When did seeing the WTC Towers stop shocking you?

[CanuckAmok]

After September 11th, it was literally months, maybe even a year, before seeing the Towers in a movie or TV show didn't cause some sort of...anxiety or something. I remember watching the Sopranos sometime in late 2002, and the shot of them in the distance in the opening credits made me jump.

How about you? That old New York promo thread made me think about this.

[WindRavenX]

1. It doesn't

One of my first childhood memories is dancing on the streets under the shadows of the towers in my first dress (I was 3) that my dad bought me.
That shit stays with you.

[Kazak]

2. Oh...about 1975...

:shrug:

Okay that was bad...hey, it's the lounge.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Remember, Kazak got eaten.

[Kazak]

14. Hey, c'mon...

that was some dazzling architecture!!!

[mermaid]

4. It Doesn't It Never Does

especially not for someone who was there on Feb 26, 1993.

that day doesn't mean shit to most people...but, for those who were there, it is a date they will never forget.

Give up yet?

That was the date of the FIRST WTC bombing. Try going down 101 flights of stairs in pitch blackness....65 of them full of smoke. THAT shit stays with you.

[Osamasux]

11. My buddies were saved by there smoking room that day.

It was designed to keep smoke in. Little did they know they would end up using it to keep smoke out. We put them up for three months after that. I'll never forget that one either.

[LoZoccolo]

5. It depends.

Sometimes it'll be in the background in a movie or something, like you point out, and I'll still be like "whoah". I remember seeing Being John Malkovich and there's that part where he ends up next to the turnpike and looks up and they're there and that was like what I thought.

But then there's the kind of defiant-against-the-terrorists use of the image that doesn't do that to me that I kind-of like. Like on the cover of To The 5 Boroughs by the Beastie Boys, which came out a few years after 9/11.

[thecai]

6. Traumatized By It

I was amazed at how traumatized I was, while sobbing through the beginning of F9/11, just hearing the sound-track of it.

[autorank]

7. It hasn't. I'm pissed off every time I see the footage or anything

with the towers in it. I lived on West 23rd and looked out at those suckers every morning when I woke up for 2 years. I loved them, in all their gauche elegance. Why in the world would anyone do that? (no Ward Churchill answers please) It is just so stupid, particularly considering the multicultural nature of the workers there.

My anger is really at * and the idiots who let us all down. Occasionally I'm irritated at the clowns in other parts of the country who used NYC's tragedy to fuel their paranoia. Wonder if these "morans" ever ask themselves why NYC hates * so much? Of course they don't! That would require thinking!!!

NYC is the best city in the world and the best city in the history of the world, bar none (and I do love the Republic of Venice and contemporary Chicago a lot).

[Osamasux]

8. They finally started building something to fill that hole in the sky.

It doesn't wash it away, nothing will for some of us, but at least it reduces the constant reminder every time I look that way.

[yvr girl]

9. I always notice them and remember

I happened to be up early with CNN on. I saw the second plane go in live.

[mermaid]

20. I Heard The Second Plane Hit, Live

I was listening to the news coverage on the radio...at the time, there was a lot of confusion, speculation that it was an accident...a small private plane, like a Cessna...and I thought...ok, sure, yeah...why not?? One hit The Empire State Building once, too.

Then...on the radio...I hear a loud engine noise....I heard, over the live mike, someone yell "Holy shit!!" and then I heard the boom of the second tower getting hit.

I was at work at the time, listening in horror, while doing my data entry...and I jumped out of my chair when the second one hit, and I said out loud, "THAT WAS NO ACCIDENT!!"

Later, when we got reports about The Pentagon, and I'm thinking, holy shit, we are at war...we're being attacked, bloody christ...my MOM might be in one of those buildings (by then I lived in Texas, but my mom still lived in the tri-state area, and conceivably could have been in the towers that day) and I am thinking, Christ, what next...The fucking Sears Tower??

Hell, it was just incredible...I could barely think anymore, and sitting at my desk working was becoming harder and harder...and then we got word of the plane down in Pennsylvania, and I speculated to my co-workers that you had an airline captain who'd "taken the aviator's choice" and had chosen to crash his plane in an empty field, to thwart more hijackers...turned out I wasn't far wrong....

And it all became too much for me...I began reliving 2/26/93...and I began having flashbacks and panic attacks and had to get sent home for the day. I ended up out of work the following two days, too, before I was able to begin to get a semblance of composure back...

This shit never goes away. Hell, even when I saw F-911...and I'm damn glad they gave us just a black screen for it...I began to feel the panic rising...the heart racing...it still does it to me to this day...and probably will till the day I die.

[elperromagico]

10. It still bothers me, but what really bothered me

was that History Channel documentary about the World Trade Center, which had been filmed in the months before the attack.

The History Channel had added captions to note which of the interviewees were still missing (it wasn't too long after the attacks). It hit me hard to realize that many of these people - who were talking about the building they worked in and loved - were buried underneath that very building.

Sometimes, when there's a tragedy of that size, one can fail to put a human face on the tragedy. If anything put a human face on the WTC attack, for me it was that documentary.

[soothsayer]

12. By the first anniversary I found it much less shocking

Tragic, senseless, but not as shocking.

[CanuckAmok]

15. Right... I don't mean to belittle the tragedy at all.

What I meant was when (if ever) did it stop causing some sort of physical reaction, like a lump in your throat, a heart-jump, or whatever...

[soothsayer]

31. me either! But at some point I got image overload with it, and now

it's more of a dull feeling than that headspinning incredulity and tragedy I felt watching the whole thing unfold on tv that morning.

[Ivan Sputnik]

13. I don't think it will ever stop.

I visited those buildings on several occasions and even spent a day working in Tower 2 for one of my clients. My wife was in 7 World Trade Center on 9/11 (she's fine). I watched them fall from across the river that day.

[pansypoo53219]

16. i visited manhattan in 98'

and while i NEVER went near the towers, trinity church the closest i got, i couldn't believe how many pictures it was in.

and i got over my surprise quickly. because i KNEW it was georgie's fault. knew it in my bones.

[qnr]

17. Well, I used to work at Lynn's Hallmark, inside the towers, back

in the 70's. I knew thousands of people that worked there (at that time, of course). I also lived just about 10 blocks from it. Naturally, it struck me very hard.

However, I was a master control technician at a television station when it happened, and I was getting hammered with it from constant news feeds, so I built up a shell pretty fast.

[Dave Reynolds]

18. It hasn't yet.

I can still see the images in my head, like it just happened.

[MADem]

19. More info than anyone needs to know

...but hey, I'll tell ya anyway. I was coming in aboard a vessel in the early 90s, taking vids of the sights of NYC, and I was narrating my vid with snarky and otherwise remarks (I'm big on remarks). I recalled that going out and coming back in to NYC, way back in the sixties, that the skyline was not sullied by those hideous monstrosities that in my opinion, totally ruined the view. I always thought they were ugly. I always thought they defiled a once classic skyline. I won't even go into the traffic mess they made, screwing up the "grid" of the city.

Now, I feel terrible about the death and destruction. I found that dispicable. But I cannot retrospectively wax nostalgic about the towers. I found them hideous, an offense to the architectural style of the city. An offense to the way traffic flowed, the way the people lived...it was almost as though business was more important than folk. And I just could never get behind that attitude.

Still, though--ain't my city, I have no call to bitch. If people want to memorialize, remember, beat breasts, get angry...it is their right, and they should go for it. No argument from me.

Not my town, so what I say does not count.

just my lousy opinion...

[mermaid]

21. All's I Know Is

Church & Vesey Street will never be the same again.

[MADem]

25. And if that is your stomping ground, you have every right

...to feel that way.

Anything I have to say is just as a frequent visitor, and an opinionated asshole who does not have to deal with the aftermath day to day. I don't anticipate that my take should have any weight, as I don't have to deal with the mess of it all. I just never did like those towers, though...but then again, I didn't have to look at them every day, didn't know anyone who worked in them who didn't make it out, didn't have to deal with the grief.

I do feel bad for the losses, just never liked them asthetically...

[mermaid]

27. Well, It Isn't, Anymore

but it once was...and my own experience there...well...it still affects me.

But, I can respect your opinion while disagreeing with it.

And I lost three people I love on 9/11. None family, but one friend, and two former co-workers.

[7th_Sephiroth]

22. i never gave a fuck

i was asleep when it happened, my dad woke me up and told me, i told him to fuck off, i went back to sleep

[Lone Pawn]

23. Are you sarcastic, trolling, or

are you just an ass?

[mermaid]

26. None Of The Above, Actually

After a while, with some experience, you'll begin to understand a bit more about him.

He offended me at first, too...until I began to understand a bit of what he was about. don't let it get to you.

[7th_Sephiroth]

43. thank you

i know i may sound ignorant, or cold, but its not malice or hate.

[mermaid]

47. You're Welcome

I know it's not, and that was why I jumped to your defense on that one...I have had some previous dealings with you on other threads, and have something of a handle on your personality as a result. But, for one who had never encountered you before...even you admit, you can really come off the wrong way!
Hell, you came off the wrong way on ME at first, too!

Peace!

[7th_Sephiroth]

48. i have that effect

maybe if i explained myself better, more people would understand

[7th_Sephiroth]

41. i just dont care

yeah, it was a tragedy, but i dont see why i should stop my daily life and way of thinking cause george bush let a few planes crash into buildings, and if this WAS a terrorist attack wouldent the terrorists have gotten what they wanted if my mindset changed to one of fear and the blinding false partiotisim hatemonger mindset that would follow?

[MrSlayer]

24. I am from Philadelphia but those buildings were mine.

On September 11th I wept for the people who were killed, the country and also for those buildings. They meant a lot to me and hold a lot of great memories. I've been to New York so many times since I was a kid on day trips, to many Islanders and Rangers games and just cruising up there to visit Times Square back when it was fun that I can direct you around the city as easily as my own. The one constant was always the World Trade Center Towers. No trip to NYC was complete without at least standing at the base and looking up at their majesty. I have pictures that can take you through my whole life that feature them in the background in some way. I remember when I was about 12 and my brother, my father and I walked into the Windows of the World restaurant expecting just to be seated and served when we were thrown out by the host who snottily declared that "We have a dress code and even if you met it, I doubt you could afford it." Well instead of kicking his ass we just laughed so long and loud in his face that he just skulked away embarrassed. It was a classic moment. We would sneak into people's offices to look through their telescopes and shit. You'd be surprised how many were trained on apartment building windows. It must have been a fun place to work.

I visited "Ground Zero" a month after the attacks and until I got there I don't think the reality of it all sunk in. Even a month later you could still smell the smoke and the stench of death in the air. I'll never forget it. My father, who is an ex-policeman, was allowed to go past the security barriers and took pictures that show the close up devastation. I don't think I'll ever stop being appalled by the events of that day nor do I think I'll ever get over the personal insult that I feel. More and more I feel that the government, at best, allowed this to happen and that makes it hurt worse than anything. I felt a personal ownership and pride in those buildings, I grew up with them, they were mine.

[mermaid]

28. I Feel Ya - In A Way...Those Buildings Belonged To All Of Us

I was never a New Yorker. I worked in one of the buildings for a time. I was a Pennsylvanian, then...and commuted into the city to work. For those not familiar with the Northeast...this is not at all uncommon...I knew a guy from Delaware that used to take the Amtrak into the city every day to go to work.

Anyway...for anyone who had ever been in those towers...well, there's an empty place inside us now, where those towers once stood. And, though something will eventually stand on that site...it will never replace those towers.

Then again...I never remember the skyline of NY without the towers. I often used them as a point of reference if I was ever lost in the city (not easy to do, actually, believe it or not) but...I always could tell in what direction I was headed, and about where I was at....just look for the towers, you know??

I cannot imagine the horror of those who were there on 9/11. And I know some survivors, who have told me anything and everything I could possibly ever want to know about what happened there that day. My own experience in '93 pales in comparison.

Whether or not one liked them aesthetically...we all still feel the loss...that will never go away. Unless you are a completely insensitive unfeeling uncaring asshole...(which if you are on DU, I doubt you are) the loss is still with us all...so many lives lost on that day....that's what I feel. Not so much the towers themselves...but the lives. and the lives of the survivors...who will forever carry with them, the horror of that day.

[ronnykmarshall]

49. I feel the same.

It's still gives me the chills when I see the towers in a film or video.

I went to NYC for the first time in 2000 and visited the towers. I remember almost every detail.

Even though I knew they were gone, I still expected to see them when I went back to NYC this past summer.

[Kahuna]

29. NOT seeing them shocks me. It's like a hole in the sky..

THANKS DUMBYA, YOU USELESS POS!

[Rhiannon12866]

30. It still does. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

32. It took a while...

I know what you mean about the Sopranos opening credits (I had the same reaction when they started airing repeats after 9/11). I had an even sadder reaction at the end of "Gangs of New York," (when they show the morphing of early NYC to the present). That choked me up.

I took some great pics of the WTC from the river two weeks before 9/11. I remember sitting in the middle of the harbor on my boat with a friend, and we smoked a joint in its shadow:







Two weeks later, they were gone...:(

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

33. Like others,

I still get angry about it. I couldn't watch that 911 documentary on PBS the year after, I got so angry. I guess I've noticed lately, happily, that I'm able to suppress those emotions, but they're still there, just maybe less intense.

[baldguy]

34. When I finally believed LIHOP/MIHOP.

Once the Bush coup took over, it was inevitable.

[johnnie]

35. It still strange to me

You see the towers here and there in movies and television shows. They never took them out of the "Friends" episodes so if you ever watch the reruns they show the towers all the time. There is that "Simpsons" episode also.
One thing though, and this isn't to trivialize the tragedy of 911... I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live in other places where this stuff happens all the time. Or for those people who went through "shock and awe" a few years ago. To think how much 911 messed up our minds here, I can't imagine being in the places where they get their homes and buildings blown away daily.

[Bridget Burke]

36. Not shock, just sadness.

I don't live in NYC; didn't visit the towers on my one trip to that wonderful city. But shots of the Manhattan skyline used in "Moonstruck" feature them prominently--often at night, windows ablaze under a full moon. They make me very sad.

The stories of (almost) everyone's reaction to that day--even those of us far away--makes me wonder again. About our "President's" reaction--strolling into a schoolroom & sitting like a bump on the log throughout the dreadful events. Then getting to bed early that evening--when many of us were still riveted to the TV.

Correction: I've stopped wondering about his non-reaction. Now, I believe I know the reason.

[RobinA]

37. It Still Shocks Me

Just watched Saturday Night Fever and it gave me a little jolt. The thing that really gets me is seeing a jet plane from a certain angle, I think the angle at which we saw the second plane hit about a million times.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

40. Trading Places

When Murphy & Aykrod stand in awe by the towers, on their way to the futures exchange. Gives me a lump in the throat to this day.

[LWolf]

38. It never did shock me.

Maybe because I'd never seen the towers before. Never been to NY, don't watch any tv news; I never saw them before my son made me watch the news for a few minutes on 9/11.

Maybe because I was just out of intensive care with a severe head injury/concussion; I don't know.

I remember feeling regret for the people; and then I moved on. It was the same sort of regret/grief I feel over the people in our nation hurt by domestic violence, or violence of any kind, or poverty, neglect, or other abuse.

I remember feeling angry a while later, knowing that the country's fear and anger would serve as a tool for GWB. And angry that the WTC was a bigger deal to America than the 2,225 or so people, birth to age 19, that would be homicide victims by our own hands that year, (according to the CDC), not to mention the adult homicides. Angry that we could be outraged, grieved, and fearful of hate and violence directed from outside our borders, while we accepted the hate and violence inside our borders, among our own citizens, as the status quo. That we could pour so much energy, so many dollars, and so many lives, towards "revenge" for the WTC, while letting hate run rampant at home.

To this day, I still don't recognize the towers automatically. When I see a picture of them, it takes a moment to identify them, and then I'm filled with the same dismay and anger I was back in September '01.

[Bertha Venation]

39. still waiting... also waiting for the memory of seeing smoke from the Pen-

-tagon to stop shocking me. Also waiting for the sight/sound of F-16s flying their patterns over my house to stop shocking me. Also waiting for the realization that my beloved heard the plane hit the Pentagon to stop shocking me.

IOW never, I think.

[amazona]

42. oh it bothers me to this day

I have very little access to visual images since I watch few movies or TV, so to this day when I see the twin towers or the place where they were I can't help being reminded.

I think we need to arrest some people and have some criminals answer for their deeds for me to feel closure.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[bigwillq]

44. It still upsets me to go to NYC and not see them

On TV or film, i get angry when I see the Towers b/c I know it was a preventable disaster.

[skygazer]

45. It hasn't stopped yet

I don't think it ever will. Every single time, it makes me sad and wistful. I have a framed photo of myself sitting on the railing on the roof of the south tower - I'm so grateful to have that tangible proof that I was there.

[Stop_the_War]

46. It never did and never will...

Honestly I thought the whole censorship of images of the WTC in movies and such after 9/11 was very silly.