Where were you September 11, 2001?

How did you find out? what did you think?

I was at home and I slept on the couch. Somehow I awoke just after the first plane hit, probably I heard what was going on subconsciously. I thought terrorists right away, and I actually saw the second plane hit. I saw the towers collapse....I wept for all those people. I woke my girfriend and she watched too. It was one of the worst days I ever remember having. I am betting everyone can remember where they were that day. I don't mind telling you that I hated Muslims and Arabs that day. I have gotten over it and I know not all Arabs or Muslims are to blame but that day made us all so angy I am sure.

BTW my intent in posting this thread is just to know where people were and what they thought, not to debate partisan politics. I was just reminded of it because I recently had a discussion about this subject with some friends.

I was on the crewboat at the dock in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, waiting for the boat to be loaded for a run offshore. In between crane lifts I was reading the newspaper and had the news on the TV. I couldn't hear the TV over the noise of the engines idling, but I saw the burning tower and my first thought was "Wow, they are making a movie using the World Trade Center as a location". It didn't sink in that it was real until they showed the second plane hit the other tower.

They finished loading the boat and I had to depart the port to head for the rig, and was unable to watch any more TV news, so I listened to news reports on the radio. It was so surreal and impossible, it took a while to really get a handle on what was happening.

The chatter on channel 16 on the VHF (marine) radio got so bad, the Coast Guard had to keep telling people to get off the channel (it's reserved for emergency communications only).

I was just waking up; I hadn't turned on the TV until I got a phone call about the first plane, my wife said a prayer and woke the children. I just stared at the TV trying to make heads or tails of it. A jet hitting the tallest building on a clear day with modern equipment just made no sense to me.

I was making coffee when I heard, “there’s another one”. I thought to myself; ‘this cant be true’. I saw a shot from the air as a jet slipped out of site of the camera behind tower-1 and then briefly appearing again before seeing flames come out the backside of tower-2.

I knew in my heart, but I could not believe what I was seeing. My wife and I watched replays for a few minute trying to grasp what we had just seen. My wife was in tears, I did a weapons check.

I knew it was Middle East related, who else is nuts enough to do something of this magnitude.

I remember reviewing the family emergency plan with my wife. We even discussed taking our children to work with us. I didn’t get much done that day; I spent most of watching TV in my office.

I was at work. The TV was on in the showroom and someone came and told us in the offices that a plane had crashed into the WTC. At first, like most people we thought it was an accident. At least until the second plane hit. My first reaction after I understood it was deliberate was to hope it wasn't another OK City deal. We found out fairly early on because of the third plane who was behind it though.

I was asleep when the first plane hit. Mom woke me up, she was in tears. I thought someone in the family had died. I couldn't have been closer to the truth.

I watched the second plane hit.

It was surreal. Nothing will ever make me forget how I felt that day, and then in the coming days when we found out we had lost some close friends to the attacks. Two in the towers and one at the Pentagon.

Will certainly be a day I will never forget.

I had just gotten to work and fired up the computer and msn when an aussie friend of mine came online right after the first plane hit and told me to go find a tv. I went downstairs to the men's grill to watch in horror as the second plane hit. It was a very strange day at work that day. No one really did anything or said much.

I was at work. A co-worker came in and told me that a plane had hit the WTC. I asked whether it was a small cessna or an airliner, and he didn't yet know. I got distracted (sucked into a meeting) and when I came out, the second plane had hit. Not only was my first thought terrorists, but actually Osama. Too many timing similarities to the embassy bombings in Kenya.

Spent the rest of the day in a fog, trying to access news sites (waaaaaay too much traffic) and listening to the radio.

i was asleep. i was pregnant and sick. my friend called me and told me what had happened. in my sleepy haze i told her that she was watching indepence day and hung up on her. i felt awful when i woke up later to see the truth. it was just too far fetched for me to believe.

I was at work, and people listening to the radio heard about it, we turned on the tv in our boardroom, and we all sat and watched, wondering if it was an accident, when the second plane struck...we where all in shock, nothing got done that day.

I'd just come home from school and was watching tv while i was eating dinner, so i saw everything that was broadcasted. My first thought was: "God damnit. Another war."

I was in class at the time. I went to my second class and the prof came in sobbing and told us to go home to our families immediately. My phone had kept going off during my first class, but now it didn't work. No matter where I went I had no signal, so I headed out to my truck on a hunch something was on the news. The walk back was oddly surreal, very few people were around and those that were out were walking in a trance. After getting to the truck, I found and listened to NPR. Thats when I heard the news and everything made sense. I went to my third class and again, the prof came in crying. She took one look at us and said, go home, hug your loved ones. I still remember her....ironically, she was a theatre instructor and that was by far the most emotion I've ever seen in anyone. On the home everyone was driving carefully and letting people merge, which was unusual. Despite the sunny day and cloudless sky, everyone had their lights on. I remember having to get gas and all that immediately changed. Prices skyrocketed as lines snaked through pumps and around the block with lots of angry people. Later, several gas stations would be heavily fined for price gouging. I came home and tried to find more info online, and the net had effectively crawled to a halt. All the news sites were overloaded. Spent the rest of the day with the tv on.

ResearchMonkey said:

I was just waking up; I hadn't turned on the TV until I got a phone call about the first plane, my wife said a prayer and woke the children. I just stared at the TV trying to make heads or tails of it. A jet hitting the tallest building on a clear day with modern equipment just made no sense to me.

I was making coffee when I heard, “there’s another one”. I thought to myself; ‘this cant be true’. I saw a shot from the air as a jet slipped out of site of the camera behind tower-1 and then briefly appearing again before seeing flames come out the backside of tower-2.

I knew in my heart, but I could not believe what I was seeing. My wife and I watched replays for a few minute trying to grasp what we had just seen. My wife was in tears, I did a weapons check.

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Damned near identical scenario. I was at Xibase & running up news sites ASAP, looking for information.

My husband was in class when it happened. Not only did the class not get interrupted, but no one in the class knew until damn near 11:00 am (CST), hours after the planes hit. Someone came into his class late and mentioned he heard something, so that's when they finally turned on a radio and excused class to let everyone go. He was rather pissed off at the school that day.

i was just coming downstairs after showering for work. the tv was on, but diana was in the kitchen. i saw the smoke billowing out of the first tower hit and said "oh my god! a plane hit the world trade center." diana initially thought i was kidding until she came into the living room and saw the tv. at first i thought it was a major accident till the 2nd tower got hit. i was working as a visiting nurse at the time. i spent about an hour with on client because she lived in a high rise elderly complex. the poor thing was terrified that a plane was going to hit her building becuase it was the tallest one around. spent the better part of an hour with the next client getting her to calm down. she was having a major panic attack because of what she was watching on the tv. i was able to get in touch with one of her neighbors and had her come over so they could keep each other occupied and away from the tv. that was pretty much the theme for that day. i only had 5 visits that day and on a normal day, it would have taken me about 3 hours to go to all 5 clients. took 7 hours to see all 5 clients that day. a few of my co-workers said they didnt get to see all their clients that day either for the same reasons.

This is like to people knowing where they were when Kennedy was shot. I am too young to remember that but I do know I was in school when Reagan was shot. The nation was stunned by that tragedy as well.

No New Yorkers here? I was just leaving the gym where I work out. I remember walking past the banks of tread mills with the little tv things and seeing a picture of the smoking world trade center on them but didnt think much of it. Then one of the employees came running in saying a plane had hit one of the towers. I assumed it was a small plane and since I work for an aviation organization that deals with private jets I knew things would be a buzz there so I ran the few blocks to work and went right into our board room and watched the goings ons on TV with a bunch of other people. thats basically all we did that day. I also work in Washington DC so many people were rather spooked that the White House was the next target and thats just a mile or two away from our building. Needless to say traffic was snarled. Everyone was trying to get out of town. They had shut down the subways for security reasons. I managed to get a ride with a coworker and as we drove over the Potomac into Virginia you could see the black smoke from the Pentagon crash in the distance. Truly a sureal day...

I was at work, and suddenly found myself aware that every radio in the department was tuned to CJAD, a local news station. My boss came in and told me that she thought something terrible had happened in the US. After second plane hit, and details were confirmed, work absolutely ceased. I spent about 3 frantic hours trying to get in touch with a friend in NYC that I knew worked *somewhere* near the towers. Of course that was pretty much impossible, online, cellphone, etc. I went home early and hugged my kids for a couple of hours, spent the rest of the night awake watching news coverage, and then cried for a half an hour after my friend finally called to say he was ok.

My journalism professor called and woke me up, asking if I'd heard about it and telling me to get to the school paper's office ASAP because it was obvious the next day's issue was going to be a lot different than previously planned. I thought he was fucking with me until I turned on the TV and saw the second tower getting ready to collapse. On the way out of the dorm building everyone was crowded around TVs in people's rooms.

I still have my Fresno Bee Extra edition from that day, too. One of the other student journalists said she was going to go buy one (they had a guy out on the street selling them... you know, "extra, extra, read all about it") and a bunch of us gave her money to grab us copies too. I think she ended up bringing back 12 or so copies.

Thulsa Doom said:

No New Yorkers here?

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Short version:

I called in sick but my boyfriend woke me up after he got out of the subway a couple of blocks away from the WTC and looked up. He just happened to take our camera to work that day and took this picture as he was trying to get out of the area.

I don't know why, but I turned on the VCR. I have two full tapes of the coverage from that day but I've never been able to bring myself to watch it.

I called my Mom and we were speculating on how this could happen when the second plane hit. I spent most of the rest of the day trying to coordinate the effort to get my boyfriend and his Mom out of Manhattan so his father could pick them up. And posting at www.jjr512.com, my first OT message board, that I had joined only 10 days prior. I did leave the house to drive down to the bridge and see it. But all I really saw was smoke, they were both gone by then.

That's about all the detail I want to go into. I still think about it pretty frequently. Just tonight I got my monthly photography magazine and there was a stirring picture of the first tower burning. It still makes me sad.

In a telly shop

It was quite morbidly surreal watchin' it happen on 50+ screens surrounded by fellow consumers.