Where were you on 9/11, and how did you find out about the events ?

Was in my 3rd period french class, freshman year of high school. A sophomore girl found out somehow and told everybody. Then the PRincipal made an announcement about it. I also didn't realize how serious it was until I got home. I couldn't believe what I was watching on TV.

 

It was morning in California, I had planned to take drive my dad to the doctor's. OF ALL DAYS, I didn't click the radio on, just had some conversation with my old man in the car. While sitting in the waiting room, I get a call on my cell from my sister and she was frantic. She asked if I had heard the news today and I said no, she was in disbelief as I kept replying no to her questions of listening or seeing any source of news that morning, then she finally said it; "We've been attacked!" Unclear what she meant, I replied, "What do you mean?" she said, "the twin towers are on fire". I told her that I would call her back and hung up, ran out of the waiting room and went outside looking for a diner, market, Radio Shack... anything with a radio or TV. There was a coffee shop nearby with a TV and everyone was glued to the TV. The moment I walked in, I saw the replay of the plane smashing into the second tower. I could not beleive what I just saw, I thought it was a quick animation the news media put up for illustrative purposes, but that was the actual footage. Coming from a military family when I was younger, I immediately thought the Armed Forces would be put on alert Delta. I knew everything of military significance would be 'locked and loaded'. Then I began to think if any roads would be closed off locally. Then I had my doubts, the police agencies in the area are not THAT organized. I stayed glued to the TV until my dad called me "Hey, where are you?" Rather than break him the news on the phone, I ran over to him, got him in the car and turned on the radio. I flew home and clicked on the TV to see WHAT ELSE was going on. Nothing was going on that day so I stayed home watching the news.

 

Right around 6:30 I was getting ready to go to work and as I was in the bathroom my sister called; i picked up the phone and she told me to turn on the TV because a plane had hit the WTC. I immediately turned on the TV and watched the second plane hit the second tower. I was speechless and stood in front of the TV for 20 minutes with my face half shaven. I went downstairs and woke my dad up to give him the bad news, and it took him a few minutes to understand what was going on, but he was sick to his stomach when it all registered.

I listened to the news in my car as I went to the subdivision I was building, and when I got to my office I turned on the TV in my office and saw the second tower fall.



Something I will never forget for as long as I live.

 

I was in the back seat of a Civic doing a fuel pump recall update.

I looked out the back window into the lobby through the service area glass and saw the buring building, then watched #2 plane hit.

Everyone else stuck themselves to the TV, I went on working, finished that car, then took in 4 more while no one noticed and took all the gravy jobs. I flagged 19 hours that day doing BS work because no one else wanted to lift a finger.

I left 2 hours late at 7:00 pm.

2 days later I got laid off due to the "inevidable slow down we're going to see due to the unfortunate events." Myself and 3 other guys (all new to that shop) all went home. None of the guys that stayed are still at the shop. All of the guys who were laid off with me ended up at other shops the next day, and 3 of the 4 of us opened our own shops within 2 years. I still talk to all 3 of those guys. Best day of my life. Had that not happened, I'd probably still be at the dealer.

Stick

 

I was in my Government Class...first period of Senior year of Highschool. I was at school a couple mins early before the bell, and the mood of everybody felt slightly odd...but what day isn't slightly "odd" for highschool?

By the time the bell rang, i entered my first period along with my other classmates, hearing weird commotion of the "world trade center this" or "NYC that". Then when the teacher, Mr. Waylett, announced the tradegy, the class room got lounder, then as the TV played, the room silenced in surprised and horror. On that day, the feeling eas very errie. I still feel it today when i watch/hear about 9/11.

What scares me the most was the silence. But what assured me, was America coming together, uniting as one.

 

I was in my senior year in high school between periods on my way to Physics class. I had heard we were being attacked and a rumor that we were about to get into World War III. Didn't believe any of it until I got to class and we watched CNN for the entire time. The whole day was surrounded by talks of the events. I had another class at a different high school and when I came back to mine for practice the parking lot was vacant and I had got the news that all after school activities were cancelled. I went home and watched TV the rest of the day and spent time with my family. Later that night we had a candlelight vigil on the corner of my street with neighbors. Truely an unbelieveable experience.

 

I was on a part time computer course here in the Uk when it came up on the internet page, if I remember it was about 2pm here, I was so shocked as I was watching it when the second hit and obviously knew the outcome

 

Its so weird to have this discussion on the 5th anniversary because it feels so soon. It feels to me like it happened just 2-3 years ago...not 5. Does anybody feel that way also?

 

Yes, I think thats because it was so shocking, nothing like that has ever happened before in our lifetimes, and sadly memories like that never leave, hence the feeling like it was yesterday

 

My wife - then fiancee - woke me. She was in tears. Within seconds, I was too.

Five years to the day I was awakened to see what it was like to not sleep for days on end because my mind's eye could not erase what I was seeing on television, I cannot imagine what those who found themselves in harm's way and survived - the true survivors - must cope with. Nor can I imagine what the families of victims must feel.

 

gf next to me had it on CNN when I woke up, it was right after the 1st plane hit, watched it all happen live that morning

 

I got a phone call at work from my Mom. I turned on the TV at work and we didn't turn it off all day. Definitely feels more recent to me than 5 years ago.

 

i was in my first period woodshop class, the principal came on, right after the second building was hit, and made an announcement. it was kind of eerie, i still remember what the principle said during that announcement. that entire day, all of my classes, we sat there and watched the tv as the vast majority of americans did, 9/11 still seems like it was yesterday for me.

 

It was a Tuesday morning. I had been up for a while and had been banging away at the computer because I was behind on getting a chapter to my publisher, when my mother-in-law called and said that we were under attack. Now, I love her, but my mother-in-law is a bit on the nervous side. So I kept pounding away (I was really, really late this time).

I finally decided to go into the house (I had a separate stand alone office) and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. I didn't move for hours.

I called all my family, but I couldn't get in touch with my daughter who was going to school in the Boston area, all the telephone lines were down. I knew that she was safe because I had just dropped her off and had flown home from Logan the day before. In one of those little ironies, I remembered being peeved because the security at Logan had been a pain in the behind. I have never complained about airport security since then.

So all I did five years ago was watch in horror.

Dale

 

Still remember on TV the guy recording the 2nd one getting hit saying "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..." and the lady reporter talking when suddenly the building collapses behind her and the hundreds of people in the street all standing still, all staring up Definitely feels like it was just yesterday not five years ago. Has anybody seen the new movie World Trade Center? I want to see it so badly but every time I see the preview it brings me to tears so I don't know if I would make it.

 

I was last simester in college. I got a phone call from a friend saying that America was under attack, I thought he was joking. Then I saw the TVs in the Electronics store and was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I almost picked a fight with a haji in a turban (he was smiling watching the TV), but then I remembered that that is exactly something a mohhamedan would do and decided to go the Ghandi way.

 

I was on the train listening to the radio when the first plane struck. I'm a private pilot and it NEVER occured to me it was an airliner - I assumed some smuck in a Cessna f***ed up.

I walked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the monitors had CNN on instead of running looping charts like they usually did. A buddy of mine (also a pilot) called me over and we saw it wasn't a light aircraft. At that very moment the second plane hit the tower.

It was immediately aparent this was no accident and the market dropped 150 points before electronic trading was suspened. I ran around making sure everyone was "flat" (no open positions) because you just had no idea what was happening.

The Merc is a block away from the Sears tower (one of the tallest in the world) and may also be a target, so the building was evacuated and i was on a train again - listening to the radio - when the first tower fell.

I had a close friend in New York that worked for Canter Fitzgerald - so I sat on the train and cried.

And yes my worst fears were realized...

 

Sorry to hear it Dave

 

I was just pulling into work in Hackensack, NJ when the first plane hit. We also had an office in Newark, so one of the guys from over there called up and told us what had happened. We had no TVs or radios, so I was online watching video as best I could. I immediately went to Slashdot when none of the major media sites were loading; there were plenty of mirror sites and International news sites people posted in the comments. Since most of my friends were in Newark, I was keeping up date with everything through IM.

My girlfriend (now wife) was upset - her brother worked in the building across the street from the towers. Luckily, when she got in touch with him later, she found out he didn't go in normal time and never made it into the city.

I remember when I left work that day to head back to my college - I had to get back onto Rt. 80, then the NJ Turnpike. I was talking to Kelly when I was on the road - at one point, there was a straight line of site to the NYC skyline. Mid-sentence, I stopped. All I could say was "holy sh..". I didn't say anything else for a few minutes as the realization hit. My heart sank.

There are a million stories from that day that I could personally tell. My family is from NY, and I know a ton of people that were directly effected. So do millions of others. Though all the stories strike a chord, NOTHING compares to the helplessness and fear I felt going to sleep that night only a couple miles from the city and a couple miles from the airport that was the focal point of the hijacking. I literally didn't know whether I would be alive the next morning.

 

I was watching the morning news and they had a thing about it. Meanwhile my cousin was flying from Paris to Los Angeles and her plane got diverted back to Paris due to the fact that US Airspace was closed. I think she gave us some pictures of the plane dumping fuel or something like that I will see if I can find it

 

I remember walking into English class Senior year and everyone was crowded in the doorway. I ran into the people in front of me as I gazed at the tv screen and said, "Hooooooooly sh!!!!!!!!!t."

 

this was my generation's jfk and pearl harbor. you never think anything like this will happen, however it's a wakeup call. it "awoke a sleeping giant." i remember watching the tv that night and seeing a crowd of people in afghanistan firing off ak-47's and shouting, happy about what had happened that day. i definitely know what it's like to feel helpless. if i had the means and ways that day, i would have been driving my car straight into new york, trying to do my part. we have a family friend that was in washington that day, and was going to visit arlington cemetary, and if you have ever been to dc, arlington is pretty close to the pentagon, and he said that while he was on the highway, they heard an explosion and then just saw smoke billowing out in front of their car. i saw both the world trade center movie and united 93, both did a great job of detailing what happened. i can only pray that my children don't have to go through a tragedy like this.

 

It was a bright, sunny morning, cool air, just like today, in New York. We were on our way into the city from the northern suburbs, and about a mile north of the last crossing point into Manhattan. I was fiddling with the radio dial, my wife was driving, and heard what I thought was a promotion for a new action film- words like "I repeat, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center... there are reports that it was a small civilian aircraft... additional reports will be coming in as we monitor these developments...". The flow of traffic was normal rush hour crowded, but sirens began to sound everywhere, and emergency vehicles- fire department, rescue vans, blue-lighted volunteers in ordinary cars and trucks, started to emerge from every direction. We decided to pull off at the last exit before the city, up in Riverdale. As we did, the sounds of sirens and firestation klaxons multiplied, and grew in chorus. Everyone around us who had pulled over looked stunned, people on side streets getting out of cars with cell phones in hand- we could see the cloud of black smoke from the distance. At that point we heard about the second plane....
I took the wheel, and we headed north again. As we drove north on the parkway, we saw an unending stream of emergency vehicles heading toward the city. I got to our small riverside town, about 25 miles north of Manhattan, very quickly. The volunteer fire department was mustering- a fire boat was being made ready down on the river- we watched the plumes of smoke from the train tracks on the river- one of the people standing there said that they heard over their radio that one of the towers had just collapsed.
We were suddenly at war in a city and place that, moments before, was entirely preoccupied with the daily rituals of normal life. We stayed glued to TV and radio over the next days, as the empty emergency rooms stood quiet- staffed with the hopeful and ready- but there was no one to rescue. Then, out of nowhere, shrines began to appear on streets, pasted everywhere with pictures of the missing. You began hearing stories- somebody's son, who worked at an investment bank downtown, had not returned home- others, who had literally walked north from the debris of lower manhattan, covered in white grit from the collapse of the buildings... The site burned for weeks as it turned cold. And, finally, that awful smell began to go away.

 

whart, that is a great explaination. i also remember the reporters that day. i started watching right after the second tower got hit, but i remember one reporter, when the first tower crashed, he just stopped, didn't say a word. it's amazing how something like this can bring us together. i remember seeing shots of the memorials, shrines and of all the american flags all over the place. it seems as though americans were out of touch with our patriotism, and then all of a sudden we had it back. baseball is the one thing that sticks out in my mind, especially the world series in new york, everyone jsut kind of bonded around everyone else. i remember watching jack buck's speech live at busch stadium, and it was the most moving thing i have ever seen centered around sports. 9-11 was a very unique experience, and one that i hope we never have to live through again.