Where were you on 9/11?

I was 8 and getting ready for school. I was watching cartoons and my aunt called and my aunt asked if my mom was watching the news and my aunt said "any channel." Then she turned to NBC and I was mildly annoyed that she had turned the channel but then I saw the plane crash into the first tower and I was confused.

Then my mom took me to school and after school my sister had a dentist apppointment and everyone in the waiting room just sat in silenece and watched the news with concerned faces. On the way home I saw a few women praying in the park.

I didn't really get all of it but I understood enough

I was 16 years old... when it happened I was in school. It was a gorgeous summer's day here where I live in Scotland. My parents were in the garden talking to neighbours when I arrived home. My Mum told me to get inside and to watch the TV. My Twin Sister was there glued to the TV she told me what happened.

Next day in school we had an whole school assembly where the priest and the senior teaching team were there to help us process it all. I learnt a lot that year in my Modern Studies class which is a class all about politics in the UK, USA & China. There were a lot of questions thrown to the teachers/parents etc

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We were on a day out in a beautiful historic town, the day before our son started preschool for the first time. It was late afternoon here when we got the train back to the city, we walked past an electrical shop and saw the footage on tvs in the window. We were confused and thought it was an accident at first. It wasn’t until we got home we saw the reports and realised what had happened.

I was home getting ready to head to my internship site. A friend called and asked if I was watching TV. She told me a plane flew into the Pentagon. Turned TV on in time to see people jumping and the first tower. Can't remember if the tower falling was live or tape replay. I had a small portable TV I took to work so we could watch coverage during the day.

Driving to my internship site that day was spooky. Part of the drive included a busy interstate highway which is usually six lines of bumper to bumper road rage insanity. I was the only vehicle on the road. It was spooky.

I was 32, staying in an alcohol and drug halfway house, and woke I up in the early hours and went to the kitchen, then switched on the tv to the news channel. And boom, there it was live on tv just after the first tower had been struck. Then me and another guy, Adam, watched the rest of the disaster unfold. No we didn't suddenly have an excuse to race off to the liquor store, but we knew what was happening in NYC was huge. 🙏🙏🙏So I watched it in real time, in a halfway house on the other side of the planet.

My wife and I were at home getting our daughter ready for her first day of preschool. We heard something about a plane that crashed into a building on the radio, and that made us turn the news on the TV. Then we saw the second plane hit the other tower, and I knew we were under attack.

As I drove to work, I remember looking at an airplane and wondering if it had terrorists on it.

A day late here but that morning I was all ready to go on a bicycle ride to the next town over to see a friend. Turned on the tv in bedroom as I was finishing a cup of tea...boots and backpack already on. The channel that came on was covering the first tower and I saw the 2nd plane hit. Except for the bathroom I didn't leave the tv until about 6pm. It changed a lot of things on how I understood the world to be. Same for many wasn't it. Hard to believe it was happening.

I was driving to work and i had radio on and I thought it was a radio play, some drama of sorts, I didn’t think it could even be real until I arrived to work

I was in Boston (where the planes took off from). I had just started a new job. A co worker came around the corner and told me a plane had hit the wtc (his wife called) and I tried to get on CNN websites and everything was down. Someone had a 10 inch black and white tv but we couldn't see much. I had to go into a meeting and all we could hear was sirens all over the city. It is a wonder my boss didn't notice. At 11 as we were breaking a phone call came in and I picked it up and it was the CEO's office for my boss. My boss goes "why is the CEO's office calling me in here" I gave it to him and we hear him go... um hum, uh huh, ok. He hangs up and goes "we are evacuating" -- why are we evacuating? Management broke in and told us, for the first time, what had happened. I felt like someone kicked me.

I got out in courtyard in front of the building and it was filled with people. The road was one big traffic jam. I got to my train to take me home and it was packed with people ( I had to stand). And the National Railroads said we could only go 5 MPH for safety. I got home around 2 PM. The train went along the Mass Pike and every 5 miles or so was a state trooper parked on the road.

I will never forget that.

We just had no idea what was coming.

Watching a tv programme and then it all went blurry and a woman's voice said we interupt this programme for some breaking news

Then it came on just like that. First just the headline, and then nonstop coverage of it

I was packing to move out of my apartment. I had only a small tv at the time, but I stopped packing and just watched. It seemed unreal and remote as if it was happening in another world. The days that followed made it real though. The stopping of planes, the new rules, the paranoia the flags that were suddenly everywhere.

I had heard that some people in the South Tower were told not to evacuate. But they defied the orders and survived. The South Tower was struck only about 15 minutes after the North Tower was hit according to the timeline on Wikipedia.

I was at my job, counselor for the boys at a residential treatment center. Someone told me about the planes crashing, then Management pulled the other counselors and me into their offices and made it clear that they did not want the children to know what was happening.

About the time we were being told this, the unit staff member on the teen girlsÂ’ side flipped on the tv, blowing the possibility of keeping it a secret. Pretty soon I was doing an impromptu group with the teenage boys, telling them what had happened and encouraging them to stay calm. This was a challenge, as most of these guys already had issues with violence.

I remember two or three of the guys saying they were going to join the military—they were 15 or 16 years old. There was a lot of outcry, mostly focused on “Let’s kill them!!!” meaning the terrorists. And while these kids were emotionally extreme, looking back, they basically expressed the same sentiments that many, many Americans did in the shock of the aftermath of 9/11.

Personally, once I was away from work and not worried about the boys, I remember feeling very uneasy, like what if the planes crashing into the twin towers was only the beginning? What if the next attack was by my home? It was a very anxious time.

I was in my apartment alone, husband had gone to work. My baby just had a burn and I was told to keep him still. He was in the stroller in the apartment. I don't usually get up and put the news on, but that day as I was watching the breaking news of it came on. I think I spent the whole day, besides feeding my infant in front of the tv. I couldn't seem to stop watching, as I got worried there was even more going to happen. It felt traumatizing to me, although I'm glad my older boy was in school and they'd protect him from seeing any of it. I had thought for a bit, what if more happens, and should I pick up my older son. I called my husband back then at work where he was a welder and asked if he heard about it. We talked a bit in bed about how horrible it was, but I spent the night praying and thinking of what I saw and how sorry I felt for people right there experiencing it.

I was at work, stressed about the budget I was working on, and I got a breaking news flash in my email feed. Logged into the CNN website and saw the second plane hit. It felt surreal. I called a couple of my colleagues to tell them to get on-line and they all thought I was making a sick joke. Nobody was working - we were all glued to our monitors, so they closed the office early and sent us all home. I wound up watching CNN for most of the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquarePegGuy I had heard that some people in the South Tower were told not to evacuate. But they defied the orders and survived. The South Tower was struck only about 15 minutes after the North Tower was hit according to the

Rick Rescoria was retired Marine working security for Morgan Stanley in the second Tower. After the first plane hit he evacuated Morgan Stanley's employees. He was killed when he reentered the South Tower to evacuate more people. He was killed when the Tower fell.

I was in San Francisco getting ready for work, so, we saw it on TV at home. Because of the time difference, it happened before my ex and I had to leave for work. We weren't sure what to do. Finally, we decided to go to work and see what was up. My work building was home to the Pacific Stock Exchange and security wasn't letting anyone in. My ex's work was closed down too.

I remember that afterwards he had a medical appointment, so I went with him. We drove past the airport and it was so weird to see that there were no planes taking off or landing.

Sitting in my car in the parking lot for work, as I always arrived a bit early to get a good spot. I hear on the radio something about terrorists and hearing a woman reporter screaming "We're under attack!" I thought that can't be. Who would mess with us?

The streets seemed awfully deserted and this was way before the Internet and social media, but still it seemed word got out somewhat. When arriving at the office, everyone was confused and pretty quiet. And just about everyone was listening to their boom box or watching CNN on their computer. Nobody did any work, not even the boss, and it seems she didn't care either.

And I remember a woman from the bank that handled our stuff being stuck here, as she was from Chicago and of course all planes were grounded.

For me it felt so unreal, like watching scenes of a disaster movie. Still I was glued to CNN for days, watching it when I got home. Nothing else was on anyway. But in hindsight, it made me depressed. So I don't do that anymore, like with the attack on Israel last October 7th. (Already almost a year???!)

Only time I remember the US having solidarity, no matter the party. So many people had flags flying from their cars or wore flag T-shirts. When going home I kept looking up, expecting or fearing bombs will start to fall on us.

Good topic, Mountain. An entire generation has been born since, making me feel so ancient. 23 years ago now...........