where were you 7 years ago

[cbs102]

My mom would always say she remembers exactly where she was and what she was doing when kennedy was assasinated. Where were you on September 11th 2001? what do you remember? and has it made a lasting impact?

I was in college and i actually slept right through the attacks. my bestfriend called me on the phone and woke me up. she was screaming "do you know how many people we knew.." i turned on the tv and every channel i turned to.. the WTC- GONE, the pentagon engulfed in flames and this field in PA was smoking. i was in total shock and in all honestly, i think that i am still.

I went into the city the day the fires went out... i think that it was in december. you could literally taste the air.. gritty and smokey. the sidewalks no longer sparkled, the cabs stopped honking, people were actually looking one another in the eye and smiling. that day in history changed me. I had a sever case of PTSD. I am still terrified everytime i say good bye to someone that it will be the last i see them. I never take people for granted anymore. I try to be the best person i can be, and love as hard as i can.. and i attribute it all to that day.

I think about what happened in 2001 alot. especially when i run into someone from my hometown who lost a parent, or when i am visiting my mom and see the gaping hole in the skyline. This day.. for the past 7 years has mades me fall to my knees with sorrow. I just want to feel the love today. and i would love to hear other people's experience of that day. it helps...

 

[Maisie]

I was living in Germany as a wife of a British soldier. I was watching tv (we only had one channel with UK programmes on it).

I remember seeing the first plane fly into the building and thinking ''boy someone is going to get into trouble for allowing that to happen.'' Then I saw the second plane hit and it dawned on me that it was a terrorist attack.

My husband at the time was flying back to England for a court case. He had flown via Brussels. He was stranded there for two days as there were no flights allowed in or out of Brussels due to the UN being there.

I was horrified at what happened.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I was also in college--I went to school in Washington, DC.

I had class that morning and I was getting ready when the news first broke of something crashing into the twin tower. D called me into the living room and we watched for a bit, then saw the second plane crash. I remember how I felt at that moment--eerie, surreal, scared.

I didn't know what to do, but my economics lass was really challenging, so I didn't want to miss it and left (I lived off campus). That's when the Pentagon was hit. There were so many rumors swirling, though, about a plane hitting the capitol and another plane crashing into The Mall. I went into class (I think I was in shock) and only half of the students knew what was going on...our professor didn't even know. He scolded those who came in late.

Finally somebody came into class and told us to get home ASAP, it wasn't safe.

The Metro had shut down by then, so I had to walk back to my apartment across the DC/MD border. It was chaos...you could see smoke from the Pentagon. All of the stores were closed, businesses were letting everybody go home, so the cars were all grid-locked on the streets. I couldn't call D to tell him I was safe because the cell phone networks failed. I had no idea if the rumor about the plane crashing into the Capitol building was true, but I interned on capitol hill, so I was worried about my collegues who would have been at work that day.

When I got home I just cried and cried. I still cry when I see the twin towers. I recently saw the documentary "Man on Wire" about the high-wire walker who illegally walked between the two towers and there was a lot of footage of the construction of them...I bawled. It's been 7 years, but feels like yesterday.

 

[elle_chris]

My husband (then fiance) and I were in California. He works for Deutsche Bank which was/is across from the trade towers site. A colleague called after the first plane hit and said put on the news. We saw the second plane hit on TV.
We were on a road trip NY to Cali. Got right back in the car and drove home only to find out we couldn''t get into our aparment. We lived (and came back to) in Battery Park City, right behind the World Financial Center.
The building directly in front of us was damaged.
A few weeks later they let us in (gave us 20 minutes) to get our stuff and get out. When we left on our trip, I had left the windows open. Our apartment was black. We just grabbed important documents and some items of sentimental value and left.
I stayed with my parents, my husband stayed at Duetsches recovery site in New Jersey where they put them up in a hotel for a few months.
I don''t like to talk about who we lost because the pain is still there.

This is the first year since I''ve been back in Battery Park that I chose to stay home instead of going to work. I''m glad I did. Thought I''d cry/be sad all over but me and my neighbor, who was here the day it happened, were both fine. Sad yes, but not hysterical like I was the first few years after the attack.

A very sad day in history.. but the pain, at least for me and my family, has subsided.

 

[Delster]

I spent that Summer on a J1 visa in the States and my job involved a lot of telephone conversations with a lot of people based in the WTC.

I got home on September 10 for my uni graduation and to start grad school. On 9/11 I was watching Sky News while ironing a blouse to wear to my conferring, and I saw the whole thing happen live. It was like the world stopped, my parents and I all just stood there staring at the TV. I think I held the iron in mid-air for like half an hour before putting it down. My Mam and I were crying watching the footage. It was a three hour drive to where my conferring was happening, on September 12, and the entire journey we listened to the news coverage on the radio. There was literally nothing else on any of the TV or radio channels.

Ireland had an official day of mourning on September 15, and my college graduation ball was moved to September 16 in recognition of that. A lot of my classmates were on J1 visas in New York and were stranded in JFK. They missed their conferrings. I remember the conferring being very sombre, everyone was so sad for what had happened.

I often think of those people I used to talk to in WTC and I wonder if any of them made it.

Among my parents' generation, every last one of them can tell you where they were when JFK was assassinated. For mine, we all know where we were when we Lady Di died, and when 9/11 happened.

Thinking of all those who lost loved ones, and of Americans generally, today.

 

[JSM]

I was actually getting off the ice (skating practice) and was taking off my skates as the second tower was hit.

My roommate and I took the el back to our dorms. I was in college in Chicago, all classes were cancelled and I was on the phone with relatives all day. The city was eerily silent. I''ll never forget how quiet the trains were that day.

I worked part time at an HR firm in downtown Chicago - they lost quite a few people in the towers that day. It was a very sad time.

 

[Kaleigh]

I was home. Hubby had taken the kids to school, so I slept in. My friend called to say what are we going to do? I didn''t know what she was talking about. I turned on the TV and was in horror. I said come pick me up, and we''ll go get the kids. They went to the same 2 schools. The girls school was happy to let the kids go. Then we drove to the boys school but they weren''t happy about releasing them, didn''t want to cause a panic. So we left and took the girls back to my house and waited till it was pick up time. My husband was evactuated from his building in Philly. He and a friend came home. We just were so panicked. Then I tried calling my friends in NYC, couldn''t get through to them. It was awful.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I was on the 51st Floor of the Sears Tower, working for a major financial institution. I has just walked into my office and a picture of the first tower was up on the big screen TVs we had all over the trading room. As I put down my bag and looked up again the second plane hit. We evacuated shortly after that...

 

[luckystar112]

I was asleep in my apartment. After the first plane hit a girl that I worked with called me freaking out saying that someone had bombed the word trade center again. I''m not even going to discuss how uneducated to world events I was back then because it is just so ridiculous.
Anyway, I turned on the tv just as the second tower fell. I spend the day at my ex''s parents house watching the news and talking to families.

The magnitude of it didn''t hit me for a very long time...but that''s how big events usually work for me. I didn''t cry until 2003 after the Commission report came out and I was reading the transcripts of the telephone conversations between flight attendants and the ground.

I actually had a dream about 9/11 before it happened. I think I posted it here once. I guess a lot of people had dreams about it before it happened. Of course, I just thought it was a weird dream at the time.

I''ll tell you one thing though...since this happened it has driven me crazy when people biatch about the security at airports. If only there had been a little bit more security that day.

 

[jcarlylew]

i was getting ready for work when my boss called me "don''t come into work, there''s been an terrible attack in NY" (i worked in d/t seattle, a major shopping hub for tourist).

I didnt believe him until i turned on tv

going back to the work the next day, being on the bus that was ususally busy and lively, was very quiet.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

I was a freshman in high school. I remember I got in a terrible fight with my mom and sister that morning. My sister drove me to class and we were yelling at each other the whole way to school. I walked into class fuming, but in about 60 seconds that fight seemed completely trivial.

When I walked in, my teacher had the radio on. At that point, only the first tower had been hit. We thought it was a terrible accident. Once the bell rang, my teacher decided to take us to the library to watch the coverage on tv. I''ll never forget the terrible gasps that I heard the moment we saw the second plane come swooping in, live on TV. I still shudder thinking about it.

I spent the rest of the day going from classroom to classroom, watching TV. Some of the other kids in school didn''t find out about it until lunch time. I think they should have sent us all home.. But oh well.

By the time I got home that afternoon, my mom, sisters, and I sat on the couch and cried, we couldn''t get a hold of my father who was in NYC for business at the time. It turns out his cell phone just wouldn''t work, we were lucky.

 

[Bia]

I was getting ready for class. I had just moved to NY two weeks prior--my grandmother and parents were in a frenzy all trying to call me at once.

I never got to school but instead went, with the lady I nannied for, to give blood at a local hospital--she and I will forever be close because of that single day in history. It was one of the most profound moments of my life that I will never forget.

 

[cbs102]

thank you all so much for your stories. i find them so interesting... all of us were at different stages in our lives but we all felt the impact.

 

[GoingCrazy29]

I had just walked into my English101 class at college when I heard people talking about planes hitting the WTC and pentagon- I thought they were talking about a movie until I asked what was happening.

My professor walked in and had no clue. We asked if we could turn on the TV and we told her what had happened. She flipped out and threw herself on the floor in hysterics- we had to get a professor from across the hall to come in to help her and she dismissed us. I still don''t know if she knew someone in the towers or if she just didn''t know how to handle the emotion we were all feeling.

My grandma was in NYC getting read to leave on a cruise, my dad called to tell me she was already on the boat- but had quite a view of what was happening. I was so thankful for her safety, but so outraged at those innocent lives that had been taken from their families. It was such a surreal time that I will never ever forget.

 

[joflier]

I remember a conversation I had the night before with my then boyfriend. 9/11 was his 18th birthday, and he was so down in the dumps. He said "I just know something bad is going to happen tomorrow. Something bad always happens on my birthday, and I can just feel it. Tomorrow is going to be a terrible day." And I just told him how silly that was to think that, and that he was going to have a great day.......that conversation just never leaves my head.

I was in class, and someone came running down to our rooms and said that the wtc had been hit by a plane. Then a few minutes later, they told everyone to head to the main auditorium, where we watched the live coverage on a big projector screen. I just remember feeling numb and horrified all at once.

The morning of 9/11, I remember walking to class (i had really early classes) and thinking that this has to be the most beautiful day. It had been cool and raining for days, and it was just feeling warm, all the grass and flowers were lovely and green from the rain, the sun was shining down and the sky was the clearest blue with no cloud in sight. I thought to myself later, how can the sun shine and the world over here look so beautiful, when in NY the air must be filled with smoke, sirens, and tears? It just didn''t seem right.

 

[CDNinNYC]

I used to be a flight attendant and was flying from Amsterdam - Halifax - Toronto that day. We (the crew) found out planes had crashed into the Twin Towers about an hour and half into our flight.

Our pilots asked the Amsterdam Control Towers for permission to turn around and land back in Amsterdam but were refused.

We continued with our on-board service, not letting on anything to our passengers, as we flew across the Atlantic.

It was not until we touched down in Halifax and that the Captain made an announcement to the passengers about what happened. We were ''lucky'' we had a scheduled arrival that day and were able to get a gate relatively quickly. Many airlines were forced to deviate from their flight plans and land in Halifax. These planes had to sit on the tarmack for hours waiting to get a gate.

We stayed in Halifax for two days as there were no planes allowed to take off during that time. There were so many flights grounded in Halifax, hotels/motels were full and many of our passengers had to stay in school gyms/church basements.

I remember our crew being glued to the television, watching CNN nonstop while stranded in Halifax. It was a terribly sad, emotional, horrific time.

 

[Linda W]

Date: 9/11/2008 1:11:09 PM
Author: elle_chris
My husband (then fiance) and I were in California. He works for Deutsche Bank which was/is across from the trade towers site. A colleague called after the first plane hit and said put on the news. We saw the second plane hit on TV.

We were on a road trip NY to Cali. Got right back in the car and drove home only to find out we couldn''t get into our aparment. We lived (and came back to) in Battery Park City, right behind the World Financial Center.

The building directly in front of us was damaged.

A few weeks later they let us in (gave us 20 minutes) to get our stuff and get out. When we left on our trip, I had left the windows open. Our apartment was black. We just grabbed important documents and some items of sentimental value and left.

I stayed with my parents, my husband stayed at Duetsches recovery site in New Jersey where they put them up in a hotel for a few months.

I don''t like to talk about who we lost because the pain is still there.


This is the first year since I''ve been back in Battery Park that I chose to stay home instead of going to work. I''m glad I did. Thought I''d cry/be sad all over but me and my neighbor, who was here the day it happened, were both fine. Sad yes, but not hysterical like I was the first few years after the attack.


A very sad day in history.. but the pain, at least for me and my family, has subsided.

Ella, I am so sorry. Hugs to you.


Linda

 

[strmrdr]

I had a really bad toothache and had a dentist appointment scheduled for later that day so took off work.
I woke up and turned on the the tv and saw one tower burning then saw the other plane hit.
I called my family and work to make sure they were ok and to tell them to turn on the tv.
I sat in stunned disbelief for hours while loading and cleaning my guns then went and had a root canal done on the tooth.
When I walked into the dentists office everyone was sitting in the lobby in front of a small tv and crying.
They didn''t comment when I took my jacket with me and set it in the corner of the room rather than leaving it on the rack.
I suspect they saw the outlines of the guns in the pockets but didn''t say anything.
There was still reports of a missing plane out of Chicago going around at that time.
As I was leaving they announced all the planes had been accounted for.
Later that evening we had a prayer service at Church.
About 60% of the guys showed up armed.

 

[cbs102]

Date: 9/11/2008 2:15:47 PM
Author: strmrdr
I had a really bad toothache and had a dentist appointment scheduled for later that day so took off work.
I woke up and turned on the the tv and saw one tower burning then saw the other plane hit.
I called my family and work to make sure they were ok and to tell them to turn on the tv.
I sat in stunned disbelief for hours while loading and cleaning my guns then went and had a root canal done on the tooth.
When I walked into the dentists office everyone was sitting in the lobby in front of a small tv and crying.
They didn''t comment when I took my jacket with me and set it in the corner of the room rather than leaving it on the rack.
I suspect they saw the outlines of the guns in the pockets but didn''t say anything.
There was still reports of a missing plane out of Chicago going around at that time.
As I was leaving they announced all the planes had been accounted for.
Later that evening we had a prayer service at Church.
About 60% of the guys showed up armed.

wow.

 

[Emeraldfan]

I was living over by Lincoln Center and was waiting to take the subway to the World Trade Center stop that morning at about 8:15 am or so to work at One World Financial (right next to the Towers). I remember that the trains were running really late and was getting really frustrated (later on I thought that those late running trains probably saved some peoples lives who worked in the Towers). Anyway, I was also taking a class at my law school at the time which I had to switch out with another class and I decided since I would end up getting down there at about 9am when the registrar''s office opened that I would stop there on my way to work (good decision on my part). Well, I was exiting the subway when the first plane flew over head. It looked like it was flying really low and practically following 5th avenue all the way down. I stood there along with others as we watched it head straight for and hit the WTC.

We were all in shock. One guy said something to the effect of it being a really bad accident and another replied "It was no accident, the person definitely had control of the plane." When it first hit the building you could actually see the outline of the plane in the building and the explosion and the debris flying everywhere. There was an ambulance crew who was getting coffee who watched it with us and then jumped in their vehicle to go help. I''ve often thought of them and wondered if they were okay.

I didn''t know what to do so I went into the law school and didn''t see the 2nd plane hit. When I came out we all stood on 5th avenue and watched in horror as the buildings fell. I will never forget it and I pray for all of the families who lost loved ones that day.

 

[Elmorton]

I was a freshman in college - and had just stepped out of the shower in my dorm when I heard someone else''s TV blaring down the hall. It didn''t sound like normal news, so I put the TV on in my room and watched in horror. My roommates and my neighbors were at class so I just watched alone, trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing. I''d been getting ready for an appt with my academic advisor (a philosophy and religion prof), so when I got there we spent most of the meeting talking about the attacks and what it meant for the future of our country - I''d say that was probably the most meaningful learning experience I had that year.

Even in the midwest, everyone on campus was terrified and rumors went crazy. While there was still a "missing plane" in the air, a bunch of students'' parents called to say that downtown Chicago offices had been evacuated, and, since our campus has the tallest point between Chicago and St. Louis, people were afraid that we could become a target. That was pretty ridiculous, but I think it also shows how absolutely scared we all were on that day.

 

[Linda W]

DH and I were in Kauai celebrating my birthday. We were asleep when our phone rang at 7:00 a.m. It was my daughter. She was panicky and told us to turn on the TV. We was what what had happened. We immediately got dressed and went into the lobby of our hotel.

We found out no flights were leaving and we would have to stay in Hawaii. The hotel was wonderful though. For 2 nights extra stay, they only charged everyone $25.00 a night.

It was a long night home though. We couldn''t get a plan to fly into San Francisco. We had to fly in to L.A. first, then Las Vegas, then San Francisco. It was one long night, but we finally made it home. My parents were so glad to hear our voices.


Linda

 

[princesss]

I tend to not post on things like this, because while I feel connected to 9/11 on a human level, there is very little that is personal about it for me. I didn''t know anybody, I didn''t have any attachements to NYC or DC at the time...it was weird. I was in my sophomore year of high school in Singapore, and it happened at 9 pm for us. Dad''s friend called and told us that the US had been attacked, and we should turn on our TVs. It was right before the second tower was hit. I was doing my history homework, and Dad yelled for me to come down to the TV. We spent all night in front of it. I could barely get to school the next day, but since classes were optional the rest of the week, it didn''t matter that much. Mostly we all just sat in front of the TV in the cafeteria and watched the news. One girl I knew lost 8 relatives, another lost 12. But I was untouched and felt like I was wandering through some kind of oddly post-apolalyptic dream.

It''s hit me more in the years that have passed. I''ve fallen in love with both DC and NYC. I have friends who could see the plane hit the Pentagon from their high school classrooms. BF''s sister sat on top of her apartment building in NY and watched. Somehow it''s connected me to it more by seeing what my friends go through than anything I could feel when it happened. It''s weird to me, because it changed my day-to-day life more than it did for many of my friends (obviously not those who lost loved ones)...suddenly my family and friends were subject to death threats by random people at work or bus stops (or, in one terrifying case, a cab driver). I also received more warmth than I can explain from many Singaporeans (especially our family''s Muslim friends) who worried that my friends and I would think they supported what happened.

I guess I''m still kind of in shock about it and still feel helpless on occassion. It also hits me at surprising times. I was on a near-empty early morning flight out of DC, and found out that nobody was on it because (even though they changed the flight number) that was the flight (DC-SFO) that had been hijacked. BF and I were at an art exhibition in Spain and there was a series of paintings about it...including images of inside the cockpit. BF and I had to sheild our eyes and run out, shaking from head to toe. It was weird...we could simultaneously recognize that it was an event with world-wide significance and also say, "We''re not ready to see this, how could somebody paint this?" It''s hard (especially for him, with tons of family on Manhattan) to recognize sometimes that other people have a right to express themselves in regards to it, even if it made us uncomfortable.

 

[Independent Gal]

I was a ways out of NYC, in a cellar with a Danish Army Officer, trying to fix a furnace.

 

[Skippy123]

It was before work. I went to work because I wasn't sure what was going on, once at work, none of us worked. We had the tv on all day, we were all beside ourselves with sadness. I cried when I heard everything on the news; one of the saddest days ever. Everyone is in my prayers today.

 

[Linda W]

I will never, ever forget those people jumping out of the windows. They were showing it on TV last week. I started crying all over again. My heart breaks for all of those people that were killed and for their families.



Linda

 

[ladypirate]

I was a senior in high school--my sisters were freshmen at that point and we all shared a 0 period class at 7 in the morning so we had just gotten to class. We walked in and everyone was watching the TV. I didn''t think it was real at first. We just sat there watching in horror as the second plane hit and the towers collapsed. That''s all that was talked about in any of my classes that day--I still have the page that one of my teachers had us write about how we were feeling.

 

[princesss]

Date: 9/11/2008 2:55:58 PM
Author: Linda W
I will never, ever forget those people jumping out of the windows. They were showing it on TV last week. I started crying all over again. My heart breaks for all of those people that were killed and for their families.



Linda

Why would they still show that? It was bad enough when it happened.

Others may disagree, but I don''t think we need to remember the last moments of people who tried to save themselves the pain. It''s like when people show the planes hitting over and over again...once is powerful enough. It doesn''t help us heal to watch people jump because there was no better option.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I live about 90 minutes outside of DC. Many, many people who live in my area commute to DC every day for work.

My office is only about two blocks from my house, and I was at work at the time. We have no TV at the office, so none of us knew what had happened until my MIL at the time (my XH''s mom) called me. She asked if I was OK, and if I''d heard from XH, who was also at work. I told her that I was fine and I hadn''t spoken to XH since we left for work that morning, why? And she told me that two planes had hit the WTC and one had hit the Pentagon. At first, I thought she was just repeating some horrible rumor or something. We turned on the radio at work and of course it was all over the news, so then I had to face the fact that my MIL had been right. I then tried to call XH at work to make sure he was OK, but I couldn''t get through. I was terrified.

I remember the radio station we were listening to played the national anthem, and me and one of the other girls here at work just hugged each other and bawled while we listened to it.

 

[cbs102]

Date: 9/11/2008 3:10:49 PM
Author: princesss

Date: 9/11/2008 2:55:58 PM
Author: Linda W
I will never, ever forget those people jumping out of the windows. They were showing it on TV last week. I started crying all over again. My heart breaks for all of those people that were killed and for their families.



Linda

Why would they still show that? It was bad enough when it happened.

Others may disagree, but I don''t think we need to remember the last moments of people who tried to save themselves the pain. It''s like when people show the planes hitting over and over again...once is powerful enough. It doesn''t help us heal to watch people jump because there was no better option.

I read an article about this...a man was actually identified in "the jumper" ,a famous picture of a man falling. the family identified him by his orange tee shirt. i found it totally horrific.