9/11/01 Where were you?

DinVT

I was working on the new shaws supermarket in Concord Newhampshire.

Mustang_Susie

I grew up on Long Island. I was in 11th grade and just sat down for Spanish class. The principal came on the PA and told us that planes flew into the WTC and Pentagon in an apparent terrorist attack. He then said if anyone has relatives working in lower Manhattan that they should come to his office. Almost half of my classmates in the room slowly got up with blank looks on their faces and left. I remember initially imaging in my head that it was a few small planes with minimal damage. However, it really hit me when my Spanish teacher, trying to hold back her tears said, "it's really bad...really bad" and then just broke down. We sat in silence for about 30 minutes. Everyone had scared and shocked looks on their faces. We were not sent home and no one was really sure what was going on during the rest of the school day. The rumors were flying around that Epcot, the Sears Tower and the Seattle Space Needle were hit too.

When I got home my mom said, "Did you hear about the twin towers?" I said "yeah" then got to the living room where the TV was on and just saw a cloud of smoke over the entire city. I said, "wait, they're gone!?" My mom and dad didn't answer. I sat there the rest of the day watching in disbelief the replays of huge commercial jets crashing into the buildings. The absolute worst part was watching people jump out of the buildings.

Four kids at my school lost their fathers. A bunch of other kids lost aunts and uncles and other relatives. My late uncle was a funeral director in Queens. He was a complete mess for the weeks and months to follow burying victim after victim including emergency workers.

I never will forget that day.

Myhaloslipped

I was in a hotel room in San Francisco. My best friend and I had spent the night hanging out in the city and slept there so we didn't have to drive back to San Jose after we had been drinking. She was screaming when I woke up because she was from New York, and I guess she went into shock, because she just froze as I was trying to tell her we needed to get the hell out of there. My thinking was that we were in a city that could have been a huge potential target, and it wasn't safe. I nearly had to throw her over my shoulder and carry her, but we quickly got out of there.

5ftnFun

I was doing laundry while the TV was on "The Today Show." My 9 year old son was at school. I saw the 2nd plane hit on my TV screen and gasped, literally, and said "Oh MY GOD" even though I was home alone. My husband got stuck on base when they locked it down. I remember carrying a basket of laundry upstairs and thinking "Why am I taking laundry upstairs?" Seemed very trivial and meaningless with the destruction that was taking place. Very sad day.

Edit for typo

KristysLosing

I was sleeping in my dorm at UW Superior. A friend came pounding on my door to tell me. I was actually kinda irriatated because I didn't have class until noon, which was cancelled anyway. I also remember the panic over gas prices in the days that followed. I was 4 hrs from home and there were crazy lines of people getting gas before prices skyrcoketed to $4 and $5/gallon. Look at that...it happened anyway.

Lucy_6678

Teaching 8th grade social studies as a first year teacher.

Pangea250

A little humor to lighten the mood. No offence intended.


In a way, aren't we all 9/11 survivors?

'A' is the 1st letter of the alphabet and 'H' is the 8th letter, right?
9/11 = 0.81818181 = HAHAHAHA

What did Osama Bin Laden cook on Iron Chef?
Big Apple Crumble.

Why is everyone on about 9/11?... It's not for another couple of months. (November 9th)

This won't end well...

She's just trying to interject some levity, and judging from the last comment, she's not an American, so there isn't a visceral connection.

Take it for what it was, this is heavy **** man, she's just trying to crack a giggle while we're pissing in our own cheerios.

I understand what you are saying in defending the writer of those comments, but there were plenty of people around the world who have visceral connections to what happened 12 years ago. There is stuff you just don't joke about, particularly on this day and particularly if you take a moment to read the things people are writing here now.

Would I ever joke about the bombing in London in 2005? The 2004 bombing in Spain? The 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie? The 2004 hostage takeover at a Russian school?

Some things should not be made light of, and this is one of them. I believe the poster did this for fun. I believe they did it to get a rise out of the people posting here. To make us feel bad. To point a finger and laugh at the silly Americans who write their dates wrong and still hurt after 12 years and feel a burning need to share their pain and listen to the pain of others, if only to know we are not alone in how we feel.

(walking away, shaking my head in disgust)

Swissmiss

This question is asked once a year, evey year.

I was at work in a mail center. We didn't have a TV in the room but was allowed to go to a room with one.

mem50

At work building cashboxes for bill changers. We were listening to our radios when it was announced and everything came to a halt as we all gathered round to listen in total shock and disbelief that something like that could have truly happened. They cancelled work for the day.

auntiebabs

The thing I rember first about that day was how clear the sky was, I had remember thinking that to myself as I walked out of the WTC at 7:45am. A crystal clear day always brings me back to that morning.y

I had a hangover actually because the Giants had played the night before so I dragged my self into the office when my buddy called from his window we could see the first building burning, we had no clue what was going on but we decided to get out off our building right away.

We went outside and walked to Battery Park (about 3 blocks away) watching the first tower burn someone said a plane hit the tower... what do you mean a plane... just then the second plane flew over our headns and I watched it fly right into the tower and the giant fireball shoot out of the building. every single person standing there said Holy *kitten*.. the entire builing flexed and I thought it was coming down right then so I took off running.

It was mayhem. I watched a woman get car jacked and people going crazy. I wanted out of the city and headed to the ferry. The doors were locked and the terminal was filling... crowded... when the ground shook, I did not know it at the time but the first tower came down. People started shoving and screaming and the doors to the boat finally opened. It was a sea of people fighting to the boat when I saw a woman get knocked down.. I yelled for people to be calm and I stood between her and the crowd until she got to her feet... as we got onto the boat the cloud of smoke covered us...

I did not even know the towers were gone until I landed in Staten Island... the rest of that day I spent trying to get home... which was an adventure in its self... including hitch hiking with a Hazmat crew..

Two days later I was working with the fire police and emts on making maps of ground zero trying to find where oil tanks, gas lines, electrical mains or any other potential dangers were as they searched. The people who went into those buildings to save others are the bravest people I could ever imagine.

Wow! I was in Union Sq. what a difference a couple of blocks makes. Glad you're safe. I'm sure you still feel the effects of that day.

ajaxe432

I was stationed in Miami at the time and had duty the night before. I was awoken and asked to return to duty. Once everything was secure, we turned on the televison just as the second tower fell. I will never forget that moment.

Jersey_Devil

Hoboken,, NJ right across the river from the trade center. went into NY 2 or 3 days later- ground zero and thanked rescue workers near a red cross makeshift center. my profile picture is my buddy'e brave. I knew 2 people in the towers...one got out and one died.

workaholic_nurse

A few friends and I had just gotten off of work @ 7 am that morning and headed to a local casino. We were playing blackjack when everyone stopped what they were doing, even the dealers and the pit bosses, to stare at the tv. We saw the second plane hit in horror, knowing that the world changed in a fundamental way at that time. At the time nothing was known about which flights they were, so I was desperately trying to get ahold of my mom who was traveling to Boston for work that day. Turns out their plane was shunted to Ohio, but I did not hear from her until about 3 pm that afternoon.

May the souls of all 3000+ victims, I say the plus because the ones left behind are victims as well, rest in peace. You are never forgotten!

Nicholec2003

I was home sick from school. A Jr in high school at the time, so I was by myself. I was laying on the couch puking into a bucket, watching "Little House on the Prairie," and having a pity party because I hate being sick. The program was interrupted for breaking news. I thought is was an advertisement for some sort of Apocalypse movie. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that this was really happening, and that it was really happening to MY country. This wasn't something that was happening to some far away place where the people were always at war in some way or another. This wasn't some little village that I'd never heard of. This was an attack on iconic markers in MY USA, the people being killed were MY fellow country men. The firefighters, police officers, medics, and other public services workers could have easily been my friends and family. I wished I were 5 years older and could do something, anything. I felt guilty for being safe at home in Podunk town. That day, I could not wait for my parents to get home.

kenzietate

My family home schooled. We had run to Lowes (home improvement store) to grab a few things before starting our school day. My brother and I (10 and 12 respectively) were waiting for mom in the car. We saw her come out of the store with this horrible look on her face and nothing in her hands. I can still remember that look on my mom's face! When she got in the car she told us about the first plane. We got home and turned on the tv to see the second plane hit the towers. The bravery shown by all of the people who helped during that time and the people who crashed the plane in PA was awe inspiring.

CarmenSRT

I walked into Animal Physiology lab that morning, ready to throw down. My professor asked, "Carmen, did you hear what happened?" "No", I replied. "A plane flew into the World Trade Center!" He then used the smart classroom's podium monitor to bring up live news footage of the disaster on the front screen. Those of us gathered watched. A few people said the usual "Oh, how awful!" One kid tried a bit of humor, saying, "How did the pilot not see that building? Got his license in a Cracker Jack box!"

The second plane hit as we watched. Dead silence. Somebody, I do not know who, said "That was on purpose.". Dr. O tried to start lab lecture. About 45 minutes into it, the usual give and take discussion had not materialized. He finally said, "Gang, this isn't working. Go home." Most of us stayed there in the classroom, talking about it some, but mostly just wanting to be near fellow human beings.

Dr. O was a good teacher. He cared about imparting not only knowledge, he cared about helping people develop as learners. I use the past tense because he died in 2006 of Burkitt's Lymphoma in his late 30s. Despite all the good he did, the strongest memory I've got of that man is tied to those damn Towers and the horror of that day.

VeganLexi

.

Mustang_Susie

Hoboken, NJ right across the river from the trade center. went into NY 2 or 3 days later- ground zero and thanked rescue workers near a red cross makeshift center. my profile picture is my buddy'e grave. I knew 2 people in the towers...one got out and one died.

Thank you for sharing.
That is a different perspective.
I had not seen a headstone from 9/11...

dbmata

Some things should not be made light of, and this is one of them. I believe the poster did this for fun. I believe they did it to get a rise out of the people posting here. To make us feel bad. To point a finger and laugh at the silly Americans who write their dates wrong and still hurt after 12 years and feel a burning need to share their pain and listen to the pain of others, if only to know we are not alone in how we feel.

Possibly. Today though, while I like to attribute a lot to malice, I won't. Too much else to think about. I'd rather attribute it to ignorance.

ryry_

AP English class...In the computer lab joking around with classmates