I was in california in my 3rd year in law school. my roommate woke me up bc i’m orignally from NY. and he knew my father was flying that day to Las Vegas for a convention that I was going to go meet him later in the week. I ran to the tv in Shock.
My mother calls in 2 minutes later in a panic because my father didn’t leave his flight information like he normally did and I didn’t bother getting it because I wasn’t seeing him till later in the week. For the next 3 hours my mother, twin and I called every airline trying to figure out what airline and flight my father was on. He was on american airlines but luckily he wasn’t on that flight. He flew out of newark and got rerouted to Philly and he said when he landed he had no idea what was going on but saw everyone standing around the tvs. He saw the flames on the towers and then booked it to the rental cars but they were all gone. luckily he had a friend in philly that could drive him home.
I had family who worked in the towers but thankfully they all got out safe. One got to work late and saw the plane hit, one was going downstairs to get coffee, one was a security guard who happened to switch shifts, and one who didn’t listen when they said to just sit and wait when the first tower was hit. He just left. One of my cousins wife we couldn’t find for a few days but she got a out safe and was at a hospital with some injuries but was ok.
I still can’t believe this happened. When i went back for thanksgiving and it was still smoking it was so surreal.
I was teaching in a northern Virginia middle school near a military base. Some of the kids at school’s parents worked for the Pentagon. Needless to say, it was a horrible day. :pout:
I was in my Senior year of college. I had went to my art class early to finish a project. No one else was showing up for class and I was thinking that I confused my days or something. Then one of my classmates ran in and told me about it. We both ran to the tv and I remember standing there and everyone was crying. It was such a shock.
Another thing that was so weird, was my sorority had its Rush the weekend before. Things didn’t turn out exactly the way we expected and did not get very many members. And our “theme” that year was “Tomorrow the whole world won’t be the same”. Then two days later was 9/11. We all believed we were living in a dream and we hadn’t woken up yet.
I will never forget that day, ever. I can’t watch the news stories about it, they make me teary.
I was driving to work, listening to the radio, when they said they had “breaking news.” (I was living in Austin, TX at the time.) They started talking about a plane hitting one of the towers. I thought it was a little plane that hit the antenna. As I was waiting to get through the security gate (I worked in a shelter), they started talking about the second plane & this being a terrorist attack. I went to my office, but the internet was down, so I walked across the compound to the resource center, where I knew they had a tv. People started coming in, and sat down to watch. We had the tvs on all day. You did what you had to do, and the rest of the time we just sat and watched the coverage. I lived near the airport, and for the next few days, the lack of airplanes was eerie.
I was driving to work when I heard about the first plane. I didn’t beleive them, actually thought it was a radio stunt or something, and then I literally heard the horror in the newscasters voices when the 2nd hit and then I believed it. I remember watching the news for weeks afterwards and I got more and more upset over time went on. And even though I know that only 18 people died recently here in Minneapolis from the bridge collapse, both hit me the same way because of the visual footage. Watching people jump from the WTC and watching the bridge collapse are just as horrifying to me. Neither day I will ever forget. Nor will I forget watching the WTC footage at work and having my then boss come in and say “are you crying?” in a condescending voice.
I was a SAHM. I usually watched the Today Show after taking the kids to school, but I had scheduled a hair appt (highlights too…so it was going to be a long one) immediately after school started, so I hopped in the car. I stopped at a gas station to get a drink and remember hearing someone say something about a tv. I wasn’t paying attention and went on my way.
I heard about the first plane on the radio. My dh is state law enforcement, so I figured he might know what was going on. He explained what he knew thus far. Then, as I was driving, the second plane hit. I remember pulling into the hair salon’s parking lot and sobbing. I lost my dad in April of that year, so all I could think about was the loss of all of those family members and the pain the relatives would be going through. I was still grieving heavily over the unexpected loss of my dad five months before.
I wound up staying at my hair appointment, believe it or not. I knew my children were not far away, and it helped to be with other people. The owner did my hair, but he didn’t have a TV. He and his wife were from NY and were on the phone constantly checking in with relatives. We listened to updates on the radio. I called my kids’ schools to ensure that they were okay. I went straight to my son’s school after my appt and just sat with the kids at lunch. They were totally confused about why kids were getting pulled out of school. I just tried to avoid the subject and talk about normal stuff to get their minds off of it.
I did not see any footage until late that afternoon. I think I’m glad because I just don’t know how I would have handled the visuals so early on.
I did watch United 93 at the theater, and I found it extremely touching and heroic.
I’m a transplanted New Yawker. No matter where I live, I’ll always be from New York. I grew up in Queens and I can remember the towers being built while I was in school.
I live in Connecticut now and I had just dropped my children off at school. I came home and my dh called and told me to turn on the tv. I watched for a while and then called the school cause I knew no one there would know what was going on.
I know that friends of mine living near the shore in Norwalk, CT said that they could see the smoke from across the sound.
I was thankful that I was in CT at the time and not in Brooklyn Heights where we had lived prior to that. We had a view of the towers from our apartment when we were there and my parents had an apartment right across the river from the towers at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. That would have been too close for comfort for me.
I still feel funny doing anything on September 11th other than just being quiet and remembering just how frightening and sad it was.
All you can do is comfort and try to keep them calm until they know things are o.k. or not. These kids were involved near the I-95 sniper incidents a year later.
I was in NY doing some last minute packing before leaving to fly to Reno, NV for 2 wks vacation. I had the Today show on saw all the coverage from the very beginning.
My mother called in tears to tell me that I was not getting on my airplane (little did we know at that time that my flight would be cancelled) and to head home. I went to their house and sat and watched TV with my father until we couldn’t take it anymore. My father is retired military and was deployed for various conflicts as where my uncles. I remember it suddenly occurred to me that he could be recalled and I was so nauseated ! I called him every morning and every night for months just to say I love you and make sure that he hadn’t been and couldn’t be recalled. Unfortunately one of my uncles was recalled and deployed away from his wife and two beautiful daughters.
I was in uptown Manhattan working at my college’s media library. We gathered around a radio that a painter working in the building had and listened to WABC shaking with fear. I went to the front desk and wrote an email to let DH (then DF) and my best friend know that I was all right, because there was no cell coverage, then ran across campus and went to the 16th floor of my dorm and watch #2 fall in shock. I went to my room and called my mom crying when I was finally able to get a phone line out a while later. Gathered in the common room and watched TV later when it came back on. The Dean of the school got us all together out on the lawn and gave a speech and she had to stop several times because of the military jets flying over so loudly. I didn’t sleep that night, or the next, I was too scared. My room was right on Broadway and I could hear the equipment trucks all night carrying to and from ground zero…
Easily the most frightening and stressful day of my life.
to all those lost and affected by what happened. That seems so odd…I mean to refer to a date like “9/11” or “the events of 911”, I still can’t wrap my mind around it. Like the date is defined by what occurred.
I was getting ready for work and actually was naughty about watching morning tv instead of getting ready and being all nicely done up. I barely give myself time to get my hair dry it seems. I was brushing my teeth and the channel had a Little House on the prairie rerun so I flipped the channel to see what the Today show had to say. I immediately saw the smoke from the first plane hit. Katie and Matt were scrambling with information about a plane hitting it and I thought, “how could somebody be that off course?” and just the next second, the next plane hit!! :shock: I couldn’t imagine that a air traffic controller or pilot could make the same mistake…they immediately started saying there is something going on that is more than just an unfortunate accident. I just stood there with my mouth gaping open with toothpaste on my face. I ran to the bathroom to rinse and just paced around thinking…" I have to CALL someone!" and called a gal at work. she had no clue. By the time I had gotten in the care on the way to work, it was 9 our time and 10 Eastern so it was on the radio that I heard that one tower began to fall. I called my dad and he had no idea as he hadn’t had the news on. My friends who just got married that weekend didn’t know until they got the airport that flights all over the country were grounded…they didn’t have the tv on while they packed that am.
I can’t bear to watch a whole lot of footage because my heart just broke for those that realized as the hours and days went by and so many people were missing and found dead. I still get almost sick to my stomach to think of those in the other planes that called their families knowing they were not going to make it.
I am not terribly inconvenienced by the changes since then as I don’t travel by plane a lot, but it does sort of make me mad that we aren’t able to be the way we used to be.
:sad:
I was getting my son ready for his first day of school. (we live in Portland OR) Kindergarten. I didn’t have a car then so his father was coming to pick us up. But he was early, running up the stairs. “what?” I said opening the door. He said “turn on the TV, it’s WW3!” Just as I turned it on they played the footage of planes hitting and then my mum called. She lives in Boston. SHe was watching the Today show live and saw the second plane hit. I turned around and the buildings were falling. I screamed. Through the phone my mother said “don’t scream, you have to keep it together for your son.” I thought, you know this is the one time when screaming is appropriate. I cried, no I balled my eyes out. The school called and said he can go to school or stay home. He said he wanted to go to school. he was looking forward to it. So we took him. Only half the school was there. His dad had to go to work so I went home, blew off work and stayed in bed watching the TV till noon. I slept till I had to pick up the boy and then I got him and hugged him all the rest of the day.
i was in anatomy & physiology lab. i had no clue it had happened until i left lab and went to the bathroom. someone asked me what i thought about the plane crashes. had no clue. i went from there to the computer lab where the lab asst was watching the towers fall live on line.
I was in second grade! Everybody was getting sent to the principal’s office because their parents wanted to take them home. I was too young to really understand the gravity of what had happened. Mrs. Wissen was my teacher. Wow! I havent thought about her in years.
At that time I was living in Miami and was at work. We had a small tv at our lunch room and i whent to get me some coffee. They had the news on TV. We where soo scared! Some of my coworkers where from NY. My mom called me from spain at about 3p.m. that afternoon and she was scared, she was trying to call me for 4 hours!!! The news where just terrible, and there was no way i could go back home as she wanted! My best friend from school (i when to college in New Orleans) was getting married that weekend and i was the maid of honor. I was not able to go to the the wedding!! Pff, terrible, sad time…
I was also in Madrid when they attact us. Again, scared as hell and soo sad! and angry!!!
I had already taken my son to school (we were in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania at the time) and was home with my younger son. He was watching Nickelodeon (which they did not interupt) and my DH called and told me to turn on the TV. By the time I switched over, both towers had already fallen. We were called to come pick up our older son from school.
What really worried us was that a very good friend was a pilot for American Airlines and flew out of New York. Thankfully, it turned out that day he was flying for the navy, but was allowed to fly back home before being grounded.
When they showed the previews for United 93 in the cinemas here in Perth, it was very strange - my heart started pounding and I felt sick to my stomach - just watching the preview! I couldn’t bring myself to watch the movie, although I did see the World Trade Center one with Nicholas Cage.
I was in Disneyworld at our timeshare with my then DH.
I had just woken up and went to the family room to watch tv while he still slept. My mouth dropped as it was just after the cameras started rolling after the first plane hit.
My DH came out in the family room after he heard me going “Oh my God!” and we sat together and watched the tv all day. Such a strange week as we were away from our family. But each year after, we took a “09/11” trip back to Florida. We’re now divorced, but still very close.
We are both cops, so we gave a lot of thoughts to those first responders, along with all the other victims.
I had just gotten married the week before so I was still in wedded bliss. Our second day back to work was Tuesday, 9/11/01 and we worked in the Sears Tower in Chicago. I got to work early as normal and one of the guys coming in said some jerk just flew a plane into one of the towers.
We thought it was a drunk pilot of a Cesna or something like that so we went on CNN.com for more info. Soon after that site crashed and a building wide announcement was made that the Sears Tower was closed and we should evacuate immediately. That building can hold 30k people so I think we were lucky that this happened before most people got to work.
We got on the first METRA train available and sat next to a co-worker that had a portable tv player with him. On the train ride home we saw the second plane hit the tower live and then heard about another plane hitting the Pentagon.
My thoughts were that we were going to war and the big cities were a target. I kept thinking about all of the possible ways to get back to Upstate NY safely and out of Chicago. I thought that if they instituted a draft we’d have to move to Canada. Isn’t that sad? I grew up about 20 mins from the Canadian border so I figured that was a better option then sending my new husband off to war.
I called my Mom at her office and she had no idea what was going on. She was a banker at the time and actually told us to go to an ATM and get out as much cash as possible just in case the financial systems went down. Very scary.
The hardest part was getting an email from our CEO saying that we would be open on 9/12. It took alot of courage to go back to work that day when it was on the news that the Sears Tower was one of the suspected targets. We came very close to quiting our jobs in the next couple weeks because of all the scares that kept happening.
I was at work (I managed a condo back then) on the phone with my best friend who called to tell me a plane had crashed into the WTC. As we spoke she screamed…she was watching TV and saw the second plane.
I ran upstairs to my friend’s condo and we watched the news. It was so horrible as you all know. We were terrified for one of the condo residents who was a United flight attendant. Later we found out one resident had a meeting scheduled at the WTC but canclled out and another’s BIL was missing.
Our flight attendant friend turned out to be on an FMLA in CA to care for her ailing mom and one of her co-workers took her shift on the UAL flight. When she finally came home to Boston I just burst into tears when I saw her I was so relieved. She, however, had huge issues of guilt to deal with.
I live on Boston Harbor and Logan Airport is one mile across the harbor, directly in front of my house. We always complained about the noise. After that silent week when no planes moved in or out I was craving that noise. When I heard the first plane leave again I burst into tears. I have never complained since.
Sometimes when I am on my deck watching the airplanes come and go it hits me that they were HERE. Those horrible men were HERE one mile from my home and it makes me so sad.
to all those lost and affected by what happened. That seems so odd…I mean to refer to a date like “9/11” or “the events of 911”, I still can’t wrap my mind around it. Like the date is defined by what occurred.