Martin Cohn
I was on my way to a business meeting in Cambridge, Mass. While listening to the news, I inadvertently took a wrong turn and found myself underneath the Prudential Tower in Boston.
People were storming out of the building, and I inched my way through them. When I finally made it to Cambridge, the security guard stopped to check my ID because he didn't know what else to do.
9/11 heightened my awareness to the impact of world events on the U.S. As a result, I read and follow international news from many different media sources.
Terry Martin
I was sitting in a Brattleboro Traffic Safety Meeting when Chief Dave Emery's pager went off, alerting him that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers, “an accident.”
A second page came in later, and he advised that we were under attack!
I went to work at the Marshal Service after the meeting, and I watched on TV the horror of the moment as it unveiled and so many died.
My heart was ripped out as I thought of those who suffered great loss of loved ones at the the hands of terrorists.
Christopher Campany
Ten years ago, members of my family thought I was still in Washington, D.C. for a meeting, but I was driving back to Pine Bush, N.Y. I called everyone from a pay phone in Pennsylvania to let them know I was okay, and that I was driving, not flying.
I remember the empty skies above my house in Cragsmoor, N.Y., which was below the New York metro flight paths. I remember the funeral processions outside our office in Pine Bush, N.Y., for local FDNY members.
Ben Mitchell
I had brought a class of students from Landmark College over to Stickney Brook Falls to do some nature writing. We had one student from Sweden, one from Jordan, and a bunch from New York City.
Driving back from the field trip we turned on the radio and heard that one of the towers had fallen. We all started laughing in disbelief.
Over the next few weeks, I observed as the students turned on one another in reactionary blindness.
The student from Jordan recently e-mailed to send his condolences to the people of Vermont after the flooding; these green mountains are still etched in his sense of himself.
Kelly Salasin
9/11 hits home for me. World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf - these wars are the stuff of history books and television. But I lost someone I knew on Sept. 11.
He had two kids and a wife. We grew up in the same small coastal town on the southern tip of New Jersey, and we took ski trips together to Vermont when we were kids. Our fathers still practice at the same county hospital.
I remember the agony I felt hoping that he was alive that Tuesday, and that Wednesday and Thursday. I remember praying that somehow he had made it out.
But Andy worked on the 105th floor, for Cantor Fitzgerald...no one made it out.
Sept. 11 shook me in a way that nothing has before. Suddenly, I'd lost my lifelong travel bug. I didn't even want to leave the state.
On that tragic day, I had been 300 miles away from my husband and my six-year-old son. They were still in Vermont, while I had traveled with the baby to New Jersey to be with my siblings on the one-year anniversary of our mother's passing.
When the news first came in about the towers, I was afraid I might never see my husband and son again. In fact, the bridges and roads out of New Jersey were closed shortly after, and I got a “taste” of what it feels like to be caught up in a war, separated from your loved ones.
I never want to feel that again.
Jane DeNeefe
I was in Coffee Country. Keith called Felicia and said “Turn on the TV; a plane has hit the World Trade Center.” She turned it on, and we saw the second plane hit.
I remember on that day in Brattleboro (and everywhere), people feeling just stunned. People called their families. A few days later, the saddest lingering image remains with me: Brattleboro firefighters came walking down Elliott Street in formation, with a drum beating out a soft funeral march.
Jerry Carbone
I was talking to Linda duCharme at the Reformer about some press release I had just sent them for Brooks Memorial Library. She sounded distracted, and she asked me, ”Do you know what just happened?”
I replied, “What do you mean?”
“We are watching a plane hit the World Trade Center tower.”
I hung up and switched on the TV at the library.
Rupa Cousins
I was at the gym, watching TV as I did aerobics but nothing had happened...yet.
I then went into another room, where there was a radio playing. The talk of something happening in NYC caught my ear, so I ran back to the TV and saw the first footage. After that, I stayed to watch.
The horror of it did not penetrate, as at first it looked like special effects at the movies. I could not believe it was real.
Later that day, a friend and I looked at the sky empty of planes and their white tracks. That was surreal. It took time to really get to me. I guess I was in shock along with the rest of the country.
Christian Avard
My wife Wendy and I were living in Somerville, Mass. I had a bad job interview the day before and was going to spend the day writing a lengthy thank you and explain why I was still good for the job.
All of that changed in the blink of an eye.
It was 9 a.m., and we were watching TV. The news ended but went back on immediately. CBS showed images of the World Trade Center burning and said a plane crashed into it. My first impression was it was a terrorist attack, but I thought, “What if it was pilot error?”
Then the second plane hit. You could hear the shock of everyone in the CBS studio when it happened. It was clear we were attacked.
Wendy had to leave to go and babysit for the day. Before she left, she said, “If the terrorists strike again, it will be in Washington, D.C.” Then she was gone.
About five minutes later, CBS showed the images of the Pentagon on fire. I couldn't believe Wendy predicted it. The towers collapsed, and then all I remember were all these buses coming back into Somerville dropping off dozens and dozens of people. It was like rush hour in reverse.
That afternoon, I went over to a friend's house and hung out with his wife. Later, we called other friends to come over, and we all sat in front of the TV eating Chinese food and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It was actually very comforting to be with our closest friends and enjoying each other's company in spite of the traumatic events.
Wendy and I lived under a flight path for international flights leaving out of Logan Airport. It was quiet that night, except for the harrowing sound of fighter jets circling around the Boston/Somerville area instead.