Where were you? 9-11-01

[MLeeK]

I was teaching at Fort Hood Texas.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I was living in Long Beach, CA.
We moved to Ohio, that Oct.

Getting the news when we woke in the morning from a friend back home, who left a message on the answering machine.
It was surreal.
Couldn't really understand her message, but got that we had to turn on the TV...

 

[Mach0]

I was in science class my senior year of high school.

 

[Trever1t]

I was watching the early news (California is -3hrs) as they were talking about a fire on one of the towers. There was speculation of a small aircraft hitting it. As they zoomed in I was wondering how in heck they would ever make repairs to the structure so high up? As I'm watching a FREAKING HUGE JET hits the other building! Now I was sure I was watching a movie by mistake, I hadn't had my coffee yet ya know? No, it was real, I dressed and went to the office, setup the little tv and spent the whole day in a coma, watched the entire event unfolding, the people jumping, the buildings falling....

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Working for Conway Southern Express in the customer service department. It was the only time I remember the phones being silent for more than a few minutes.

 

[sm4him]

I was sitting on the couch at my parent's home, along with two other sibs, a sister-in-law and my parents. We had been up all night long because my grandmother had died at about 11 p.m. the night before (at their home, where she lived--she was 98 years old and she was the most important person in my world besides my parents and my kids).

It was one of those odd things, the night before. I'd been by to visit, then we headed out for scouts. But I had the strongest sense that I needed to turn around and go back, so I did. I had a friend take the kids and stay with them at my house that night, so we (the grownups) were all there as she breathed her last. Then we sat and talked and remembered, and waited for the coroner, and sat and talked some more.

So, the next morning we were already worn out, in shock and trying to wrap our heads around our grief. Someone called my sister and said to turn on the TV. To this day, the emotions of that morning come back nearly full-force when I reminisce about it--we sat there on that couch, watching what at first was reported as a horrible accident and then turned clearly into acts of terrorism as other reports of attacks were reported. Do you remember that at one point, reports were that the Mall in DC and the White House itself were under attack?
Then the first tower came down. I literally get shivers down my spine just writing about it. My dad has a lot of family in NY and we had no idea if some of them might work in those towers.

I sat there on that couch ALL. DAY. LONG. Watching. and Weeping. And I simply had NO ability to function, or more importantly, to process my grief. I kept crying and I couldn't for the life of me figure out if I was weeping for a grandmother I'd loved so dearly and lost, but who had gotten to live a long, full, amazing life, or if I was weeping for so many whose lives had been suddenly, horribly cut short, or if I was weeping for our nation and what was upon us, for the moms and dads and wives and husbands and sons and daughters who were about to get news that made my grandmother's passing pale in comparison.

To this day, I cannot separate my grief for the two events. This year it was especially difficult, because the day my grandmother died was Sept 10 (just barely), which was also my sister-in-law's birthday. My sister-in-law suddenly and unexpectedly died in her sleep in early May this year, and so these past two days, my heart and my mind have just bounced around from one event to the other.

At some point that day, my sister and I went to pick my boys up from school. I remember deciding I needed to go pick them up pretty early, before noon. What I *don't* remember is why on earth I ever sent them to school that day in the first place, when their great-grandmother had just died!
At any rate, my youngest son make a comment that I will always remember--he said, "Nana died, and the whole world just fell apart."

 

[MLeeK]

It's incredibly surreal how you remember the details of that day when most of us weren't directly affected (didn't lose someone there) other than the tragedy as a nation. I can't remember the births of my children as well as I can remember that day.

 

[4meandthem]

I was VP of manufacturing for a custom woodworking company that was owned by a computer company. The owners and most of the staff were middle eastern. The phones stopped ringing overnight!

 

[TransportJockey]

Home sick from school and playing video games. I was in the eight grade at the time. hell, I could still tell you what video game I was playing

 

[jhodges10]

I was working at a pharmaceutical company when the office gossip came by and said a small plane had hit and there was a fire. She was one of those people that overblown everything so we kind of ignored her. I had a second thought and did an Internet search to see what was up. Next thing I know we've got a little tv set up and my whole department is glued to it. Our offices were very near CVG (Cincinnati) and flights were overhead non stop every single day. When all the planes were grounded the silence was eerily noticeable. It's sad that anyone would ever feel justified in any way to perform such an act.

 

[pixmedic]

me and the wife were sleeping in...more or less...it was our 2 year wedding anniversary. we were married 9/11/1999

 

[Jaemie]

The middle of the Golden Gate Bridge, going about 55mph southbound on the way to work downtown. The rest of the day was ...very sad.

 

[IByte]

I was in the office when the TV displayed the first plane hit the tower.

 

[Desi]

LA county hospital, 9th floor. Attending to a gunshot victim while all the TVs on the ward were showing what was happening. Very hard to finish morning rounds. Many of my friends had gone to New York for their residency.

 

[molested_cow]

It was at night for me. I was lurking around on a car internet forum when everyone was talking about the WTC towers. I turned on my tv and couldn't stop believing that this isn't a movie.