What were you doing on 9-11?

[kenny]

Sometimes it is helpful to talk about traumatic things.
I remember when JFK was killed like it was this morning.

On 9-11 2001 I was driving to work with the radio on.
When the second plane hit it was clear this was not an accident and the attacks may not be over.

Since I then worked in a place that could have logically been a potential target I turned around and did not go to work.
I drove to the home of a friend who had a TV and watched the coverage.

What were you doing when you heard the news?

 

[elrohwen]

I was a senior in high school. I remember sitting in history class when a girl came in late, from being at the dentist. She had heard some of the news from a tv in the dentist's office, but it was all really confusing and surreal.

 

[Karl_K]

I was home from work because of a really bad tooth ache.
I had an appointment with the dentist for a root canal that morning.
I saw the news online and turned on the TV and a few minutes later the second tower was hit.
I then called my family and the people I worked with.
When I left for the dentist the towers had fallen and 2 planes were still unaccounted for.
After leaving the dentist I came home and in a vicodin fog watched the towers hit over and over and over on tv.

I will never ever forget the people who jumped from the towers.
That image will be burned into my brain for as long as I live.

 

[choro72]

I remember it was a Tuesday. I got up to get ready for my driving lesson. My mom called from Japan, and she couldn't say anything. I asked what's going on, and she yelled "Why aren't you watching the news!?". I turned the TV on, woke up my ex, and went for my driving lesson.
I was supposed to drive to school at the end of the lesson and part with the instructor there, but the school had security guards that wouldn't let us through, so we stopped outside the perimeter and I walked the rest of the way. Morning classes were canceled, and they set up a common room with the news on.

My family was hysterical for the next few days because my aunt and uncle lived by the Rockefeller Center. Nobody could reach them because the email and the phones were jammed. After a week, I finally got the email exchanges, where all the rest of my relatives were crying out for information of their safety.

Oct 7 2001 was my cousin's wedding day. His father, my uncle that lived by the Rockefeller Center, wrote news for a Japanese newspaper. He had to fly back to New York that morning to report about the retaliation to Afghanistan and miss his son's wedding. My cousin never got over that. The flight to this wedding was the emptiest I've taken.

 

[Lynnie]

I was at college. It was the 2nd week, and I had left my roster at my BF's (now DH) house, so I called him. He told me the news, and the 2nd plane hit while I was on the phone with him.

School was let out about an hour later. The subway was complete madness - they just opened up all the turnstyles to accomodate all the people. It took FOREVER to get home.

I finally got a hold of my mom. We were both freaking out because my Aunt and Uncle worked at the Pentagon at the time. Thankfully, they were okay. My aunt happened to be at a meeting in a building across the street from the Pentagon, and my uncle was in a safe part of the building. They lost some friends, though.

I'll never forget that day.

 

[stone-cold11]

I was in class and the professor walks in and told us about it.

 

[Autumnovember]

I was in 9th grade in my math class when the girl sitting next to me told me that a plane hit the world trade center. At the time, I didn't understand the severity of what just happened but by the time the school day came to an end it was very clear. I remember walking home that day and not seeing one airplane in the sky (there are tons that fly over my house). I remember all of the people from my area that had a family member working there at the time and were killed. There were actually a lot of people from my area that died on 9/11 (I live in Philly).

 

[Dancing Fire]

i was watching CNBC when the planes hit ...

 

[pierreone]

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had just arrived at work and my boss told me a plane hit one of the towers. We went to our conference room and turned on the t.v. just in time to see the second plane hit. Soon about 50 of my co-workers were jammed in the room. Our CEO let us stay there the entire morning and we watched the whole thing unfold. My DH was out-of-state for the week, and I remember being so grateful to have such a close group of co-workers to be around.

Some things I remember vividly:
- What a picture-perfect day it was. Crystal blue skies without a cloud, the perfect temperature, and the early fall sunlight.
- Right before the first tower fell, how the smoke became very fuzzy and sparky.
- The collective gasp of my co-workers when the first tower fell.
- The absence of planes flying for the next few days and how eerily quiet the skies were.

 

[packrat]

At work looking at house spec sheets and planning my wedding. I had the radio on quiet for background noise but wasn't paying attention. You know how you can not listen but you're still paying attention deep down? I remember feeling little pinpricks on the back of my neck and looking up trying to figure out what was bothering me. I went to the middle of the showroom to stand under the speakers, just really confused by what I was hearing. I turned the radio up and called my coworker on the intercom in his work room to come listen. "Please listen to this and tell me it's not real" I seriously thought someone was trying to pull some sort of Orson Welles thing. We tried different stations and they were all the same. We just stood and stared at each other. We wandered outside and looked up at the sky. I don't know what we were looking for..maybe missiles coming up from the cornfields or something I don't know, but we stood and faced that direction for a while. I noticed it was very quiet. No traffic. I watched footage when I got home and cried, and when I realized part of what I was seeing falling from the buildings wasn't debris I wanted to scream.

 

[CDNinNYC]

I was a Flight Attendant and working on a flight returning from Amsterdam. An hour and a half into the flight, the Purser gathered us all together in the back galley and told us two planes had flown into the Twin Towers.

The Captain made a request to the Amsterdam Control Tower to turn around and come back but was refused so we continued on our way across the Atlantic. We, along with our passengers, ended up in Halifax (not our final destination) for a couple of days until they opened the airways again.

It was not until we landed and were in the Halifax airport that we saw the news coverage and learned the true extent of the tragedy. It was the most surreal experience.

 

[oranges]

I was in school in 7th grade when it happened. I didn't really understand the situation and had no perception of the gravity of the situation until I went home. We live on a high hill in central NJ and on a clear day could see the twin towers from our back yard. There was an even clearer view of the twin towers from the end of the culdesac behind my street-- on 9/11 my parents picked my brother and I up from the bus stop and drove to the next street over to look at the smoke. My parents were crying. My brother and I looked at each other upset, but puzzled. Although I'll never forget it, I still fully didn't get it-- I don't think that it is possible for a kid who just turned twelve a week earlier to fully understand something like 9/11.

 

[Haven]

I was a senior in college. I was sleeping when my Brazilian roommate burst into my room screaming "They're bombing the twin towers! They're BOMBING THEM!"

We had two other roommates, one of whom (my best friend from college) was from New York, and her father worked near the towers. I went and got her out of the class she was taking at the time, and she spent hours trying to get a phone call through to her family. (Her father was fine.) We spent the rest of the day in our apartment, hugging pillows to our laps, staring at the television. Other friends piled in too and I remember sitting on the couch buried in people.

 

[isaku5]

We were closing our swimming pool for the winter. During one of our 'breaks', I turned on the TV to watch a programme, but on every channel they were showing the planes hitting the towers. That's when the realization hit that what was going on was REAL.

We were shocked and really upset when we heard that many of our Toronto buildings were being shut down 'just in case'. It was surreal and terrifying for me.

 

[susimoo]

I was at work, making vital first payments to our students.

I got a call from my brother to tell me about the first plane. I ran to the nearest TV in the college and saw the second plane hit.

I was devastated. I returned to my office, turned on the radio. I could not bring myself to watch the footage being shown on TV. My brother in England kept me updated with the events as they unfolded. People streamed in and out of our office in complete shock at was happening.

I finally got home at around 7 pm UK time and went with my husband, to my brothers house to watch the live news.(we had just moved into our new house and had no access to TV)

I remember the feeling of complete and utter disbelief at the whole situation. Trying to comprehend how many people had died. Trying to appreciate how the world would alter from that day forward.

It truly was the day my world and many others changed. I have never felt so scared but so at one with so many. I still do.

 

[Laila619]

I was in my college dorm room, getting ready for class. A girl across the hall from me had her TV on, and it sounded like something serious was happening, so I turned mine on and saw all the footage.

 

[Kaleigh]

I was sleeping in, as DH was taking the kids to school. My friend called and was soooo upset. I was like what is going on?? I turned on the TV, we both sat on the phone watching. I went to her house, our first thing was lets go get the kids. They went to the same schools, so went to the girls school first, got our daughters. People were running from the school, it was crazy.

Then to our Son's school.. The boys school said they wanted no disruptions, that it's best to keep things as normal as possible.
My husband came home because the building he worked at , One Liberty place was a possible target and they evacuated..

Then I tried frantically to call my friends who either worked in the towers or had family who worked in the towers. Never got through...

I went to pick up my son. He said I feel so bad, because I got in a fight with Dad on the way to school this morning, and broke down in tears...

We did a ton of hugging, and tried to keep our emotions hidden, but it was hard. The phone kept ringing, with people desperate for any info on our friends..

 

[Arkteia]

I was at home, in Newton, MA, getting ready to drive to my hospital. There was no one in the house except for my father. Suddenly my husband called from his work and asked if we were watching TV. He told me that the WTC had been attacked, and that the Pentagon had been hit... For a second I thought he was joking, it sounded so incredible. Then, of course, I rushed to the TV and together with my Dad watched it. There was such a disbelief... I once saw a plane hitting a hi-rise in a movie... It was like a flashback from that movie, and I also felt some dissociation, as if you are watching a dream, or are a total outsider. It looked so unreal. And then they showed the Pentagon, and the Twin Towers burning and collapsing, again and again. Then I drove to my hospital, and we all were crying there. And for several days in a row, I was watching the same scene on the TV, times and again, trying to imagine what was happening inside and around the building.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

I was working in a Catholic school. Our son was in his high school 10 miles away. My husband works in Manhattan. It started out like any other day. I was walking to my classrom with my hot tea when the principal stopped me in the hall and said "Your husband called. He's OK". I didn't know what she was talking about, actually we had quarreled the nite before so I just nodded and said "that's nice". She said "you don't have a clue what's going on do you? Go into the library...NYC is under attack". I watched for a while but I just couldn't absorb what was going on. My husband didn't work in the WTCs, but he was in Manhattan. I spent the rest of the day going to the different classrooms and letting the teachers go to the library to catch up on the news. At 1pm we all went to the church next door for a prayer service.

I called my MIL and told her he was OK, then told her to call the high school and tell our son his dad was OK. She was so rattled she wasn't able to get ahold of the school. Up until then I had resisted cell phones for me and the kid, my husband had one. I didn't hear from him for a long time. I tried to drive up to the HS to get the kid, but the highway was closed. When we were both home we sat by the TV and telephone waiting to hear from my husband. The phones were down and some cell towers weren't working. We sat up until he was able to catch a train out of NY at 2AM.

 

[ForteKitty]

A group of my college friends went to vegas, so we were at the hotel. Someone's mom called and told us to watch the news. we turned on the tv as the second plane hit.

 

[Hera]

I was on my way to the airport when I received a call from my boss that my flight was canceled. I went home and saw all the coverage.

 

[redfaerythinker]

I was sitting in French class when the headmaster made an announcement that a plane had hit a building. Typical of a catholic school that was all we got. We were one of the only schools in the city that didn't shut down,and the teachers weren't allowed to let us watch the news during class, so the rest of the day was full of rumors. After school I was supposed to do community service but it was cancelled so I went home with my carpool and we watched the towers fall over and over again on her 50 inch tv. I think that's the part I'll never forget.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I was living in DC at the time--I was a junior in college.

D was up watching the news while I was getting ready for my Econometrics class that morning and saw the first plane hit. I started watching and the second plane hit.

I was afraid of missing class, so I went. The professor was unaware of what was going on, but somebody ran into the room telling us that the Capitol had been hit and that the Mall was on fire. We all ran out of the classroom to watch the news, but the only confirmed report was that the Pentagon was hit.

At that time, the Metro was completely shut down, so I walked 2 miles back to my apartment. It must have been around 11 by then and there were fighter jets flying around and I could see smoke from the Pentagon. Not a single store was open--everybody had closed up and gone home. It was completely surreal.

 

[atroop711]

on 9/11/01 I was sitting out on my terrace (which gives me a view of all downtown east, south and west) having morning breakfast with my daughter..she was playing with her toys (only 1.6yr at the time).

I had noticed the first plane because it was flying right across my view and low (that caught my attention).

The rest is history. I couldn't stop watching

 

[loriken214]

I was home sick that morning and DH called to tell me what was happening right after the first plane hit. I watched everything unfold on TV and went to work late that afternoon....in shock.

My coworkers were equally in shock and we just stuck together and talked and watched TV in the conference room. Our department was on the 31st Floor and our building received bomb threats from time to time....we were Big Oil....and the thought crossed our minds that we might be a target also. We were located in Downtown Houston, but still received word that we were high on the terror threat list.

It was really strange not seeing any planes flying by and then when I saw the first one, I was really hoping that we were returning to normal, but there wasn't ever a normal again.

Lori

 

[dragonfly411]

I was a freshman in highschool. I was in biology when the first plane had hit. We didn't have curriculum that day. We were watching as the second plane hit, and then the plane at the pentagon. My friend's father worked in D.C., and I was so terrified for her and her family. I just remember having a major adrenaline rush.... and not knowing what to do. We had people who knew people in New York, and I wanted to hold them, but wanted to run home to my family at the same time.

 

[Pandora II]

I was at Vicenza Oro - a big jewellery trade show in Italy. I got a call from my ex-boyfriend who'd lived in NY for several years telling me that the Pentagon had been bombed - I told him he was nuts, no-one could bomb the Pentagon.

We'd heard that a plane had gone into the Twin Towers, but a small plane had flown into a tower in Milan a few weeks earlier and caused minimal damage so we'd thought it was the same thing.

People started coming onto the stand and saying things so we all ran round trying to find a TV set. There were loads of Americans at the show and it was all rather surreal and nuts.

It was also my boss's birthday!

 

[onedrop]

September 11, 2001 was my first day back to work after a long vacation. So I woke up in a very positive mood and I remember the weather being gorgeous that day! I had heard on the news about the first plane flying into one of the WTC buildings, but since I had to leave to get to work, I did not learn of the second plane until later in the day. I live in the DC Metro area and work in VA so I have to go through the city on the way to my job. One of the streets that I take to work heads dead into downtown DC so as I was driving I could see this plume of smoke rising up above the Capitol and I remember thinking to myself "what the heck is going?" But I never made the connection between the smoke and Pentagon. That is, until I continued on my route work which takes me past the Pentagon and I saw it on fire! It was such a surreal scene and people were outside of their cars on the 14th street bridge watching things unfold. Just as I was about a mile from work I learned that our offices were declared closed, so I made an immediate illegal U-turn and headed back home. I was in shock driving back home while at the same time trying frantically to get in touch with family friends in both NY and DC to no avail because others were trying to do the same thing. I remember feeling angry, sad, helpless and extremely vulnerable all at the same time in the days after the attacks. Like most everyone else I stayed glued to the TV for days after trying to make sense of it all.

 

[taovandel]

I was babysitting at the time for the neighbor across the street and had on the tv and was flipping through the channels while they had breakfast. I stopped on the news and couldn't turn it off. The kids had a few questions but I tried to occupy them with games and everything because I wasn't sure how much info their mother wanted me to give.

I remember the little boy running to his room and grabbing an airplane and he kept saying that it must have been an accident and that a navy pilot must have messed up (We are a really heavy military area). He then asked if he could go outside to see the smoke (we live in Virginia....so obviously there would be no smoke).

I just remember wanting to cry over their innocence compared to what was going on in the real world at that time.

 

[lulu]

It was a clear, beautiful day in the Detroit area and I was sitting at my desk getting ready for court. A friend of mine called from his car and gave me the news. I truly thought he was joking until I turned the radio on. The courthouse was evacuated and I sat on the sofa numbly the rest of the day watching all the coverage. I will never forget watching people jump. Not ever.