Where Were You 10 Years Ago? 09/11/01... - Richmond,VA

I was at work... I was making a post office run when the first tower fell - they had the tv on while I was standing in line waiting to post the packages...

My kids don't know - they are 6, 4, and 2.

I've had the TV off this weekend. My own memories are enough, I don't feel the need to watch it all over again.

J.

At the Delaware shore in Dewey Beach. Stuck.
Very unsettling not being at home.
And the world was SO. VERY. QUIET.
It was a silence I've not heard again, ever.

I was off work that Tuesday because I had two classes to go to in college. I had decided to sleep in that day. My husband called me, and asked if I was up and if I had turned on the T.V. I said no, and he told me to do so. I will never forget waking up to seeing the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. To think that all of this destruction and terror took place before noon time on a beautiful clear blue sky type of day. It was too much to take in all at once.

I have to say that on that day, seeing President Bush brought much comfort to me. In the next couple of days, he was the one constant presence. I knew he meant business. Many people can say what they would like to about him, but for me, he will always be remembered for those couple of days. He showed true leadership, and was their for those people.

My son knows a lot about 9/11. He is almost 8 years old, and wants to know what happened that day. He has always been fascinated by planes, and wants to be a pilot , as well as a policeman when he grows up. He told us yesterday that his prinicipal of his school wanted him to watch some of the 9/11 shows on t.v. He said that he knows it was a very sad day, and that lots of people died, and he should remember them.

I was sleeping in because it was my birthday. The phone rang and my father said, "Happy Birthday. Turn on the news, a plane flew into the world trade center!"

I spent the whole day on the couch watching the news. My birthday is now a national day of mourning. It's enough to turn even the brightest of Tiggers into a gloomy Eeyore. You know how hard it is to try and get people to want to go out and have a good time on this day?

"After all, what are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow." - Eeyore from The House at Pooh Corner

/sigh

I was in NYC, in the west end area. My cousin had just married her american boyfriend (in Italy) and had to move in his apartment in the city. It was a big move for her (relocating for good), so she asked me to make the trip with her and stay for a while. It was my first trip in the US, we arrived on Sept 7th. That morning (11th) we went to the bank to change some money into dollars , it was shortly after 9am and I remember seeing people running against our direction. When we got there the tv showed the smoke from the first tower but there was no comment yet, or maybe the bank kept the volume off, not sure. People in line were commenting "maybe a bomb" or "an accident" nobody had a clue and then we saw the other plane crashing into the second tower. The bank told us all to reach our homes and stay away from the world trade center area and that in any case the police would have told us what to do. While we were going home my cousin's husband found us and told us we were under attack. By the time we made it home, the Pentagon had been hit and the other plane crashed too. My family went crazy to try to call us from Italy, all the lines were busy, breaking news broke all over the world as soon as CNN spread the word. I will not go into all the details of all the pain I have witnessed and felt upon my skin as if I were myself a new yorker, I'll just say that it was the most absurd, lurid and coward expression of a sub-culture that, ten years after, is finally showing signs of weakness. What happened in Egypt, Tunisia and what is still happening, slowly but steadily, in Syria, Lybia, etc.. is the real victory over the empire of the shadows, as I call it..internet (american invention) has made the world a smaller place and the isolation these people are condemned to live in (so they can be better manipulated) is showing his cracks...Freedom appeals to everybody, give them hope for freedom and let them do their job: history is made of people turning against their dictators sooner or later. History is taking its course, once again, hopefully our children or grandchildren will witness the most dramatic cultural revolution of all times and finally the islamic masses will choose life over death, freedom over slavery, humanity over bestiality. And America will always take credit for it because with its ingenuity and love for life is making possible to shed light on the dark. I will never forget 9/11th.

At school with my group of first graders. The principal came around to each classroom with a note (that I still have...and pull out from time to time) that basically explained what had happened, that it was a possible terrorist attack, asked us not to turn on the TV, told us to expect student check-outs, and that it would be a good time to pray.

My youngest was 3 weeks old and we were on the way to his first doctor appointment, and it all unfolded in the waiting room. I can remember sitting in my rocker nursing him and rocking and crying and being in horror that our country was being invaded and I had a tiny baby to get through it. Of course after about 12-24 hours it came out what it was, which only made it a bit less horrifying.

He and I have talked about it a lot over the past few weeks. He gets it, knows exactly what it was and understands it. This boy has had several very trying events happen around him, and death and the threat of death is just a fact of life to him. He seems to just accept that it is another horrible event in our history.

I was working on a naval base in northeast Philadelphia. Pretty scary being sandwiched between NY and DC and with a plane on the loose in PA at that time.

My kids know nothing of it- they are just turned 4 and 2.5. I don't want to ruin their innocence yet....

I wrote this a while back.

I remember that day in excruciating detail. I was on my way to work when I heard that a plane had crashed into the Twin Tower. I remember thinking it was maybe a small plane flown by someone who lost control, I thought. "Really, what idiot flies that close to those buildings?" When I got to work, I was meet with a look of abject terror on one of my workers face. She ran to me and said, "Did you hear about the plane that hit the twin tower?" I said I had and I told her what I had thought on the way. She started shaking her head and interrupted me, "There's been another one." We stood there just looking at each other for a minute. I went ahead and set up for the day. We had a T.V. in the lobby and watched it with growing horror. Then we learned that a plane had hit the pentagon. This same co-worker looked at me, and as long as I live I will never forget the expression on her face, the tone in her voice or the look in her eyes, when she said, "What is going on?" As the day progressed, we spent the day watching the news. Hardly anyone came in that day. I remember my dad calling me at some point and saying, "If you see anything funny get out." He was scared and, since I worked in a bank at the time, was really afraid for me. Silly, I know, because here I was at this no name bank in a little town, but it just shows how much fear and confusion it created. I remember thinking, for all the turmoil and horror we felt sitting there safe in that bank, on the ground in New York it was a million times worse. What I was feeling was a miniscule fraction of what was happening there. I prayed that day, I prayed hard. Driving home, I thought of my family, I worried that my sisters fiance would be deployed, I grieved for the people we lost and feared for the future. I had often heard from people that were alive during the Pearl Harbor attacks, that they would always remember what they were doing, where they were and who they were with when the attacks happened. I know now what they meant, my co-workers that morning were Adrienne Meyer, Robyn Thomas and Joe Newman. That day lives on in my memory and probably will forever. All I can say now is, in my own small way, I still grieve for those people lost, I still fear for our future, but I also learned that each day is precious, a gift for us to take advantage of. So I close in saying, keep your loved ones close, forgive when you can and enjoy every moment you get.
God Bless you and God Bless America

My daughter is only three, the only thing she knows about Sept 11th is that is grandpas birthday.

Copied from a previous post on Sept 1.
My husband and I had gone to Reno to meet friends from a chatroom. (yes weird huh) They are all old enough to be my parents and grand parents so we had been in charge of arranging the trip and special outings for 10 others. We saw it on tv that morning. I thought it was a small plane, and an accident until the 2nd plane hit and they said what type a plane it was, which was huge. We then just looked at eachother and knew this was a huge big deal and not a good thing happening. We still had to take the group of friends to Virginia City and Carson City. We had reservations for a 15 passenger van and when my husband went to get it, the lines were horrible, and mob mentality. He was almost trampled by people wanting the van to get out of town. People screaming, swearing at him, offering a lot of money just for a ride. It was all because the airports and trains were shut down and people wanted to get home. We took our friends out anyway and everywhere we went they had tvs on and everyone was glued to the news. Then as things progressed the next few days we had another problem on our hands. We were responsible for these people and they were all stuck in Reno at the hotel and no way to get them home. We had driven to Reno so we could have just gone home but couldnt leave them stranded. You cant just up and leave a sweet 80 year old lady from Florida. You cant leave the 75 yr old couple from Tennessee or the 78 yr old man from PA. It took a lot of doing but we arranged for family members to drive across the country and other places to get their moms and dads, and get them somewhere safe. You cant imagine how we felt trying to calm their fears of not only an unplanned longer stay in a hotel, but what was happening in their country too. You think about what horrible wars these people had lived thru and it was so scarey for them. We did get home a few days later than planned and they all ended up home eventually. I still chat with the 5 who are still alive and we have a special bond having gone thru this together.
So yes I remember where I was. I was in Reno in a hotel with a terrific group of people.
Added: Our daughter was 18 and home alone that day. She remembers having a blow out on her car and everyone at the tire store was upset and it was all a big confusion because of the news. Our son was 24 and I dont know for certain where he was. I do know that it changed him and he is much more patriotic than I would have expected because of it.

At work, we wound up glued to the TV in our Director's office. One of my friends who used to work with me there just sent me a text about that morning.

We all left early, I went and picked up my son (then 5 years old) and he and I stayed glued to the TV for hours. Until he asked me if the planes were gonna come hit our house. Then I realized it was time to to turn it off until after he was in bed.

We had family living in Manhattan at the time, and a family member interning at the Pentagon (she happened to be at work in Maryland that day).

At a stop light on the main drag right into work. Right before this the radio station said... "hmm that's weird, there are reports of a plane flying into a building in NY"...they went to commercials then played a song. Seriously, the cut the song in half and broke the news.

When I got to work we pulled out the tv and not much later than that we watch the second plane.

I will never forget the drop in my stomach.

My sister at the time was 10...really hard to explain to a 10 year old what was happening. And very hard to explain to a 6 year old today what is going on.

Updated:
Nicole...I want to shout out a Happy Birthday to you...I have two nieces that have bdays today...and they and you should celebrate day! I believe that is what people would want.

I answered this yesterday on another post. Copy/pasting it to this one:

I was at work at the biggest ice cream plant in the US when the loud speaker came on and we shut down production.
We all gathered in our cafeteria, all 500 of us, and watched the TV monitors in silence. There was a prayer vigil and then we went back to work in a most somber way for the rest of the shift. I believe I was glued to the TV for probably the following month. It was horrifying. I will never forget it.
We went out for the best steak and lobster dinner the wknd following 9/11... just in case. I have never had steak and lobster since that time that tasted as good.... so it had to have been the emotional atmosphere of the time.

Spanish class. I was a junior in high school .I remember the tvs being on all day at school. It was all very confusing because we could only learn the little bits on the tv in between classes. my little boy of course knows nothing about it because he is only 2 and can't understand. He can't even really grasp why he only sees his uncle a couple times a year (my brother is in the army) but its weird thinking about how he will learn about this in school.

I was at work. We had one computer that had the capability to play movies. We watched CNN online in absolute disbelief. I was 3 months pregnant at the time with my first child. I was so sad and worried about what kind of world my little baby would grow up in. I was so emotional I never watched any of the coverage after that morning in the office. I just couldn't handle it. Yesterday was the first day that I looked at some of the pictures online. It still makes my stomach turn.

My in-laws were on the way to visit us on that day. We lived in Montreal at the time. Their plane was one of the last oversea flights that would be landing in North America that day. All the later flights were cancelled or had to return back. Theirs was already so far in that they didn't turn it back. When my in-laws arrived at the airport, they didn't have a clue about what had happened while they were in the air. They said they were a little surprised that the airport was so deserted when they arrived and that all of the people (airline staff, customs officers, etc.) acted kind of strange. But no-one told them anything. So they came out the door after customs all smiles and happy and the people in the arrival hall were all standing there with the strangest expressions on their faces. Finally my husband told them what had happened. Needless to say, they couldn't believe that while they were on the plane, the world had changed so dramatically.

I was driving to work and heard then announce that a plane had hit the world trade center. When I got to the school they had opened the large media center with two huge tv monitors, so the students and I were gathered in there with a bunch of other faculty. We all saw the second plane hit live on national tv.

Then we all watched horrified as all the events unfolded...when the news came in that a plane had hit the pentagon the faculty stared scrambling to find one of our students who's dad had just been transferred there and she and her family were waiting for the end of the semester to move. Turns out her dad was in a different part of the building, but with phone lines jammed we couldn't find out anything for a while.

Our school stayed in session and we kept the tv's on all day and watched and discussed the events. These kids were in high school and many were saying anti-Muslin things until some of their classmates started telling them they were Muslim and that they were not all like these crazy people on tv. It was brave of the kids, but it put a face on the typical Muslim believer vs. the extremists.

I have not shared with my children they are too young yet.

Chemistry class. Our principal buzzed over the intercom and told all teachers to turn on the televisions. They did, and we watched the news for the entire day. Even though we kept going to our scheduled classes, the tvs were on, and we all just watched. Probably the most silent school day I ever had.

I was a freshman in college. I was working at the nurse's office on campus and we were watching the Today show when they broke in with the news that the first plane had hit. We saw the second plane hit as they were talking. We didn't have any students in the office, so all of us were gathered around the screen. Our chapel service that morning was scrapped and dedicated to prayer. It was scary. I had classmates who's parents worked at the Pentagon and they couldn't get in touch with them. One of my classmates was from PA and his parents could feel the impact of Flight 93 and they saw the smoke. The gas stations in town jacked up gas prices to over $5 a gallon. We had a nuclear plant about 100 miles away and they were sending up fighters from the nearby AFB just in case. I was in shock that day. Now that I have a child, my emotions are different as I think back. I think about all the children who lost parents and all of the parents who lost children. I can't imagine going through that. My son is 4 and doesn't really understand anything about it. We watched the memorial this morning, but he wasn't paying attention. He'll have time to learn about it as he is older.

I woke up, went into the living room to drink my coffee and watch some TV. I flipped through every channel and it was nothing but news (I don't watch news very often). Not even paying attention I shut it off, and got ready for work. I walked in to work to find they had set up the small TV we had for CPR and training in the pt. waiting room, I thought it was odd because we never had the tv in the waiting area, I went and clocked in, started my daily routine and thats when I realized.....everyone....all of our patients, staff, etc, was glued to the TV. I knew something must be bad, but when I looked at the coverage it was much worse then "bad".
I think my mouth hit the floor.
My daughter is 2.5 and doesn't know anything about it, yet.

This day has been so upsetting for me, unexpectedly. It has gotten to me more than I thought it would. I was a week shy of 27, just started working in a new school teaching 5th grade, where I still am now. I barely knew anyone. We had our students in the cafe for an instrument demo, so they could sign up to play strings or band if they decided to. One of my colleagues, now a friend, came up to me and whispered, "Just wanted to let you know, a plane hit the WTC in New York." I immediately thought it was a freak accident, weird. It was about 9:15. Shortly after, when the second plane hit, a new kind of scary began and it has never been the same since. We had 10 and 11 year olds all day, but they knew something was up even though we tried to keep the whispering to a minimum. The internet was jammed, as were the phone lines. Parents started picking kids up, just in case... a few kids had family in NYC but no one in our school lost a parent or close loved one that day, amazingly. Somehow we got through the day... it was surreal. We met as a staff after the kids left and the guidance counselor gave us some advice to deal with the kids' questions the next day. The town in which I work has an air force base in it and for days, we heard the jets flying in and out, but that was the only sound in the sky. It was the oddest quiet all over the place, everyone in shock. I remember going for a run the next morning and it was like the world had gone on vacation, not a soul around.

A high school classmate of mine lost his life that day. He worked in one of the towers. He was one of the first kids I met when I started high school, a new school in another town for me. So incredibly sad.