Where were you when the towers fell?

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

I was alone at work, I am the early bird and the phones started ringing off the hook from management to make sure I turned off everything touching the firewalls. We had enough open to allow us to watch CNN but had most of our company specific machines down. Our company lost several executives because the main offices are in Boston and they were heading to both Los Angeles and Washington DC. We had some multi story office building right next to LAX ( Our company name is in BIG RED letters ) so those people went home or didn't come in. It was strange to not see and hear planes at LAX. Because our company was considered a possible target due to the tall buildings next to the aiirport we were getting updates on the grounding status of planes. There was so much confusion that day. It was almost 1/2 a day before all the planes were on the ground and people where allowed into the high rise buildings. I was single at the time. It was strange to see the trade centers come down. I had visited them with my ex a few years before.

[Emancipation 2]

I was in small town PEI working in a music store.. and there was total silence in the street.. we were all puzzled by it, why weren't the regulars in, why was the street traffic so quiet, until our guitar tech came in and told us the news. We had no TV, the internet was jammed, and we couldn't get any info at all that day except what we could piece together from our customers.

I remember sitting at the back of the store on some cases, talking to a co-worker who was sure it was the end of the world.. Armageddon stuff..

What is strange is that that morning (wee hours of the morning) I had a terrifying nightmare.. I woke up in a panic after having dreamed that there was an infusion of evil in the world and that the "good" had been sucked out.. It took me hours to stop the panic & anxiety and I fell back to sleep for an hour or so before work. Then I go to work and hear about the towers.. I was in complete shock - utter shock. Still makes me go

[Malrothien 6]

Ugh.. As an American... ugh. I can't even explain what I'm feeling today.

usually "ugh" is internet language for discontent... I'm assuming you mean that you feel disheartened about it all though.

Maybe in your interpretation that is what it means. For me? It is more of a sigh of pain and hurt.

[thetreble 19]

Okay.

[rae_and_scott 1]

I was here in NYC. I was working in Soho, not far from the towers. When I came aboveground from the subway, I saw the first tower on fire. I didn't know what was happening, but saw a lot of people streaming uptown, away from the towers.

I didn't have to watch the coverage on tv; it was right out the window of my office. It was surreal.

A couple days later, I went back to work, just to try to feel some sense of normalcy. I don't know how effective that was though, as that area was cordoned off from the general public. So the streets were ghostly empty, and all covered in dust and ash.

It still makes me very sad and emotional.

I had met Scott but we weren't yet a couple at the time.

[thetreble 19]

Wow that's crazy. When you saw what was going on, where did you go? Home?

[beans 7]

I was in wood shop class they played the news information over the intercom.

[rae_and_scott 1]

Wow that's crazy. When you saw what was going on, where did you go? Home?

No, I went to work (which was a couple blocks south of the subway station I had come out of, so I was walking against all the people going north, which also felt very strange and wrong). I'm not sure if I could have gone straight home as the subways stopped working shortly after that. And I didn't immediately know what was going on other than that the building was on fire (not that it would actually fall down, that was far beyond my imagination or reason), so it just made sense to go to my office, where they told me what was happening. I went home later that day; after spending some hours at work while the events unfolded, I walked to a friend/coworker's place in the Lower East Side with a few others, where we had lunch and continued to watch the coverage on tv. Then later the subways were back up and I went home.

I'm glad you started this thread. I feel like many places/people barely mark the anniversary anymore, and you could pass the day without even noticing it's 9/11.

Edited September 11, 2009 by rae_and_scott

[JillA 2]

I was in second year at McMaster, didn't know my hubby back then.... but I had Tuesdays off and that was my volunteer day at the Oakville Seniors Citizens Residence... it was my first day at work, and I was in the co-ordinators office getting my duties for the day. One of the other employees came in and told us what happened, so we went to the lounge where all the seniors were watching the events unfold.... I felt sick and wanted to go home, but she made me stay to comfort the seniors as many were upset. I stayed until 3 when my shift was over and rushed home to watch TV coverage....

Side note: I was in NYC in May 2001 for the first time on vacay with my sister... we went to the WTC and I have some amazing photos of us in front of them... one shot in particular I have where I was standing undernearth the two and I aimed my camera upwards.... the sun was shining, it's a glorious photo. I have it in a frame now on my wall, and I shudder when I look at it! I am so happy I had the opportunity to visit a few months before and take those photos.... We also took a circle line boat cruise and I have some great harbour shots with the WTC in the background. I really treasure those photos I took, if I had only known 4 months later, they wouldn't be there anymore... I wouldn't have believed it.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Time has a way of doing that - especially for those of us not directly connected. But I don't think it's anyone'ssfault that it starts to receed in people's memories...it's how nature works to help people move past something like this. The world will return to certain sense of normalcy despite the tragic events

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be near or to have had a family member forever lost and if I was one of those people I would want to remember my loved one not for that day, but for the reasons that I loved and missed them.

I do wonder myself whether visiting the cite each year has benefits for the family members, for some it must, for otehrs I wonder if it opens a very tenderly protected wound over and over again. I don't know, but my hearts go out to those people.

PS - I became angry with the media over time about it. I felt they glorified it, I felt they tried to drag out all the dramatic stories, the firemen's funerals, the storyes on Oprah of survivors who fell in love as a result of that tragic day....it was a bit much. For a while you couldn't go anywhere without being reminded of it

Edited September 11, 2009 by Udella&Wiz

[Otto 83]

At home (in Phoenix at the time) - just another day - work was supposed to be normal; late afternoon meeting planned with friends/colleagues flying in from different parts of the country. Flights grounded/canceled - everyone checked in but...Dave didn't make it (Boston to LA, flight 11)....

[meowmeowmeow 0]

i was in my dorm room in san diego, my sophomore year of college. got a call from a buddy of mine who told me to call my mom..i said why? this was real early in the morning mind you....and he just said "turn on your tv" so i am freaking out and go to turn it on and see the towers destroyed....called my mom, she had been standing on the roof of her workplace watching the smoke and stuff. my fam lives in jersey and they told me about how they had to close the windows because the dust and smoke from the towers being destroyed were carrying over to their area....insanity.

needless to say, we didn't have classes that day, and just spent the whole day watching the TV for more news...

[Misty1979 0]

I was at work in Canada when it happened. I knew my husband at the time, but we weren't dating yet. I remember a girl at work telling me about it when I walked in, and I was in utter shock.

This morning when they raised colors at the flagpole, about 200 Coasties showed up to salute the flag and witness the raising of colors...it was very surreal.

[trailmix 77]

I was at home, in Calgary and I turned on the tv and saw the news that the first plane had hit. My Husband called me from work, he was actually going to come home but they said no - no one goes home.

Then I went and woke up my Son, after the second plane hit, to tell him.

I think the strangest thing was just not knowing what was really going on. I don't really remember everything I was thinking that day, it's just too big (and horrible) to imagine the suffering of so many of the people in the towers and their friends and family.

[warlord 72]

I woke up at home in Colorado Springs, roomates told me about it right before I went to work. Got to work and HR came and called my coworker/friend and I into her office to tell us that our flight to India on Sept 13th was grounded indefinatly because of the attack. Then they didn't want to send us over there at all, but my friend and I insisted that we aren't scared and we want to go.

They booked us on the earliest flight on the 20th I think it was to London and then our flight from London took longer as they had to route us over Iran and then instead of flying over Afghanistan we had to detour in the Indian Ocean instead as Afghanistan now was a no-commercial-fly zone.

Landed in Mumbai and spent 6 weeks there...