Where were you on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001?

[gt2590]

I was opening my store and noticed the clock on the PC was wrong. I turned on the all-news station to check the correct time just as the chaos was unfolding.

They weren't sure at that point if it was an intentional thing or not. By the time I got the TVs on and found a broadcast, the second plane was moments away from hitting the Towers. As it hit both Couric and Lauer knew it was intentional and things got worse from there. Then the reports of other incidents started and everthing stopped. No phone lines, no faxes, nothing. We stayed open 'til mid-afternoon, but didn't do any sales and honestly didn't want to be there anyway.

 

[jeffmu]

Followed my morning ritual, coffee, newspaper, computer, remember logging on my homepage of Yahoo and there was just a little blurb about a plane hitting one of the Towers, the story was so new it was only 2 sentences along with "to be updated later". I didnt think much of it because I believe it was just a couple of months earlier I'd read about a small prop plane hitting a large building in Florida (I think).

Took my daughter to the Doctor where the assistant said "can you believe this?" Got put into the waiting room and heard some of the most horrific screams, shrieks, etc. That was when the staff at the doctor's office witnessed the 2nd plane crash into the other Tower, never hugged my daughter tighter, now she's 12 and I have 2 younger daughters as well. I was virtually catatonic for that day and 2 days following.........

 

[Fandruw25]

I was getting learners permit in the state of Connecticut.

 

[timfsu2k]

I was thinking more about this and remembered that we actually had an appointment at a federal courthouse that afternoon. We went on down, not sure if it would be open, and were surprised to find that it was open. There was a TON of security types in and around the building. My wife left her purse in the car and they would not let her inside without her i.d. Considering this was in a little town in Eastern Kentucky they must have really been on high alert. I guess no one really knew what was going on. I also remember while we were at that courthouse we heard some of the security people talking and saying that there was a report of a plane being unaccounted for from the Lexington airport.

 

[Superfractor]

I was in fourth grade, in my Social Studies class. Our teacher informed us of the events, as they unfolded. However, he did not really show much concern, or emotion towards the events. That, in conjunction with a class-as-usual format. I (we) figured it was not a serious matter - I was in utter shock, when I went home.

 

[dxanarchy]

I was a senior in High School in the Bronx in physics honors and this kid told the class a plane had flown into the WTC and we all thought it was an accident. Right after physics I went into psychology and the teacher put on the news and the second plane hit the tower within a few minutes. We were all really stunned by what had happened.

The rest of the day was sitting in class watching the news and making sure loved ones were OK. My high school did not suffer many losses of parents' lives but one of our brother school (catholic) lost something ridiculous like 20 sets of parents and 15 individual parents. When I got home that day I could see the smoke from the front of my house miles away. One of the saddest days of my life.

 

[bongo870]

I was a sleep recovering form my 2nd knee surgury

 

[leatherman]

I was so excited that morning. We had an electric forklift, and I had placed an order for a new 24 cell battery, and they were set to deliver it first thing in the morning. We had problems unloading bundles of poplar wood due to having insufficient weight on the back end of the lift, and the new battery was going to provide us with the necessary weight needed, along with the power to lift those bundles safely as well. They installed the battery and I had just finished a couple of tests when a co-worker told me about a plane hitting the WTC.

I immediately got on the computer and sent my wife an email, as she is from the Bronx and has plenty of friends and family in New York. She didn't believe it, and called her family, who hadn't heard anything about it either. I turned the radio on, and within a minute, the second plane hit. We had a 13" color TV in the break room with no antenna, but we all watched the snowy picture for the next couple of hours, seeing both towers fall.

It was a couple of days before we knew that all of our family and friends were safe. One friend had played hookie from work that day at the WTC, and it saved her life. One of our closest friends in NYC was moving to Atlanta that Friday, but her flight was canceled due to the attacks, and her move was delayed about a week. When the flights did resume, we picked her up at the Atlanta airport and saw firsthand all the changes that had been made: it was like it was a different airport, at least in the parking/pickup area.

It's hard to believe that was nine years, and three children, ago.

 

[UMich92]

I was at work in downtown Chicago. Our building was shut down and everyone was sent home. Without any planes in the sky above Chicago, it was very eerie as no one new what the heck was going on.

 

[HoustonTeams4Me]

I was running late for my morning class at a Junior College (San Jacinto College) & while I was passing back and forth in front of the TV screen, getting things ready to go, I noticed "Good Morning America" was showing the 1st plane that had hit the tower. All of the reporter's had no clue as to what truly was going on, they were going from 1 to the other speculating on what was going on. Then the second plane came into view of the screen & hit the building...I immediately felt a sense of shock, awe, urgency, panic & as they all intertwined and washed over me I felt that I needed to call my loved one's (even though I lived in Texas, I wanted to make sure those that I loved were secure & aware of what was going on).

My father came stumbling through the living room to get his coffee & basically pushed me out the door (as I was going to be late for class). When I arrived at San Jac, several minutes late, no one was in the hall's as classes had already began though when I enterred ny classroom the teacher hadn't arrived yet, as I guess he was late also. I began telling the other students what I had saw & telling them what I believed: "The U.S. is under attack!"...But the overall response was disbelief (at least that's what it seemed like, as thier was no real emotion in thier faces as I told them), until the teacher came hustling in & then I tried to tell him what was occurring. Midway through my explanation the neighboring teacher came in & requested that they speak in the hallway (which the neighboring teacher then dropped the bomb on our teacher, informing him that we the students were to be released immediately & everyone was to evacuate the premises). As we were all leaving the building many of my classmates began coming up to me & asking me to again explain what I had seen on television & what was going on (now they believed me, as I could see the urgency in thier faces).

I got home (I live very close to the college) & I remember that I was glued to the television watching as the tower's burned, the whole while having a feeling of urgency for the people in the building's, I just knew in my gut that they needed to get out of there...However I had not thought that what was about to happen could even be possible, until it then occurred. The building collapsed & it brought about a sickening feeling inside me (almost as if I had loved one's/family member's in the building). The commentator's were horrified, heck everyone was, you could tell it in the voice's, in the face's, in the blank look's or glazed over stares that many were casting. By the time the second building collapsed there was anger pitted up in my stomach, I was furious as to how someone would dare do this to "us" (I think as horrific & as tragic as that day was, that it brought the United States together, it brought stranger's together as they were feeling the same way & could sypathize with what the other was going through/feeling).

Anyhow, sorry this turned into a novel but I sincerely got caught up in the moment, this really took me back (it was as if I was experiencing those same emotion's all over again, though not in thier initial level of intensity, but I felt them nonetheless).

Have a good day today & if nothing else tell a family member you love them, a friend you care about them, or a stranger "Hello". :grouphug:

 

[TNP777]

I used to be off on Tuesdays, so I was sleeping in. The phone rings - all my friend Sue said was, "turn on your TV. NOW". The South Tower had just been hit.

After the Towers collapsed, I was done. I had a bunch of stuff (errands) to get done that day, but I couldn't fathom leaving my house for any reason short of a personal/family emergency. Couldn't muster the energy to do a damn thing but watch the horror on the TV. I found out when I went back to work on Thursday that I actually had customers come into our store that day and buy furniture. A very small part of me was grateful to earn some money while I was gone, but a larger part of me was angry that folks could go and do something so trivial as buy furniture when 3,000 of our citizens had just been murdered.

I remember being so angry and saddened at the images of the people dancing in the streets - we all remember that woman who seemed so happy at what had been done to us. Sickened me then, and sickens me now.

 

[All The Hype]

7th grade algebra class..it was about an hour after it happened before the news had spread enough for most people to know what was going on.

 

[Hwilensky]

I was teaching 7th grade social studies in Brooklyn. I had a prep period. So I did what I normally did, and snuck out the side door to smoke a cigerette. Next thing I know, I see a massive amount of rescue vehicles rush past the school. I go to see whats going on, because this is not the safest part of Brooklyn. And in the distance, I see smoke and lots of it. I rush back in to the school and they have a televison on in the office. We witnessed the tragedy that was happening. After that, the principal called a few of us into the office and we had to devise a way of breaking the tragedy to the school.

 

[jeff550]

I was really young, i just remeber my mom picking me up from school early, and i was wondering what the heck was going on, i rember watching the news for hours. little did i know what was going on.

my dad told me that his work had got out early, and that he went down 395 expeting to be stoped, as he ddrove by the pentagon was still smoking.

one of my friends dad's, was supposed to be in the part of the pentagon that was hit, but he got stuck in traffic, was late, and missed it.

 

[kdailey4315]

I wasn't born yet.

You're a piece of shat. Are you really trying to troll this thread or make a joke out of it?

Back on topic. I was sleeping when my girlfriend (now my wife) called me freaking out saying we were being attacked. I turned on the TV and didn't leave the couch all day. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I kept think that think kind of crap doesn't happen here. Not in the USA.

 

[bongo870]

 

[justinmandawg]

I was at the second day of orientation w/ GE Capital. A few weeks later I took a call from a family that lost their daughter in the attack. It was the first dealing the company had with a customer that had died due to the attack. We had to do a lot of work that day to figure out just what our stance was going to be regarding the customers affected.

My wife's uncle is a Franciscan Friar that lives in NYC. He lost a lot of friends that day involved with his order. We couldn't contact him for several days. He was supposed to be taking a group of high schoolers to the towers that day from the school he is a psychologist/mentor but their bus was held up.

 

[Musial Collector]

Was in Estes Park, CO, with family, was suppose to fly home that afternoon.
Drove from Denver to Minneapolis Thursday the 13th, that is a long long ride.

 

[Reyes7tulo2]

I can't believe I was in 4th grade. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was getting ready for school and watching it unfold on the news with my mom. She called my aunt to ask if she was watching because my uncle worked on about the 80th floor in the World Trade Center. One of the only days in his life he was late for work. He was walking up to the buildings as the first plane hit. My mom and aunt were a wreck because they couldn't get in touch with him or my dad who also works in Manhattan. Thank goodness they were both safe, but I grew up in a hurry on that day. Today was the same exact weather in NY as it was on this day in 2001 too, so weird.

 

[moxacaine]

just got off a night shift and got no sleep at all. i was 7 months in the army at the time and we all knew we were going to war.

ive driven past the pentagon for the past 5 1/2 years on my way to work and cant help but think about what happened everytime i drive by.