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September 11th, 2001: Where were you?

N

NYR99

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 30, 2007
718
80
As we all know the 10 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is fast approaching.

Where were you and what were you doing when you found out about it?

I was in 9th grade global history class, 3rd period. A teacher peeked his head into the room to tell my teacher that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. We all figured that it was just a small plane at the time. Then after 3rd period let out, I went into the hall. There was such an eerie tone in that hall that I will never forget. I quickly found out that it was a terrorist attack. A few periods later they rolled a TV into out classroom and we watched the news.
 
I was at home in India. I was in second grade? But it was nighttime then.

My grandfather was watching the news downstairs in his bedroom, and so he came and told us.

We weren't TOO worried (We were all the way around the globe), but our family (Especially my mom's), was in the DC Metro area, as well as NYC. So...there were tons of phone calls that day.
 
I was in 2nd grade. It was early in the morning just after the attacks. My teacher was calling her brother who worked in NY (not sure what building) and we just knew a plane had crashed into a building in NY. A couple hours later when I got home I saw it on the news. Still can't watch anything about it without crying.
 
I was in 4th grade. We were sitting in class and the phone started ringing off the hook and kids were being sent home and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remember doing a worksheet or something and looking over and seeing my teacher crying. They never told us what happened because my school was close to the city and undoubtedly a few of my classmates parents worked in the WTC. The day ended and the high schoolers who were already on the bus were talking about the twin towers being attacked, but I had no idea what that was at my age. I remember getting off the bus and my mom started crying and she said a lot kids are going to be without moms and dads after today and then we went home and I watched the news with my parents for the night. It's something I will never forget.
 
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I was a senior in high school, driving to school. I was listening to the radio when a dj broke in saying that a plane had crashed into the WTC but she sounded confused and so was I. Went into anatomy class where we had a test and our teacher didn't give anymore info. Next period was Calculus and by then the other tower had hit and they knew it was terrorism. We stayed in that period the rest of the day watching tv. Sad time.

The aftermath brought both good and bad things though. Good in that our country came together and found strength but bad in the misplaced hatred for ALL Muslims and the subsequent wars that were fueled by hate.
 
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Kindergarten on first floor. Had to walk up three stories to the Library so our teacher could watch the news. I had no clue what was going on and since I was in kindergarten, that's all I remember.
 
On the way to pick-up my nephew and head to the links.

Heard on the car radio about the first "small plane" hit, but didn't get any further info until I took him home after our round.

His wife had CNN on the tube. Saw it in all it's gory then. :(
 
Woke up and turned on the TV just as the 2nd tower came down. I remember thinking what movie is this and watch it for like 10-15 min before I figured out I was not a movie because it was on every channel. Still have the extra edition of the Houston chronicle that was printed.
 
I was at the doctor's office, waiting to be called in for my yearly physical. I was reading a magazine when a guy that looked a lot like Bob Marley got my attention a few chairs down when I looked up from my reading.

He said "So there's trouble in New York."
I grinned, assuming (quite wrongly) that I understood his meaning, and replied:
"Yeah man, there's always trouble in New York." Chuckling, I returned to the magazine.
Not quite finished, he said, almost prophet-like, "the place is on fire."
I looked up, puzzled at his serious gaze, and resumed my amused expression, saying "oh yeah, that's for sure. It's a crazy town."
It was only a little while later, which seemed like an eternity, that he averted his gaze.

I was called in to the office and went through the usual rounds - blood test, urine sample, etc. No one mentioned anything about New York.

I arrived home and turned on the TV.

I saw trouble and fire like never before.
 
I was at work in the UK. My brother was off work and having some lunch. He sent me a txt saying a plane had hit the WTC in NYC, then a bit later that the second plane had hit. I must have sounded sceptical in my reply because he sent a mesage saying he wasn't making it up. We had no TV at work and relied on the Internet - mainly the BBC website, although that went to low graphics mode and then ultimately we couldn't get anything as their servers buckled under the demand. We heard from others that one of the towers had collapsed and I had visions of that huge building toppling over rather than as it did (which certainly limited further casualties). There were then panicky reports about Canary Wharf tower here in the UK (which was evacuated I recall).

Probably one of the most vivid memories of recent times, with Princess Diana's funeral and the 7/7 attacks in London (watching on TV from New Zealand that time) are the others that come to mind.
 
At work, the diagnostic lab had a TV, and I heard on the radio that the first plane had crashed. A fair few of us ran to the lab to check it out, only to see the second plane crash into the other tower.
It was unreal.
We had people working at the WTC at the time, fortunately there were not there when it happened.
 
I worked for a lighting tech for Disney on Ice at the time. We had started our loadin for the show at 8:00am that morning in Knoxville, TN. At some point, one of my co-workers walked up to me and said "So, two planes hit the World Trace Center."

My response was, "OK?"...I thought it was one of those "So two men walk into a bar" type jokes, as that was exactly the tone he had. Then he said "No, really," and walked away. I don't think it dawned on me at the time quite what that meant.

As the morning dragged on, we got more and more updates before finally going to lunch and getting to see it on a tiny TV in some bar. We only had a short time for lunch, so we couldn't keep watching. It wasn't until that night that the gravity of the situation was finally felt.

One of my sister-in-laws was supposed to be on one of the Boston flights out, as she often took this flight with several co-workers for business. Several of her co-workers were on it. She had stopped flying recently because of her pregnancy, otherwise, she may well have been on that flight as well.
 
I was in my home (I now live in Montana) downstairs working out on a exercise bike when my daughter, going to school in LA, called and said one of the towers was hit by a plane. I was watching ESPN at the time so I switched to a news station and over the next hour watched in disbelief as the towers came down. I grew up in Brooklyn and moved to northern NJ and watched the towers go up. I could see the NYC skyline from my town in NJ. I was in total shock at what I was seeing. A profound sadness hung over me for several days. When I have visited ground zero since, I get the same feeling I get when visiting The Wall in Washington DC. I can literally feel the presence of those long since gone. It is truly hallowed ground. Interestingly enough, my cousin worked for the NY Port Authority and was in one of the towers when they first tried blowing them up with a car packed with explosives that went off in the garage. He had retired by the time 9/11 took place but still new many workers who died that day. Another cousin's son was doing an internship at one of the brokerage houses nearby and had returned to school the week before. Man, so many lives were and still are being effected. I was just in NYC and was staying near one of the fire stations in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. They had plaques on the front wall of those that they lost that day. all I can remember is that while everyone else was running away the brave NYPD and NYFD and PA police were running TO. God bless them all.
 
I had just started my first week of college. My dad called and woke me up, I turned on the TV and watched until it was time for class. National guard was at every building.
 
I was at work. One of my co-workers had heard on the radio that a plane had hit the WTC. Thinking it was a small single-engine plane with a pilot who was drunk or otherwise incapacitated, we all collectively laughed it off and didn't think anything of it.

Half an hour or so later somebody wheeled in a TV on a cart into the main studio, turned it on, and we all saw the second plane hit the other tower. I got a chill and told my boss (standing next to me) that that wasn't a small plane, it was a huge airliner.

Curiously, I didn't put it together in my brain that we were under any kind of attack until the plane hit the Pentagon later.
 
I was a senior in high school, and had skipped my first period class. While driving to school, I heard the news on the radio. When I got into class, we did nothing but watch TV coverage the rest of the day. I can't believe it has been 10 years.
 
I was going in to work later that day so I was at home working in the yard. A neighbor said something happened in New York. When I came inside and turned on the TV I immediately called work--I was in the Air Force at the time. The base was locked down so I couldn't go to work but stayed home and watched the coverage on TV.
 
I was getting ready for my students to arrive. I was teaching 8th grade. Watched coverage with my students the entire day.
 
I was in 6th grade, and we were kids, so we did not understand the severity of the situation.

In the morning before classes, we started talking about people hopefully crashing a plane into the school so we won't have to go to class......Then we watched the news and found out what really happened, and all we did was watch the news all day. Everyone was afraid to take the buses home (Valley Metro city buses), etc, but we braved it and took it home anyway, and I slept with a night light that night.
 
I was staying just across the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, having been to a friend's wedding on the Jersey shore the day before.

We woke up and all you could hear were sirens and see emergency vehicles every where. We rushed to the building's roof to see what was going on.

We could see a lot of smoke coming from lower Manhattan and only one of the towers. At first we thought the other tower was hidden by the smoke, but it soon dawned on us that it just wasn't there and the other tower was on fire.

We watched on in horror as the second tower started moving and then suddenly collapsed. I remember the strangest thing at the time was that at first we saw it collapse and then it seemed like an absolute age before the sound hit us. When it did it seemed that the roar lasted longer then the collapse. Then when it seemed over, we could suddenly actually taste it in the air, noone knew what to say or think.

We dashed back inside and found all TV was down, because they were broadcasting from one of the towers, so had to listen to radio to find out what had happened, before CBS fired up their Empire State Building transmitter.

We spent the rest of the day watching CBS in absolute disbelief.

Even as a Brit it was one of the worst days of my life. I know lots of people who worked in the towers, but luckily they all escaped safely.
 
I was in trigonometry class in high school. The teacher expressed annoyance that a lot of kids weren't showing up for class when the dean came and asked her to step outside. She returned to the classroom looking obviously shaken saying that there is something happening in New York and that they were showing the news in the auditorium. Since this was a New England boarding school a lot of the students had family in New York and freaked out. I entered the auditorium just in time to witness the footage of the second plane crashing into the WTC. I will never forget that day.
 
I was at work when my brother called and told me the first tower got hit by a plane. Then he called me again and told me the second tower got hit. When I got the third call that one of the towers collapsed, I got so upset I had to leave work. I'll never forget that day as long as I live..
 
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