Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

analog · 09-12-2006, 01:29 AM

I was in the coffee shop thing that's attached to the bookstore where I was attending college. Someone had changed the overhead musak into the broadcast from abc (whichever one had katie couric and matt lauer). We heard that a plane had impacted into one of the towers. Astonished, the cafe became very hushed as we listened, but people still walked around and read their magazines and such... and then the second plane hit. The room froze. No one moved, spoke, made any noise of any kind for what seemed like a very long time...

In reality, it was likely only 10 seconds or so, and then the room suddenly sped into a frenzy. I saw some people still frozen, some looking bewildered, and others like myself were heading straight out the door, forsaking any class we may have had (which I did, scheduled to start in 10 minutes).

I went straight home- to my parents home, not my apartment at the time... It was only 15 minutes to get there, and with every minute that passed, the roads got more and more congested, and the drivers increasingly more frantic. I walked in and sat down in front of the tv; my mom of course had it on already. I sat and teared up a lot as I watched them replay the footage over and over of the planes hitting the towers...

...soon, the first tower collapsed. Holding myself together was difficult. Then, the second tower collapsed. I only held myself together because if my mom saw me lose it, she'd lose it. I stayed there for another hour, watching things unfold and fighting back tears.

When I got back to my apartment, my friend (and roommate) was already there, since he'd had the day off from work. We exchanged a quick hello and found out how long we'd each been watching, then I went in to my room and just cried hard for a while (20 or 30 minutes, I think, I have no idea... wasn't too long).

When I walked back out into the living room, I sat down and watched peter jennings for his entire 48-hour-long broadcast following the disaster... I had a lot of mountain dew in the apartment, and that's all i ingested for those 2 days. It helped keep me awake to watch things unfold on the TV, and I simply had no desire to eat. I was not hungry. I was practically catatonic for those 2 days. I didn't get up from the couch except to get more mountain dew or go to the bathroom- literally.

I didn't find out until a few days later, but I could have lost my uncle... I didn't know that he regularly held meetings in the towers with his company, but that day was not a day for him to be there. I'm glad I didn't know that, because I'd have gone insane waiting to find out if he made it...

Even after those first few days, I was still glued to the TV news for a week or two while things continued to happen. I didn't lose anyone I knew personally, but I felt an incredibly deep and intense sadness... sometimes, especially in that first day, while I'd be sitting motionless and silent, i'd just have tears streaming down my face as I watched horrified. No sound, no sobbing, no nothing... just a stream down my face.

09-12-2006, 01:29 AM	#17 (permalink)
analog Banned	I was in the coffee shop thing that's attached to the bookstore where I was attending college. Someone had changed the overhead musak into the broadcast from abc (whichever one had katie couric and matt lauer). We heard that a plane had impacted into one of the towers. Astonished, the cafe became very hushed as we listened, but people still walked around and read their magazines and such... and then the second plane hit. The room froze. No one moved, spoke, made any noise of any kind for what seemed like a very long time... In reality, it was likely only 10 seconds or so, and then the room suddenly sped into a frenzy. I saw some people still frozen, some looking bewildered, and others like myself were heading straight out the door, forsaking any class we may have had (which I did, scheduled to start in 10 minutes). I went straight home- to my parents home, not my apartment at the time... It was only 15 minutes to get there, and with every minute that passed, the roads got more and more congested, and the drivers increasingly more frantic. I walked in and sat down in front of the tv; my mom of course had it on already. I sat and teared up a lot as I watched them replay the footage over and over of the planes hitting the towers... ...soon, the first tower collapsed. Holding myself together was difficult. Then, the second tower collapsed. I only held myself together because if my mom saw me lose it, she'd lose it. I stayed there for another hour, watching things unfold and fighting back tears. When I got back to my apartment, my friend (and roommate) was already there, since he'd had the day off from work. We exchanged a quick hello and found out how long we'd each been watching, then I went in to my room and just cried hard for a while (20 or 30 minutes, I think, I have no idea... wasn't too long). When I walked back out into the living room, I sat down and watched peter jennings for his entire 48-hour-long broadcast following the disaster... I had a lot of mountain dew in the apartment, and that's all i ingested for those 2 days. It helped keep me awake to watch things unfold on the TV, and I simply had no desire to eat. I was not hungry. I was practically catatonic for those 2 days. I didn't get up from the couch except to get more mountain dew or go to the bathroom- literally. I didn't find out until a few days later, but I could have lost my uncle... I didn't know that he regularly held meetings in the towers with his company, but that day was not a day for him to be there. I'm glad I didn't know that, because I'd have gone insane waiting to find out if he made it... Even after those first few days, I was still glued to the TV news for a week or two while things continued to happen. I didn't lose anyone I knew personally, but I felt an incredibly deep and intense sadness... sometimes, especially in that first day, while I'd be sitting motionless and silent, i'd just have tears streaming down my face as I watched horrified. No sound, no sobbing, no nothing... just a stream down my face.