Still remembering...

[kathpatty]

Had just got to work and was told someone had bombed the WTC...
spent the morning watching the destruction and cried and prayed...
That's what I was doing

RIP all

[90sKid]

I was in fifth grade and remembered that all throughout the day kids were getting called home early. When I got home from school my mom told me that two airplanes struck the Twin Towers in NYC. I didn't truly understand the implication of it until I saw the devastation on TV. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered a loss on this day..

[zerospace]

My father's main office was in NYC at the time, and the news was coming in via other students with news on their cell phones as I sat in my Nonlinear Dynamics & Chaos course at Penn State main campus. I had a Quantum Mechanics course in the same room immediately after, but we were dismissed from class early, and my remaining classes that day were cancelled. I remember walking across the street to the front steps of the main physics building on campus, and calling home to see where my father was -- I was relieved to hear him answer the phone. A few minutes later I walked into the main student hang-out, known as the "hub", and watched the videos live on the enormous television screens in absolute disbelief.

Later, I went back to my apartment, which I shared with 3 other girls only to find out that one of them lived no more than a mile or so from the Flight 93 crash site. Her family was alright as well, thankfully.

That was probably the most surreal day of my entire college career -- I will most certainly never forget it.

[teggacat]

I was at work and heard on the radio about the first plane, didnt realy think much about it,
then the second plane, then the third....as Zerospace mentioned, it was so surreal...
then the horror of it all really started to sink in.....freaked out to say the least.....
Thank You KP for posting this

[Eternal Squall]

I was alone in my studio at college, preparing for the next days submissions. Another student had come in later to do the same as me. I asked her if I could turn on the radio, if it wouldn't be much of a bother to her. She replied that it was fine, be nice to have some ambiance. I turned it on and, for a minute or two, wasn't paying attention to what was said. My attention was finally focused when I hear some crying, and mentionings of the pentagon. The radio host was telling of how an attack happened at the pentagon. I asked the other student if she knew what was going on. She didn't, so we both walked down towards the school offices, which happened to be located at the opposite end of our position. As we took that walk, the silence started to create an unease. We passed class rooms that were normally alive with frantic drawing, and puzzled questioning from students. We knew something bad had occurred if the upper floors were void as they were. We made it to the offices, and saw a tv had been set up outside, and thats when I saw the replay of the towers falling. For about 2-3 weeks afterwards, I felt like I was walking aimlessly. Going through the motions of life, and being numb. It wasn't real. This didn't happen in the US, this couldn't happen. Everything around seem to be standing still. Those first few days, it was so odd not to see a plane in the air, coming into or leaving DFW airport. Nothing in the sky to show that the world was turning. A far off sound of a millitary plane zooming by were frightening. What was coming next? Life was going to be different from now on. It still is. Peace of mind will be so much harder to come by now.

A sad day. All of us will never forget.

[JWR]

I just came home from attending the Los Angeles Kings Hockeyfest at the Staples center today. As part of it the Kings organization had a rememberance of two of their "family members" Garrnet "Ace" Bailey & Mark Bavis who both were on the 2nd plane to hit the towers. Having those two people who I had the pleasure to have met the year before taken in such a way still hits home.

[JuniorMintKiss]

I was a senior in high school and was just getting ready to go to school, when my dad pulled into the driveway; he was coming home from work. His face was so pale, like the time when he told me that my mom passed away. I thought someone at his work was in an accident. He came over to me and said "Did you hear what happened?" I said no and he told me to turn on the radio while I drove to school.
In every one of my classes, we just watched the news. I just remember every class being so quiet and somber. Ten years later, my heart still goes out to those victims, and to those who selflessly came to the aid of those who were suffering.



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[graymouser]

I remember I was bidding on a LU cel on ebay. I was looking around at other sites while I waited to see if the person I was bidding against was going to counter bid again. I saw the pictures on a news site and thought they had been hacked as a prank. I just found it too unbelievable. I placed another bid and then visited another news site. At that point I realized it was for real. I turned on the TV and just sat there stunned.

[cutiebunny]

Like others have mentioned, I was in college at the time. My school ran on a quarter system, and September 11 happened to fall during the finals week of the summer quarter.

Not being a morning person, I scheduled all my classes for late mornings and afternoons. I got up around 8 am PST and turned on the TV. It happened to be on BET, the channel I was watching the night before because of their show, "Comic View". The first image I saw was a couple of white newscasters talking about something..and sadly, it was who was on TV and not what was on TV that was the first indicator that something was wrong.

I thought that it must have been a prank, but when every channel showed the same news feed, I realized that it was really happening. I was glued to the TV, incredulous that this was happening.

The bus ride to the campus was silent, as most everyone on the bus was aware of the terrorist attacks. I remember that I was quite frustrated as to why UC Berkeley's classes were all dismissed due to security issues, but not my UC's classes. The bombing was not mentioned in any of my classes as if the professors were trying to establish some sort of normalcy. I don't recall anyone being able to focus that day. When I headed to the lunch area around 1pm in the afternoon, there were several TVs that were showing the news, and groups of students were all huddled around them.

Incidentally, my cousin's birthday happens to be on September 11. At the time, she was seven years and was very upset that someone would do this on her birthday.

Thanks for creating this topic. I've never really talked about where I was on 9/11, and I don't think it's a topic that too many people bring up.

[JWR]

Where was I on that day....

Like most I got up and saw the newscasts while getting ready for work that day. It was surreal. There was the disbelief that you wanted to wish that what you were watching was just a Hollywood movie special effect.

So I went to work that day, I spent time with all the people I worked with who were in a simular state of shock. But I had to shake that off for that being a Tuesday happened to be a meeting night for our local Elks Lodge in Pasadena CA. of which I was the current Exaulted Ruler (IE Lodge President) and had a meeting to run. Quite a few lodge members asked me if I was going to cancel that nights meeting. I told them I would not.

Before the meeting started I addressed the membership. Basicly I put forth that I thought it would be best to hold our normal meeting due to the fact that unlike a lot of Fraternitys such as the Masons & Moose, The Elks only have Lodges in the United States and being a US citizen was one of the requirements for membership. That fact helps lay the claim that the B.P.O. Elks is one of the most American of said fraternity and as such I explained that those who chose to be Elks should not allow the actions of a few terrorists in commiting those acts stop us from doing what we held dear to our order. So we went ahead and had our normal Lodge meeting that evening.

The next day the attacks really hit home when I found out that two people I had met the year before involved with scouting to the Los Angeles Kings hockey club were on the second plane to hit the towers.

A few days later the Orders Grand Exaulted Ruler (IE National President) established a special charitable fund to be used to help the families of Elks lost in attacks. I am extreamly proud that through donations of our members as well as specific fund raising efforts put on by our Lodge I was able to present our Grand Exaulted Ruler a check for just over $20K to that fund.

The events of that day made a lasting image in my life.

[Kaona]

I had just returned from a business trip the Friday before. I ate at a Chili's restaurant at the airport that had large serrated steak knives, right next to the gate.

On the morning of September 11, I was making breakfast for my family and turned on the TV. The local news had switched to national coverage of a fire caused by a plane that had flown into the World Trade Center. From the angle, you really couldn't tell if it had been a small or large aircraft. And then suddenly, right there on live TV, another plane flew into the second tower and exploded. It was just so unbelievable for a moment, but as the morning progressed, we knew we were under siege. It was like living in a bad B-movie.

A week after that, we flew to Hawaii for vacation. No one at the airport really knew what to do in terms of extra security, but they did delay us a few hours searching the aircraft and looking through luggage and mail sacks as they were loaded. Maui was deserted (the locals said it reminded them of the 1950s).

Tragically, my coworker's sister, her hubby and their 2 year old daughter died on that second plane (Flight 175), on their way to Disneyland and Grandma's house, and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of world I had brought my son into. He had just celebrated his first birthday a few weeks before. I ALWAYS remember little Christine and her parents when we fly as a family, and hope somehow their spirits watch over us for a safe flight.

[tex-chan]

I was at work. One of my co-workers ran into our bay (I worked at a huge insurance company that specialized in serving the military) and yelled that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all ran out into the hall, to the nearest TV lounge and stood there watching the news coverage of the first crash. We all were speculating that it must have been an accident. Maybe we wanted to reassure ourselves and believed it would be an accident if we said it out loud or often enough. But, as we watched, the second plane crashed into the WTC. To say it was shocking or a moment of horror just isn't enough. It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen. The most painful and heartbreaking thing I have ever seen. All those lives were there one moment and then just gone, right in front of us. I still can't wrap my mind around it. And then, the ongoing news coverage ... as we stood around the TV lounge and watched the WTC burn and collapse, with people jumping from the building in desperation. And also learning that another plane struck the Pentagon ... and another was brought down in PA. It was a nightmare that will never leave me -- or any of us. Innocence, safety, and security were all lost that day, along with the precious lives of the victims and brave people who responded to the disasters. The next several days were like sleepwalking. Security where I lived at the time increased, as we had a lot of military bases. That night, I got home and loaded up my dog to drive to another city a couple of hours away, where my hubby lived. I just needed to be with him.

[sensei]

I was actually in State College, PA, as well, chairing a meeting of one of the committees of the Penn State University Faculty Senate. These meetings were pretty intense, as there was a lot to discuss and get right. The university's Vice President for Student Affairs, a stony-faced and intimidating official who demanded professionalism and perfection in details, was an ex-officio member who came for the main business. He questioned every detail of what we were proposing, and his approval, often given grudgingly and after long negotiation, was crucial to the progress of everything we did. So we were totally focused on our business.

At one point, his cell phone went off, as it often did during meetings, and he excused himself and went out in the hall to take it. We heard him exclaim, "Oh, my God!!" But as there were student strikes going on, and very visible scandals dealing with public drunkenness and fighting on the campus, we assumed that some campus-related crisis had come up. In any case, he stepped back into the door and told us that he had to leave. And so we continued the meeting without him, with a little sigh of relief.

Later, when we finished our business and filed out into the building (the HUB or Student Union), we found TV screens in every corner showing footage of the Towers burning. Then we understood that the VP had just been notified of the attacks by one of his staff. In a flash, his administrative mind told him he had to scramble to set up memorials, blood and charity drives, crisis intervention for those who had family in New York City and Washington, and so on. That I can well understand.

But I never understood why he did not tell those of us in the committee room what was going on. Perhaps he simply was in shock and not thinking straight. Or perhaps he felt it would break our professionalism and make the reports and recommendations we were writing less satisfactory. In any case, there were lots of things that the VP figured were none of our business.

I think it was about then that I started thinking that perhaps Penn State was not the place for me to spend the rest of my life.

[zerospace]

Interesting, sensei, that your perspective and mine were so very different, and yet we were in virtually the same location. I don't even think I was much aware of anything going on on campus that day, though I spent most of the late morning sitting on the terrace outside the then-very-crowded hub talking to a friend. I think the only reason we had a seat was because I was there so early in the morning (I almost always had classes at 8am).

It's amazing how much detail we all remember, considering we are talking about events that occurred 10 years ago.

[D123]

I was in fifth grade and remembered that all throughout the day kids were getting called home early. When I got home from school my mom told me that two airplanes struck the Twin Towers in NYC. I didn't truly understand the implication of it until I saw the devastation on TV. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered a loss on this day..

Exactly the same with me I was in 4th or 5th grade (probably 5th) when it happened. Everybody was getting taken out of class early me and those few left were smiling and laughing in amazement wondering what was going on, then I got home and found out. Such a sad time

..I also let my parents know that I was real flattered they didn’t bother yanking me out too D: