Where were you three years ago today?

by hemp lover 31 Replies latest social current

• 

  bikerchic

  I remember exactly where I was and how horrified I was at the news. In a lot of ways that fateful day had cemented my addiction to JWD. This was the first one of two web sites I checked out upon hearing about the planes crashing.

  I woke up when the alarm went off at 6 am and hit the snooze button swearing I would get up as soon as the alarm went off again. I wanted to get an early start for work as I had only one small cleaning job to do then the rest of the day would be mine. Well after the third or so time it went off and I knew there would be no early start for me I got the remote and turned on the TV and Katie Couric and Matt Louer were talking about the WTC having been hit, it had just happened and they weren't sure yet what had happened. I bolted up in the bed, rubbing my eyes at the awful picture I was seeing, half of me knew it was true, the other half wanted it to be a nightmare, I was in total shock!

  I immediately turned on my computer looking for more information and out of curiosity came here to JWD first I saw this thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/11527/1.ashx I was riveted to JWD all day, canceled work and stayed home just too numb to do anything constructive. I called all of my family that day and talked to them, told them how much I love each and everyone of them.

  The other web site was one of the bike sites, I've met personally a lot of people from that site at gatherings. One guy I met in Phoenix Ty, lived in NYC and he was IM-ing with me in complete hysterics, I talked to him for hours that day. He was working for a temp agency and was supposed to work on the floor that was hit by the first plane that morning, but the temp agency called him and asked him to come in on Friday instead. He was in total disbelief and was feeling really guilty that he was alive! I felt so bad for him. He was also going to met another bud of ours, Bob for lunch that day who was also working on the same floor and at that time Ty didn't know but suspected that Bob had been killed.

  Turned out that Bob was early for his morning meeting so he decided to go across the street to Starbucks and get some coffee. He was walking across the street when he saw, heard and felt the plane hit the building..........Ty found out about 6 hours later that Bob was alive, what a relief!

  Anyway from that day on I was hooked on JWD, I made my 5th post to that thread. I felt a real comrade with JWD and many posters from that day on. I spent most of my time in chat getting to know people better, I was up to that time leary about being seen on an apostate board, but after reading how the WTS acted with their very own brothers that day sickened me.

  Remember the flags that everyone put up on their houses, cars, and wore in clothing for so many months afterward? I bought my first flag and had it in my apartment still too chicken to be seen by JW's for displaying a flag. I lived in a small community at the time.

  hemp lover:

  I remember listening to the adults' stories when I was a child of where they were and what they were doing when JFK was assassinated.

  I remember that day too. I was at school in 6th grade and my teacher cried, we all cried. I'm sure Mr. Pollis cried on 9-11-01 too.

  Kate
• 

  Nosferatu

  9/11 is a bit foggy for me. I had just recently separated from my fiance, and I was living at her dad's house. For some reason, I have memories of hearing about the first 9/11 attack while I was living in my apartment (which I moved out of at the end of July).

  I was a complete wreck at the time, trying to deal with the situation I was in.
• 

  Preston

  Hi Micheal,

  Been reading your posts lately,

  I'm also in Arizona, which congregation did you go to?

  I live in North Phoenix, have parents in Scottsdale,

  Maybe we'll meet one of these days....

  - Preston
• 

  Cicatrix

  I was in a campground about two hundred miles away from my children. We were trying to relocate because of the economic conditions.
  
  I woke up violently ill right around the time the first plane hit. I was drifting in and out of a fitful sleep. Around the time the second plane hit, someone in the campground turned their radio up full blast so we would all know what was going on.
  
  I thought of my children immediately, wishing I could be with them. But I was just too sick to travel, and there was conjecture about whether or not a major bridge about fifty miles away that I had to cross to get home was closed (it turned out it was not).
  
  My children were at our home, which was located not too far from an airbase which has one of the longest runways in the north (it's an emergency landing base for the space shuttles). Because of it's runway, it's viewed as a prime target in the case of invasion.
  
  I was terrified for my kids! I kept have the recurring thought of what if something happens to them or us, and I don't get to tell them how much I love them before we die.Luckily, I was able to reach them by phone later that evening when I was well enough to stand.
  
  I drove home the next day, and listened to radio all the way home.I found myself in tears more than once,as the uncertainty was torturous.When I got home,I watched the media footage over and over again. My daughter and I just sat there silently, watching this footage.
  
  Then I cried for all of the victims and their families.I don't think I stopped for about three days.
  
  Incidentally, I was still JW then. The idea of Armageddon didn't even occur to me, and I was irritated with the "field service" experiences that were reported shortly after the attack (though I can't really pinpoint why-it just angered me to hear them talk about them at the meetings). Six months later, I enrolled in college. Instead of quitting college when they started the pressure on me about going, I quit the meetings.
• 

  chachasmum

  I was working on greenwich st in nyc just over one mile from point of impact. It is a day i wil never ever forget. I'll never forget the hush that fell over the city that day. If you know nyc you will know it is a very fast noisy always on the go city. Those planes stopped everything. It was the most surreal day i have ever experienced. Very sad for all those who lost loved ones.
• 

  LittleToe

  I was still a JW Elder, though I had very recently decided I was going to leave and had made my first tentative forays on the Internet the previous weekend. The next day I would logon to JWD for the first time.

  On the day itself I had gone round to my mum's to eat my lunch, and ended up "shepherding" a "sister" who was having some difficulties.
  Then the NewsFlash came on, and I never got back to work, as I spent the rest of the afternoon slack-jawed watching the footage over and over again.

  It had a surreal quality, that was too strange even for fiction.

  I spent the next few days dazed, including a business trip that I had later that week. It was in a hotelroom, on that trip, that I finally had time alone and cried my eyes out.
• 

  Netty

  I was at home in bed, on complete bed rest having pre-mature labor with my 2nd pregnancy. My mother called at 7:30 a.m. and woke both my husband and me up, told us to turn on the tv. I was horrifed, we watched and cried, and watched and cried, literally all day long. I kept thinking about what my baby was about to be born into.
• 

  pratt1

  I was walking through the center concourse of the WTC when I heard the gun of an engine and then a huge crash. All around me glass, desks chairs and other debris fell out of the sky. It was then that I noticed large objects falling out of the sky landing around me as I stood frozen in my tracks. after a couple of minutes I realized that those large objects were bodies or parts of bodies.

  It was a terrifying experience that didin't get better only worse as I fled for my life.

  It stills seems like a nightmare, I doubt if I'll ever get over it.
• 

  Soledad

  Christ almighty, I'll never forget seeing the body parts and the blood stains on the walls of the Banker's trust building.

  what an awful day.
• 

  Insomniac

  I was getting ready to open shop for the day, annoyed because my co-worker was late again, and I had to get to a 9:30 class. They said on the radio that one of the WTC towers had been hit by a plane; I thought it must have been a horrible accident with a small plane, because big airliners don't fly that close to the tall buildings. Then the woman reporting live from NYC started screaming that another plane had hit the other tower. I stood there for maybe ten seconds, then ran across the room to call my boyfriend at his office. I told him we were under attack, but I didn't know by whom. He kept saying it was a mistake on the radio, nobody would attack a giant office building.

  I made it to class, but we didn't get much accomplished that day, as people kept calling home on their cell phones to get updates on the situation, and the professor finally let us out early. When I got home that night, my landlord and his boyfriend had me come sit on the sofa and drink tea with them. We were all so in shock from the images on tv (damn the news stations for playing that scene over and over) that we just kept hugging each other and trying to tally up who we knew who might have been on the planes or in DC or NYC during the attacks.

  They'd reported on the news that some people were trapped in the rubble, frantically calling their loved ones on their cell phones. My boyfriend and I said a prayer that they would be rescued soon, or that they would find some peace in their last moments. We prayed for the grieving families of the victims, too. Privately, I prayed that he would quit his job (military-related) so he would not be sent into a war zone. Glad that day is over and done, and let's pray we don't have another one like it ever again.

  ((((Pratt1 and Soledad)))) It was so horrible at a distance; my heart goes out to anyone who had to witness these things firsthand.