Where were you/what were you doing as 9/11 unfolded back in 2001?

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

Where were you? What were you doing when you heard about 9/11? It is one if those days you never forget.

[AdamSmith]

I was in the office at work. A coworker browsing cnn.com saw the news of the first tower strike and told everyone. The boss let us go home around 11am ET.

[MsAnn]

I will never forget. I was in LA at the time, so New York was 3 hours ahead of us. I was cooking breakfast around 9:00 am, and a friend called and said turn on the news, the Twin Towers just collapsed. I turned on CNN, but they were running a loop that only showed the North Tower on fire from earlier in the morning. Not realizing the time difference, I called him back and said that they hadn't collapsed, only that the North Tower was on fire. I remember him being irritated by inability to grasp the significance of the event. A few minutes later CNN started broadcasting the collapse of the North and south towers, the Pentagon, and the plane that went down in a field in Pennsylvania. In that moment life changed, and I just knew that it would never quite be the same again.

[numerito]

I lived in New York at the time. It was a beautiful day that started normally. I walked to my office in Midtown and, when I got there, I found my colleagues watching the news on TV. At first, we thought it was an accident involving a small plane. We went to the boss's office, which had a view to Southern Manhattan and we saw the second plane crash into the Tower. We didn't understand what was going on, but we certainly knew that it was no accident and that they were not small planes. We were glued to the window and a while later, we saw the towers collapse. 

A terrible day unfolded, and the world took a turn for the worse. 

[BigK]

I was on the west coast then and woke up to the information.  I was scheduled to fly home the next day and got stuck in San Francisco.  A number of times over the subsequent 15 years I have made a point of flying on 9/11.

[Lucky]

I watched it on TV just miles from where it was occurring. The next day I went to 14th Street, which was the closest you  were allowed. Hospital workers were still waiting outside of St. Vincent's with dimming hopes. The smell was incredible. So many people had lined up and were applauding the care workers who went by. When I finally got to downtown, the ash, the flowers, the in-memoriam signs, all reminded me of the horror that had occurred. New York truly did come together for so many people in the aftermath.

[RA1]

I was getting a car window replaced that had been ruined by a rock thrown by a lawnmower.  As soon as I heard about the first attack, I went to my office and watched a TV in the lobby and saw the second attack then and there. 

All that was sad and bad enough but it was doubly brought home to me several days later when I went to EWR to retrieve and aircraft.  While preparing to land at Newark I could see smoke still rising in the distance where the towers were formerly. 

Sometimes TV tends to take some of the reality out of an event.  Seeing some of the results in person brings it all back.

Best regards,

RA1

[TotallyOz]

I was in NYC. I was supposed to be in the World Trade Center that AM but overslept.  I had relatives in town. My BF was in school at FIT and I didn't know if he was OK or not.  Running an escort service, you would not believe the number of calls the next few days.  I don't mean a few but hundreds each day.  I unplugged as no one, including me, wanted to work.  The city was quiet. No one know if it was going to happen again. The BF and I walked from 49th Street to 42nd Street the following week to go to a movie. No taxi horns and still no cars. Serene.  Silent. Sad.

[numerito]

You and I talked that day, remember, Oz? I actually had an appointment with one of your boys that evening, which was obviously cancelled. New York was eerily quiet, like you say. Sad and scary. 

[TotallyOz]

10 minutes ago, numerito said:

You and I talked that day, remember, Oz? I actually had an appointment with one of your boys that evening, which was obviously cancelled. New York was eerily quiet, like you say. Sad and scary. 

I do remember.  It was such an eerily quiet day and week that seem to drag on for a long time.

[AdamSmith]

28 minutes ago, TotallyOz said:

I do remember.  It was such an eerily quiet day and week that seem to drag on for a long time.

That was my experience of it too. Boston (Cambridge) where I lived was not directly affected, but felt somewhat connected as I myself had, many times, taken that very American Airlines Flight 11 (Boston to LAX) that Atta crashed into the north tower.

My original post above reflects what I, and friends in Boston -- none of us with direct involvement or friends lost, thankfully -- felt that day and the next few days. Just shock and emptiness, waiting to see what it would come to mean, for daily life, for the country, for the world.

[tassojunior]

I was in my office with a view of the Pentagon. Didn't see the strike but saw all the smoke. Had to inform my boss the Pentagon was on fire and we maybe should prepare to leave.

DC had all roads closed so big-wigs and Congresscritters in SUV's could blaze down the streets. The million peasants downtown were helpless and no one cared if we all died. 10 co-workers walked to my house. 

One co-worker's husband worked for NORAD or Air Force and said there was a 2nd plane coming down to DC and they were about to shoot it down (they claimed it "crashed"). 

My extremely attractive gay neighbor David Chalerbois was the co-pilot of the plane that struck the Pentagon. His lover still lives in their house and gets his pension. (david was a perfect "10", the lover not-so-much).

[Lucky]

(david was a perfect "10", the lover not-so-much)

In the context of this thread, that remark could easily have been left out.

[KYTOP]

I was in my office in Kentucky. I had the only office with a television, so my office became the gathering point for everyone. I will never forget the office receptionist running from my office loudly sobbing as we all watched in horror as people jumped from the Towers.

My Boss and the Company owner were stranded in Chicago as they were taken off their flight home, due to all flights being canceled. My office was close to the Airport, with the UPS air hub, and just East of the flight path. Very odd to see no flights for days.

The Boss and owner were able to get one of the last rental cars left in Chicago. They had to sign an agreement to return the car to Chicago within a week because everyone renting cars were wanting to leave the cars in their destination city. Leaving ALL of Chicago's cars all over the country. We are 300 miles from Chicago. 

I was involved with a large ambulance service in Louisville. Our service was activated by the Feds because Louisville is a Medical receiving city during national disasters. We put staffed ambulances at the Air National Guard base at the airport to receive patients to relieve NYC if they were overwhelmed. No one came.... there were so few wounded survivors.

[Theolover]

I will never forget either as I was in Disney World and was about to fly home that day.  I was packing when I turned on the TV and saw what happened. So I went down to the front desk of the hotel as I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere.  I ended up stuck there for almost another week.  It was quite odd being in Disney World at that time. The place was never slower. Magic Kingdom and Epcot had just over 3000 people in there during the days after so there were no lines for anything. I kinda felt bad being stuck in such a nice place. Disney could not have been nicer as they comped everything for me. The parks also did fireworks and parades that were not scheduled to try and entertain people. They put DJ's in the hotels to entertain the kids that were also stuck there. I was very impressed with all they did. It really did help keep our minds off this tragedy.

When it came time to fly home and I was in the airport for over 3 hours to get thru security, Disney sent their characters to the airport to entertain those waiting. 

I hope we never have to see anything like this again!

[BigK]

13 hours ago, Theolover said:

I will never forget either as I was in Disney World and was about to fly home that day.  I was packing when I turned on the TV and saw what happened. So I went down to the front desk of the hotel as I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere.  I ended up stuck there for almost another week.  It was quite odd being in Disney World at that time. The place was never slower. Magic Kingdom and Epcot had just over 3000 people in there during the days after so there were no lines for anything. I kinda felt bad being stuck in such a nice place. Disney could not have been nicer as they comped everything for me. The parks also did fireworks and parades that were not scheduled to try and entertain people. They put DJ's in the hotels to entertain the kids that were also stuck there. I was very impressed with all they did. It really did help keep our minds off this tragedy.

When it came time to fly home and I was in the airport for over 3 hours to get thru security, Disney sent their characters to the airport to entertain those waiting. 

I hope we never have to see anything like this again!

It must have been surreal to spend that week after at Disney World.