Where were you on 9/11/2001?

[JoiseyMom]

My DH was mad at me because he had to be in work early, and I let him over sleep. He worked a few blocks north of the WTC. Right near the Holland Tunnel. It was DD first day of kindergarten, and my first day back from maternity leave. I was watching GMA and turned off the tv, went to the car, hooked up the car seat, buckled DD in hers, and turned on the car radio. As I listened to WPLJ, I was wondering what the heck was going on . It took me all of 3 minutes from the time I turned off the tv and turned on the car radio. As I listened I called my cousin who used to work out at a gym at the WTC..but I was told thankfully that he was safely in mid-town. I then called DH to tell him what was going on, he was on the NJ Turnpike watching the first tower burn.

I watched some tv at the babysitters, dropped DD off at Kindergarten, and drove to work. On the news they were now talking about shutting the tunnels. Well DH was headed to the Lincoln, I told him that it was closed, and he had to somehow get his bus driver to turn around!! As he was sitting on the bus they saw the second plane crash into the tower.

He tried telling the bus driver to stop, that the tunnel was closed, but he didn't want to listen. THe driver finally pulled over and called into dispatch that this crazy passenger was telling him that the tunnel was closed. A few moments later the announcement came over that they had to turn around, Manhattan was on lock down!! Any further and the bus would have been stuck and not been able to turn around. They were at the last turnoff before the helix.

How I was able to get through to DH all morning on the cell, I have no idea, I was grateful. I then called some friends at the Federal Reserve, which was 2 blocks from WTC, where I used to work 2 years prior, to see how they were, and if my friend needed me to pick up her son, since she was in Manhattan, and her DH was in Brooklyn. My friend told me they had all the employees from the outer buildings evacuated into the main fed building and they were under lockdown, with the guards and the guns outside. She said they opened the executive dining room and food and drink were available. It was very scary.

At work, we did nothing but listen to the radio and watch it on the internet. WHen we were told a tower collapsed we were just in shock.

I heard that some people I used to commute with died in the towers, and my DH has a friend who lost a relative on one of the Boston planes, she was a flight attendant.

It's a day that I will always, sadly remember.

 

[scottishduffy]

I was a Nanny at the time. The parents of the girls I cared for had been on vacation for about a week and were due to come home on an 8:00 am flight that morning, out of New York city.

I dropped the girls off at school (ages 3 and 6 1/2 at that time) and they were excited for Mom to pick them up that afternoon. I went to my first class and then our university was shut down. By 10 am I was frantically trying to call their parents.

Having no contact with Mom and Dad I went to the school at 3:30 to see if the girls had been picked up. Mom and Dad had not come. I went to the principals office first to see if anything had been told to the kids. I was given permission, given the circumstance, to take the girls home although I was not granted permission for that day. I was scared out of my mind thinking of how to explain what had happened in a general sense. Also, since at the beginning not too much was known about which flights had gone down I was scared about what I could possibly have to explain. The parents were on an AA flight.

I could have *killed* some of the office people. Lily (age 3) had no clue, but when Sam saw me picking her up she freaked out. The school knew her parents were coming back on an early flight that day and had apparently asked her several times if she knew if her 'parents were OK'. She was scared when she saw me, since this was her proof that something was wrong with her mom and dad. She knew some planes had crashed and that people at school kept asking her if her Mom and Dad had made it. I was able to talk her down....

My goal that day was DISTRACTION TACTICS. We went to the Park! We went to Burger King for dinner and to play on the equipment! We were the only people there. We rented movies from Blockbuster! (keep the TV OFF!!!) I got popcorn and gummi bears with the movie. Anything they wanted that night. I let them stay up late while waiting for my phone to ring and trying their parents every so often. I wanted to keep them busy and happy so they wouldn't think about their parents and make any connection. It worked, they had a fun evening.

At 9:30 pm their parents finally called. Talk about relief. I had been afraid the whole evening of what I would be forced to explain to small children if the worst had happened. Mom and Dad were fine. They were eventually able to rent a car and got home 3-4 days later. The school was lenient and let me pick up the girls the whole time.

I just remember that day, being so afraid of what to tell Sam and how eerily quiet the parks were. I had the only kids out playing that day.... trying our best to pretend the world was fine because they needed it to be fine.

 

[nikkistevej]

My DH and I were on our 5th wedding anniversary trip in Vegas- that Tuesday (9/11)we were on our way to see Hoover Dam/Grand Canyon on a bus tour- we went through Hoover Dam and to Grand Canyon but since all air travel was stopped- we couldn't do the helicopter ride to the bottom and do the white water rafting that we had booked. We just saw the Grand Canyon and came back- but Hoover Dam was blocked off- so we had to go through California to get back to Vegas. We were supposed to leave on Thursday morning to come home - but our flight got "extended" to Sunday at 11pm. We had to be at the airport 4 hours early and that was the longest flight ever... all of the men on the airplane sat on the outside seats- I guess to deter anyone who might try to something. We flew all night and no one ever got up out of their seat to use the bathroom or anything and no one slept all night on the flight.

 

[Donnainnj]

First I remember the 1993 attack on the WTC. I was due to have my daughter 2 days later. I was watching TV that was interrupted by the report. I watched for a while and then couldn't anymore and took a nap. When I woke up my water broke. My oldest was born the next morning.

For 9/11 I had just dropped off my younger daughter at her first day of preschool. Driving home in the car with the radio on. When they said a plane hit the tower I to looked up to the blue sky and thought "How could someone hit that building on a day like this". When I got home I turned on the TV and got on the phone. I first called DH who was on the NJ coast line train watching the smoke. He works in Jersey City. Our communcation after that first call was on the internet. Then I called my aunt to see if she knew what tower her then future daughter in law worked in. We found out she was ok, she was on a lower floor of the first tower. It was so strange, DH had been crazy anxious the week up to that day, more then I had ever seen him before, at work they were scheduled to do a disaster recovery the following weekend, and he was nervous about it. Well they had the real thing to deal with. He had to help figure out how to put Cantor Fitzgerald's information systems back together.
DH said most of his office was at the top of their building watching as the second plane hit. I called my one best friend who's husband is a NYC cop. She wasn't worried as he was called into midtown. Ingnorance is Bliss. Later she found out he ended up turning the corner at the WTC when the first tower went down. He dug in the pit for the first 3 days. (had a cough for a couple of years after) I watched TV for days, setting up the kids with vidoes in the family room. We only had one channel because we didn't have cable, and most of the station's antennas were on the towers.
37 people died from my town.
Donna