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I'm sure many of us remember where we were when the news reached us of 9/11 and watched/listened to the news unfolded over the next several hours. This interview with actor/comedian Ray Romano talks about his memories of the day, as he and his fellow cast members from "Everybody Loves Raymond" (who were in NYC for a media tour of the major talk shows), tried to cope with what they saw and heard.
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We were in our second week of the radio broadcasting program at Belleville's Loyalist College; I had just started my first year. I'd noticed the TVs just down the hall (television broadcasting program) were on CNN, and someone came into our classroom relaying the news. Everyone was understandably shocked, and the rest of the day - and probably the week for that matter - was all a blur.
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I was still asleep (was very pregnant and had lost my job earlier in the summer, so I had a good excuse to sleep in). Heard the news flash on 680 and was briefly confused because I thought the WTC was in Chicago. Went downstairs, turned on the TV to Breakfast Television and saw Kevin Frankish with the breaking news.
My husband worked at the Toronto Star printing plant at the time, and he got called into work as they were running an extremely rare afternoon edition. I still have the copies of the papers that he brought home that day and for the next few days.
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I was in the car driving to a meeting listening to Howard Stern talking about Pamela Anderson and then suddenly it all changed.
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I was driving up to CKVR in Barrie. Hearing about the first plane hitting one of the towers was a "wow" moment. A little later, hearing about the second plane was an Oh Sh*t moment.
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I had just been called into a general staff meeting and the company president informed us that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade towers. I immediately thought of something like pilot error because back in 1945 a plane had flown into the Empire State Building. We soon learned this was no pilot error.
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I was working at Scotia Plaza at Bay and King West.
A coworker told me about the second tower falling at 10:30 am and I went to the New York Times site on my computer.
At 11 I went down to the concourse level where Scotia Plaza connects to First Canadian Place and the large area was packed with people silently watching the the multiple large screens showing what had happened and was still happening in New York.
Scotia Plaza, First Canadian Place, the TD and CIBC buildings, were all considered to be possible targets for more planes by the authorities so in an unprecedented move, workers were sent home just after lunch. I volunteered to be one of the ones to stay and deal with any client calls. They sent us home around 2pm.
Walking home mid-afternoon in the almost completely deserted PATH felt unreal.
The images and stories I would see and find online for months and months afterwards were incredibly tragic and sad. I saw the photo of the falling man on a social media post today and it's just as powerful all these years later.
Sidebar: I really appreciated the time and thought both John Moore and Jerry Agar put into how they individually covered the anniversary this morning.
Last edited by betaylored (September 11, 2024 6:01 pm)
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Here's a media assembly of the event for those who want to re-experience the ghoulish tension of watching it live.
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Scary thing is, it almost happened here in Toronto this year! Thankfully a Father son team was caught and arrested.
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My memory of this day is that I almost don't have one.
I was working the later shift at my TV newsroom, and wasn't due in until 2 PM that day. But I was working remotely from home on the station's website as I often did. Nearly every time I did this, I had the radio or TV on to monitor the news I'd be dealing with later on. This is probably the one time I turned off everything.
Just before 9 AM, the phone rang. It was my co-producer at work, who yelled into the phone, "a plane just hit the World Trade Center!" I ran to the nearest set and watched the U.S. coverage, and a few minutes later the second plane hit - the moment almost everyone realized this wasn't an accident.
I grabbed a quick bite and then ran to the car, heading downtown. I remember listening to Bill Carroll trying to cover this unfolding nightmare on CFRB and even he was lost for words.
I made it into work by 11 AM and after that - well, let's just say I looked up and it was 11:30 at night. I know what happened that day and some of the stories we did, but I have no memory of anything I wrote or put up on the site. It was so traumatic a day and so busy, to this day it's all just a blur.
We did a great job that day. I just wish I could remember it.