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Joined: Jun 2001
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I started seeing news reports just before I left home. I dropped my daughter off at the day care center, where a bunch of us parents watched TV coverage for a few minutes. I remember wondering out loud if the towers would collapse. None of us knew the answer.
I left and drove to my first customer, a church. No one there, so I called the pastor, who said he was consoling members, and we would have to re-schedule.
I called my next customer, who was home, and drove there. On the way, my Dad called me and said this was big. He realized right away the extent this would change the country.
I arrived to find a Brambach Grand with a few broken whip spring cords. By this time, the towers had fallen. We all watched the TV as I worked.
I cancelled my other two stops, and the phone was slow for 3 weeks. People were in shock.
My deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones and those who suffered from injuries.
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Joined: Apr 2005
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I was driving in to work and heard an NPR report that some small plane apparently had crashed into the WTC. They did not make a big deal of it. By the time I got into my office, however, it was a much bigger deal.
I spent part of the day moving my mother into a new apartment, and the rest of it trying to contact the family of a friend who worked in the WTC.
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Joined: Mar 2009
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At the time I was working in an autoparts store. We had a tv in one section and began to watch the news after the first building was hit. Several customers were in the store and watching by the time the second tower was hit.
Many customers stayed and watched as the Pentagon was hit and then the towers fell.
We were all guessing about the first plane being an accident, but when the second plane hit, we knew it wasn't accidental.
When the towers fell my heart did too. I spent 14 years as a fire fighter. I knew that these brave men and women went into those towers to help people out, and gave thier lives trying to help. My heart went out to those who lost loved ones.
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Joined: Nov 2007
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I was tuning a piano in someone's home when it began. She happened to have the television on. I got up, went into the room and watched with her for a while. We didn't say much. I didn't have much tuning to do yet so I finished the tuning and went onto the next job. By that time, the 2nd plane hit. I knew after the 2nd plane crash that something was amiss. I, like the rest of us just didn't know what else we were in for yet. I finished the 2nd tuning and decided to go home to my wife and family cancelling the remainder of the day spending it with them instead feeling that was much more important than anything else at that time.... Watching the towers collapse was horrible. People running everywhere trying to escape the debris and clouds of smoke and crud that was following closely behind them. It is so sad, that people kill others with so little thought behind it.
Jerry Groot RPT Piano Technicians Guild Grand Rapids, Michigan www.grootpiano.comWe love to play BF2.
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Joined: Apr 2005
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I was working for Chrysler then and was at work...started at 6am. Someone mentioned they heard that a plane had crashed into the WTC. We had TV's with company programing on it and they broadcast the news reports, everyone just walked around with a empty look... headed home around noon. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years...
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 4,028
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On September 11, 1952, I was in the hospital being born. On 9-11-2001, I was a bit late going to work that morning, so I had not turned on the TV for news in the morning as I usually would. When I got in the car, the news was on the radio and it sounded to me like Orson Wells' "War of the Worlds". There was one incredible sounding report after another. During the drive to the first appointment, there was the "Another plane has hit the second tower", then "Now, a plane (or bomb, they did not know which) has hit the Pentagon".
I went to the first appointment where the door had been left open for me. (I know that seems odd to people in many other places but it is commonly done around here and no, this is not "Mayberry USA" as one person thought when I wrote that). I put my tools down and turned on the nearby TV. I watched for a bit, turned off the sound then struggled to get the piano tuned. When I finished, I turned up the sound and Peter Jennings was saying, "It appears that the second tower will collapse any moment" (or something to that effect). In another moment, it did. It was an incredible sight and a voice in the background was heard to curse using words that would never be allowed on broadcast TV. It was very evident that it was a live broadcast without even a 10 second delay for that kind of thing.
I cancelled the rest of the day's appointments and went home and watched TV the rest of the day.
September 11 was never a good day for a birthday because it comes right when all the Fall activities are beginning and everybody is focused on that. Now, for 10 years, it has been absolutely the worst day! For PTG members who may know him, Ben McKlveen RPT shares this day as a birthday. He is well into his 80's now.
Today is no different as far as it not being a good day for a birthday celebration. I had tried to invite several friends and put the 9-11 tragedy in the background. Only one could make it because all of the others were either singing or performing in the 9-11 memorial concert or had some participation in the downtown triathelon event. "Couldn't you have it later or on another day, they asked? I'd love to come but I just can't make it that day." Next weekend will be a big football game weekend and the first symphony orchestra concert, so my birthday party will be held two weeks from today.
Almost everybody I know will either be attending or performing in the 9-11 memorial concert at 3 PM today, so that is where I'll be and some of us will go out to dinner afterwards and then some will come over later for a few festivities but really, I wish my birthday could have been just about any other day than today.
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,713
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We Remember, Grieve. Victims of tragedy in our hearts forever. IN GOD WE TRUST.
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Joined: May 2010
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I had started working shortly after the first plane had hit. Like most people I figure it must have been a cessna. I was working on the west side of manhattan and had a clear view of both towers when the second was hit, and we now knew something was very wrong.My best friend worked in the 2nd tower on the 77th floor and I called her to tell her she should leave the building, but I only got her voicemail. I tried to keep my mind on the job at hand but when the first tower fell, It was impossible to go on. I had to reschedule. I lived in Jersey city at the time and the only way back was on the ferry as no trains were running anywhere in the city. I will never forget how quiet the city was. It was so surreal as NYC is always full of noise and activity. No one was talking much and the few that did were soft about it. As luck would have it, My friend was late for work because she stopped to vote before she went in. So while sad about the days events. I was relieved she was ok.
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,671
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I was on the road driving to my first tuning. Turned on a morning talk show and instead of the normal talk banter, heard them talking about a plane hitting the WTC. I called my wife and told her to turn on the news and see what was going on. At the time, everyone was still thinking it was a freak accident. Little did we know what was to come.
Not long after that, she called and told me the second hit. At that point I knew we were under attack and started wondering how big it was. By the time I got to my first tuning, they were talking about the plane hitting the Pentagon. I still remember the feeling; it was scary.
By the time the plane went down in Shanksville, I was near the Pittsburgh area, and at that point it got personal, since it hit so close to home. I cancelled my tunings for the rest of the day and went home. Pianos just didn't seem to matter then.
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 37
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On September 11, 2001, I arrived at my train stop for work, walked down two blocks in the village (NYC) and saw the towers. One was engulfed in flames. As I stood on the sidewalk, and thought, 'Con Edison (utilities company) is going to be in big trouble for this', the second plane hit the other tower with a tremendous thud and it too was engulfed in flames,the top covered with black smoke and flames that resembled a mushroom cloud. I collapsed on the sidewalk, phoned my mom at home and asked her to turn on the news. She informed me that the Twin Towers were attacked by planes. I then proceeded to hyperventilate and shake. The image of the towers engulfed in flames have scarred my soul. I was eleven years old when the Towers' stumps evolved from the first stage of building. I am a much older adult now and lived to also see them destroyed along with the many innocents. Words cannot describe that day but the day and the days that followered showed NYC at its finest. Born and raised here, I always left to live elsewhere due to my own hate/love relationship with the city and the high desparity between the haves and haves not but always returned to my anchor. Although my feelings towards the city have not changed that day showed NYC in its most compassionate, endearing state that has left, not a scar, but an imprint of hope and endurance in my soul.
anelemc.wordpress.com
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 2,481
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My father was born 9/11 1926 and is 85 today. He says that incident has ruined every one of his birthdays since, or at the least, casts a gloom over it that it never had before. I was hunting that day in the hills and did not know about it until driving home at around 7 pm and hearing it on the radio. I had this strange feeling all day though that something was wrong because I didn't see a single plane flying and the small town I could look down on from the hills was eerily quiet with less than normal traffic.
Piano Technician George Brown College /85 Niagara Region
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 121
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In 1974 I was a member of the Navy Band in Brooklyn, NY, at the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. We did a gig at the WTC, and one of the neat things about that gig was they took us up to the top floor, which at the time was not finished, just a big open room. Fantastic views of the New York area. The WTC holds a special memory of my time in Brooklyn because of this. On Sept 11, 2001, I was at work at Westminster in Princeton, NJ, and my wife was at her job at a public school. Many of the parents from both of our schools work in New York, and the look of fear and despair we saw on the face of the students is something we will never forget.
Dave Forman Piano Technician, Westminster Choir College of Rider University
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,677
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At the first report I felt that a plane hitting a large building on perfect VFR (visual flight rules) day was no accident, and I had a strong suspicion that it was an act of war, and exactly who was behind it. Sadly, I was right on every suspicion.
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Joined: Nov 2007
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I was late to work and took the R train in to Manhattan. I probably passed under the WTC about a quarter to nine, since I got to Steinway Hall at nine. We all listened to the radio trying to figure it out, and then went outside. From 57th St. you could look down 6th avenue and just see the tops of the towers until the smoke obscured the view. We knocked off work, and tried to get home. I ended up walking the 7 or 8 miles back to Brooklyn. Only one TV station came in (no, I didn't have cable) since all the others had their antennas destroyed. Lousy times.
Zeno Wood, Piano Technician Brooklyn College
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Joined: Apr 2005
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Thanks for sharing everyone.... God Bless America
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 1,633
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I was with my father and 3 others in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was 10 a.m., and we had just walked into the Mason & Hamlin piano factory for our scheduled tour. Our tour guide was there waiting for us and said, "It's too bad you have to visit us while the U.S. is under attack." My first thought was, "What the heck is this guy talking about?"
I had been visiting my parents on Cape Cod, where we left early on that beautiful cloudless morning for Haverhill. We decided to leave early to beat the traffic and find the factory. We arrived very early, so stopped into a doughnut shop for a bite to eat. All this time, we never had a radio on, and the doughnut shop didn't, either.
At the factory, the TV was showing footage of the Pentagon on fire...but it still didn't register with us the severity of what had happened. We were given the tour anyway. The workers kept working, but there were radios on. One of the workers had a daughter who worked in one of the Twin Towers.
After the tour, we looked for some place to have lunch...not knowing that most of Boston had shut down. We did find a place...can't remember where it was or what I ate. It was jammed with people, with lots of televisions on...but we couldn't really hear, and only got bits and pieces of info from our waitress.
It wasn't until we got back to the Cape mid-afternoon where I was able to sit down and watch the TV coverage. In hind-sight, I'm glad I didn't watch everything as it happened.
I've lost count of how many tuning customers lost relatives or friends at the Trade Center.
Eric Gloo Piano Technician Certified Dampp-Chaser Installer Richfield Springs, New York
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Joined: Jul 2009
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I was in a project management training course that day, ten colleagues and a facilitator, completely isolated from the rest of the world. When I got out of the course at 17h00 local time (7 hours ahead of New York), I went to my company's recreational facility to have a drink. There, inside the pub, I saw the burning and collapsing towers on the TV. I remember my utter horror, and my words to the barman: "This isn't some accident. This is war."
I have hardly any recollection of the training course, but the moments in the pub are etched into my mind. I cannot even conceive what these events did to the American psyche. I wish you well.
Bill:
I did see the little birthday cake icon next to your name yesterday, and I didn't know whether (or how) to congratulate you. Even though this day will be forever tainted, nothing can take away your worth as a person. God bless.
Autodidact interested in piano technology. 1970 44" Ibach, daily music maker. 1977 "Ortega" 8' + 8' harpsichord (Rainer Schütze, Heidelberg)
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I was still working for a retail music operation. On the day we were transferring the remainder of container load of Chinese pianos to a smaller storage unit. The gal who work at the storage unit came out into the yard and told about the first plane and came back out later told about the second plane. At this point I turn the radio on our truck and listen to CBC coverage. Didn't really sink in until I got home and seen the TV coverage. We had 1 employee that came to work for us about a year and a half afterwards, he had been training to become an air traffic controller and the school when bankrupt before he graduated. He was unable to complete his course. He was working at Pearson Airport ATC in Toronto the day after 9/11. He said it was weird looking at a radar screen and not having any air planes in the air.
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Joined: Aug 2011
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Only one TV station came in (no, I didn't have cable) since all the others had their antennas destroyed. Lousy times. Yes, it was WCBS. They were the only station to keep a backup transmitter at the Empire State Building. All the engineers who had transmitter duty that day died. (I work for CBS Television Studios, then known as CBS/Paramount.)
Last edited by JohnSprung; 09/12/11 03:12 PM.
-- J.S. Knabe Grand # 10927 Yamaha CP33 Kawai FS690
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