Sept 11, 2001 Where were you?

pami

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I was at my Mothers house watching TV with some family friends. Our show was interrupted and we saw the 2nd plane hit. It was just so shockingly sad, as was the weeks and months that followed.
 

ninacaliente

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Originally Posted by Dixie_Darlin

I will never forget trying to explain to my son what happened
Me too. My boys were 5 and 2 then (DD was conceived just a few weeks later). My oldest was so concerned about "the bad people that crash airplanes".
 

mews2much

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I was at work. The Mgr came in and told me that one plane had just hit the Wtc.
He turned the radio on then the others hit when we were listening to it.
I couldnt believe it.
There were people on one of the planes that used to come in my work.
 

goldenkitty45

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I was in Maryland at work. One of our coworkers got hysterical as her husband worked at the Pentagon and she could not get thru to him. Our boss came around and told us anyone that wanted to leave could and no leave would be charged. Most everyone left at that point.

My son came home from school a few hrs early that day too.

But the scary thing was, that I didn't know they "killed" the cell phones and could not reach DH in Minnesota. I left a message on his answering machine (hard line) that I was home and ok.

When we got to talk to each other later that day, we were both crying on the phone.

After that, he told me "do whatever it takes to get out here - I don't want you over there anymore".
 

zorana_dragonky

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It's so interesting how vividly we all remember that day, and I also think it is interesting that most of us started watching in time to see the second plane.

I was in college, my first year, right out of high school, as an Art major. I was in my very first level drawing class, and class started about 8:30 or 9:00. We were doing still life drawings of shoes. I remember that very distinctly. We are all quietly working, and the professor was walking around giving us advice on our drawings and answering questions, and all the sudden another teacher burst into the room, and he said, "Turn on the TV!" No explanation. The prof didn't hesitate, he just followed the urgent command, and we all sat there in shock while we watched the second plane hit. Our professor said, after that, "You can all go home. Class is canceled." I think he was crying.

I ran back to the dorm. I didn't have a TV in my room, so I sat in the lobby with the other students who didn't have TVs and we watched the towers collapse. We sat in there for most of the day. None of us went to class that afternoon.

It was terrible.
 

butzie

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DH woke me up and told me what had happened. I saw the second plane crash. I couldn't stop crying. I grew up in Yonkers, NY. I took anyone who visited up to Windows on the World. They had stories on the inner walls about how skyscrapers could be built and one of the reasons was that Otis invented a the safety brakes which made elevators safe to use. My Mom had worked as a bookkeeper at Otis before I was born.

I took a job with Price Waterhouse, NY after grad school. My first corporate holiday party was at the WTC.

I lost 2 friends from HS who were firefighters. I also learned from my HS alumni newsletter that one of my friends was a hero. Paul Carras worked on one of the lower floors. There was a woman who was hysterical and he coached her down the steps and told her that they were going to make it and they did. He was always a nice guy at HS. I wouldn't expect him to do any less than he did.

I was back in NY for a HS reunion 2 years ago. We visited ground zero. The fire station nearest had lists of who died from the engine crew. It was very long. There is a fence around ground zero. As of 2 years ago, there were flowers all over the fence. The had plaques of the persons who died. I found my friends. I cried all over again.
 

graciecat

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I was watching the Today Show and like someone else said they broke in and said that a plane had hit the WTC.
At first I thought of one of those little two seater planes...not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what it really was...then a few minutes later I saw the second plane hit.

It didn't seem real to me, it was like I couldn't believe what I was seeing with my own eyes.
It was like watching a movie, I kept thinking this can't be real.
Then all of a sudden it hit me that my best friends Sister-In-Law worked at the WTC...I found out a few hours later that she was on vacation that week, thank God.

I knew my Mother-In-Law would have her TV on, but that my Sister would be at work and might not know...so I called her and she said "What are you talking about?"
She worked in a department store so I told her to take the phone with her and go to the electronics department and turn on the TVs or radios...the store didn't open until 10.
I remember her words to me were "Oh sweet Mary Mother of God what's happening?"

I told her I had to get off the phone and call my Husband...he's a Police Detective.
I was beside myself by this time and he kept telling me to calm down that I was upsetting our son...which I knew I was but I couldn't help it...he was so young that he didn't understand why Mommy was crying and so upset.
I just couldn't find the words to explain to him what had happened...we didn't have our youngest yet we only had three kids at the time...two of them were just babies so I couldn't explain it to them, but our Son was a little over 2 so I just told him that some bad Men had hurt a lot of people.

I was still talking to my Husband when the plane hit the Pentagon...then came the one that scared the living crap out of me, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania...at first they kept saying "Near Pittsburgh In Western Pennsylvania"...we live near Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania...about 70/80 miles away.
Then when they said exactly where it crashed I really lost it, because that's even closer to us.
I just kept thinking "My God, did that plane fly over this town, did it fly over my house?"
To this day I can't explain the feeling of horror that came over me then.

MSNBC became the only channel that we watched in this house for days and days.
Part of me didn't want to watch it, but part of me couldn't stop watching it.
I remember those poor people holding on to hope holding up picutres of their friends and family that worked in the towers, asking if anybody had seen them.
I kept thinking "Those people are dead, they're all dead and their families and friends want so badly for that not to be true they all want a miracle but they aren't going to get it."

Then the animal lover in me started to wonder if any of the people in the towers in the Pentagon or on the planes had pets and what if those people lived alone who was going to go get their animals.

Sorry I kind of went off in my own little world there.

Anyway, that's what I was doing and if I live to be 100 I'll remember that day like it was yesterday.
 

ckatz

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I live in Weehawken, NJ. Right across from Manhattan and work in Midtown Manhattan. A friend called to tell me I might have trouble getting into NYC cause a plane had hit the WTC. It was a beautiful clear September day and I assumed it was an accident. I remember thinking "What idiot ran into this huge building". Then the 2nd plane hit. I watched along with the rest of country those buildings sway and fall only I watched it live.

NYC is an unique place to live and work. Most residents have a love/hate relationship with the city. But one thing is true, NYers don't scare easily-we have rats the size small dogs running around the streets and subways. I've lived in this area for over 30 yrs. NYers were scared. The city was very scary for quite a while. The streets were empty. Folks went to work and ran home. There were no tourists. The skies were empty except for military flybys. We had cops and soliders in full combat gear for months. Everyone knew someone who was in the building or the area and saw unspeakable sights.

What surprised me was how much the rest of the country cared and responded. In NYC you get feeling you're on your own. No true and we can't forget DC was also attacked, I think their tragedy gets lost sometimes.
 

mzjazz2u

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I had been working afternoons and slept in that morning. My youngest daughter, Emily, called me and woke me up. She her voice sounded like I'd never heard it before. Something between panic, disbelief, and horror. She told me to turn on the news. I told her I was sleeping and she said, "NO, TURN ON THE NEWS MOM. SOMETHING HORRIBLE IS HAPPENING." So I did and I just sat there with my mouth wide open and my heart down in my feet. I'll never forget that day and how I felt. It was like it had to be a mistake, a joke. It couldn't be real. It was so surreal.

Originally Posted by ckatz

What surprised me was how much the rest of the country cared and responded. In NYC you get feeling you're on your own. No true and we can't forget DC was also attacked, I think their tragedy gets lost sometimes.
And let's not forget the people who lost their lives in Pennsylvania. It's all just like a horrible nightmare still to this day.
 

fwan

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It was 6 am, my mother rushes into my bedroom screaming at me telling me the towers have collapsed, i just thought she was watching a bad movie.
She kept on yelling at me to get up, got up went down and saw the news, was the talk of the school. I was living in Australia at that time.

It was a sad day for everyone, but lets not forget all of the other wars we have had.
 

tierre0

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I was off work that morning and was in the middle of doing laundry. The TV was on but I really wasn't paying much attention to it but remember glancing over at it just as the second plane hit the tower.
I thought to myself is that a movie or something and turned up the sound and it was then I realized that what was happening on TV was actually being filmed at that moment it was about 9:15 A.M.
It had such a surreal quality to it like my brain just couldn't wrap around the fact this was actually happening...It honestly took quite some time to sink in...
 

skyecat0117

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I was a sophmore in high school. I remember turning on the radio like I always did to listen to these crude humor guys. It was all they were talking about but I didn't pay much attention as they were always saying random things and playing horrible jokes. So I basically went about my business getting my makeup and clothes on. Once I finally emerged from my room my mom was glued to the news. She rushed me to the front of the TV and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. She has wanted me to stay home but I knew it would be chaos at school and I was involved in the child development program and I knew the kids would be on edge. I'll never forget what I walked into. My classmates crying and some even trying desperately to reach family and loved ones in NY. A student teacher ran out of the classroom in hysterics when the first tower went down. She had family there and was unable to reach them. Every TV in the school was tuned in all day and it was all we watched all day. We actually canceled the child development classes and walked the children to the daycare that was across the street so they didn't sense our stress or see us all crying and hurting.

It's almost like it happened just yesterday I remember it so vividly.
 

sparkleamato

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I was working at Dunkin Donuts at the time. We always had CNN going on a TV that we all could see. . Someone brought our attention to the TV when they were showing the wreckage from the first plane, and we didn't really know what we were seeing, but we knew it was bad. We all stopped to watch the footage. The second plane hit, and I swear I thought it was a movie clip or something! Well, between serving people who had no idea what was going on, we stayed glued to the screen. We pretty much watched the whole thing unfold, from the WTC, to the Pentagon, to Phili. . My friend Leslie and I were talking about what happened and started crying. It was unbelievable to us that people would purposely kill so many innocent people. -Still isunbelievable. My heart aches every time I think about it, and the feeling I had that day will never go away.

Never forget!!
 

kittkatt

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I wanted to deck this one girl though because she said it was "no biggie" since she didn't know anyone who worked in the towers
If you think that's bad, some girl at my workplace said "It's about time America got a taste of what other countries go through."


I'll never forget that day as long as I live.
I was getting ready for work when the report came on TV: at first I thought it was a bad accident. But when the second plane hit, I just knew that something horrible was going on.
I called my workplace to find out if I should still come in to work thinking that they would probably close like a lot of other places were, and the office manager told me, "Of course you should. You know we have a big sale going on, and we need everyone here. Why shouldn't you come to work? What's the big deal? Things like that happen every day."
??!!


I had NO respect for that woman after that!


The weeks following 9/11, I talked to quite a few people who lived in New York and who had lost loved ones, or who had witnessed the attacks. Some of them told me details about what they had seen. It was just heart-wrenching (this was back when I still worked at a catalog company and talked to peeps all over). Several times I broke down crying while talking to them, b/c it was just so heartbreaking.


It was a horrid day. I couldn't concentrate at work. All I could think of was what had happened, and how horrific it was. Every Sept. 11th I still think about it. I don't think I'll ever forget the images of that terrible day as long as I live..
 

stacyd1987

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I was at high school then, first period Science. I had sat in the front of the classroom on the far left, right in front of the TV. The principle came over the loudspeaker and told all teachers to turn on their tvs to the news. We were all in shock and disbelief but kept the tvs on throughout the day, even as we switched classrooms. In History, the first tower fell. I remember watching it and shouting, "It's falling!" as it started to crumble before even the newscasters noticed. They weren't paing full attention to their own screens while they chatted about the past World Trade Center bombing.
Our History teacher had said that the next world war would erupt in the epicenter of where religion began. I certainly believe him.
 

gayef

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I was asleep. My husband was working the early shift that day and had forgotten to re-set the alarm clock for me to get up. I was abruptly brought out of my sleep by my best friend beating on the window, screaming, "GAYE-GAYE!!!! Get UP and let me in, we've been ATTACKED. We are UNDER ATTACK!!!!"

My friend came into the house and we both watched the television in horror as they played and then replayed the video of the first plane hitting the building and the explosion that followed. We both screamed when the second plane hit the other building.

We watched as those poor souls jumped from the windows and we prayed for them as they fell, all the while wondering if they could be anyone we knew. (We both had friends/family who worked in the WTC at the time)

Then they broke in with the news of the attack at the Pentagon. A very large number of my friends and family are either military or Gov't employees, and many of them work in the Pentagon at DOD. My best friend's husband worked there at the time, right over top of where the plane went into the side of that building, but due to the contruction going on there at the time on that side, he had not moved back into his office yet so escaped injury.

Then they broke in again with the news that Flight 93 had gone down in rural Shanksville, PA. And yet once again, we prayed for the 40 souls who lost their lives that morning and wondered about how the crash events took place. We still do.

I lost a dear friend who worked on Floor 104 of the North Tower at Cantor Fitzgerald along with the nearly 650 other souls who died there that morning, and have all but lost a friend who worked at Verizon Communications on Floor 11 of the South Tower. She is still being treated for PTSD and is nearly non-functional emotionally.

I had another friend who worked at Morgan Stanley in the South Tower who survived because he stopped at Starbuck's that morning and missed his train. Otherwise, he would have been there and potentially killed with the ten others who lost their lives at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter that day. However, out of what they call "Survivor Guilt", he killed himself on the one year anniversary of the attacks. So, another soul tortured and now I hope, finally at peace.

My phone rang all day and into the night. I had heard from everyone I love at the Pentagon and I had heard from everyone I love in New York except for David and Niomi. Around midnight that night, I got a call from David's parents in Augusta, Georgia (the young man who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald) with the news that David had been at work and was presumed dead. We finally got confirmation of David's death 8 months later and I attended his memorial service - only there was no casket, just a small, simple, wood container with the minute particles that they recovered of his remains. Niomi (the Verizon employee) had called me the next afternoon when she got to her parents house in New Jersey.
 

natalie_ca

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I had worked nights and had just walked into the apartment. I turned on the TV seconds after the first plane crashed. I saw the second plane crash. I sat here crying and feeling so completely and utterly helpless.
 

myrage

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I went to visit my mom in the hospital, she had cancer. She was out of it. Found out she was on morphine (She was allergic to Morphine). She passed away 1:30ish am the next day.

I heard about it on the radio, and went to see her, to try to get her mind off of what was going on, figuring she saw the news, luckily I doubt she knew anything was going on. Or perhaps she signed the Morphine order because of it. I don't know.

Be safe
 

zooy

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Grade 9 Music Class when it happened, grade 9 science when I heard.
The teacher just said it was a false alarm and told us to work.
We found out it was true after class.
 

oscarsmommy

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I was in 11th grade...ironically in US History. Our VP came in and told my teacher to turn the TV on. We changed classrooms when the bell rang but we watched TV all day long.

Very sad
 
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