Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was on the city bus riding downtown to go to law school. The city bus has a certain character and cast of characters. Of course the loud drunk, the young mother with her brood of children, the nodding addict, the schitzophrenic, the homeless--if they are lucky to have the change. The conversation may be rich material for aspiring writers, but it's generally ignored by the everyday rider. On this morning, I was sitting in the middle, towards the back and overheard a man talking wildly about a plane hitting the trade towers in New York City. At first I was inclined to let it wash over me--could I approach the mellowness of a busdriver? But the more I listened and then heard about the second plane, I physically turned around in my seat, and listened to what he was saying. I made an immediate mental plan to head for the student lounge with the cable tv instead of my classroom. The instant I stepped off the bus I was striding towards the lounge, already populated by student zombies. Dead silence but for the news anchor's updates. I dashed to the phones but they were all occupied. Then I headed for the computer lab to email my parents. I begged a classmate I recognized to let me use his computer. I was finally able to talk to my mother when a classmate let me use her cellphone. The land lines were jammed. By this time, once I was back from the computer lab, the second tower had come down and there was a buzz about bombs at the state department. I told my mother not to worry for me because I was in Baltimore and not to worry about Dad because the terrorists were picking high profile targets, not unknown defense department installations. In my mind were images of tall silver escalators, the Ann Taylor, trees in the winter garden, the U.N. photo display ... things I had walked by last September. And memories of cocktails and swing dancing with my friends at the top of the Trade Tower (South?) before my friend's wedding the next day. Outside my classmate was falling apart; her former boyfriend worked near the top of the tower where the first plane hit. She had no doubt that he would have been at work that day. We stood around in stoney silence, with our arms around her. One classmate was a Marine; she said she was "pissed." A note was taped to the door canceling Van Alstine's Contracts class. Outside, then inside at the lounge, through the hallways, searching clusters of people for friends I could gather with, wandering around. I barely knew anyone. No close friends. School had just started. My long distance boyfriend was far from my side. I did not want to get on a city bus to go back to my apartment, what would I do there? I would not consider taking a train south through DC to head home to Virginia. What could I do but watch CNN in the student lounge? Plumes of black smoke rose from the Pentagon. The tower kept falling down! Falling down on the television screen! There were still several planes in the air. There were reports of a bomb at the State Department. And the sky had been such a beautiful shade of blue. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10517.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-04-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 141.157.47.162 Notes Notes about this item. On August 14, 2006, a few slight changes were made to this story after the Archive received an email from the contributor requesting that the changes be made. Here is the text of her email: From: sarahbeth@alumni.virginia.edu Subject: correction to my story submission (04/01/04) Date: April 12, 2006 3:15:34 PM EDT To: info@911digitalarchive.org Two things to add/change: 1) I still dont know what floor my classmate's ex-boyfriend was working on, but it was not the 115th. I know it was towards the top and somewhere very near where the first plane hit. I came up with 115 since it was close to what I thought was the top of the building. My story should be edited to reflect this. Here's what I suggest. ".......Outside my classmate was falling apart; her former boyfriend worked near the top of the tower where the first plane hit. She had no doubt that he would have been at work that day. We stood around........" 2) I did not include the fact that we thought there had been a bomb at the state department. I somehow left this out of my story, but in fact it was a concern at the time. Here's how the story could be changed: "....There were still several planes in the air. There were reports of a bomb at the State Department. And the sky had been such a beautiful shade of blue." Sarah Beth Richardson