Was home working while babysitting my youngest niece and caring for my mom, who was recovering from cancer surgery. My sister called from work and said to turn on CNN because a 'small plane' had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center. We had been watching cartoons for my niece and when we changed the channel one of the towers was already burning. We watched, believing it was a horrible accident. When the second plane hit we saw it and I remember my mother said, "it must be a screw up with the flight radar."
I was so scared, and I said, "no this is on purpose-we're under attack." She didn't believe me until the reports started coming in that another plane had hit the Pentagon and that maybe there was another plane heading for the White House. A plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
They dismissed school and I had to run to my sister's house a few blocks away to see if her other two kids were there and I found them huddled together sitting on the front steps.
My sister worked right across from Independence Hall in Philly at that time, and she was let out of work and had to walk miles home because the buses had stopped running.
I remember that night I had to go grocery shopping, which had been my plan for that day. I thought it would be a distraction from the horror. The supermarket was playing CNN's feed over the loudspeakers and the entire place was deathly quiet even though there were lots of people shopping. Everyone was walking around listening to the news. At the checkout there were some small American flags and I bought one to attach to my railing outside of my house. I was the first one on my street to display a flag, but by the next day or two they were everywhere.
