What were you doing when you first heard about the attack 9 yrs ago today?

[Crystal Clarity]

I was working in an animal shelter. We had just finished cleaning the dog and cat cages and were in the shelter kitchen/utility room doing the daily laundry (towels, dog mats, ect) and washing the litter boxes and chew toys in a huge sink. We had the radio on and the earliest reports were something about "a small plane" having crashed into one of the towers. 'Odd' I thought but that was about it.

It wasn't until we came in from our smoke break at about 9:20 or so when the story started becoming more clear. I remember it truly sinking in when Guiliani was quoted as saying the loss of life was likely to be 'horrific'. We only had the benefit of the radio but NPR was doing a pretty good job describing the mayhem.

It's a beautiful blue sky day here in the northeast... weather-wise an almost identical day as the one I remember on 9/11/2001.

What were you doing and what do you remember about the day?

ETA: It'd be really cool to see what everyone was talking about on DU that day. The archives apparently only go back to 2003 so I guess that's not possible unless someone (somehow?) saved one of them?

[Taitertots]

1. I was sitting around high school auto shop

Someone was listening to a radio in their car and heard about the first building. So our teacher rolled out a TV so we could watch and then the second plane hit. Then I skipped the rest of the day.

[Crystal Clarity]

7. My daughter was a junior in HS at the time

She said that she thought it was very strange that all of the teachers were summoned over the intercom to leave their classrooms unattended and meet in the teacher conference room. She said that her English Literature teacher returned a few minutes later and announced everything they knew (at that point) to the class.

Thereafter, normal school-day protocol was suspended while they watched what was happening live on tv and were given the opportunity to discuss it at length as the events unfolded. Some of the parents were mad afterward since some of the original footage apparently showed people falling (or jumping?) from windows.

[Kali]

2. hanging around the house listening to the radio

our community radio station plays Democracy Now! delayed by several hours - when it came on and they were broadcasting live it must have been 2 or 3 in the afternoon in NYC then - it was such a shock I even got out a teevee and hooked it up to watch some coverage. It was such an opportunity to unite with people all over the world, but as soon as I saw rumsfeld, cheney, boosh and ashcroft in one of those group photo-op shots, barely able to contain their glee (and hard-ons) I unplugged that thing.

[hayu_lol]

3. I was in a chat room arguing with the usual crowd...

one woman who had windows facing the WTC exclaimed that a plane had just hit one tower...bedlam erupted on the chat site. She was also watching when the 2nd plane hit. We were probably the first group in the country to hear about the 1st hit. People from the chat room took off across the net to pick up more info...wasn't much since the radio and tv stations hadn't picked it up yet. Mostly disbelief amongst the chatters.

[Crystal Clarity]

35. Excellent point- 9/11 gave us an chance to unite with the rest of the world.

If there was any good that could have come out such a horrible thing, that would've been it. Instead (IMHO) the opportunity was squandered by the boy-king and his minions. It makes me wonder how different these post-9/11 years might've been had we a President who was in possession of a brain and some common sense... grr!

[GCP]

65. Listening to Howard Stern

He was discussing Pam Anderson, then suddenly stated, 'we're watching the TV monitors and a plane has flown into the WTC'. I turned on the TV and started taping.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. I had one eye open after the first plane hit the Twin Towers

I've gone to sleep with the TV on for my entire life. I was just waking up, opened one eye, rolled over, and saw the Twin Towers in flames after the first plane had hit. It was an "accident" at that point. As it unfolded and one plane became two, two became three, four became the failed forth attempt, like many people, I felt like I was in a state of shock. I wasn't born when Pearl Harbor was attacked, so I have no first-hand perspective, but this just seemed worse...even before all of the details were revealed.

[backwoodsbob]

5. was at work in Detroit

literally the whole shop shut down.almost 200 people standing around watching the tv we had to wheel out of the office onto the floor.

We had a VERY bad situation that day involving one female employee.we literally had to lock her in the conference room and call the cops to escort her out.Needless to say she never came back.

[av8rdave]

6. I was packing to fly to New York

I was based in Dallas at the time (our crew base was still open there), and I had an afternoon sign in to work a DFW - LaGuardia flight then overnight in New York that night.

My TV was set on a timer to turn on every morning so I could watch the news. I was making coffee when I heard Matt Lauer talking about "disturbing images from New York." The first tower was burning. I was watching as the second one was hit.

It wasn't long before I knew there was no point in finishing up my packing. Like most people, I wound up in front of the TV most of the day. Around lunchtime, I got a call from a supervisor in crew scheduling telling me my trip wasn't operating, which I had surmised. He told me to consider myself on reserve (telephone standby) and "be available." "Available for what?" He hung up.

The next time I flew was either on the 16th or 17th. Same trip that was scheduled on the 11th. I snapped this picture from the cockpit as we were setting up for the approach into LaGuardia:

[Crystal Clarity]

9. Wow. It must have felt surreal to see that.

Even after having had 5 or 6 days to let it sink in, actually seeing it as you did must have been a strange and jarring experience. Thanks for sharing the picture.

[av8rdave]

63. It was difficult

Seeing that and thinking of all those people...

[Redstone]

19. Damn. Just damn.

Redstone

[MorningGlow]

8. I was working at a local TV station

Nuff said, you know? :scared:

[jobycom]

10. Balancing my checkbook and wondering why I couldn't get onto the news sites.

I had checked cnn.com earlier, and saw that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, but they were speculating that it was a twin engine plane, so I went to my bank's web site and was balancing my checkbook. When I finished I tried to sign back onto CNN, but it was too slow--a big news story could usually freeze a news web site back then.

I remember thinking "Maybe the plane crash was a big deal," and I started surfing other sites--don't remember what--until a few minutes later my wife came home with my daughter, who had vomited on the way to school. She told me all about that, then asked "Are you following the plane crash in Washington?"

I said "You mean in New York? The World Trade Center's in New York," and she said "No, a plane hit the Pentagon." So of course I realized it was an attack and ran upstairs and turned on the television, just in time to see that the first tower had collapsed, and watched the coverage for a while, before going into work.

I remember thinking two things: This was probably that guy in Saudi Arabia (I didn't remember his name yet) that Clinton kept obsessing over, and this would destroy George Bush and the Republicans forever, because they had ridiculed Clinton over it and blocked all of his anti-terrorist efforts.

I really overestimated the country that day, didn't I?

[Mr. Ected]

11. I was working in The Hague, Netherlands

Quite a multi-national group of employees, though I was the only American. The first I heard of it, my supervisor, a lovely Swede, mentioned that a plane, of all things, had struck the WTC. At that point, I think we all assumed that the plane had simply been a small craft. It wasn't until the second plane hit that our entire operations went into paralysis. All of us, probably 100, gathered in the lobby of our offices to watch the unbelievable carnage. We were all speechless, every single one of us, regardless of our ethnic or national backgrounds. I had many, many Muslim co-workers at that time, and they were as shocked and appalled as the rest of us...not knowing that this would soon be attributed to extremists of their faith.

Later that night, I was taking a master's course in European Union Law and Policy. The instructor was integral in the establishment of the EU; we were very fortunate to have access to his great mind. That night, our 3 hour course became a discussion of the events of the day. Somewhere, I have a recording of that day on microcassette. It would be very interesting to hear it once again.

[Redstone]

20. Great perspective. It would be good, indeed, to be able to hear that tape.

Redstone

[stray cat]

12. Driving to work with the radio on

[dembotoz]

13. at work for a telecom company

we were trying find out what we could and them a couple technicians disappeared for a bit.
Suddenly the monitors in the conference room had cable tv. Not sure what they did or what they hacked, but my respect for their skill grew instantly.
Our office was a block away from the Milwaukee Federal building.
Pretty damn quick there was a defensive parimeter around the building.
Some of my coworkers had parked within the parimeter--they had a hell of a time getting their cars out.

[Orsino]

36. I, too.

We had CNN going 24/7, and had heard a strange report of a terrible accident: a (small?) plane flying into one of the towers. When CNN told us of a second plane, we knew.

[rrneck]

14. Loading a truck in a warehouse.

Throughout the day most of the people at every stop were awash in jingoism and the desire for revenge. And I was surprised at how many people claimed not only to know somebody who lived in New York, but who knew somebody that worked at the World Trade Center.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

15. standing at the intersection of Liberty and West streets

next to this guy..



I made it. He didn't.

[Redstone]

21. This must be a hard day for you. Please accept my sympathy, if it will

help you at all. And my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Redstone

[Crystal Clarity]

28. I don't know what to say other then...

I am so very sorry. This day is probably not an easy one for you. My sincere condolences.

[blue_roses_lib]

16. I was still living at home.

I was a sophomore in college at the time. It was 5:50am local time, and we were all just rousing. My mother, who can't stand silence, had gone downstairs to make coffee and turn on the radio. Dad was getting out of the shower, I was getting ready to go to school, when mom called upstairs in a wobbly voice, "You guys come downstairs for a minute." The radio was carrying national coverage, saying the towers were hit. Mom turned on the TV. We all stood there, in the dark because no one thought to turn the lights on in the house, listening to TV coverage. I remember being so horrified that I went numb. My parents did as well. I had never made it completely down the stairs to watch, so I remember standing on the stairs, and my dad saying "finish getting ready for school." I was scared for my friend who was supposed to start some internship on wall street at some point that fall. I remember going to school, working my part time job at the bookstore, and then skipping for the rest of the day and a good chunk of the semester.

I remember this song being played endlessly on the image reels on NBC, and I thought how perfect this song described it. I have this song in my iTunes collection, but to this day I have a hard time listening to it without going to pieces. It is forever tied to 09/11 in my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_U2ittDVw&ob=av2n

The vid is a music video, which was not playing, just the song. Never seen this video, but I like the message.


:grouphug:

[lightningandsnow]

17. I was in grade 5.

I'd heard mutterings of some kind of disaster happening, but I dismissed it as my classmates making stuff up. We were then called to the auditorium for a "very serious" assembly, which I, again, figured must have been a lecture stemming from someone's misbehavior. I then found out what happened, and spent the rest of the day being terrified, sure that living in Toronto meant we were next.

At lunch, I was sitting under a tree, crying. A young girl came up to me and told me that I'd be okay. We became fast friends. We lost track of each other for a few years, but found each other again and are still friends to this day.

[Redstone]

18. Working. Then Mrs R called me from the gym, and said "there's a bomb in

New York City, turn the TV on."

The rest, as they say, was history. I missed the collapse of the first building because I was on a business phone call, but saw the second.

I remember where I was when JFK was killed, as well.

Redstone

[Roon]

22. Ed Mccaffery broke his leg the night before on monday night football

and because he is my hero, I was fretting all night and didn't sleep very well.

My ex came down to my room and woke me up saying that america was under attack. I just got upstairs and just saw a video of the towers crumbling.

We JUST bought a 62'' TV set and watching 9-11 was really intense. Our buddies came over for days every day just sitting and watching the coverage.

[JTG of the PRB]

25. I was at that game!

Myself and a good friend of mine went to the game together and had a great time. And then, of course, everything went to hell the next day...

[Roon]

60. WOW! small world!

[mnhtnbb]

23. I was cleaning up around the house getting ready to go visit my father

in a nursing home (he was a month away from turning 91). When I got over to the
nursing home and turned on the TV in his room, we watched in horror as the second plane
hit. Then we watched the towers fall.

I knew when my Dad didn't get the significance of what was happening that he really had deteriorated.
He died 5 months later.

I also have the same recall of events the day JFK was assassinated, even though I was only in 7th grade.
It was another marker moment in relationship to the way I viewed a parent--my mother. (Both parents were rabid Republicans). When I came home from school and asked my mom--and grandmother who was visiting--if they knew what happened, they said no. I told them. My mother's response, "It's about time!"
I couldn't believe she actually approved of the President of the United States being assassinated.
(My grandmother did not respond the same way. She was horrified.)

[WCIL]

24. I was on a message board when people started talking about it

I called my mom to see what she knew, and was talking to her as the second plane hit. Then watched the news all day and listened to the local radio to see if schools would close.

My children attended parochial school across the street from our house. The junior high grades had a separate building,so they were told and my daughter watched all day on television. The younger students in the main building were kept in the dark, so my son didn't hear exactly what was happening until school let out. He knew something was up, though, because on the grade 4-6 floor, they all had free reading all day. Those 6 teachers set up a rotation where one would monitor the hall while the other 5 went to watch the news.

[JTG of the PRB]

26. I was sleeping,.

I mean, I wasn't actually asleep when I heard about it, but I was woken up by the sound of my phone ringing in my dorm room.

A little bit of back story - it was my freshman year of college, only three weeks in. I was away from home (not far away, but far enough), so I was still a little uneasy about this whole college thing. I was feeling better the night before as I went with a good friend of mine to the Broncos-Giants Monday Night Football game in Denver. The Broncos won, and my friend and I had a blast at the game. The buses were completely packed after the game, so I had to walk about a mile before I could get onto a bus. Fortunately, my college was just straight north of the stadium, so it's not like I had to go all the way back to Boulder like my friend. I got back to the dorms after midnight, watched the highlights of the game, and went to bed having decided I would skip my first class of that Tuesday morning.

So back to that morning. It was 10:06am, and the class I was supposed to go to had started at 9:30am. The phone woke me up, but I decided I shouldn't answer it - I was supposed to be in class, after all. So I let it ring and dozed off. About 10 minutes later my roommate came into the room and asked if I'd been in bed all day. I said I had and asked why. Instead of responding, he grabbed the TV remote and turned it on. I couldn't see what was happening at first, so I grabbed my glasses... and I was stunned by what I saw.

By that time, everything had already happened - the towers had already collapsed and there was so much speculation and everything. Everybody was watching in the dorms. I watched until it was time to go to my second class of the day. I couldn't focus, of course (partially because it was a math class) and I just wanted to watch the news and find out what had happened. After class, I wandered down to where my dad worked. Thankfully, he worked on campus, so I could spend time with him. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared - all that nervousness about being at college and away from the comforts of home was really getting to me. It was good talking to him, as we sat in his office for about half an hour.

I went to the student center to get some lunch before heading back to the dorms. I sat down in the student lounge on the floor. There were a bunch of other people from my floor there, just sitting around and watching TV together. It felt so surreal, but having other people to talk to really helped.

Today's weather is identical to that day 9 years ago - warm, sunny, and a clear, blue sky.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Watching it out the window and wondering "Should we stay or go?"

Confusing morning, that one was. And the long-ass walk home wondering what the fuck was happening, since we'd hear only vague snippets once in a while about the Pentagon, the White House, and a rumor that LA had been attacked as well.

[Systematic Chaos]

29. I was on my way out the door to 7-11 to get a diet soda.

My mom hadn't turned the news on in the living room yet, so I found out about it in the store where there was some right-wing talk radio on to keep people apprised of what was going on -- better than nothing.

I got home in time to see the first tower fall and marvel at what an awesome demolition job someone had done to bring it down all neat like that. Went to work at my casino to discover that for 12 scheduled open tables they had two players in the blackjack pit. Supervisor was at the sign-in desk asking people to go home. I did, and called in my next two voluntary early outs on the following two days.

Then I could go on about the "Patriotic Pissing Contest" all the Strip hotels were having in the face of near total loss of tourists all the way through to the end of the year. Whose marquee had the most flashy "God Bless Our Troops" animations, or whose flag draped from the top of a hotel tower was the largest. But, I'd rather concentrate on the over 25,000 hotel/casino employees who were laid off (many of whom were never offered reinstatement) so that the pissing could continue with the $2 million in donations made to the "Relief Funds."

But then I would be straying way off topic. :eyes:

[last_texas_dem]

30. I posted this in a similar thread six years ago today

Figured I'll just link to it 'cause it's pretty long and detailed. I'd honestly forgotten some of these details. 27 and my memory is already fading fast!

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=1657988&mesg_id=1658254

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

31. having afternoon cake and coffee with my inlaws

the radio announcer came on but I didn't understand German then so I had no idea. In-laws jumped up from the table and ran to the television and we saw the images of the first plane impacting. Spent the next hours calling my family in the US and watching everything unfold on CNN.

[Love Bug]

32. I was home from work that day

I had just gotten up and turned on the TV to check the weather. The first plane had already hit and at that time the speculation was that some pilot had gotten confused. Saw the second plane hit and we all knew this was no accident. I sat and watched everything for the next few hours then got dressed and voted in the primary for mayor, which happened to be that day. I figured it was the most patriotic thing I could do while feeling helpless.

I live near the airport and am used to background plane noise. I remember the eerie silence over the next few days after everyone not a Bin Laden was grounded.

[bikebloke]

33. As I got in to work.

My bike commute takes me within a kilometer of the Pentagon. I never noticed the smoke (or crash since it was about that time) until seeing it on the telly in the building's lobby.

[tigereye]

34. mail man told us a "plane hit the World Trade Center"

but we didn't think anything about it until we turned on the TV. And this was the week after I had first sent my son to Kindergarten - so I was kind of emotional anyway. Watching what happened to the Towers and all those people was the most bizarre, disturbing and unreal experience I hope I will ever have. :(


It was doubly odd since I usually listened religiously to NPR in the morning when I dropped my kid off at school, and that morning I did not or I would have heard about it much earlier.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

37. I was driving to work, listening to NPR.

They announced that a plane had hit the WTC, and it seemed for the moment that it might have been an accident involving a small plane. By the time I got to work it was apparent that something else was going on.

I work at an airline, and the fear was not only that the US was under attack but that more airplanes would be hijacked, maybe some of them ours. I remember standing in a crowded conference room where there was a TV, and we were all wondering and worrying about the airplanes that were still out there. Later that morning a meeting was called and we were told that all of our planes were safe on the ground -- they had received instructions to land immediately, and were now scattered all over the country and elsewhere. Everyone was upset and no one knew what would happen next. It was a weird, scary day.

[HipChick]

38. Driving to work,stuck in traffic in DC on a bridge, and seeing this low flying plane

hit the pentagon..

shortly followed by all kinds of emergency vehicles, some driving on the wrong side of the road headed towards DC...

I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life

turned around and went home..

[kwassa]

39. you saw the plane hit?

My wife knows someone who was driving through the Pentagon lot when the plane went right over her head and struck the building.

which bridge?

[cbdo2007]

68. geez, I can't imagine.

[Inchworm]

40. Fighting with ex ... she kept going

I was numb realizing just what had happened, so she sounded like a small breeze in comparison.

:patriot:

[murielm99]

41. I was working as a substitute teacher then.

I was not working that day, so I was asleep. My daughter called me after the first plane hit. I watched the second plane hit. Then I called everyone in my family to make sure they were all okay and where they were supposed to be.

I did work the next day and the day after that. It was tough on the kids. The German foreign exchange student at our local high school went home. Her mother was too worried about her being in the U.S.

[IMATB]

42. I was home

cleaning the kitchen, had CNN on.

I walked into the living room thinking I was seeing a film crew making a disaster movie. I really thought it was a movie being filmed.

I sat down just as the second plane hit.

Someone called my house and said go fill up your car. I was numb, my legs like rubber but I threw on some clothes and went. The lines were just starting at the pump.

Later I went to the grocery store. It was like being in a dream. No one was talking, everyone looked in shock, it was dead quiet in that store. Funny how I remember that.

The next few days I just sat and watched. I finally had to quit watching tv. I think I ran out of tears.

It was unreal.

[Richard Steele]

43. I was working as a 'Day laborer", pushing a broom in a half-finished GE building in RDU, NC.

I had a pretty bad day of my own. (No one told me
it was Quitting Time, the van from the day labor
agency picked up the other 10 guys and left me there;
I ended up walking 5 miles along the roadside, heading
toward the building my ex-Sweetie worked in,
and LUCKILY she had worked late, because just as her
building came into sight, I saw her leaving the parking lot
and was able to flag her down.)

I didn't actually learn of the events of the day
until I got home that evening.

Someone at that jobsite had a TV or radio down on the 3rd floor,
and was keeping the regular employees updated on events,
so I knew that SOMETHING was going on...
I distinctly remember a fellow charging out of the stairwell
and yelling, "It fell down!".

I had no idea WHAT had fallen down until much later that evening.

[cwydro]

44. I was getting ready for work

with the Today show on as usual.

Watched the second plane hit.

On the phone to everyone I knew in seconds.

Our offices closed for the day and I went to my mom's house and we watched TV all day as she repeatedly asked..."where is the President?"

[kimi]

45. I had just gottten home from a lovely walk around the neighborhood

this is suburban DC, Rockville MD. Turned on the Today show and saw what was happening. Went cold all over, just in shock. My then-husband was on his way to Andrews AFB for an appt, I tried calling him, no answer. I didn't know what to do. Fighter jets were flying overhead, I was used to hearing them from living on an airbase in Japan. I walked up to the elementary school near our house to pick up my younger boys, I just wanted them home, and I remember that I heard planes in the air and thought "That's weird. Nothing should be flying now." This would have been about noon. Then I went to the middle school nearby to pick up my other 2 boys, lots of parents were already picking up kids. I later learned that counselors at the schools had gone to my boys and asked them where their dad worked, if he was at the Pentagon that day. No, by a fluke he wasn't, but that was where he worked. He lost several colleagues that day.

Life has never been the same, for so many of us. What a sad anniversary. I really didn't think it would affect me this much, but as the day goes on, and I reflect, it just becomes sadder. :(

[MichiganVote]

55. I worked in an elementary school.Many parents picked up their kids

There was no immediate threat but it made them feel better. Glad your family was ok.

My sons were in HS. They watched it all during the school day and related their daily experience when we all came home at night.

Scary day indeed.

[femmocrat]

46. I was on the computer and had CNN on.

I also didn't pay much attention at first, thinking it was just an accident with a small plane.

I went to work in the afternoon which was very surreal. We are under the flight path of Flight 93. People were coming to pick up their children, so only a few kids were left in the school. We just played with clay that day. The kids were very stressed out.

I'll never, ever forget it.

[July]

47. At home when a friend in Europe called, wondering where my spouse was.

Spouse often has meetings in Manhattan.

Friend called in time to have us tune in to television coverage and see second tower hit.

Not long after, kids' schools called to see if we were home, and kids were sent home early (we are about 20 miles from ground zero).

After that, younger kid had nightmares. Parents all rebelled against school policy of no cell phones, and sent kids with cell phones regardless. Several people from our town and many more from surrounding towns lost their lives.

Result of above: I don't want to hear about people in the "heartland" or Alaska freaking out about terrorists. New Yorkers and people around New York dealt. Everyone else apparently crapped their pants. So much for "home of the brave." Doesn't appear to go beyond the northeast, and the few who came from everywhere to try to help.

[TK421]

48. I was just walking into work...my co-worker was listening to Howard Stern

and asked me if I heard about the first plane that went into the South Tower....I didn't, and we both figured maybe it was pilot error ( they were drunk, they fucked something up etc.. ) so we just continued opening up the box office and printed our tickets... then Howard said he just heard a second plane hit the North Tower, and I've never heard Howard Stern so serious..I figured something was wrong then, I mean..come on

We were called upstairs to the main office where there was a TV and we watched the live footage there of everything that was happening...shortly after that, the production manager comes running into the office yelling " THE PENTAGONS JUST BEEN ATTACKED"! We all just sat there like zombies for a bit, and then I suggested to my boss that we should shut down for the day..so I put the sign on the front door and headed to the bar...

And most of us ended up at the bar down the street to watch what was happening...funny thing was, nobody was drinking...just staring at the TV's and the people walking outside were walking around in what I could best describe as a daze. They had shut down all major bridges and suspended rail service in and around Philly, Trenton area.

I walked back to my apartment, polished off a bottle of gin (and tonics) and just watched CNN for most of the day, hoping to hear anything new

[kedrys]

49. I had just turned on CNN like I used to do first thing in the morning

The reports were confusing. I kept watching, my s.o. hopped in the shower, and I saw the second plane fly into the tower. I called my s.o. out of the shower, and we both watched in silent horror.

After a while, I got dressed to go to work in downtown Houston, about 5 minutes from my house and across the street from the tallest building in downtown. I was in my car two blocks away when a friend from work called me to tell me the office was closed because of fears of an attack there. I turned left just before getting to the office and went back home.

The TV was still on, of course, and a few minutes after I got back, the same friend called to ask if he and his s.o. and their cat could come over - they lived a block and a half from work, and were afraid they'd be killed if an attack on the aforementioned tallest building came to pass. I said sure, they packed up, came over, and the four of us kept watching all day.

I saw the towers fall - at first it just didn't visually parse, seeing sky where solid wall used to be.

I was supposed to go to New York that week, on business, and I would have stayed at the Millennium Hilton across the street from the WTC. The phone lines were overloaded, and it took me 2 days to get a hold of my parents in Montreal to let them know I was okay and didn't travel.

[Curmudgeoness]

50. At work, with a sister flying in for a visit. We had a TV in the

conference room and when the first plane hit, we started to watch it. We watched as the second plane hit, and it was instantly apparent that this was an attack using planes. I got sick. My sister had left LA not long before this. She got stuck in Arizona and never did get back here. After three days of not knowing when the planes would fly out, her husband drove to Arizona to get her.

[applegrove]

51. I was getting ready for work when I turned on the Tv. A small plane had flown into one of the towers

and they had it live. I called my dad to tell him to watch. We were on the phone when the second plane hit and I knew then it was terrorism though I didn't think of bin Laden but thought it was the PLO.

very sad day.

[carlyhippy]

52. I was channel surfin while passing time until I took my kids to school

I stopped at cnn and saw live camera with breaking news that a plane had hit the WTC. I figured it was something like a Cessna who went awry and flew into the side of the building. Just out of curiousity, I flipped back and forth between abc, nbc and cbs, to see how long it would take for them to get the news. It took a minute or two for the others to pick it up. My son had sat on the couch at the time I went to the Today Show, a few seconds later we watched the 2nd plane fly into the WTC on the Today Show. He was a kid, and we both yelled "OH S*&T!!" I was so shocked at what had just happened, I didn't think twice about his explicative. I then knew this was not some kind of freak accident. It was obvious to me we were under some kind of attack. I ran into the other room and told my daughter what had just happened, and we sat and watched the footage, shocked, all of us. I took my kids to school (they cancelled school 4 hours later) and on the way tried to explain what we had just seen.

I worked 4 hours that day, or the best I could. Picked up the kids from school, went home and watched tv in shock at the towers tumbling down, prayed for our country and the families of the victims.

I saved our daily paper on 9/11, still have it.

[doc03]

53. Heading to the Health Club for my daily workout n/t

[MiddleFingerMom]

54. MiddleFingerMomMom lay dying...

.
.
.
.
...calmly, peacefully, serenely and painlessly in hospice in a care center.
.
.
.
.
Her body had been shutting down in stages over the previous few days... and
the caregivers thought she could pass at any given moment.
.
.
.
.
She didn't until the next day around mid-morning.
.
.
.
.
It may seem strange but, although I had caught the tapes of both crashes once
on TV and I knew pretty much what was going on, ALL my focus was elsewhere
and 9/11 had no real significance for me until a day or two after the event.
.
.
.

[MichiganVote]

56. Secretary said a plane had hit WTC. Are they reporting it as an accident? I asked. She said no.

I said, 'Then we are under attack'.

I don't even know how I knew. But I knew. I just knew.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. I was living on the West Coast, three time zones away from NYC

Until a few days before, I had automatically switched on the radio when walking from the bedroom to the kitchen ca. 8AM, but I had recently rearranged my living room furniture, and the radio was no longer on the direct route to the kitchen.

I had a leisurely breakfast, and then sat down at the computer to see if any e-mails had come in from clients overnight.

No clients had written, so I checked in on the translators' mailing list. The last message on it, time-stamped shortly before midnight, Japan time, was from an American living in Japan. All it said was, "Oh my God, turn on your TV NOW."

I thought that maybe there had been an earthquake in Japan or something, and no one had responded to the message, so I just turned to DU. There were the headlines on the front page about planes crashing into the WTC.

Having visited the WTC when I lived on the East Coast, I was naturally interested, so I started reading the thread. People were updating it, and when the first tower collapsed, I couldn't process the information. Then I came to Khephra's post: "It's true. Both towers are gone."

This was even harder to process. Hoping that it was a hoax of some sort, I turned on NPR, and they were reporting the same thing. After listening for a while, I decided that I needed pictures, so I finally turned on the TV. Of course, it was all replays by then, but I just sat there stunned.

At about 10AM, I got a phone call from my church's phone tree. We were going to have a memorial service at noon. My church was downtown, and somehow the word spread, because a lot of unfamiliar people were in attendance.

[GoneOffShore]

58. Interviewing people for a reality show.

And having the first floor of my house remodeled while entertaining a guest from England.

[Skittles]

59. was home sick, saw the breaking news on TV

09/11/01 is still the last day I called in sick

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

61. In bed on the west coast

In an intimate moment, my then girlfriends phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. After ignoring three or four calls she got out of bed and answered. It was her brother in New York, announcing he was okay and was in Westchester when it happened and to please call their Dad because he was going to a relatives house in Connecticut and not back to his apartment. I wasn't terribly lucid having been preoccupied with what we had been doing. She called me into the other room where the instant replays of the first tower falling and "My Pet Goat" were running in a loop on every channel.

[AllenVanAllen]

62. My wife and I were sleeping

when we were awakened by a friend's voice on the answering machine, "Hey dude, I don't know if you know this yet but we are under a major terrorist attack." We got up, turned the TV on in time to see the collapse of the first tower. Little did we know at the time the era of fear, intolerance and madness that was to follow.

[hippywife]

64. I was lying in bed with a broken leg.

We had been camping out of state that weekend and I broken my leg pretty severely while hiking. I spent four days there in the hospital and had to have surgery to put screws and a rod in my right leg from the knee down to the ankle.

My husband was in the bathroom when I turned on the TV and I called him in. They had just reported the first plane hitting the towers and showed a film of it, too, I think. Then we both watched live as the second plane came in. I began crying hysterically.

He had to go to work. I was alone, so I called my sister in Ohio and we stayed on the phone together for a long, long time, watching as the towers crumbled. We were both in shock.

Then began a week of information overload, some of it incorrect. Things got so confusing for a long time as the news kept updating and correcting. I didn't like Bush from the first I saw/heard him speak, and had worked against him in the election, I wasn't sure how they were going to handle this. Sadly, they handled it as poorly as I thought they would. They even exceeded my expectation in that area. :eyes:

[Lindsey]

66. I was a teacher and I was on one of my four months off. I was just

getting ready to go to the gym when my girlfriend called. When I turned on the T.V., the first plane had struck. I just thought it was an accident. We watched the second plane hit while on the phone together - that's when we knew....and then we heard about PA....and then the Pentagon. She didn't go to work that day and came over. All of my friends and family were calling. I live in L.A. and everyone was afraid that we'd be next. The federal buildings closed and most of my close friends and family went home for the day. We watched T.V. in total shock. I remember thinking, this just can't be happening....

[cbdo2007]

67. In a hotel restaurant. I had just gotten to work, and a few more people came in.

A coworker got a call from her boyfriend that a plane had hit the WTC. They were saying it was a small plane, but I thought it was strange that I couldn't get on any internet site. Literally, my yahoo wouldn't open, google, cnn, drudge, but there were just small headlines on each site.

I called my dad to ask him and he said there was just smoke coming out of the building but no one knew anything, but we said to let each other know if we found out anything else, still hoping it wouldn't be anything.

Then, coworker's boyfriend called again to say they watched a second plane hit the other tower live on tv and that it looked like a passenger plane. Next I think we all said in unison, "we've got to find a tv!" so we brainstormed of where we might find a tv and found one at the hotel next door in the restaurant. Probably 50 people or so just standing around watching, but it was interesting being in a hotel restaurant there because people would come downstairs not knowing what had happened, so they would see the tv and ask around and many would just burst into tears instantly. they would be on cell phones immediately calling friends/relatives in New York to see what was going on.

We were there when the towers fell and the place was just silent, all of us just looking around stunned, in awe. Not even really sure what we were witnessing or that it was even real, but that we knew we would remember that day for the rest of our lives.

We hung around for about 30 more minutes before we decided to get back to work to see what was happening there and see if we coudl duck out early. Everyone else was at work by then, just sitting around in a conference room watching a tv with bad reception. Another hour of this, still trying to figure out what was going on, and they let us all leave if we wanted, so I went to my dad's house to watch with the family so we could process everything together. I probably watched the news nonstop for about the next 4-5 days, literally just sat there and watched.

I will never forget, and I really do go back and watch the video we have of that day and other videos on the internet just to remind myself that it was real.

[Demoiselle]

69. Cleaning up breakfast in my kitchen. The Today Show was on.

It was awful and spellbinding at the same time. I remember Brian Gumbel (Gumble?) interviewing an eye witness after the first plane hit a tower, and he was rather disbelieving when the witness said it looked to him like the plane had flown into the tower on purpose. And then, right there live on TV, the second plane hit the second tower.
I will be very happy if I never see those images again.

[Roon]

70. I had a cousin at the empire state building lining up for a tour

when the first plane hit.

[BlueIris]

71. Had just woken up. Flipped on the t.v. and thought it was a film.

Literally believed I'd left the television on HBO and it was some disaster movie I'd somehow never heard of about a terrorist attack in New York. My first memory after that is of waking up my sociopath (ex-boyfriend) and telling him what was going on. Ugh. The start of the worst year of my life.