9/11 2001 - Where were you?

LilacDragon · Post by **LilacDragon** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:52 am

It seems that the Garden is too new, or I am an idiot and can't find anything older then 2004, so there doesn't seem to be a thread from Sept. 11, 2001.

So, where were you? What were you doing?

I was at work. I ran a little gas station in a small town not far from my home at the time. My work day started at 5:30 that morning, as it did every morning. I was half way through my morning paperwork when the first customer came in and asked me what happened. I had no television and did usually turn the radio on, so I had no idea.

Seconds later, my husband called. He was outraged! At one point he was in tears he was so moved by what was going on.

For the first and only time, there was a t.v. in my gas station. We watched as best we could with no antannea or cable - for hours while the horrific events unfolded. Customers stood at the counter stunned and unable to speak. The phone rang all day with fellow managers calling and asking and saying nothing.

I remember late in the afternoon - a competing gas station up the street from me (that was privately owned and run) raised the price of gas from a dollar something to five dollars. When my boss called to discuss pricing with me I remember telling him that he would have to fire me if he wanted me to follow suit.

The pictures that stick in my mind are those that most people remember. The clouds of smoke billowing out of the Towers. People jumping. The firemen raising the flag after the Towers fell. The rolling clouds of dust when the Towers fell.

What do you remember most?

cars · Post by **cars** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:58 am

I was a work as it turned out on that somber day. I never go to the caf for coffee, but on that morning for some reason I did. There were 3 large TV's spread out in the caf where workers could view to get caught up on the everyday news. Well I walked in a minute after the first plane had hit the first tower, so everybody was huddled around the TV's. GMA, several blocks away, had their TV cameras focused on the burning tower. The first thing that went through my mind was, this was no accident, it had to be terrorists, & I said that to my friends around me watching the specticle. Minutes later, my fears were confirmed, as while they actually televising the burning tower, the "second" plane slammed into the second tower. We all gasped, & some started to cry, at that horriffic sight. I will never forget it, I will carry around that image in my mind forever! My wife called me to tell me about it, as she saw it on GMA as well. She was so very concerned for her cousin that worked on the 86th floor of tower 1. He left behind a wife, & 4 young children, so terribly sad.

Uncle Kram · Post by **Uncle Kram** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:59 am

I remember a mate coming into my office to tell me a plane had crashed into the WTC. Later another told me the other tower had been hit by another plane. I just recall saying that it had to be deliberate and was another Pearl Harbor but couldn't think who would do that as I'd never heard of Al Qaeda. I couldn't visualise the collapse as I listened to the radio so I was extremely shocked when I got home and saw it on TV. Like most people I guess, I didn't move from the TV all night

Uncle Kram · Post by **Uncle Kram** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:02 am

helefra wrote: I was at work in an office. There were four secretaries in an upstairs office and I was one of those secretaries.

Someone had received an e-mail to say that one of the twin towers had been hit by a plane, I thought it was a joke and a couple of others didn't believe it. Then the person who had received an earlier e-mail about the plane crashing into the twin towers stated she had received another e-mail that another plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. This time I knew it was real and later that day I could feel a great sadness in the air.:-1

The next day we had a 5 minute silence in rememberance of that day and the atmosphere was still filled with sadness - it's something that I'll never forget.:-1

I remember that the 5 minutes silence was impeccably observed by EVERYONE. We all realised that our lives would never be the same again.

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:17 am

Zakk had just turned a year old. We had had a bad night with his teething so we had ended up sleeping on the couch together. I remember my husband getting up and leaving for work. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes later he called and told me to turn on the t.v. I had just turned the tv on and was telling him what exactly was going on when the second plane hit. I remember screaming "oh Sh*t" a couple of times and David asking what. I finally told him bout the second plane. He ended up coming home. We spent the day in a daze watching everything unfold. I remember when they said a plane had hit the pentagon my stomach just dropping and knowing life would never be the same.

I remember David saying this would be the event we would always remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.

Rapunzel · Post by **Rapunzel** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:42 am

cars wrote: I was a work as it turned out on that somber day. I never go to the caf for coffee, but on that morning for some reason I did. There were 3 large TV's spread out in the caf where workers could view to get caught up on the everyday news. Well I walked in a minute after the first plane had hit the first tower, so everybody was huddled around the TV's. GMA, several blocks away, had their TV cameras focused on the burning tower. The first thing that went through my mind was, this was no accident, it had to be terrorists, & I said that to my friends around me watching the specticle. Minutes later, my fears were confirmed, as while they actually televising the burning tower, the "second" plane slammed into the second tower. We all gasped, & some started to cry, at that horriffic sight. I will never forget it, I will carry around that image in my mind forever! My wife called me to tell me about it, as she saw it on GMA as well. She was so very concerned for her cousin that worked on the 86th floor of tower 1. He left behind a wife, & 4 young children, so terribly sad.

I was at university at the time, but that was a study day so I was at home.

I turned on the tv to watch the news seconds after the first plane hit. I didn't even consider terrorists, I just thought it was the most dreadful accident imaginable. Then the second plane hit and a woman on tv shouted out that it was a terrorist attack. I went totally cold with shock. I spent the whole day watching sky news, in total shock, as the news just got worse and worse.

In the afternoon I went to pick my kids up from school and remember trying to explain to the headmaster what had happened. None of the teachers or other parents had seen the news and so were chatting and joking as normal and I watched them in shock, thinking the world has changed today - how can you not know it?

That night my sister phoned. She had been her best friend Miranda's bridesmaid on the Saturday before, but they had delayed their honeymoon for a couple of days and flew to New York on Sept. 10th. Miranda & Steve had a whole list of places they wanted to visit during their honeymoon and the WTC was on their list!

My sister was frantic with worry, thinking they might have been there at the time.

She heard from them 2 days later. Apparently they landed on the evening of the 10th and decided not to go too far from their hotel. So they decided to have dinner in the restaurant at the top of the WTC! When Miranda woke up next morning and realised what happened she panicked and wanted to leave but with all the planes grounded they had to stay for the 2 weeks they'd booked, before they could get a return flight.

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:50 am

I was sitting exactly where I am now at my desk....my young colleague had a call from his wife at home to tell him that the 1st tower had been hit. We were concerned for his MIL who was 'housekeeper' on a large yacht moored near by. At break times we were able to watch the pictures on the TV and then when we got home. I knew none of my American relatives were in that area so I had no worries for their safety, but an overwhelming sadness for America and those that were closely involved.

I guess we all knew that life would never be the same again for many people...the world changed.

I don't know how others feel now, but I have always had the feeling that one day something similar will take place...not necessarily in the USA, but somewhere in the world...I don't dwell on it, but if it happns I won't be surprised.

I guess that there are 3 events that come into this category for me...

Death Of JFK

Death of Princess Diana

Bombing of the WTC

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:59 am

I was getting ready for work, most mornings I don't turn the TV on but that morning I had it on watching the TODAY SHOW I walked by it and there was Katie announcing that a plan had hit one of the towers, and as she was talking the second one hit the towers while I watched.. I couldn't move what was going on planes flying into TWC, how could this be happening..:-1

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:14 am

Sandi, this is a great thread -- thanks for starting it.

I was working from home with my hubby; we had been married less than one year. I was working out on my exercise bike (when I used to exercise

) and hubby came in and told me about the first plane.

Of course, I didn't believe him at first. I mean, really -- how could this have happened? I jumped off my bike and watched the television. In absolute awe. Then the second plane hit. It was too much to believe.

We spent the entire day glued to the T.V. set. No work was done. How could *anybody* concentrate on work on September 11, 2001?

woppy71 · Post by **woppy71** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:36 am

Well, I was at my parents place, writing up an assignment for my IT certification course when it all happened. It was definately one of those times when time just seems to stand still and reality takes on that unbelievable feeling.

Absolutely stunned, followed by deep emptiness. I think that the civalised world, bar a very few exceptions, became united at that point in time.

I have never known my father to be as shocked as he was at that time, and I can safely say that he has been all over the world in his time in the army, and has seen things that no human should ever have to see.

I know that I will never forget that day. It will truly ring infomous for all time to come on. We must never forget.:-1

sunny104 · Post by **sunny104** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:10 am

my daughter was born in february of that year and I was in the habit of having Good Morning America or one of those morning shows on when we first got up.

I was holding her in my arms and walking past the entertainment center when I first saw what was happening. :-1 :-1

KARENSVINEYARD · Post by **KARENSVINEYARD** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:42 pm

LilacDragon wrote: It seems that the Garden is too new, or I am an idiot and can't find anything older then 2004, so there doesn't seem to be a thread from Sept. 11, 2001.

So, where were you? What were you doing?

I was at work. I ran a little gas station in a small town not far from my home at the time. My work day started at 5:30 that morning, as it did every morning. I was half way through my morning paperwork when the first customer came in and asked me what happened. I had no television and did usually turn the radio on, so I had no idea.

Seconds later, my husband called. He was outraged! At one point he was in tears he was so moved by what was going on.

For the first and only time, there was a t.v. in my gas station. We watched as best we could with no antannea or cable - for hours while the horrific events unfolded. Customers stood at the counter stunned and unable to speak. The phone rang all day with fellow managers calling and asking and saying nothing.

I remember late in the afternoon - a competing gas station up the street from me (that was privately owned and run) raised the price of gas from a dollar something to five dollars. When my boss called to discuss pricing with me I remember telling him that he would have to fire me if he wanted me to follow suit.

The pictures that stick in my mind are those that most people remember. The clouds of smoke billowing out of the Towers. People jumping. The firemen raising the flag after the Towers fell. The rolling clouds of dust when the Towers fell.

What do you remember most?

STATIONED AT ANDREWS AFB , WASHINGTON DC. I was in the worst place possible, a newbie military family, 2mths pregnant, newly weds, outside the base gate in an apartment watching tv in time to watch the second plane hit. Biloxi Mississippi. Husband was in tech. school awaiting orders for our first station. Guess what.....we got Washington D.C. a month later. My first flight on a plane traveling there (Biloxi) on July 14th 2001. glad i enjoyed it cause i'll never do it again. stationed at Andrews AFB almost 4 yrs in the threshhold of the War on Terror. Never felt like such a target in all my life as being around the corner from Air Force One and the rest of the president's aviation on standby. Living on the base was nerve racking. Air Force One is in a bright white circular hanger that i swear was beaming like a new quarter just waiting to be meddled with. might as well'a had a bright red target on the roof. Looks like a spaceship anchored to the ground. dont be fooled the security let a world of things to be desired. made me sick to go to bed thinking some terrorist was gonna parachute in out of the sky or somethin.

jaggedlittlegirl · Post by **jaggedlittlegirl** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:27 pm

I was in L.A. with some friends. We flew there for like 4 days to go to a concert. The concert was going to be that day, 9/11. We were sleeping in cause we had been out late the night before. We were staying at one of my friends' aunt's. She came into the bedrooms as soon as it happened and woke us all up saying "come look at what's happening, terrorists are attacking the US! It's like a movie!!!". Then she said, they're closing everything, canceling all big events.

At first we took it as a joke. One of my friends said "Nah, not possible, she's just trying to scare us into thinking the concert has been canceled", and we rolled back to sleep. After a couple mins, we decided to go check it out and went into the living room, as soon as we saw the TV our jaws dropped and we stayed glued to the TV for pretty much the rest of the day. The concert was in fact postponed(not canceled).

After we all let our families back home know we were ok we decided to go out and drive around at least. It was the saddest car ride! I remember you could feel it in the air, the entire city was in shock, mourning, everything mixed all together...

Shweet tatersalad · Post by **Shweet tatersalad** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:48 pm

I was home in bed when the phone rang and daughter,too young for school yet brought me the phone.It was My mother from my home in Florida.Telling me too turn the tube on there was a plane crash into The trade towers.As I got the channel on and got my focus in,The second plane hit and my blood ran cold.

I spent the rest of the day watching this unfold.My most memorable thing is that living where i do,the winds carried the smoke up and across where i work.And for two days after me co-workers and i watched the smoke drift up over our heads in a heavenly journey up and away.

And yet we do nothing,like it was part of a plan.We continue too help other nations when we should help our selves?

Galbally · Post by **Galbally** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:19 pm

I was in my office at the time in Dublin in Ireland, and the first thing was that a friend rang me up crying saying that something terrible had happened in New York and that a plane had hit the Twin Towers, and I remember that as I went to find a T.V. to see what it was about a lot of mobile phones in the office went off at the same time and people were getting the same news. When we put the news on the second plane had hit and I realized pretty immeadiatly it was a terrorist attack and remembered the earlier bombing. It was hard to really understand what was going on, though it was obviously a devasating attack, then the news came that the pentagon had been hit, and I remember that time between then and the towers falling down being quite frightening as it definetly felt like a situation that was out of control in America and there were instant rumours flying around about lots of planes and it seemed (at that moment) like anything could happen next and that planes were crashing all over the place. We had an office staff member on a flight to the U.S. at the same time and it was not pleasant. The reality of what was happening in New York with people jumping out of the building only became apparent to us when an Irish journalist who was across from the WTC started describing over the phone what he was watching and from how he was talking you could feel how disturbed he was by what he saw. When the buildings collapsed it was pretty devastating, almost surreal, and even now I can't really imagine what it must have been like for people in Manhattan to witness. I stayed in the office till about 4.30 Irish time, like most people, though we didn't work and just watched the T.V.

Then I went home to my girlfriend and we watched the events like everyone on the T.V. just trying to take it in. Later my driving instructor called around as I had my test the next day and had booked a pretest, while I was getting in the car my friend rang again in tears, I told her that it was OK and to stop crying but she had actually just been in a car accident and was in shock from that. So I stayed on the phone till an ambulance came and other people helped her at the scene and I felt she was OK (as it turned out it was a bad accident, but she was fine, just shock). Then I remember driving around mainly deserted streets in Dublin for about 20 mins talking to my instructor about the attacks and my friends crash, neither of us payed much attention to my driving. I rang my friend back as I was really worried about her, but she was OK and was being brought to the hospital.

I do remember that I knew pretty early into it that it was catastrophic and an act of war, and also it felt strange in that it felt close to home, almost personal, even though America is a different country an ocean away, I think all people in all Western countries felt that way. I don't think people weren't being glib when they felt it was attack on all countries in a way and that they were moved by what ordinary Americans and others went through, and appalled that such a thing could happen on such a scale to civilians in a country during peacetime.

KARENSVINEYARD · Post by **KARENSVINEYARD** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:44 pm

for some reason the difficult part of it all is knowin' we not only don't know everything, but we cant know everything. i have to believe sometimes that some reasons why we get all bent out of shape over gov't decisions is because i'm sure there's things we cant know that maybe led to those decisions, those actions. it must be hard for them sometimes to balance society's definition of a lie, and covert. suppose really that's why we give 'em the roles we give'em. i hear about Bush bein' all about war and what not sometimes. i chuckle cause if he wasnt we wouldnt have acted so fast. when it comes up we've been there too long i think "the guy's from Texas. they eat capital punishment for breakfast, this is who we picked." lol. its not even that times are gettin' worse, it just gets publicity now. way i see it Thomas Jefferson was gettin' his maids all knocked up, Lincoln had some nifty escapades, Napoleon left his men for dead, Alexander the great would've knocked up his male companion if he could cause he never slept with his wife, George Washington was a glorified militia affiliate, JFK and Monroe, Clinton and Lewinsky, it goes on clear through to Cleopatra. basically society and its authorities have always been stirred up in a big pot of Fu**ed up soup. youd'a thought we'd have it all down to a science by now, but nope, and never will.

guppy · Post by **guppy** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:56 pm

I just happened to be watching cnn. i was trying to catch the weather. i sat down and watched the events unfold that morning. i will never forget it. i called my kid's school and they turned it on in all the classrooms. The original shots caught alot more detail of the people jumping and falling out of the windows than was showed later. it was really awful. That was a very sad day. it has changed the way all americans look at freedom. i dont think we will ever go back to a time when we dont worry and wait for the next attempted attack. i dont think for one minute that it is over by any means.

G-man · Post by **G-man** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:25 pm

I was on my way to work when I received a phone call from a family member in NYC who was watching it as it happened...

Babies_Mama00 · Post by **Babies_Mama00** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:43 pm

I remember it but not to well. I had gotten woken up by my alarm closck saying the world trade centers had been hit. I had no idea at that time what they were and so I went and asked my mom and she sortof explained it. I do however remember very clearly that once I got to school they had called the cable company and gotten TV at the school. They than had EVERYONE in the gym watching the new ALL day.

The one thing I also will never forget is that once they started letting planes fly in and out of Calgary again, my aunt was putting my cousin who at the time was roughly 3 years old to bed. My cousin heard a plane flying over the house and asked my aunt if it was going to hit their house. It almost made me cry that a 3 year old would ask a question like that.

KARENSVINEYARD · Post by **KARENSVINEYARD** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:56 pm

glad i'm not the only one not actually there that shed a few tears. All in a week i found out i was having a baby and that meant she was gonna have my genes, that was scary enough. 9/11 happened, then my best pal, grandpa died and i found out my childhood best friend had died of a cancer noone knew she had. worst week of my life i suppose i'll ever have. excluding pregnancy anyway.

ACCADUE · Post by **ACCADUE** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:41 am

It was afternoon.

A colleague of mine told us: Hey, did you hear that there is an accident at the Twin Towers ?

Firstly, I supposed it was a joke.

Then, we turned up radio - internet was not yet available in all our PCs - and then we started to look each other, astonished.

What ?!?!

Then again, we heard of the second airplane against the tower...

My mind was just like as frozen: I simply could not think, I understood it was not an accidend, but it was calculated...

But who was so fiendish as to do that?

I went home and turned on my tv, on CNN channel.

My daughter, my son, my husband, everybody were astonished, scared.

We followed those images till night and in the morning of the day after..and again and again...

I cried for that: it was so terrible, so unimaginable, so frightening...

Our thoughts were for all the people in the towers.

KARENSVINEYARD · Post by **KARENSVINEYARD** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:24 pm

ACCADUE wrote: It was afternoon.

A colleague of mine told us: Hey, did you hear that there is an accident at the Twin Towers ?

Firstly, I supposed it was a joke.

Then, we turned up radio - internet was not yet available in all our PCs - and then we started to look each other, astonished.

What ?!?!

Then again, we heard of the second airplane against the tower...

My mind was just like as frozen: I simply could not think, I understood it was not an accidend, but it was calculated...

But who was so fiendish as to do that?

I went home and turned on my tv, on CNN channel.

My daughter, my son, my husband, everybody were astonished, scared.

We followed those images till night and in the morning of the day after..and again and again...

I cried for that: it was so terrible, so unimaginable, so frightening...

Our thoughts were for all the people in the towers.

DITTO. I think of what was goin' round in the minds watching for blocks away wonderin' if something else was gonna fall out'a the sky.