I will never forget that day.
I was off work that day because my mom was having open heart surgery in Rock Hill. I was listening to a CD until I got on #5 & I changed it over to the John Boy & Billy Show. I tuned in at the middle of the discussion about the attack & I thought it was one of their skits. The more I listened the more disturbing & stupid this was so I changed channels & heard the same things. Ever station I tuned to the same thing & was thinking is this for real, no way this can’t be.
When I got to the hospital I went to the waiting room & saw my family & others gathered around a small TV & when I stepped up & saw the news cast my jaw dropped. Between my moms situation & the attacks I thought I was going to pass out for a minute.
So where were you?
I was at what used to me Maddox Electrical Supply, off of Dorchester Rd, we were getting materials for the day and watched the second plane hit the tower live. You could have heard a pin drop. There were probably 3 or 4 of us in there and all of our mouths were dropped open in disbelief. We ended up in the parking lot of the Stuhr Funeral Home downtown and listened to the radio pretty much the rest of the day not getting any work done. Just listened as the nightmare unfolded. I will never forget the Hero’s that went in to help the ones they could. Black, White, left ,right and everything in-between. Those are true American Hero’s.
Never Forget!
Fishing Nerd
“No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool… nothing else.”
Sitting in our weekly group meeting. Co-worker’s cell phone rings and he gets up, leaves the room to answer it. He comes back in with a shocked look on his face and tells everyone that it was his wife on the phone to tell him about the planes hitting the twin towers. Total disbelief on all our faces…we spent the rest of the day listening to the radio in the office.
Long point road testing text messaging and thinking, oh so wrongly, this will never work out. Co worker got a call and I remember seeing his face and thinking something terrible had happened. And it was something terrible. Was one of those rare moments that I was at a loss for words. Remember the casualty counts coming in and all I could think of was the devastation for their families. I still remember some of the first unedited videos of the victims literally leaping out the windows to certain death to escape been burned to death.
This is one of those moments in life where I feel everyone you talk to remembers exactly what they were doing when it occurred.
I had worked 2nd shift the night before and did not get to bed until 1-2am. I woke up to text messages from my wife asking me if I am seeing what is happening on TV. I turned the TV on in time to see the second plane hit the towers. What a sad moment in our lives. I will also not forget my ride into work that day and the discussions I had with my co-workers. I was working in NJ at the time and not too far from the city. We were located near an airport so having flights going overhead on a regular basis was normal. The days following with no flight activity was another sobering moment to the situation.
On a swing stage on the side of the Hilton. Old dude come out on the balcony yelling New York city’s under attack. We watched through the window
Crazy old man kept yelling out the door. It’s F#*ing Pearl harbor!! . America’s under attack??
Wife called wanted me to come home.NOW daughter calling said if we weren’t coming to her house thay was coming to ours.
Shut the job down to go home to be with my family.
In DC, had been in the Pentagon the day before. No way to leave, no rental cars were allowed to leave the local area, no rental trucks available. First planes, then trains then buses were shut down. Took a long time to get an open phone line back to Columbia to tell my company I was OK, asked them to contact my family as there was little hope of being able to make another call, and then working on a way to leave town. Lucky me there were 2 “important” employees in DC and a driving company had been hired to take them to Columbia the next day. Leaving the city it took us by the Pentagon, still smoking.
The city was strangely quiet except for the occasional F16 over flight. Few cars, fewer taxis, no honking or squealing brakes. The Metro was running, mostly empty. People normally don’t talk to each other on the Metro. The few people on it were speculating about what was happening. That evening I was headed to Georgetown to meet my aunt and cousin, family time was needed. Entering the Metro I got a copy of the special edition Washington Post with pictures and articles. It was clear that no one really knew the whole story.