I debated doing a 9-11 post.
But it really is something we will all never forget.
Where were you? I was living on Saint Simon’s Island Georgia. At that time in my life I was teaching remedial reading to community college students. I was paid by federal grants so I moved around a lot when the grants wore out. I didn’t really want to leave the island. So, I had decided to buy a floral shop. I was in the middle of getting a business loan.
Shortly before that, my sister who had stage four breast cancer and was living with my dad showed up unannounced on my doorstep with my father. SSI is a very small but welcoming community and my sister had gone basically door to door telling people about her cancer. What can I say ? We like to talk in our family. But it was kind of weird.
So after she came to my town and told everyone she was dying. Then, she went home to Daddy’s house. Only she did not take Daddy with her. WTF? Daddy was more than a little bit deaf. And while he was an incredibly intelligent person, his mental abilities were waning. He was also still grieving the death of our mother. So my sister was essentially taking a beach vacation and leaving him behind.
At that time I was an administrator on a large website. All of our NYC folks were obviously freaking the fuck out and had no phone service. So I was trying to coordinate people to relay messages of safety and such. My father didn’t seem to grasp what was happening. He had sort of a “shit happens” sort of view. His cognitive abilities were not that great at that point and he could not understand why I was sobbing and constantly on the computer. He didn’t seem to grasp what was going on. I was pretty much alone at the time and chatting with my imaginary Internet friends trying to let loved ones know people were okay.
After the attacks, my bankers all freaked out and all loans were sort of dropped. So each year on this day I sort of wonder what my life would be like if I had bought the floral shop and stayed living on the island.
But then, I would have never met you all. So, there is a good and a bad to everything in life I guess. And 18 years later I remain constantly online.
So where were you?
Hi, I was living in Sydney, Australia (still am!) teaching High School English. I was watching the late news when it occurred and saw the footage lice. Sadly one of my students Grandfather’s was on board one of the planes. An event that changed the world
I was in the military, stationed about 10 miles from Ground Zero as the crow flies. We were an open installation prior to 9/11. I spent that day coordinating with 3 jurisdictions to close down roads into our post. I spent what little down time I had freaking out as I watched the smoke from the towers and knowing that my civilian counterparts lost a lot of friends.
Thank you for your service.
I live up the Hudson River from the WTC, by plane it’s only a few minutes away. When I heard a plane hit the WTC I was concerned because it’s a no-fly zone. Then, when I heard a second plane hit I knew it was a purposeful attack and not pilot error. There was fear that more planes would travel up the Hudson. The phones were down as we tried contacting the school and kept getting the same message over and over again; “your call cannot be completed at this time due to a high volume of calls.” When I finally reached the school, they informed us they couldn’t release students by bus as they didn’t know if parents would be home to meet them or not. Some parents were still in the process of driving to work. They also wouldn’t release students in person to parents as too many were showing up at the school along with neighbors, relatives, and friends. They felt the kids were safer indoors and accounted for rather than waiting outside for parents or traveling (or walking) along the roads. My heart breaks for all those who lost relatives and friends that day.
As a PS, I actually met my husband as a direct result of that day.
I was in the military stationed about 10 miles from Ground Zero as the crow flies. We had a completely open installation at the time so we were focused on locking down. I remember going outside at one point and seeing the thick black smoke from the Ground Zero. The smoke lasted for days. It was surreal. A few weeks later some of our folks were deployed to Afghanistan and a really hot guy came to backfill for one of my law enforcement officers. 3 years later we said, “I do.” ?
I was unemployed, sitting on the computer in my family room. My daughter and 7 month old grandson came down the steps and sat down and put the tv on. My back was to the tv but I was listening. I turned around and said to my daughter “is that a movie”?? She said “no mom it’s really happening”. Then immediately after that I saw the second plane hit. I lived, at the time, directly in the flight path and 10 miles from Philly Airport. I remember them stopping all air traffic and it was every eerie to me not to hear planes every few minutes flying over the house. I got so used to hearing them that the noise from the low flying aircraft didn’t bother me but boy did I notice the silence. I had an online friend call me who saw the whole thing happen across the harbor and asked if I had heard from another online friend because she lived right at ground zero. I told him no and right after that I saw her being interviewed on the news. She had to evacuate her building and lived in a hotel for months on end until her building was safe enough to return. She had to get out and couldn’t find her cat in her apartment. That cat survived in the apartment (on what I don’t know) until she could get back in to get him 6 months later. I pray nothing like that ever happens again, especially on American soil.
Key West, FL.
I’d thought it was just another Tuesday morning. I disliked Tuesdays because I had to be in the office early for my weekly 9AM sales/yield meeting. True to form, I was running late and the phone was ringing as I came in to my office; it was my then-BFF calling from her office in Chicago. “Get to a TV NOW!”, she said. “A plane hit the World Trade Center!”
“OK”, I said. “Call you back.”
At that point I just thought it was an accidental crash. I asked around to a few of my colleagues at the hotel, “Did you hear about the plane crash in New York?” Some had, and a few of us (mostly those of us who were due at the meeting) went up to one of the vacant suites, turned on the TV, and watched all of the events unfold.
One of the main things that remain in my memory is how slow on the uptake I was about it all. At first, only one of the towers had been hit, so I’d assumed it was accidental. “I hope nobody was hurt”, I thought to myself. Then, when the second tower was hit, it was “Wait…TWO planes couldn’t have accidentally hit the WTC” and then “Oh, I guess people must have died”. Well DUH. I can only guess that I really didn’t want those things to be true, so it took me a while to wrap my mind around them.
My own NYC days weren’t that far behind me at that point, so I still had many friends there. I wasn’t too worried about them though; my crowd were actors, musicians, writers…I doubted any of them were out of bed at that hour, much less all the way down in the financial district. I did check on them all eventually and all were thankfully fine.
I was much more worried about people back in my hometown of Washington DC. I remember calling to check on various friends/family members, and there was no getting through to any number in the 703 or 202 area codes. “All circuits are busy”. I found that quite unnerving. Eventually I was able to learn that everybody was fine and I was very grateful for that.
As far as what might have been? 9/11 had a catastrophic effect on the hotel business, particularly in my sector: resorts. My career never really recovered. Now I just laugh at the notion that I ever thought I’d have a career.
I was all alone in our house in Fulham, west London. I turned on the BBC tv News around 1pm while having lunch. I didn’t move off the sofa for hours. My Hubby (then bf) was in central London and I was frantically trying to call his mobile. It was going straight to answer phone. A couple hours later, he finally walked through the door and saw the mess that was me. I was terrified.
I was 26 and at a team meeting while working as tech support for an airline communication center. All air ground traffic (FAA, all carriers) send messages through our system for communication. We were told what happened, it made no sense to me, I just couldn’t comprehend what was going on until I went home an watched the news. I mean hijackers always ransomed for their needs, they didn’t intentionally fly into buildings. I first stopped by my husbands job to make sure he knew, grab a hug, went home and stared at the news.
I did get in trouble at work (we were 24/7) because they asked us all to stay, and I said no. Turns out with shutting down all flights there was very little for us to do.
Years later I learned a lovely girl I met abroad was in one of the towers. She was beautiful inside and out.
My husband, active duty Marine, and I were stationed overseas. Had eldest, than seven months, and I were headed out to the commissary and my neighbor came running over have you heard what happened, do you think we will go to war? I grabbed my son, and went in the house and tried to call hubby and checked emails. The base was on lockdown. You couldn’t go off for two weeks, and road blocks all over the base. My husband deployed six times and still serves our nation today. Couple years till retirement.
My little brother was due 9/11/01 but was born on the 4th instead. He was born at one of the hospitals that a lot of pentagon employees were sent to. By this time we were back in WV. I remember watching the whole thing on TV. I remember being devastated and realizing that there was truly evil in the world. What I didn’t realize was how much it would impact my whole life. I had friends sign up for the military because of that day and I think about how my generation learned very early on how tragic and cruel life can be.
I also was on the internet communicating with imaginary friends in the tri-state area and listening to all of their stories.
I’m glad to know I’m not alone in wondering what my life would be like if it never happened! My now husband left for boot camp less than a month later. He was injured in Iraq and I always wonder if or how things would be different. I was still in school, I lived in Pittsburgh So things were really chaotic when they started losing track of planes. We were teens, but I don’t think we fully grasped what was happening til we got word that they were evacuating buildings downtown and saw the fighter jets.
I lived in Manhattan, but that morning I had driven to my dentist in Queens. I was early and was sitting in the car listening to the radio when I heard the news.
After I finished at the dentist, I learned Manhattan was closed and I was stuck outside it. Thankfully, my parents lived in the suburbs so I went there and stayed till Manhattan opened again a few days later.
I was in the WTC Mall on my way to work at the back office of the NYSE when the 1st plane hit. I remember walking to the N / R subway and feeling a very powerful rumble. Someone screamed ‘BOMB!’…every person ran for their lives…
I was at home in Charleston, SC – a regular morning…drinking coffee…reading the paper….watching the Today show…and then……
NYC. Smoke everywhere. My friend’s husband was missing. Our daughters had a playdate that she insisted on keeping that day. Such a strong person. The irony was that just hours earlier, we were talking about how it was an absolutely gorgeous day.
It was a beautiful day. I think of it every lovely early fall day. The sky was so blue, here in Ohio also.
Yes, the clearest sky, no humidity and perfect… Just 4 days earlier I was on a yacht on the Hudson watching my dear friends get remarried for their 25th anniversary. The boat stopped RIGHT in front of the WTC’s and the photographer took photos of each guest with our gorgeous towers as the backdrop. When the framed photo arrived 6 weeks later, I was devastated all over again. I was engaged at *Windows on the World* restaurant, which sat atop the WTC at floor 108 (or was it 105?)… I commuted Into the Path Station for several years when working on John Street… Went to the opening ceremonies in 1972 of the buildings with my parents and siblings. One of the big banks had a small elevated ice rink put in as a stage and some Olympic skaters performed… as did many others. For several years, I lived right on the Palisades of Jersey City (40 years ago, it was a lovely area) and was DIRECTLY across from *my* towers… Had many roof parties with twinkling lights as we danced the night away with *my* towers as the backdrop. I had a love affair with my towers… Too many memories to mention.
On 9/11, I had Good Morning America on as I was getting ready for a client meeting. I’d taken my daughter to her 5th grade class at school, and dropped her off. I literally watched the first plane hit 3 seconds after it happened, because of the many TV cameras set from the Palisade in Jersey City as they always were… I remember thinking that it HAD to be an accident, because the plane looked small (optical illusion because of how BIG the towers were… I had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I sat glued to the news. I saw the 2nd plane on the far right of the screen… and knew immediately that we were under attack. The plane disappeared for a second while it flew north and turned around to hit the 2nd tower… I was sobbing as I called my daughter’s school. We saw, real time, people jumping from the windows, etc. I called my office, 3 blocks away and had my entire staff close it and either come to my house or go home. Most came to my house and we all sobbed together and held onto each other. The F-14’s started flying overhead very shortly after the 2nd plane hit… I lived 35 miles outside the City then. We were glued to the TV and the schools refused to release the students. I just wanted to hold my daughter, because if we were going to die (didn’t know what to expect, the plane had already crashed in PA) I wanted to be holding my baby girl… We lost several clients in the WTC… they worked there. My business (interior design with retail stores) took a HUGE hit, as MANY of our clients were in Milburn, NJ… MANY husbands were investment bankers who worked there… It was funeral after funeral after funeral… Watching people you knew wandering the streets with photos of their loved ones asking if anyone had seen them. It changed EVERYTHING… our innocence and sense of safety were GONE.
I remember being at home while my husband was at Ground Zero hearing the planes overhead coming from Stewart, surreal. My husband found a business card from Windows on the World that fluttered to the ground in the church graveyard. We still have it.
Windows on the World was beautiful but spooky. We had a Christmas party there once and it was all clouds. You couldn’t see a thing that night. It was so high.
That’s the one thing most everyone agrees on-it was a glorious day. I lived in Montclair, NJ about 13/14 miles outside NYC. I remember pulling up to work, getting out of the car and pausing to look up at the sky. I thought “What a beautiful day”. There wasn’t ONE cloud in the sky
I’m on Long Island. I was outside on my front lawn, about 15 minutes before the first plane hit, I said “What a beautiful day.” to my neighbor.
I was really in awe of how beautiful the day was… Until it wasn’t.
It was my second day at school, at a private Christian fundamentalist high school in Orange County (yes, that OC). I made it to my first period class early. Strangely enough, that was Geography (and what passed as “world history”, I kid you not).
The teacher had the radio on, and this LA talk radio station had live updates from NYC. At the time, the consensus seemed to be that this was an accidental crash. But then, the second plane crashed. Shortly thereafter, the Pentagon was attacked near D.C. We all eventually figured out this was no “accident”, and at least some of us began to fear there would be attacks on this side of the country. (After all, al Qaeda tried bombing LAX in 1999.)
I was so afraid that day, and the fear continued for a while. I obviously didn’t realize at the time how I was already trapped in a prison of fear, so this was just another excuse for my mother to keep me under her control. It would only get worse from there, until my “great escape” would eventually allow me to start a new life that would ultimately land me here.
I can only imagine how people who survived 9/11 and/or lost loved ones in the attacks got through this terrible day. I just know that where I live now, nearly two years after 1 October, many folks here still face many physical and psychological/emotional scars from that terrible day.
I was in Journalism 101 at Texas A&M University. I walked out of class and saw hoards of students watching the television set up in the common area of the building. I had to get to my Anthropology class, so I started walking and called my mom. She told me what was happening.
Shortly thereafter school was canceled for the day because there was fear that our George Bush library was going to be bombed or otherwise hit by terrorists. I remember a candlelight vigil held that night on campus. There’s really not a thing about that day that I’ve forgotten.
I was at a class for my municipality where I work and they started calling all the first responders out of the room. They were lifting manholes throughout the City looking for bombs and put our water plants under armed guard. At the time we lived near an airport and it was so eerily quiet with no planes. I was afraid to go to sleep because I was afraid the world would end overnight. I’ve never felt as safe as I did before we were attacked.
I was in 4th grade in Bergen County, NJ. Kids were getting called out to leave 1 by 1. Some kids who had parents working in NYC didn’t know if their parents were still alive. It is a day FOREVER engraved in my brain.
I havent spoken about it here before, but my husband is a NYC Detective. He worked 6 blocks from the towers and was on his way to work when the first plane hit. He was a First Responder. I cant even explain all of the things that happened that day, from having to explain to my 4 year old in preschool way why mommy had to watch the TV all day long. (He said, “The good news, is that nobody got hurt”, I let that one go for a few years).
Now 9/11 is the gift that keeps on giving. He worked around ground 0 for over a year afterwards. Our friends are getting cancer, his allergies got worse immediately after but thankfully he has been okay for now. He is still working, and I worry every day still.
I finally hear from a family member of a First Responder who LIVED. A very good thing to be thankful to read today.
We were very lucky, thanks
I was at work in a mall in Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Our husbands called after the first plane. And then the 2nd. When the Pentagon got hit everything went crazy. We were told the White House and Capitol building were hit. There were rumors a gas station in Foggy Bottom and then Centreville/Manassas blew up. No where felt safe. The phone lines quickly jammed up. I don’t think I was able to talk to my parents until the following day.
My company had stores at Pentagon City Mall, South Street Seaport and downtown Boston. Our corporate headquarters was in a Boston suburb. My DM was on 395 between the mall and the Pentagon. Before 10 am corporate had called to close each store in affected cities and soon thereafter stores by other potential targets. Pentagon City Mall was closed for multiple days. The South Street Seaport location never opened again. I know some NYC and suburb employees lost family. In DC, I don’t remember having any direct relationships, but it has been so long.
One of our employees had a husband in high level state department security and some defense department spouses as well. Our lives changed so much. We had several Persian sales people. I had to tell a customer that her words were inappropriate and unwelcome while the most beautiful inside and out Persian lady stood right beside and could hear her.
We were supposed to have an event the evening of the 12th. The whole week was a big corporate push for fall receipts. A customer who always attended these things to get gift certificates called to complain the event was canceled. She also came the following weekend to complain in store. People died, and she was upset that she didn’t win free money to buy clothes.
My husband and I drove by the Pentagon as soon as the roads reopened. There was 1 store in Fairfax County that sold flags; they had lines outside the door for days. I will never forget the image of portable missiles traveling I-66 and placed under all the overpasses and bridges. I don’t remember exactly how long they stayed. I read every name as they got posted. I wanted to remember every person. Each one mattered and had loved ones.
We later moved to NYC suburbs. All the local towns had memorials; they were all affected. I currently live in Southwestern PA, not too far from Flight 93 Memorial. It seems we never stray too far from that day. My grandparents had Pearl Harbor. My parents had Kennedy assassination. I have 9/11. I will never forget.
I was living near Boston but working for a company based in San Francisco. I traveled most weeks, Tuesday-Friday. I scheduled my own travel. I was supposed to fly to LA that day, but never actually booked the ticket because my meeting was postponed. I was on the phone with my assistant watching the Today show as we both watched the second plane hit. Lori (my assistant) reminded me I had reserved a ticket to LA on Expedia for that morning, but never actually purchased it. Sure enough, it was in my Expedia folder. They removed it later that day. It still gives me chills to think it could have been me had things gone differently. My company went bankrupt several months later and I went back to social work.
I live in Minnesota and I was 21 then with a 3 year old son. We were having a nice day at the park and he was going down the slides again and again. I overheard 2 other mothers at the park talking about how a plane flew into the WTC. I thought the same as many other people, it must be a freak accident and sad for the lives that had to be lost..We left the park and headed over to Toys R Us to look around at the new stuff and my mother called me from work, frantic about what had happened and explained that a second plane had hit the towers and it was NOT an accident. She was near tears urging me to take my son and go home for safety, not knowing how others would react to this terrorism. It hit me then that it could be in New York or anywhere else in the world, and not know how far these terrorists had planned their attacks and if it would happen in other states…. I remember being so scared… On my way to work today, I go over a bridge over the highway that hangs up a huge American flag on Sept 11 every year and firefighters, EMTs, Police and any avail first responders stand there all day and night in solidarity for the lives lost and respect to the flag..
TT I am glad you came to the online community, but I’m sorry that your prior dream of the flower shop didn’t turn out as you had hoped… You help people everyday with your blog, it lifts me up on a bad day and gives me something to look forward to, I appreciate your no bullshit meter that is always in full effect 🙂 Its comforting to hear someone speak so openly about depression and anxiety. Its nice to know that someone else truly understands the struggle xoxoxo
I was 23, living in South Florida (still do) and already at work that morning. We were in an office and I had my own area at reception. In the room immediately to my left one of my co-workers always had the radio on low at his desk. He started getting a bit unsettled at what he was listening to on the radio and started calling us over to listen because he wasn’t sure if the radio station was pulling a stunt or something. As we are all listening and debating on what could have happened, that’s when we heard the reporter live as he watched the second tower get hit. I’ll never forget the horror and sadness in his voice. That’s when we were all sure it was no accident. Not two…..not like that.
I worked the entire day and we had no TV in the office, only the radio to listen to. It wasn’t until I stopped at my friends on the way home that I saw the news. So horrible. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Even so far away with literally no connections to the incident, my heart hurt for those affected.
I had a one year one son safely in bed. In Australia, it was at night. I was in bed watching the 10:30 pm news when the first plane hit and they thought it was an accident. We saw the second plane hit. Even in Australia, it consumed us. It’s one of the handful of moments I will ways remember where I was.
i was home, an affluent suburb in New Jersey, a Wall Street Ghetto, so nicknamed because so many wall streeters lived here.
My memories include;
My husband was on a 9 am flight from Newark airport that morning to Tucson. I didnt hear from him until after 2 in the afternoon. I left him a dozen messages to please call me and let me know where he was. He told me the pilot came on the PA system in flight to say they were making an unscheduled landing. people on the flight assumed someone was ill as there seemed to be no problems with the flight. the plane landed in Atlanta, as they touched ground and people began using their cell phones, all aboard were shocked, the airport was in bedlam. My husband choose to try to make other arrangements as fast as he could rather than call right away. He was able to secure a hotel room and rental car. He drove home the next day. he said as soon as he crossed the state line into NJ, the atmosphere was totally different.
My children’s school called all the homes and asked the parents to please stay away from the school, they were trying to keep things normal for the children while they went through all of the emergency contact cards for all the students to determine children who had parents working at the World Trade Center, and to make sure someone was there for those children Five of the students in their school lost a father that day, Eleven residents of our town died that day,
I remember waking around with other women/friends in town each asking each other if they had heard from their husband. One neighbor felt assured as she had a call from her husband that he was OK, he worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, he never came home.
I could go on on on, I remember everything like it was yesterday, and I’m sure I always will.
I worked for a courier company whose primary business was picking up checks from bank branches and taking them to the federal reserve. Dispatch was on the phone with one of our couriers in tower 2 when it fell, they had like short wave radios not cell phones so we could still get through. It was stunned silence followed by the call that the federal reserve shut down and we had to secure the checks until it reopened. Very busy including me going to pick up kids from day care and delivering them to other family members or back at work as we ran 24/7/365 and nobody left it as it was all hands on deck. My sister was on Ft. Benning, GA as her husband was Army and she was due with her first baby the 2nd week of October. In between picking up co-workers children and reassuring them and other family we were all ok and picking up food to bring back to everyone I kept calling my sister as my brother in law was out in the field in training and didn’t know if he would be sent to NY. Was 4 days before I could call my sister. Exactly 1 month after 9/11 on 10/11 I boarded a plane to Ft. Benning, GA to be there for my sister when her first daughter was born. I had been so busy in that month it never occured to me to cancel my flight or not go. She is my baby sister, over 1,000 miles away from home having her first child nobody was going to stop me from being there. The flight attendant made a comment that the flight was originally fully booked and yet only 4 people were actually on the plane. In November my husbands firehouse was sent up to NYC to help with the clean up and retrieval. Spent the next year having it affect my everyday life just because friends who were firefighters etc. were going up to help and us here on the homefront were gathering supplies to help them. I didn’t actually get to see the footage on that day but say it the next day in the early morning hours.
I had taken a sick day and was watching the news and saw it all from the start that morning. It was such a horrible day. Still makes me well up writing this. The horror for all those who died. I cannot fathom their terror. God bless their surviving family and friends. As I drove my kids to school this morning we prayed for all those who are left with the hole in their heart still today from their missing loved ones.
I have wished for a like button many times on this site. Today wish I could give many likes, loves and hugs to posts. Thank you, TT, for this site and this post.
I work in Financial Services and at the time our office had loads of TVs hanging from the ceilings tuned to CNBC for stock market information. Since the first plane hit 14 minutes before the NYSE was slated to open, we were ALL watching when the 2nd plane hit.
The pain in my stomach, like everyone else, was so raw and horrible.
I remember feeling really unified with my fellow Americans in the weeks that followed. I can’t believe how far we’ve strayed in terms of unity since then.
St. Louis, Missouri. I worked for Beldt’s Aquarium, a 2000 tank tropical fish wholesaler and breeder.
I was listening to Howard Stern on the drive in, and he said something like “New York is on fire”. It was riveting broadcasting.
I got to work, parked, walked into the hatchery and said “Something happened in NY. It has been bombed.” A co-worker had a tv in his van and some people went out there to see. Us hatchery folk were just cleaning, feeding, and catching.
Then hell began. All flights grounded meant no fish, reptiles, hell, nothing, could be transported. Every airport from Chicago to Memphis was begging us to house their livestock so it would not die. Those fancy saltwater fish, feeder goldfish, corals, amphibians…we housed well over a million little beings. And then the deaths. And opening box after box of dead beings. Having to inventory every dead thing for insurance purposes (for other companies).
Then the local shops just stopped. That very day, a bunch of them cancelled their orders. No one felt they could sell a thing. We had live things depending on us everywhere we looked. And those live things had nowhere to go.
We all were too busy to understand the enormity. I was allowed to get my kids from school (they were older) and leave them at home. The radio stations had zero info.
After a 12 hour shift, a co worker and I found a restaurant with a bar and a TV. That was the first time I saw the horror, on a tv at Applebee’s. I cried out; I had not known.
The tropical fish industry collapsed within 5 years. The 9-11 losses were too much. Stores direct import from the breeders now. Public aquarium fish are shipped direct from where they are caught. Beldt’s, an institution since 1927, is gone.
I wonder how many other industries collapsed.
KathyD-
That Stern show is forever etched in my mind. I didn’t have the chance to listen to it unfold as it aired (I was already at work) but I have listened to it every 9/11 since.
It’s crazy that even Baba Booey knew it was a guy named “Bin Laden” during that show.
It was so compelling. I am crying now thinking of it. He was both masterful and wholly pissed off.
All of us listeners were deeply grateful. Esp us Midwesterners who could not grasp it.
You are right about everyone knowing the perpetrators.
I was living in Oklahoma and in the middle of a very contentious divorce. (had kicked ex-husband out of the house and was a newly single parent of still very young kids). I had taken all of my kids to school/preschool/daycare early that morning and had already gotten the morning off because I had an appointment with oral surgeon for minor procedure. After leaving the Dr’s office with a numb face, I had the radio on in my car and was listening to it in the parking lot. The first plane had just hit and discussions on the radio were still of it being accidental.
I had already lived through the Oklahoma City Bombing and I remember having to decide if I was going to go to the office or go home and watch the tv for more information. My gut steered me toward home and my tv. It was a very short drive to my home. I had made it home in time to watch the second plane hit. I went into protective mode and raced to pick up all of my kids. Once at the schools the teachers were all frantically calling other parents to come get their kids. (After the OKC bombing everyone knew what the possibilities were).
Once I got all my kids home safely, I set them up in another room with endless Barney VHS tapes and snacks and I sat in front of the other tv glued to it for hours, crying, weeping, heartbroken. I never even called work that day and no one cared. The thing that stood out to me was that ex never even called to check on kids that day. It proved to be beneficial in my getting sole custody. I soon moved myself and my kids back to my hometown in Texas where all my family was—like a month later. That day was life changing for me on so many levels. I will NEVER forget.
Furthermore, the next month when I moved, I had a car full of little kids and 2 uhauls with 4 movers following behind me on the interstate. An 18-wheeler had wrecked, dumping white powdered substance all over the interstate. The entire highway was shut down and hazmat teams were cleaning it up. Nobody was taking any chances. The interstate became a parking lot for like 14 hours. Once arrived at new home it was around 3am. Ends up 3 of 4 movers hired were in the national guard. They had all received “the call” and were being deployed. They had to abandon my uhauls to get home to say goodbye to their families and leave within the next 48hours. I often wonder what ever happened to those nice men.
Then once flights resumed, airports lined with uniformed and armed forces. Was so surreal yet became so normal so quickly. Yep, a day that changed life as we knew it. I still practice moment of silence every single year.
I was home in Chicago. My heart goes out to the family of a local young woman just starting her life. She had just graduated college with a finance degree. She had just moved to NYC. She had just started her new job the day before in one of the towers. So much potential, just gone.
I was in Staten Island, watching in terror from across the water as the towers fell. It was surreal. No phones were working. I thought my then boyfriend (now husband) was dead. It took me hours to drive just a few miles back home, where I saw a Staten Island “express bus” to Manhattan mangled on the street. I didn’t know he made it out until almost 12 hours later, and he walked from the tunnel to Brooklyn, and then across the bridge to Staten Island.
Eighteen years later and I can still recall that smell. It was horrific. So many lives lost. My father said the smell was something he remembers smelling in Vietnam.
The smoke was everywhere for months. I have a permanent pulmonary condition due to exposure to it, but I know that doesn’t compare to the devastation that it caused.
On 9/11, I was supposed to be at work, but I was late because my vehicle refused to shift out of “Park” – it was completely jammed up and would not budge, first time that had ever happened. I went back inside my apartment to call an auto repair place to come get the vehicle and give me a ride to work, when my neighbor knocked on the door and told me to turn on my TV immediately, that the 1st plane had hit the World Trade Center, then we both watched in horror when the second plane hit. The auto guy came to tow my car and gave me a ride to work – when I walked in thru to punch the time clock, the TV was on, as the clock is in our cafeteria, and that’s when the Pentagon hit. We all cried at work a lot that day. When I finally got off work and got a ride home, our friend’s parents called in a complete panic – this is my husband’s best friend and he works for Boeing and has more security clearance than almost all generals of the military at the Pentagon – we still do not know the real story of his job at Boeing even – he jokes he would have to kill us if he ever told us. Anyway, his parents had been frantically trying to get in touch with their son because he was supposed to have a 9 a.m. meeting at the Pentagon that day and he was not answering his phone and hadn’t for hours and hours by that point. Apparently, our friend had overslept at his hotel, VERY thankfully, and he was running really, really late to get to the Pentagon, so he missed being present for that plane attack, then his cell was jammed up because of the all the mass confusion going on and too many people on phones that day – they didn’t find out until the next morning that he was safe, had rented a car, and was trying to get out of the city to drive home and finally got far enough into another state where his cell worked to call. We were all so thankful for something as simple as oversleeping on a business trip that day.
Thanks for telling this story. Had to laugh, spouse works for Boeing. In over 27 years of marriage I have zero idea what he does.
I was a freshman in college in English 101. I’ll never forget my professor, Dr. Mace, telling all of us to go home because life as we know it is going to changed forever. And everyone was filling up their cars with gas.
I went to college with lots of guys who joined the National Gaurd as a way to pay for college. None of them ever thought in a million years they would ever be in a combat zone. Over the next two years, I knew so many young people my age that were deployed overseas. Including my boyfriend. It was horrible. We didn’t last.
I was starting my day at the school where I was teaching. I was the only teacher to have a TV in her office and when the first plane hit I ran into the teachers lounge and after that I had about twenty-five teachers crammed into my small office watching the events unfold until the bell rang to start school and it was all we can do is keep it together for the rest of the day. Absolutely horrific.
I was in cosmetology class at tech. I remember them wheeling in one of those TVs on the giant stands and we were all standing there watching. Nobody knew what it was at first. Then I remember an announcement came on at the school saying if anyone had family members who worked in the world trade center to come to the office. I’m from ny. I’ll never forget that day. I remember going home after school and watching tv and being in shock that this happened and how serious it was. And how close to home this really was. Prayers to anyone who lost anyone. And to all the people who gave there lives being heroes this day.
It was a weird day. You see Sept. 11th (today) is my birthday. Normally, we celebrate everything at night. On that day however, my husband and kids gave me my gifts, flowers and cards before school. I had dropped the boys off at their schools, and was headed back home from the grocery store when I heard the story on the radio. At the time the severity of it did not register. It had just happened and the announcer made it sound like a plane had clipped an antenna, etc. on top of the building. When I got home, my husband came out of his office and asked if I had heard about the WTC. I repeated what the radio guy had said and he said that I needed to get to the tv.
I sat there numb and crying for the rest of the day.
Happy Birthday ?
IJC: Thank you. It still freaks me out when I have to show ID and I have idiots say, ” Wow! Did you know your birthday is on 9-11?” Or
“Oh…your birthday is on 9-11!” folllowed by heavy sighs.
Happy birthday. Two of my cousins and his wife share it with you. Cousin Sharon gets flack because her online name — before 9/11 ends in 9/11.
I was on a stationary bike that was right in front of a tv at the gym in Columbia MO. When the first plane hit I told everyone who walked past me on the track that went around the gym because they were right in front of me when they walked by. They all seemed pretty uninterested in it. Then the second plane hit and people started watching the tv then. I rode on that bike for what seemed like hours that day because I was so shocked and upset that I couldn’t bring myself to get off the bike and stop watching.
I was a doing a transplant evaluation at work in a hospital. We had to get through our day with patients. My husband and I turned off the TV that night and got pregnant. We later learned we were not alone there was a small baby boom. She’s 17 now and applying to colleges
I was chatting online with European friends because I was off work that day. (I was a floral designer…) My Euro friends all started freaking out and asking me how far away from New York City I was because a terrorist had just flown a plane into one of the big buildings in NYC. I turned the tv to the news and there was nothing on about it so I thought they were joking. They kept saying it happened and time seemed to stand still until our news finally reported on it. There was definitely a delay on when American news programs started reporting it.
I remember watching it in utter disbelief that it was happening. It all unfolded like a slow moving bad dream.
Thank you Tamara for this sensitive post.
I lived in New Rochelle, NY and had been laid off my Manhattan job the week before 9/11, so I was able to sleep in that day. I’d sold my spare laptop to offset less money coming in and had gotten a check from the online buyer. My bank said there was a problem with the check’s routing numbers – I found out later that he’d stolen the checks from a bank in Chinatown. So I was planning to go to the address on the check to investigate. I got to the train station just after 9 and it was COMPLETELY empty – quite odd for a weekday rush hour. It was only a 10 minute trip so I hadn’t bothered turning on the car radio. After finally hearing an announcement that there’d be no trains, but no reason given, I headed back home. This time I did turn on the radio to hear the local news and of course had the shock of my life. My unemployed artist boyfriend had slept over but I knew he’d probably be listening to music on his headphones. I drove back home like a maniac, shouting into the answering machine from my cellphone for him to please pick up and turn on the news. I did indeed find him in his headphones, shocked to see me storm into the apartment and head straight for the TV. I couldn’t even get the words out, just pointed to the screen and stood there completely stunned watching the second tower come down. I kept thinking “OK now they’ll run it backwards and do it again in slow motion” because I’ve seen so many landmarks convincingly destroyed in the movies that it just didn’t seem real. It was weeks before I had the nerve to even venture back into the city again, the energy was so overwhelming.
Had I not been laid off I’d have been a few blocks from Ground Zero that morning instead of safe and protected in the quiet boring calm of New Rochelle, which I’d started to resent before 9/11, but was grateful for after that. This was the second time (that I’m aware of) that a seemingly negative circumstance had actually saved me. The first was when I overslept and an OSU student rushing to class ran a red light and plowed into my parked car right outside my window, completely totaling it. Had I been on time, I’d have been getting into the car at just that minute. Lesson being, even though awful things do happen, so many of us are also protected by intuition and unseen eyes and hands. Heaven bless the families and all the first responders across all fields in NYC.
Those beautiful beams they light every year could actually be seen way farther north than New Rochelle, even halfway to Connecticut. Kind of poetic.
Being you are a local (for me),you might find this interesting. My husband, on his way to work in NYC in One Police Plaza had just heard about the first plane on the radio and I called him right then. He was driving on the Major Deegan by the Yonkers raceway and you know that part by McLean avenue where can see the city skyline? He was on the phone with me and drove in that spot and just said, “Holy shit”, he could see it from there, and kept driving downtown.
I was living in Nashville and working in night audit at a local hotel. I left work that morning and went to a local park to smoke a joint and unwind.
While I was sitting in my car enjoying my smoke, I was listening to a CD, so I didn’t have the radio on so I was oblivious to any breaking news. Someone pulled into the space next to my car and asked me if I’d heard that someone crashed a plane into the WTC. About 2 weeks prior someone had flown a small, single engine plane into an office building in the Tampa area so I figured it was a similar situation.
I immediately switched to the radio in my car and headed home as I wanted to get in front of a television. Details were scant on the ride home, everything from the type of plane to which tower was hit first turned out to be incorrect.
I arrived home and informed my rather comfortably oblivious sister what was going on. She had my niece about a month prior, so she was rather overwhelmed with all things related to being a first-time mother and the news has never been incredibly important to her.
I turned on the main television just in time to see the United plane intentionally careen into the second tower. The pilots last-minute maneuver to make impact with the wings in a vertical position proved how intentional it was. The wings are also the fuel tanks, so he positioned the aircraft to do the most damage to the building.
At this point, my sister and I were both watching Aaron Brown’s coverage of the disaster. I turned to her and said, “Those buildings are coming down……. Soon.”. And about 47 minutes later the hot-burning jet fuel weakened the structure and the first tower collapsed. Shortly thereafter, so did the second.
At the time there was almost a combined 50,000 people working in the towers on a daily basis. I also told Ann not to be surprised if there were 20,000 souls that perished. I was never more happy to be wrong. 3200+/- is still a horrific number, but the attempt to bring the towers down in the mid-90s put evacuation protocols in place, saving tens of thousands of souls.
The remainder of the day was spent glued to the television, crying with Aaron Brown on CNN compassionately guiding us through the worst possible scenario that almost no one even imagined could ever happen. I don’t know what ever happened to him, but he was the right person to be on the air that day.
I was a Freshman in college in San Diego. It was my boyfriend at the times birthday. We slept through the first two bombings and woke up from what I thought was just a really bad dream. Turns out my bfs Mom had been leaving him voicemails on his landline and we were hearing them subconsciously in our sleep. We spent the remainder of the day glued to the tv. Felt so bad for him for years that he shared his bday with such a horrific day in our Nation’s history.
Hubby and I were driving to work (Ft Myers, FL) when it was announced on the radio that a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. We rushed into our office and turned on the TV.
I looked at my hubby and said “That didn’t happen from a small Cessna type plane, that type of damage was from a commercial plane”. Just moments later we see the second plane hit the other tower and we knew life as we knew it had changed.
It was 2 or 3 days before I got word from my cousins that worked in NYC that they were OK. A lot of our work was with clients from NY and NJ so it was an emotional time for many reasons.
It was my first day back from a 2 week vacation from the bank, so I was at my desk early, going through scads of email. Then someone said, can you believe it? A plane just flew into the World Trade Center! We had no idea what it happened at that time, we thought maybe a small plane had had an accident. So we went to the windows and then we saw the second plane fly in. We were stunned. The initial word was stay in your office. I was on the 8th floor of 4 New York Plaza – about 5 blocks away. All the phone lines were down, my family was calling from Philadelphia in a panic, and I couldn’t reach them. The “tie lines” weren’t working. The cell towers had been on the Towers. A
friend from the branch in Texas checked in and volunteered to reach my family. After that we were all glued to the windows. Then the towers collapsed. There was a cloud of black rolling down the street. Everything was obliterated. Folks were scrambling under parked cars. It was a disaster movie come to life. When it cleared, everyone was covered in dust. Then we were told leave the building and get home anyway you can. Fortunately I only had to walk down eight flights. Again, fortunately, for some reason that day I was wearing sensible heels. When I got to the lobby, folks were handing out masks to cover your mouth. I started walking, and it was strangely quiet. As we got to Chinatown, merchants were handing out water. Shoe stores were open, inviting women to come in and get sneakers and more comfortable shoes. Nobody asked for money. We walked uptown. Some folks were directed across the Brooklyn Bridge. I lived in midtown Manhattan at the time and walked all the beyond Times Square – 50 some blocks. That was a small trek compared to others. One woman in my office walked all the way to Harlem. By the time I got home, I was covered in dust. Later I realized that dust was comprised of human remains. I cried in the shower.
Some two weeks later when we were finally allowed back downtown, we couldn’t get directly to the office. Downtown was blocked off and we had to walk about four blocks to my office. You had your company ID pinned to the outside of your clothes. If you didn’t have an ID, your drivers license was pinned to the outside of your clothes. And then you walked past Ground Zero. The pictures did not do it justice. I can’t describe what it looked like adequately, nor the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I stared at the crater of what used to be the World Trade Center.
For the next five years on 9/11 I cried. Today I remember. Everyone knew someone who died that day. There was a young man who worked for me who left the month before to take a job at the World Trade Center. He was 25 years old and a new father, and he is gone. And writing this, I am crying again. I left New York; I live in the south now. And I am crying…
Well….short answer is, NYC, but since you asked…
I was working a block north of the towers and had just stopped at the deli to pick up a breakfast sandwich when I got off the elevator on my floor and was met with people asking me if I heard that explosion. Being in the elevator I was insulated and didnt hear anything. We went to the window and could see a gaping hole in the north tower with black smoke pouring out of it.
A week before, a lunatic with a parachute hand glider thing had somehow wrapped himself around the Statue of Liberty, so we were thinking this was something more along those lines than what it actually was. Seeing the size of the hole, we shouldve known better.
Silly us, or should I say younger, dumber, and more naive me, along with some coworkers went outside to see what was happening. We were standing on the corner directly opposite the towers when we saw all sorts of horribleness. Paper was flying everywhere, smoke and an acrid smell of burning was in the air. That was when we saw the unimaginable, people actually falling through the sky. We tried to convince one of my co-workers that no, it was just the paper blowing, but we knew better.
Before we knew it, we could hear the roaring of another engine. This sounded like the old WWII movies, where the kamikaze pilots were crashing into aircraft carriers. I will never forget the site of that plane crashing through the side of 2nd tower. The brilliant orange of the flame against the clear blue sky will always stay with me. Of course, watching that, everyone’s immediate reaction was,…run!!!
With everyone looking over their shoulders and not looking where they were going, I found myself on the bottom of a giant dog pile thinking, this has to be the stupidest way to die! As everyone was pushing to get themselves up, they were pushing us on the bottom down. Finally, it seemed the weight lifted and I found myself standing in what seemed to be an empty Church St, with only spilled coffee cups that people dropped and empty shoes that people ran out of.
I made it back into my building where we all temporarily regrouped before our head of corporate security told us we needed to evacuate.
Once we got back outside law enforcement of every kind it seemed appeared out of nowhere, advising everyone to head north. Living in Brooklyn at the time, I ignored them and headed through City Hall Park and over the Brooklyn Bridge.
It all honestly felt like a movie, with people sitting in shock, some people crying, and both one knowing what was going on. I found myself consoling a sobbing woman as we made our way to the bridge. Halfway over the bridge we heard a loud gasp. Turning around we saw the first tower crumble before us. It seemed like at just that time, fighter jets flew over us and we realized we were walking on another possible target.
I made it to my neighborhood and saw on a tv that the other tower had fallen.
I apologize if this post is way too long, but you asked.
Boston, MA: I was in 8th grade and was in school that day. I remember kids in my class getting picked up early and was wondering what was going on. Finally, during my last period, my teacher put the news on and we saw the footage of the planes hitting the towers. I was terrified. I went home and saw my mother hysterical on the couch. She worked at Logan airport where the two planes that hit the towers departed from. She had many of her colleagues die that day. It was horrible and frightening. I never felt great about flying ever since, I have much anxiety about it. For years passed on many family vacations because I couldn’t handle getting on a plane.
I was literally at Tuesday Morning shopping. Either one of the employees or customers exclaimed it out loud in the store. One of the customers made a phone call and was crying into the phone. In my ignorance and optimism, it didn’t occur to me that it was terrorist related. I thought it was a bad accident. Then it was announced that the second tower was hit. By then I just wanted to get my son home (he was in elementary school at the time) and my husband home. Cell phone service by then was jammed and remained so throughout the rest of the day. School was released early and I think it was cancelled the next day.
I just read an article earlier today that the mastermind of this tragedy is still being held at gitmo. The trail is set for 2021. What a waste of resources to give this satanic individual a fair trail!
On Piedmont, driving to my job in Buckhead, listening to the radio when they said a small plane hit the WTC. Flipped on the TV when I got to the office. Minutes later, the second plane hit. I remember people coming in and out of the room, but it was totally silent. The sky was so, so blue.
My husband’s business also folded.
Still hard to think about it, isn’t it? I have a nephew that believes the conspiracy theories around it. I find that heartbreaking.
I was a sophomore at a Catholic high school in Milwaukee. I was at my locker getting books for my morning classes when the 1st plane hit. There was an announcement for everyone to get to their homerooms. When I got to mine the TV was on and we sat there and watched the live footage the rest of the morning. My homeroom was the “band room” up on the 6th floor and it had floor to ceiling windows all around. I remember seeing a military plane in the sky off in the distance. Around midday we were all sent home to try and make sense of what we all just witnessed.
In Melbourne, Australia. I was 10 years old at the time. I’d woken up and gone into the lounge room to put ‘Cheez TV’ on and rather than cartoons, I was confronted by images of the towers coming down. I will never forget what I witnessed that morning.
Working at my desk at 85 Broad St overlooking both towers which were a few blocks away. Saw the south tower fall and then saw nothing after as our 30 story building was completely surrounded by debris for hours after. Finally walked home at 5 pm to my apt. which was 4 blocks north of where the towers once were to rescue my dog. And, that’s all I can usually bring myself to say about that day.
I was in class; the TV was on. The group consisted of 30 advanced 7th graders in an English I class. And me (sic), their alleged teacher. I watched innocence wiped from their eyes that morning. I didn’t have a
single word of wisdom either.
I was in San Jose getting ready for my job as a graphics/prepress specialist at a print shop. Listening to TV. The long-anticipated birth of an elephant at the Oakland Zoo had ended in tragedy when Mama accidentally crushed baby. I was crying when I called a friend who had waited on that too. She thought I was calling about the first two planes. As we separately simultaneously watched, the second plane hit the Twin Tower. It looked more like a disaster film than reality. We were thinking about the victims and families, of course, but also about all of our friends working in the newsroom that we had worked at. Cluster fuck all around. Still doesn’t seem real
Because Silicon Valley was a place determined to be a possible target (some worried there would be attacks later on the West Coast), I knew I had to get to work because a major job was ready for major clients to approve. They would have been on the way before the attack. I took surface streets instead of the freeway. Drivers were exceedingly polite and looking shell-shocked. One of my favorite clients was there first. She was born and raised in NYC. I looked at her with raised eyebrows and she said “when you are fourth-generation NYC and your last name is Canavan (Irish), many of your family is NYFD or NYCPD. No way to contact any of them; she had to wait a few days to hear from anyone. She lost 12 cousins and second cousins that day.
On my way to a sales call at FBI (DC) and my boss called to say she didn’t think this would happen as a plane flew into a building in NY. As we were talking the second plane hit. I drove home (living in a suburb of DC) and heard about the third plane hitting the Pentagon (where I once worked), picked up my children in daycare, went home and worried about my husband who worked at an Intelligence Agency that was purportedly a target. Such a sad and surreal day…
In Melbourne, Australia this all started unfolding in the mid-late evening. I was just finishing up rehearsals for a production of Little Shop Of Horrors (the irony of the themes and imagery of that production stuck with the whole cast and crew for years afterward) and we were all standing around stage door, shooting the shit about the Harry Potter trading card game that had just launched – it was peak HP era, with the first film and the fourth book both set to launch.
Suddenly, all of our phones started going off in tandem. We were all being called by friends and family who were in front of TV’s during that 10pm hour, letting us know what was just beginning to unfold.
Several of us, as is the Australian way, had friends and loved ones travelling in the States, predominantly in New York. It was a long and anxious night tracking them down, especially the handful who were in flight transit on that morning.
By the time I’d made it the 30 minute drive home from the theatre, listening to live reporting as I drove, I went into my parents room where they were already asleep, and turned their TV on. I sat at the foot of their bed and watched the first plane hit.I didn’t move all night.
I will never forget that night, or the strange collective mental fog that followed on the campus of my university the next day. May none of us ever forget it.
Thank you Tamara for posting about your experience on this day that is burned into our memories forever.
Honestly? I could only read a few comments before I welled up, I still look away, I refuse to watch the World trade towers come down on tv shows or news stories etc. once was enough for me. I’ll read everyone’s story here eventually but I’m shaking right now and I pace myself in this instance.
It was a work day, I worked in an OBGYN office, work started at 8am here. I was getting pretty large with my youngest born 11/13/01 but I was still walking my am 2 mile loop early am with my now gone love Samantha, “Sam” (Golden), wearing a radio and headset as I did…the news started with indecisive reports but concern that it wasn’t an accident, things changed quickly, I remember looking up scared, at the sky, turned and moved my large body home quickly, called my husband while standing in front of our tv 2 feet away, sharing reports and news over the phone when the second tower went down, the one and only time I have watched. My husband kept telling me, no you’re watching the first tower, I was bawling and yelling at him that it wasn’t a mistake. I had a baby in me and I was so scared for her, for us, for our future as a family, how to protect us, our country and the LOSS!
No place better than SSI/Sea Island – my happy place – for sure!
On 9/11/2001 I was a lazy teenager. I was supposed to be at school, but I didn’t go that day. My Mom woke me up to watch the news. I really didn’t realize the impact of 9/11 until I watched the Daily Show with Jon Stewart a few days later. He has always, always, always, had a way of putting things into prospective. I miss him on TV but I’m so happy to watch his efforts all around still. We need more people like Jon Stewart in this world.
Oh it was just awful I remember being at the comedy club and there was this amazing comic duo named Sum Ting Wong and the other one was called Wi Tu Lo but I just remember being upset because they were still planning to perform and include what would be the worlds first 9/11 joke and despite the events of that day 9/11. So I just thought to myself hey that is pretty insensitive, 9/11 jokes aren’t funny. My dad died on 9/11, and he took a couple 1000 infidels with him!