Where were you on Sept 11, 2001?

[GreenPartyVoter]

I was here at home (in Maine) and got a call from a friend to turn on the news. I was scared to death at what I was seeing so called my dad to let him know what was going on. By some miracle he was home that day. (Strange how no matter our age it's so reassuring to talk to our parents in times of crisis.)

But as the months rolled by I stopped believing in the stories the misAdmin rolled out about the attacks... became a lihopper, then finally a mihopper as more info rolled out here at DU and elsewehere on the 'net.

I am still haunted by visions of the planes... of people jumping off the towers. Haunted by images of kids, ours and theirs, from Iraq and Afghanistan. And now I am haunted by bodies floating in the streets of NOLA.

To my fallen compatriots, I am so sorry that we let you down by letting the junta remain in office. But I promise you we are doing eveything we can to get them out. If there is such a thing as an afterlife, such a thing as angels, I pray you are haunting the people who brought death to you. And I pray that you find peace.

------------------------------------------------------
Ditch Bu$h and save the Gulf: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[bahrbearian]

1. Down Town Seattle looking up at the Buildings. Imagining.

[Pobeka]

46. In Federal Way, WA. Also wondering about Seattle and hoping the best.

[okieinpain]

162. dropping my son off at school monroney jr. high school. midwest city

oklahoma. listening to some guy on the radio joke about the idiot flying his plane into one of the towers. then someone informing him that it wasn't a small plane, and that it was a clear day in new york.

[Kire]

2. Getting Ready for Work

Heard about it on Howard Stern.

My Dad insisted I go to work anyway, in case I was needed, but they shut down Route 3 into Secaucus so I couldn't get there.

For the next week, I could see the smoke as I went into work.

If I had an earlier shift, I would have watched it fall live with my co-workers.

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. I was a senior in high school

3rd period Development of Music class to be exact when I found out about the attacks. Didn't really know the scope of the events that day until I got home from school.

[LifeDuringWartime]

10. i was a freshman in high school

of course i had no idea as to the significance of it. i was in study hall with a teacher whose daughter worked in one of the buildings, so she took us all into the computer room to watch on tv. when the school administration found out, they banned all students from watching tv for the day.

[Reverend_Smitty]

18. they wouldn't let us watch TV either

although there were only a few sets in the school that actually had cable and they were all in the technology classrooms. We were mighty pissed over the school imposed news blackout but word would get leaked out from kids with classes that had TVs in them...the teachers were letting them watch anyway.

[JuniperLea]

4. Just out of the shower... wrapping a towel around me

in time to see the second plane hit. Got on the phone to my crew and told them not to go to work... our building in Century City, Los Angeles, was home to the west coast offices of many of the businesses in the twin towers. My boss was scheduled to fly to NYC and have meetings in those towers on 9/12.

More importantly, I was pissed as hell. There is no way that should have happened. MIHOP or LIHOP... one of the other is the only way it could have happened at all.

[ComerPerro]

214. "Pissed as hell"

Good way to describe it.

There is no reason that it should have happened.

[meegbear]

I was at a one week java training course ...

The teacher was from South Africa. There was only 3 students, so we and the teacher would chat between segments. Monday the 10th, he was telling us about SA and about how the world watches the US and how actions here affect the rest of the world.

On the 11th, he was the only one with an internet connection in the room. He was saying that his friends worldwide were freaking out and that some thought the US would launch nuclear missiles at the whole Middle East.

The events of the day and the discussions with the teacher during the rest of the week really put the world in perspective for me.

[Field Of Dreams]

5. Listening to NPR in car 5 minutes from work.

They broke into morning programming with an announcement that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

My first thought was "That was not an accident."

I rushed to my office and told whoever I saw as I was running up the stairs. I work at a school in Baltimore and the day grew more tense when we got reports about the Pentagon. We sent kids home early.

[JuniperLea]

9. My first thought was "That was not an accident."

Me too. No way was it an accident.

[skids]

6. I was on my way to a different WTC.

I was in the Boston subway system trying to find my way to an exhibition my employer was hosting at the Boston World Trade Center building, and asking directions since I was a bit lost. I was getting some very strange looks.

[Field Of Dreams]

20. You could have been mistaken for FEMA Director.

"Uh, Mr. Brown ... New York City is a little south of here."

[GreenPartyVoter]

68. *Sad laugh* Yeah..or DHS had it existed.. The City of Louisiana and

the State of New Orleans.

[justgamma]

7. My first day of vacation.

I had turned on the Today show just after the 1st airplane hit. They were reporting outside with the WTC in the background when the second plane hit. I just screamed "We're under attack!"

Incidently, I was on vacation when the bombing in Afghanistan started.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

200. no more vacations for you!

:spank:

[Dem Agog]

8. In a Doctors office Near Dulles

They were playing some soft radio station over the lobby. They announced that a plane had struck the WTC. I was envisioning a small Cessna. I went in and the doctor saw me, and then the nurse came in and said a 2nd plane had struck. We all crowded around the radio for a few minutes.

I drove back to my office near Dulles, where I worked at a large facility that housed all of the DNS servers for the Internet in the US. We were sent home, as our facility could be a target if they wanted to disrupt the Internet.

I went to my boyfriend's house (he's now my husband). He was working from home. We watched in horror that whole day. We each were to fly out on 9/12 - me to LA from Dulles and him to Boston from Dulles for work. Needless to say our flights were cancelled.

It was a very traumatic several months. Still pains me, recalling it.

[onager]

27. At work...

(Hey Dem Agog! I grew up in South Carolina. Oconee County.)

:hi:

Anyway, I was walking into work on 9/11/01. A security guard came out of the building yelling "We're at war! They attacked the Pentagon! We're at war!"

Didn't know what was going on until I got inside. I immediately went to the chat boards at Salon.com. I still remember the first few posts. People thought a small plane had hit the WTC. Then it got worse and worse. People were posting who lived not far from the buildings...

Irony: I had an eBay sale that had just ended. On Monday Sept. 10 I had shipped packages all over the world.

I actually had bucketheads e-mailing me to complain about not receiving their stuff. (You may remember there were NO flights for a few days, including UPS etc.)

[leftupnorth]

11. I was at home and saw the second plane hit the tower on TV.

I went to work at my folks' gas station later that day and the people were so scared they ran us out of gasoline, along with every other station in town that stayed open.

People were FREAKING out.

[kedrys]

12. I was at home in Houston, getting ready to go to work

The s.o. was in the shower, and I turned on CNN, as I did every morning, and saw the second plane crash into the tower.

I told the s.o. to haul out of the shower and come see the news. We sat on the bed saying "oh my god" over and over again. There was nothing else to say.

The s.o. called in to work to notify them that this was going to be a telecommuting day. I finished getting dressed and got in the car to go to work. I worked downtown at the time, about 10 minutes away, and a coworker called me on my cell to tell me they were shutting down and evacuating downtown. I was two blocks from work; I just turned around and told him to collect his roommate and cat and come over to our house (he lived across the street from work back then). I got home 15 minutes later, and they made it over 20 minutes after that.

The whole episode is engraved in my mind to my dying day.

[Scout1071]

13. I was in my car on the way to work. My aunt worked in one of the top

floors of Tower One. When I heard the first report, I assumed it was a small aircraft and a mistake. When the news broke on the radio that a second plane had hit the other tower, I panicked and floored it to my office.

I raced to the conference room where my co-workers were gathered around the TV and I saw the horror for the first time. Then, as I was shaking, I began counting down the floors from the top of Tower One. That is when I realized that my aunt's floor had been impacted. I totally collapsed on the floor. I had visited her there many times. After many hours, she finally got word to us that she was "OK." She was running late to work to drop her dog off at the vet. Her beloved dog ended up being put down. Somehow I think it was her last gift to my aunt. The coincidence ended up saving her life. Several hundred of her co-workers perished on that terrible day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. Oh my heavens *hugs* I think you are right about the dog

[Scout1071]

158. Thank you GreenVoter.

It's still terribly traumatic for me to recall, I can only imagine those in NYC.

She actually was in the lobby of Tower One when the plane hit. She'd just come from the subway. She was outside the building when the 2nd plane impacted. She had been walking around Tower One picking up paperwork with her company's letterhead. This was a financial company and she was concerned about picking up confidential information as it fluttered to the ground. Then the towers collapsed and she ran. And ran. And ran. All the way back to Brooklyn.

My uncle was on a bridge (he works for the city) and saw the towers smoking in the distance. His tale is equally heartbreaking as he wailed from the bridge when he saw the smoke. He searched for hours. I've never heard anyone as panicked when he answered the phone in Brooklyn when I rang.

The odd thing is that after I counted down the floors and had a moment to collect myself, I ran to my phone to call her at the WTC. Her phone rang and rang and rang. After several rings, I slammed the phone down because I realized that if she had survived, I didn't want her trying to answer her phone to tell people she was OK. I wanted her to get out. I'm not sure why it rang, maybe her desk was alright, but my impulse was to call.

Crazy enough, after talking with my uncle, I began calling other friends in Manhattan. Oddly, I could get a call in, but they were not able to call out. So, I sat for an hour or two and made conference calls for my friend and her co-workers (at a large, multi-national corporation) and placed calls from my desk to their loved ones. I'm not a terribly religious person, but I swear that my ability to call into NYC and conference call NY'ers and their loved ones while they were unable to make calls out - was truly a blessing.

Two weeks after the attack, I went to NYC. It was my 30th birthday and I had previous plans to go. The Mayor was on TV telling people not to cancel their plans. So, I held my breath and got on that flight. I will never forget my approach to La Guardia. We went up the Hudson. Don't remember doing that before, but I remember the lights on the plane were low and the pilot came on the speaker to say "Ladies and Gentleman, you may want to look to the right side of the plane." I opened my shade and heard a loud, simultaneous *gasp* throughout the plane. The area was lit up and still very much on fire. My time there was surreal. I went to the site by myself. It was like nuclear dust....everywhere. Twisted, melted metal. I remember seeing the clothing and shoe stores, the diamond stores, everything. Buried in that sick dust. For days I had a sore throat and watery eyes. I still weep for those men and women who worked in it everyday for months. From the core of my being, I hope that they don't become the long-term silent victims.

[GreenPartyVoter]

170. Wow. You had some serious guts to get on a plane after that. *hugs*

I am surprised the pilot pointed out Ground Zero. Kinda "glad" though, that (s)he did instead of pretending it wasn't there.

[Loge23]

14. in my office, in FL

when an assocciate came in (knowing I am from NY) and told me that a plane had hit the WTC. I had just returned a couple of weeks before from NY and a visit to the WTC.
I thought it was propbably a small plane lost in fog - until we pulled it up on the web. By now the radio was reporting a large aircraft and sunny skies. A few minutes later, my associate wondered where the president was. I am proud of my response: "first, they'll need to remind him that NY is a part of the U.S."

[halobeam]

15. Pulling my two kids and my niece and nephew out of school.

Didn't know how many planes at the time were going to go down and where. I live on Long Island. Many people from our community died that day. Teachers husbands/wifes/parents worked in the WTC, many students parents/aunts/uncles, etc worked there too. I wanted my kids with me. My sister worked on the other side of the island and it took her six hours to get home to her kids, so I took them out of school too and went to my moms.

We lit candles and sat, stunned, with the rest of the world's citizens.

I lost two friends that day. God bless you, Mac and Steven.

[GreenPartyVoter]

28. I am so sorry *hugs*

[halobeam]

160. Thanks.

:pals:

[phusion]

16. Just waking up...

Had the TV on overnight and I had fallen asleep on the couch...The first plane had already hit when I woke up. Watched the news for a while, thinking how horrible it was and then I saw the second plane hit.

Decided to go to class -- very little talk about the events in class. In a classroom next door, Professor Berthold made his famous remark that eventually had him fired. When speaking about the Pentagon plane, he said "it couldn't happen to a better agency" or something like that.

Anyway -- I met up with my parents for lunch after that and class/work was canceled so I glued myself to the TV.

[timtom]

17. I wasn't in Dallas.

That was another nathan hale, who also worked for the...no, wait a minute. I was in West Palm Beach, having just taken my kids to school. I got home, and my wife called, telling me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Thinking "that's one lousy pilot" and that it was a small, single-engine plane, I turned on the TV.

After dealing with my feelings for a day, I suddenly thought, "Why does this seem so much like November 22, 1963?"

At that point, I discovered whatreallyhappened.com, DU, and Randi Rhodes (who was local here at that time).

[latebloomer]

175. my son's birthday is November 22

My husband's is September 11.

[swag]

19. Finishing getting dressed for work when I saw on TV that a plane

had hit the WTC. Wife came out of shower. I said, "a jet just crashed into the World Trade Center."

She said, "Osama bin Laden must be happy."

Went into work. Walked past the trading department.

"Hey," said one of the stock traders, "did you see what happened?"

"Yeah. Plane crashed into the WTC."

She said, "Did you see the second one?"

"Oh, lord. There was a second one?"

[smirkymonkey]

21. On Sixth Avenue and 11th Street watching it all go down.

It was unreal - New York hasn't been the same since.

[GreenPartyVoter]

34. I can't imagine being there as it all came down. The tv images

are enough to make me cry and feel panic.

[smirkymonkey]

109. Most of us were just to shocked to absorb the impact of what

was actually happening. It took a while for everything to sink in, however the anxiety in NYC was palpable for months.

You could see how people would react if the subway stopped in between stations, or there was a loud noise or anything out of the ordinary.

Many of us have this constant awareness in the back of our minds that it could happen again, anytime, anywhere.

[VelmaD]

22. I had awful nightmares the night before...

and called in to work and went back to sleep. My best friend woke me up screaming into my answering machine to get up and turn on the tv RIGHT NOW! Just in time to see the second tower get hit.

I took a shower, got dressed, and went and sat at her apartment with her adn her husband. Mostly we talked and tried to figure out what we were going to say about it all to my then 12 year old niece. :(

[TimeChaser]

23. I was in Spanish class when they gave the announcement

I'd been hearing rumours floating around the school all morning. Eventually, they passed out a letter telling us all what was happening.

[FreedomAngel82]

24. I was leaving school and coming home

I was taking a class and was leaving and coming home. I found out from my mother. I too researched and watched films and listened to other people and the facts and I'm convienced it was way passed MIHOP.

[derby378]

26. I was at work, in my office, when one of the docs came in...

...and told me that terrorists had flown planes into the WTC.

I saw the first tower collapse live on camera while this poor woman was screaming "Oh, my GOD!!!" during her on-the-spot interview.

One of the other docs was frantically trying to reach her relatives in NYC via cell phone to see if they were OK, but the lines were beyond jammed. (They're all fine.)

ginbarn and I tried to visit a blood donation center, but the lines were already five hours long.

As we drove home, it was so eerie seeing no planes at all in the sky. It was almost too quiet.

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. I am so glad your family was ok *hugs*

[Mr_Spock]

29. I was late for work (East Coast) and something told me to turn the TV on

I never ever turn the TV on in the morning - especially since I was late. I saw the smoke from the first building and was watching intently. I called my dad to tell him what was going on. As I was talking to him discussing what may have happened I said "OMG!! a plane just hit the other building!!" I get tingles in my spine just typing that. What an unforgettable moment. What an awful day that was. I brought a portable TV into work that day and we sat around watching it all day...

[TallahasseeGrannie]

30. I was teaching

a class of middle schoolers in a computer lab when the secretary came on the intercom and told us there was an incident at the WTC.

I turned on the class TV just in time to see the second plane hit. Then a bit later I saw wreckage and the runner underneath saying "the pentagon" and remarked to one of my students that some idiot had gotten it wrong.

When I realized it was correct, I think I went into shock. I don't remember a lot after that, except trying to keep the kids calm. We are minutes from the very, very visible Florida State Capitol (which is a huge 22-story phallus alone in the sky) and heard jets still in the sky (we are also on the flight path to the airport) and we wondered if somebody might just want to make a point with Jeb Bush. So there was at least a small sense of personal (probably irrational) danger.

But when the towers both came down I had to get an aide to come into my class so I could go sit alone for a while. I grew up in Northern Jersey and watched those towers go up.

I don't know about LIHOP or MIHOP. I guess I never will. I'll leave that to others to work through.

That's where I was.

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Lower Manhattan, USA

1st Hit: Chambers and Broadway
2nd Hit: Broadway and Wall Street
1st Collapse: South Street and Old Slip
2nd Collapse: On ramp, Brooklyn Bridge

[GreenPartyVoter]

41. :^( I have never been to NYC. In fact I flew over it into Newark once

and the thing that caught my eye was the Statue of Liberty. I don't even remember seeing the twin towers, although they were there then. :(

[Nay]

32. I was at work ( in a hi rise). I also thought "this is no accident"

and I was standing there watching (we always have a TV on CNN) when the second plane went in. Then, of course, everyone knew it was an attack. I live an hour away from DC, so when the plane hit the Pentagon our building and most of the buildings around us evacuated. We all went home, and spent the next three days glued to the TV, emotionally exhausted.

Two coworkers lost friends (a firefighter and a couple of cops) that day, but we didn't know that til later. They called frantically all day to just make sure their relatives in NY were all accounted for.

I was astounded when, the next day, they had the names of all 19 highjackers. I just didn't believe they could have known so quickly. At that time I began to believe LIHOP. Now, I'm practically at MIHOP. Nothing is sacred to these bastards. A week later they had the Patriot Act ready to vote on, when everyone was too cowed to say no. They are the scum of the earth.

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. Yeah, I had a cousin working near the pentagon. We were a bit worried

about her.

[Benhurst]

33. I was working at home when a friend who was an unemployed

school teacher at the time called, telling me to turn on the TV because the United States was under attack. I started watching just as the second tower was hit.

Strange, isn't it, that a primary school teacher was able to connect the dots before the "brilliant" Condoleezza Rice could, despite the latter's holding the position of National Security Adviser to the president of the United States.

[Nickster]

45. At work in my office. Started hearing people coming in to start later shif

ts talking about the airplane that crashed into the WTC. I remember thinking it was like waiting for an impending invasion of our country. I really thought we were in a war situation. I remember all the jumbled news reports talking about other un-identified airplanes, other than the hi-jacked ones. Just completely nuts. I remember just trying to get on cnn.com to see the news and not being able to get through. Truly surreal, and I remember it being such a beautiful day outside too, really a stand-out day weather-wise. Sigh

[jarnocan]

35. Nj working

at a middle school. We had kids and a couple staff members who had parents, spouses, friends and relatives in the WTC area. Many students left early, we did not discuss what happned during the day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

43. That had to have been so hard for those kids, the not knowing.. the

fearing the worst. :(

[Sean138666]

37. It certainly was a long day

I went to work at the Administrative Office of US Courts (Washington, DC). I actually got to work just in time for the first crash. The radio wasn't on and there was nobody in the file room, so I got breakfast.

When I got back to the file room, I heard a plane had hit the tower. I figured such a thing was inevitable; planes make errors, and the towers are tall. Then I heard the second tower got hit, and I thought that two accidents were quite the frightening occurance.

Then the pentagon got hit. Now, I figured this was like the race war starting; the only terrorists I was familar with are the neo-nazis and their ilk. From a window, I saw the smoke from the pentagon rising in a near-perfect straight line. I took it as a sign to go home, but I waited about half an hour. I shouldn't have...Metro shut down the train lines.

That began my frustration. The taxis didn't seem to be picking up any black people; a white woman I was walking next to was stopped by a taxi and asked if she needed a ride! I was fucking pissed. Then I get to 16th street (NW) and wait for the S buses. They show up, but they're on the way to Friendship Heights and not Silver Spring.

The walk home took two hours. When I got home, I was in pain and I was pissed at the local government for their deplorable emergency plan. My fucking day was done, so I had a soda and took in the destruction on TV.

In the coming weeks and months, I was rudely introduced to politics. As a 21 year old at the time, I didn't really know the difference between one politician and another. But I would certainly find out what true fucking evil was about; meaning, I think 9/11 and the resulting war in Iraq(!!) was brought to us by the PNAC.

[GreenPartyVoter]

47. :^( And now we have more blatant racism and classism going on in NOLA

[alcibiades_mystery]

126. Huh. Am I the only DUer who was there?

That's surprising to me.

[Nite Owl]

38. Woke up, turned on the

news and saw what was happening. Woke up the boys and told them something was happening in the city, a plane hit the towers. We lived on Long Island at the time and as we watched in utter shock that this was happening and it became clear that we were being attacked we decided we had better go get some things like gas for the cars and water. No one spoke. We went into the grocery stores and you could see the shock in everyone's eyes. We had no internet, no phones for several days. We lost friends who were firemen in the city. Families were devastated. I felt like this was a planned event right away. I don't know why I just did.

[GreenPartyVoter]

48. I am so sorry! *hugs*

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

56. Hugs to you Nite Owl. I live in Westchester and we lost members of

my community here too. Both my sons had friends that lost uncles who were firefighters. It was and is still so damned tragic, and yes, it was a planned event.....

[Nite Owl]

79. You too

OmmmSweetOmmm. :hug:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

104. Thank you Nite Owl

:hug:

[CanOfWhoopAss]

39. I was on an airplane from Atlanta to Detroit

The pilot says its a beautiful day for flying and that he normally doesn't address current events while in flight and informs us of the first tower being struck. After landing and while standing on a mega-line for a rental car the second tower was hit. Now at an airport and not a plane in the sky, everyone was trying to car pool rental cars with fellow Americans from Detroit to as far away as Toronto, Canada and Houston, Texas. May be even further.

My flight was held up do to capacity and weight distribution. Had it been held up for 10-15 minutes longer I wouldn't have had to land in Detroit and drive 11 1/2 hours back to Atlanta two hours after landing. (My boss and I had a car reserved for us and luckily it was available.) Our meeting was cancelled so we just drove back home and discussed/listened to the chaos on the radio all the way home.

[converted_democrat]

40. I was at the doctors office, finding out that I was pregnant with my

daughter. I had just received the best news of my life, and then I walked out to the waiting room to pay, and it happened. I was completely overwhelmed with emotion.

[GreenPartyVoter]

51. Oh, what a turbulent time for you *hugs*

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

44. For some reason I tarried in turning on the TV that day

I was sick of the constant shark attack reporting, so at the late hour of 9:30 I still hadn't turned on the TV. My husband called from work and said something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I figured it was a small plane and turned on the TV to see what was going on. I spent the next number of days glued to the TV in shock and horror, all the while knowing that Bush would use this to his advantage somehow.

My sister in Texas (who died a month later, the day the Patriot Act was signed) never called me because they didn't have a lot of money to spend on long distance, and she didn't have a cell phone. She was starting her downward spiral toward death, and the news that a plane had crashed near Pittsburgh (our home at the time) panicked her, so she spent some hard-earned money to call and see if we were okay. She was EXTREMELY emotional, and it was very upsetting for us both.

I remember going out later that day and seeing some fancy-looking plane (F-16? I don't know) flying over our house, and it was freaky.

[GreenPartyVoter]

53. I am so sorry about your sister *hugs*

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

54. Thank you

Ironically, I live in Texas now and could have spent lots of time with her. Sigh.

[GreenPartyVoter]

57. It's odd that you wound up there *hugs*

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

62. I know - thank my husband for that!

We wound up in Pittsburgh because of his job, and now we're in Dallas because of his job. He jokingly (?) said the next choice of homes is mine. I'm thinking maybe England if things get too bad! But we do like it here very much.

:hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

64. I can highly recommend Atlantic Canada. And I hear Ireland is wonderful.

Wherever you go, I suggest finding a nice safe socialist nation. You know, the kind we wish we had here. :hug:

[Coventina]

96. My alarm went off. It hadn't happened yet. I hit the "snooze"

Alarm went off 10 minutes later. First plane had hit, but I turned it off so quickly that I didn't hear it.

I jumped in the shower. In the meantime, my now-husband had gotten up and was listening to NPR, quickly turned on the tv. He saw the second plane hit.

I got out of the shower, he told me about it. By then the rumors were going nuts. Car bombs at the capitol, a plane crashed on the WH lawn. Remember all that?

I had a Dr. appointment that morning. The towers fell shortly after I got in the car.

We had flown back from California the previous day.


on edit: I didn't mean to reply to you! Sorry, I meant to post my response at the end, like everyone elses. :-(

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

49. It was a gorgeous morning here, 50 miles due north of NYC.

My older son was home ill, and I was watching The Today Show. At about 8:50AM it was cut into by local NY4 news to report a plane had just hit into the North Tower. They had someone on the phone, an eyewitness who claimed it was a small plane. I was sick to my stomach as I saw the flames, calculating how many people must have been trapped on the top floors. Then, although it was about 10 minutes later, it seemed much fewer than that, the second plane hit. I knew we were under attack. My first fear was for my ex-husband (who I co-habitat with). He works in midtown Manhattan but I was still concerned, and my heart caught in my throat when I learned he was outside his office for a meeting. Several hours later he called me. His meeting was in midtown Manhattan, thank goodness. One of co-workers wife worked in the WTC and luckily, working on a lower floor, she was able to get out. He told me how he could smell the smoke.

A couple of hours after the first plane hit, when the skies were ordered cleared, I heard a plane, and my son and I went out on my deck and saw it was flying due south. I had a thought, and my son voiced it..where is Indian Point (nuke plant) from here? I told him it was southwest, and thank goodness we saw the plane veer to the east. It must have been a jet sent down from Stewart Air Force Base which is about 45 minutes north from here, to guard the city.

For months, and even occasionally now, when I hear a plane, I either go out onto my deck, or look outside the window. Flight 11, the first plane that hit, must have passed 5 miles west of me, as it made it's way down the Hudson. Curious thing though. If Bin Laden really wanted to attack America, Indian Point would have been the target. Myself and my kids would have been toast, and irreparable harm could have been done to one of the most densely populated suburban area in the country.

I was suspicious that hours after the planes hit that they already had suspects lined up, and yet I was numb from the tragedy. I tried to understand it spiritually, and never wanted blind revenge. I was against going into Afghanistan. My BS meter was up, and none of what we were being fed by the administration felt right to me. Then when I started to lose the numbness I had an epiphany, this was an inside job.

[GreenPartyVoter]

55. *hugs* I kept looking up at planes for the longest time worrying that

someone would try it again. And when the ANG here does flyovers, I worry that something bad might be happening somwhere.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

60. Thank you GreenPartyVoter, and hugs back. Tears here. nt

[Nikia]

50. At work

One of the warehouse workers heard it on the radio. I got the news third hand which was wrong in a worse way. I was told, bombs are going off all over the place, the WTC, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the Capitol. I still panicked when I heard the right news especially because my sister was a flight attendent for one of the affected airlines at the time.

[GreenPartyVoter]

58. Very scary, wondering about loved ones like that. And to get misinfo

on top of it all does not help.

[doubleplusgood]

52. in a motel in Prineville, Oregon

I was in a motel in Prineville, Oregon, returning to Portland from a trip to Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon. Being an early riser, I was packing up, getting ready for the last leg of my trip & I turned on the TV to CNN to see what was going on in the world. The story was already unfolding, the planes had hit the twin towers but they hadn't yet collapsed. I yelled at my wife to wake up, to see what was happening. Checking out that morning, the girl at the desk was in tears.

Needless to say, it was a very long, somber drive home that day & I feared for the inevitable overreaction on the part of the Bush admin & "average" Americans. I knew that thousands of innocent people were going to die as our nation blindly struck out in anger. I worried about the safety of a very sweet contractor I worked with from India, who might end up as the target of some ditto-head yahoo because he looked "foreign". (IIRC, there was a Sikh man who was killed at a Phoenix gas station because he looked different). I knew things would get bad, but I knever knew they would get THIS bad....

[theHandpuppet]

59. At my computer and saw the second plane hit the tower live on TV

I was at my computer with the TV turned to The Today Show. There was a shot of the Twin Towers and just as Katie Couric was saying something about a plane accident at the first tower I saw another plane smash into the second tower. Katie didn't realize what was happening at that very moment so there was this odd delay between the time the second plane hit and the time they realzied just waht was unfolding. I'll never forget it.

Such a beautiful September morning -- I remember the pic of the NYC skyline and how bright and blue the sky was -- right before the planes hit.

[JesterCS]

61. I was in

Monroe, Ohio, actually still asleep, when my parents burst into my door and woke me up, and told me the US was under attack. Of course i had a skeptical look and some confusion since I wasnt awake. So i got up and went out to the TV and low and behold, the WTC tower was on fire. I watched the 2nd plane hit on live tv and both towers fall. Ill remember that day for the rest of my life

[boston bean]

63. i was at work, we had just come out of a sales meeting and the

first plane had hit the building. No tv available, just the internet, which was swamped, had a hard time finding information. I called my sis and she screamed into the phone that another plane just hit the 2nd tower. She was frightened.

I left work and went and got my child out of school. At that point, people were crying at work, some were saying armegeddon was here, etc. In MA you would think that would happen, but it did.

[katinmn]

65. At work. A colleague told me to come to another colleague's

office where they had a teeny-tiny TV set up. About 15 people were already there watching in stunned silence when I came in. We saw the second plane hit.

I went back to my office and kept hitting refresh on CNN, waiting for some explanation.

I was stunned, of course, but something told me this was not what it appeared. I remember some of the TV reporters talking about a small plane flying into the airspace first, before the commercial planes hit. Like they were guiding them in...

A month later I was in NY for a conference. I talked with many New Yorkers and was impressed by the way they came together. They were so touched by the expressions of unity in the US and throughout the world.

I've evolved from LIHOP to MIHOP, too.

[202 456]

66. I was sleeping and caught it 3 hours later

...The first thing I saw was someone jumping out of a window.

[GreenPartyVoter]

69. Welcome to DU.

[202 456]

71. Thank You

[BANGARANG]

174. I was sleeping.

I was in 7th grade, and my mother woke me up screaming at the TV. The first image I saw was the smoking rubble and I thought there had just been a fire. I wasn't familiar with the NYC skyline, so I didn't notice any missing buildings. It was a very eerie and quiet day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

192. Welcome to DU :^)

[Katha]

67. My mother woke me up (I'm on the West Coast)

and said, "Something horrible is happening in New York". I came downstairs and watched the second plane fly into the Trade Center. I started crying, and my mother said, "It'll be okay, it will be" and I said, "You don't know that."

I was seventeen and a senior in high school.

[Shipwack]

70. Lying in my bunk on a submarine...

... wondering why we were getting a whole bunch of high priority radio traffic all of a sudden.

[GreenPartyVoter]

74. That had to be unnerving to say the least

[Shipwack]

212. Not really unnerving, believe it or not...

We had no radio broadcasts, let alone videos or photos.

At first, we were to busy doing stuff to think much about it. We got the news about the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania crash within a few hours. We didn't see any pictures for about 5 days.

For me, though I lived near there, I was fairly certain that no one I knew was in Manhattan that day, and even if they were, they tended to just go to the museums and stores and such, not near the WTC. I basically had a week to adjust to the attacks, before being bombarded with all the images. I think I had an easier time than most people that were on land.

The worst part was listening to my captain who was (and probably still is) an effin' idiot. He kept giving us speeches about how "we had failed", since we hadn't been a strong enough deterrent force to prevent attack (we were a missile sub). I -so- wanted to smack him and point out we were designed as a deterrent to nuclear attack, not to terrorists. Unfortunately, our dim son President and his toady military advisors think now think that nukes are dandy "first strike" tools to use against conventional forces and terrorists...

I'm torn between :puke: and :scared:

[BBradley]

72. Driving to school... about 5 minutes from the Pentagon when the plane hit

[GreenPartyVoter]

75. Wow! I am glad you weren't any closer

[KeepItReal]

73. In a hotel in Fullerton, CA...Stuck in Cali for a couple of weeks.

I was a frequent flyer up til that point. I really cut back on my flying after that.

The best flight ever had was when I made my return trip to Miami:

We made a (unknown to me at the time) stop in Ft. Lauderdale before flying across town to Miami Intl. Airport. Most of the passengers got off the plane in FLL. Only about 4 passengers continued on to Miami. As all the passengers were either White or Black (yours truly), there was a weird dynamic that happened. The crew of the plane were visibly relieved and totally relaxed. We all sat in 1st class (or moved up into it) and talked and joked with the crew like we were old friends. Nobody was scared of anybody and we all felt safe. Even though the flight was a few minutes, the time we spent on the ground waiting and being civil with each other made it a trip I will never forget.

After 9/11 we had a unity as Americans and unity as citizens of the world. It is a damn shame to see that unity disintegrate because the people running this county either don't give a damn about unity, or actually want us to be distant and hostile to each other.

[GreenPartyVoter]

80. That reminds me of a comedian

can't recall which one, but after 9/11 he said that whenever he and other black guys got onto a plane people looked kinda hopeful like they expected them to turn into Wesley Snipes "Passenger 57"-style if anything went wrong on the flight.

And as to your point on unity... ** has divided us SO badly on every line imaginable: race, color, creed, gender, sexuality, income... and it was on purpose, because we can't stand against him if we can't even stand together.

But I think his reckoning is finally at hand. Finally. He laughed and pissed on the American people one time too many.

[tulsakatz]

76. I was at home..........

it was my day off and as usuall on my day off, I slept late. When I got up there was a message on my answering machine asking me to come in today due to the tragedy in NY (I work for a car rental company).

By the time I got up and saw what had happened, it was all over. But I remember how shocking it was to think that something like this could've happened.

[Scout]

77. I was at work, and heard some of the mucky-mucks talking

about it ... not sure where they heard what was happening. I don't know at exactly what point in the tragedy I learned it was happening.

I spent a good part of the day trying to get news on DU and the web news sites...

then spent the evening watching all the awful replays and the news on tv.

[CascadeTide]

78. I was getting ready to drive to the airport to fly from Atlanta > Portland

I was in Alabama for my grandfather's funeral and was supposed to fly home that day. Obviously I was stuck there for a few days.

[Catchawave]

81. Enjoying a visit with my best friend 5 hours away ......

Started the morning sipping coffee on her beautiful deck watching the blue jays fight over peanuts.

We didn't hear the phone ring inside, as we were getting ready to leave, she noticed her ans. machine flashing and decided to ignore it since she thought it was her husband's morning "Hi Honey" call. I told her to go ahead and call him back, since we were having a lazy morning, we might be late returning that day. She pushed the machine's button, her husband's voice:

"Turn on the television, I'll be home soon."

We did, and our lives changed forever. It took 4 hours to reach my daughter, who was working as a bike messenger in the Financial District. Frantic calls to my family at home in Virginia Beach, sitting by the phone, waiting...waiting....waiting. She was fine, but watched the Towers collapse from her apt rooftop 13 blocks away. She lost many friends that day. America lost her innocence too :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

83. Oh, I am so sorry for your daughter having to go through that. And you

must have been out of your mind with fear for her. :hug:

[Fleshdancer]

82. I woke up late and had to rush to get to school

as I'm driving, I turn on NPR and that's when the nightmare began for me. The first plane had already hit and minutes after I tuned in, the second plane hit. It took me a good 5 minutes to digest what the radio was telling me.

I remember feeling trapped in my car which was barely moving due to the bumper to bumper morning traffic. I was in tears, my heart was racing. I frantically looked around to the other cars but the drivers all seemed relaxed and unaware. There was a moment when I doubted my own ears. I wondered if I was falling for a cruel hoax and everyone was in on the joke but me.

I rushed into the school and my class was in tears huddled around the tv. It had poor reception, but even through the fuzz, the falling towers caused screams and gasps in just about everyone. I rushed to the pay phone and called my husband. I couldn't stop shaking.

And that's when the anger began.

[LeftyMom]

84. I'd woke up early because LeftyKid was hungry

and I was sitting on the couch feeding him and turned on the television to distract myself from my own hunger pangs until he was done. This was sometime in between when the first tower was struck and the second. I saw all the rest.

I called my father to see if he was watching (he was) and then worried about LeftyDad, who was on a bus downtown to the state government building where he was working at the time. When he got there he called me, no work was being done, everybody was glued to the television, but he'd be home at the normal hour.

I was very worried about two highschool classmates who were working in the Pentagon when last I'd heard, but it turned out they'd both transfered to other places before then and were safe, if a bit worried about the possibility of foreign deployment as a result of the attack.

I was suspicious about the whole thing from the beginning and a bit apalled by the wave of unthinking patriotism-as-fashion-trend that swept the country in the aftermath.

[greekspeak]

85. Eating my breakfast and watching Little House on the Prairie

I was watching TBS. Then suddenly, it switches over to live feed of the developing disaster. The fist tower was burning. Then the second, then they collapsed. And at some point in the chaos, a plane hit the Pentagon. And one fell into a field in Pennsylvania. At that time, I remember, there were reports of planes falling all over the place.

Clintmax and I still lived in Missouri back then, and that day Clintmax was in St. Louis for a meeting. I called him and he was totally shocked, and told the whole meeting about it. I thought "what if someone goes for the arch? What if they miss?" I was either panicking, crying or numb most of the day.

I did manage to go to the gym and get a tiny bit of work done. Everyone was just shocked and staring at the TVs in the gym more than anything. I was doing some contract work, and my contact man in the organization was in Rome. I thought, my GOD he may be in serious trouble. I went by the office, and everyone was just sort of in shell shock. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

Clintmax started back and had to get gas. People were going crazy to buy it, and gouging was on full force. He needed it just to get home, and had difficulties with it. He finally got home and I had cooked some veggie-beef soup, as some comfort food, and some hot rolls. We ate it as we could. We lit candles in the windows that evening, as a tribute, and all up and down the street people were doing the same. The flags started appearing the next day I think. Before I went to bed that night, I had to go see the gas signs. So we went down by the closest station, and I saw gas prices I had never seen before. Well over $3. Some places north of Springfield, there were station owners in deep doo over gouging. I think Jay Nixon took care of that. That is pretty much what I remember, except that the day was incredibly beautiful. It was so beautiful that it seemed to be mocking the dead. Very very intense day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

86. Yes it was a beautiful day.. just as beautiful as the one we have now here

Very much the same...

[greekspeak]

91. You are right...it is a splendid day here in Tallahassee

It is not scorching, nor humid...very sunny, the kind of day one would like to get out and just be with nature. And that is the kind of day 9/11/01 was too, in Springfield, MO.

[notadmblnd]

87. I was sleeping it was my day off. Woke to call to come in to work

our client in WTC7 was heading across the river to Hoboken and we were implemeneting our DRA (diaster recovery plan). I worked through the night to get them back up and running. When I walked in the office, no one seemd to understand the implications of the attack. I worked through the night to get them back up and running all the while, crying uncontrolably.

[GreenPartyVoter]

93. Oh.. I am amazed you could get any work done at all *hugs*

[qanda]

88. As a home-schooling mom

I was in our school room preparing for the day, my husband had left a nice note on the board to my son and so I was going to take a picture of it. When I went to get the camera, I heard Katie Couric speaking in a serious tone and I knew that something was wrong because usually at that time they would have been cooking or doing a makeover. I went into the Living Room to find out what was going on and that's when I heard that reports were coming in that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The reports were all over the place at that time and the consensus seemed to be that it was nothing major, just a private plane. There would probably be fatalies, but not history making.

My sister was staying with me for a few weeks and I woke her up to tell her to check out what had happened. She got up and we listened together as they interviewed an eyewitness on the street. This person was relaying that it was not a private plane, but looked like a jumbo jet when they interrupted themselves saying, "Oh my God, another plane just hit the building!" All hell broke loose. There was speculation about the air traffic controllers losing equipment and on and on, but the bottom line was that something inside just told me what it was.

Then there were reports about an explosion at the Pentagon in Virginia. It was then that I realized that this was becoming very personal. I had a brother-in-law working at the Senate, a sister and a niece at the FAA and my husband was headed into Arlington, VA that day. I couldn't get in touch with anyone for what seemed like hours and when the towers fell, I just lost it. I hadn't heard from my husband and I didn't know that he was okay. Thankfully, it was only because all of the lines were tied up and he had reached his worksite 10 minutes prior to the plane hitting the Pentagon and was very safe.

That day was like a day of awakening for me. I had never been very politically motivated. I was an Independent voter who watched in disgust as the Supreme Court handed Bush the White House, but had not bothered to vote because I didn't think it would matter.

Well, I started a journey for truth on 9-11-2001 and found C-SPAN, MediaWhoresOnline, Whatreallyhappened and then DU. I'm not glad that 911 happened, not even in the least, but I'm not sure what it would have taken to wake me up to what was happening in this country.

Today I pray for all the people who lost their loved ones on that day and I pray that it will not take another event like 911 to wake Americans up to the corruption of our government and the need for the people to take back the power.

[GreenPartyVoter]

95. 9/11 was a catalyst for many of us *hugs*

[qanda]

105. I'm noticing that as I read the different responses

Thanks for this thread.

[GreenPartyVoter]

136. I was always surprised that my parents and their

friends could tell me exactly where they were when JFK was shot. I had no idea that trivial moments could be etched into your mind in a time of trauma until 9/11. :(

[cmf]

89. In Louisiana, visiting my parents

I was packing for my flight home that day while watching the Today show. They returned from commercial to show the first tower burning. Like millions of others that day, I saw the second plane hit on TV. Then I freaked out and started wondering how I was going to get home because I sure as hell wasn't going to get on an airplane any time soon (that was before they grounded all flights). Then I had to call my friend who was taking care of my cat back on the West coast to let her know what was going on and that I probably wasn't going to be back that day (that was unpleasant, because she was still asleep and didn't have a clue what was going on.)

Anyway, I still think about the people who were affected by that awful day. Those families are in my prayers.

[BlueIris]

90. Sitting on my abusive ex's futon, holding his pseudo-compassionate

hand, being horrified while we watched the smoke rise from Tower Two. Later, his alcoholic parents took us out to lunch, and his idiot mother kept blathering gleefully about how "war stimulates the economy" (her husband had been out of work for awhile at that point). Good times. It was pretty much all downhill from there.

[GreenPartyVoter]

99. Oh, ick! *hugs* I am so glad these are EX family members.

[BlueIris]

115. Oh, we were never married.

Thank God. You see, once he found out I couldn't have kids, he abandoned me. Because I was no longer "useful" to him. With parents like the Bush voting assholes he had, it's no wonder this decision wasn't difficult for him. But the relationship was, unfortunately, something that went on way, WAY too long (several years). Curiously, the "break up" anniversary is just around the corner. It's one of the things that should make me feel positive about mid-September, but, erm, doesn't really.

[GreenPartyVoter]

120. *hugs* :^(

[Alamom]

92. Standing in front of the TV talking to my husband, about to leave

My Mother had it on The Today Show. As I looked at the TV, they had the Towers on the screen and the first plane hit. Katie Couric said something like "Oh my a plane hit one of the towers". They and we thought it was an accident and then my husband said....it may have been one going down, but it looked like it made a deliberate turn.
As they (newspeople) struggled for words in trying to figure out what they were seeing, the second plane hit.

I was taking my Mom to the doctor. They had a TV on there and we watched the rest in stunned disbelief.

[Jennos20]

94. I was a senior in high school..

I was actually late for school that day because of course i over slept. My mom walked in my room and said wake up a plan crashed into the Twin Towers. I turned on the tv and saw the second plane hit the other tower and i was really shocked. I went downstairs to see my dad, and he was just sitting on his bed looking really sad and shocked. When he saw me he just looked at me and said this is really terrible...I went to school and walked into my Anthropology class and everyone was just glued to the tv, my teacher didn't even notice i was like 20 min late, so we just sat there and watched. I remember my teacher saying i don't think its gonna collapse, and then like 10 min later they did....after they fell i said out loud "ohh my god did it just fall?", i seriously couldn't believe it.

Its amazing how things like this make you remember every little detail..I'll never forget this day

[GreenPartyVoter]

101. Welcome to DU. I don't think anyone who was there or glued to the TV

or radio or internet will forget. It's a part of us now. Just like Katrina and the Gulf. :hug:

[Jennos20]

102. Thank you!

Glad to be here :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

103. We're glad to have you, too. Can't have too many people on

the side of truth and justice. :patriot:

[Lorien]

97. Getting ready to board a plane to Norway

never made it, of course. I spent the rest of the day being baffled by the lack of federal response to the hijacked aircraft (no F-15s), and watching people all around town-IN FLORIDA- acting as though THEY were the ones whose lives were in immediate danger. I went into a bank and the bank manager said "how could you come here today? Don't you know what's going on"? I said "Of course, but if I change the way I do things, they win. I'm not about to give them the satisfaction. If I can't get on my airplane, then I'll take care of some banking". He was appalled that I would still want to fly. Damn thumbsucking bed wetters!

[Splatter Phoenix]

98. In Florida..

Just coming to Math class from lunch when the announcement was made...

I probably wasn't too far from the school district in which Bushit was reading to those little kids, come to think of it...not that I had any idea that the horror was just beginning.

[existentialist]

100. at home

getting ready to go to work.

I went to work and spent most of the morning on the net looking for news.

[merbex]

106. Participating in my weekly Tuesday morning golf league

I was watching the group in front of mine tee off and the groundskeeper came running out of the proshop and yelled that a plane had just flown into the World trade Center

[LiveWire]

107. The auto-timer on my TV turned on right when...

The second plane hit. I was on the west coast (orange county) in my bedroom just before going to high school that day. That was 4 years ago. Since then, I've changed political parties, dropped out of high school, attend a great 4 year institution, and have become a political activist. Thanks Osama, you changed the way I live.

[Jersey Devil]

108. At my desk when my wife called from Weehauken, NJ

She was working in a building directly accross from the WTC on the Weehauken waterfront and they were watching the smoke from the first crash (not knowing what had caused it) when they saw the second plane hit after circling the harbor and coming in low from the south. Her building was immediately evacuated and she called me from the parking lot. Since trains were not running and traffic was jammed in that area (near the Lincoln Tunnel) she caught a ride to Morristown with a co-worker where I picked her up later that day.

I will always remember heading west to Morristown on Route 80 and seeing ambulance after ambulance going east toward the George Washington Bridge from all over NJ and PA. That night we heard the sounds of jet fighters overhead at home (about 10 miles from the WTC) and found out that a co-worker in her office had lost her husband who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.

[GreenPartyVoter]

111. Oh my. I am so sorry *hugs* Is your wife still in touch with that

co-worker? How is she doing?

[Jersey Devil]

112. The co-worker

was a young woman who had just been married 6 months before. They gave her about 6 months off and then transferred her to an uptown NYC branch of their office so that she did not have to see the site out of her office windows any longer. About 2 years later she moved out of the area.

[GreenPartyVoter]

113. That poor woman. :^( Widowed so young and so soon.

[Jersey Devil]

110. The first reports of 9/11 as heard on WABC New York

http://www.georgeweber.net/911.html

[Cats Against Frist]

114. West Seattle

I'd just had my baby, a couple of weeks before. I woke up at like 5:30, or something, and had had CNN on -- saw the burning building.

My boyfriend and I discussed it, and then he went to take a shower. I was standing in front of the TV, when I saw the second plane hit. I stumbled back, and had to sit down. I covered my mouth and whispered "holy shit."

I'm neither sentimental, nor easily moved -- having a political science degree, I'd studied about U.S. imperialism, and all the stories -- Mossadegh, Allende, etc.

I'll tell you one thing -- the freepers are right, though. The moment I saw the second plane hit, I thought, "Good God, what have we done." I blame extremists for the taking of life, and denounce it, but knew -- from the very beginning -- our role in it.

It was terrifying. Not only to see the death, but to understand what we had inspired.

[KitSileya]

116. I had just cleaned my dorm room.

I had handed in my Master's thesis the day before, and I'd gone home and slept 16 hrs, with a break watching Billy Elliott around 0100 local time (GMT+1, 6hrs before NYC) When I woke up, I cleaned my dorm room, as I said, as it looked pretty awful, and then around three o'clock, I turned on the news to check the election results before I went down to the video store and returned the film (Norway's elections are on the second Monday in September, so we're doing it again tomworrow) and out of habit, I turned on CNN first. They were showing smoke coming out of the first towr, and as I sat down, and watched, the second plane hit.

It goes without saying that the movie was handed in several days late, but the people at the store waived the late fee when I told them I'd been watching the news.

Tomorrow, I'm voting for the only party to object to Norway's participation in the War on Iraq. The conservative coalition government we've had have been all too eager to wag their tails at Bush and Blair.

[Eugene]

117. Out of the country on vacation.

I heard a brief radio bulletin about a plane crash
in New York. I only found out later that
the WTC was attacked when I reached a TV tuned
to CNN.

Interesting that an earlier plan was to fly
American Airlines out of Boston on Sept. 11.

[geomon666]

118. Watching TV

Was watching a program about Vietnam vets returning to Vietnam to make peace with themselves. My father then came home from work and told that a plane had hit WTC. I turned on CNN just in time to watch the second plane hit live on CNN. I then spent the rest of the day watching the horror unfold.

[Maestro]

119. In my classroom teaching

then we were told of what was happening. Disbelief ensued...:cry:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

121. At home in Florida

Hubby turned on the TV after the first plane struck. Watched for a few minutes before the second plane hit. He came outside to get me where I was watering some plants. Took us a few minutes of shock to realize that his daughter lives in Manhattan. He was able to get her on the phone at work and know she was OK.

[GreenPartyVoter]

123. Phew! *hugs*

[newspeak]

122. a day of sorrow

My daughter called me at home and said turn on the television! First thing I thought was that they were going to blame the protesters. I believe there was going to be a protest against the WTO meeting that was to be held in New York. I knew something was terribly wrong when four airplanes were hijacked. I mean, I could see a couple of planes being highjacked, but four simultaneously? No response from the miltary? And a newscaster kept saying, "Where is the pResident, where is the pResident?

[GreenPartyVoter]

124. Welcome to DU. I do recall something about protestors that day, but

the exact details have faded under the weight of the horror of everything else.

------------------------------------------------------
URGENT yet easy! Hold the government accountable for Katrina's aftermath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4736062

[newspeak]

127. thank you for the welcome

And when the bombs started dropping in Iraq, it was the night of my birthday and my hubby and I were at a local pizza parlor in the bar watching--I was so upset, I rushed out crying---my hubby stayed to pay the bill. I have told my family that if this man was selected, we would have a war within a year---I hate being right!

[GreenPartyVoter]

131. I got a message from "above" during the 2000 recount that if

he took office we would have the worst war we'd ever seen. Sadly, I do not think that has been fulfilled yet, even after all the disasters and wars we've had. :(

[newspeak]

153. and then we prayed

after watching on teevee, I called my friend--we got together, lit candles, meditated and prayed for the victims, the victim's families, compassion and truth---I'm still praying that truth shall prevail

[Winston702]

125. Dayton Ohio

In my driveway having a smoke watching the Doomsday E4 lifting off, flying about 1000 ft over my house.

[Maven]

128. About to go down to Liberty Plaza (right next to WTC)

for a job interview.

My dad called me a few minutes before I got on the train and told me to stay put.

Later that day I went to a restaurant called VYNL in Hell's Kitchen. As my waiter was bringing the meal, a familiar song came over the speakers in the restaurant:

"Downtown, things'll be great when you're doooooowwntown..."

He almost dropped the food on me to get to the stereo.

[GreenPartyVoter]

135. Oh, man... *hugs*

[Eurobabe]

129. On a tour bus in the Cotswolds in England

Bus had no radio, someone jumped on the bus while we were stopped in Broadway and said a plane flew into WTC. We thought it was an accident. 10 min. later another person said another plane hit, it was terrorists. At our next stop the pub had CNN on, and we saw the towers come down. It was horrific.

My hubby was in financial district in London for a meeting and they evacuated them immediately after the second plane flew in, no one knew what to expect.

Worst part was taking the tube back to the hotel when I returned from the bus tour. I was scared to death. We stayed up all night watching TV, awful couple of days and weeks.

[GreenPartyVoter]

137. I felt the same way after the London Bombings this summer. didn't know

what was going on because I was away at Cheer camp. I even said as I left DU that something bad was sure to happen because I was going away from here. (Same way disaster seems to strike when the Daily Show goes into reruns.)

I found out about London when I overheard a cafeteria worker talking about it. All of us were sick to our stomachs (and by all of us I mean me and some young ladies only about 12 years old) and went in search of the nearest pay phone to get more info (and verbal hugs) from home and find out if anyone had friends or relatives over there. (I have distant cousins in the UK, but they are in Wales.)

:hug:

[Rainscents]

130. I was at work and heard it on the radio at my desk.

[Ilsa]

132. Husband on east coast, took oldest child to school, youngest

was with me at home. Saw it unfold. Called friends in California to awaken them and alert them at about 6:15 (one of them was an AA pilot).

Didn't sleep well until he was able to get home that weekend after aircraft started flying again. Called him and had him get cash and extend his rental car reservation. Had a sense of death all around.

[GreenPartyVoter]

138. That must have been awful to have the family separated like that *hugs*

[Ilsa]

180. Yeah, and thanks so much. I kept waking up every night and

checking to see if anything else had happened. My biggest concern was making sure my husband had what he needed to get back home without too many hassles. In emergencies, I tend to be pretty level headed and able to bring resources to bear in anticipating and resolving problems.

[GreenPartyVoter]

188. Yeah, I had panic attacks and anxiety for a long time after 9/11. I am the

kind of person that once I am thrown for a loop I freak out over evrything, I was checking on my kids all hours of the night, for no reason except to reassure myself they were ok. As if something bad would happen here, too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

133. Hawaii, husband was on Patrol

I knew immediately we were at war and you have no idea the sinking feeling.

I spent three days with an hour of sleep here or there doing on line crisis intervention.

It did not hit me until a year later

[GreenPartyVoter]

139. Yeah, I think military and first responder spouses the nation over were

sharing that sinking feeling. Knowing it was probably just the beginning of the horror. :hug:

[deadparrot]

134. Freshman year of high school...

I was in science class. We had an extra-credit assignment to make an edible candle that would burn for 30 seconds. One girl had just done hers, and it was smoking really bad, so our teacher had her stand with it ouside the window.

Then our principal came over the PA announcing about the planes hitting the Twin Towers. We were all kind of dumbstruck. It didn't really hit us. In fact, and this sounds kind of sick, but my first thought was almost to laugh...because I didn't know anything about what was going on, but I knew that this was going to be my generation's defining moment, and the fact that it was happening right then was so bizarre...

But we turned on the TV...and that's about all we did for the rest of the day (it was a half day). It was a Catholic HS, so we had a prayer service before going home for the afternoon. I don't remember much about the rest of the day.

[marions ghost]

140. At home

doing some work on computer, completely oblivious to what was going on for quite awhile. Eventually my sister called and filled me in. When I went back to the computer seeking more news I saw "World Trade Center Destroyed" pop up on a list of daily news headlines, with no emphasis other than appearing at the top of the list. I remember thinking how strange and surreal those words looked in such a mundane format.

Appalled, yes. Shocked, no. There's a difference that is more than semantic. Shock is something that shakes you to the very core, which I had experienced at least 3 times in my life. Your blood runs cold, you do not sleep, you may have extreme anxiety. The world turns upside down and may take a long time to right itself. Instead I was somewhat psychologically prepared for the awful events of Sept 11 in that I never for a minute expected the world to be a comfortable place with the neo-cons at the helm --already had a sense of foreboding after the "election" of 2000 installing the Chimp. I knew we were going to have to buckle up for serious turbulence and have had my seat belt on ever since.

Whatever part of it OBL was responsible for, it is the hijacking of the US government from within that is the bigger threat to us all.

[union_maid]

141. At Work

We heard about it over the phone. Couldn't get most news websites to load, but some people had radios and we listened. A guy I worked with had an adult son and daughter-in-law who lived in Battery Park City and had an appointment with the day care center at the WTC. Turned out they'd gotten a call about a house on Long Island and were already on the road by the time the planes came. They bought the house without a second look.

It was an incredible time. I got up and cried every day for weeks. Just because. Everyone around here knew someone that died there. This whole area is full of NYC firefighters and police. Every volunteer fire department had a memorial out front. Most of them have permanent ones now.

As bad as it was, it's so much more bitter now. Bush took that tragedy and compounded it deliberately.

[GreenPartyVoter]

144. I am so glad they didn't go to the WTC daycare!

[ghostsofgiants]

142. I was at school when it happened, but didn't find out about it until lunch

I was in grade 11 at the time. 16 years old.

It was the middle of a heatwave and my school's air exchange system was on the blink, so we were let out early for the day (at lunchtime) so I walked home. When I got through the door, my little brother, who was 10 at the time, ran up and said "there's no more White House!" and my dad corrected him, "Not the White House, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." Then he asked me what I thought of the news. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained and I went into my bedroom, turned on CNN and was glued there until late that night. Thus began my addiction to world events and eventually politics.

[Milspec]

143. Going to work

My 9 month pregnant sister was living with me at the time so I didn,t turn on the TV so she could sleep. When I tuned in the car radio I thought "why are they talking about the trade center bombing again'? By the time I hit work I had the story straight (as was available at the time.
I tried to call my sister from my office but my phone requires a access code for outside calls and I was so upset I couldn't remember it. I had to go upstairs to get a line. All I could say was "Sis something terrible has happened and to turn on the TV.

[Jessica]

145. Senior in college ...

I had just returned to my apartment after working out at the student rec center (a rare choice early in the morning for me) and I was flipping through the channels before I had to get ready for class. I saw the smoke & stopped. At that time, the people on television really didn't know what the hell happened. Then, I saw the second hit - and I knew this was tragic.

I missed my morning classes, as I sat there and wept. Finally, through my tears & a migraine, I decided to go to my News Editorial class that afternoon. The professor said we could go home if we wanted, but that the school paper needed a lot of help for the next day's paper. My job was to walk around campus & get students' reactions. I'm glad I did it - my story was on the front page next to a picture of the towers on September 12.

I also stood in line for three hours that evening to give blood, only to find out that I couldn't donate. Glad I stood in line, anyway. There were a lot of good people out that day ...

The ensuing months and years have changed my outlook on life and on government forever. On September 11, 2001, I my vision was cloudy - but I now see clearly.

[Blue_Roses]

146. I was sitting in front of the TV folding clothes

and feeding my 2 and 4 year old's breakfast. As I watched in horror the surreal moment when the towers fell, I thought I had stepped into the twilight zone. I will never forget that feeling of helplessness.

[Retrograde]

147. somewhat oblivious

on the West Coast. My husband had just got back from a trip and was still on EDT so he got up before the radio came on and went to work. I was in the shower when he called, but since he didn't leave a message I decided to have breakfast first and email him later. Read the paper, then went to my computer to do a little job hunting (I had worked for an early dotcom casualty), saw it was time for the BBC news on a local NPR station, and turned the radio on to hear them confirming that both towers had fallen. As this made no sense at the time, checked the Yahoo headlines, then spent the rest of the morning glued to the TV.

Found out later that someone I had worked with at a previous company was on the first plane.

[GreenPartyVoter]

149. Oh, that is so sad. *hugs* I feel so badly for the families who

lost loved ones.

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[helderheid]

148. sobbing in my living room while holding my almost 1 year old son

[maveric]

150. Driving my son to school, the local classic rock station had reports

of a plane hitting the WTC. At the time details were sketchy. I went back home and put CNN on only to watch in horror as a 2nd plane hit the towers.
Then the knee-jerk reactions hit me and I was all ready for retribution.
Later on that month I discovered DU and figured it out the bu$h probably had his hand in it.

[BooScout]

151. I was in a meeting........

We walked out of the meeeting and someone said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.....we figured it was just a small plane and headed outside to have a smoke...came back in the office a few minutes later to all hell breaking loose. We learned it was two planes that had now hit and they were big. The tv was turned on in the building lobby....I sat with probably a thousand people (you could have heard a pin drop)and watched the buildings fall.......then people started crying........the company closed for the day and as I drove through downtown Atlanta I remember looking up at the buildings and wondering if it could happen here too. I spent the rest of the day with friends watching the horror story unfold.

[SeattleGirl]

152. Home in Seattle. Found a note on the bathroom mirror

from my husband, telling me to turn on the TV as soon as I got up (I don't usually turn it on, but listen to the radio instead.) I turned it on and saw footage of the Pentagon. Called my husband and asked what happened to the Pentagon. He said, "What? What are you talking about?" Told him what I was seeing, and he told me about the Twin Towers. It was my turn to say "What?!!" Just then, the TV switched to pictures of the Towers. He leaves for work just after 6:00 am Pacific time, so had seen the start of the coverage on TV and then listened on the radio in the car. But he was unaware of the Pentagon. It was so unreal, all of it.

[BrutalEntropy]

154. work...

I had just gotten in to work... I spent the remainder of the day watching streaming video from CNN and getting all the data I could find and burning it to CD for archival purposes. It's a really strange thing, you know I remember my mom and other people her age (I'm 24, was 20 then) talking about JFK's death and where they were that day... and I knew this would be the same way. It's a weird feeling to know that you're watching something happen that will be talked about for decades. I'm gonna go try and find that CD now...

Interestingly enough, I fully supported Bush after 9/11 (even though I voted for Nader in 2000... although I live in OH so I could've voted for Donald Duck and it wouldn't have made a difference)... Whatever support I had for him is loooong gone. He blew it big time.

[VOX]

155. Sleeping in on the West Coast...my alarm clock went off, and...

the Pacifica affiliate station was talking about all this incredibly horrible stuff -- in my half-stupor, I somehow thought it was a disaster exercise. A moment later, my boss called, filled me in, and said to stay away from the office. I was incredulous -- just couldn't believe that this was all happening on such a grand scale.

My wife was in Hawaii with her mom (okay place to be stuck, if it has to happen), so I was all alone on that day, with the TV just showing the most insane images I'd ever seen broadcast.

Thank God I had my cats -- they were blissfully ignorant, and that kept me grounded.

[scarlet_owl]

156. I was washing dishes behind the Meijer seafood counter.

One of the butchers came in and told us the news.

[Blue_Tires]

157. the morning of my 25th birthday (Virginia Beach, VA)

Incidentally, I was initially contacted by the Wall Street Journal a few months later—they said they were doing a story about Sept. 11 birthdays...I was never contacted for a formal interview, so here is the story I would have told them:

I was recently out of grad school and living at home, working a summer hourly job at the oceanfront as the tourist season was winding down. It was a night job, and I was looking forward to sleeping in on my day off...

My dad had already left for work, and as my mother was leaving for her job, she told me to wake up and turn on the TV because a plane had crashed into the WTC...At first I didn’t think much of it, because the first images that came into my mind was one of those single-engine Cessnas with mechanical problems, and a long-ago tidbit from a book that said the WTC and Empire State Building were made to withstand crashes from airliners...

Turned on the TV while eating breakfast and saw something totally different (iirc, this was right after the second plane hit the WTC)...I remembered watching for at least a half-hour before I realized that these crashes were no computers or radar running amok, or bad pilots—someone had done it intentionally...I wondered why, and spent the next 10 hours glued in front of the TV, alternating between Fox and the BBC(I was kinda hawkish at the time). My feelings ranged from rage to pity to confusion....Nothing seemed to make sense to me anymore, as I began to wonder what the U.S. ever did to deserve this(I knew little about U.S. policy in the ME before this)...My brain pondered dangerous thoughts, like why were there no fighter jets to stop the threat?? Why would terrorists try to fly a plane into the White House knowing the president isn’t there?? Whose job was it to prevent against something like this, and why were they not fired?? Only after I joined DU did I learn about lihop/mihop, etc...These two incidents: 9-11 and Enron had shaken my faith in the foundation of our nation more than anything else, and I NEVER looked at anything involving business or politics again....I was already being treated for depression, and I was in a terrible unemployed funk for many months after that...

At the time, I was seeing this girl on and off...it was still my birthday and we were going to go out and do something, but instead I just went over to her place and we had sex without saying a word...it wasn’t the energizing, fun, spiritual experience sex normally is, instead it was distorted and lifeless...I just wanted to do something, anything to get my mind off the events of the day...Afterward we had talked about how the world was never going to be the same, and how Sept. 11 would no longer just be my birthday...

AFTERMATH:

I was a fool...Even though I was almost as liberal then as I am now, I was in the ‘kill ‘em all’ and ‘nuke the ragheads’ mode for a long time after the incident and I had even tried to enlist in two different branches of service to fight the enemy (my asthma and weight didn’t garner a second look from recruiters)...Disgustingly, I was also in that ‘We must support our president in a time of war, no matter what!!” mode for awhile...I watched Fox news and Bill O’ because they seemed to echo my views best...I am ashamed to say that even Michael Savage seemed like a sane and clear voice to me at the time....But as time went on, and more and more questions became raised and unanswered, I knew that our own government was not as innocent in the ordeal as originally thought....The midterm ‘02 elections, and the Iraq invasion were the last straws which led me to DU, which has opened my eyes to something new every day....Now I know I’m not the only ‘crazy’ one...

[GreenPartyVoter]

165. No a lot of us went into kneejerk fear mode. *hugs*

Happy Birthday, though I understand what you mean about it not being the same any more.

[really annoyed]

159. I was at home

And I happened to wake up at 9 AM. My mom was babysitting my niece and nephew - my sister had just started a new job.

I turned on my television and saw that the first plane had crashed into the WTC. There were cartoons on in the living room so my mom had no idea. I came to tell her what was going on - at first, I thought it was just an accident.

So, my mom and I turned on her television to see what was going on - and that was when the second plane crashed into the WTC. Then I knew it was a terrorist attack. We both cried.

My sister came home early - she had lost her new job. Her employer left Michigan after the attack because he must have had some relatives in the WTC. :-(

[sakabatou]

161. At home getting ready for school

My mom yelled "Mike, get in here now!" So I came and mom turned to ABC. That's when I saw the footage. I was too young to really know what went on.

[GOPNotForMe]

163. My dad called my dorm to tell me.

It was I believe the second week of college for me. Everyone in the dorm was in their rooms watching the TV, popping out every once in a while. Over time, people started grouping together to watch. I remember a friend from another floor came and made mac and cheese and we watched the TV for hours. Later in the evening someone else invited me to a little dinner she was having so we could all be around friends during such frightening times. *sigh*

[hopein08]

164. Eating breakfast in front of the TV before going to class...

just the day before my political science professor had summarized current events by saying, "We live in boring times." When I had the class again on 9/12 he said, "Remember what I said? Forget I ever mentioned it."

But I went to class and everything was cancelled so I went to a prayer service. It was run by Catholic priests since I went to a Catholic university even though I'm not Catholic. The lightest moment of the day was when half the people at the prayer service finished the Lord's Prayer after the Catholics stopped. The sky was too beautiful and I couldn't help staring at it.

I made one of my best friends in college that day, a seminarian. It was weird but fitting that I went to a Catholic school, attended a Catholic prayer service, and held hands during it with a seminarian even though I'm a Protestant who hasn't actually been to church since like 1993.

Just days before 9/11 I also made friends with a girl in my sociology class who's father had been forced to flee with his family out of Iraq because he worked for the UN. She ended up in Turkey then Guam then to my hometown, Erie, PA. I think I understood things better because I was always talking to her that semester.

[New Earth]

166. . I remember, the night before September 11,

....I wrote a poem about an attack and people dying, blood in the streets, and a country in shock that something tragic could happen to them. Of course, didn't think anything of it, it was just a poem.

The next day, I'm at work - well, my job at the time - and i'm in the office with the two girls i worked with. the one girl, her boyfriend's mom called and told her that a plane had just crashed into the WTC. at the time, it was thought to have been some kind of accident, there was no info whatsoever as to how it happened. not long after, she called again to say that a second plane had crashed into it. then i felt so strange, i knew it couldn't be an accident anymore. then one of the guys who worked there came in our office and said that on the news they are saying they think it's probably terrorists. soon after, another phone call. a plane just crashed into the Pentagon. at that moment, i knew it. You hit the U.S. pentagon, that means war. I knew at that point where things were going....then of course, one plane hits the ground in PA which was thought to have been trying to get to D.C.

i was in shock, as everyone was - crying a bit, scared, confused, the whole day and weeks that followed, everyone at work were like zombies. such a somber silence in everyone. but at the same time, such a feeling of unity. everyone was feeling the same thing.

anyway, that night i go home and watch the news - see the planes crashing into the buildings, over and over and watching the stress, shock, and fatigue in Peter Jennings (RIP) - realizing what i had written the night before, as well as learning that my boyfriend at the time had been freestyling the same night i wrote the poem, about the same thing - about an attack, war, people dying, etc. that whole era was memorable for me, not just the Sept. 11th 'attacks', but what was going on in my life. surely a time to remember, or try to forget.

and as a reminder - Iraq had nothing to do with it.

[wiley]

167. Trying to convince people they had to leave both towers right away

after the first plane hit. The stories you hear in the media about what really happened are so censored and manufactured that it feels like I was on another planet. How this country could allow a President who let something like this happen remain in office, blameless and even pitied, is beyond comprehension.

[GreenPartyVoter]

168. Wow. Yeah, it's unreal to me the way they just allowed everything

to go down as it did. MIHOP is the only explanation I can come up with.

[Chichiri]

169. I had worked the previous night, and woke up around noon (central time)

woke up, dragged myself out of bed and checked my email, which I always do first thing. Got an email from my list saying "turn on your TV, someone flew planes into the World Trade Center." I thought it was a joke until I went to CNN.com.

The rest of the day passed in varying stages of shock.

[DemGirl7]

171. I was just waking up for class when I heard the news

I live at home, and travel to campus...I ended up not going to any classes that day because they were all cancelled. But at home, life was hell, because my older sister works at the World Financial Center with right across the street from where the Twin Towers Stood and we were very worried about her. My Dad already left for work, but was calling home continuously for updates on her. My Mom tried calling her work number, her cellphone number, her home number, and her fiancee's cellphone number, with no indication of if she was ok, until early in the afternoon. My sister saw it all happen from her window at work the people jumping to their deaths, the planes flying into the building...everything, she is ok,no emotional damage done, she just had a coating of that dusty suit over herself, but one of her best buddies at work flipped out kinda, and there was one death at her firm. The creepy thing is that she told me that her firm used to be located on the very top floors of the towers before, but after the 1993 bombing the people in charge of the firm thought it was best and safer to move across the street to the World Financial Center. I'm very happy that the firm did move across the street. Very, very happy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

172. Oh man... I can't believe she came out of it emotionally unscathed.

I don't think I would have. :(

[Retired AF Dem]

173. I was living at Hauptstr 56

66909 Steinbach Germany. Been retired from the Airforce since 1/98. I was working for a German company and my wife is and still is a military civilian. I was at Ramstein AFB doing some grocery shopping and returned home. After I put the grocerys away I went online. I use AOL (I know it sucks but it is good for how much my wife and I are apart) and there was a pic on the home page of the first tower being hit. Sorry but I didn't know that DU existed at the time so I went to my favorite site at that time, timezone.com, after I went there we were discussing what was happing, than tower two and the Pentagon was hit and we all knew it wasn't an accident. I was drinking wild turkey and in tears and hoping like hell that us retired from the military folks would be called up to "get some". At 1700 CET I woke my wife that worked mids at the time and told her that our country had been attacked and that the towers were gone.

[AnnieBW]

176. In an Internet Research Seminar

I was in an Internet research seminar called "Search Engine Strategies". It was being taught at the Hyatt Hotel in Reston, VA. The first session was over, and I went downstairs in search of caffiene, and noticed a group of people standing around the TV in the hotel bar. I asked what happened, and someone said that a plane had flown into the WTC. Some more people started filtering downstairs, including my co-workers. By now, it was apparent that we were under attack. Some people were starting to panic, especially because we couldn't check in because the cellular lines were jammed up. My boss at the time, who is a good friend of our family, was able to text-message his wife who was at home. I asked him to ask her to contact my husband to let him know that I was okay.

We were basically told to stay put, and that they were evacuating our building, same with all of Washington DC. We knew that we were totally screwed, because we had all driven around the DC Beltway out to the Dulles Toll Road. We were already hearing reports of massive traffic backups on the Beltway. So, my boss takes his laptop with a wireless card (this was before wireless LANs really caught on for businesses) and went "wardriving" to get a signal, so we could figure out how to get back to Maryland via back roads. We figured out that, if you drove all the way out to Leesburg, you could cross the Potomac and be in Frederick. I was familiar with getting home from there. So, I rode with another co-worker who had driven in her own car (I had carpooled with two other people). It took us about 3 hours to get back home, but it was worth it.

Also, one thing to note - the late, great R. Edward Lopez of WIYY and WBAL stayed on the air for 13 hours that day, reassuring everybody and giving them the news as it came in. It was Lopez' finest hour, and was remembered when he passed away a few months ago. :(

[latebloomer]

177. Heard the news on WABC radio

Had just dropped the kids off at school. My immediate impulse was to drive up to a lookout 14 miles west of the city, from which you could see the skyline. Both towers were covered with gray smoke. Many others were up there at the lookout, and we were all milling about, radios on, in shock and horror.

People were moaning and crying. I hugged a woman I had never met before. We heard that the Pentagon had been attacked, too. It felt like the end of the world. I turned around, and the right-hand tower was gone.

It was my husband's birthday-- I got thru to him and he said he was coming home. Together we went to pick up the kids from school-- I felt like anything could happen next-- a nuclear attack?-- and I wanted them near me. My 9-year-old son, unaware of the tragedy, took one look at my stricken face and asked, "Did Daddy die?"

Overcome with the shock and sadness, I feared even more what my government would do in retaliation. It was days before I could even weep, but the thought kept repeating, "What have we done, bringing children into this sick crazy world?"

[GreenPartyVoter]

181. You hugged a woman you had never met before? That is

so understandable. I think we were all reaching out to anyone and everyone. We were so lost and scared.

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[FormerDittoHead]

178. ...about to board a plane from Toronto to Philly

they turned us away at customs and said our flight had been cancelled. We were running very late and thought there was a mistake - they didn't even see our tickets (we didn't get our boarding passes yet). How do you know OUR flight was cancelled? "ALL FLIGHTS are cancelled due to a terrorist attack." So I thought it was another right wing kook who flew his Cesna into the White House, etc and it was quite an overreaction.

Returning to the airport (and wondering what to do) a TV guy was there and asked me if I knew what had happened. I told him I didn't. He told me the story - it sounded like a movie plot.

With not even the trains running after the attack, it took us almost a week to get back home while we stayed in a crappy motel after having stayed in a very nice hotel in the middle of Toronto for the film festival). On the way back by train (customs took over 2 hours due to a full train and the food car ran out quickly), I got to see the smoking glow and the "cavity" that the absence of the towers left on the New York skyline.

[sniffa]

179. how am i supposed to know? where were you 9/19/75?

oh yeah, never mind.

[GreenPartyVoter]

182. Head Start, most likely. But you weren't 4 years old when 9/11 happened so

I thought you mighta known where you were. :silly: :crazy:

[sniffa]

185. i was born on that date

;)

i was at work in dorcester that day. they evacuated boston, but i was one of three peopLe not sent home from my company.

peopLe trying to escape the city aLmost created a disaster on our own. :o

[GreenPartyVoter]

186. I believe it, having seen the traffic down there. And hey, happy

almost b-day. *g*

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[lostnfound]

183. Before I knew WTC1 was hit: with 4 other moms, sharing joys of motherhood

In my first few weeks back at work, I met 4 other woman in the entry to the bathroom. They asked how the baby was, and we were talking about how it feels like such a privilege and a great spiritual gift to have such a creature in our lives as a young baby (no matter how exhausting). I think the 5 of us all felt so connected, each walked out almost tearful with joy, and then we got the news within 2 minutes afterward.

[SunDrop23]

184. In a conference room, waiting for the weekly staff meeting to begin.

[babylonsister]

187. We had just arrived in

Indonesia on vacation and couldn't fly out. Pretty horrific being so far away from home, the internet cafes were barely working due to the added burden from so many people wanting to talk to relatives. The other tourists were oh so empathetic and just as devastated as we were; there was a 'we're in this together' spirit, which helped.
Too bad the blivet destroyed that particular sentiment.

[GreenPartyVoter]

189. *sigh* did he ever

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[QuettaKid]

190. "I was working for a small moving company in NJ

me and 4 of my co-workers were standing outside in a parking lot with a perfectly clear view of lower Manhattan. Oddly though, our reaction to the horrors unfolding before us were very different from most of yours. We were in fact, laughing and dancing and even VIDEOTAPING the carnage. We were in a state of deliruim....as a matter of fact, some of us had been working in those very same buildings for the past couple of weeks and now here we were watching them burn and then fall......."

Google "5 dancing Israeli's". FUCK YOU PNAC!! FUCK YOU BFEE!!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[XOKCowboy]

191. Working in Kona

I was there for 10 days and it was my first trip to Hawaii. I had the night shift and got off at 1AM. I went to bed and got a call at 6AM saying they needed me to work. I started to complain and they said "Turn on CNN". That's all it took. We hooked up video feeds so the audience (who were stranded there also) could see what was happening back on the mainland.

Being in Kona gave me a small sense of security since we were so far from the mainland. We finished working and went to a coworker's room. On CNN they kept replaying the second plane hitting the tower and we had a deep talk about what was happening and how the world would change. Then after about an hour we decided to go snorkeling. We figured that if the world was going to end there were few places better to be than in the ocean off of Hawaii looking at the fish. It really was the best thing to do at the time.

I was on the first plane out of Kona back to LA and spent the worst night ever on layover. The McDonalds closed right before we arrived so I spent the night in a LAX terminal freezing with one bottle of water. There were National Guard troops at the security entrances and I got woken up every couple of hours by a security guard wanting to see my ticket.

Welcome Home to a brand new America.

[sweetheart]

193. in a moment of time

just like this one

[GrantDem]

194. I was at home...

I had just returned home from work. I worked third shift at the time. I turned on CNN just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. It was surreal; like watching a movie or something.

[GreenPartyVoter]

195. Welcome to DU. Yeah.. it felt surreal to me, too.

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[GrantDem]

196. Thanks for the welcome

[ballabosh]

197. Oblivious

I was on my way to work on the El (in Chicago). I probably had my headphones on and my head in a book, as usual, because I didn't know anything about it until I got to work. In the elevator on the way up to my floor, I heard a secretary telling an attorney that planes had crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon. I actually thought, "Yeah, right. What have you been smoking?"

But then, of course, I found out the truth. You couldn't even get on any of the internet news sites. I was getting all my updates from my wife who was at home with our 5 month old baby. Rumors were flying wild: there was another plane on its way to Chicago, there was a bomb at the State Dept, etc.

At about 10:30 a email went out from management that if anyone felt concerned, they could go home. At the time, I thought that was kind of silly. Yes, I work in a high rise, but we're completely surrounded by higher buildings and there's nothing important, governmentally or symbolically in our building. Plus I had work to do (what a trooper, eh?). My sister called, crying. At the time she worked in the Modnanock Building. They had basically ordered them to go home, but that was more understandable since the Monadnock is centered between three federal buildings.

After about another hour, there was almost nobody left in my office, so I had absolutely nothing to do. So I went home too. The Loop was eerily deserted. Noon on a Monday and no one around. It was weird.

It was also weird at home for the next few days. My house is on the flight path to O'Hare and you get used to hearing almost constant plane noise. You don't even notice after a while. But when the flights were grounded, it was complete silence. THAT, you notice. And it was just plain eerie.

Of course, like everyone I was glued to the news channels for days afterward. I remember thinking that I was glad that my baby was a baby, that she wouldn't remember this or have to try to understand it. I remember thinking I wish I had that innocence, because it just made no sense.

[GreenPartyVoter]

203. Welcome to DU *wave* Yes, I remember the eerie silence when the

planes stopped. We're under a flight path as well so it's noticable when the planes aren't there.

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[DanCa]

198. I was asleep when the first plane hit

then the second woke me up right away.

[Pied Piper]

199. I live in Boston

When I arrived at work at about 9:15 that morning, the first plane had already hit, but we thought it was a Cessna...

When we heard that a 2nd plane had hit, we all ran to our computers to see if we could see something online. The traffic was intense, but my computer was able to get through to MSNBC. As soon as I knew that I had made a connection, I shouted out, "I'm in!" Everyone in my office ran to my cubicle to see, and when the screen flickered into view, it was the helicopter shot of the second plane. Shocking gasps surrounded me.

At 10:00 am, the HR manager went around the whole building and told us that we could make any personal calls that we needed to make (everyone in Boston has friends or family in NYC...). OK, I'll spill some beans here: I work at Symphony Hall in Boston. The staff all started drifting to the House Crew lounge in the basement, where they had a large screen TV. There were about 60 of us crammed into a small space - we watched it all unfold. At 10:30, the Facilities Manager evacuated the building because it is a National Historic Monument.

I went to the video store, because I was afraid that I would spend the entire day in front of my TV, watching the bad news. After I picked up the videos, I bought a 5th of gin (11:00 am). I got home about 11:15 and ended up watching TV until about 1:00 am the next morning - I never did see those videos...

My cousin worked in Greenwich Village at the time. I wasn't able to contact her, but I did reach her husband at their home in White Plains; he assured me that he had heard from her, but she was stuck in Manhattan and couldn't get out.

I learned later that another friend of mine, who lived in NYC's Chinatown, saw the whole drama unfold. He saw both planes and both towers falling. He told me that he didn't leave his appartment for over a week, except to get some meals at the diner just down the street.

What a horrible day.

Once we knew that all planes were grounded, the sky became eiriely quiet. Later that day, when I was outside with some friends, we could hear an aircraft approaching. There was panic in the street - literally hundreds of people ran out into the street to see what was coming. There was a huge sigh of relief when we realized that it was a US fighter plane, probably on a reconnaissance mission.

I agree that 9/11 changed everything, but not in the ways that the current maladministration would like us to beleive...

[GreenPartyVoter]

204. I am so glad your family and friends were ok. I admit to having avoided

cities the last few year because I worry something else might happen. I would love to go back to Boston sometime, but I have to convince my husband something disastrous won't happen.

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[TOhioLiberal]

201. I was taking my mother...

...to a couple of doctor appointments that morning. Her 1st appointment was at a clinic at around 8:15. The clinic, on the second floor of the building, had a large reception area, with a TV bolted to the wall. The TV was broken and I thought that at least I won't have to watch the news.

People were coming in to see if the TV was just off or broken, I was curious as to why. Not curious enough to ask, just kind of idly wondering.

When my mom got done with the appointment, we went downstairs to leave. The TV on the 1st floor was on, and I saw the smoke pouring out of the building. I thought '...an accident?' Then I saw the second tower get hit. OMG! At that point, I was on autopilot.

Mom still had another appointment so we left. I turned on the radio instead of listening to CD's. The radio was just full of the reports. It was terrifying. At her second appointment, they had their radio on, and it was bad. I heard the towers fall while waiting for mom to get done at the doctors office.

I don't know if it was the shock, or if it had been building up; but my mother was never the same after that. By November, she had been diagnosed with liver disease and Alzheimers, fallen down the stairs in her home (luckily only bruised badly). For her safety's sake, we placed her in an 'assisted living' facility (nursing home).

She passed away last October. I miss my mom. :cry:

[GreenPartyVoter]

205. *hugs* I lost my mom in January and miss her too. Life is not the same

without our mommies. I am so sorry you don't have yours either. :hug:

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[6000eliot]

202. Sleeping in, I'm sorry to say.

My partner woke me up and said a plane had hit the World Trade Center, but I didn't think it was a big deal, so I went back to sleep. I woke up about noon to the news that the towers had collapsed. I think I'm still in shock.

[AllegroRondo]

206. Ft Hood, Texas

I arrived at my unit just before 8 AM (central), the CQ asked if I had seen the news about a plane hitting a building in NY. We had no TVs at our unit, so I hit the internet. As more people arrived for work, some had heard on the radio, some hadnt. We all crowded around the 6 computers with internet access and scanned news sites for anything. All the US sites were too crowded to get anything, but I got video from BBC.

The base was locked down by 10 - no one allowed on or off without an extensive search. Rumors flying about who may have done it. Rumors about when we would get activated. Rumors about how long until we were going to war. At around noon, word came down from the post commander, we were not going off to war (yet), go about your normal daily activities (as if any of us could), the post would remain under high security until furthur notice.

[GreenPartyVoter]

210. That had to be a hard thing to do, sit and wait and see what you would

be told to do. If anything.

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[RiDuvessa]

207. At work.

Wondering if I was going to be shipped out the next day.

[atommom]

208. I was at home with a baby and a toddler. Caught the first brief reports

of the first plane strike on the internet, and then kept compulsively checking the net and the TV for updates. I was stunned and sickened, and very glad that my children were too young (and too busy playing) to be interested.

And close on the heels of that shock was my outrage at GWB's response. Already pissed after the 2000 selection, I went into a downward spiral of anger and frustration at the freeperization of America. I'm still down here. :hi:

[mvd]

209. At home

I was going to watch the end of Good Morning America when the news came on.

[LSK]

211. on vacation in Colorado

I was camping the night before outside Buena Vista. I couldnt sleep, so I packed up my tent and drove to Leadville and went up in the mountains to photograph the city from above. Then I walked around Leadville a bit and as I left town, I heard about it. I spent the rest of the day going over a 11,000 foot dirt road mountain pass (Cottonwood pass) listening to everything on AM radio (the only thing I could get). I wound up that evening in Crested Butte, where I got a hotel room and watched everything on TV from the day. I couldnt help thinking at the time that maybe this was the end of the world and I was in one of the best places if the world was going to hell.

[Suziq]

213. I Was At Home

My husband was at the airport in Detriot and was due to fly back to New Jersey. I took the day off from work to pick him up at the airport. I work across the street from the WTC site and so grateful I did stay home that day.

I was watching Good Day New York - a local morning program when one of their reporters heard the first plane crash into the North Tower and looked up. He initially thought that it was a small plane. I immediately called hubby's cell phone - amazingly it was on, and told him I do not think he was going anywhere. He finally made it home after spending almost 72 hours on different Greyhound busses.