Where were you when the planes hit?

by coolhandluke 56 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  AllTimeJeff

  The ex and I were pioneers and Tuesday was a big FS day for us. We were on our way to the KH and I was listening to sports talk when the host said that there were reports of a plane that hit the WTC.

  After the meeting for FS, one of the elders wives got a call to turn on the news. We did and heard about the jets. We instantly went to the elders home and saw what happened. Then the Pentagon got hit. We had relatives in Washington DC, they were about 15 minutes from the Pentagon. They said they only heard sirens but were so busy working that they didn't know what was going on at the Pentagon till just before 10:00

  We "preached" all day long. Didn't offer a damn piece of damn literature (I am proud of that) and just talked with people. Then around 4, there was a mad rush to the gas stations. Gasoline shot up close to $2.00/gal. (ironic to think about those prices now....) All the gas stations were fined by the state that day...... Somehow, I didn't get my money back....

  I cleaned banks for a living... (insert funny ex JW joke here) and kept the TV news on at every bank. I kept thinking about the Great Tribulation. I will never forget me catching myself, literally grasping for a breath when I allowed myself this thought. I will never forget it. "This is exactly what we (JW) are saying is going to happen during Armageddon." I was never the same. That thought literally started what became an avalanche of free thought. Of honest thought. It awakened me to the fact that I hadn't listened to myself. I told myself this too: "We (JW's) mourn these people now, but when Armageddon comes, we are going to be happy?" My "faith" was never the same.

  Later I realized that I was more caught up in moving up the company ladder and trying to please my ex then anything having to do with religous faith. But that day shook me from my JW faith forever. Even if it took me years to leave, I was never the same, to which I am thankful.

  I know people died by the thousands that day. I mourn and think of them every day. From that day forward, I felt connected to the human race. That was the day I didn't want people to die needlessly anymore. It's weird, because as a JW, I use to talk about the death of billions like it was no big deal. Then I saw 9/11, and I saw that it was. If there is a loving god, he isn't a JW....
• 

  why???

  I was in my second year of H.S. in Lower Manhattan. I was just starting my first class on the first floor when I felt the building shake!! At first we thought a truck fell over. But about a half hour later we realized it was more serious than that...I went to the top floor to look out the window and I could see the smoke. After that they evacuated us all out of the building and let us loose to fend for ourselves. We just stared up at the buildings with holes of fire right in front of us!!!! It was so close i remember exactly what i was wearing too...(a red tommy Hilfiger polo and new black jeans and Tims-seems irrelevant but for me i NEVER remember things like that) Trains were not working at that point anymore and the Brooklyn bridge was closed and cell phones were not working. So i had to walk across to the Manhattan bridge to get into Brooklyn (on the bridge a man on a cell phone said out loud that the pentagon had been hit and at that same moment the first building began to fall which scared the hell out of my friends and I so we started to run the rest of the way off the bridge!!) and walked all the way into brooklyn almost into queens! I also hated how the media constantly replayed the attacks over and over. And they told us to go back to school but the air STUNK and soon after I developed and still have severe allergies!!!!
• 

  NotaNess

  This is truth:

  Getting dressed for work with my wife, I felt weird and said to her "I think something bad is gonna happen today"...30 minutes later the 1st plane hit.

  Make of it what you will, but it happened. It freaked us out. We were so taken by the moments unfolding on TV, that we totally forgot about that, then she remembered what I said about a half hour or so after it all started. I wish I could have captured the look on our faces at that moment.
• 

  sass_my_frass

  Had just gone to bed for the night - first time I'd been to bed before 11pm in years, and mum called to tell me that Armageddon had started. I told her she's crazy, hung up and found out about it in the morning.
• 

  AgentSmith

  I was at the office in Montague Gardens Cape Town. Mrs Smith walked into the office and said 'Have you guys heard of the plane crash in New York? It flew into some sky scraper." At first I looked at her, waiting for the punch line, surely this is a joke. She had been shopping and heard on the car radio.

  I thought this was a stupid accident. There is surely no airport so close to the city! Here in Cape Town we had a helicopter go down in the city, and since then no aircraft is allowed over the city. New York must have similar rules I thought.

  We switched on a small radio we had there, just in time to hear the regular program interupted to report the second plane. That is when it dawned on us that this was no accident.

  Time seemed to slow down, The usual chatting and working stopped. The factory went quiet and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

  I have some experience in firefighting in high rise buildings and I knew those fire fighters were in for a near impossible task. I was, and still am cut up about the senseless loss of life... We are not American but we felt the pain with you.
• 

  Crumpet

  I was in my office and it was around lunchtime when my boss's wife called and said she needed to speak to her husband urgently and I said he was in a meeting. She was extremely excitable and panicked and asked me if I had seen the news. I flicked onto sky news on my computer and then just held my mouth in horror as they showed what had happened. I told her i would get him to ring her back straight away. Then I stood up and told everyone in my office to be please be quiet - there was some very very terrible news and then I told them that a plane a flown into the world trade centre. No one believed me - they though I was making a sick joke. Not until they saw it for themselves. I was the only one with internet at the time with video audio streaming so I just spent the whole day in shock announcing what was happening to everyone else.

  As soon as my day was done I went down to the second floor grabbed hold of my best friend Simon and just clung to him. I thought it was the end of the world even though I had been out of the dubs for a while. We ran silently to the nearest bar the Porter and Sorter which was teaming with people around the huge screens. We bought drinks and I told him for the first time that I really loved him and we just sat hugging. Its funny I have no idea where my boyfriend was that day, but odd that I didn't feel the need to be close to him.

  Simon is coming over from Australia where he moved a couple of years back to stay with me for a few weeks and take care of me whilst I am not doing so well. I just remember him holding me as I cried in horror in the bar watching people fall from the buildings and held me when I came back from throwing up with the sheer shock. At the back of my mind I think I was thinking if the world is going to end then I want to be here in a smokey bar with my friend for any last moments.
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  Mrs Smith

  I remember as Agent Smith said that I was the one to tell the rest of the office that a plane had hit the WTC. My immediate thought was that this ust have been deliberate. When I voiced that oppinion Agent Smith said that it must have been an accident. We then turned on a radio at work and heard that a second plane had hit we listened till it was home time with feelings of such disbeleif. The first thing we did was turn on the TV and watched the news. Agent Smith use to be a fire fighter so the news that so many had died that day really hit us hard. We cried through the news for the next two weeks. Everytime we saw people looking for loved ones we cried some more. It was really awful. Reading this thread has brought back all those feelings.

  My thoughts and prayers go out to all that lost loved ones that day.
• 

  LearningToFly

  I was awakened by my phone ringing before my alarm went off to get up and start my day. I ignored it, but when it rang the second time, I grabbed it hearing my friend barely able to speak and crying telling me to turn on CNN. I did so, and sat there for the morning in total shock and horror. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen...

  LTF
• 

  XBEHERE

  I was in the #5 train on my way to work. When we stopped at Wall St. you could smell the jetfuel and the smoke already.
• 

  smellsgood

  Berlin Germany, this was a topic apparently in '06, so my fuller answer is here:
  
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/120330/2123909/post.ashx#2123909