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italicize first paragraph, maybe we could use the Facebook logo in this story.

Intelligencer readers: Share their recollections, thoughts

'We watched as the world changed'

JEROME LESSARD

The Intelligencer

The following comments and observations from Quinte residents were

gathered on The Intelligencer's Facebook page over the first week of

September.

Stephanie Uens-Murray was driving to work when she heard the news on the

radio that two planes had hit the World Trade Centre in New York City.

We closed the office for the day and we watched as the world changed, shesaid.

Like thousands of people across the world, Uens-Murray's perceptions of the

world changed on Sept. 11, 2001.

I was at work at the hospital and as I was walking past the patient's lounge I

stopped to watch as the second plane flew into the tower, said Carol Lusk.

It was unbelievable to watch all those people die in front of my eyes. My

son lived in Los Angeles at the time and I couldn't get hold of him because all

the lines were jammed. At that time they thought a plane was heading forthere. What a distressing time.

Rachael Tracey wrote to recall she was 10 years old when her Grade 5

teacher told her and her classmates that massive buildings in New York were

under attack.

Like Tracey, Katie Caslick was at school that morning.

I will never forget, I was in business class and our teacher got called away

and never came back, she said. (The teacher's) relative was in one of the

towers when the first plane hit. We were the first class to find out. It was then

announced over the PA system and most people were sent home. We didn't

realize how big it was until we got home.

Jeff Freeburn was getting his satellite dish hooked up that day.

I remember turning it to CNN to see if it was working and the technician

and I thought we had a movie channel and changed it only to find out it was

all real, said Freeburn.

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Elizabeth Schillings-McLennan was inspired by the tragedy to search for

her biological father.

I spoke to him a week later and met him later that year, she said. From

great tragedy, wonder.

Schillings-McLennan was waiting tables when she first heard about the 9/11

attacks.When the news that a plane had sailed into the towers came over the radio,

all conversation and activity stopped, she said. When a table full of Ontario

Hydro execs got up, tossed bills on the table, and left without another word.

It occurred to all of us that something was very, very wrong.

Phyllis Waite remembers crying all alone in her apartment while watching the

tragedy unfold live on CNN.

I was sitting in my living room, folding clothes when the newscast broke

into the program I was watching that morning, commented Waite. I thoughtit was some horrible accident. I remember my horror as I realized I was

watching another plane going into a second building.

For the first moments, I thought I was watching the repeat of the first plane.

I changed the channel to CNN and sat with the same t-shirt I was folding still

clutched in my hands until well into the afternoon. I was simply in total

disbelief. I remember feeling alone, sad and simply helpless.

Cindy King got married four days before New York City and Washington,

D.C. were attacked.I was at work that day and staff starting later that day told us the news, she

commented. I will never forget it.

Laura Phieffer Turriff was at Zwicks Park in Belleville with her kids on Sept.

11, 2001. She thinks about that day every time she sees a plane in the sky.

The sky was the most beautiful blue, not one cloud, said Turriff. I had

taken the kids to the park, it was the last day before my oldest started school

for the very first time (her daughter is now in high school). Then more and

more people were talking about it (terrorist attacks) at the park but it was too

unbelievable. By the time I got home, the whole world had changed. We were

glued to the news for quite a while.

Ashley Wight was in Grade 10 at the time.

I was in history class, she commented. A teacher knocked on our class

door, and peeked his head in. He looked so disturbed, and quietly talked to

our teacher in the hallway. Then our teacher told us what happened, and then

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the PA system went on, and it was announced.

Usually when the bell rings for lunch or for a new class, the hallways are

crowded and so loud. But that day, when the bell rang, it was so quiet. You

could literally hear a pin drop. It was so quiet, and eerie. Everyone was

shocked. Everyone's faces were blank.