Where were you when the planes hit?

[Ilvane]

I am watching some of the coverage on the September 11th stuff..It just made me think about it a little.

I was working and going to school at Harvard on that day. I came into the office and sat down at my computer, at about quarter to nine. About five minutes later, the whole place was buzzing.

My immediate boss told me to get to work and to stop looking at the web..(she was a horrid boss). The dean came by and asked me what was going on, and then we both looked at the site together. We wound up talking for a while, then the second plane hit. The president of Harvard sent the entire staff and students home, and they opened up places where we could all go sit and talk. I remember going home on the train, and it was silent. So many people were talking to each other in really hushed tones.

I took my commuter train home with some friends. We all sat and cried.

I had a friend who had a close call, in New York, and one of my co-workers lost a friend there too. It was a rough few days, for sure.

So what do you all remember about that time?

-A

[Edaarin]

I was in my AP Psychology class, my senior year, half awake. We were going over the beginning of Learning and Cognition that day, but school pretty much closed that day as far as learning went. It didn't really register to me how major this was till a little after 10 am.

[Zir]

I was in a navy "C" school at the time. I remember hearing whispers from the higher ups of "the second one just got hit." I had no idea what they were talking about until they made the announcement to everyone. The base got locked down for the rest of the day. They wouldnt let anyone back on once you left. Things were very tense for awhile.

[CrystalTears]

I was working as a temp in the legal department of a big company and it was a quiet morning. Then one of the lawyers came out of his office and said, "A plane just hit one of the twin towers in NY." We all just froze and blinked at each other in amazement.

We all quickly went to the web to different news stations until one of us found a live feed of what was going on. Several of us huddled around my computer listening to the events and some went to the conference room to see it on the television.

It was a really traumatic experience. People IMing me asking me if I heard, us trying to find out if our NY office team was alright. We eventually all moved to the conference room. That's when we saw the first tower fall and some of us started to cry silently. Then soon the other fell. By then we were all in tears. They let us go home early that day as well.

I'll never forget that day as long as I live. The only consolation I give myself is that I'm thankful that it was done very early in the day and could only imagine how many more deaths there would have been had it been in the middle of the afternoon. I know of at least a few people who were still on their way to work in subways and taxis when it happened and pray that they weren't there yet. I thank God they weren't either.

[Edited on 9/11/2003 by CrystalTears]

[Caels]

I was sitting in the JAG office getting an article 15 for being a smart ass to my superiors.

I remember one of the officers came out and said "Well, in case none of you heard the news, it looks like we're about to go to war, so yer punishments are not priority anymore."

I still got mine though.

[peam]

I was coming out of an English Composition class at my old community college. They had switched the TVs that usually fed the announcements channel to CNN. I missed both of the planes hitting, but I was watching live when the towers collapsed.

I had an hour break between my classes, so I just watched coverage until my next class. I figured it'd be cancelled, but I went anyways. I'll never forget the words out of that pre-calculus teacher's mouth:
"Let's just all calm down and do some math."

I thought it was humorous in the darkest of ways. Soon after, the school was announced closed.

The next few months were crazy there. The school shared a building with the local national guard armory. They wouldn't let classes be held in the armory for the longest time, and when we could finally go back in there, we had to do a sign in sheet and all that stuff.

[Weedmage Princess]

I was getting ready to leave for work...I was waiting for my cousin to give me a lift so I hopped online for a few minutes and was putzing around when I got an IM from a buddy in Atlanta who told me. I didn't believe him (odd considering at the time I lived on the north shore of Staten Island...right across the water from Manhattan..I didnt hear anything) So I flipped on the TV and sure enough...a plane hit the towers...I initially thought it was like..a really bad accident...then the second plane hit. I ran outside and down the block to the water and there it was...

Weird cause earlier in the year, a friend had been trying to score me a job with this financial corporation..their offices were on the upper floors of the towers. The lady they were supposed to replace wound up staying, though..so it didn't fall through...otherwise..who knows?

[Camri]

I was in my old apartment, getting ready for class. I was watching TV while I dried my hair, listening to the report of a plane accidentally flying into the first tower. While I was watching the second plane hit behind the reporter.
I went to my parents house, and spent the day with my family, glued to the TV, and hoping my brothers wouldn't be activated to duty.

[Praefection]

Being me I was running late for class. I had just walked into the room where class was held for the day and everyone was glued to watching the TV. I had no idea what was going on at first but it was horrible. We spent the remainder of that class time watching, ironic thing was there was a new group of students who started that day. I doubt they'll ever forget. It was hard having to work on clients while listening to the radio and trying to imagine what those people were going through, it seemed almost surreal in a way until you had to see it played over and over on tv. Very sad.

[Makkah]

I was in class when it happened. None of us heard a thing till we made it back to our dorm rooms\apartments. It was on the TV in our dorm's lobby. Shit was messed up.

rht

I was qualifying on my M16, We all thought it was bullshit to get us motivated to shoot better.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I was sitting at work, about 15 miles from the Pentagon. When the second plane hit and then the Pentagon got hit, the DC area basically shut down. Everyone was sent home. I personally mark that as the sadest day I've been alive to witness. I still get choked up and cry thinking about the tremendous loss of life, and how lucky we are to be a part of this great country.

I put a flag on my truck this morning on the way in, and was getting gas... someone asked me what the flag was for
.
.
.

[Izalude]

I was still working at Wyeth at the time in Pearl River NY. I heard about the first one and figured it was an accident, then I saw the second one hit on TV. I then went outside and was watching the towers burn from the top of the building... then the first tower fell.

That night I got a call from NYU Medical Center asking if I could come in and help for triage. I spent the next 3 days doing shifts in the back of an ambulance at ground Zero. I never treated any survivors, but I did stitch up some poor welder's arm from a really nasty torch burn. Those four days changed my life.

I'll never forget what it looked like when I walked around the pile. I'll never forget when I was sitting in the back of the bicycle-taxi in my scrubs going up the West Side Highway, and seeing all the people lined up cheering on the Fire Fighters, Police Officers, EMT's, and Medical personel. It was an awesome, and terrifying experience.

Plans? What planes? WTF are you people talking about? Did someone run more planes into buildings again?

Jeez, it always seems to happen around this time of year. I think it's becoming a new trend. ::groans:: Well, at least TV hasn't been interrupted yet.

[ElvenRangeress]

I was in school, and it was my second class of the day ... i walked in and saw my teacher sitting on a desk watching the tv, a few students surrounding her. i asked what was happening and she said a plane hit one of the towers, i was so shocked, this is when they thought it was still an accident, then all of a sudden as me and my peers watched in horror, there it was, another plane, and did the same thing as the first, into the next tower. people were screaming, our principle came on and tried to calm us, parents were coming to get their kids out of school (this was my 10th or 11th grade year, i have a bad memory) anyhow, everyone was crying and scared, darren (grays) called me on my cell and he was pretty freaked out about it as well, what on earth is happening to us? i'm still in shock (and this was all in florida, i could only imagine the people in NY)

God bless the families of those who have passed away.

With all my love,
Candi

[Edited on 9-11-2003 by ElvenRangeress]

[HarmNone]

I was at home that morning with CNN on the television. I saw the first broadcast. It was horrifying. My mother, my grandmother and I sat glued to the screen, all of us with tears tracing rivers down our faces, just as we did when the news of the Oklahoma City bombing was broadcast.

Such useless waste of life for what? It does not raise one faction of humanity above another. It debases all.

HarmNone

Ahhh... okay, nothing new happened. You're talking about 2001, yeah?

Okay then, I'll leave you to recollect with not a single harsh word spoken. ::twitches::

::slowly backs out of the thread, resisting the temptation to say horrible things::

[StrayRogue]

I am proud to say I was in bed with a girl, wrestling. I came downstairs to wish her goodbye as she left, then my Dad called telling me to put the TV onto Sky News. It was moments after the Pentagon was hit. I then called two of my friends, one of which was on a building site who had no idea what was going on.

[Rysk]

I was in the shower in Alaska getting ready to go to work...

[StrayRogue]

This is kinda like that "You always remember where you were when JFK was shot"; I was swimming around my Daddies nutsack.

[GS4Gurl]

Originally posted by StrayRogue
This is kinda like that "You always remember where you were when JFK was shot"; I was swimming around my Daddies nutsack.

I was too.

But on Sept. 11 I was at home doing not much of anything, and mom calls and says turn on the tv quick. I watched in disbelief all day.

[Solkern]

I was passed out, after a crazy night, woke up, around 2 in the afternoon, since i dont watch much TV, Dropped Brianna off at home, on the way back she called me and told me what happened

[StrayRogue]

It was like watching a movie in a way, wasn't it? It was just so...unbelievable.

[Artha]

I was in school. In history class, I think. Maybe Algebra. We didn't hear immediately, they waited until around 7th period to tell us.

[smarty pants]

[Removed for obvious reasons.]

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Caels]

Originally posted by smarty pants
[Removed for even more obvious reasons.]

ROTFLMAO!

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Caels]

[Betheny]

I was in bed. I woke up just as the towers collapsed. I had just got back from my honeymoon the day before.

[Who me]

I woke up when the second plane hit after a long night of celebrating my birthday. At first I thought it was just a dream until I decided to take a ride to the ferry and see for myself.

Originally posted by Skirmisher
Edited out

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Skirmisher]

You can delete posts by checking the box that says ! Delete Post ! when you're editing. :)

[Back]

I was unemployed at the time, so I was at home, and up at 8 or so? I think, which was unusual when you are unemployed, but the TV was on. I had made coffee, and was out smoking my first cig when someone said, "Hey, come look at the TV." I saw a hole in the first World Trade Center building, and I remember thinking to myself, "That wasn't a bi-plane that made that hole, it crossed the whole building." Well, I got my coffee and we kept watching. I saw the second plane hit while simultaneously hearing about the plane in the Pentagon. Watched TV all day.

I had just moved from NY two months earlier.

For a month after that, I was in deep thought/depression about the meaning of religeon, the power of belief, and the meaning of evil. My dad gave me some words of wisdom to help me figure it out. It went something like... "No matter what you do, or believe in, if it dosen't hurt someone, you're living the right life."

[HarmNone]

I have often thought of those who live in and around the area of that dreadful event, and how it must feel to them. I see recent pictures of the New York skyline, and I literally *feel* the emptiness where the towers once stood. To be subjected to that feeling day after day would be very difficult, I would think.

I have relatives who live in Oklahoma City. I know the feelings of loss and helplessness that they have expressed. I imagine New Yorkers feel much the same.

HarmNone

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by HarmNone
I have often thought of those who live in and around the area of that dreadful event, and how it must feel to them. I see recent pictures of the New York skyline, and I literally *feel* the emptiness where the towers once stood. To be subjected to that feeling day after day would be very difficult, I would think.

I have relatives who live in Oklahoma City. I know the feelings of loss and helplessness that they have expressed. I imagine New Yorkers feel much the same.

HarmNone

I went tonight to look at the Tower of Light and it brought it all back.

Driving home alone and really feeling alone. Fighting the traffic as i was leaving from the GWB and it seemed like everyone else in the world was trying to get too it.

Dodging rescue and police vehicles as they raced uphill on the wrong side of the road directly at me forcing my up on the curb several times because the lanes heading towards the bridge were packed and at a standstill due to the closing of manhattan.

My next door neighbor finally arriving home at 9:30pm and we all nearly crying to see her. She works in the towers, worked in the towers but was late that day thank goodness and was only in the lobby when the first plane hit.

Finally hearing from my brother and sister in law who work at one of the hospitals in southern manhattan she as a nurse, he as a physician. Being terrified when the towers actually fell because my brother is just the kind of idiot to run toward the explosion and try to help. He did just that as it turns out but was also safe and was there on site for about the next 24 hours helping both treat rescuers and seeing body parts pulled from the rubble.

We live in the flight line of two airports and have planes fly overhead at low altitude all the time every day. I remember how spooky it was to just not hear anything from overhead except for the odd military helicopter.

This post is all disjointed and just all over the place. I'm just feeling unusually sentimental tonight with all the memorials and ceremonies.

[HarmNone]

Skirmisher, I would give anything just to be able to hold you close this night. Your words, and the feelings so implicit in them, bring tears to my eyes. I know my sentiment is just that...sentiment. Yet, it is truly and deeply felt.

I am so sorry for the losses of so many, and for the horror of so many, and for the psychic damage that was sustained by most of us, and will remain with us for our lifetimes. The horrors of war are felt all over the world, by peoples in every country. Would that we could stop the madness.

HarmNone is wiping away the tears yet again

[HarmNone]

His words, whatever they might be, have no meaning to me, Stray. Skirmisher's words speak to all of us. Would that we listen.

HarmNone feels for those who have lost so much

[smarty pants]

Originally posted by smarty pants
[Removed for obvious reasons.]

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Caels]
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! THEY ASKED WHERE I WAS, SO I SAID WHERE I WAS.

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by smarty pants

Originally posted by smarty pants
[Removed for obvious reasons.]

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Caels]
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! THEY ASKED WHERE I WAS, SO I SAID WHERE I WAS.


At least try to be funny in your posts.

As it is you just seem...small.

[smarty pants]

Originally posted by Skirmisher

Originally posted by smarty pants

Originally posted by smarty pants
[Removed for obvious reasons.]

[Edited on 9-12-2003 by Caels]
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! THEY ASKED WHERE I WAS, SO I SAID WHERE I WAS.


At least try to be funny in your posts.

As it is you just seem...small.
i wasnt trying to be funny there.