Where were you on 9/11/01?

[fairfarmhand]

I was pregnant with my second child at home.

 

My dh called and told me.  I didn't believe him and thought he was kidding me till I turned on the TV.

 

I was just stunned. It seemed so unreal. I couldn't understand what it would mean to me, our nation, and how everything would change.

[DawnM]

I was at the gym before heading to work (it was only 6am CA time).  I heard it on the news on the way home from the gym and then turned on the TV when I got home.

 

There was a lot of confusion that day.  Our school district was considering closing for a few days due to threats of attacks on LA.  Our city streets were lined with military with heavy guns and ammo for weeks after the attacks.

 

I was a school counselor then.  Many of our staff had family who lived there.  Our teachers were asked to discuss all of it with their students.   Not much actual school got done that day.

 

Dawn

[Dandelion]

I was at work.  The first I heard of what had happened was when our HR person called everyone into a conference room and shared the news with us.  It seemed so surreal.  Our company allowed people to go home for the day if they felt they needed to.  I stayed at work - it took awhile for it to sink in. 

[Ali in OR]

I was home when my sister called around 7 am to tell me what was going on. Then I was glued to the t.v. all day.

[Ravin]

My ship was in port at Bahrain. I'd planned to go out to Hard Rock Cafe for a late birthday celebration with some shipmates, so I took a nap at liberty call around lunchtime. When I woke up around 4:30 PM, everyone was glued to AFN's feed of CNN coverage of the attack and liberty was recalled. We left port wtih 17 crewmembers still unaccounted for--they were flown in by helicopter later.

[Spryte]

At home.  DH and colleagues came over to watch TV.  We made coffee and stared at the news.  

 

I was biting my nails due to a missing parent, who was at one of the locations.  Parent was fine, just took a long time to find out.

[MommaOfalotta]

I was in my 7th grade English class. It didn't really sink in until we all saw how the teachers were reacting. I remember all we did in every class that day was watch news coverage. After school I was selling something door to door (can't even remember what it was) and in every home the news was on.

 

As a kid it was really hard to wrap my mind around what a big deal it was. It still feels like it happened yesterday.

 

ETA: It was also really scary that day and in the months that followed. The news kept saying they didn't know if there would be more attacks, or where they would happen next.

[TammyinTN]

We were at Fort Irwin, CA.  It was very early there, and MIL called and told me to turn on the TV.     

[Carrie12345]

At work in Trenton. I just happened to turn on the TV, which I rarely did. My boss wouldn't let me leave to get ds, whose daycare friends were all being picked up by their Fort Dix families in case they had to say goodbye. The line around the hospital next door wound around the whole block, full of people hoping their blood would be useful.

[bolt.]

I'm Canadian. I was working solo in a retail shop in a mall. Customers kept wandering in kinda dazed, and I was trying to cobble together the story from just word of mouth. I called other locations (that was allowed) but they knew as little as I did. Finally I broke the rules and made a personal phone call and my DH explained it to me. The mall was near empty for hours.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I was taking a break from school, having morning snack with my boys then (almost 8 and 5) and nursing my toddler when my husband called to tell me.  I couldn't understand what he was talking about because, not living in NY, I didn't know what the World Trade Center was other than a building in NY.  I watched the footage and saw the towers come down live.  I kept shooing my kids out of the room so they would not watch - I didn't want them to know that horror or to cheapen it by filing it away like any movie.  After they grounded all flights, all of our neighbors were outside staring at the cloudless, silent sky.  Our neighborhood is on a flight path to two airports, so not seeing any planes or even any contrails in the sky was very strange.  I later found out from my mom that my sister was stranded in Seattle trying to get to Vancouver for business.

[Kate in Arabia]

I was getting ready to take dh to work, we were living in Chicago.  My middle ds was 2 weeks old -- mil and sil were staying with us, they had come from Saudi for the birth.  I started driving dh to work but he got a call from his boss saying the building was shut down (he worked next to Sear's Tower).  Later my dad called and asked me not to leave the house; that evening our neighbor came by and said he was leaving his garage door unlocked, if we felt unsafe/threatened he wanted us to have a safe place to go.

[Whereneverever]

Poetry class, sophomore year of high school. The teachers turned it on and it was just shocking.

[Lolly]

Doing school with my kids. I checked in the WTM boards during a break, then went straight to the tv to figure out what was going on!

 

[Tap]

Wow, ironically the day was so very similar to this one for me.  

 

I am sitting in the same spot on the couch in the same room.

The sun is shining and I have a day planned to stay home and clean house.

 

 

I was just reading online that a bunch of schools in our district have been shut down today due to threats from a suicidal student and a bomb threat, for the next couple of days. So, I assume the threat has not been contained!  

 

The day of the 9-11 attacks my 19yo son had just left for school, at the same school dd6 started at 5 days ago, in the same hallway. She is in 1st grade just one door down from where he was sitting, his second week of school at the school in 2nd grade.  On 9-11, I remember the feeling of unease, wondering if I should go pick him up or not.  We live 15 minutes from an international airport, and as they mornings event started unfolding, a feeling of panic and the realization that there could be an aircraft headed for us as well.  

 

Today, I sit here....wondering if dd6 is safe.  Wondering if her school is under threat and wondering if she is scared (I am sure they have her school in lock down or at least under scrutiny).  Wondering if I should pick her up, or send her for the next few day.

 

 

This is just way to similar and honestly, I wish I wouldn't have put the two together, because I am feeling a little bleed over from 9-11 into my stress for the day. 

[AmyontheFarm]

I was at home with my infant son, the older two were in school.  I'm not normally a morning TV person but I had a show on while I was folding laundry.  The show was interrupted and I saw the second plane actually hit the tower.  My older two came off the bus crying and frightened as they covered their heads because they were told by a useless adult that planes were going to fall from the sky and kill them.  That women lost her job.   My volunteer fire fighter husband was called to be on stand-by at the firehouse.  He was finally told to leave to come home and milk our cows at 5pm.  Like most everyone else, I spent many tears weeping for the children left behind parent-less.  As a fire fighter's wife, I was watching my worst fears come to life.

[Pawz4me]

I heard it on the radio after I dropped youngest DS off at preschool.  At that time they thought it was a sightseeing plane, and an accident.  I had our dog with us so I could go by the vet for his yearly exam.  And there we sat in the vet's waiting room, me and my Brittany and another lady and her Greyhound, watching it on the lobby TV.  We were the only ones there, and we waited and waited.  The vets and staff were watching another TV in back.  I started to leave, didn't know what to do.  Finally they called us back, but we were all like robots, just going through the motions of normal.

[Shelly in IL]

I was at home renovating our house with my husband and his dear friend. Both of the guys fly for airlines, one United, one American. Both guys typically flew that route. I was never so glad as to have both of them at my home that morning. Every 9/11 and thereabouts it worries me when they fly.

[KatieJ]

We were at home getting ready to host our neighborhood "Back to School" coffee for our neighborhood of homeschoolers. (Yes, there was 6 or 7 families in my immediate family who were homeschooling at the time.)

I had the radio on as we cleaning up after breakfast and getting snacks ready for the group.  By then both planes had hit the towers. 

Some families canceled and stayed home, some what out of fear I do think.  For those that came, we ended up praying for our nation instead of just our school year.

[Live2Ride]

My children were napping while I had a CD on, cleaning house. When my husband finally got ahold of me. It had been almost 45 min since it had been reported. The phone lines were jammed and he was upset when he finally got me, until he realized that the call just wasnt getting through.

 

Then my friends started calling to get their children from daycare because they were stuck in DC...

[Mommy22alyns]

I didn't have any kids yet.  I worked in a music store at a mall.  DH had the news on and I heard the words, "Impact area around Manhattan" and bolted out of bed.  We watched the towers come down.  We went to work, but it was a ghost town and they closed after an hour or so.  I remember crying because so many brave firefighters died, and here I was still alive.

[WishboneDawn]

Driving my husband to work. Then I went to work at the Halifax International Airport where planes were being sent to land that had been heading for the US. I ended my shift at the bookstore with something like $11 in sales because all the people on those plans were kept on for most of the afternoon so the airport was mostly empty.

 

What I actually did during work was match up a few people who were stranded with a place to stay. My parents took an American couple and their neighbors took a Scottish couple.

 

That was one of the things that stuck with me, the attitude right after the buildings feel and everyone realized we'd be one the major landing spots for the orphan planes was that we all had to go home and clean because there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of people needing a place to stay for a few days. So many people I knew out aside the tragedy and got to work cleaning out spare bedrooms.

 

It was also something to leave the airport when my shift was finished and see row after row after row of the tails of planes parked at the airport.

 

ETA: We had 40 to 50 planes land (the most off any airport) and over 7000 people. It was astonishing and unforgettable to be a part of that.

[AndyJoy]

I was a sophomore in college and was in the bathroom blow drying my hair when a girl came in bawling. All she could say was "They are bombing us! They are bombing us!" and couldn't get any more details out. I went to my room and turned on the radio since we weren't allowed to have televisions in our dorm. The weirdest thing to me was it several girls who were in the bathroom doing their makeup and hair when the girl came in crying just continued getting ready as though nothing happened! I couldn't believe they didn't immediately run to their radios. The school administration did not cancel classes that day even though the professors thought they should have, but every class I was in had television turned on rather than the normal lecture so it was nice to have news access.

[Spy Car]

We (being on the West-coast) got an early-morning phone call from my brother, who was very distressed and kept repeating "we're under attack."

 

I was groggy, and like "wha?"

 

But we turned on the TV and saw the Tower in flames. What we did not know then was that we knew a member of the flight-crew on American Flight 11 (who with everyone else on that flight perished).

 

Then shortly after we watched as the second plane hit the Towers.

 

What a tragedy.

 

I'm still amazed at the heroism of the passengers on United 93 who gave their lives to prevent a strike on Washington DC (there the Congress or White House were the targets. Awe inspiring.

 

 

Bill 

 

 

 

[VeteranMom]

I was on bedrest.  I was pregnant with my twins and bored to death at home.  I was watching the Sandra Bullock movie "28 days" on television when dh called to tell me what was happening.  I was glued to the news for the remainder of bedrest- 13 weeks.  It was not a healthy way (mentally) to spend the remainder of my pregnancy.   

[ChrisB]

I was working in an building right next to the Pittsburgh airport.  A co-worker had been listening to the Howard Stern show in his office while working.  He heard about the 1st plane hitting, he gathered a few of us to watch in his office, and we saw the 2nd plane hit.  We were let out of the office a bit later to go home because they didn't know where the plane over PA would come down and we were right in a potential pathway for it.  Lots of phone calls.  Lots of news watching.  I was concerned for my brother who was working right down the street from the WH in DC.

[LostSurprise]

I had just finished feeding my oldest 2 (1 & 2.5 at the time) when dh called and told me to turn on the television. The plane had just hit the tower. 

 

I put the boys down to play and just watched for the next several hours. For what seemed like a long time very little happened and dh would call occasionally to see if the tv news was ahead of the internet news. When the tower fell and information about Pennsylvania came in I just felt so frozen and overwhelmed. It seemed so unreal. 

 

My 1 year old was playing with little cars. They replayed the plane hitting the tower so often that he crawled over and made his plane hit the tower too. That was too much for me. I turned off the tv and took the planes out of the car set and just let them play cars awhile so I could go have a good cry and pray. Dh filled me in on a lot of the other stuff when he came home later. 

[fraidycat]

I was a newly wed (April) in our apartment in Yuma, AZ. My mom called from Canada to tell me, I was still sleeping. I turned on the t.v. And resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a really late night for DH (military).

[MomtoCandJ]

Senior year of high school, I was a teachers aid during the hour the first plane hit. After that we just kinda went to which ever class when the bells rang. I had three classmates that day decide to join the military (out of I think 23). All the class rooms had tvs

[Annie G]

I was at home with three kids getting ready to do school. Oldest dd was away at college and had just started her freshman year.  So she was 850 miles away, along with all our other relatives. It was hard to make a long distance phone call that day- the phone lines were jammed. 

 

 

[Violet Crown]

I was doing kindergarten lessons with Great Girl when dh phoned to ask me to turn on the tv and see if something was going on, because the internet was down in his entire building. They'd heard a rumor that a small plane had hit the Twin Towers but couldn't figure out why that would have such a huge effect. I turned on the tv just long enough to realize I needed to turn it off. I turned on the radio to NPR very low so little Great Girl couldn't hear, and relayed information to dh on the phone.

 

It was years before I saw the images of the planes crashing, the towers falling, and all the horrible stuff in-between. I wish I'd never seen it.

 

Days later, my dad finally called me to check in. He worked at Pantex and had apparently not been permitted to make phone contact until then. At least I assume; I asked him at the time if that was the case, and he was (rightly) annoyed with me; he worked for LANL or Pantex most of his professional life, and I've known since I was a kid that he can't say anything about his work.

[Tangerine]

Working at Starbucks.  Information trickled in with each customer.

[Um_2_4]

That was pre-kids and I was at school getting my KG classroom ready for the first day. (I was the first one to open the school, it was our first day). I was told by the 2nd teacher who arrived. She had heard it on the radio and didn't believe it (we thought it was a movie stunt). So we found the TV in the teacher's lounge and watched till the principal showed up.

At that point we called in security and sent the kids home as this was a private Islamic school and the TVs were already speculating who the bombers were. Once all the kids were home, I went home and watched with DH and we had company staying with us. We got tons of calls from family asking if we were ok (they knew NY was far away, but they were worried about our safety.)

We shut down school for 1 week due to threats against us and I lost 2 students out of my KG class as the parents were afraid to send their kids to the school due to the bomb/death threats. We then had private security on site for the next 4-5  months and the campus was on lock down(no one in/out without prior approval). Before that the attached masjid(prayer hall) had been open during the day for whomever wished to stop by. Afterwards, security would escort them.

[Guest]

I was on my way to work.  I heard something on the radio, but didnt really pay attention to what they were saying.  When I got to work, everyone was gathered around the cubicles of those who had radios.  At the time, I worked for a business that did mass mailing, and AOL was the client I worked with.  Two of our associates in the Dulles branch were headed out on a plane to come to our city, so when we heard where the one plane left from, we were scrambling to make sure they were ok.  It ended up that they had to bump their flight back, so they werent on the one that hit.

 

My cousins and their spouses both lived in NJ, right across the George Washington bridge from NY.  The two guys (cousin and other cousin's husband) worked about 3 blocks from the WTC, and were rerouted back home.  I just remember everyone wandering our building, and gathering around any area that had a tv.

[Freckles]

I was at a ladies Bible study at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. The following three years are a blurr.

[Cinder]

Home having a miserable school day with my dc. I remember because I was already in tears (from school frustration) when the phone rang--a friend calling to let me know in case I didn't already. I didn't.

[Mrs Mungo]

I was living in Germany, so most of our day was over. I was actually updating my family rosters when my neighbor came upstairs and knocked on my door. As soon as I opened it, she ran in the house saying "turn on the tv!" I turned on the TV just before we saw the second plane hit. As soon as we realized that 2 commercial airliners had hit the buildings, we looked at each other and we both said, "we're at war." We both knew that our lives were forever changed in that moment. Our post was locked down. We watched tv and fielded phone calls from upset family members-wives, husbands, parents of soldiers who wanted to know what was going to happen. We didn't have anything to tell them. I seem to remember checking in on the boards late in the evening, after the phone calls slowed down. Since then both of our husbands have been deployed (multiple times) and her son grew up and went to war too. We've both lost friends and loved ones. That day directly impacts our lives to this day. 

[Parrothead]

I was home.  We were getting ready to move because dh was going to EOD in a couple of weeks.

[mamajudy]

I was at the public library with my 5 kids. People seemed to be acting oddly, and I thought they were looking at us thinking, "Why aren't those kids in school?" Our next stop was our church, where I was going to attend a ladies Bible study while the kids did their school work in another room. When we arrived and were told the news, I couldn't believe it at first. While driving home afterwards with the radio on, I heard the announcers as the towers collapsed. When we got home I went straight to the bathroom, where I cried my eyes out in sadness and anger -- not in fear -- I am an American, after all. Now, my then-6-year-old is a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy and plans to spend his life defending our freedom.

[myfunnybunch]

I walked my girls to the bus stop and a neighbor told me. I was home alone with baby all day and spent the morning in a chat session with moms on my online moms message board while we watched the news.

 

My dh was in LA at a big conference, and initially the news reports were saying they thought planes were heading to LA. When I called and told him, he got one of  the last rental cars and drove home.

 

My dear friend was traveling in Italy with her sister and when they came home from their sightseeing trip, the people at the hotel told them. They couldn't fly home, so they were flown to London and had to wait there for a flight. She says she still remembers how kind people were to them, in both Italy and London.

 

Cat

[Lanny]

We were in our house in Cali, Colombia. I believe that we had just finished Breakfast (we are on E.S.T. all year) and were planning to go shopping. DD was 11 months old. My SIL called on the phone. She lives about 3 hours from Cali. She said a plane had hit the WTC. I thought it was an accident. Turned on CNN in Spanish (We didn't have CNN International or Fox News then) and they were feeding from CNN USA, so everything was in U.S. English, my native language... We saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC and then it was very obvious that the first plane was not an accident and that we were under attack. My wife did a lot of crying that day. She is married to me (a U.S. Citizen) and the mother of DD (a dual citizen) and she could not understand why those monsters would do that. We never went shopping that day. I believe the first week or two we watched more TV than we had in the previous years we had been together.

[Heidi]

I was working as a volunteer teacher in China.  The other American teachers and I were awakened in the middle of the night and told the US had been bombed.  I'm sure we learned the next day from the internet what really happened, but I don't remember.  We were put on lock-down for a week and couldn't go off of the school campus.  When we were allowed to leave the campus we were told to not admit to anyone we were Americans.  That first day of getting out I saw a TV in one of the outside markets playing the video of the planes crashing into the towers for the first time.  My friends and I watched while the Chinese people gathered around us and watched us.

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I was homeschooled through high school, so I was at home.  I woke up that morning, my father told me that a small plane had accidentally crashed into the WTC. I was watching the news when the second plane hit. I was living in North Jersey at the time and we could see the smoke from our house. 

[AngelaNYC]

I was home.  In Queens.  Ds was 6 months old and the girls were in school.  Dh was out of work for 20 months and just started his new job on September 10.  In Manhattan.  My mom was also at work in Manhattan.  My sister was catering a breakfast in the World Trade Center that morning.

 

Dh called me and told me to put on the TV.  When we realized it was terrorism, he said he's getting the hell out of Manhattan (he worked up the block from the U.N.).  No subways or buses were running, so he and thousands of others (including my mom) walked into Queens over the 59th St. Bridge and made it home safely.  My sister had left Manhattan before 8am, and was already home before the first plane hit.

 

The schools called parents to come get their kids.  F-15s were flying low in the sky.  I remember being really scared.

 

Unbelievably, I didn't lose anyone close to me.  A guy dh knew who lived on the next block was killed as well at a girl I had just met the week prior at a candle party a mutual friend had at her house.  

 

I worked there in the early 90s.  it is still so strange that the buildings aren't there now.  

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I was driving home from the store with dd. When we got home I ran upstairs to grandpa's room (knew he had news on) to hear him yelling "g**d*** terrorists" after the first plane hit.

[Annie Mae]

I was at home in rural Ireland. It was a beautiful hazy sunny afternoon (we don't get too many of those here). It was about 2pm and I was listening to the radio when they announced that one of the twin towers had been hit. 

I immediately turned on the TV and within minutes the next tower was hit. It was a surreal moment. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

 

I had to go shopping later on that afternoon and there was an eerie silence in the town. People were subdued and quiet. It was as if everyone knew that even though we were thousands of miles away from Manhattan, what happened there that day affected all of us. 

[sbgrace]

I was teaching. I went through most of my prep hour, and then walked past the study halls on my way to the bathroom. I saw it on TV as I walked past. I went in and asked a student what had happened and he said the United States is under attack first. I remember that. Then he filled me in a little, and I watched the news until the bell rang. I tried to figure out how to tell my class of freshmen coming in. I assumed at least some of them didn't yet know, and I knew they would remember the moment they found out. I was trying to figure out what to say! I remember them filing in and feeling so sad that their lives had changed. I remembered being afraid of the Soviet Union/nuclear attacks growing up. They really hadn't had anything like that in their lifetimes to that point.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I was home, pregnant with my fourth.  We were doing school (my oldest was 7) and my mom called.  I didn't pick up the phone, but I heard her message, which was, "turn on the tv and see what's happening in the world".  I was sure war had broke out in the mid-east (Israel was having issues).  I remember sitting just stunned, trying to make out what was going on.  It took me several minutes to process.  I was numb for the rest of the day.  

[Laurie4b]

I was at home. homeschooling. Dh called me to warn me not to turn on the news when the kids were around.

[LucyStoner]

I was getting ready for work at home in Seattle when my dad called me and told me a plane had hit the WTC and they weren't sure if it was an accident or not. I left to catch the bus. By the time I got to work it was clearly not any sort of accident and we spent the day watching TV. No one was calling to buy opera tickets that day. One of our roommates was traveling and my brother (who lived with me and not with our parents) was at camp that week. I picked up takeout and forgot they were gone so my now husband and I had more hamburgers than we knew what to do with. We picked up my brother from trans teen camp that weekend and just went on a little camping road trip to stay away from the news buzz.