Bin Laden’s Death Brings Back Powerful 9/11 Memories

Published May 3, 2011

The Twin Towers stood tall in this photo from the 1970s. (AP)

The Twin Towers stood tall in this photo from the 1970s. (AP)

With Osama bin Laden’s death, many of us thought back to the event that seared the terrorist mastermind into America’s consciousness. Sept. 11 was on the mind of much of the world Monday, including WBUR News Director Martha Little, whose view of the LA skyline was drastically altered.

After the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers, the world sat in shock. Like many others, Jonathan Bohan was concerned for friends and family in New York.

Bohan remembers “frantically worrying about my cousin whom I mistakenly thought worked in the towers,” he wrote on WBUR’s Facebook page.

Barb Moser’s son was a sophomore at New York University. “I couldn’t reach him because the phone lines were jammed,” Moser wrote on Facebook. “He finally got through to me about six hours later. I was never happier to hear his voice.”

Some shared with us stories of people they lost.

“I remember most vividly the moment I learned that my friend John Ogonowski was the captain on Flight 11 which was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center,” Sonya Dunne wrote on Facebook.

“I lost my brother on 9/11/01 in South tower,” commenter Mflenihan wrote. “It was horrible then and continues to be for our family and the world. My mother has never been the same.”

Ten years after the attacks, it’s sometimes hard to remember just how scared we all were. We had no idea what the attacks were about, or where they might strike next.

[pullquote author = “commenter Mflenihan”] “It was horrible then and continues to be for our family and the world. My mother has never been the same.”[/pullquote]

WBUR’s Fred Thys remembers the world glued to its TVs and radios. After learning the news, Thys was assigned to head to Logan to cover the story from there.

“I ran to my car shouting repeatedly, ‘Oh, my God!'” Thys wrote. “In those days, before the I-90 Connector tunnel was open, it could take an hour to get to Logan. I made the trip in eight minutes. No one was on Boston’s roads.”

Some recalled other specific scenes.

“If someone was crying on the T or on the street, people stopped to comfort them,” Gretchen van Ness wrote on Facebook. “People asked complete strangers, ‘Did you lose anyone?’ and wanted to know the answer. I think it was at least a week before I heard a car horn again.”

Matthew Juros said he remembered “the silence of skies without air traffic.”

That fateful day is burned into the memory of most of us. It always will be.

“Can still feel the sun and see the clear blue sky and have the images from TV replaying in my head today,” commenter Shakespearegoddess wrote.

How do you remember 9/11? Share your story in the comments or on WBUR’s Facebook page.