Your memories of 9/11/2001

I remember having coffee with my husband at about 9 a.m. upstairs in his office when he logged onto aol. There was a breaking news side bar on the news line that a plane had hit one of the world trade centers. We turned on the TV, we didn't have cable or dish and soon saw a news report about the plane hitting the world trade center. but not the one we were reading about. It was the second plane. We didn't realize that at the time.

Then came the reports that the Pentagon was hit. I wasn't afraid then. But then a report came on that a car bomb had gone off outside the State Dept. I really flipped out about that even though it wasn't true. I always wonder why that flipped me out more than anything. I got my kids home and then proceeded to scrup all of the furniture in the house clean. I don't remember anything else, except watching the people looking for loved ones that night on ABC. And balling my eyes out.

For some reason I think of this every day. Does anyone else relive 9/11 in such a way.

Freshman year of High School, came to history class after math without a clue. The TV was on and I was the second one there. The Tv was showing what was going on. I remember thinking, drunk pilot? perhaps, and then it all emerged. The TVs were on everywhere, etc.

..g*damnit, Bush got his war!

got up and took the kid to school and was going out of town a short distance to a flee market/ NMLRA show to pick up some much needed spices never go to the shoot but love to smell the gun powder and see people of all kinds in primitive dress. They have it twice a year, after I dropped the kid off at school I remembered the spice list I left at home and started back after it. I heard a little something on the car radio about a plane hitting the trade center and thought some fool got off barrings and drove his little 2 seater into the WTC. I ran in the house and the phone was ringing and it was Mom saying have you have the TV on which I usually keep it on a news channel during the day and I said no I had just walked in, she said a plane had hit the WTC I said yeah heard that, some nut I ques and she said and I Quote from a woman that never swears *SHIT another one just hit another Tower*. Well I turned the set on and thought. I have to get to that shout or we won't have those spices so I got in the car and started driving the 20 or so miles thinking I'll just run in get what I needed and leave. I turned off Bob and Tom on the radio and turned on NPR to get the scoop. The farther I drove the faster I drove and was there in record time thinking how odd that no one was out on the streets. When I got there it was eerily quiet for a gun show. All you heard was radios blasting the news. I had heard the Pentagon had been hit in the car and had no reception for my cell phone I tried to call my folks I heard the were grounding planes> Igot my spices and jumped back into the car and roared home crying. I realized when the plane hit the Pentagon we were being attacked. Much more happened that day in my life but I want to share this one thing. There was no one on the streets here later that night and it was eerily quiet, except for some young men driving back and forth on the main drag with a huge US flag held up in the back of a truck by another young man I just watch him with tears in my eyes

when the hygenist came in and told the dentist - and us - what had happened ...

Then listening to the radio on the drive to work, and spending most of the day on DU while most of my co-workers listened to the radio etc ...

Waiting in a 3 block long line for gas on the way home as the prices rose from 1.39 to 1.89 over the course of an hour ...

And the thought that kept going thru my head all day was "Bush, you sonofabitch, look what you started."

plane had hit. The second one hit while I was walking through the Student Union going to class. We all then knew something horrible was happening. My class, "American Presidents and the Symbolism" with a right wing neocon professor was first up. When students started telling the professor about what had happen (he hadn't heard) he just dismissed the talk and said let's get down to work. He never would admit the significance of that morning's events and just lectured as if the country wasn't under attack. The rest of my classes were canceled that day and we spent the day huddle around TV sets until I finally drove home.

That same professor is a HUGE King Chimp fan but put forth the premise in that class that the president was nothing more than a figurehead. Everything that is done in connection with the president is staged for the symbolism. Case in point - the day that Chimpy went on TV to reassure the nation the speech was held in a different room (Map Room?) than usual. The reason? Because Rove wanted to be sure and have a window behind The Chimp talking, showing sunshine and all is right with the world. They even had children outside on the WH lawn flying kites for the cameras. Honest. Now you know and I know there is no way kids could get on the White House lawn during such tight security to fly kites unless it was an order from somebody to get some kids and kites and get them out there for the photo ops. I would have never notice this if the professor hadn't taped it and shown it to the class in support of his argument that presidents are just useless people who a nice house and an airplane. At the time I don't think even he dreamed how useless this particular president would be.

I ran across one of the towers having smoke coming out of it and I saw the other plane hit it right then. I was flabberghasted and confused. I went to a class and found out that they hit the Pentagon too. I then saw various footage and political commentary later as we were watching the towers being broadcasted and watched them collapse. I was in shock. I went to a CD store and bought ironically Dream THeater's "Live Scenes from New York" which came out that day and it had the cover that the band changed due to showing NYC in flames on the artwork and it came out on 9/11. I went home. My phone line was finally up. I called my mother who said if things got nuts to get the hell out of where I was. I talked to some of my friends in APO. went to a bar and had a couple of beers and got buzzed. Saw Bush's speech and had a feeling of doom pervading me after that.

and turned on the TV before I went to work-7am California time. It was right about the time the towers fell. All I saw was a shot of Manhattan covered in smoke and I had no idea what had happened. I freaked. Both my kids lived in NYC and I had no idea if they were ok. I tried to call them but all the circuits were busy. They managed to get through to me about 45 minutes later. I don't think I have ever been that upset ever. It took me another 45 minutes to calm down enough to go to work.

Spent the rest of the day at work on DU and listening to the radio.

Mz Pip
:dem:

I kept thinking : where are my kids, where are my kids: I had to go get them at the school.

NPR. Bush has so tainted the 9/11 for me with his politicizing that I can not really think about the tragedy without remembering Bush and his foghorn and his later failure to support the first defenders.

but sometimes its there again.

i walked my daughter to school. i got on the bus. the bus went over the whitestone bridge. i was reading my newspaper. i didn't look up or look out the window.

i got to work. one of the clerks was standing outside trying to light a cigarette with one hand and use her cell phone with the other. she told me a plane hit the towers. i thought, just a little private plane, or a military plane lost like in '42 when the plane hit the empire state building. but i ran in to the auditorium where the tv is, and everyone was watching the pentagon. i alternated between the tv and the computer in my office and the phone... e-mailed my best internet friend, posted on the other discussion site i use that i was all right, phoned my husband in manhatten (and got through on the first try, a bonafide miracle). the libraries didn't open that day, they sent us all home. i got on the bus again, over the whitestone bridge. this time i looked out, and saw the plume of smoke.

decided to leave my daughter in school for the time being. went home, got on the computer for awhile so i wasn't alone. called my mother, she had been working for the board of elections for the primary that day. went and got my daughter from school.

she was 6th grade then. they had told the older kids that a plane had hit the tower, only one plane, didn't say it was deliberate or that the towers were gone. telling her was the hardest thing i had to do that day.

went into flushing to try and donate blood. the lines were to long, they told me to come back.

by then it was getting late. daughter and i ewnt to an alanon meeting.

some days i don't think about it. most days i do. some days it hurts enough still to cry.

I turned on the tv, saw the towers burning and then a few minutes later, falling.

Looked out the window of the dorm room, and saw the smoke on the horizon. It was a clear beautiful day, so from that height you could see for miles.

Then I went to try to give blood, but all the places were filled.

My parents were stuck in Maine on vacation.

It was a wild day.

It was a beautiful late summer day, blue sky, not a cloud in sight.

A classmate entered the room and said her boyfriend called from NYC and said a plane hit the WTC.

Ok, I thought it was a prop plane that crashed into the Tower by accident.

The teacher began class and than 20 minutes later the boyfriend called and said another plane hit and I knew we were under attack. About 20 minutes later, the school closed down. I walked to my car, chatting with other people, we were all stunned. It took me like 1 1/2 hrs. to get out of the parking lot and another hour to get home and I only live like 20 minutes away. The streets were jammed.

When I got home my sister and I were glued to the news.
I sat there stunned again and shed some tears but then a rage erupted in me, a rage at Shrub and his evil pals because I knew after Selection 2000 that something bad was going to happen and that we would go to war. 9-11 was the beginning of my worst fears.

and kept relaying TTY calls from people talking about it. I'm not allowed to interject and kept typing, thinking what the...? What was weird was the deaf community kept calling it a bombing long before the media started to talk about it that way.

We live in the mountain time zone, two hours behind New York City.

Anyway, my husband had learned two weeks earlier that his division of the company he worked for was going to be dissolved and he'd be out of a job at the end of October. On September 11, he went downtown for a career seminar.

I slept uncharacteristically late, having been up with my 1½-year-old daughter several times in the night. When I got up, it was 8:30 mountain time.

I went to the kitchen, got a bowl of cereal for myself, a sippy cup of milk for my daughter, and went to the playroom with her. My morning ritual was to let her watch PBS for half an hour while I caught up on my message boards.

That morning, the television was tuned to the local NBC affiliate rather than PBS as it usually was. As I turned it on, the screen showed the WTC, one of its towers on fire. My first thought was, of course, "The World Trade Center is on fire? I wonder what happened." As I continued to watch, I saw a plane fly into the second tower (this was a tape replay, as it had already happened). I could not make any sense of what was being said; I was just shocked. It took me a few minutes to realize that what had happened was not an accident.

I quickly turned the station to PBS for my daughter and logged onto my favorite message board. There, the conversation was already long and involved, bits and pieces of information trickling in. This board was a small group of women from all over the country as well as a few international members. We were close, and we coped together those first couple of hours. We had a member who worked in Manhattan, who had seen from her window what happened.

My husband called sometime midmorning. I don't remember what time exactly. He had not heard the news, having been in the seminar. I told him what happened, and he told me he was coming home. A few minutes later he called again to say the rest of the workshops had been cancelled for the day anyway.

While my daughter played, I went into the bedroom and sat watching the television, mostly in shock and disbelief. I wondered in those moments if there would be a world left for me to bring my baby into, and if so, what kind of world it would be.

a friend told me "they" crashed a plane into the WTC. I though "bad pilot." Having just arrived a school, I saw the TVs on and saw the second plane hit (it might have been live, I can't remember too clearly). I also remember being the only one who thought Osama Bin Laden was behind it and the only one who though it would lead to a war. I was probably right on one count and definitely right on the other.

It was past 9:30 CST so 3 of the 4 crashes had already happened, but nobody told us. I got an incoming call from a woman who asked me why the internet was down. I said its not, what are you having trouble with. She said "I want to find out more about the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and at the Pentagon". I asked her if this was a joke, and she said no. (She sounded deathly serious, but after a sentence like that, I had to ask.) I told her that if that were true, then all the news webservers were probably being overwhelmed with hits. I ended the call.

I went to the front desk and asked the student there if this were true and he said yes. I went to the computer store at the front of the building where there was a large television and saw the scene at the 4th crash in Pennsylvania.

I went back to my desk, and told all the people sitting around me what had happened. It did seem as if all the people younger than 25 really thought these were just a bunch of plane crashes, no big deal. The older ones among us were realizing how huge this was. I took 3 helpdesk phone calls after that and they were all from women working on campus who had no access to tv or radio, and were desperate for news- then the websites started coming up.

I had a migraine by this point and ran into the bathroom to throw up between each call. Finally I told the supervisor I needed to leave. The calls were slowing down anyway. I called a taxi. I had a British cab driver. There were no planes in the sky from the Madison airport and not much traffic.

My dog was happy to see me. I laid on the couch and watched Peter Jennings adlib about this as best he could....

I don't remember much about the day itself, since I was just out of the hospital, recovering from an accident involving skull fracture and severe concussion.

My oldest son called me and demanded that I turn on the tv. I did. I saw that 2 planes had hit the WTC. I thought, "that's a shame." And I turned off the tv and went back to whatever it was I was doing; I can't remember.

In the days following, I felt sorrow for the victims and their families. Much like I feel sorrow for those caught in Tsunamis, those sacrificed needlessly in Iraq, those in my country who suffer domestic violence and abuse, emotional abuse, homelessness, or other social weapons of mass destruction. I never, not for one fraction of one second, felt anger or fear. I never needed revenge. I never felt like it changed the world. I felt only that "it changed everything" became the mantra that brought a veneer of legitimacy to the bush administration, and the spark that accelerated the takeover and destruction of the things I value about my country. I didn't relate to the overwhelming emotional crisis the people around me were experiencing. The fact that this crisis became a tool to further the bush agenda is what angered me.

I'm still angry. The mention of 9/11 leaves me with an ice-cold desire to reach out and grab people by the throat, shake them, and demand that, if they grieve so much over destructive acts, they might want to take some action to stop the destruction perpetrated in their own nation by their fellow citizens and their own government. They might want to give it equal time and attention.

Not the usual response, I know.

And my mom woke me up at about 9:30 am, telling me that hijackers just crashed planes into the WTC and the Pentagon, and that the nation was under alert.

I thought she was fucking around with me, but then I went upstairs to see the TV, and my jaw was dropping.

I remember that even before the day was over, I was terrified that the US would invade Afghanistan and a whole bunch of other countries. I was bloody terrified that nuclear war would be initiated within days.

Well, the US basically did what I predicted, but we're not all dead yet.

It happened just three days after my 19th birthday, BTW. My very last pre-9/11 memory is of me celebrating my birthday with my family at Red Lobster.

I'd bet you've always had class. You just didn't have A class. hehe.

I'd taken some medicine that zonked me out. All I remember is my husband opening the door telling me a plane hit the world trade center. I thought, "well, hasn't that happened before?" and rolled over and went back to sleep and slept through both towers collapsing. I got up an hour later when they were replaying everything, and I was just in shock. I couldn't believe it had happened. I wondered why my husband didn't get me out of bed for this. I was scared. I thought the world as we now know it will never be. I wondered how many more attacks would there be? we later found out that my husband lost a co-worker and lost a friend of the family. The whole time is just kind of in a dreamy haze for me. I was also pregnant at the time, though didn't know it then.

I turned on the TV for my morning local news and there it was. I called a friend and we were talking when the second plane hit. We both started crying. That was when what was happening really sank in, no excuses or denial to hide behind.

I didn't work that day and spent it searching the internet and watching TV in a daze.

It was a story about how they were evacuating Americans in japan because they had reports that there were attacks planned against Americans in Japan. My boss had just come back from japan and that morning was his first day back at work. I went and told him it was a good thing he left when he did and why. After the attacks i could not find that story anywhere.
As for the rest, I was outside having a cigarette and when I walked in one of the guys in the office had his radio up and said that some kind of plane had hit the first tower. My first reaction was like most others in that it must be some small plane that hit. I went to my computer to find some news on it and I saw that a second had hit. I got up to tell the rest of the people in the office and some had heard it on the radio and were standing around talking about it. I went in to the conference room and pulled out the television and rigged up an antenna. The rest of the company filed in little by little and we all sat there at first just stunned.
I did state something like "They knew this was going to happen", but all I got were strange looks. That's when I tried to find the Japan story and it wasn't anywhere.
We watched for a bit longer and some of the people went back to work. I couldn't really think right and I think the ones that went back to work were just dealing with it the best they knew how. I spent the rest of the day between the TV, the net and talking to my coworkers.
It was a very surreal day and everyone was in shock. I saw a lot of crying and a lot of people treating other people with kindness.
One other thing, and maybe it is just a coincidence...I work outside of Cleveland and as I was outside smoking before I knew about it, I happened to look up and see a plane flying east. I remember thinking it looked strange up there, but I didn't thin any more about it. I always wondered if I saw the flight that went down in PA.?

I was in science class, and we were supposed to make completely edible candles for extra credit. We were in the middle of demonstrating when our principal came over the intercom and told us what happened. We immediately flipped on the TV, and basically were glued to it the rest of the day (it was a half day already). Some girls were crying becasue they had brothers or other fmaily members who worked on Wall Street and/or the WTC. Administrators completely locked down the school, and we went to a prayer service in the gym before school was let out.

I got home that day, and remembered flipping on CNN and just staring. The rest of the day was just a blur; I don't remember anything from that afternoon or evening. I know I didn't cry, but I just don't even remember what went on; it's bizarre.

on the Howard Stern show. Howard actually deserved an award for his work that day. He had people calling on cell phones from all over Manhattan describing what was happening right before their eyes. It was amazing radio to hear. I'll never forget it.

I worked for a newspaper in Pennsylvania and all shifts got called in early. I remember how unbelievably quiet the day was. No planes, no trains, no trucks, no sounds at all. A deafening quiet on a bright sunny day.

at one point, to see if he was still on.
I only heard maybe 5 minutes but I thought he was doing a GREAT job

I was riding in a minibus when I heard parts of
a radio bulletin about a plane crash in New York.
Around 9:20, I learned what happend when I saw CNN
on a store's TV showing the WTC towers burning.
I fought to keep from crying in a room full of
strangers.

An alternate travel plan was to fly American
out of Boston that Tuesday morning.

I heard about it on the Internet. I had just gotten up. It was about 7:30 PDT and there was a news brief on my local newspaper site. My late husband had the day off (he worked for the Seattle Art Museum, and they opted to remain closed). I went to work, and there were cars pulled off to the side of the road and people were crying. It was a horrible day. :(

It was my second day in the newsroom at WMGM-TV and WOND-AM. When the first plane crashed, we thought it was an accident, a terrible accident. So I went back to re-writing and preparing the 9:04AM radio news, thinking that the national folks would have occasional updates. I was secluded in the booth when the second plane hit, and learned about it from the ABC top of the hour news.

I did the newscast as fast as I could to get the sponsorship through, then ran over to the radio side. I was the regular morning producer, but with me subbing in the newsroom (we lost our regular radio newscaster two days before) we had a relative rookie on the board, and he didn't know how to switch the satellite receiver over for the wall-to-wall ABC coverage. I don't think I ever ran so far in my life. TV was in a converted trailer, where it had been housed since being bought by the radio station almost ten years earlier, and all of the radio operations were in the old building.

Knowing there wouldn't be any local news for a while, the rookie yielded to me, and I took over the board. Two memories resonate very well. One was going live again because we had a call from one of our hosts who was actually waiting in line for the Lincoln Tunnel when the planes hit, and gave us an eyewitness account. The other was doing a special noon news update with the radio midday host, Barbara Altman, and the TV 6 PM anchor, Jeff Whittaker. (New Yorkers, imagine sharing a desk with Chuck Scarborough to get an idea of how famous Whittaker is in Atlantic City.) My big break. And my last day in the newsroom. I wasn't enjoying myself, and all things considered, it was a good day for choosing what was important in your life and what wasn't.

I could tell you in detail what the early morning was like for me, down to the music I heard, but I won't go into that.

Before I left for work, I heard on NPR that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I literally did not take it in, thinking it wasn't a jet but rather a small plane.

By the time I got to work (our office was just a couple of blocks from the White House), one of the tech staff was working on my computer and told me what was going on in New York. We had CNN on at the office and gradually began to take in what was happening.

And there were rumors around D.C. that day. Oh, the rumors. We heard there was a fire on the Mall, a fire at the Capitol, an explosion at BWI (the airport in Baltimore).

I started e-mailing friends and relatives to let them know I was all right (my office building had had a bomb threat several years earlier).

Our accounting department was worried about our security (The White House and other government buildings were being evacuated) and announced they were leaving the office. Most administrative staff left, too.

The rest of us stuck around and followed things as best we could. Traffic was bumper to bumper in the street outside, as people were leaving the city.

When I went home that night, there was an eerie silence in the streets and Metro. I was so exhausted from the news that I tuned in the first thing I thought I could manage -- yet another showing of "The Lion in Winter."

The next day, the little newsstand near my office sold out of newspapers completely. For a year afterwards, I thought every night of the photograph of the man (a pastry chef at Windows on the World, it turned out) diving out of the WTC.

I know a number of people who were very traumatized by the event (having lost friends, relatives, co-workers). There are so many interrelated lives.

And my screen saver at home has the image of Mychal Judge, the Franciscan priest who was chaplain to the New York Fire Department and died at Ground Zero.

What a shock. The first plane has already hit, and then I saw the second one. I try not to think about it anymore, but it's burned in forever.

A short time later that day, I learned that Ace Bailey had been on one of the planes that struck the Tower. Ace was a very close friend to one of my best friends, and he had just attended the same wedding reception that I had a couple days earlier. In case anyone wonders who Ace was, he was a former NHL hockey player who at the time of his death had been working for the LA Kings hockey team as the director of their scouting staff. He was a heck of a character.

My friend said that Ace would have already been dead by the time his plane crashed into the tower because he would've fought the terrorists to his death to prevent it from happening.

I'm glad you got to see him shortly before it happened.

Nice of you to mention that :)

very extra surreal. I wasn't supposed to be watching news on Dr's orders, and my best friend woke me up around 6:30 am and we watched the towers fall.

This is an interesting question & odd........ because me and one of the other women I work with were discussing what happened on 9/11 about 5 hours ago. We were talking about when we realized that it was time to be scared.
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I had gotten to work around 8 AM & was meeting with the other 2 supervisors. I work for a very large School Age Program & that day we were loaded with kids because they hadn't gone back to school yet as there was a strike.

While having the morning meeting with the 2 other girls, my boss (Also Known as My Mother) came out of her office holding her hand over her heart & she said, Ladies... something horrible has happened. We went into her office & turned on the tv. Tower 2 had just been hit.

I remember thinking it was horrible. I think I was in shock. We walked back out into one of the classrooms (it was empty, all the children were outside playing because it was a beautiful day)& turned on the TV to watch the news. Thats when we heard about the Pentagon.
That was scary but I was still calmish. Then they said a bomb had gone off in D.C. & I started to get scared. During this time parents started coming to get their kids, so some of the kids started to find out what happened. Then the news broke in about the plane in Pennsylvania........ and I'm IN Pennsylvania. That's when I started to panic. The downed PA flight & the news that critical members of the government had been moved into a safety bunker scared the shit out of me. During that time I saw tower 2 collapse live on TV. That was it for me. As it came down all I could think about was how many souls had just been taken from those buildings... leaving behind children, spouses, parents, friends, family....

I've never before felt such an intense sense of responsiblity for the children. I got them all inside, put on a movie for them, and started calling any parents that hadn't yet arrived. Since our program is in a district building we were told to evacuate immediately. By eleven AM I was done work and on my way home.

The drive home was absolutely surreal. I remember it was almost dead calm out there. I saw people driving while crying, people at bus stops in groups listening to little radios. It was very intense.

The other part of that day that was very hard for me was that my best friend lives in the Village in NYC. I was so worried b/c I couldnt get a line in. Eventually I emailed him. He has a blackberry so he got it right away & wrote me back & said he was fine-standing in a line at 11 am to give blood. The line was so long eventually they told him and the 85 people behind him to go. He then walked up to the 100's & found a friend to stay with. To this day we talk about how if anything else ever happens I should email right away because for about 10 hours it was the only way he could communicate.


I was SO not comforted by the Presidential shuffle they pulled that day. He was here. there. everywhere. That didn't leave a warm fuzzy feeling.


I don't think I went to bed that night until about 4 AM. Couldnt sleep. It was surreal that every station had news coverage on- QVC, MTV, VH1... basically every channel but Nickelodeon & Disney Channel.

We ended up being closed at work for 2 days. Does everyone else remember how QUIET it was for the rest of that week? All the way up until most of the funerals were over.

The news stories after that just ripped my heart out.
Father Judge who was a chaplain & also a firefighter dying in the building was horrible. I was so affected by the photo they showed of him being carried out of the rubble. He was body #1. To this day whenever I think about that picture I remember the look of peace on his face. I took comfort in that.

i sleep till about 10 am as i work a swing shift. My clock radio was on when i woke, and i heard the DJ say that the WTC had been hit and had fell. In a surreal moment i went and turned on the TV. I was stunned for quite awhile.

to get the varicose veins on my nose treated. Listening to it all unfold I felt like what I was doing was so superficial compared to what was happening. I got to the Dr.'s office and they had a TV on. I went ahead and had the procedure (15 minutes) and headed straight home. I don't think I left the TV for over 24 hours.

Called my mom to wish her and my dad a safe trip (going out west)--she sounded odd and said, "Uh, we're not going anywhere right now, don't you know?" She then told me to turn on the TV -- a few minutes later the tower fell. Spent the rest of the day watching, and talking with friends and family. My partner and I were in constant contact as I fed him and his co-workers information (no access to TV/Radio)

Had to teach a history class the next day...needless to say it was quite difficult--we talked about issues for the rest of the week...as my field is the Middle East...the calls soon came for public lectures and the like.

I remember distinctly from that day, though, when talking with my dad-- we both said it almost simultaneously...any voice of dissent will now be silenced.

I keep telling all my students--regardless of their politics-- remember these years...remember what you thought, you said, you did-- remember and never forget. We are living history and generations from now our descendants will want to know what it was like.

In other words-- What will it be like for the generation that comes after the 9/11 generation? How will they deal? What questions will they have? They will be living through the legacy of it, quite clearly, as the current regime's actions will affect our children and grandchildren.

A girl came on to the train talking about how there was some accident with a plane... A few other people had frantic looks on their faces. Then my cell phone rang, and it was my wife, and she was crying...

I worked then in a high-rise in the Loop, so they immediately told us that they were evacuating the building. People were scrambling, trying to figure out how to get home. The trains were packed. I decided to split a cab with other co-workers. The cab ran out of gas. Finally got home, and was shell shocked, while watching the coverage.

My sister was in hospital with meningitis, and my mother was with her. My dad had a flight in the morning out of Logan.

I don't remember anything until my principal came over the loud speaker and said that the towers had been hit by planes and that they had collapsed. According to another friend of mine in the class, I was the only kid that realized the magnitude of the announcement...
I remember specifically a discussion after school ended with my friends... we were all praying and then an F14 screamed overhead and EVERYONE (the entire school) ran/hit the deck... everyone was terrified.

And I was in Tech Ed, and this kid came in and said "Uhhh... these towers got hit by a plane" we were soon called to HR and watched the second plane do its thing live.

surreal. It was as if I was watching a movie. I absolutely couldn't believe my eyes. I remember thinking that it was an accident and wondered how that could have happened.

When the new broke that something was happening at the Pentagon, I remember thinking how odd is was that it was taking so long to find out what happened there.

I also remember hearing one report early on that only 11 people were thought to have been unable to escape one of the towers and I repeated that to my doctor who I saw that morning who hadn't yet seen any of the coverage.

There were a few regulars in there who worked midnights. I was pouring a draft beer when it came on the Today show. I remember wondering how it could have happened (if something happened to the pilot, etc.) and then the 2nd plane hit. We were all kind of stunned.
When the plane hit the pentagon, I got scared and started to lose it. I tried to get a hold of my husband, but he was in class. I called my dad and I called my best friend on his cell. He was a pilot for Continental so I was worried. He said his flight had been grounded and he was on a bus back home. I remember every second of that day. :cry:

It was the day of the NYC mayoral primary. I remember walking back from the polling place thinking what a beautiful sunny day it was. My husband and I had walked to our office in Brooklyn Heights and we were sitting at our respective desks getting caught up on our work. No radio, TV, internet or anything on. I was at the front desk when the phone rang. One of our clients asking if we were open. Of course we are. I didn't think anything of it. About 10 minutes later I heard (and felt) a huge noise. The street was vibrating. I thought it must have been a very large truck hitting a pothole on the next block (in retrospect I think it was the first building collapsing?) Then a client who had a late morning appointment called to ask if we were open. I still had no clue so I said, Why wouldn't we be?, and he said that 2 planes had hit the WTC. All I could say was "Oh my god" - then we turned on the TV to see the news. About then, we looked out the front window to see the smoke and debris beginning to blow across our street. We had a client who was waiting for us, so we finished up the appointment and then called the rest of the clients who had appointments for the next 2 days and canceled them. I frantically tried to call my stepmother, whose office was in lower Manhattan, but couldn't get through. Finally I was able to reach my father, who told me that she had taken the day off to work at the polls at Columbia University, far away from downtown. We packed up our stuff and took the office cat and headed home. At that time there was no visibility at all - the dust and smoke and papers and debris were blowing all around and we were blinded. It was then that we were struck by the horror of what had happened. We were walking through human ashes and the detritus of lost life. I am not an emotional person but I began to cry. We got home somehow (I don't really remember that part very well) and turned on the television and were literally glued to the couch watching for the rest of the day. Watching the towers fall over and over. Watching Rudy Giuliani (whom I have never respected before or since) try to keep things under control. Stunned. Crying and hugging and crying some more. For the next few weeks I kept thinking I had dreamed the whole thing and that I would look up and see the towers again. The weeks passed, and life went on, but ever so often someone in line at the grocery store would just burst into tears, causing a chain reaction of emotion, with no way to stop it. Eventually we all became accustomed to the strange new skyline, but I will never forget how shattered we were that day.

First thing I saw when I walked out of the bedroom was the tower in flames.

But what I really remember was being late for work because I kept watching, and while I was on the bus thinking everyone else was probably going about their usual business - as if I was the only one who was disturbed.

It's so odd - of course it was the only thing going on, the only thing anyone was talking about - but somehow I thought it was just me.

I remember a reporter doing a live briadcast from the rubble of the WTC just after the towers collapsed, and there was this eerie electronic beeping sound in the background. The reporter told his main story, and then explained that the beeping was coming from the automatic rescue locators firefighters wear on their jackets; they activate if they aren't constantly moving.

thats awful

someone's wife called to turn on the TV, watched the pictures and them was able to go to the top floor of a hospital we were building and see the smoke coming from the towers, with them barely visible. It was the clearest skies I can remember.

We tried to hold a meeting while at least one of us watched the TV. When I saw the towers come down I climbed back up the building to the roof, and could only see the smoke. Then we heard the fighter jets overhead - the next day heard they were dispatched to provide cover for choppers that were picking up several urban rescue teams.

About noon I headed home, packed up some clothes and reported to my fire department (vol) to await a possible dispatch to the city. I stayed in the station over night. While some EMTs were sent, our engine stayed.

When I reached her desk, on another magazine, she said a light aircraft had hit the WTC. I muttered something about how that was a stupid thing to do.

I walked back through the office. I remember, as I walked, the phones started ringing and the big screens flicked over to the news - at that stage, still the TUC conference. When I reached my desk, and my sandwich, I was told a passenger jet had hit the World Trade Centre. Our thoughts were - they'll evacuate the people and there will be scaffolding around the tower for a bit.

Then the second plane hit. From that point on, we were glued to the TV, and crazy rumours spread. Then, fire alarms went off, and the PA said: "Canary Wharf is being evacuated. If you wish to leave the building, and return home, you are welcome to."

I started making phone calls to everyone I knew in the US. Someone a few desks away was crying, because she could not locate her brother, who worked in NYC. Then the towers actually fell. And we knew about the Pentagon. Then work was abandonned and we were told to return home.

I was on my way to work and had stopped off at the neighborhood coffee place. The TV was on the Today show (as it was every morning) and they cut to breaking news of a jetliner hitting the WTC.

At first a few of us joked about it ("damn, that pilot must have been really drunk today"), until we saw the second plane hit the other tower. Then, it was stunned silence.

I drove to work shortly after the 2nd plane hit, and when I got to work the only TV in the office was on, and 30+ people were crowded into a small conference room, trying to get some news.

I also worked in building directly across the highway from the international airport. I remember all the planes landing there as soon as the FAA ordered the skies cleared. Lots of planes from airlines that didn't normally fly into Minneapolis/St. Paul. Also, my building was located about a block from the Mall of America, which was a 'potential' target, along with the airport. Needless to say, they locked down our building for 'security' purposes early on, and limited access to people who had security cards.

What a horrible fucking day.

Someone called me from the upstairs office and told me that a plane had hit the WTC. Thinking it was a small plane or something, I said, "So? Why the hell are you calling me with current events?"

They let us out of work early because the Federal Reserve was right across the street, and there were rumors that it was going to be next or something.

I went home, grabbed my roommate, and went to the store for a case of beer. I figured if it was the end of the world, I was going to go out as drunk as possible.

I remember the principal announcing over the loudspeaker that the WTC had been attacked, and that one tower had collapsed. She also announced that the Pentagon was hit. And then the rumors started. One of my friends mentioned a plane crash in Denver, and that another was headed for the Amerada Hess tanks in Perth Amboy. And then the one about the car bomb at the Capitol. Hearing fighter jets fly over the building didn't exactly help either.

that was taking place at the pentagon while the plane hit. My dad was driving me to school. We both looked at eachother with this grave look on our faces. The whole day was spent listening to my friends hand held radio, as our teachers were told not to show any news footage or listen to any radio for the rest of the day.

what the hell was going on and constant wondering "Where the hell is the military? Where are the fighter planes?" and knowing full well that Shrubbie McFUCKWAD let it all happen, whether intentionally or just asleep at the wheel.

My hatred for the man, which was already high, skyrocketed on that walk home.

Anyone who thinks that SOB worthless pile of dungbeetle collections is some kind of "hero" or "leader" or whatever is an ignorant piece of shit. He let my friend die that day, he let countless innnocents die that day, he let hundreds of firemen and policemen die that day, and then had the audacity later on to call them all heroes. Fucker. He had no respect for them before.

Always playing the political bullshit games.

Well, I'm gonna stop writing. Normally I hate the asshole pretty vehemently, but when I begin to remember the pain he put me through, and millions of NYers through, and now millions of Iraqis and hundreds of thousands of our military people, I can't stand it.

Nuff said.

he's a goddamn criminal of the worst, most despicable, most evil sort. I want that SOB to find justice, and I want that justice meted out by a partnership between an International Court for war criminals and our own justice system for traitors.

Fuck him.

Anyone who likes him is a piece of shit.

I was leaving my apartment with my suitcase in my hand. I was going to go to work for a few hours and then go to the airport. One of my neighbors said, "Hey, you're not going to go anywhere today, there's something bad going on." I was late and I'd always though this person was odd so I got in the car and turned on the radio.

NPR was talking about a plane hitting the tower and I thought it was an accident. Then as I got closer to work they talked about the second plane and I knew it was not an accident but I didn't know what I should do. I felt extremely angry and frustrated because I needed to do something but I didn't know what to do. I stopped and bought a muffin because I was hungry and everyone was acting normal and I thought that that was the weirdest thing ever.

At work everyone was sitting around in conference rooms watching TV. I called American and cancelled my flight. Nobody was doing any work. We all watched and cried a lot and held hands when the first tower and then the second tower fell. I was sure that we were going to war and we were going to be attacked everywhere. Then I went and gave blood. I have O negative -- "universal donor" blood type -- so I give blood often.

I was probably one of the first to get there; I only waited an hour or two. By the time I left there were hundreds of people waiting in line. The parking lots were full of people standing around waiting to give blood.

After that everything kind of got calm and fuzzy. The worst day after that was when I had to fly, not too long after normal flights had resumed. I had to go see that customer in Orlando. I don't fly much anyway and I am not the greatest flier in the world. I got stone drunk at the airport, stayed stone drunk all the way there, and I did NOT sleep for the entire three nights I was there. I was a complete basket case by the time I got home.

My roommate probably had a much worse experience than me.

He has recurring dreams of nuclear attacks (don't ask), and he wasn't working at the time, so that meant waking up around 10 or 11AM. So he wakes up, and first thing he does is flip on the TV, and sees a giant smoke cloud over NYC. His waking moment consisted of thinking that NYC had just been nuked. Pretty creepy.

And I want to thank you for starting this thread. Gee Dub has so tainted 9/11, that sometimes it's hard to remember exactly how horrible that day was.

I was thinking of this all day. Again a beautiful blue sky where I am. I just don't want our focus on the Iraq War to take away from trying to find out how and why 9/11 happened. Thanks to all of you for your stories. You made me cry and then again feel the anger of how inept this government was in keeping us safe on that day.

I woke up really late, after the second plane had hit, and my grandma told me what happened. It was kind of weird that day.

I looked at it as kind of inevitable. I wasn't at all surprised, I didn't even feel much emotion until later, when I saw some of the carnage close up, such as the people jumping from the towers. I also remember wishing Bill Clinton were still president.

My first day of college was postponed, and it was oddly normal that day...

I awakened to the sound of a female news reporter stating that everything was calm at LAX and on the West coast, then handing it back to the other reporter on the East coast for an update.

Pretty odd for a 24 hour sports station. Something was definitely weird.

They guy on the East coast started talking about the terrible tragedy . . . .

I couldn't figure out WTF had happened.

I quickly got out of bed and turned on the TV.

I was in my art history independent study, senior year. It was a tiny class with only five girls. One of the girls brought in a large, erect clay phallus for some reason, and situated it on one of the tables.

As we prepared to get to work, someone rushed in and told us to turn on the TV, because a jet had struck the World Trade Center. I walked over and turned it to CNN, and we were all instantly glued to the set. Someone asked if it was an accident, and I wondered aloud how any pilot could mistakenly fly a commercial airplane into one of the towers - they weren't exactly hard to miss.

Then we learned that the other building had been hit, a plane had kamikazied into the Pentagon, and everything suddenly started to horribly come together. "Holy shit!" my friend exclaimed, hitting the table with both of her arms. The clay phallus fell and shattered. Interpret the semiotics of that however you like.

Minutes later, we saw the World Trade Center towers collapse in a perfect cascade of dust and debris.

We walked outside into the hallways and there was eerie silence, where there had always normally been screaming and laughing. I went to my political science class, where my teacher was busy erasing the entire board. He turned to us and said, "The lesson plan for the next few weeks has totally changed. Fuck all of this textbook stuff. We have to deal with reality now." He looked away, his lip quivering, and added, "Everybody your age, in particular."

Sorry to ramble. I know it sounds melodramatic, but I think that was the day I realized that I could never shroud myself in fashionable indifference ever again.

we had slept in that day, all three of us. My daughter was almost a year and a half old. My husband went to turn the TV on while I made a late breakfast and said "Oh my god, there's a bomb at the World Trade Center". I ran into the living room (We were living in California at the time) and watched in horror as they showed the planes going into the building over and over again. I didn't get it at first, I said, "Geez, that plane is awfully close to the WTC"...then it hit me...it rammed into the building. Then we saw the devastation at the Pentagon. I just sat there, shocked, tears starting to fall from my eyes hearing about the lost loved ones, seeing people jump to their death. All day I stayed in front of that TV, my daughter coming up to me and hugging me. My husband told me to remain calm and just stay inside because he had to work. I remember back then feeling particularly patriotic with all the flags around us, my eyes would tear up in the following days when I'd see the signs of flags and our country not backing down. I even prayed (because while Agnostic, I still questioned my faith at that point, now I'm fully Atheist) for President Bush. I had even wanted to go to church that night...but had no way to get there.

It's something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Edited to add: It wasn't until talk of war had I realized exactly what our country was in store for. However patriotic I felt, I completely disagreed with it and was tired of this "eye for an eye" talk. Now, 3 and a half years later, I amm FULLY aware of what is going on and I have NO doubt in my mind that the President used this event to further his own agenda...and having realized it...it opened my eyes even more. I have always been liberal and never supported * at all, but I supported him then, and it was completely blind...however I was not fully vested into politics at that time. Now I am, and now I see the truth.

...was that mourning was given short shrift, in some ways. I remember spending the weekend after 9/11 listening to my John McDermott CD, which includes several anti-war songs, including "The Green Fields of France." I watched the service/concert from the National Cathedral and found that appropriate in terms of seeking for some kind of emotional and spiritual support.

But within a very short time, CNN was running a banner screaming "AMERICA'S NEW WAR" -- like it was a purchase we had made or something. And the administration I won't even bother to go into.

We needed, at that time, to have as many ways as possible to begin to heal and to support those in need/sorrow and think clearly about what to do next. That day broke a lot of hearts, yet the tragedy was so cynically exploited by many.

hearing distance of the TV. I had to do SOMETHING and I couldn't sit still

I had evening classes at the time, so I generally did not crawl out of bed before 10am. The phone was ringing incessantly, and I finally got up to see what the deal was. I remember not really comprehending what I was hearing since I was groggy from sleep, and then turning on the TV. Since I was EST time zone at the time, I was able to watch the events unfold on the TV as they were happening. My mother, who had been at work, came home early and we watched the tube together and talked about what this might mean for the United States. I really don't remember feeling particularly shocked or overly upset. I just remember wanting to watch all the channels for updates and information. My father, who also returned home from work quite early, appeared profoundly affected and very saddened by the event. My mother and I were less so, though of course we were concerned for everyone involved. Still, I always felt a bit like the "odd girl out" because I never reacted as emotionally as many others had. I may have been too fixated on the "facts" and less aware of the human stories being presented on the news.

I was going to community college at the time, and I had classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For some reason I went to bed late on Monday (I always go to bed late now; past 5am EST as I'm writing this), and I woke up at around 11:30am to use the bathroom. I had full intentions of going back to bed after doing so, but as I was walking to the bathroom, my dad (who passed away last year) had the TV on, and said the terrorists had gotten to us. Of course, after using the bathroom, I was glued to NBC for the rest of the afternoon. Even before Tuesday, me and the family decided we were going to take a drive up to the Highlands area of Monmouth County, NJ (one of the best views of NYC in NJ, IMO). From what I heard, they closed Route 36 (the main thoroughfare in the area) to thru traffic and were ferrying over Lower Manhattan workers back to New Jersey. Instead we ate at a local steakhouse, and I don't think there was a single table in the restaurant that wasn't talking about the day's events (the TVs were tuned to the coverage as well). The next day, in 2 of my classes, the professors made mention of the previous day's events, and lectured. My computer professor made no mention of it. In microeconomics, we spent the entire period talking about September 11 and New York City in general (the professor used to work in the World Trade Center). I was stunned by September 11 and I was sad about my dad's passing, but it was the Bush/Cheney win on November 2 that sent me into depression (though today was one of my better days).

I was off from work and watched the whole tragedy unfold but what stands out to me the most was the feeling of wrongness I had all day.

I'd seen Waco, Columbine and the Oklahoma City bombing news coverage but 9/11 had a different feel entirely. Frankly, the whole thing felt staged to me. Coverage of Sept. 11, with a few exceptions, seemed scripted and things like the pristine passport and supposedly finding flight manuals and the Koran in the trunk of the highjackers' car was like something out of a badly written TV show.

My mother was the only other person who agreed with me and I didn't find DU until a couple months later. Needless to say, those were a tough couple of months where the feeling of living in an alternate reality (or surreality) than everyone else was so strong some days that I didn't want to interact with anybody except on a business or surface level.

And my 5-month old daughter, beside me in her aunt's lap, started crying soon thereafter. :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Fuck, I'm crying NOW.

every single day. The way I've looked at historical events has been in terms of before and after the date. When I see the war, I think of 9/11 and how this administration exploited it and lied about the responsibility to get the nation there. When I see Bush I think of his incompetance in not paying attention to the threats before hand.

When I see a tall building. When I see a plane.

I don't know why it's had the effect it did on me. I had no relatives effected (thank God). No friends as well. I know no one in NYC. I've been to the city once my entire life.

But I remember this about the city. I was 8 and when my family visited there for a trip. When we left I cried and wanted to stay. I've always felt that it was my city in a way and always loved it.

I was in my room getting dressed that morning and then my mom told to me to turn on the TV because something had hit the WTC. I saw the hole and immediately thought "how many people are in there?". I thought it might be some idiot pilot at first, though right after I also remembered the '92 bombing.

It was clear after the second of course.

My friend then came by and we went to his girl friend's place, figuring classes would be cancelled. It took me a long time for me to actually comprehend that the towers were actually gone. It was devastating.

That night I watched Bush's speech with dread. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that day. He squandered and it and as Al Gore later said he betrayed us.

I woke up the next morning feeling like I was in a nightmare. It was somewhat similar to how I felt the morning after Gore's concession, but it was even worse, because our worst fears regarding this administration would likely be confirmed.

Sure enough they were.

"Dear God! Now Bush will find a way to go to Iraq and avenge Daddy." Not kidding, that was our reaction, before we watched the rest of the horror unfold.

...a plane hitting the WTC. My very first thought was of the B-25 crash into the Empire State Building in 1945. By the time the 6 minute news segment was over, they broke in with the report of the second plane. My very first thought after that was, "shit - this CAN'T be an accident!!!"

I turned around and headed home (called the client to tell them I was going to be late), turned on the both the TV and the VCR (to record the event). I was watching MSNBC and Jim Miklaszewski reported live from the Pentagon that there was "an explosion - the windows rattled." From that point on, the news was fast and furious - car bomb outside the state dept, airliners grounded, overseas flights diverted to Canada. And then, live on TV, I saw a 110 story building collapse. Thoughts of my visit to NYC (in my boat via the Hudson River from Albany) only 2 weeks before were filling my mind. How we sat in the middle of NY harbor right in front of the WTC and smoked a joint. Here's a pic taken that day, 08/26/01:


When the North Tower fell, so did I - to my knees in the middle of my living room. I pounded the floor in anger, in disbelief.

To be honest, the rest of the day was a blur. I canceled my appt with my client, sat on the couch, smoked a joint and stared at the TV for a week...

...and I found out about the whole thing while waiting in line at customs at the Mexico City airport 2 hours later. The first thing I heard was a guy talking on his cell phone about how a couple of planes hit the WTC - I thought he was talking about a movie or new thriller novel - seriously. Then a lady said that she heard from someone else that a plane had "bumped" one of the twin towers. I didn't really know anything about what had happened until I saw CNN Espanol just outside of customs. I had a distinct urge to throw up.

I remember being frantic to get a call to my husband...
I remember being frustated at being stranded in the middle of Mexico..
I remember crying a few times...

I remember being bored off my ass, since most of what I did after I wrote my trip report and finished "The Mists of Avalon" (those took 2 days) was play cards and watch CNN or "Family Ties" in spanish. I did go to a decent Mexican Independence day party, but it wasn't as festive as it should have been - there was a lot of solidarity there. I ate some really good flan and I drank way too many Palomas (really good drink with tequila).

I remember feeling exceedlingly happy to land in Houston the next week...