Where were you when the world...

[CliffnDallas]

Stopped turning on 9-11?

I had just gotten home from work and was watching CNN when the second plane hit. Didn't get much sleep that day. Then at work that night everyone watched the coverage in the lunch room.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

I had gone to bed after watching the local news report about an alleged threat against the U.S. Then next day I woke up and was eating blueberry crunch cereal and soy milk (yes, I remember) when I turned on the television to see what had happened. I went to work and we didn't sell any cars at all that day.

 

[kristie]

at home sleeping. my husband had come home from work that morning & watched it happen on TV. i didn't believe him at first when he woke me up & told me what happened until i got up & saw it for myself. it was very scary.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

My B-Day is the 9th, I generally take a few days off.

I was skipping school that day (due to my birthday), playing Everquest in my living room. The TV was on the news, saw the 2nd plane hit live.

Lots of people were talking about it in game.

Pretty sure I just played EQ for the rest of the day, at least 13 hours. That was pretty standard back then.

 

[Warick]

September 11, 2001 is definitely a day I will never forget.

I was at work checking on some equipment when one of the attorneys walked through, and said that a small plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. I went back to my office, and sat down at the computer, and tried to pull up CNN.com, but site wouldn't load. I tried a few others with the same result. That was unusual. I had a bad feeling about this.

Our records manager walked in, and I asked her if she heard about it. She said no, and I told her that I couldn't pull up any of the news sites, so she said she would go to her office, and call the records manager in our New York office to find out what was going on.

After having no success pulling up any of the news sites, I went to her office to see what she found out. When I arrived, she had two phone lines going. One line was to the records manager in the NY office, and the other was to her friend, who was at home watching things unfold on tv. Her friend would give her updates on what she was seeing, then she would flip over to the other line, and let the people in NY know what was going on. The folks in our NY office weren't able to make, or receive calls on their cell phones, or office phones, but were able to contact our other offices. They were also barred from leaving the building, so we were their link to the outside world.

We were listening to her friend describe what she was seeing on tv, when she suddenly screamed "Oh my God, the building is falling down, OH MY GOD!!! Those poor people!!!" Laurie told her to hold on for a second, and she switched over to the New York line, and asked Marian if she was still there. She responded yes, and that the entire office was there also. Laurie told her "Marian, one of the World Trade Center Towers has just collapsed". The people on the other end started screaming, and crying. That hit me like nothing else ever has. I will never forget that sound for as long as I live, and every time I think of it, I get choked up.

After we hung up, we just sat there in shock, and someone finally walked in, and said that we were closing the office down for the day. Rumors had started going around that large buildings in other cities were being targeted, and since our building was the third tallest in downtown, and lies directly in the flight path to Love Field airport, we left. While standing at the bus stop, I remember how eerily quiet downtown was, and how quiet the skies were. Every once in a while you would hear the sounds of a few military jet fighters passing by, as they patrolled the skies.

After leaving the bus station, I drove to a friends house, and we all sat around the tv completely stunned, and watched the coverage of what happened for the rest of the evening.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

I was taking a nap after dropping my girlfriend off on campus at Texas State. She came in, woke me up, and said someone had attacked NY. We sat on the edge of my bed for hours watching the footage. My roommates got home, and I don't think anyone said more than twenty words before lunch. Went to Lowe's, bought an American flag that afternoon.

Hung it up on the balcony overlooking the parking lot. That night about 2 or 3 am I hear singing downstairs. LOUD. Woke me up and my gf was pissed. People out drunk, on that night? Blood was a'boiling. Opened up the blinds in the living room, and there's a dozen, maybe 15, people out in front of the building singing the Star Spangled Banner and then America the Beautiful.

Next morning I had a note on my door. "Thank you for the flag, it helped me stop crying last night." Still have the note somewhere, and the flag too. Never found out who left it.

Warick, reading your post gave me goosebumps.

 

[big dog cowboy]

At work, no TV. My first images weren't until 4:00 that afternoon. After hearing all the talk all day I was still stunned when I finally saw everything.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I was staying at my parents' house that evening in Pittsburgh. My mom woke me up and said "We are being attacked and I can't go to Hawaii tomorrow. Turn the TV on." I was, like, "what?" My parents had a flight to Hawaii on Sept. 12th which was cancelled. They ended up going sometime in Nov.

I watched the TV for about 5 hours and then went for a drive. It was strange driving the roads that day. Everyone was kind, no tailgating, no honking the horns, people driving slower and kinder (e.g. letting people make left turns against cross-traffic, waiving them ahead).

 

[rynochop]

My B-Day is the 9th, I generally take a few days off.

I was skipping school that day (due to my birthday), playing Everquest in my living room. The TV was on the news, saw the 2nd plane hit live.

Lots of people were talking about it in game.

Pretty sure I just played EQ for the rest of the day, at least 13 hours. That was pretty standard back then.

mines the 9th too. My sons is the 11th. He turned 3 that day. Had just dropped him off at day care, turned on the radio to the Buzz alt rock station in Houston.

It was on news, so I knew something big happened. They were interviewing someone on the ground, during the interview the second plane hit. The guy freaked of course.

Got to work and everyone was packed in the break room watching it. Never forget watching that building come down, surreal.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I had just walked in the door at work when it happen. We had a TV in the room next to us. We basically spent the entire day in there watching the coverage.

 

[Jenky]

Junior year in high school, right in the middle of English class.

 

[Ranzo]

I was in my office. Someone had just come in from driving and was listening to the radio. He asked if I'd heard that a "small plane crashed into the WTC." I went to Drudge who was reporting the same thing and that site crashed...went to another forum and got a moment--by-moment update. It was quickly obvious that it was not a small plane accidentally striking the WTCs...twice. I still remember my processing of it vividly and think I always will. Initially the confusion and thinking there was something I needed to do but not a having a clue what...It's really jarring and unexpected how intricate particulars of certain events can be singed into your memory.

 

[VietCowboy]

Junior year in high school, right in the middle of English class.

I was in Cibola High School Spanish Class in Albuquerque, NM. That's about all I can recall about it. I have a horrible memory.

 

[Cythim]

It was my second day out of basic training with the Air Force. We were starting briefings when they wheeled a television into the room and told us what happened. One girl in the room had family that she was worried about, it took her all day to find out they were okay.

 

[peplaw06]

I was a Senior at Abilene Christian University. I remember waking up for my 10:00 a.m. class to a short blurb on the radio that a small plane had hit one of the towers. They didn't know all the information at that point. I got ready for class, and headed to the campus. On the way, the radio station was giving a lot more information, and I knew something bad had happened. Walked into my class and the projector was on CNN and shooting on the screen. We sat there for the entire hour and watched the news.

After that class, heading to chapel at 11:00 I walked through the campus center and all the TVs were on the news. Those TVs rarely had the volume up, but that day they did. No one was walking, everyone was standing in the middle of the campus center watching the TVs.

Chapel was lots of praying and singing that day.

When I was done with classes my roommate and I were glued to the TV all day.

 

[bbgun]

Asleep. By the time I woke up, it was all over.

 

[Alumni2k11]

Senior year in High School. In math class. Someone came and told the teacher what had happened but all he would say to us was "A national tragedy has happened, but I don't wanna get into what it was." So naturally, nobody pays attention the rest of class wondering and speculating what really took place. Found out from friends after that class got out.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

I was having a meeting with one of my clients. His Admin. Asst. came knocking on the meeting room door and said we need to come to the lobby. It was highly unusual to interrupt a meeting like this so we just got up and went to the lobby. There were maybe 15 people gathered around the receptionist desk listening to the radio. This was just after the first plane hit.

After listening for a few minutes and realizing the tragedy that was unfolding, my client and I looked at each other and agreed the meeting was over and we would get back together the next week. I just wanted to get out to my car and get the radio on and drive.

As I was driving the second plane hit. I know at that point we were under attack. I called my wife and told her to get the TV on and watch but I had to get to a TV myself. I stopped at a baseball card shop that I went to a lot and they had it on. There were four other people in there.

I can still remember thinking the odd contrast in the visual image on the screen. The beautiful day against such a travesty. And one of the things that stick in my mind most was that in a lot of the shots that were on the news had a Verizon sign in them. I don't know why that sticks in my mind, but it does.

When they had announced that they had lost contact with a plane, then another, I knew I had to get home and protect my family.

I was mad as hell. I went home and held my wife a bit closer and kissed my daughters a few more times than normal.

There will never be a day that goes by that I don't remember that day.

 

[jimmy40]

I was at a Sears service Center in the tech room with a bunch of other techs calling our customers for our routes that day when our district manager came in and told us a plane had hit one of the towers. When we got through calling a few of us went onto the sales floor where the display TVs were and started watching. When the second plane hit I left and went by my house to turn on the tv for a few minutes and see what had happened. I ended up watching until the second tower fell then had to leave because a couple customers were calling *****ing that I was late. I couldn't believe it. I ran my route that day and most customers were shocked that I showed up at all. I'll never forget the couple customers *****ing at me being late and then watching the news while I was working on their applliance.

 

[Romo_To_Dez]

I was at home having the TV turned on to Good Morning America which I had watched every morning at the time. I came into the room and the North Tower was burning. It might sound silly but when I saw the second plane come in I thought that it was one of those planes that carried water and it was going to try and put the North Tower fire out since it was so high.

Guess it was because I couldn't imagine what would happen next. I was shocked and horrorfied when the SOuth Tower Collapsed and the Pentagon getting hit and later flight 93 crashing. Didn't have much of an appetite that day