Where were you on 9/11

[Bono's shades]

I didn't go to work that morning until about 10 a.m. because I was supposed to help cover school board elections that night for the paper. I slept late and didn't turn on the TV or the radio while getting ready for work, and I must have had a tape in the tape deck of my car, because I didn't know anything until I walked into the newsroom and saw the TV, which was tuned to CNN. For a few seconds I wondered if it was footage from an upcoming disaster movie because it was so unreal. Then I realized it was real.

I called my mom right away to see if she had heard from my sister in the Bronx, even though she doesn't work in Manhattan. She hadn't, but she was very calm - which is funny, because she's usually the worrier, not me. (We finally did hear from her and she was fine.) I do remember at one point thinking, "Is this the start of World War III? Or is it the end of the world?" and feeling my stomach drop.

It wasn't long before a special newsroom meeting was called so we could get a special, early edition of the paper out. I was so busy for the rest of the day that I thankfully didn't have much time to think or worry.

 

[the iron horse]

It was right after my first period class. 9:40

My grade level principal came in and told me he had just heard the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the towers.


We turned on the classroom TV and watched the events unfold for the next hour or so as other staff members came in to watch.

I know the exact place in my room where I was when he came up to tell me.

 

[U2Girl1978]

I was on my way to Philosophy class listening to my favorite radio station. The DJ announced that a plane had hit the building. I was thinking some idiot didn't know how to pilot a plane and crashed into it. I turned off my radio, went to class and felt a bit worried. Once class ended, I went up to one of the professors and asked what was going on. She said that planes crashed into the WTC and that school was dismissed for the day. I went to the entertainment center and just watched looking dumfounded as I saw the footage of the planes crashing into the buildings.

The looks on everyone's faces was unreal. I remember crying on the train ride home.

 

[BluRmGrl]

I was in Day 2 of the week-long course required by NC to obtain a property & casualty insurance agent's license. Not very exciting material, so we had an uphill battle from the start! As our instructor was releasing us for our first morning break, around 9:15 it seems, a couple people starting relaying wild messages they were getting on their cells phones... a plane hitting the WTC, a bomb at the Pentagon, a plane going down in PA.

Our class was in a conference room of one of the local hotels, so we all headed downstairs to the lounge/lobby area where the TV was located. There were other meetings going on & all those attendees were there horrified, too, as well as several late season tourists.

Our break was only supposed to be 15 minutes but we all ended up sitting there with our instructor for about 30 minutes before we headed back upstairs in silence.

I'll never forget watching live as the second tower fell, but being so confused that I thought we were watching a replay of the first building coming down. When I realized what I was actually seeing, I just went numb. And I stayed that way thoughout the rest of the week - and spent every spare minute watching the news to see if I could hear something - anything! - that resembled hope for the people in those buildings. We all know there wasn't enough.

I was fortunate enough not to lose anyone on 9/11, but I still have a hard time watching documentaries and/or reports about it - it still rips my heart apart. And Oliver Stone's movie about it??? - No way! I couldn't possibly sit through that.

My heart still goes out to the survivors and the loved ones left behind.

 

[arw]

I worked at a retail store at the time. It was truck day. I had woken up a little early that day and just laid in bed listening to the the radio. I got up, got ready, went to work. I listened to a CD in the car on the way to work. In that time span of probably 45 minutes from when I turned off the radio to when I got to work, the first plane hit. I got to the backroom at work and everyone asked if I had heard about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. I remember one lady actually laughing about it. She thought it was odd that the pilot didn't see the building. I walked away from her just stunned that something like that happened and that she would actually laugh over it. I had just been to NYC a few months before and wanted to go to the Towers but there wasn't enough time. Our manager told everyone to concentrate on unloading the truck as quickly as possible as the driver had another store to get to. While unloading, a coworker came back screaming that the plane hit the second tower. At that point we were almost done with the truck. Everyone, including the driver, went to our breakroom to watch TV. I was in the breakroom when the first of the towers fell. The store was very quiet that morning and no one questioned the extra breaks to watch the TV.

I can't remember if someone from corporate headquarters was on one of the planes or if it was a family member. I just remember getting a message that all stores would be closing at 4:00 that day to honor them. By then the store was packed with customers. Some would not leave even after several announcements by the manager that we were closing. He finally got on for one last announcement and asked the customer's to have some respect for what took place earlier in the morning and to either buy their stuff or to put it down and leave to be with their families because all of his employees wanted to be with their familes. It took forever but finally everyone left.

Later that night I ran out to get gas. I had to be to work early in the morning and wanted to save myself an even earlier wake up call then I already had. I had to drive all over the city to find a gas station that didn't have a line down the street. Everyone was scared we would run out of gas. I saw people filling up their tiny gas cans too just so they had something extra at home.

The next day, Sept 12, was my grandma's birthday. I had to work early and then be to her house for lunch and an afternoon of baking. Instead of going out, we stayed in to watch the news. Not as much baking got done as she had hoped. There's still a few things Dan Rather said that afternoon that I'll always remember.

 

[VertigoGal]

I was in the 5th grade so our teacher didn't show it to us- although apparently another teacher chose to show it to their class as I remember at recess my friend said something about TV and planes crashing. I kind of shrugged it off. When I got on the bus, some kids started talking about it, saying there were 100,000 people dead. I had no clue what was going on but I was practically in tears.

When we got to the bus stop most kids' parents were there, which was weird. I walked home and the TV was on and I saw the footage and stood (never sat) in front of the screen the whole night just watching.

As much as you can be logical about the number of deaths in relative terms etc etc...as a 10 year old it really affected me very strongly. I thought about it for months, looked up all the info I could find online, donated whatever money I had in the 5th grade, cried thinking about it at night.

It's weird because I saved some school worksheets that are dated 9/11/01, before I found out of course. And it's so odd to look at them, it feels like it was yesterday and yet I was so much younger then. But I can remember exactly how I felt that day, really eerie.

 

[sue4u2]

I was getting ready for work. Coming out of the shower and towel drying my hair, I saw on my bedroom TV the Today show had just gone live. the first plane crash.. not knowing there was another to follow I thought Oh my God how could someone fly or crash into the Trade Center building.. at that point I didn't even turn on the blow dryer.. I couldn't take my eyes off what was happening. Then the second one hit. I really felt like I was going to faint at that moment. I wanted to pass out because, I knew how bad it was for those souls and didn't want to see any more.
I kept watching and I could barely get dressed for work.. Driving, no speeding to work, I went there with damp hair because I'm dedicated that way. All the while thinking what can I do? What's going on? When I got to work everyone was watching the big screen TV..
No one was moving. I went to my desk thinking of all the clients I had in New York - I couldn't get in touch with any of them. No one else could either. Went back into the break room and the CEO was there. He had called his Pastor and we all hugged him when he came in. Shortly after that the first tower came down. At that point, the Pastor needed us as much as we needed him.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

I was on my first overseas holiday in 11 years and was travelling through Europe. My now-ex and I were on a plane from Dublin to Heathrow when the attacks would've happened. (We had spent a lovely evening drinking the night before in the Clarence :-( ).

We landed at Heathrow and unusually we had to get off away from the terminal and travel in on a bus. Then the bus driver made some remark about the World Trade Centre collapsing. I thought "yeah right, like it would" and thought no more of it.

We eventually got out of the airport (nothing much unusual happening that we noticed) and made our way to the hire car centre. We got the car and started driving and had the radio on. And it was full of news reports about New York. We really couldn't believe this was actually true. We decided to abandon our plan to drive through the countryside and went back to London to a friend's place, where we had stayed earlier in teh week.

When we got there and she opened the door, we knew by her face that the news was true. We sat there for about the next 10 hours watching the TV and waiting for it to be daytime in Australia so we could call our families and let them know we were OK. We also called a friend who had been in NY that week to make sure he was back home. Thankfully he was, considering he'd been to the World Trade Centre 3 days before.

 

[maycocksean]

At that time I was involved in a Amway direct marketing business (another story there) and had just come home from an evening of making business presentations. It was after 10 P.M. Sept. 11, here in Saipan and after 8:00 A.M. on the U.S. east coast. I generally don't watch TV unless there's a specific show, so I went straight to bed.

The next morning, Sept. 12 as we were getting ready for school (say maybe 4:45 P.M. Sept. 11 on the U.S. East coast) one of the student's parents called us and said, turn on the TV, America is being attacked.

I thought that was a weird thing to say but turned on the TV and sure enough there it was on CNN, the banner reading "America Under Attack" and images of the planes hitting and the towers coming down over and over again. I remember wondering "under attack by who?" I just couldn't believe it. Like many other posters it seemed like a movie. . .just unreal. We went to school but let out classes by noon. We watched some of the reports on TV with the students and we prayed together, and then we all went home.

To this day, I feel sick every time I see footage of that second plane hitting the south tower. That was the one scene in United 93 that I closed my eyes on. I can not watch that.

Still breaks my heart.