What were you doing the morning of 9/11?

[theOEGBman]

I was getting ready for school. I heard my brother in the living room say, "Mom, this building is on fire." I went in and saw the first tower with the smoke pouring out of it. I got on the bus and when I got to class, my teacher explained to us what was happening and everyone was in a pretty blank mood throughout the day. I can still remember it clearly, and its already been 8 years.

 

[cluckincrazy]

I was in the car with my DH. It was before we were married. We were arguing for some reason and we totaled the car. It became very real after that.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I had the day off and was out changing the oil on my truck. DH--who was my boyfriend--answered the phone and called out. "Your Ma's on the phone." As I went to get it, he added, "Oh, the World Trade Center collapsed and a plane's flown into the Pentagon." I thought he was joking. When we went grocery shopping later, we were the ONLY people buying perishable food.

A friend of mine who worked at a small country store said it was very crowded that day. The gas distributor told the owner to jack up gas prices. As she was at work, a poor, rather dirty man approached her and said that he had to get gas to get his daughter to the hospital because she was having her baby. B/c of the huge line for gas, he couldn't get through though the store owner offered the gas for free. The man's poor dirty pregnant daughter came in to use the bathroom. Her poor dirty mother ran to my friend and asked for blankets. By the time my friend got the blankets into the bathroom, the baby had been born. An auspicious way to enter the world: in a store's bathroom in a podunk town on 9/11--good or bad.

 

[Parson's Wife]

We had finished breakfast, and were just getting ready to work in the yard, when my MIL called. We didn't have a TV, but we went to a family member who did....arrived in time to see the 2nd plane tear into the 2nd tower....I remember shaking and praying. I was just sick.
I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling.

 

[Capone]

i was sleeping before work, when my wife woke me up and said there was a plaine grash. i sat on the couch and watched the second plaine hit. i got very angry

 

[ivan3]

Had gotten home at about three that morning (driving in from KCI). Had fallen asleep with CNN on. I woke up still feeling the lag and altogether blurry. I thought they were replaying video from the `93 bombing, then the second plane hit and cleared the cobwebs forthwith. Cass joined me shortly thereafter and was kind enough not to remind me that it was my birthday.

In an altogether odd bit of synchronicity, the book I'd been reading on the plane the night before was John McPhee's The Curve Of Binding Energy (FSG 1974) in which he travels the country with Theodore Taylor, looking into the state of the nuclear industry and spending a great deal of time discussing Dr. Taylor's two decades as the U.S. maven of fission bomb design. At one point in the book they take the elevator to the 40th floor of WTC1 and sit in the lobby of the Toyomeka corp. offices as Taylor `blue skys' on how to drop the building with a 1kt device that could be fitted into a golf bag... "like cutting down a big tree". Well, Dr. Taylor, it didn't go down that way...

 

[Chicks & Turks]

I was in school, 3rd grade I think? My mom texted me on the phone saying she loved me. I didn't get why she would do that in the middle of the class. Then she checked me out, we lived right beside a military base at the time, like a tenth of a mile and she wanted to be further away from the base, just in case. She was so upset and at the time I didn't get it.

 

[poultryhaven]

Wow 3rd grade and already had a phone?!
lol
Anyway, lol i was in 2nd grade and the principal made an announcement and we turned on the tv and i didnt think it was a big deal.

 

[fhdogs]

I was on my way to work (WTC in my view due west of me on the highway) a co-worker and I walked into the office told our boss we were leaving, and took off toward downtown Manhattan. We were both volunteer EMT/Firefighters, and we responded as quickly as we could.

I spent about 36 hours at the WTC and then returned several times with my EMS company standing by to treat/transport any recoveries. When I wasn't on standby I spent my time at Shea stadium manning staging tents with food and water for other firefighters going on/off shift to the WTC.

 

[Chicks & Turks]

Quote:
yep, i had just gotten it as an early birthday present. it was moms old phone but she got a new one so I got the old prepaid one