Inspired by leopardspot, where were you on 9/11?

[Pooh67_68]

I was working midnight to eight back than so I was sleeping when it happened. When I awoke about 2:30 I loged on to to get my email as I was waiting for someone in England to send me thier address for an auction I had won. The couple from England said that they were sorry about what had happened in the morning. I still did not know what had happened so I turned on the tv and almost fell over when they replayed what had happened.

 

[monarchsfan16]

That Alan Jackson song makes me cry everytime I hear it, and since I listen to country music I have to switch the radio station a lot, even now, particularly when I'm driving.
It's amazing that we can all remember every detail of where we were that day. Not surprising, exactly but really amazing. To me most every other day in life is a blur, but it's a day I can never forget, as I already posted before.

 

[ead79]

I was a senior in college on 9/11, and I will never forget what I was doing. I had gone to class, and I was sitting next to a guy who had a text message pager. He kept getting messages, then he told the class that he got a message that a plane had hit the WTC. Early reports on his pager said that it was a Cessna. I left class and walked back to my apartment, where I had just turned on the TV when I called my mom. She was sobbing on the phone, and I was puzzled by why she was so upset. I figured that if it was only a small Cessna that hit the WTC, the damage wouldn't be too horrific. I then turned to the TV and saw them replay one of the planes hitting, then I saw the towers fall. I was speechless and started crying myself.

I then called my boyfriend (now DH) and went over to his apartment to watch the footage. I was just numb and in shock and so unspeakably sad. I wanted desperately to be with my parents (I went to school in Athens, GA, which is about 1.5 hours from Atlanta, where my parents live in a suburb). I was petrified that there would be more attacks on other large cities around the nation, so I begged my parents to leave Atlanta and come to Athens to stay with me. They decided to stay home though.

I logged onto the DIS and watched TV footage at the same time. Even though some people wouldn't understand, I will never forget how much support I got from my DIS family that day. I will never forget that simple thread asking the NYC DISers to check in. I will never forget the Canadian, British, and other DISers showing their support for the USA. I still remember all the clipart flags at half mast from various countries represented here. I will never forget people posting the words to "God Bless America" and them touching my heart so deeply. I wanted to be with my family so badly, and the kindness of DISers helped make that easier for me. Of course, I will never forget those who lost their families on that horrific day.

 

[Microcell]

I was at home and DH then best friend called to tell me. I will never ever forget seeing the second plane hit. I also looked in the sky when they made all the planes land that AM and see the contrails of circles all over the sky over Kansas City. It was eerie.

 

[luv2nascar]

I was at work
DH called immediately to see if I'd heard he was watching it at work
I called my mother at work immediately because she is in VA near many military bases and I was scared for her
when the second tower went down I was watching on tv
We spent the morning worried about my friend at work's niece
she was 12 at the time and alone on a flight from Phila. PA to Arizona
Her parents put her on the plane in Philly and she took off less than 1/2 hr before the first one hit
she was lost for hours
they finally got word her plane was forced to land in Chicago
the pilot who had children her age took her home with him
she had to spend several days with his family as their were no flights

It was my birthday. We had cake at work. I don't think anyone even cut it

 

[newholiday]

When I heard I was just parking at work. It was just after 9am

 

[KathyTX]

I was at work... we also first heard that a Cessna had hit the WTC. As reports starting coming in that it was actually an airliner, we turned on a television in a conference room.

We thought we were watching coverage of a single tragic accident or a hijacking gone bad... I remember the feeling of absolute stunned terror when we saw that second plane hit. That was the moment when we knew this was no accident.

The rest of the morning, seeing the towers collapse, hearing of the other two planes crashing, and waiting on edge as we expected to continue to hear of other acts of terrorism, was surreal.

DH and I were scheduled to fly to Arizona for a conference (for him) and some spa days (for me) on September 12. Of course, that never happened. I was thankful that we were not that far from home and from our son when the tragedy occurred.

We live very near a major airport, and are accustomed to hearing and seeing planes fly over the house every few minutes, all day long. The next few days were very eerie, as the skies were empty and deadly quiet - a constant reminder of the threat we were living under.

When the first plane reappeared in the sky (how many days later was that?), I remember being frozen in my driveway, eyes glued on the strange and lonely sight.

 

[Kitty 34]

I was subbing in a 5th grade class.

 

[AmazingGrace]

Here's actually a newspaper article that was written about my experience on 9/11

Loriann Zello

On Sept. 11, Loriann Zello dropped off her 2-year-old daughter at a friend’s house and took her two boys to Glenmore Elementary School, where she does volunteer work.

The day began as any other school day for the volunteer. Zello worked in Teresa Williams’ second-grade classroom, grading papers and stuffing folders.

“At about 9:30 or so, I started helping the kids with a reading assignment,” she said. “Over the intercom I heard that all teacher’s aides were to report to the office.”

“Gee, this doesn’t sound good,” an aide said as she left the room.

A few minutes later, the intercom crackled again, asking teachers to bring TVs with rabbit ear antennas to the office. Zello still didn’t know what was happening.

“I thought of the day the space shuttle blew up,” she said.

Then Williams handed her a slip of paper with news that a plane had crashed into a tower at the World Trade Center.

At first, Zello didn’t realize the seriousness of the news.

“Being from New Jersey, I had been in the towers, and I thought maybe the weather was bad, maybe a publicity stunt went wrong. It had to be an accident.”

Then aide Paula Gould called Zello into the hall and gave her another slip of paper, with the news of the Pentagon attack. But Zello said she still didn’t fully comprehend the scope of the disaster until she visited the school office and saw the televised reports.

She said she returned to the classroom in shock.

“None of the kids knew at that point,” she said. “My 8-year-old and all his classmates were blessedly unaware of what had happened.”

Teachers did not tell students about the attacks, but when a fourth-grader returned from a doctor’s appointment with the news, word spread to the upper grades.

Glenmore Principal Joyce Sprott and her staff worked hard to keep the children calm, Zello said.

“Due to the high military population at Glenmore, their job was especially stressful,” said Zello, whose husband, Tech Sgt. Rick Zello, is an instructor at Goodfellow.

The school had to deal with parents who were trapped on a locked-down base, she said. Office staff members worked the phones constantly that afternoon, making sure students had a place to go or someone to pick them up after school.

The school employees “were the epitome of grace under pressure,” she said.

Zello remained at the school for much of the morning, reading to children, “but my heart was just hurting, and I soon had to excuse myself,” she said. “I went to the cafeteria and loved on my son and left. I had to be let out of the building. Everything was locked. All the kids were sheltered. A part of me wanted to take my kids home, but I knew they’d be safe at Glenmore.”

Zello said she will never forget the horror of the televised images.

But, she added, she will also never forget the sanctuary Glenmore provided for so many children on that dark day.

“Those people shined"

 

[MomofKatie]

I was at home with my DD- she had a cold and stayed home from preschool that day. We came downstairs and I turned on the TV. Usually we watched PBS kids' shows, but for some reason this morning I decided to take a peek at Diane Sawyer for a few minutes. It just so happens that this was about three minutes before the second plane hit the Tower. So I watched it happen live, along with lots of other horrified people around the nation. The rest of the day I put my daughter up in my bed with videos, and I watched as if in a nightmare the events unfold. I'm just glad DD was too young to really know what she saw... she had just turned three.

It's funny- I was in college when I saw the horrible explosion of the Space Shuttle, and at the time I thought it was the worst possible tragedy I'd ever see... so sorry to say I was terribly wrong. I want to never see anything so tragic and horrible again.

 

[niks81]

I was at work in downtown Minneapolis. It was very scary and very sad. I remember hearing panic in some of my coworker's voices but I wasn't sure what was going on. I was on my way to the restroom and I saw a bunch of people crowded around the tv so I stepped in to watch. Just as I did the second plane hit and we were very aware that this was no accident. The channel we were watching zoomed in so far we were watching people jump out of the buildings...and when the buildings collapsed it was just horrific. I felt like this had to be a terrible nightmare, but unfortunately it wasn't.

The CEO of my company happened to be in the same room as I was and he immediately got up and had everyone sent home. When we headed out of the building to leave we noticed loads of cops everywhere. It was altogether just very intense.

On the way home I just kept praying that nobody else would be hurt in whatever was going on, but it turned out that there were two other planes. For the victims and their families, I can only say how sorry I am.

 

[bjgrazi]

Did you know where you lined up to wait for the elevator to take you up to the observation floor the wall were painted purple? My son who at the time was about 3 thought they were candy and licked them. All I remember thinking is OMG he's going to be sick from it.

I was at work and my sister called me. She use to work in the twin towers years ago and I was always visiting. I thought she was telling me a small plane hit, we were use to seeing them buzz around. Next thing I know we were screaming into the phone. I couldn't believe what she was telling me. We were let go from work and I was home in 10 minutes. As I was driving they said the 1 tower collapsed. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I got home and watched the second. I had family in that building and all made it out okay. My ex helped with the recovery, he's a local 40 ironworker and a transit ironworker.
When he came home that saturday, even with being divorced, I was never so glad to see him.

 

[4greatboys]

I had just taken my 2 oldest to school and got ds #3--then only 18 months, some breakfast. Just by chance we happen to catch part of the news because we usually would watch Blue's Clues on our satellite.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I was actually on my way for a blood test. I listend to the radio. I didnt realize how bad it was. When I got to the lab they had the tv on and everyone was glued to it. The techs were calling there loved ones in the tower. One shouted later that they got out o.k. A man from our church is a NYC firefighter. They lost 4 guys in his co. They had to unbury his fire rig. He doest know how he survived. I just saw him lately. He is now on disability and looks terrible. I didnt want to talk in front of his kids. I heard he has serious lung problems. He looks like he has cancer. They never found the bodies of my friends cousins husband and a few others we heard of. A man at DH work said, I was suppose to be filing my retirement papers, now I have to go to the city to fill out papers for dna about my nephew. Tragic, sad. Our lives will never be the same. DH job was on highest security. AK 47, flapjackets etc. The machine guns are constantly aimed at your car until you pass the security check point. They did arrrest some people. It was in the paper and I dont want to get into it. Lets just say they are where they belong now. A woman at DH job wrote a nice letter to everyone in the work paper for their prayers. She was grateful that they found her sons body ina staircase. She retired with her husband to help her dil take care of the 2 grandkids etc. No ones lives will be the same around here. 3 familiys from our town lost dads. The fireman took up a collection etc. My sons teachers husband helped with the recovery. Its just something they dont want to talk about. DH friend was on morgue duty. He told my DH he couldnt take it and cried after 2 days. He was only volunteer and an emt. I have gone on too much. But sometimes people around here might want to vent a little, so it helps if others will listen to us. Thanks.

 

[DCLuvinit]

I was at work. Someone called the office after the first plane hit and we turned on the news. The first thing I did was try to call my mom who is a flight attendant. When I finally got thru, I found out she was in New York and their plane was on the runway, diverting back to the gate. My eyes welled up, but I was thankful she was okay. My boss, who I shared my office with, just kept going about her normal business, which upset me. It seemed like nothing ever came before work for her. I couldn't wait to get home to let it sink in.

 

[grinningghost]

Home. I had the TV on "Little House on the Prairie". DH called me to ask what was going on with the WTC and I didn't know anything about it.

Quite a stretch going from Walnut Grove to that horror.

 

[lovingthemouse]

I was in my 7th grade classroom, when my principal quietly came around, and informed many of us. During the morning, the tv's stayed off and the kids continued working, but after lunch we did inform them and turned on the tv's only for a a few minutes.
What a difficult situation to be placed in- not that we did not want the kids to be aware, but not panicing them seemed wiser until more information was available.

 

[huey duey & luey]

Originally posted by stm61

My sister's husband worked in Tower 4, we didn't find out until almost 8pm that he was still alive. His office was completely destroyed when the other tower's fell on it. He's alive because he overslept for the first time in 20 yrs. His train was stopped on the tracks 15 min outside the city. It would have taken right into the basement of the WTC. My twin daughter's godmother's brother was a flight attendent on one of the planes that hit the towers. He's alive because he switched vacation days with someone else the day before and was off that morning.

My husband's cousin works for C antor Fiztgerald he was out sick during the 1993 bombing and on vacation on 9/11. Unfortuantely my friend lost her huband FDNY because he had switched days with someone

 

[joshsmom]

We had just come back from Disney World and I had the day off. I was headed to my mom's house when the first reports came on the radio. At first I thought the DJs on the station I was listening to were doing some stupid stunt. It became painfully clear very fast that it was no stupid radio prank.

Very interesting side note: I had planned our Disney trip in November 2000. As the time got closer, we decided that we wanted to stay just one more day. I worked and worked on trying to change flights, change hotel reservations, etc. Every time I tried to change it, something would go wrong and I wouldn't be able to complete my changes. After about a month of trying, my mom said "well, maybe there's just a reason we should come back on 9/10--so we did. And then the world changed forever on 9/11.

 

[CALIFLADY]

I was driving to work in Northern California. I remember hearing about the first plane hitting the north tower while coming across the Carquinez Bridge. Then they reported about the possibility of the Pentagon being hit, and I thought, "This has GOT to be some kind of April fool's joke, right?!? Wait...it's September!"

After about 2 hours at work, they sent everyone home. For safety reasons. They knew everyone's mind was on the happenings on the East coast, and I worked in a rather dangerous/volitile site. For safety reasons, all non-essentials were sent home.

I sat at home and watched the tube for the rest of the day...