AccessWDUN spent Monday afternoon on the Gainesville Square listening to stories of how people heard the news on 9/11 and what their initial reactions were 22 years ago.
As the nation came together Monday in honor of those lost in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, many are recalling where they were when they heard the news, and what emotions they felt as the onlookers of tragedy.
AccessWDUN’s Christian Ashliman spent time on the Downtown Gainesville Square Monday, listening to the stories of those who said it was a day they’ll never forget.
Judy True
“I remember going to a school to supervise student teachers over in Forsyth County. And as any elementary school is it's rather rambunctious. A lot of activity, a lot of movement as the day gets started. But I walked in, and it was dead silent. And I thought, ‘Am I here on the wrong day? Is this a holiday?’ And I saw some people in the office and walked over to the office, no one said a word. No one greeted, as they usually did. And I went to sign in and I said, ‘What's going on?’ And the secretary came over, she says, ‘You've been in the car. So you haven't seen this. They're bombing New York City.’ At first, I thought, ‘Is she joking?’ and then we had a television there that I could watch. And sure enough, I saw the buildings go down. And it was dead silence.”
“You had nothing you could say, I was speechless. And I'd never been speechless in my life. But I was then. And I think of that every 9/11. It was ongoing, while I was in the car, it had started. The plane had flown into the first building. And then when I went in, of course, I was there for the rest of the morning glued to the television, as we all were. And we watched it one step after another, one plane after another, one catastrophe after another. And you wonder where in the world is it coming from? And when is it gonna end?”
Elbert Durden
“We were sitting there eating breakfast, actually a late breakfast. And a friend called and said, ‘You got your television on? Turn it on, turn it on.’ And as we turned it on, buildings were starting to come down. And we watched the second one [fall] but the questions we had, or I had, at that time was, ‘Okay, what's going on here? Is this going to be happening in other cities? Are we really under attack here, of what?’ I mean, we didn't know, you assumed it was basically a military invasion. That was my thought.”
“But I'm concerned that a lot of people do not remember it. Even with the replays today, they don't understand the significance that hey, it could very easily happen again. If you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it. And I'm afraid that's where we're at right now.”
Gayle Martin
“It was a day my son was in school, and I had been working and I immediately called the school. I worked at the time for the public defender's office in Palm Beach County, and I was very concerned about the children. We didn't know if it was going to be all over the country. And immediately the school says, ‘We want to leave them, it's a normal day, and we'll make sure everything's okay.’ And the rest of us just kind of drew together in solemn, very solemn sadness. It was a great sadness and it's a day I will never forget. And we finished our day with our clients and we took the school's guidance and said, ‘Let's let it be a normal day, but we will never forget.’”
“And many of us had friends from New York who had passed during this time, and I'll never forget it. As long as I live, like my mother always said that she would never forget Pearl Harbor and she was in the movie theater. Well, I was in the jail. But it's a day I'll never forget. We've been talking about it today, and you know, God bless the people and I hope America will come together for the best for the people.”
Race Thornton
“So I was at work, we have TVs in the cafeteria. And it was basically just surprise, and surreal, you didn't think it was real. Because they showed the planes going into the buildings. And it just caught us so off guard, you didn't know what was going on. There was a lot of confusion. And then once they collapsed, that just hit home, to where — I don't know. It was just empty. Totally empty. It didn't seem real. You thought you were watching a movie. And once you saw them collapse, it still didn't seem real.”
“I think it took the weeks after to actually build up to actually reiterate how real it was. Because then you started seeing the stories, the news, and it hurt, hurt a lot. I visited the Twin Towers all the time. I wasn't in New Jersey [on 9/11], but I grew up in New Jersey, and we used to go to the Twin Towers, cut school and high school and go see the Twin Towers, and I've got photos. And to see them actually go down was — it was just too surreal. And it actually took weeks after to actually process to realize that was real, it was scary.”
Reginald
“9/11, a long time ago. I was working, I was in a machine shop, working and they said, ‘Somebody’s hit the Twin Towers in New York.’ And so I had no immediate emotion about it, because I didn't understand what was happening. And then after the aftermath, and after it was all over with, they said it was terrorist … It's sad that a lot of people died without cause. And that was the sad part about it. And it actually was murder that they did, but they'll pay for it. Basically, because God doesn't miss a thing.”
“I mean, it's difficult for me to show any emotion after the fact. But I believe that if the country was more, I guess stable in government, then these things possibly wouldn't happen … But as far as seeing the aftermath, I couldn't reflect the emotion because I wasn't involved in it. But those other people who have families and those that died, and the families of those that they left behind — those are the ones that really, really feel the pain of loss, and I pray for them.”
Linda Blanchfield
“I was a teacher in the classroom, I was actually a special reading teacher. And I was leaving the classroom and I went by the office to check in and see what was going on. And everyone was crowded around the TV. And I saw just — it broke my heart. I drove home that afternoon, my husband worked at Delta Airlines and I drove home that afternoon. Well, they all came home early, but there were no planes in the sky. We'd never seen that because we live close to Atlanta and there's always planes in the sky, but it just broke my heart.”
“And I'm still sad about it every day. All those people and just such a tremendous loss. I just pray for each of them, especially today for extra comfort and love … It was a sad, sad day for our nation.”
A video of the interviews can be found at the top of this page.
