I remember what I was doing 7 years ago today...

[okiemommy]

I had just turned 21 three weeks before Sept 11. I had one child. I asked my boss the day before if I could take off work because I wasn't feeling well. She agreed. I slept in that morning of course to get as much rest as possible. I started stirring a little before 9 am. I noticed my parents had the news on really loud. It was normal for them to have the TV on loud, but not the national news at almost 9 in the morning. In my groggy state, I kept hearing Trade Center, Airplane, smoke, New York City, and my parents voices. I could tell there was something different in their voices. The tone of shock that carried in their voices was tangible. I began to wake up enough to be able to piece together the things I had been hearing, and knew it was bad. I had the actual thought, this is worse than anything I had ever seen or heard of in my life. I got up looked at my parents. They glanced at me and then set their eyes on the TV. I looked at the TV and saw the tower on fire with smoke coming out of it. I'm still standing up. Not even two minutes after walking into the living room, I watch the second plane hit the second tower....I think, "Was that a replay?" in disbelief, even as the news anchor was reacting to it. It took a second; only a second for it to register, and I sank into my chair with huge tears rolling down my face.

Many fellow Oklahomans watched with a sense of kinship to this devastation. Our hearts re-broke for the people affected by that day. And many of us experienced our own loss all over again. Oklahomans and New Yorkers have something in common. We cried with them that day, and knew.








ETA this was not a response to anyone else's post. I had only read the first page and then began to write my post while wrangling my three toddlers.

 

[Maggie3]

I had just woke up and turned on the "Today Show" and they were showing a plane going into the WTC. It was really hard to comprehend what I was seeing. My husband works for the Federal Govt, I immediately called him just needing to make sure he was okay. I wanted him and my children home so I would know they were all safe. My husband's office now has armed security/guards in his office.

 

[the simple life]

I had sent the older kids off to school and I was rocking and feeding my infant son and watching the news when all hell broke loose.
First it showed how the first plane crashed into the tower and how everyone thought it was an accident then it showed the second plane hit and the panic going on.
Then it just went on and on getting scarier and more devastating by the minute.
I called my husband at work, he is a truckdriver and I wasn't sure if he had the radio on. He didn't so he pulled over and went into one of the places he delivered to and watched the news on a television they had there.
I called my parents to let them know, they hadn't been watching tv. Then I just watched for the day.
When the children came home from school they had alot of questions and were very scared.
I tried not to scare them any worse than they already were but had to make sure they knew what was going on, since that is all everyone would be able to talk about for a long while and I wanted to prepare them.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

pulling into my parking space at work, listening to the morning radio. The dj came on and said that a small plane had hit the WTC. I went inside and spoke to the security guard who said they werent sure if it was a small plane or not. went upstairs to my office to check my messages and call my friend who was supposed to be at the WTC that morning for work. she had flown in from CA two days earlier and was supposed to fly to Boston on the 15th to visit me and meet my dh. I couldnt get through to her. a few minutes later the second plane hit. I never heard from her again. Her brother had spoken to her the night before and she had told him she was going to go in and prepare her presentation early and have breakfast at Windows. I am thinking she was there when the murderers struck.

Today is always hard on me. I dread the 11th of Sept. I hate those that murdered my best friend. I hate those that support them. But I also hate that we are over fighting a war based on lies. That we are not there fighting for those that were murdered 7 years ago. That it was just used as an excuse. I do not believe much, if anything that our illustrious government has told us since then. I have seen and heard things that were then quickly quashed by the government. Things that were happening in the months, weeks and days leading up to the murders. To think that she and all those others were murdered. Those families. The moms and children on those planes. The men women and children. Mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, sons, brothers, best friends that were all murdered and then all the lies that were told after. all the truth's that were quashed and denied... makes me sick.

I have been lighting a candle every year, at exactly the moment the first plane hit. and another at the moment the towers were both gone,, for 7 years now. In honor of K and in honor of all those that have since lost their lives.
I remember my dh getting to my building from down town Boston to Harvard took over an hour. I remember getting into my car and having the windows down driving home and crying. Trying to get K on the phone, but knowing that she was gone. I remember the stomach cramps I had gone home with the day before and the nightmares I had been having for weeks before. I remember people being polite on the road ways. a sense of community and such... all gone now.
Diane Sawyer or Robin Roberts mentioned this morning that in the now 7 years since we were attacked not one drop of rain has fallen on the anniversary. I am sitting on my front porch looking up at a sky that is just as blue and sunny as it was that morning. It was horrible though over the next months and such to have to go through the accounts and find all that were based in the WTC and have to delete them. all those names. And then having relatives of those killed call us to cancel accounts and let us know that the person was gone.

Edited to add, I support the US military.Whole heartedly. I just dont support the current president.

 

[farmgirlie1031]

I was in class at Park University. Someone said something to the professor and he dismissed us early which he never ever did. I then sat waiting on my grandmother to pick me up and that's when I heard on her car radio what had happened. I sat the rest of the day in front of the tv watching reports and waiting for the rest of my family to get off work and come home. My dad knew some of the people killed that day through phone calls he made to them weekly at work. He never met them in person but talking to them weekly he had gotten to know them closely. One of the professors at the university her husband was there in NYC at the time but thankfully he survived. I overheard her frantic cell phone call while waiting for my grandmother that day.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I was driving to a hospital for a specialist appointment. While in the truck I heard on the radio about the first plane.

When I got to my appointment, I heard about the second plane.

I'm in Canada, and at that time I was very far up north. But there was an eerie hush in the hospital. I had to have a radioactive dye injected into me, and wait an hour then come back. I went to the mall for the hour, and it was eerily quiet in the mall too.

I was basically in shock the whole day. I didn't cry that day.

But reading all these posts, I am sitting here in tears.

God be with all who suffered because of this.

 

[Betsy]

I was doing morning housework and writing a letter to the post office in my head about their consideration of no longer shipping baby poultry. I was just getting ready to acwrite the letter on paper when my Mom, who was doing errands with my Dad called and told me to turn on the TV. I asked her why, and she told me to just turn on the TV. I raced to the TV, wondering what could have happened.

When I turned on the TV, it was shortly after the second tower had been hit. The first thing I saw was the towers billowing smoke. My first thought was that the towers had caught fire, and that everyone was safe. Then they showed a video of the second tower being hit, and I thought that was strange. Suddenly, the TV picture split in two, and the second half showed the Pentagon on fire. That's when I knew it was war, and got scared.

I'm not going to bore you all with the rest of how the day went...only that I watched the TV almost the entire day and that in my shock....the sun still shone and the birds still sang

 

[ncgnance]

I remember...I was watching Fox News, getting ready to head back to work at the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant, when the first news came in. I was glued to the tv from then on, and watched the 2nd plane hit. It was like a terrible, terrible dream. Calls from my sisters, friends started coming in. I started calling Harris, but everything was shut down. I called the Brunswick Plant, and was told not to come in until further notice-all non essential personnel was dismissed. My daughter came home in tears. She had left work to pick up her child, just to hold her and protect her. Tracie is active reserve, and she realized, before I did, what was coming. After a few days in a daze, I went back to work. The first thing I remember, vividly, was the sight of the guard on the roof with a machine gun. The second sight, and I still cry when I think of this, was a HUGE American flag attached to the side of the reactor building. I have NEVER been so proud of my country and my fellow Americans as I was at that sight. It said "we will survive, we will get through this...." And we have. The loss of life and property was horrendous, but it woke us up, I think. I thank God for the outstanding leaders and firemen and policemen we had at that time. I still feel the pride and love I have for this country. God bless our President, and God bless the USA.

 

[Mrs.Yardbird]

I had to just gotten to campus for my morning class. There is a big cooridor there with tv's and such and since everyone else was sitting and watching, I decided to join them. We watched as everything was going to hell and our professor kept coming out and yelling at us to get to class...The irony in all this is it was my World History class..the professors exact words were "We have history to learn people, get to class now" A fellow student stood up and yelled back to the professor "We, sir, are watching current history and could care less about the history you are wanting to teach us at this moment."
The professor came over and saw what was going on and stayed silent for days...He finally said he felt like such a fool to have behaved that way.
As with everyone else I am sure, we all have a place in our heart for prayers and thoughts for the family and friends of everyone effected by that day.

God Bless

 

[warcard]

I was taking a Physical Fitness Test (Air Force). I had just finished and was about to head back to work when everyone started looking at the TVs in the gym. I thought is was a hoax. I called my boss, he said to just go home. I went home and watched TV and hugged my puppy, then my husband when he got home from class.

I called my Dad, my Mom was supposed to be working at the Pentagon that day. He hadn't heard from her. Thankfully shortly after that she called, her meeting had been delayed and she wasn't there.