Where were you when the world stopped turning? Remembering 9.11.2001

[ChicknThief]

I was 10 years old. My siblings and I were getting ready for school, and wondering why my dad and step-mom hadn't come out of their room yet. We were running late so I went to go get them. When I walked into their room, they were both staring at the T.V. and crying. I got into my dad's lap. It took me some minutes to figure out what was going on, but the emotion from my parents had me crying right from the moment I saw them. I just knew something was horribly wrong.

My dad was supposed to be on a work trip that day in NYC. One of the things they had wanted to do was check out the WTC. At the last minute, their trip was post-poned. I shudder to think what could have happened in our family if there hadn't been some Divine Intervention to delay that trip.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

I heard it on the radio while feeding my horses. I burst into tears.

What a sad, sad day.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I was taking my son to preschool, and listening to the radio, and it was tuned to a station I don't usually listen to. I thought that the morning banter was particularly crass, saying that there had been an attack on the world trade center. I switched to my usual Morning Edition on NPR and realized it was horribly true. I dropped my kiddo at preschool, came home, and sat glued to the TV holding my one month old baby, tears streaming down my face. I think I spent the entire time my boy was in preschool doing the same thing...after I picked him up, I had to hold it together, but I couldn't keep my mind off it, and I turned the news on when there was any opportunity.

 

[Matthew3590]

I was in the 1st grade being mad that we didn't get to go outside that day since the day before my the pe teacher said we would. I didn't know what happened until I got home.

 

[canesisters]

I was sitting at my desk when the gen. manager came running out of his office yelling "A plane hit the World Trade Center!" He went out the door (we found out later that he went home to get a TV so we could see the news). We turned on the radios till he got back. I called my husband who was at home that day and said "Turn on the TV, we've been attacked".
I was working for a haz-waste company. A short while later, my husband (also worked for the company) and several friends left to spend a month up there helping to clean up and sort through the debris.
I watched the memorial this morning. Still chokes me up as if it had just happened. Makes me think about the folks who were around for Pearl Harbor.

 

[bucky52]

i was getting ready for work.my dh was watching when the plane hit the twin towers.it gave him cold chills,when he was watching it this morning.so sad.i feel for the families.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I'm about a half hour or so from the Pentagon and was getting ready for work when the first plane hit. I figured it was an horrible accident. Then my husband hollered that a second plane hit and the first thought I had was "The smoke from the first accident must have confused the second pilots". Silly, I know, but I COULD NOT for the life of me wrap my head around someone actually doing this on purpose. My husband said "No. We're being hit by terrorists."

I was determined that terrorists weren't going to impact my life so I went to work. Big mistake. I had two children in school - one in elementary and one in middle school. As we're so close to the Pentagon, there are a lot of people in the community that work there. What I didn't think of was what was going on in the schools.

My son was in 3rd grade and they wouldn't tell the children what was wrong. Yet teachers were crying. And leaving. Some had family members at the Pentagon. Children were being taken out of class by parents that were in tears when they picked the children up. Teachers were huddled, whispering, crying, going in and out of classrooms. My son was a total wreck when he finally made it home as he had lived the entire day in fear by not knowing what was happening. My older child did better as she was in 8th grade so they told the children what was occurring and they watched it.

My eldest daughter - married and a pre-school teacher - had a different side of the coin. She had young children that had parents who worked at the Pentagon in her care. There was no cell phone service that day and she couldn't reach them. The parents couldn't make it out of town to get the children. She didn't know if parents were dead or alive. She had no choice but to just sit at school with the children until parents or guardians showed up and it was very late into the evening - I think about 8:00 PM - before all children had been picked up. Thankfully, none of her charges lost their parents.

Twenty two people from my county died and everyone knew of someone impacted in some fashion. My son played ball with a boy who lost his dad, we know several children that lost their grandmother, and one of my friends lost his mother-in-law.

A horribly sad day.

 

[OwlLover]

7 miles away from the pentagon when it was hit. My aunt was living right next to us and came over and asked us "Did you hear that boom?". My dad said "No, but look at what's on the news."

 

[Zinnia-Hen]

It was a bright day. And the thing is, since I was living in California at the time the timezone was completely different. When the planes hit the towers it was still quite early. I was in the backseat of my mom's car, dropping my older sister off at middle school. We heard what had happened over the radio. The whole thing was quite surreal. The images playing back and forth on the television screen, the information, etc. The usual bustling skies were empty. I lived near quite a few airports, two international, one military, and many for personal or small planes.

 

[Y N dottes]

I was 5 years old that day and all I can really remember is watching every news station replaying numbers of scenes. It was one of those things when your young and you dont realize what really happened. I felt like I was watching a movie and it wasnt real.