Chances are good, that if you are on this site, you remember having a burger at a place that sounds like a strip club, avoided walking under a bell tower, and loudly yelled 'I AM AN AMERICAN' with 62,499 of your closest friends. These are the stories we all know and we can all relate to, but some of you were on campus ten years ago today.
We'd love to hear your stories about what our campus was like 10 years ago from student or alumni eyes. Please post your stories in the comment section below.
"When ever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully.."
11 comments:
I was a freshman on campus and was eating breakfast at the quad and someone asked if I heard about the plane that hit the tower. I went back to my room to check out the news. I also remember that it was also the first day of the industrial round table and the company representatives were half listening to the job seekers and half listening to the coverage on the radios in the display cars. They were wondering how they were going to get home. During a breaks between classes I was in a computer lab checking on updates and chatting with friends on messengers. Campus was a buzz with confusion and shock.
Thanks for the updates Justin. Really interesting to hear about the IR experience!
I was a freshman as well that year. I had a 7:30 class that day. I got back to the dorm a little before 9:00 and had a message on the dorm phone from my mom. I could tell she was shaken up in the message and said that she was just checking to make sure i was OK. I was totally confused and called her back. She told me to turn on the TV and just 30 seconds later I watched the second plane crash. ----
People were gathering in a room down the hall to watch the news together. The few hours after the last plane hit the WTC there was thought that there were other planes all over the nation ready to hit pre-determined targets, and some were commenting on how Purdue could be one of them. In hindsight that was a silly thought, but some bright eyed fresman were pretty tense that morning.
I had my next class with my roommate at 11:30 in Lily Hall, where I always met my roomate on the front steps. I met him there and asked his thoughts on what was going on - he was totally oblivous to the situation. He didn't believe me until we walked into the lecture hall and noone was there - they had cancelled lecture.
We swung by the Union where a huge number of people had gathered to watch the latest reports. Many were crying, it was a surreal atmosphere. You could feel the pain and sorrow for the people involved in the heartless acts in everyone around.
I was a senior, and the night before I had been up late working on my TV show. I didn't have class until 12:30, so I often slept in until about 10am. I knew something was up when I turned on the TV in my apartment. I had left it on ESPN, and the first image was the towers collapsing.
The first thing I did was grab my phone and call my mom. She had retired and was watching my 3-year old nephew during the day at the time. She brought me up to speed as I pretty much remained glued to the TV.
What I'll always remember is how nice of a day it was, and how odd it was to have no planes on landing approach over campus. the flight path often took them directly over campus to land at the airport, but everything was grounded.
My first class was canceled, and we only talked about what was going on in my other two classes. By six or so I was glad to go into the basement TV studio at Stewart Center to work my shift. There was no cable down there and I could actually separate from the world for a bit.
One last thing stood out to me too. By Thursday my friends and I were sick of wall-to-wall coverage, so we went out to the Cactus. We needed a break, so we enjoyed Bruce in the Piano Bar. He even led an acapella rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. A few weeks later when there was a moment of silence before the Toledo game leading into I Am An American was one of the most chilling scenes I have ever witnessed at Ross-Ade
I can remember being in a computer lab and on the "bob and tom" website. They had a picture up of the first tower and I said to myself, "that is a horrible joke".....It was horrible alright.
Tony Underhill
Dec. 2001 Grad
I was a sophomore. I had a 7:30am class that morning, and because I lived off campus I always went to the Union to sleep on the couch for a while until my 11:30 class. I woke up and people were crowded around the big screen tv so much that I couldn't see it or hear it. I was an aviation technology major and my next class was out at the airport so I figured I would go watch the tv in the student lounge there because it was never crowded. As I got in my car and turned on the radio, they said a Cessna had hit the tower. I thought that really wasn't a huge deal, and people were over-reacting. As I pulled into the parking lot, they said it was a 767, and I thought the reporter had it wrong, there's no way that could happen. When I got into the student lounge there were only 5 or so people there, and just after I sat down the second one hit. I stayed there for the next few hours as the rest of the events unfolded. My class wasn't cancelled, so I went to Prof. Nolan's air traffic control class. He had a program that showed all the air traffic in the country on a big map and he projected it on the screen and we watched all the planes disappear as they were all ordered to land. For aviation students, it was doubly troubling because we didn't know if our industry would be able to survive this. The next day I had class first thing in the morning, but I don't remember doing anything but just talking about the events the day before. I remember someone saying that they saw a group of Muslim students celebrating on the mall the previous night and that really upset me. In the next week or so, I remember feeling extremely weird every time I went to the airport because it was so quiet. There were also National Guardsmen with M-16s around all the time. They actually detained one dark-skinned student who made the mistake of going outside to do some lab work on the Purdue 737. For the following months, my parents tried to get me to change majors to something else, but I stuck with aviation and have had a great career in the airlines so far.
I was laying in bed after taking an Econ test, trying to get an hour or so nap. My roommate called to tell us. He was working at the airport as an aircraft mechanic. Needless to say, sleep was impossible after this.
I thought it was kind of odd having to go to class the rest of the day, especially since my classes were at the airport. It was eerily quiet out there. I had a flight ground school class, and we just talked about what was going on, and how this is the first time in history that the nation's airspace was closed.
There was a girl in the flight program who was on a solo flight to Ft. Wayne, she was forced to land in Marion, and the school had to send someone to pick her up and drive her back to campus.
I was in graduate school at that time. I was driving to school and listening to whatever morning DJ happened to be on at that time. My plan was head to the library to finish up a little work before class. The DJ mentioned something about a plane crashing into the first tower. I remember thinking, "what a tragedy", but not really thinking much beyond that.
Later, after finishing my work I went to the computer lab to kill some time. I can still remember watching the video of the tower falling. It was so surreal and weird. It left me with this crazy feeling that I can't really describe. I went back to the library to finish some more work, but someone had wheeled in a TV for everyone to watch. Needless to say, I got nothing else done.
On 9/11/01 I lived and worked in Fort Lee, NJ, which if you look on Google Maps, is the last town before crossing the George Washington Bridge into New York. Our building was on a bluff overlooking the GWB and Manhattan. You could see the towers from our floor. We were also so close to the city that the acrid air and smoke would blow our direction sometimes, as the buildings smoldered for weeks.
9/11/01 was the absolute worst day of my life.
I was scared for the first time on my own soil and remember the sound of jets (for a while, just fighters) honestly frightening me and making my heart jump.
The surreallness for me included friends like Boilerdowd and Tim trying to get in touch with me and then, when they heard from me via AOL IM I believe, relaying that they'd heard from me and I was okay to our group of friends via email. I remember being touched by how many people were worried about me -- and still am.
I don't think I had cried since I was a child... I cried that day.
Anniversaries like this make it all flood back for me. That day does not feel like a distant memory to me -- so much of it is vivid. Everyone who lives here or grew up in the tri-state area knew people who worked there... I mean, EVERYONE did. 50,000 people went to work there every day. Think about that. It's a staggering number.
A co-worker of mine was married to a woman who worked on the top floors (above the impact zone) but happened to be walking into a meeting in the hotel across the street when it began (there are countless stories like this)...she survived, but literally dozens of her co-workers did not. My colleague said it was an ongoing horrible, depressing time for them because they were going to memorials for fallen co-workers for months. Months. Imagine your morbid, depressing feelings at a funeral. Now do it every week, a couple times a week, for a few months. Brutal.
I got together Saturday with the group of friends I was closest with at that job. We didn't choose this weekend because of the 9/11 significance, at least not overtly. We tried for months, literally, to get this group of five former co-workers and their spouses and kids together. This past weekend wound up working best.
Okay, I'm done rambling.
I was working in the Pentagon for the Defense Intelligence Agency. After the planes had hit the towers, I had to track down some info from by boss, ADM Tom Wilson, a BIG Ohio State fan. This guy had a wooden bench from the Buckeye sideline in his office and it was an honor to sit on it. Cutting through the center of the Pentagon, I saw a friend of mine, Bob Elseth. He was a big Buckeye alumnus, too. We said hi but it was crazy that day and he was on his way to the Navy command center. I was with my old boss when the plane hit. We were just around the corner. Had the plane gone a little right and hit our side of the building, it wouldn't have been fun for me. Unfortunately, the plane hit at about the Navy command center and Bob was killed. In the years since, every time Purdue beat the Buckeyes, I sure wish Bob was still around to give him crap.
I was a freshman living in Wiley on 9/11/01. I got back to my room after my 7:30 class and my roommate was asleep, so I left the TV off. I remember thinking it was strange that every open door I walked past had the news on, but thought nothing of it. I then got a frantic IM from a friend from high school to turn on the TV. I too had the TV turned to ESPN and got smacked in the face by the ABC news feed.
I had a 12:30 biology lecture that day that I remember walking to. The entire campus was silent. I don't know if I was in shock, but I can remember being able to hear a pin drop during that walk.
I was a member of the All-American Marching Band back then as well. Many of us couldn't believe practice hadn't been cancelled that day. As we lined up for our march to the practice field, we were told what we'd be playing: The Star Spangled Banner, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Stars and Stripes forever. I can remember fighting back tears as we played. When we got to the field, our director Bill Kissinger gather us together and said, "I thought the campus needed to hear that. Go home and be safe."
Remembering that day still brings me close to tears.
Post a Comment