Where were you on 9-11?

[eyez0nme]

We've done this once or twice, and since the anniversary of 9-11 is coming up, let's try this one more time out of respect for all those hard working Americans who died there...

Where were you on 9-11? Where did you first hear about it? How was your initial reaction?

Did you think it was a movie?

 

[lady.cordelia]

I was at home. I own a business that I run from my home and one of my employees called to ask me if I had heard about the plane hitting one of the towers (the second hadn't hit yet). I was laying down because I had just had a miscarriage so I hadn't heard anything yet. I got up and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. I thought I would throw up.

Initially, with just the one plane, I kind of suspected terrorists, but just hoped and prayed for some kind of engine failure or something along those lines. I just didn't want to think of the ramifications of a terror plot. When the second one hit, I just knew. It was horrible. And then with the additional two planes, I just felt numb and empty inside, but just cried and cried. I had been feeling sorry for myself for the loss of my baby, and this really put things in perspective. All the same, it was one of the worst weeks of my life.

I had friends there (at the towers and around), so I was worried about them, too. Luckily, everyone I know who worked there or around there, or lived around there, were okay, but I know so many weren't. I know people who were hit in the pentagon. My best friend lived in a neighborhood where many of the employees there worked and she lost many of her neighbors. Of my friends in Manhattan, one had just packed all their belongings and it was in storage, as they were moving back to where I live. All of her things would have been destroyed if they weren't in storage. Other friends weren't so lucky. From the pollution in the air, the soot especially, just permeated everything. Their homes were destroyed, even if they didn't fall. Everything they owned was ruined. What is amazing, though, are the stories of my friends that should have been there. One was running late. Another was on maternity leave and was due to start back that day and decided to delay it another week. And many other similar stories just so unreal you would think it was a plot in a book or movie.

The feeling in the coming days of absolute quiet in the air was just eerie. Planes always fly over our house and it was too quiet. I remember the day when the first plane flew over our home after the air ban was lifted and my girls and I were all outside playing and we heard it and just started jumping up and down with joy. It was like a minor victory in a horrible time.

I can recall the emotions I felt, the images I saw, and so many other things from that day. It will never leave me. It is haunting.

 

[Pearl]

I was in Mahattan that day and we saw the entire thing live from the window of the office I used to work in. I can't tell you how many people were screaming crying in our office and falling apart. Most of the people I there that I worked with had relatives or friends working there that day.

 

[Mattyj]

I was at home, in bed. When my clock radio alarm went off it was a woman talking about ashes falling on her car. We had been having a lot of forest fires during that summer, so I figured it had to do with that. I shut off the alarm and got in the shower. I didn't know what was happening until a neighbor called and asked me if I'd seen the TV yet. I just sat there in shock staring at the television. Eventually I went to work and we all just sat around one radio listening and crying...

 

[tundra]

I was in the car driving to university. For some reason, I stopped the audio book I was listening to and listened to the radio. I tuned in after the first building was hit. That day at school was crazy. Some teachers had been to school so early they didn't know about it, and held class. Most classes were dismissed, and there were people congregated in all the union buildings. Televisions were set up, and students were crowding around them in many locations. Everybody kept watching the images over and over again. I think the school held a candlelight vigil the end of the week.

 

[Mafalda]

I was at work. A colleague screamed "The WTC is burning!" I couldn't believe it and searched for news on the internet. We saw the pictures and we were shocked. None of us did work very much this day, even though we were in Germany, far far away. We just searched for news, looked at the pictures and couldn't believe it.

 

[abecedarian]

I was home, attempting to have school..but instead had a miserably start. I was moody and weepy for some reason. Then about 10:30 am I got a call from my cousin's wife in NC..she asked me where my cousin Ricky (who flies for UPS) was right then. I thought that was a strange way to start a phone conversation. Then she told me the twin towers were on the ground and that the Pentagon had been hit too. I had the kids pull out the coaxle cable we used to enable us to watch tv and we sat there just stunned. My dh was still working rotation shifts then, and he was trying to sleep through all of our noise..when he came out to see what was going on, he was just as shocked.

 

[lunablu63]

I was at work and was coming back from break with a friend, when another girl we both worked by told us. We were both terrible shocked and scrambled for our headphones and to tune in to our radios. Just utter disbelief and incomprehensible grief at the news. My husband was driving at the time and he was just devastated. He was near Indy at the time, and saw all the planes escorted into the airport when all flights were grounded.

 

[tartan_skirt]

I live in Britain and it had much less of an impact over here, but it was a great shock none the less. I don't know anyone over there personally so I had no real connection to it like some of you guys have.

I was at school that day and didn't find out until I got home and my mum told me and showed me the news. We just kind of sat down and stared at the screen. What had happened didn't really settle in for me until the next day when I was at school again and talking with my friends. We were discussing the possibility of World War III and something like that happening over here. I distinctly remember that one of my classmates had been off on the 11th and had been watching Teletubbies on BBC2 when it was interrupted by a news flash. I know this is ridiculous, but that is what I remember about the day.

 

[Justin91]

I was asleep in bed when my wife woke me up telling me "a plane just flew into the world trade center". We thought at the time, and so did the news show we were watching, The Today Show, also thought it was a horrable accident. A few minutes later we all knew it was no mistake.

 

[Flowerdk4]

I was at home watching tv. I couldnt really believe the breaking news! I think it wasnt untill they had repeated it a couple of time, that I got the message. Like many people, I thought it looked like a bad film.

My son was in the states with his father. The more news I saw the more scared I got. The explotions got closer and closer to where my son was, up north.

Then it was declared that usa was a war and no one was getting out or in to the states.

My son and his father were supposed to get on a plaine in the afternoon on the same day, but of course they could not get out and back home. We have kept the plane ticket with this special date on.

It was horrible times! It took hours for me to get in touch with my son and it took 14 days before they came back home. I got in touch with my sons school and some of his friends started to email him, letting him know that they cared. Thank God for internet.

 

[ValkyrieRaven88]

I was in school. I was only in seventh grade. Our history teacher had the radio on and she was crying, and she turned it off when we came in and wouldn't tell us what was wrong. Once we realized that the WTC had fallen, I thought they were exaggerating. Like, a piece of the building had fallen from the top or something. When I got home, I got a dose of reality, and I was so upset my mother didn't send me to school the next day. I must have cried for two days straight. I'm really sensitive, but the whole idea of that many people dying was foreign to me.

I remember being really worried at the time, because my uncle worked for the National Security Agency and was sometimes at the Pengagon, but he called around four on the eleventh to tell us he was okay and not even in D.C. And one of my friends had her birthday that day and kept trying to hide her balloons and presents because everyone was crying. Out of all the bad things that have ever happened to me, I can honestly say that day was the worst.

 

[denny]

I was at home but I didn't have either the TV or the radio on. I'd only lived in the US for about 6 months. My neighbour called me and told me what was happening so I switched on the TV. I remember just sitting down on the floor, totally stunned. It's one of those news stories that I'll never ever forget.

 

[dizzyshelly]

I was at college, I heard some bloke talking about flying a plane into a building but thought he was talking about a film. When I got home in the afternoon I figured out what he was talking about because there were no TV programmes on other than the news.

I can't understand the logic of the people who flew the planes.