September 11th Rememberance

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1. I was in 5th grade. I was showering up when my mom screamed that a plane crashed into Tower 1. I grabbed my towel and went to her room to watch. Then the second plane hit right before my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. Prior to that I had only seen stuff like that on the movies. That was a strange year, as it was the first year I truly delved into the mythology of Marvel comics.

2. I was on my way into work when the morning DJ, who was the “frat boy” type, was extremely measured and professional explaining a plane had hit the World Trade Center. It was not clear what type of plane or the extent of the damage. By the time I got on the train, someone received a call on their cell that the second tower was struck. That got everyone on the train realizing the first hit was not an accident. When another person got a call on their cell that the Pentagon was hit, everyone became silent. We looked out the train window to look at the Chicago skyline worried.

   When I go to my workplace, someone had turned on the TV in the conference room and I finally saw the smoke billowing out of the tower. That is when I truly realized the extent of the damage and what had occurred. I numbly tried to go about my tasks for the day, but that did not last long as many buildings in downtown Chicago were evacuated as a precaution.

   I will never forget the tone in the DJ’s voice, how bright blue the sky was or how quiet the skies were for the next few days as planes were grounded…

3. In my room, staring at the TV in disbelief.

4. I was actually talking to my students about this today.I was in the 8th Grade. My class all gathered together in the science room to watch the broadcast the morning it happened. I remember feeling like nothing would ever be the same again. . . I mean how often do you see New York’s skyline? It’s in like every movie and TV show. And seeing those towers was comforting, in a way. It broke my heart when they went down. But it was kind of cool what happened after: it felt like, at least for a little bit, social barriers across the country came down and America was united, even if it was in grief.

   And, btw, this issue was the first new comic I picked up after getting a subscription to my local shop. And, to me, it always felt like one of the best responses to this tragedy. I’ve read it every year since, on 9/11, and I kind of tear up even still (the issue isn’t without it’s faults, like, I think JR said in the MadGoblin articles, that it’s definitely Straczynski’s and not Spider-Man’s voice). But I still love the overarching tribute the issue presents to the true heroes of those times. I’m glad you guys put this up today. . .

5. I was in preschool. I remember being evacuated early because one of the planes actually flew over my city.

6. I was in the fourth grade back then. I remember waking up to my mother muttering about a plane hitting a building but I brushed that off as a freak accident involving a turboprop like those always flying over my house. So I went to school without a care until my teacher and an office secretary came in and illustrated what happened on the whiteboard. I was confused, struggling to get a grasp of what was going on. That changed when I got home to see the news reports of the Towers burning and people plunging to their deaths on the t.v.

7. I had just woken up from working a double shift the previous day. The second plane had just hit 20 minutes before I woke up and my stepfather was watching it unfold on TV. My uncle use to work in the World Trade Centers but had left 3 years prior. He witnessed the attack from the ferry as it was occurring.