Eleven Years Later: Where Were You When You Heard About the Towers?

What do you remember about the morning of Sept. 11, 2001?

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was out of my rhythm. I was a student at a new college and needed to get my parking pass. I went to campus early and found that filling out the paperwork took me less time than I expected. With an hour left between receiving my parking sticker and my first class, I wandered over to a club room to pass some time. As I approached, I heard a TV on—a strange sound in that normally-quiet hallway. It sounded like a fake news broadcast in a move. I ducked my head in to find two of my clubmates sitting on the couch and watching the rarely-used TV. I saw the smoke and the towers and asked them what movie they were watching. They told me it was real. I spent the rest of the day glued to one television set or …

•  6 Comments
• Photos (1)

Matt M. Casey

9:30 am on Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Wow. That's an exceptionally heavy day. I'm glad you made came back from it.   more ›

Leaning Forward from Bunker Hill

9/11: It's About the People, Not the Politics

The legacy of 9/11 should be a memorial to each and every soul lost on that fateful day.

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 came and went, I had an unnerving feeling about the last decade in terms of our country and how to best honor the heroes of that fateful day.  Certainly, much has transpired and it cannot be argued that our world is not, in many ways, as it was before the attack. We have sacrificed some of our liberties in the interest of national security and of course, our foreign policy has dramatically shifted, costing billions upon billions of dollars a year.  There is much controversy surrounding the events, and I myself am guilty of engaging in them. But, for one day, it is appropriate to not discuss such issues. Not because debate and provocative thought is to be discouraged, but such provocative discussions, even …

• Photos (1)

9/11 Memorial in City Square Draws Crowd

Politicians, clergymen, and community organizers spoke and musicians played to a crowd of well over 100 people on Sunday.

Community members and officials gathered on Sunday to honor and remember the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks at a memorial service put together by the Friends of City Square Park, Gardens For Charlestown and the Charlestown Mothers Association.  The service began with a procession by the Charlestown Militia and a bagpiper, and Annette Tecce of Friends of City Square Park gave opening remarks.  "I encourage all of us to perform one good deed in honor of 9/11," she said, and also gave special recognition to Myra Joy Aronson, a Charlestown resident who died in the attacks. City Councillors Sal LaMattina, Steve Murphy, and Ayanna Pressley were also all at the event, and each one spoke. State Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty was present as well. O'…

• Photos (14)

9/11 Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Public Garden

A public wreath laying ceremony, hosted by the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund, was held Sunday morning at the Public Garden's 9/11 Memorial site.

As the sun rose over Boston, a large crowd gathered in the Public Garden to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.  Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston Police, EMS, armed forces, and pilots were among those in the somber gathering.  Three thousand small flags had been placed in the surrounding lawn the night prior to symbolize the lives that were lost 10 years ago. Bouquets, single flowers and small stones rested near the granite memorial as the ceremony began. Mayor Menino called for a moment of silence and then helped bring forward a large wreath of white roses. Before the moment of silence as well as after it, the crowd remained noiseless. The mayor stepped aside as he asked for any family and friends of the victims to come forward to …

• Photos (18)

PHOTOS: City Hall Dedicates Banner to 9/11 Victims

The 20-by-30-foot banner will hang in Boston City Hall for a week.

• Photos (10)

VIDEO: 10 Years After Searching Ground Zero

On Sept. 11, 2001, Boston firefighter Pat Nichols traveled with the New England Urban Search and Rescue Team to Ground Zero. He looks back on a week of searching the rubble as a defining moment for him.

Emmet "Pat" Nichols is a commander at Tower Ladder 10 in Jamaica Plain and a member of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Team -- a sort of National Guard service for emergency responders. Hours after the planes struck the Twin Towers, Nichols and the rest of his rescue team were deployed to Ground Zero. He spent a long week there, searching the rubble for survivors. Ten years later, he reflected on how the experience changed his relationship with his job and with his family.

•  1 Comment
• Videos (1)

PHOTOS: The Faces of 9/11

A look at some Bostonians affected by 9/11.

The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 are still fresh for many Bostonians. The above galleries highlights just a few of those affected by the attacks a decade ago.

• Photos (6)

9/11: Remembering Myra Joy Aronson

The Russell Street resident died aboard Flight 11. She was a public relations professional, a music lover and a Francophile to the core.

Myra Joy Aronson, 50, left her condo on Russell Street early on Sept. 11, 2001 to board American Airlines Flight 11. She was a public relations professional and an adjunct professor at Emerson College, and was headed to California for an industry conference. Around 8:45 a.m., she died with the other 91 people aboard the plane when it crashed into the North Tower at the World Trade Center. She left behind many friends, colleagues, her mother, Evelyn, of St. Louis, a brother, Jules, of Bethesda, Md.; and two sisters, Elyse Van Breedan of Clearwater, Fla., and Deborah of St. Louis. Aronson had been a Charlestown resident for years. Before buying her condo on Russell Street, she lived on Monument Street with a boyfriend. She had done public …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)