9/11 : Where were you when ...

[grip]

Ten years and Ten Zillion tears later ... there are so many stories to tell. I thought it would be interesting if we had a thread for us to share our own stories of where you were, what you were doing 'that day', when a line of demarcation was drawn in our world and history. (I'll add mine in the morning). Thanks in advance for contributing!

[grip]

grip's 9/11 story:

 

I had an early morning Dentist appt and as I was paying, one of the office assistants hung up the phone and said "I just heard a plane flew into the World Trade Center". That was my first awareness. I heard a bit more on the car radio on the 10 minute drive back to work. As I walked back to my office, I noticed our security guards were gathered in a conference room and as I poked my head in I saw their faces glued to a TV screen in the corner, watching the second plane hit the other WTC Tower. As other co-workers heard about the news, the conference room was soon packed. Shock and Tears turned to more immediate fears with the news of the Pentagon attack (30 miles away) and spouses/friends that worked there. Following the collapse of the Towers, I was involved in accounting for our employees and whether any were at meetings at the Pentagon. Many people were leaving to pull their kids out of school.

 

My daughters were both in High School and I made the decision to let them have whatever precious moments of unawareness they might yet have and experience news of the disaster with their peers and teachers. At 2:00pm I went to pick them up, and allowed my eldest daughter who had her learners permit to drive, saying we would discuss the events at home. However, while making a left hand turn, we were T-Boned by another vehicle which launched our vehicle airborne. So - in the middle of a tragic day for our country with, as yet, inconceivable loss of life, my daughters and I lay bumped, bruised and only slightly bloody, in the circumference of our own abrupt crisis. We were sent to the emergency room to be checked out (our vehicle was totalled), and spent hours at the hospital watching the additional reports and replays experiencing grief and sorrow for the victims, their families, friends, loved ones at the same time feeling such gratitude that the 3 of us were ok (the accident really could have been so much worse!). I think we finally got home (after being released and a friend giving us a ride) about 7pm.

 

We lived in Northern Virginia and I was age 44, my daughters aged 14 and 16, when our world changed forever on 09/11/01.

[Spike]

where was i on 9/11 i spent the nite at my aunt and uncles my uncle came in and says America has been attacked i turned the tv on seen the second plane hit TWC i had a moment my jaw dropped open thinking about all the people seen a person jump from the WTC where was i sitting there sad and wanted to help but couldn't

[gh`]

I had just sat down in my home office to start to work. At that time I worked for a company that contracted with the Dept. of Transportation to handle queries to the DOT website. A friend/co-worker who had just moved to Florida from NYC called and told me to turn on the news. She was sobbing. As I turned on the TV the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. I was stunned! All I could say, and kept repeating, is "Oh My God." My friend, Evie, said that she had some close friends that worked in World Trade Center 2. She hung up and I continued to watch the coverage, selfishly grateful that I didn't know anyone that worked in or near the towers. I remember, vividly, the news stating it was terrorist related! Fear set in.I wondered what was going to happen next?? The Pentagon........Flight 93 happened next.

 

Later in the day, I talked with Evie again and she said that her friends were safe.

[TV_Tech]

I was at work and heard on the radio about the attack. I turned on a television set and it was on every channel. I was first in shock, then fear took over and finally anger. I have never experienced such strange emotions before and felt totally vulnerable and helpless. I still feel angry for the great loss that happened on Sept 11 ten years ago....

[Blondie]

Blondie was Dietary Supervisor at the Nursing Home at that time and we were in Lubbock for a food convention. Monday evening we'd attendeed a function where all the different foos vendors prepared several of their mainline items and had eaten too much, so i went to bed late. We got up the next morning, got ready to go sample their breakfast items, rode the elevator down and walked into a lobby full of people standing and staring tearfully at a big screen TV, I initially thought it was some sort of Disaster movie, but on seeing the shocked and angry faces I asked the gentlemen in from of me what was going on, he repied "The stinkin' SOBs just flew to airliners into the Twin Towers in New York". I had trouble believing him, but in Texas, it's downright dangerous to call a man a liar, so I stood and I suppose looked just as sad and angry as the rest.

[Koach]

This topic is a nice idea, grip. Thanks for starting it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have much of a story to tell. I was watching CNN at the time, drinking a cup of tea and trying to wake up.

 

For some reason I don't remember now, CNN was showing a live shot of the towers and the world got to watch the attack in real time.

 

At first it just looked like a plane was flying too low. But then when the plane went into the tower and never came out the other side I thought it was a terrible crash. When the second plane hit, there was no longer any question that it was not an accident but a terrorist attack.

 

It was a terrible memory that I am sure I will never forget.

[Smiley]

I was on vacation (well a short leave of absence) getting ready to deploy to Bosnia in support of the SFOR mission there. I saw the whole thing on TV. Several of the DoD employees who died in the Pentagon were the folks who worked on my finance vouchers for the trip. I had to travel on business two days later, and that was an adventure, I got one of the first flights allowed to take off after the hijackings.

[Nan]

I was asleep and my husband who had woken earlier called out for me to put the tv on as a plane had accidently flown into a building in America. We then saw the second plane and realised it was no accident. We watched the tv footage for the rest of the day and were quite stunned not just by the attack but by the collapse of the buildings. What an awful awful day it was.

[butterfly]

heard it on the car radio at the Courthouse parking lot, thought it was a bad joke. Ran into the building and called my friend who works at the building next door.. she told me they were locked in their building and people were throwing "clothes" out the window (later to find out they were jumping)... All the court officers were on the roof, then the building was evacutated.