A Crisp Late Summer Morning 4 Years ago........

[Mike P]

I'm still amazed by the fact that no one I knew personally died that day. The closest I could come was, when I worked in Brooklyn, I worked with a young lawyer named Jennifer Glick. Her brother (I think his name was Jeremy) was one of the heroes of Flt 93 who tried to re-take the plane from the hijackers.

Some of the poeple I worked with in Brooklyn were working at 225 Broadway that day, two blocks from the WTC. They were standing in their office kitchen watching the north tower burn when the second plane hit. The fireball was so intense that some suffered the equivalent of sunburn on their faces. Later, they saw the jumpers and even had eye contact with some of them as they fell.

The police had their building cordoned off, weren't allowing anyone to leave, and they were terrified that one of the towers would fall in their direction. One later walked all the way from lower Manhattan to Jamaica, Queens to get a Long Island RR train home.

All in all, I was fortunate. I got to watch from 2 miles or so away.

[justplugit]

At 7:30 that morning i had just finished my coffee and as i headed upstairs,i felt a need to pray for my son in law. At 8:00 he was due to pilot a 767 American Airlines non stop from Kennedy to San Francisco. I would bet the farm "they" had looked at his flight,it was the same MO and departing time as the other planes.
Why the need to pray, and what the prayers did, i don't know, but my wife had the same feeling to pray at the same time that morning.
As they didn't know how many planes were involved our Daughter called crying not knowing what to do. We just kept talking to her with the obscene pictures on the TV in the background, until her call waiting clicked in arond 11:00 am, and we found out he had landed his plane in St Louis on hearing from the flight controlers what had happened.
We lost two of our young friends in the trade center. No matter where you were that morning it was very close to home for everybody.

[striperman36]

Please let us all take time today to remember and never forget these circumstancesa and those that we lost on 9/11. I was out today in this clear, Tom. kara and Stephen along with my father as I was able to reel in a good quanitity of seabass that my family and friends will enjoy this evening.

May we all go in peace and happiness, forever morel

Bill

[hunan]

i was coming back from vacation to brasil with my ex-wife. i believe that we were one of the last planes to leave newark and were in the air above or just outside new york when the first plane hit. got to providence and then heard the news from my very freaked out, crying mother. my good friend's cousin is a stewardess out of logan and she called in sick that morning. she was scheduled to be on one of those planes. seems no matter who you are or where you are from, you've got a story. what a shame.

[Hooper]

It is so important to remember how painful that day really was for all of us.

A coworker is now married to a woman whose husband was on the American Airline flight which hit the first tower. I cannot imagine how this poor woman dealt with such crushing grief. But, she did. Life has to go on somehow. In fact, she is now pregnant with their first child, who oddly enough, was due on September 11th. Coincidence?

BTW, I heard this on the G. Gordon Liddy show awhile back. Can we all refer to this event as September 11th, not 911? I agree, it shows more respect for the date and the event. nine eleven is a car by Porsche, 911 brings police and fire, September 11th is another day of infamy.

Mike P, thanks for the first hand account.