my new york brehs, any of yall witness 9/11 personally?

[Mowgli]

In Los Angeles these cowards at my job were crying like *OMG THEY'RE COMING TO L.A NEXT. WHERES THE MILITARY?*

 

[Carolina Slim]

That Tuesday was the sunniest day I ever saw in my life. A clear sunny day with minimal clouds and then that happened.

I remember just about everything I did that day, but what I remember most was when the winds shifted in the evening bringing that smell into my neighborhood.


That scent of construction materials, computer parts, human bodies, jet fuel, and whatever else is something I won't forget.

Same here.

I had just dropped my son off at the babysitter and was taking the J train across the Williamsburg Bridge to go to work. I crossed by the WTC and nothing was going on. After that, I was underground until I got to my job on 55th between 6th and 7th Aves. Even walking the block, nobody was really panicking in midtown, at least that I could see. It wasn't until I got to my office building that I found out something had happened. It was probably around 8:45 or so at that point. I big up the dude at the front desk to the mailroom, and he's like "yo, a plane hit the WTC". I just figure it was a small commuter plane. Then I get to my department, and everybody is going ham; internet and phones are down, one dude is trying to find his wife who works in the towers.

The law firm where I worked had one TV in a conference room, and everybody from all 9 floors was trying to cram in to watch the news. I couldn't get in, so really, the only chance I had to see what was going on was when I got home later that night. I was hearing reports of "the tower fell", and everyone was like . Then there was this one chick who was going berserk talking about she heard that "they blew up the white house".

Trains were shut down, so I walked from my job down to 34th St., where my wife worked right across from the Empire State building. I went up to her job, and to my surprise, they were working like normal. And this was with a plane still unaccounted for. I walked in there and told her, let's go, and she was like "they haven't dismissed us". I thought that was crazy since they were right across the street from what would be a prime target. So I make this loud stink about how crazy it is for them to stay working right across from a potential target, especially since they had TVs and were watching the news. So the director or whoever gets like and agrees that "it's best if we leave"... DUH.

We didn't get the trains back up till about 3-4 that afternoon. That night, I woke up in the middle of the night to go piss, and I smelled smoke right there in my living room. I thought there was a fire on the block, but I thought it was interesting that I didn't hear sirens. I looked out the window to see if I could see where the fire was (that's how close I thought it was), and everything was silent. Then it hit me that the smoke was coming from WTC. That kinda shook a nikka, having it hit that close to home.

Arab dudes was catching it all over the city, especially in the area of BK by Atlantic Ave and Court Street, where there's a lot of mosques and Muslim establishments. Shame, cause a lot of the ones around the way in my hood, was mad cool, and used to stay looking out for nikkas. I went back to my old hood to visit one time, and ran into his store, and he showed me love like a long lost cousin. Even though he thought I was away doing a bid, LOL

 

[Skip b]

Weird day all around I remember every detail of that day, I recall getting up then I'm on my way to school, normal fall day very chilly out side, then I get off the train it's feels like its 80 outside out of the blue, so I stuff my bubble in my backpack, then glance over to my right I see 2 dudes bamming it out on Nostrand like they were Mayweather and Cotto going at it hard, but everybody was just walking past, seemingly in their own world. Anyway I stroll in 1st period super late and everbody is quiet and not joking around like they usually are, and at Medgar Ever they had glass windows all around the rooms on the 5th floor so I glance outside as I head to my seat, then see's smoke from the WTC and then I found out a plane crased into it. Then teachers told all the kids to go home class by class, only for us to get stopped at the door because concerned parents were coming in..........................Thank goodness my first period ended so I didnt have to see the second crash, or the towers fall, who knows how seriously I would have been effected, to this day I try to avoid the big city if I'm in NY.



Crazy day; the hood was very peaceful and unified that day, nikkas from all gang factions was stock pilling guns, talking about the bible and end times, and zoning out outside looking at the stars, vibing off of the blueprint. shyt was so beautiful man, you could feel the love and unity in the air, the peace in the hood only lasted a few days though

 

[profound]

didnt witness nothing but i was at the towers on 9/1/01, a day or so after Aaliyah's procession.

 

[JerseyBoy23]

I was in the 6th grade at a school in Newark but trust me North Jersey was shook as hell that day. I remember my school was near a Veterans Hospital so mad kids started going home early but none of the teachers told us anything happened. shyt I didn't know what happened till my Mom picked me up and turned the radio on. Watching the second plane hit and the buildings falling down has to be the most surreal shyt I've ever seen. I also can remember the national address Bush gave the night of 9/11 almost vividly.

For a while I actually had a semi-close call cause my Dad is a train conductor working out of NYC and he was in NYC at the time of the attacks. Fortunately he was alright cause he was in NY Penn Station but he told me later that day that once the Towers fell down they evacuated the whole building cause they thought Madison Square Garden was the next target and Penn Station is right under it.

 

[BossIAm]

I was in Downtown Brooklyn when it happened. All I could see from there was all the dust and shyt in the air and hundreds of people coming across the bridge. Scared the shyt out of me as they all were covered in dust and I still really had no clue what happened. Looked like herd of fresh Zombies.

Also it took me forever to get home as everyone tried to get up in them buses being that no trains were running. Got home and no TV stations were working. Crazy fukking day I will probably never forget.

 

[Just like bruddas]

so did you ever smash?

 

[Carolina Slim]

The thing I remember the most about that day was how UNBELIEVABLY GORGEOUS the weather was. It was such a stark contrast. It was probably 75-80 degrees, and there was not a cloud in the sky. It seemed to conflict the horrors that were taking place on the ground. A couple of times, while I was out walking in the street going down to my wife's job, I remember thinking, man, it's a beautiful day today.

Another thing that I remember was how people got down in NY in the aftermath, especially after all the Anthrax stuff popped off. In the subway, if someone left behind a newspaper, someone else would pick it up, and save themselves 50 cents. So this one time, after all the anthrax stuff started, this dude left his paper behind on the train, and me and this other dude looked at it. There's always this pause where you wait to see if the other dude is gonna take it. But we moved toward it at the same time. Then it was like simultaneously, we both had the thought of "yo, there might be anthrax in there", and we both fell back on some, "nah, you take it". We both knew why we fell back, but we didn't say anything. One of those unspoken acknowledgments that you encounter in the subway.

 

[The Real]

Yeah I was there. I was downtown when it happened. Took me like 10 hours to get home, and moms worked even closer so I had no clue if she was ok. I saw people stampeding around downtown, some folks getting trampled, people jumping off the adjacent buildings and splattering on the sidewalk, plus so much white dust that you couldn't see anything, not even your hand in front of your face in some places. There were even people jumping into the water and trying to swim away. It was surreal as hell, and horrible. It feels a bit like a dream now.

 

[FUTUREVISIONS]

i was working on the marine park toll plaza.. saw the buildings burning... more later

 

[yoyoyo1]

The High School of Economics and Finance was the closest high school in the city to the World Trade Center site, at 1 block from the World Trade Center, and students were heavily affected by the events of September 11th. After September 11th, the school shared facilities with Norman Thomas High School in the Murray Hill neighborhood for 7 months, and students attended school during the irregular hours of 1pm to 7-8pm, 5 days a week.

That's me brehs, on my 3rd day of high school. And I do think that my life went on a different path due to those events..

I was in math class, and the first impact wasn't really felt.. Thing is the school classrooms mostly don't have windows.. So the lights flickered but we felt nothing. There as a 'shelter drill' and everyone kinda stepped in the hallways for 5 minutes then we all went back to the classroom. Funny thing is that the teacher said "this reminds me of 1993" - and a few minutes later... The whole building shook violently, the lights flickered like mad, and we knew something was up.. Evacuated as quickly as possible, went south and tbh i didn't really recognize what was happening. Something bad obviously, buy my mind wasn't in a right state.. Maybe too young to properly think things through. Paper falling from the sky like confetti, big slash on the side of a building. First priority was getting the fukk away from the scene obviously. Walked 3-4 blocks, stopped, then looked at the scene again. And then some time passed, and it felt like an earthquake. Everyone started running in every which direction.. Had gotten far enough to get near the SI ferry.. Literally running from the black smoke and I was one of the last to squeeze into the ferry as the gates were closing.. The doors shut real quick and the ferry was on it's way, running from who knows what. Eventually the black smoke consumed us all and I just remember it being very quiet. Got off on Staten Island, completely stranded, but a lot of classmates were in the same situation. Eventually they set up camp in Curtis HS and mad people spent the night there.. my parents knew i was fine but no communication = no idea what happened = eventually everyone got a turn on the phone and everything was alright. Spent the night there and got some buses from the city and was escorted back into the city.. remember taking the train home and there were like 5 people on the entire train, and this was the day after at around 10am.. a bit surreal and never seen the subways that empty since then.

No school for a few weeks and we had to attend Norman Thomas until probably December.. it was a fun time to be honest, all of us were strangers and I made some good friends at the time.. By December they were planning on reopening the school but the day before the reopening (it was probably way too unsafe and early, considering the effects of the workers still there even 10 years later) I got a call from this classmate saying it was off.. it was on/off/on/off for a while. I personally made the decision to switch to the local school then.. wanted to be in business, that's why I applied for Eco, and it's a real nice place from what I hear/have read about it. Didn't really experience it. My local school was just two blocks away.. it was alright but kind of a hood school. Maybe I was just tired of the weird schedule or wanted things to be easier. Has it's redeeming qualities but for some reason when I got older my motivation and people I hung around wasn't the best for success.. no doubt things would've gone better for me personally had I stuck around at this school, cause it was no nonsense and everyone was pretty smart and focused.. or perhaps it's just justification for failure, or maybe it's nothing as one or two folk I knew from Eco ended up attending the same college I ended up going to. I made the switch in January 02, never even been back downtown to that area since then. Not that I'm shook or anything, or had any psychological effects (lol) just never had a reason to go.

 

[duncanthetall]

My uncle worked in the Pentagon at the time. Remember my moms going nuts before he called my grandma to tell her he was alright. Never seen moms like that before. She'd always be so cool, but she was a crazy person for a good 3 hrs till she found out her lil bro was alrite. That day stands out, man. One of my dad's good friends, his brother had died in 9/11. Met him like a good 3 weeks before that. Its like...dude was a dead man walking and he didn't even know it. fukked up, man. 9/11 was fukked.

 

[villain]

I was in 5th grade and when they told us I didn't understand what was going on at all

I was like "planes crash everyday, b"

in fact, I didn't get the full idea of what really went down until like HS. I had this English teacher in grade school that was like a Alex Jones stan and he was telling us that Bush knocked down the towers...

So I asked dude what Bush would gain by knocking down some towers and he said some bullshyt about stopping business and trade or something I was like

 

[duncanthetall]

Breh it was a horrifying moment for me personally because i was still a bit young. I remember being in school when the principal made the anouncement that an "airplane crashed into the twin towers" being a young clown a nikka started cracking jokes not knowing the magnitude of the situation like "How you cant see an big ass skyscraper in front of you??? nikka need his pilots license tooken away" They didn't let us know it was a terror attack at school and that the towers were gone. Then mad nikkas parents started coming picking up their kids early from school. I remember my moms breaking it down for me like "We're under attack baby it's war" A nikka immediately started fearing the worst(More plane crashes, tank battles in the middle of the street, even bombs) So my mom has me by the hand running to the supermarket to buy groceries and water to last incase we need to go underground and she's crying because my older brother was going to school down there" In the supermarket i saw my first love who went to summer camp that previous summer with me with her moms and we just wave sadly at eachother The supermarket is PACKED so it takes us a while to get out. when we get home still no sign of my brother and the TV only one functioning channel i believe it was CBS and all they're showing is middle eastern countries celebrating throwing parades in the street and shyt and me and my moms is holding hands praying... A couple hours later my brother gets home and tells us he had to walk across the bridge along with a giant crowd because public transportation was cut off and no phones were working thats why he couldn't call. I was just happy to have my Big bro home safe and sound . brought back memories...

Not to sound like a bytch or nothing, but this post teared me up at the end where your bro showed up. Dunno whats wrong with me. Just happy your bro made it man. Bad times.

 

[Carolina Slim]

That's me brehs, on my 3rd day of high school. And I do think that my life went on a different path due to those events..

I was in math class, and the first impact wasn't really felt.. Thing is the school classrooms mostly don't have windows.. So the lights flickered but we felt nothing. There as a 'shelter drill' and everyone kinda stepped in the hallways for 5 minutes then we all went back to the classroom. Funny thing is that the teacher said "this reminds me of 1993" - and a few minutes later... The whole building shook violently, the lights flickered like mad, and we knew something was up.. Evacuated as quickly as possible, went south and tbh i didn't really recognize what was happening. Something bad obviously, buy my mind wasn't in a right state.. Maybe too young to properly think things through. Paper falling from the sky like confetti, big slash on the side of a building. First priority was getting the fukk away from the scene obviously. Walked 3-4 blocks, stopped, then looked at the scene again. And then some time passed, and it felt like an earthquake. Everyone started running in every which direction.. Had gotten far enough to get near the SI ferry.. Literally running from the black smoke and I was one of the last to squeeze into the ferry as the gates were closing.. The doors shut real quick and the ferry was on it's way, running from who knows what. Eventually the black smoke consumed us all and I just remember it being very quiet. Got off on Staten Island, completely stranded, but a lot of classmates were in the same situation. Eventually they set up camp in Curtis HS and mad people spent the night there.. my parents knew i was fine but no communication = no idea what happened = eventually everyone got a turn on the phone and everything was alright. Spent the night there and got some buses from the city and was escorted back into the city.. remember taking the train home and there were like 5 people on the entire train, and this was the day after at around 10am.. a bit surreal and never seen the subways that empty since then.

No school for a few weeks and we had to attend Norman Thomas until probably December.. it was a fun time to be honest, all of us were strangers and I made some good friends at the time.. By December they were planning on reopening the school but the day before the reopening (it was probably way too unsafe and early, considering the effects of the workers still there even 10 years later) I got a call from this classmate saying it was off.. it was on/off/on/off for a while. I personally made the decision to switch to the local school then.. wanted to be in business, that's why I applied for Eco, and it's a real nice place from what I hear/have read about it. Didn't really experience it. My local school was just two blocks away.. it was alright but kind of a hood school. Maybe I was just tired of the weird schedule or wanted things to be easier. Has it's redeeming qualities but for some reason when I got older my motivation and people I hung around wasn't the best for success.. no doubt things would've gone better for me personally had I stuck around at this school, cause it was no nonsense and everyone was pretty smart and focused.. or perhaps it's just justification for failure, or maybe it's nothing as one or two folk I knew from Eco ended up attending the same college I ended up going to. I made the switch in January 02, never even been back downtown to that area since then. Not that I'm shook or anything, or had any psychological effects (lol) just never had a reason to go.

Wow. I guess I'm showing my age. I had always thought that the closest school to the World Trade Center was our rival school, Stuyvesant HS. I know that for a while they had to meet at my school. Never knew there was a school closer than Stuy to WTC.