Post by underwaterrhymes on Sept 11, 2012 6:15:21 GMT -5
I was working in DC in the Press Building, just a few blocks from the White House.
My boss came in to my cubicle tell me that a plane - a small commuter one? - had hit the World Trade Center. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, so we both went back to checking our email and gearing up for the day.
When she came in a few minutes later to report the second plane had hit the South Tower, we knew it was serious and started scouring the internet for more information. All of the news sites were blocked, but I was able to get some information from a message board I frequented. But it wasn't until Flight 77 hit the Pentagon that we went into interrupt a meeting in the conference room so we could turn on the TV... just as the South Tower fell.
Meanwhile I was frantically trying to reach my mom who worked a few blocks from me. It was her birthday. My uncle was flying in from Boston for her birthday. And my grandfather worked in the Pentagon a few days a week and was stopping by with my grandmother that morning to get some work done before coming over to celebrate with the family. (Much later I learned that my grandfather and grandmother had gotten within a mile or so of the Pentagon, before being turned back. The plane had just hit ten minutes before. And my uncle's flight never took off that day.)
Things got really scary after that. They told us that another plane was on its way to DC - probably heading for the White House, which was a five minute walk from our office - and they evacuated our building. We weren't allowed to take the glass elevators. We were told to avoid the Metro. Our receptionist was offering to drive those of us who took public transportation home, but I had finally reached my mom and arranged to walk to her office and drive home with her.
When I finally got down to the streets - which took awhile because all of the non-glass elevators and the stairwells were packed - it was chaos. There were already fighter jets overhead. The streets were jammed with cars and people just trying to get out of DC.
I reached my mom's office and we got in her car and we proceeded to wait. And listened to the news. Flight 93 - the plane that we believed was headed to DC - crashed in a field and we cried. In fact, it took us 5 or 6 hours to get home and I think we cried the whole way.
It is probably the most vivid and terrifying day of my entire life. But this is absolutely nothing compared to what so many other people experienced.
Post by DirtyMartini on Sept 11, 2012 6:21:29 GMT -5
I had just graduated college. Had my first apartment by myself, and went to let my dog out. When I came back in, I saw smoke billowing out of one of the buildings (on the Today show). I thought it was a re-play of the earlier 1990s bombing. That's when I saw the second plane hit. I watched in horror for who knows how long until I finally called my mom at work. She hadn't heard. We just sat in silence on the phone watching it unfold.
Post by OHMBLEEGOHHHHH! on Sept 11, 2012 6:38:43 GMT -5
I walked into junior year history class (where the teacher had, a week ago, gotten all spooky about how there's never been am attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, all Red Dawn style), and the teacher got am outside phone call from a friend telling her that a plane had crashed into the WTC. My sheltered, naive self was stunned that the planes navigation/radar/communication failed. The teacher kept trying to figure out what was going on (the school was in the middle of a major renovation and there were no TVs, no internet, nothing), and her friend kept calling, on the school phone, telling her about the car fires on the Mall, and as we were leaving class, that 220 something people had been on the plane. Most of the teachers in the other classes hasn't heard a thing until their students told them, am CD the rest of the day was spent with the teachers trying desperately to hear anything. One of the bad asses in English stole a TV out of a supply closet (awesomely, the teacher declared extra credit). The science teacher clipped some clamps between a radio and a slinky he displayed above the classroom for movement, and we spent the class listening to the radio. That was when we first heard of Bin Laden. That night, we watched the gun and missles in Afganistan. The next days were spent in a cloud of teenage uncertainty and self centeredness, feeling as the world as we knew out had just been blown up. I remember just being frozen for days as the world figured out what was going on and what was going to happen. And I was terrified that Jason was going to get drafted, in the most inspired, stupid, 16 year old ways. I listened to I Hope You Dance and started at the mountains and felt very small, you guys.
Post by BaileyAyres on Sept 11, 2012 6:48:04 GMT -5
I was 20 and had just opened the doors at work (I work in a really small community bank. I still work at the same place). Our first customer said that they had just heard on the radio about a plane hitting one of the towers. After turning on the radio and listening to a few reports, we decided to roll a TV into the lobby. We turned it on just as the 2nd plane hit. The rest of the day was spent huddled around the TV watching the coverage. Customers would stroll in, and stop to watch with us. We would eventually make it up to the window to run their transaction, and then they would go back to watching with us. We even had people come in with no business to do, who just sat and talked with us. I think some people just didn't want to be home watching it alone. We really didn't get that much work done that day. I was like everything in our community came to a screeching halt, as we all just huddle around the tv watching in shock and praying for the victims and their families. I was so surreal. I will never forget how that day felt.
I was a freshman in college, first week of classes. Was in the middle of a double physics lecture, we took a break halfway through and as people looked at news on computers word began to spread. We came back into class at the end of the break, and the professor told us that classes were canceled for the rest of the day and we should get ourselves to a TV.
This was on Long Island- I ended up watching the towers fall from the roof of one of the buildings on campus, and then the aftermath with all of the bridges, tunnels and ferries onto the island shutdown, and the cars left in commuter train lots because families of some of the victims couldn't bear to come deal with their loved ones' cars.
I was a freshman in college in calculus. I came back to my dorm room and could tell something was wrong when I walked down the hall as it was all serious/news channel sounds and not the usual. Got back to my room and read the news on the internet.
I was in high school. I walked into the Choir room for practice and saw the news on TV. I knew something was up when they were letting us watch TV in the morning. We didn't do any work in any classes that day. We just all gathered around and watched the new coverage.
It was early afternoon. H (then boyfriend) and I were on the way back from downtown and saw from the bus that there was major commotion at the US embassy. We actually said we should check the news that evening to find out what happened.
Once home, H turned on the TV and called me over after going through a couple of channels: he first thought it was a disaster movie of some sort but we then saw the same images on every single channel, from every single country.
We were just getting our heads round the fact that it was real news when we saw the second plane hit, live on TV. We stayed in front of the TV for the rest of the day.
I was in my ITV college algebra class. Someone came into the room at one of the other schools and mentioned something about the Pentagon which we heard over the microphone. But it wasn't until we went to our second hour class that we found out what had happened. The rest of the day was just weird. We pretty much watched TV coverage in every class. I had to stay after to work the concession stand for a baseball game that night. When I got back to my hometown I remember a huge line of cars and people at our MFA gas station because everyone was afraid the price of gas would be astronomical after what had happened.
8th grade, 1st period English. My whole school got shut down for a terrorist threat - mainly bc we were all oil and gas babies, they knew the attackers were Middle Eastern, and Houston is always on their attack list apparently so we were always doing terrorist drills even before 9/11. All we were told was there was an attack, they gave us a "code blue", and we didn't leave the classroom for 4 hours.
I was terrified after living in Saudi during the Gulf War and I'd just come back to the States two weeks before to start school after living in Iraq. I cried bc I'd left my gas mask at home and standard ones don't cover children's faces.
When we were finally allowed to come home my mom was sobbing so much she was sick, and said years later she felt like she'd always been living in a warzone when we lived in the Middle East, and that the US she thought we'd be safe, and after 9/11 it terrified her as a mother bc she didn't know anymore.
Post by dragonfly08 on Sept 11, 2012 7:27:33 GMT -5
I was at work getting ready for my first class, and when I went into the department office to check my mailbox the secretary had her radio on. The story was about a plane flying into one of the Trade Center towers and everybody there thought some fool in a Cessna should have their pilots license yanked. As we continued listening, it eventually became clear what was really happening and the phones lit up as we started getting/making calls about closing the University for the day.
First year of teaching. My principal pulled us all into the staff room at first recess and told us. Being isolated in classrooms, we had no clue what was going on.
The principal made the choice to not tell the students, even though some parents were coming to take them home.
Post by partiallysunny on Sept 11, 2012 7:35:56 GMT -5
I was a Junior in High School in English class. All the teachers disappeared for about half and hour and when they came back they turned on all the televisions in every class room.
I wish at the time there was more of an explanation. I just remember being confused and not understanding what was going on. When I finally got to history class the next day, the impact of that day was finally explained and discussed.
Post by peachykate on Sept 11, 2012 7:37:58 GMT -5
I was a junior in college and my dad left me a message while I was in class to call him when I got out. I did and then went home and watched the news all day.
I was a senior in college. There was some buzz on campus when we got back from rowing practice that there had been a car bomb on the mall or something like that. When I got to class some kid flipped on the teacher and made him turn on the news in time to see the second plane hit. I was lucky that we were able to account for everyone in my family pretty quickly.
Syracuse kept kids in class all day and for the next few days they refused to cancel. There are such strong ties to the NYC area that they wanted to keep the students on campus and safe rather than encouraging them to go into the city and add to the confusion. It pissed me off at the time but looking back on it I really appreciate the sentiment.
Our coach did a check in that night and the next morning at practice. We had a girl on our team lose 7 family members. I couldn't even imagine.
ETA: The most difficult part for me was not being able to casually catch up with people for a while because you didn't know everyone who had lost a mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, etc. I made the mistake once and I couldn't even bring myself to ask after someone's family for a very long time.
Working in Downtown Boston. Our client came in and said "Did you guys see the plane that hit the WTC tower?". And we were all "Oh sure, that's probably just a little Cessna." Then I turned on the radio and all hell broke loose. By the time I left the city at 1pm, there was NO ONE on the street. It was like the apocalypse had happened. I gave some money to a homeless man on the way out. He had tears streaming down his face. Terribly sad.
Also, my dad had left Boston that morning on a flight flying south. We couldn't get a hold of him for over 5 hours. Th entire family freaked out until we heard he was in a rental car driving through VA.
I was in a class. The instructor came in and told us. It was surreal. After they cancelled classes for the day I walked to the restaurant where I worked. Itnwas still closed so We all sat around the bar and watched the footage together.
Post by midgetthemighty on Sept 11, 2012 7:48:24 GMT -5
Sophomore year of high school, in my advanced geometry class. The library turned all of the TVs in the building on to the news and my teacher tried to turn it off. He said it wasn't important.
I was a junior in high school. I was in history class. I think the teacher was putting a video on for us to watch and the news caught his eye. He left the news on and about 10 minutes later there was an announcement from the principle that teachers should not have their TVs on. Our teacher left the news on and closed the door. Our classes were 90 minutes long so we watched it for the entire length of the class.
I remember feeling like I was watching a movie, the whole thing was so unreal to me.
I don't remember the rest of my day in school (I think we were sent home early), but I remember going home and watching the news for the rest of the day/evening.
I was 22 and finishing my last semester of college. I was working that day - I worked for the U of MN's Disability Services and was taking notes for students in their classes. My sister called me and told me about while I was walking on campus. I remember the sign language interpreter that I worked with was getting texts about what was happening and her signing when another plane would go down.
And then I went back to my sorority house (I'd already "gone alum" at that point, but I didn't want to be alone) and watched it all on TV with a couple of my friends.
Post by bostonrunnah on Sept 11, 2012 8:05:06 GMT -5
I was in a school assembly for a magazine drive - sophomore in high school.
Meanwhile, my college best friend was in class with the daughter of the pilot of American Flight 11. He said when they all heard the news a plane from Boston had hit the towers, she just put her head down on her desk. They came to take her out later and gave her official confirmation that it was her dad's plane. I can't even fucking imagine.
First year out of college, in my car on the way to work, just about to go into the parking garage, when the radio show announced that the first plan had crashed. I saw the 2nd plane hit while riding the shuttle (it had tvs on it) from the off site parking to the lab I worked in. We turned a radio on in the lab to keep up w/ the developments, and that's when I heard about the pentagon crash. My aunt worked in the pentagon at the time, so I tried to get a hold of my parents, who couldn't get a hold of her.
I spent most of the rest of the day wandering between the lab, and the allergy clinic waiting room (which had a tv), not wanting to miss a phone call about her. She was ok, thank God.
Elle - do you remember the school meeting in the courtyard later that week about 9/11? When some chick stood up and said that finally the whole world knew what it felt like to be her (a southeast asian lesbian who had no connections to NYC, and was an insufferable combination of self centered and preachy)? I can't remember her name. You were probably still holed up.
I was at university, waiting for class to start. Some students walked in the room and said that class was cancelled because "of what happened." At that time I didn't know because I hadn't seen the news. I went to the student center and watched everything there.
Post by picklepie09 on Sept 11, 2012 8:08:31 GMT -5
Working in boston at a high rise. I got an email about a plane hitting the building, then another email about another plane. the another one. Then I heard an atty I worked for say "Oh my God we are under attack" and crying.
Then we were all sent home. I walked out of my building and it was wall to wall people trying to get the hell out of the city. My mom called me and said "GET OUT OF THE CITY CINDY>> THE PLANES CAME FROM BOSTON>> OMG GET HOME"
When I got home I learned that a friend of DH's and mine was on one of the planes. 11 years later I still can remember every last detail
I was in college and had just gotten to my English class. Our professor said to us that he thought we all had somewhere better to be then class and let us out. I was an RA and went to our office to see if anyone else was there. One of my friends said "hey, isn't your uncle a firefighter in the city?". My heart dropped. I have no idea how I never thought of that. I was born in NY, yet I had only been thinking of the horror that I saw on TV and not thinking about who I might know there. I called my mom and she said that my aunt couldn't get in touch with my uncle. I went back into the office and just broke down. The next few days were an awful waiting game. My uncle didn't make it. We did a memorial service in October, then another one a few months later when they finally found some remains. My cousins were 8, 6, and 2 at the time. My uncle was hands down my favorite relative. He was my uncle through marriage, but he was so much more fun then my aunt. He was the relative who always cracked a joke, always was outside or on the ground playing with you, and was making faces behind your parents backs if you were getting in trouble. My cousins missed out on having the most amazing dad.
I was at work listening to the radio morning show when a listener called in to mention the first plane hitting the WTC. They said they would have updates when they knew more. Then the breaking news came in that a second plane hit. Our supervisor went into the board room and turned the tv on.
I can still remember my asshole boss still saying "I know it's tough to concentrate but work has to be done" Yeah ok.
Even the next day we wanted to listen to the news and CW's were coming over and asking us to turn off our radios because they couldn't concentrate on their work. Onefuckingday isn't going to make or break your work routine.
I remember for weeks walking around in disbelief. I do not know anyone personally but man it really hit me in the heart and I cried.
My parents went to high school with the pilot of the first plane that hit the WTC.
I think the eeriest is watching the anchor people on GMA giving a live shot of the WTC to show the damage and the second plane hitting. So surreal and scary.