9/11

[Galactica]

I was getting ready for lawschool-  I think it was super early in the morning.  I thought the world was ending- I can't believe I went to class that day.  Saddest day ever...

[melipuffles]

I grew up in New York, just moved to PA 3 years ago at 18.

I remember that day, I was in 4th grade, about 10-11 years old. So, I was sitting in my classroom, and we smelled smoke. We were all the way in Brooklyn, but you could STILL smell the smoke. We thought there was a fire nearby but the teachers knew. They shut the windows partially, talked to each other in whispers, then when the second tower was hit, they closed the windows fully and shuffled us all down into the cafeteria, where they told us what happened. I remember watching the news on a TV in the school and all of the parents being called to pick us up.

Mainly though, being 10 years old, I was upset when I saw my mom, because I didn't get to get a cookie with my lunch since she came early. I didn't fully understand what was going on, thought it was an accident, and didn't realize that anyone was even hurt.

I remember going home and my mom crying and watching TV. It was pretty amazing that my mom walked, all the way from downtown Brooklyn, many miles, to come and pick me up. She didn't want to get on the train because it was too crowded. She saw the buildings drop from her window across the water from Manhattan.

I went home and relaxed, and when people in my family talked about it, it made me scared and I had nightmares. I remember asking my mom days later if I had to worry about a plane hitting our house, and being afraid thinking of people burning. I still get terrified thinking of it, even though my mom didn't really let me watch it on TV until I was older.

[SourdoughStomper]

I was 24 years old, married, with one toddler and one month pregnant with my second child. Living in Whitehorse, YT. I will paste my journal entry written a few days later.

It was 15 minutes until 6:00am. I had just gotten home from a long Greyhound bus trip less than two hours earlier.  (From Colorado to Whitehorse.) Even though I was tired I was too excited about being home with my husband and my toddler again to sleep. We decided to get up and make breakfast. My husband listened to the news on the radio alarm, and casually mentioned he had heard an airplane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York. We turned on the television, and the rest will be history.

I started to make pancakes for the family. At first, we didn't know how large the plane was, so we assumed maybe it was an accident with a little airplane. That impression was swiftly corrected when we heard about a second 757 hitting the other tower. The view we had on the TV screen was only showing one tower. The other tower was hidden directly behind it. My husband saw what looked like a giant fireball coming out of the first tower. We didn't know it was the second plane hitting the second tower until a few moments later.

One hour and 5 minutes later, we wondered what happened to the tower. Where did it go and what was all that browny-white soot? The shock we felt when we learned the tower had collapsed. The news folks told us to expect the other one to fall, too.

All the airports closed, in the US and in Canada, and even in some of the other countries. The stock markets all closed. The US-Mexico and US-Canada borders were closed. The White House was evacuated. Lots of other buildings all over the US were evacuated, fearing potential further terrorism. Schools and colleges were closed.

And this all happened on the very day I came home on a long bus trip. When I was leaving my departure point, I was almost going to take a different route, one that would have taken me 4 days instead of 3. The person behind the counter at the bus station was insisting that I take this other route, and they'd change it free of charge. If I hadn't done so, it's possible I would have been in Edmonton when the attacks happened. And I would have been stuck there as all the buses were stopped.

The story doesn't end there. All flights that were to go to America were redirected to Canada. That means that even Whitehorse might expect some airplanes to land. True enough, I heard the planes come overhead. I watched them land (my toddler even locked me out of the house - that's a story in itself). In fact, two planes landed, both 747's. In another words, very big planes that don't often, if ever, land on the Whitehorse airstrip. Our house is directly under the airplane path too.

I didn't recognize the symbol on the fin (made me think of the Pepsi logo), but I later learned it was Korean. A pair of airplanes were low on fuel and sent out a signal. That signal was misinterpreted and they were thought to be a hijacked.  All the schools in Whitehorse let out.

My husband came and picked the both of us up and we spent the afternoon in his office's lunch room. He was still under the impression that a possible enemy plane's flightpath was above our house and that it was headed our way. He didn't know it was a friendly plane and that it had already landed. It would have landed in Anchorage if the airspace hadn't been shut down.

A couple of Canadian fighter airplanes circled around the landed Korean plane. It was scary, but we are glad that it was a false alarm. Months later we learned that the Prime Minister (Chretien) would have had no qualms about ordering the fighters to shoot those planes down. A lot of innocent people would have been killed. I shudder at the thought.

[sweetlittlejenny]

I was 19 and married to my husband who was deployed on a ship and in the Navy and in the Mediteranean Sea at the time. I had just gotten to work at the drug store where there was a tv on in the office. (We never had the tv on) then I saw images on the screen of what appeared to be burning buildings. We then realized what we were witnessing and I began to cry. Crying for what had happened and what I feared may happen with my husband. I thought for sure they'd send his ship to retaliate and I was scared out of my mind. I stood at the register sobbing as I checked people out throughout the day.
My husbands ship was not sent to retaliate and he came home from deployment a month or two later. Still, that day was terrifying to me.

[CrazyCatPony]

i was a senior in high school, driving to school i heard on the radio the tower has been hit. and due to the fact that the station was always pranking i thought it was a really bad joke and in very poor taste. that was until i got in my first class and my teacher had the news on with all the replays.... that whole day in every class we watch or listened to what was going on. horrified doesnt begin to explain it.

[Roccoriel]

I was in the locker room getting changed after my 1st period Gym class.  The principal of the school came over the intercom and announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  For the rest of the day, we watched the footage in almost every class.

I lived in south eastern PA at the time, but a lot of my fellow students' parents worked in NYC or DC, so it was a really stressful day while they waited to hear from their parents.  I think one of my teacher's daughters was in the tower at the time, but made it out.

[Teddy]

I was in my on-campus apartment at my college in Florida. I had gotten home from my first class of the day and hadn't turned on the TV or anything yet, none of my roommates were home. But then I noticed outside there were lines of cars blocking up the streets leaving the school. I was confused, but then my Japanese roomies got home and told me a plane had crashed. I thought it had happened on campus and that's why everyone was leaving the area. They weren't that good at english, so I kept asking where the plane had crashed while I looked outside our window. One of them turned on the TV and I just stood there in utter shock for I don't even know how long. It was like watching a movie. So unreal. I saw the second plane hit and then I was just terrified. Reports kept coming in on the news of other plane crashes and no one knew what was going on. It was the scariest day of my life.

What a horrific day, forever burned into my memory. I have since been to two of the crash sites (Ground Zero and Shanksville, PA) and visited the memorials. Just wanted to give my respect to those who lost their lives that day. They will never be forgotten.

[mlp4me]

Between classes, Junior year...

[Prince Primbrose]

I was 7 years old, in first grade. I can't remember it, but my mom has spoken about it before. For some reason the whole family was awake and getting ready to leave at the same time. Mom turned on the TV to watch the news and the towers were coming down. I was so young I don't think I understood or even cared. We all went to school and work, and I remember my teacher had us write something about the events of the day. I wrote that I was so sorry for the people in the towers and their families, and asked god to help them, but even writing that I didn't register what exactly had happened to all those people.

[melodys_angel]

I was in highchool when it happened.  I remember having a headache just before then our second period teacher acting strange.

[archidraca]

I was in my Intro Structures class in University... We'd learned how the Towers worked and some of the mathematics behind it two weeks before. Two of my classmates who are perpetually late came in without their books and visibly shaken and interrupted class (which they never did) to tell us that something had hit the first tower and classes were likely to be cancelled while everyone tried to figure out what was happening. They walked out immediately after the announcement and we all packed up and headed to the dorms to see who needed help calling after relatives. I was in a kind of daze but I remember that the Professor looked shaken and urged us out before heading to the Offices. It took about 9 hours to confirm that one of my friend's (and later roommate) mom was OK, that she'd just had to walk across the Bridge to get to her sister's house. She had been only a couple of blocks away...

[Shenanigans]

My sister's birthday is on 9/11 so I was making her a cake when I heard about it. Even though I was 17, I really didn't understand what was going on. I never watched the news, never knew much about terroism, didn't know much about the wars (even though I studied wars in school, I didn't remember hardly any of it ) I watched the news constantly after I figured out what a horrible tragedy it was. I couldn't turn the tv off. The most striking thing I remember is the people jumping out of the buildings. I will never, ever forget that. To have to make a choice of being burned up or jumping to your death is not something a person should have to think about

[okamigirl64]

Thanks for all of your stories! I loved reading them to see where people were during that moment... Unfortunately I was only 5 and in pre-k when the towers hit (I'm 16), so I had no idea what on earth was going on and truly was more interested in just playing with toys and stuff. xD
I love history though, so I always like to hear what happened first hand. 
Thanks again!

-Okamigirl64

[Sugar]

I was living on the western end of the country then, and my colleague and I were just opening the coffee shop where we worked when one of our early-morning regulars came in and told us, flat out, "Two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre."  He was usually telling us one off-colour/sick humour joke or another, so my colleague and I were just standing there, waiting for the punchline... and he must've known from the looks on our faces, 'cause his face fell, and he elaborated, "No, really.  It's all over the news." 

It always gets me when this day comes round, because I later found out that one of the girls who was in my grade in high school died there; I wasn't particularly close to her or anything (she was in a far different social circle than I was), but still...

[kamakazee82]

i was in college. my day off of classes and full day of work. alone in the house, parents were away for the week.

i work up at 7:15 as always. turned on the tv, watching the news, eating breakfast, i remember the moment the special report broke through cause there was no warning, just "BAM" 'there has been an air space accident at the world trade towers' ... and then the work crew showed up to continue putting siding up ... i walked out and told them to go home that we were under attack ... they all came inside and watched ... i got ready for work ... i walk up the stairs and remember dropping to my knees as the second plane struck ... and crying as i see those poor souls trying to escape the flames ...

... i drive to work ... get there on time ... boss is mad that everyone is calling in, raving and screaming and swearing up a storm and i just took him by the shoulders and said 'shut up, the US is under attack, no one else is coming in ..." and walked away to unlock the doors ... and so many people had no clue what was going on when they came in to buy toys and got upset that i was the only cashier ... boss put the radio over the loudspeaker, people shut up and slowly meandered away ... one lady sat on the bench near my register to listen ... we turned on the tvs in the electronics to try and get a station ...

... gas stations jumped to over $4 bucks a gallon (we were barely over $2 at the time i think) ... grocery stores jacked prices up ... it was insane ... like  was walking around in a war one ... people fighting each other for food and water ... fist fights over gas ... and no planes ... it was eerie ... there are planes all the time ... but nothing ... that's i think what scared me the most ... the no planes ... and then when you'd see the stray fighter jet you'd jump out of your skin ...

... it was awful ...

... i didn't lose anyone super close ... but at the time on one of my message boards someone i chatted with all the time worked in the trade towers ... ran errands as courier between several offices ... i never knew their real name ... but i know they never came back ...

... my grandfather remembered Pearl Harbor the exact same way ... said it was a shame that people who weren't alive then didn't have the gravitas of the situation ... and said it was an even bigger shame that they should ever have to learn the gravitas of a similar situation ...

... but really i think it's the aftermath that i remember most ... friends joining the army/military/navy ... EVERYTHING changing ...