Where were you on 9/11?

[Tree House Academy]

At work. I had been working there just a week when it happened. My mom called me that morning and told me that a plane had hit one of the towers in New York. I told her that it had to be an accident and assumed it was a small plane that just had some kind of issue. She told me that, no, it was a jet. As we were talking and I was trying to search online for some information, she screamed over the phone - she was watching live feed when the other plane hit the second tower.

 

I can remember just wanting to leave work - to go home to my family and run away from everything.

[Tree House Academy]

I have to admit that I have teared up a few times just reading these accounts. For those of you who lost friends and relatives or relatives of friends, my heart still goes out to you. Such a sad, sad day in our Nation's History.

[AndyJoy]

I was a sophomore in college and was in my dorm room when a crying girl banged on my door saying, "They're bombing us all over the place!" I quickly flipped on my radio and computer (no TVs allowed) to find out what she was talking about. Once I had some information, I went into the bathroom to tell the girls in there. I told two girls, who said, "Oh!" then went back to blow drying their hair!:confused: They really didn't get the magnitude of what was going on. Classes were not canceled immediately, but they effectively were, as the professors rounded up televisions instead of teaching.

[Ravin]

I was in the Navy, on a ship that was in-port Bahrain. We'd pulled in in the early afternoon and were put on liberty. I wanted to go out to Hard Rock Cafe with some friends that night to celebrate my birthday, which was one week earlier while we were underway, so I took a nap. When I woke up, everyone in the berthing was glued to the TV, where AFN was feeding through CNN with live footage of the disaster. I was watching, too, when the second plane hit.

 

To me, as big as the attack was, it wasn't as scary and close-to-home as the attach on the U.S.S. Cole, which was the same class of ship as mine; when that happened, our CO came over the intercom and announced it to us; heightened awareness of terrorism came for me then.

 

Needless to say, liberty was recalled and we got out of port in a hurry. Some of the crew had to be rounded up and helo'ed out after we were underway. An Aussie ship took over our North Arabian Gulf ops and we went down to the Arabian Sea, where we cruised around in circles until Operation Enduring Freedom kicked off and we launched Tomahawk missiles at Afghanistan.

 

I got out of the service in November that year, so that was the extent of my involvement in the war. But it was a heck of a memory to go out with.

[chiguirre]

I was sitting at my desk looking at the Venezuelan morning news when a friend that worked in midtown Manhattan called me. I thought it must have been an accident with a small plane and went to Reuters. There was just one line, "A plane has hit the WTC". My bil worked in the Twin Towers so I tried to call my sister and got her machine. I left her a generic "call me" message and called my dad so that he could track her down. He didn't believe me until he turned on CNN and saw the damage. Then we freaked out! He hung up to call dsis and I cried for a while. Then I went on a hunt to find a TV with regular CNN because CNN en Espanol still wasn't covering it. In the end, bil was at a doctor's appt, so the least worried person was my sister. What a stressful morning! I was so glad not to be in NYC that day.

[haysmommy]

I was at the OB for a check-up, 32 weeks pregnant.

[Jennifer in MI]

I was at home with my family. Dh had heard that the first tower had been hit on the radio. We turned on the TV. Saw the second plane hit the 2nd building. The two older boys remember it. They remember dh's reaction - TOTAL FEAR!!! We were being attacked.

 

Dh went to work. I took the boys to the park to escape the stress.

 

I've been in tears all day.

[angela in ohio]

I was working while my two dd were at preschool and kindergarten. It shook me to the core, thinking that I couldn't get to them or help them in the event of a disaster and thinking of what really mattered in life. Within a month, I had given my notice, gotten pregnant, and decided to homeschool. :001_smile:

[sleepymommy]

I was in Queens, getting ready to walk into one of my classes (college). The first plane had hit, and everyone was unsure what was going on. The the 2nd plane hit. Classes were cancelled, cell phones weren't working. The highways had been closed.

 

Dh (boyfriend at the time) saw the plane go into the building. He was an intern at a nearby hospital, he and a few others immediately went down to Ground Zero and set up a triage unit. They were some of the first ones down there. He was there all night and into the next day. A family friend of his that was working at the WTC was killed that day.

 

It's a day and time we will never forget.

 

:patriot:

[LynnG in Arizona]

We lived on the US Military Academy at West Point at the time, right along the Hudson River and only 50 miles north of Manhattan.

 

I had already driven my 2 daughters to school and was settling into work at the computer (I worked part-time via computer). My mil called in a panic and asked where DH was. When I asked her what was going on, she told me to turn on the television. I think the first tower came down shortly afterwards. It was truly one of those jaw-dropping moments.

 

I watched television for a while, alone, and felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I walked outside to seek out my neighbors. Only the day before we had all gathered for an innocent Pampered Chef party . . . now I craved human company during one of the most horrifying moments of my life.

 

DH thought he was going to have to travel to Manhattan to help out, but ultimately was not needed. We did have to pick up the 1 year old daughter of his co-worker, however, because the mother was stuck in Manhattan until late that evening.

 

I ended up picking up my daughters from school around mid-day, unable to bear their absence from home any longer. They were in 3rd and 5th grades at the time. The school had made an announcement about what had happened, so they were aware. In the 5th grade classroom they even had the TV on and were watching it.

 

Living on a military base during the aftermath of 9/11 was quite challenging. At first it took literally hours to get back onto post because the gate guards were carefully searching every vehicle. That first week, I drove my girls to the front gate of West Point, parked, and then walked them to their school a few blocks away. It felt incredibly surreal to be walking past a tank and soldiers on high alert, armed with machine guns. I'll never forget those crisp autumn walks to school under the most bizarre circumstances.

 

Several days later my DH flew out of Newark on an important business trip. He was one of the first planes to fly after 9/11, and we left very early on Sunday morning to drive him to the airport. This was 5 days after the attacks, and we were stunned into horrified silence when we passed Manhattan and saw that the towers were still smoking furiously. :ohmy::crying:

[teragram]

On 9/11, I was meeting a friend, at her house, to learn about home education and see firsthand how she did it. I showed up at her door about 5 minutes after the first plane hit and the morning news shows were just starting to report it. She rushed me inside and we tried to make sense of it together. About two hours later, our 4 year olds had storytime at the library which we took them to so we could absorb all that we'd been watching. Needless to say, we didn't end up dicussing the nuts and bolts of homeschooling that day. I think 9/11 helped cement my decsion to homeschool since I was just starting to research the idea during all that chaos. I just kept thinking I wanted my kids with me as long as I could have a say in it.

[tricia]

I, AHEM, was in bed sleeping.:001_huh: After awaking hubby called from work and told me to first, go fill up our van with gas, and then turn on the computer. (we have no tv) That's about it. Home.

[mommaduck]

It was my oldest daughter's 3rd birthday. We were getting ready to go to an OB appt. I heard some weird concocted story on the radio and told hubby to turn on the TV. The first tower fell. By the time we got to the dr's office, the second had just fallen. The office was so quiet. It was surreal.

[Mom2boys]

I was recovering from a c-section, and was very hormonal and sleep deprived. When the first plane hit, we received a call because my husband is a newspaper editor and he was home on paternity leave. We parked our preschooler in front of Blues Clues in the other room, and were watching when the second plane hit. Then we knew it was an attack and not an accident. Dh went to work and we didn't see him for three days. My parents came and stayed with the boys and I. Since I was nursing round the clock, and the tragedy was being covered round the clock, I watched story after story about young widows who were pregnant or had young children and I cried and cried and cried.

[mazakaal]

I was living in England. I had been in the village with my dh and 2ds. Dh then walked home with the boys while I ran a couple more errands. I walked into a little jewelry store to get a battery in my watch replaced. They had a little tv running and were watching the news report after the first plane hit. I stood there in shock, watching the second plane hit. After I walked home I went to my neighbor's house to watch tv because we didn't have reception on ours. I was back and forth to their house all day to check the news reports. What a nightmare that was. I remember calling friends in NYC to make sure they were all right.

 

I wanted to go back to that jewelry store yesterday, but it closed a few years ago and is now a surf shop.

 

Oddly enough, on the Friday after the attack, when there were 3 minutes of silence throughout the UK at the same time the towers had been hit, I was in a car with my family at a traffic light just outside that same jewelry store. They had officers at all main intersections and stopped all traffic for 3 minutes. It was amazing to be in a foreign country and see that kind of outpouring of support.

[Melinda TX]

We had seen on TV what was happening - I meant for all the kids to watch Sesame Street while I got ready, and we saw the immediate aftermath of the Towers. They had been attacked, but not fallen at that point. I went ahead and took 4yo dd to a dance lesson, and I took the other three kids to a park. Since we live near DFW Airport, I stood and watched all the planes coming in to land. It was the most empty, sad feeling I had ever experienced - watching all those planes come in. The kids were very young, and obviously not grasping the situation. (I don't even know if I was!)

 

I remember feeling like Chicken Little - like the sky was falling, and I didn't know where to go and hide.

[melissel]

I was working while my two dd were at preschool and kindergarten. It shook me to the core, thinking that I couldn't get to them or help them in the event of a disaster and thinking of what really mattered in life.

 

Later that day, after the roads were opened up and transit was restarted, DH finally made it to pick me up and we drove to upper Manhattan to his mom's house to watch the news for awhile. By the time we headed home, it was getting dark. We drove through Hoboken on our way to Jersey City, and I remember seeing all the lights on in all the schools and thinking it was so strange, wondering what was going on at the schools. Then I realized that they were all still there because those kids' parents hadn't been able to make it home to get them, and many of them weren't going to be coming home to get them at all :( It was heartbreaking, and I went home and cried and cried.

[HollyDay]

I was at home in Miami doing laundry. I was talking to my neighbor on the phone when I heard a cry from the TV room. About the same time, my neighbor yelled and dropped the phone. The TV channel had broken into Sesame Street to show the plain flying into one of the twin towers. My husband had left just that morning for a business trip.