Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001?

[FaithManor]

On my way to take the kids to the dentist. When I arrived, they were frantically canceling appointments. Our dentist' sister and brother in law worked in the towers.

 

They didn't make it out. One of my former college professors - whom I was close with - was on the second plane.

 

I gathered my babes, went home and cuddled.

[DesertBlossom]

At home, getting ready for work when my brother called to tell me to turn on the news. At work, we pulled a tv into the lobby to watch the coverage.

 

I was preparing to serve an LDS mission and would leave to Argentina the next month. People kept asking if I was scared to go because of 9/11. It didn't worry me really. I knew Argentina wasn't a target.

Edited September 11, 2016 by DesertBlossom

[emmaluv+2more]

I was a new college graduate and freshly married. I was at home because I had not yet found a job.  I wasn't much of a TV watcher so I had no idea until DH called and told me that a plane had hit the WTC in NY.  I didn't believe him; thought for sure he had misunderstood.  How could a pilot make that huge of a mistake?  We talked for quite a while and then I turned on the TV and watched the first tower collapse.  

[Junie]

(((FaithManor)))

[Laura Corin]

I was in Hong Kong.  It was in the evening and the children were in bed already.  I called Husband, who was on the ferry on his way home from work.  The next day, I hustled Calvin past the photographs on the news stands as I took him to school.

 

An old friend of Husband's had a company in a building near the Twin Towers.  We didn't hear from him for some hours.  He had led all his staff away from the area to his cousin's restaurant.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Laura Corin

[Arcadia]

I was on a conference call in Asia (GMT+8) with ex-colleagues from the HQ in Silicon Valley, from Paris, from London, and some others who called in to listen to a Oracle ERP roll-out briefing. When it happened, we heard screaming and our Us colleagues running off to call friends and relatives. They came back to apologize for the panic and we just postponed the conference call and went to watch BBC news instead to find out what happened.

[JFSinIL]

Home, n/w suburb of Chicago. One kid in private placement school (autism), one in kindergarten at local public school, two homeschooled with me.  My kid sister in California called me upset to tell me to turn on the news, a plane had hit the tower.  Then, as we are talking, the second plane hit.   I remember how frantic she got before we hung up, and how schooling that day just stopped, and the horrid uncertainly of wondering what to do that set in, and trying not to get too upset in front of my kids.  My MIL called then (from her home closer to Chicago but still suburban) upset that lines into Chicago were already swamped.  I ended up calling my sister back in California to have her call my hubby, who worked close to the Sears tower downtown, to relay the message that his mom said he was to get out of downtown Chicago NOW (long distance was still getting through, go figure).  And that the commuter trains had announced that schedules be damned, they were loading up and getting folks out of downtown as fast as possible, train after train. No one knew what might happen next, and Sears Tower seemed a likely target (I think it was disclosed later that it had been ruled out as a target by the bad guys since due to its unique construction it probably would not have fallen).

 

 

Two days later had to drive past O'Hare Airport and it was very strange not having planes overhead.  Then a day or so after that a sonic boom scared all the neighbors into the street - I was able to tell them what it was since had heard them often growing up in S. Ca. 

Edited September 11, 2016 by JFSinIL

[Daria]

I was at a training for work.  My 2 year old was in his second day at a new daycare.  When the second plane hit, and it became clear it was an act of terrorism, we were dismissed.

 

I went to my son's daycare.  I live in DC, so I wanted to make sure that if there was an evacuation we were together.  But I didn't go in his room, because by that point NPR and other stations were announcing that a car bomb had his the front of the Main State building.  My mother worked in a window office on the front of the first floor of the building, so I was expecting to hear bad news. I didn't want him to see me get that phone call! Fortunately, that report was later retracted, so I picked him up and we walked home together.  

 

The events of 9/11 were unbelievably horrible, but they weren't as shocking to me as they were to most of those around me.  I grew in a foreign service family.  I know people who lost their lives in the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombing in 1998.  

[JFSinIL]

(((FaithManor)))

 

I "liked" Faith's post but wish we had other options.  Like as in commiserate.

[TammyinTN]

Our family was stationed at Fort Irwin, CA.  Dh had already gone to work and our daughter was on the school bus headed for school.   My mom in law called and told me to turn on the news.  I was in absolute shock.  School was dismissed and all children were sent home.   I remember watching it with our girls and dh coming home.   

[Guest]

Never will I forget it.

 

I had taken my oldest child to the pediatrician; my younger child was at home with a babysitter. As I came out of the Dr.s exam room, I could see thoe secretaries were aggitated and listening to the radio. It was still "just" a plane accident. But on the way home, I was listening to news footage as the tower started to collapse.

 

Living just outside of D.C., there's such a memory for me of fighter jets zipping through the sky, but no passenger planes for a while.

[AngelaNYC]

I was in my living room in Queens, NY playing with 6-month old ds.  Dh called me around 9am from his brand new job in Manhattan (he had just started the day before after a long layoff) to turn on the TV.  

 

He worked down the block from the UN and his boss let everyone go home within the hour.  He walked all the way home from Manhattan (about 7 miles), over the 59th Street Bridge, with thousands of other people.  

 

At around 10:30am I got a phone call from the girls' school to come pick them up.  Waiting for them outside, I saw several F-15 planes fly over us, but no other planes at all.  We live less than a mile from LaGuardia Airport, so that was odd.

 

It was the weirdest, scariest day I'd ever experienced.  My sister catered a breakfast in one of the conference rooms there that morning - around 7am.  She was home before the first plane hit.  

 

We lost a few friends.

 

I worked in the World Trade Center in the summer and fall of 1991. I remember loving it down there.  It's a gorgeous historic area and I was always in awe of the twin towers.  I still cry every year. 

 

This picture is from Gothamist, but we get to see this very emotional and beautiful light tribute every year.

 

[mamiof5]

On my way to take the kids to the dentist. When I arrived, they were frantically canceling appointments. Our dentist' sister and brother in law worked in the towers.

 

They didn't make it out. One of my former college professors - whom I was close with - was on the second plane.

 

I gathered my babes, went home and cuddled.

How many sad memories of that day :(

[mamiof5]

I was in my living room in Queens, NY playing with 6-month old ds. Dh called me around 9am from his brand new job in Manhattan (he had just started the day before after a long layoff) to turn on the TV.

 

He worked down the block from the UN and his boss let everyone go home within the hour. He walked all the way home from Manhattan (about 7 miles), over the 59th Street Bridge, with thousands of other people.

 

At around 10:30am I got a phone call from the girls' school to come pick them up. Waiting for them outside, I saw several F-15 planes fly over us, but no other planes at all. We live less than a mile from LaGuardia Airport, so that was odd.

 

It was the weirdest, scariest day I'd ever experienced. My sister catered a breakfast in one of the conference rooms there that morning - around 7am. She was home before the first plane hit.

 

We lost a few friends.

 

I worked in the World Trade Center in the summer and fall of 1991. I remember loving it down there. It's a gorgeous historic area and I was always in awe of the twin towers. I still cry every year.

 

This picture is from Gothamist, but we get to see this very emotional and beautiful light tribute every year.

 

This gave me shivers. I still cry, every year, and I wasn't nowhere near the area. I just can't imagine.

 

Sorry about your friends. Glad you and your family were safe.

[3 ladybugs]

I had just got a job as a nanny (that prior July) for a family that worked on Wall Street. I was a live in nanny and we were in New Jersey. They had just built their house and it was about 5000 square feet with an office that was a loft. The mother would work from home some days, other days she would work in the City. He would take the train to the City every day. The thought of where they worked other then the company, never occurred to any of us. The contract that I had for this job was 10-12 pages so we thought about nearly everything too! 

 

That day I got up at 6 like normal. I had things I needed to do before getting up the child (2.5 years old). The father went to work about the time I got up. The mother, being 3 months pregnant, finally felt well enough to go into the City as well. She left about 45 minutes (if I remember right) after her husband. I got their child up and was feeding him breakfast in a nook that overlooked part of their backyard. The family phone was over my shoulder. Within 5 minutes of the first plane hitting, I got a phone call from the father asking if his wife went into the city that day. I told him yes. He then asked what time. I told him and he told me that a plane had just struck the World Trade Center. That was about all of the conversation. I remember hanging up and thinking that a plane had hit like a plane hit the Empire State Building (lost in fog). Then I looked outside and it was a VERY clear, crisp day. The child finished his meal and for some unknown reason, I went to the living room and turned on the TV. This is something I would NEVER do when I was working. Their child NEVER watched TV. Anyway, just as I turned on the news, I saw live as the second plane hit. 

 

I quickly turned off the TV and decided to carry on with the day I had planned. I knew that the parents knew how to get a hold of me, and I would imagine that they would want their child shielded from the news. So I took him to the park. When I got there, there was one other adult with a small child. They clearly didn't know and I wasn't about to tell them. All over around there were people that worked in the City so I didn't want to be the one to tell them. However after a few minutes (15-20) several families came out and everyone was talking about what had happened. I had a PA cell phone number and for some reason my mom in Florida (working in her office) was able to get through to me. She called me twice while I was at the playground. The first was to find out where I was, the second was to tell me that the first tower had fallen. I told the park, and then decided that I should go back to the house. So that is what I did. 

 

When I got back to the house, the maternal grandmother was there. She was very angry that I had taken her grandchild to the park. She was VERY worried for her son-in-law and her daughter and it was clear that she couldn't get a hold of either. At some point in the morning I had heard from both of them separately. They clearly couldn't get ahold of each other though. We stayed at the house the rest of the day. 

 

That afternoon the father came home. He told me that he was there when the first tower came down and was able to get a boat to Hoboken and then took the train home. He was home around 3 and I will never forget how white his shirt was. I thought that was amazing with the tower coming down. He worked in a building across the street. 

 

She, on the other hand, wasn't able to get home till the next day. She had walked up to where her brother lived (lower Manhattan) and convinced the door man to let her into his apartment. She wasn't able to leave the City. She also worked across the street but in a different building then her husband. 

 

For months afterwords I heard her talk about her experiences... most of the time in advertently. She told how after the first plane hit, she took her things and wanted to leave. The building (whomever was in charge) told everyone to stay put though. By the time she did leave, she had to leave in a hurry taking only the barest of essentials. She was sure this is what happened across the street as well. She talked how she saw people jumping from the buildings too. 

 

As for me I worried about the family. On that day I became very concerned for their safety, particularly hers. She is an Arab American. He is a European mutt. I didn't want her to leave the house. She was pregnant and honestly I was afraid of some stupid American taking what happened out on her. So I increased my responsibilities in the family. I did things on my day off. I did everything I possibly could to make it so she would be safe. For years I have felt guilty, that maybe I shouldn't have done this, but this year and the things I am hearing, make me think that I did a very good thing. 

[lauraw4321]

Sophomore in college in Atlanta getting ready for my first class of the day (9:10). My roommate and I were watching the Today Show.  They were showing the first tower on fire and said they thought maybe a plane had hit it? I called my mom to let her know what was going on and I heard my roommate scream. I ran back in and she told me she'd just watched another plane hit the other tower. That it was intentional. I spent the rest of the day watching the TV.  Watching towers fall, fire at Pentagon, the lack of airplanes. Flinching when we did hear something. Such a surreal day.

[mamiof5]

I had just got a job as a nanny (that prior July) for a family that worked on Wall Street. I was a live in nanny and we were in New Jersey. They had just built their house and it was about 5000 square feet with an office that was a loft. The mother would work from home some days, other days she would work in the City. He would take the train to the City every day. The thought of where they worked other then the company, never occurred to any of us. The contract that I had for this job was 10-12 pages so we thought about nearly everything too!

 

That day I got up at 6 like normal. I had things I needed to do before getting up the child (2.5 years old). The father went to work about the time I got up. The mother, being 3 months pregnant, finally felt well enough to go into the City as well. She left about 45 minutes (if I remember right) after her husband. I got their child up and was feeding him breakfast in a nook that overlooked part of their backyard. The family phone was over my shoulder. Within 5 minutes of the first plane hitting, I got a phone call from the father asking if his wife went into the city that day. I told him yes. He then asked what time. I told him and he told me that a plane had just struck the World Trade Center. That was about all of the conversation. I remember hanging up and thinking that a plane had hit like a plane hit the Empire State Building (lost in fog). Then I looked outside and it was a VERY clear, crisp day. The child finished his meal and for some unknown reason, I went to the living room and turned on the TV. This is something I would NEVER do when I was working. Their child NEVER watched TV. Anyway, just as I turned on the news, I saw live as the second plane hit.

 

I quickly turned off the TV and decided to carry on with the day I had planned. I knew that the parents knew how to get a hold of me, and I would imagine that they would want their child shielded from the news. So I took him to the park. When I got there, there was one other adult with a small child. They clearly didn't know and I wasn't about to tell them. All over around there were people that worked in the City so I didn't want to be the one to tell them. However after a few minutes (15-20) several families came out and everyone was talking about what had happened. I had a PA cell phone number and for some reason my mom in Florida (working in her office) was able to get through to me. She called me twice while I was at the playground. The first was to find out where I was, the second was to tell me that the first tower had fallen. I told the park, and then decided that I should go back to the house. So that is what I did.

 

When I got back to the house, the maternal grandmother was there. She was very angry that I had taken her grandchild to the park. She was VERY worried for her son-in-law and her daughter and it was clear that she couldn't get a hold of either. At some point in the morning I had heard from both of them separately. They clearly couldn't get ahold of each other though. We stayed at the house the rest of the day.

 

That afternoon the father came home. He told me that he was there when the first tower came down and was able to get a boat to Hoboken and then took the train home. He was home around 3 and I will never forget how white his shirt was. I thought that was amazing with the tower coming down. He worked in a building across the street.

 

She, on the other hand, wasn't able to get home till the next day. She had walked up to where her brother lived (lower Manhattan) and convinced the door man to let her into his apartment. She wasn't able to leave the City. She also worked across the street but in a different building then her husband.

 

For months afterwords I heard her talk about her experiences... most of the time in advertently. She told how after the first plane hit, she took her things and wanted to leave. The building (whomever was in charge) told everyone to stay put though. By the time she did leave, she had to leave in a hurry taking only the barest of essentials. She was sure this is what happened across the street as well. She talked how she saw people jumping from the buildings too.

 

As for me I worried about the family. On that day I became very concerned for their safety, particularly hers. She is an Arab American. He is a European mutt. I didn't want her to leave the house. She was pregnant and honestly I was afraid of some stupid American taking what happened out on her. So I increased my responsibilities in the family. I did things on my day off. I did everything I possibly could to make it so she would be safe. For years I have felt guilty, that maybe I shouldn't have done this, but this year and the things I am hearing, make me think that I did a very good thing.

You did. You helped them the best you could. So glad they were both safe!

[Heatherwith4]

I had graduated from high school a few months before. I slept in, and my dad woke me to tell me what was up. At first I was annoyed that he woke me up, but then I turned on the tv and realized the magnitude of what was happening and I understood. (My brain doesn't kick in until I've been awake a few minutes.)

 

At the time, I worked in a grocery store, and I went into work at 4 that afternoon. It was amazing how many people were buying huge cart-fulls of groceries.

 

I went to NYC for the first time this summer, and as we rode through the area of the attacks, I was imagining what that day must've been like. If anyone goes to the city, I cannot recommend the museum enough. It is amazingly well done and very touching.

Edited September 11, 2016 by heatherwith3

[raptor_dad]

We were in NC. I heard the first reports on NPR during breakfast and then like a Heinlein character had to pull my TV out of the closet and hook it up. I called DW in her lab to tell her but she had already heard.

 

We were planning on being in Chicago on Thursday to be in the wedding party of very good friends. This sort of framed our post 9/11 experience. The wedding was on Saturday. The bride walked out of DC from a law office a block from the White House. Almost everyone invited made it, even the folks who drove from Oregon with their 14mos old adopted twins who were under a week back from Guatemala. We weren't part of the very elaborate friends and family pass-the-bride relay that got her to Chicago. We drove up from NC to Chicago. It was surreal. No traffic... no planes, only fighter jets. We went through the Charleston/Huntington/north bank of the Ohio river area and every refinery/chemical plant was lit up like a Christmas tree. Chicago was amazingly quiet... only fighter jets in the background of the Sears Tower. The wedding reception on Saturday was on the ground floor or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The guards had machine guns. Anyone who was law enforcement or military was encourage to come armed... 

 

Less than a month later a subset of the same folks was at our wedding. During our reception the aerial bombardment and war in Afghanistan started.

[Onceuponatime]

My children and I were travelling the back country roads to their piano teacher's house, on a gorgeous fall day, when the first plane hit. We arrived at the house and entered as usual, it appeared deserted. I stood in the front room and called. The piano teacher poked her head out of the family room and beckoned. We walked in and there were half a dozen other people all standing in silence watching the tv. I was given a quick whispered account. Within seconds the next plane hit. There was a collective gasp. Needless to say, there was no piano lesson that day.

 

I found out later that one of my cousins was a NYC cop at the time. He had a gruesome job.

[Laurie4b]

Home with our kids. I had started homeschooling. Dh called to tell me not to turn on the news while the kids were around. 

[Butter]

I was 38 weeks pregnant with my second and seeing the back-up OB (planning a freestanding birthing center birth).  When I came out of the exam room the first plane had already hit.  The second plane hit a few minutes after I came out.  There was a TV on in the waiting room and every single person in the office just stood there in shock.  The plane hit the Pentagon after we got home.  We lived in southern MD and had a lot of friends in the Pentagon.  All were safe, but it was a while before we knew that.  My husband worked on a military base.  It was closed and everyone was sent home for a couple days.

[magic]

I was at home taking care of my 3 young sons while my husband was getting ready for work.  I was in a panic because the news reports were that the planes were Newark/west coast flights and my parents were flying into Newark from Seattle.  There plane ended up leaving late and then being grounded in Idaho and they had to rent a car.  At the time, we didn't have any contact with them and reports weren't clear if the flights were flying into or out of Newark.  We were relieved when we finally heard from my parents but the hours before we heard from them were difficult.  My parents were also 2 blocks from the London subway bombings and that was a terrifying time as well.

[Alice]

I was at Home Depot buying paint when I heard about the first plane hitting but at that point it sounded like a weird accident. I went home and turned on the TV to see what was going on and then ended up painting our kitchen while watching the rest of the day. 

 

We live outside DC and knew several people at the Pentagon from our church. They all got out ok. One was a very good friend of ours. I kept thinking about him but didn't want to call because I didn't want to tie up the phone lines to their house in case he was trying to get through to his family. I finally called early afternoon and when he answered I burst out crying. I think that was the point when I realized how worried I had been and when it became real. Before that it had seemed so surreal...horrible, but still removed from our little condo where I was. But hearing Patrick's voice somehow made it all much more real. 

 

 

[bolt.]

In Canada

 

I was working a sleepy part-time retail job all anyone in my shop in a mall where each shop has just one staff most of the time.

 

A co-worker from another of the franchise called me and mentioned that a customer had 'been sent home from downtown becsuse of an airplane accident in the states where a plane hit an office building' -- which seemed like nonsense. Why would they send people home from our downtown because of an American plane accident?

 

I began politely asking my few customers if they knew anything about this, and I got various details, but it made no sense. It seemed like airplanes were having problems.

 

At some point the sleepy mall became completely empty and we workers began to feel able to break the rules, leave our shops and try to talk to one another, try to find a radio, make personal phone calls to get information. Eventually my husband was able to explain it to me, but I really didn't have a way to conceptualize terrorism.

 

After my shift, I watched the tv, but just once.

 

Later, in my job (which was taking orders for framing art) a young man came in with a movie poster from 'spider-man' which showed a climactic scene of the movie (later cut from the movie) involving the twin towers. He worked at a movie theatre and the first thing they had done was rip down all those posters. He kept one, and he's probably got quite the collector's item by now.

[sassenach]

Orlando. I had a 1 year old and 4 year old. We had park day for our mom's group that morning. I decided to go because I needed to get the 4 year old out of the house. I heard about the second tower over the radio on the way. They were broadcasting the Today show coverage. It was just me and one other mom at the park.

Dh was at the airport, flying out on business. He ended up spending the whole morning watching the TVs with other passengers, until they ultimately canceled the flights and sent people home.

We slept with the TV on that night.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Sassenach

[MyLittleBears]

Watching on it on the news on L.I. while expecting hubby home any minute from work back when he was a paramedic. He was delayed at work and couldn't make it home. He finally called and said he will be among the EMS/PA police team called into the tower. This was before the towers fell. DH later called to tell me they had be cancelled and would not be joining the other team. Then the towers fell. Gasp. DH lost friends that day. We will never forget.

[SKL]

I was driving in to work and just turned on the radio when the 2nd plane hit.  Our office was all watching the TV in the break room when the towers collapsed.  I had secret information about the plane that crashed in PA which was still in the air, and some intelligence suggested it was heading for tall buildings in my city (I was in one of said tall buildings at that time).

 

Eventually we were ordered to evacuate the building.  My boss wouldn't leave because he kept trying to get through to his traveling wife on the land line (forget the cell phones).  I finally left him up there and prayed.

 

One of my housemates was at a conference in NYC at that time.  A relative worked in the Pentagon.  Thankfully, nobody I knew was injured or killed that day.

 

Nobody worked that day.  We all went home and just tried to be close to whatever family we could be close to.  I talked to my mom on the phone.

Edited September 11, 2016 by SKL

[LLMom]

I was trying to fly home from my grandmas funeral with my 4 month old baby. Needless to say, we didn't get to fly home that day.

[Guest]

I was home. It was the first full week of school, and my child was a first grader. It was a beautiful day. I had stopped in the school office to grab my PTA mail and say hi to the sec., who was educating parents on the late arrival procedures. Arrived home and mil called, directing me to turn the TV on. Saw the second impact, picked my chin up and called the school sec. What a professional. School staff did an outstanding job contacting relatives of those whose parents worked in Manhattan or were first responders and began early dismissal after lunch without scaring any of the children, even those who lost a parent. Every child was signed out one at a time, all 600, to a relative, who waited patiently in line. People were very respectful in letting the explanations for the day come from each child's parent and in co-operating with the staff.

 

The TV, the school dismissal, surreal. The funerals, and the first responder neighbor families suffering thru the lung disease and the cancer, reality. May we one day all decide on peace.

[goldberry]

Home with 2 yo DD watching PBS shows.  DH called from work and said turn on the news.  While I was watching and on the phone with DH, the second plane hit. I remember thinking, "why would they let that plane fly so close".  I just couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.

 

I turned off the news and went back to PBS so DD wouldn't see anything else... probably Dragon Tales or something like that.  DD loved Dragon Tales.

[goldberry]

I was just talking today with someone living in NYC who had a friend who made it out.  She worked in the upper floors, but was running late.  She took the elevator that goes halfway up, and was waiting for the next one to go to her floor.  They heard the impact, and in a few seconds the elevator doors opened and everyone inside the elevator was burning.  Everyone started running but no one knew what was happening.  This friend lost her shoes somehow and ended up with glass and debris in her feet, but she made it out. She got out about the time the second plane hit.

 

 

[lllll]

nm

Edited November 6, 2016 by cathey

[The Governess]

I woke up to the news on my radio alarm clock. One of the towers had been hit and the other was hit soon after. They fell on my drive to work. When I got there, someone had turned on the TV and we all just sat and watched. No one could work. Everyone wanted to go home and be with their families, so we all left before lunch.

 

I remember tensing up every time I heard an airplane for weeks.

[TranquilMind]

Taking care of very young children.

[PinkTulip]

I was at home with three very small children: a 3yo, almost 2yo, and 2 month old. It was 7:30 am and DH called me to turn on the TV as he was going into his underground parking and his cell phone cut out. I turned on the TV and saw the first tower burning, and watched live as the second plane hit. I called my mom, sister, and brother, and also my sister who lived in California at the time. My brother-in-law answered and didn't believe me that it was a jetliner that hit - he thought it surely must have been a small Cessna or something.

 

I turned off the TV because my oldest was asking questions and getting upset, and I didn't have answers. I did go into another room and listen to the radio throughout the morning. My DH was an associate at a law firm and they wouldn't let them watch the TV or listen to the radio - they got mad at a couple employees who gathered in the break room and told them to get back to work. So I kept calling my DH with updates: the second tower has been hit ... The first tower fell ... The second tower fell ... The pentagon ... The plane down in Pennsylvania ...

 

The thing that I have tried to impress on my children about that day was just how shocking and terrifying that day was because we just didn't know when it would end or what was going to happen. I think many Americans felt that their city would be next, or the terror was going to keep going. Also, the level of security was so low in America before that - you could meet people at the gate in airports, for example. Before 9/11, I felt like terrorism was something that happened in other parts of the world - the Middle East or Northern Ireland. I felt a lot like the feeling of safety had been pulled out from under me.

[Lawyer&Mom]

It was early afternoon in London. I was volunteering at an elementary school. The principal walked out of her office and said "They are bombing the Pentagon." They? Like Japan and Pearl Harbor? This made absolutely no sense. Which country would do such a thing? And how could they possibly get their planes close enough to do it? There was a computer in the library and I went online for more information. None of my usual news sites would load. I finally go through to CNN Asia. Finding out it was a terrorist attack felt like a relief. As awful as it was it was somehow easier to believe.

[Guest]

I said it on the other thread but I was getting reading for Algebra II at my high school. I was a sophomore and couldn't believe what I was hearing on the radio, like it was a joke. But when the second tower was hit it made it painfully clear that this was not just an accident.

 

My husband was in his final semester of grad school. They made announcements on the PA system and the campus was really worried they might be a target because of the nuclear reactor. Classes were cancelled but some students and teachers decided to continue on since they were there already, but j think they ended up huddled around the tv instead.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[tiddles]

I slept through the whole thing because I worked nights. My husband came home as I was getting up - he said that something terrible had happened. I turned on the TV and watched the horror in replay. As I drove to work at around 7 pm the streets were empty - it was like a ghost town. I guess everyone was inside, glued to their televisions.

[sbgrace]

I was on my prep hour, I believe it was first class period, as a teacher. I walked toward the office toward the end of my prep, and there were students watching a TV in the cafeteria. One of my students ran up to me and said planes hit both towers and the Pentagon.

 

I went back to my classroom and tried to think about how I was going to tell my incoming students. I wanted to phrase it as well as possible in case they heard it first from me.

 

I watched them walk in and had this overwhelming sadness--for those directly involved, and for all these kids who were now going to be living in a different world.

Edited September 12, 2016 by sbgrace

[SeaConquest]

I was in my third year of law school, and was doing a fall semester internship at the JAG Office at Fort Bragg, NC. I had just left NYC the week prior, having spent the summer working at Lehman Brothers, across the street from the WTC. My husband was an Army Ranger, commanding a company in the 82nd Airborne Division. Our marriage was falling apart, and I convinced Stanford to let me do a semester as a visiting student at Duke and the internship at the JAG office to try to save it.

 

I was driving into Fort Bragg when I heard that a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. I thought, "That's weird. The area around the WTC is restricted airspace. How in the world could a small plane crash into the WTC on accident?" When I got into the office, they had the TV on. The North tower was on fire. It was clear to me from looking at the fire that this was not a small plane. This sinking feeling swept over my body.

 

And then the second plane hit the South tower. Live. I picked up the phone and called my parents on the west coast. I told them, "Turn on the TV now. We are under attack." I stared in disbelief as I watched the towers burn. I had walked in those towers almost every day that summer. They seemed larger than life to me. I had gone swing dancing semi-regularly at the Greatest Bar on Earth -- the bar at the top of the towers. And it truly was the greatest bar on Earth. I still have matches from the bar in my jewelry box. I cannot bring myself to throw them away.

 

I knew in that instant that my marriage would never survive another deployment (it didn't). And, when the towers came down, I knew that thousands of people had just died in front of my eyes. I also knew that my building across the street would be blown out (it was), and that I would likely lose my post-graduation job on Wall Street (I did). Most horribly, I learned later that day that I had lost a friend and mentor on the DC plane. I had just seen her earlier that summer at a party at her home in Virginia. My husband, of course, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months and years. 

 

The images from that day will forever be seared into my memory. I will never forget.

 

May G-d bring peace and healing to our world, and may the memories of those lost be for a blessing.  

Edited September 12, 2016 by SeaConquest

[Liz CA]

Home getting ds ready for public school. Phone rang and neighbor told us to turn our TV on. Once we got ds to school, the teachers debated what to do - cancel classes or not. They ended up doing some form of school. I went to work as did dh - we were all in a daze.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I was watching Good Morning America when they switched over to live from the scene.  Youngest was an infant at the time.  I called my Mom to turn her tv on, (had to walk her through it, she never watches tv) and while we were on the phone together, we saw the second plane hit.  I was riveted to the television for days on end.  No matter how much they showed, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  We heard the jets scramble from Otis AFB and for years after, when we heard them I had to tell our oldest that it was the "safety jets" and not terrorists. 

It was such a gorgeous day, crystal clear, blue skies.  I have never felt so much, do deeply and so long for any event before or since.

[3 ladybugs]

I met a guy once that worked for Am Ex at the time. He said he was suppose to be in a meeting at Top of The World (the restaurant that was at the top of one of the towers) that morning. However at the last minute they moved the meeting to a place that overlooked lower Manhattan in Brooklyn (is that the right boro?). He said everyone one in that meeting just stood shocked at the event unfolding before their eyes and realized how lucky they were to be where they were. 

 

Does anyone else have issues with days that remind you of that day weather wise? Yesterday it looked NOTHING like that day, today looks EXACTLY like that day. I was thankful that it didn't look like this yesterday, they always weird me out!