The weekend before the eleventh of September in 2001 I was in Cleveland with family. I was inbetween apartments at the time, moving out of my summer residence and into a more permanent residence for the next school year. Since I was homeless for that week I decided I would visit my family in Cleveland. I stayed with my Aunt as I always did when I went to Cleveland. The plan was that I would spend an extended weekend in Cleveland, go home on Tuesday, September 11th. One of my two roommates was coming in that day from New York and I wanted to be there when he came. You know, it's funny how before that date people talked about September 11, without thinking. There were no connections at that time before September 11 and terrorism. My roommate said he was coming in on September 11, nothing more was thought of it.
The weekend was fun, saturday was my Aunt's fantasy football draft, so I accompnied her and helped her pick her team. Sunday was the first Browns game of the season. My Aunt had tickets but I did not, so I went into Cleveland with her and went to the rock and roll hall of fame. Then I took the rapid back to her house after a brief stop in Tower City. Monday was basically a relaxing day, not much was planned. That night, like so many other Americans, would be the last night that I could sleep easily, not having to worry about terrorists.
I was awoken at 9:00 am the next morning by my Aunt's dog. When my Aunt wanted to wake me up she would let her dog into my room. The dog would very happily run upto my bed and lick me untill I woke up. I grogily looked up and saw my Aunt in the door, she said that a plane had run into the World Trade Center in NY. I quickly got up and put some clothes on and went downstairs to see what was going on. By the time I got downstairs the second pland had smashed into the other tower. And they were showing replays of it. About 20 minutes of watching this I thought to myself, "Hey look they are still standing." The towers falling down was a thought that had not even entered my mind. I figured if they fell down it would have been right when the planes crashed into them. I quickly got on the phone and called my other roommate is was in Cleveland for the summer. My Aunt had gone out somwhere at this point, and I needed to talk to someone. He answered the phone and I told him to turn on the TV. When he asked me what channel I told him it does not matter. We shared our disbelief at the situation for a little bit, and then hung up to devote our full attentions to the TV. It was then that they started getting reports of the plane hitting the pentagon. Now it was no doubt that this was a terrorist attack. Then finally at 10:00 the first tower fell. I remember it vividly, seeing a buch of white smoke engulf the tower. The white smoke seemed to retain the shape of the tower. The conversation between Tom Brokaw and a reporter went like this:
Brokaw: What is that white smoke that we are seeing now?
Reporter: One World Trade Center has collapsed.
Brokaw: The whole building?
Reporter: Yes, the whole tower is gone now
I remember the completely helpless feeling I had seeing that tower collapse. At that point I made up my mind that I was going to drive home that day. Even though all of New York was closed I had to be there if my roommate was coming down. I packed up my stuff put in my car and set out for Columbus. About twenty minutes into my journey south on I-271 the second tower collapsed. At this point I pulled my car over to the side of road, got out of my car and sat on the hood for about ten minutes. I just could not believe how much we had just lost. I have been by those towers hundreds of times; I have even been to the top of them one or two times. I could not believe they were gone now . I needed to press on and get home. My mom would probably want to talk to me, and I am sure she would not be too happy to hear that she could not get a hold of me because I was sitting on the side of a major Interstate. I turned the radio on and continued my drive home. I was listening to a Cleveland radio station and besides regular updates from New York they were talking about everything that was going on in Cleveland. The airport was closed and people were walking away from the airport. most people, they said, didn't know where to go, but they had to leave the airport. They were talking about a plane that during the morning was reported over Cleveland. It was later determined that this was flight 93. It was probably the shortest trip from Cleveland to Columbus that I remember. I just had the radio on the whole time, thinking about what was going oni, it was very surreal.
When I got home I turned on the TV. Our cable was not intalled yet, but for somereason we could still get cable. As I watched what was going on I called my mother. No one was home, she must not have been let out of work yet (she works at a school). I tried calling my roommate on his cell phone, but I obviously could not get through. So I tried his home instead, I figured that if he did not get out of the city in time he would be home. To my suprise I got through and his dad answered the phone. "yes," he said, he and his mother did get out of the city just in time. That was a relief to hear. And my roommate's brother who works for Merryl Lynch was allright, he was supposed to be on the floor today, but got out in time. Another piece of good news.
The rest of the day was basically spent watching TV and waiting. I finally heard from my mother, They finally let school out and let the teachers go home, we talked for a little bit. I talked to my two sisters and my grandmother, everyone basically had the same thoughts, they could not believe what was going on. Finally, at about 6:00 my roommate from New York made it. We walked up and he had this very gloomy look on his face. He had a long drive under extreme conditions. He and his mother came in and we sat around talked about what was going on. He got out of the city at about 8:30. The spookiest part of his tale was that he drove right by the World Trade Center. When he left, they where still there, there were no problems. The thought that the towers would not be there when he returned to New York was not even a possibility in his mind at the time.
Of course the towers were gone though and there was nothing we could do about it. Everything had changed. Traveling anywhere by any means would no longer be the same. And not to mention how New York had changed from the terrorist attacks. My roommate had to wait untill Thanksgiving to go back to New York. He flew right over the World Trade Center site on his way to landing at La Guardia airport. I had to wait untill December to see New York. On Winter Break I went up with my parents to NY and met my roommate. We ende up making the trip to ground zero. Even though it had been 3 months since the attakcs the whole area was still powerful. You could feel the sorrow around the whole area. There was hardly a sound, not even cars honking. It did not feel like New York. It was lacking the usual hustle and bustle that New York is famous for. But I guess that is the nature of our post 9/11 world.
To cite this page:
My account of 9/11
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