story1144.xml

story1144.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I was sitting there at my computer when my friend yelled to me, "Did you hear about the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center?" I said no, got up and looked on his laptop. He had CNN's webpage with the picture of tower 1 and the smoke pouring from it. My first question was "Was it a terrorist?" Then the phones started ringing. All the websites were down. We turned on news radio and listened as the Pentagon was hit and the second tower also being hit. I remeber the anger and sadness as I listened to the reporters describing the towers as they fell. I called home to NJ where all my friends and family live. Most of the phone lines were down. I was able to get in touch with my mother-in-law and father-in-law and my one friend. We were highly upset because we didn't know where two of our friends who worked in the city were. As the day progressed I learned everyone I knew that was in the city was ok. I remember everything about that day: what I wore, what I ate, what I did after work. I watched Peter Jennings on ABC for hours and hours, feeling helpless because my wife and I were 640 miles away from home. I saved all the e-mails I received, and all the papers I could get. I will never forget September 11, 2001. I pray our future children and grandchildren will never, ever have to go through something like this.