Do you remember where you were on 9/11/01?

DogloverTerri

I remember that morning for the first time, I decided not to turn on the morning news but instead to read quietly. My best friend called and asked if I had seen the news. I turned it on and did nothing but watch in horror the rest of the day. No work. I couldn't come to grips with what had happened and what it would mean for so many families.

tapirfrog

I don't see how anyone could not remember.

charlottemmarks

I was in my 7th grade Social Studies class. The news came over the intercom, and the school fell silent as teachers turned on their classroom TV's. At the time, I had no idea what the World Trade Center was, and it was evident that very few in my class did, either. But the way the tone immediately changed throughout the school was indicative of something quite insidious. Everyone was terrified.

LizN63

I was on holiday in Greece and saw the footage in a car rental office. I thought it was a film. :frown:

beccaboo46

Sitting in US history class... then we all understood what was happening during the passing period directly afterwards. We watched the news in every class after that. The 2nd tower went down as I was in Spanish class.
I remember it like it was yesterday.

akklm005

I was in the air, flying from Atlanta to Jacksonville when they ordered all planes down. We had just left Atlanta, we were allowed to fly to Jacksonville since the Atlanta airport was too crowded for another plane. I didn't have a clue what happened until we landed.

beccadaniixox

It amazes me that some people who were below the age of 10 years old had schools or teachers who tried to explain it to them while it was happening... I wouldn't have understood at all.

I was in 4th grade in central NJ. You could hear the loud speaker going off in classrooms with kids being called out of the classroom to go home here and there.
My mother was on the Board of Ed and her job was to go around to the schools in the district and talk to parents and get parents to keep their kids in school and to let their children have a normal day. Parents would explain things to their children when they got home from school.

I heard they had turned the TVs on to the news in the 5th grade classes, but none of the grade levels below that.

My mom explained it to me over my afternoon snack with our little kitchen TV playing the news in the background.

At the time all I really knew was that two planes had crashed into two buildings in NYC and that people were dead... and I knew I wasn't going to be taken to see a Broadway show in the city for a while now.

RunsOnEspresso

I was at school, between classes, and heard mumblings that something was happening. No one really knew what. I went to business law and it became clearer that something had hit a building in NY. A helicopter? A plane? No one really knew at that point. When I got home I found out my grandpa was stuck in Vegas. He was supposed to fly out that day. It took 3 days for him to get a rental card and drive home.

I also vividly remember going to work that night and the tot spot tvs were turned to the news. We all stood around watching. There wasn't too many people grocery shopping that night. After work I spent most of the night watching the news, reading info online and messaging with friends about it.

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

Like it was yesterday. I live in Vancouver Canada - I was getting up for work and my alarm was the radio. I woke up to the radio announcers crying as they relayed the information about the first hit. My initial thought was "if this is someone's idea about a joke, it's disgusting". I turned on the TV and watched the news and my blood ran cold as I realized it was truly happening. Went to work and we all sat around listening to the radio all day. My boss's friend worked in the first tower and he was desperately trying to reach someone (turned out his friend wasn't at work that day). I will never, ever forget that day. In fact I'm getting goosebumps just typing this.

NessaReh85

Thank you USMCGunny & gingerheadgirl for your service to this country!

OKfarmgal

I had walked my son into his 1st grade class and the teacher asked if I knew anything about a plane crash in New York. She had only heard about it from other teachers and parents.

My father had been in the airline industry for 32 years, he had died the previous June. I'm glad he didn't seen that day, it would have broken his heart.

My son (now 19) is an aircraft mechanic and still remembers 9/11. He says it's why he puts his heart and soul into every wing he builds for the 747 he works on, to honor all those people.

CrusherKun

I worked third shift security at a hospital at the time, and was on my way home from my shift while I was listening to Bob and Tom on the radio. When I first turned it on, I thought they were just up to their usual antics, which I recall saying to myself this wasn't a very funny skit they were doing (as some of their stuff wasn't always hilarious) - but then I quickly realized that it wasn't a joke when the second hit. Next thing I remember was running into the house and turning on the TV and waking up my wife just as tower 1 began to crash down.

burlingtongrl

I was livingnoutside toronto then and was at home with my 1 month old daughter when it came on the tv. My family was living ouside D.C. and I couldn't reach them...they were told to stay off the phones. A terrible day for America and the world.

farmerpam1

I had just dropped my then 4 year old off at pre-school. His first day. Beautiful morning, then took the baby to get a bagel and someone came running in and told everyone. I listened on the radio until I could pick up the 4 year old and then went home and watched on TV. My kids had no idea, I didn't let them see it, too young to understand. They played in the garden while I would pop inside to watch every now and then. The end of the innocence.

EmmieBaby

sitting in my American history class, watching it on a small TV. I remember looking over at our teacher for comfort only to see him crying, this man was a 6'2 soldier (would later be deployed to Iraq) and he was terrified .

Also found out a couple of days later that one of my close friends died that day..was really hard...still is.

I was living in Arizona at the time. That day I forgot I was Canadian

NessaReh85

I was living in Arizona at the time. That day I forgot I was Canadian

Thank you for that comment! Just shows it dont matter where you are from, this day affected everyone!!!

KeepGoingKylene

Still sleeping and my roommate woke me up to come see the news, had to get ready for work early and go in as I worked at an airport at the time. It is a smaller airport that only had about 4 commercial planes come in in a day. A very very strange feeling to work at an airport and see planes lined up everywhere that aren't normally there. Sat glued to the news as much as possible for quite some time.

cwolfman13

I was last minute cramming for my Calculus exam later that morning...I had the t.v. on for background and was just going over some last minute stuff for my exam. I remember being just completely dumbfounded and unsure of what had just happened...

I had about three hours until I had to be on campus for my exam and kept waiting for word that the University would be closed...I think everyone was so dumbfounded that business just went on as usual that morning. I arrived on campus for my exam and thankfully my professor had half a brain and at least cancelled the exam as nobody was in the right frame of mind for that...we all just sat around talking about what we had just seen. When class let out, the University finally cancelled all remaining classes that day...I was a bit surprised that it took them well into the afternoon to do so.

Nitrox_11

Had just arrived to the office that morning and for some reason turned on the radio which I usually do not do. They had just reported that a plane (at that time they said it was a small plane) had hit the WTC. The news guy on the radio said this could very well be the top news story of the year. Little did he know it was going to be the news story of a lifetime.

KevinPsalm23v4

I was active duty US Air Force stationed over in Europe at Aviano Air Base (North of Venice ~ 40 miles or 80 Kilometers away). I will never forget that day. It was ~2:30pm our time (~8:30am Eastern) and we (many personnel I worked with) were outside on break. We've been working since 6am because we had about 5 miles of network cable to run - we had to set up comms for a new building.

We finished storing our gear and this young Airman came running outside saying the World Trade Center Tower got hit by a plane. At first we all thought what a horrible tragedy. We came inside to watch the news - soon thereafter we saw the second plane hit - it was then we knew we were under attack. Next came the Pentagon and then the Flight 93 crash - not knowing what else to do some prayed and some cried.

The rest of the day seemed to last for ever - being an ex-cop (US Air Force) I stayed at work for a long time. I got home around 9pm......and then cried, prayed and did what I could to comfort others.