We were standing on the front...

Item Information

Title:
We were standing on the front...
Date:
April 2013
Format:
Documents
Genre:
texts (documents)
Location:
Northeastern University Library
Collection (local):
Our Marathon
Series:
"Your Story"
Subjects:
Boston Marathon Bombing, Boston, Mass., 2013
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Link to Item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20265536
Terms of Use:
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Requests for permission to publish material should be addressed to Northeastern University Library's Digital Scholarship Group (dsg@neu.edu).
Contact host institution for more information.
Language:
English
Notes:
Item Text: We were standing on the front "patio" of an Boylston apartment next to the Walgreens, between Fairfield and Gloucester, looking towards the finish line when I heard the first boom, which my brain thought was a cannon until I saw the big cloud of white smoke that came with it. I immediately thought there was a structural collapse. The second boom seemed so much later (time really slowed down in our confusion) but was only about 10-12 seconds later, and I saw the explosion of fire and smoke and heard the shattering glass sound and everyone on the street began to scream and run. As the second blast was so much closer to us, I knew it wasnt accidental and my mind instantly believed/decided that the whole street was timed to blow in succession (first bomb between D and E, second between E and F) and we would be next, between F and G. We ran for the door, screaming, terrified, fumbling for the keys and our whole group of 10 or 12 people (including one runner that had finished shortly before), plus several random people off the street, poured into a small back apartment and waited, praying not to hear more blasts. We tried to get any news on TV but it took a few minutes for the programs to shift over to coverage and once they did, it was just unedited footage of the street awash in blood. I started to cry at the point and some folks cried while others just sat stunned, too shocked to feel anything. A man and his son had come inside with us from the street and were frantically trying to find their wife/mom, who had just finished running, and they found her safe after a bit, via cell. The boy was only 9 or so and I kept saying "don't look, don't look" to him but we were all glued to the TV. Suddenly we heard a voice in the hall saying we had to evacuate and all filed out into the hall. A uniformed BPD officer was coming down from a higher floor and wanted us to go out the back door but there was none. He took us out the front and police and SWAT were everywhere and escorted us as we ran down the sidewalk to the corner of Gloucester and then kept goung back to Newbury and then Comm Ave. There were so many people by time we got to Comm Ave, runners, families, Back Bay neighbors. When we stopped to regroup and plan, a runner stopped in the middle of our group, he had no idea where he was. Everyone was dazed and crying.
Notes (acquisition):
This story was collected by the Boston Globe in the days immediately following the Boston Marathon Bombing. GlobeLab collected these anonymous stories on the Boston.com website and donated them to the Our Marathon Archive. We are grateful for this contribution, which gives insight into how Bostonians and visitors to the city understood the bombing events in their immediate aftermath.