would not be researching due to the day's events. She told us that we could look up information on the WTC and Pentagon if we wanted to, though. I had no idea what she could be talking about, so I immediately went to CNN.com to find out. When I got there, the headline read, "Planes Crash into WTC & Pentagon, One Tower Collapses." I couldn't believe my eyes! Just then, one of my friends turns to me and said, "I think you need to refresh your page." He must have hit enter to go to CNN just a split second after me, because when I refreshed the page, I saw "Both Towers Collapse." Well, I was so worked up by that time that I was shaking really bad. When I went to my next class, my teacher was watching the news on TV. We were supposed to take a test that day, but I think she was going to let us watch the TV instead. She informed us that in addition to New York and Washington, a plane had also crashed in Shanksville. This made us even more upset than before because Shanksville is less than 10 miles away, and it's even closer to my house. Well just then, every TV in the school turned off. That really made me worked up then because I thought, "What could have happened now that they won't let us watch the TV?!" I later found out that they didn't want us to know about the crash in Shanksville. My teacher then made us take the test. Luckily, she put Mozart on the cd player. This soothed me enough so I didn't fail the test. Parents then started pulling there kids out of school left and right. It ended up that school got out early. On the bus ride home, my sister approached me. She said, "Why did we get out of school early? Was there a bomb threat?" I couldn't believe she didn't know. Apparently in the Jr. High School, the teachers wouldn't let the kids watch TV. I explained everything to her and she was shocked. When we got home, we found my mom there. She had gotten off of work early due to the events. Our phone was ringing off the hook all night. Relatives, who heard that a plane had crashed in Somerset, kept calling asking if we were all alright. When my dad arrived home, he wanted to know everything. He knew the basics of what had happened, but since he works in construction, he didn't know all of the details. He then informed us that he was working outside of Shanksville and he heard Flight 93 fly over. September was truly an unforgettable day for the people of Somerset County. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story859.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-07-04 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.147.4.94 Annotation Annotations to this item. Internet Somerset, PA Students/Teachers PA:2