Yes, I was sitting right here at the computer, when someone (ruthieg?) posted about the towers. I had not had the TV or radio on.

As a matter of fact, right about this time--I'd just driven to work (a whole mile or so) and the autumn-like late sunrise made it a soft day. Cathy passed by my door on her way to her office when she stopped and said, someone hit the tower??? We were fully confused, tried to find out what was going on, and so, I called and woke my husband. Normally, we could just log onto CNN and you couldn't get in, so we knew it was major. Back and forth phone conversations went on until they began jumping. I couldn't bear to hear it. I cried all the way to the post office. I wanted to stop a our local minister in the parking lot and hug him. I just had to hug someone. I didn't hug him. Instead, I went home. What I really couldn't bear to be away from my "boys" (hubby and son, who was only 2 at the time). I immediately got my flag out, felt urged to do it. Then, they announced we should fly our flags, and I thought, Good idea! Mommy and I both wanted to hug each other. The next day was harder for me. I think it was that reality was that it was here and touching my life. I knew people who were directly affected, but not me. It was because it was so eerie that nothing was in the sky. It made me think of my older sister whose husband who flew for UPS was required to turn back to Malaysia. Took us awhile to find him. It bothered me they banned What a Wonderful World, and hearing Coyote McCloud play it for the last time. Glad it's not banned any more!

May God bring peace to all. I'm thinking of you families (of the building, fire personnel, police, emergency workers...) and holding you close in my thoughts!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Louis Armstrong What A Wonderful World

I'd just turned on the TV, a few minutes before 9 and there was breaking news of an accident involving a small plane that had just hit one of the twin towers. As I watched, a second plane barrelled into the other one, and the reporter at the desk blurted out, "This isn't an accident, it's terrorism!"

At that point, I called my husband and daughter--we're not that close to NYC (about 2 hours away), but I just had to make sure they were both okay.

What an awful day--living under the flight path to a major international airport, it was freaky to hear the skies silent, when you were used to planes going over every 45-60 seconds all day long.

And when things were done, what a horrible toll--a student I taught (my gynocologist's niece, as well) died, a fellow who had been on the school archery team with me back in high school died a hero--they made a movie about his heroic deeds that saved many dozen people that day (Frank Di Martini). A friend of my daughter lost his brother and he's never been the same since. One family in my town worried for many hours--the father worked in the twin towers and they hadn't heard a word from him. That story had a happy ending--late that night he finally walked through the door--he hadn't been able to get through to them (Phone lines were completely clogged with calls and virtually unuseable for hours in the area) and it took him a very long time to make his way home, but he was safe.

Even living a few hours away from New York, the tragedy was pervasive--it's hard to find anyone around here who didn't know someone who died in the Towers that day--or was there but survived. And so many of our emergency workers volunteered to go up and help--and are now suffering the consequences of that decision.

Just typing the recollections, I'm sitting here tearing up, even now.

I was teaching fifth graders. A friend across the hall came and told me. I went home at lunch to catch up on the news. What a horrible day for those people. We had two SIL's in the Marines. One ended up going to Afghanistan. A couple of years ago I had a student whose father was in the pentagon when it was hit. He wasn't very far from the damage and his wife did not hear from him for several days. That same family told us about the Fort Hood shootings when it was happening.

Working in a cubby on the computer and people started streaming past, telling me to go to the meeting room. We had a TV there and at first, like others, did not understand what was happening. Everyone was silent. There was a small city airport across from us, eerie, as it was completely empty of anything happening. My oldest son and I left work and headed home to watch. Management told all who wanted to to do so.

It still reels in my head the confusion and not understanding what was happening when first seeing this.

Was driving to work. Turned on the car radio right after the first attack.

I was on the computer, when Ruthie G posted about the first plane. I turned on the TV just as the second plane approached the towers. As horrible as the death toll was, I fully expected it to be much, much higher. I heard that, on any given day, there could be something like 75,000 people in those towers. I will always believe that God was watching over America that day.

I was sleeping late and my son who was in the Air Force in the Las Vegas area (flew to that secret base every day) Called to tell me they were ok and what happened in NYC After praying I was glued to the tv like everyone else.I'm glad they are showing many programs about it today I think the country has already forgotten the significance of this day

Of course I remember. I was at my job, in a back room sitting at a table watching a training class via our closed circuit TV . Our field rep ran in from outside, said "A plane just crashed into The world Trade center, turn on the TV news." Someone switched to commercial TV news and we sat there staring. About an hour into the mess, our boss dismissed us for the day. I drove to my kids' school to sign them out and take them home, then I went to church and prayed to God. I told Him I was angry He didn't stop this, and He just better let everyone who died straight into Heaven.

I had just moved from Youngstown,Ohio to Dover,Ohio two weeks before 9/11 and I was seeking full time employment with a plumbing company, but to occupy my time will waiting for the plumbing job I was working through a temporary staffing agency. They assigned me to a mindless, high paced job on a production line making of all things, "Pampers Baby Wipes" in little blue plastic packs about 5"x7" and 1.5" thick and made to be tucked in the diaper bag.

We started work at 7am and about 8:40 one of the guys from the main plant came across the street to the building were we were working and said an airplance had just hit the W.T.C. We all thought he was full of beans until the front office put the news report on the plants P.A. system.

A few minutes later at 9AM the line stopped and we went on break. Most of us grabbed a coffee and went outside to sit on the pic nic tables in the smoking area.

While we were sitting there talking all of the sudden we heard a terrible noise overhead and as we looked up, there was a huge airliner not more than 300' above our heads. It was so low we could actually see the ppls faces in the windows and I could read the aircraft tail number on the vertical stabilizer. Realizing the aircraft was in some kind of trouble I quickly grabbed my pencil and wrote the tail number on the table top, then I grabbed my cell phone and called 911 and reported the tail number along with the estimated altitude and direction of travel.

Later that evening when I got home I was watching the news and they showed the wreakage of the airline that went down in Shenksville, PA. It was the same tail number that I had reported earlier in the day and when I checked a map I realized the we were only 35 miles from the crash site.

Watching GMA as it all happened....I will never forget it. Hubby (and brother in law) is an EMT here, son was a firefighter, brother works with Ham Radios....although here in the Maritimes, they were all put on call to be ready to go.
The world's lives changed that day forever.

I was at work in the admin office of a school. No one had a radio on. The secretary's son called her to tell her about the first one. She got a small tv from the AV dept. Of course everyone was in shock.

Shirley

I had just started a new job the week before. It was in a hospital that was part of a larger system and I was sent to a different hospital that morning to get some training from the staff there. I was sitting in someone's office when another person rushed in and said what had happened. No one there knew. People had mostly just gotten to work. no one had on a radio or tv. We all then gathered in one office to listen to a radio. I really had a hard time comprehending what was happening.

From there I drove to my house which is nearby. I had to see what was going on. My son was there watching the tv, very upset. I remember that he had left the room when the second plane hit. I was so stunned I could barely speak.

I watched for awhile but then felt that I had to get back to my new job. At that hospital people were gathered in the cardiac rehab area because they had tvs to watch while exercising. It was so quiet!

Since I was new, I really didn't know anyone and felt very isolated. I learned later that a college friend's son worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and died that day. Another high school friend was in the second tower and died. She had two teenage children. Sadly, her husband died a bit later of a heart attack. Living in the Northeast, I heard of others who lost friends and loved ones.

I also remember driving back to my job and how everyone was driving slowly and being so thoughtful of each other. Now there's one effect that did not last.

The whole incident seems so surreal to this day.

I was at work sneaking a peak at the KT. Saw someone post about the first plane but didn't have time to read it. Heard everyone talking about the second plane and went back to the KT. In the afternoon I went over to our main building to watch the tv news.

I also remember that it was the first Tuesday of the semester and I was supposed to be on the radio that night.

Samkaren
your resident DJ

I was on my way to start my freshman year of college. We were driving there and eating breakfast at a hotel in Indiana when we saw the news. We listened on the radio the whole trip to Chicago.

I was working as a reporter, and had just arrived in the newsroom when my daughter Suzanne called to tell me about the first plane. It was assumed to be an accident, but while we were talking the second plane hit. As you can imagine, all of us at the paper were both stunned and galvanized into action.

Later, I sat in the office of the county's director of emergency management, staring at the TV, and watched the second tower fall.

Still sleeping, then my friend and co-worker (whose family lives in the burbs north of NYC) called me like 3 times-- "Wake up! Wake up! Turn on the TV! A plane just hit the World Trade Center!" I thought I was dreaming. Then it was her call about the Pentagon, which is about 15 minutes away from us.

I remember the TV coverage of people walking home out of D.C., across the bridges in N.Y. And most heartbreaking, the fliers people in N.Y. were posting of missing loved ones. Flier after flier after flier. I don't remember watching any of the TV coverage of the towers' collapse, or the people falling from the building (in fact, I don't think I saw any of that kind of video until the 10-year coverage on the History Channel). But I will always have that visual of the fliers posted on NYC walls.

The day after, driving to work, past the Pentagon -- the gaping hole. For weeks, drivers stopped on the side of the highway to get out and look at it, realizing that they had to see it in person to understand the gravity of even this one part of 9/11. I still find myself looking at the spot even today, remembering what it looked like and all the military National Guard vehicles (not just jeeps, but tank-like things) at major intersections of Washington, D.C. The military presence was as scary as the black hole in the Pentagon.

I was eating breakfast at my home in CA and listening to calming jazz on the radio while I was getting ready for work. When I heard about the first plane hitting the tower, I decided not to turn on the TV. I remembered how upsetting it was to constantly watch TV after the Murrah Bldg. in OKC was bombed. When the second plane struck, I just had to turn on the TV. My son walked through the room as he was leaving for work and I asked him to stop and watch the TV for a minute. I told him he would remember this day for the rest of his life.
After I got to work at the admitting office of a hospital, patients and coworkers would give me updates. We had a TV in the break room and took turns going in there to get updates.

My daughter was getting ready for school. Then 16, she had just returned a week earlier after attending a summer scholarship program at Alvin Ailey School of Dance in Manhattan, NYC. I was still in bed. The phone rang and she answered it. Nobody calls that early here so I listed and heard DD say "What, New York City is on fire???" she spoke to the caller a little while longer and then said "Mom, it's Rob from Australia."

My friend Rob who lives near Sydney, AU was just wrapping up his day watching TV around midnight when the news reported the first hit of the towers. Of course no one at that moment really knew what it all meant but he was concerned enough to call us way out of the West coast to see if we knew what was going on. His call was the first we'd heard of it. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jodi-

I was working at Williams-Sonoma and was iin the stockroom when an employee who was just coming to work asked us why we didn't have the radio on...didn't we know what was happening? The manager got a small TV from somewhere and we watched as the second plane hit. Everything seemed in slow motion. What a horrible thing to happen, so many lives lost and by the same token so many lives changed by those events. I pray we never have such an experience again.

jude

I never turn on a t.v. in the daytime but, for some strange reason, I did that day. I was watching the news when the first bulletin was announced and I was horrified. I ran to the den to tell my husband and his first words were "it's terrorists" to which I protested and said "maybe it's an accident." I own a hair salon and got on the phone and cancelled all my appts. for that day and told my workers to do the same. I felt every American should have the time and space to try and process this horror. I could not take myself away from it and had melt down after melt down. Just thinking about the terror and fear those poor people on the plane and in the buildings had to endure either before they died or were rescued. The psychological damage to people who were there will last through out their lifetimes. I was scheduled to leave for Italy in six days. Everyone tried to talk me out of it but five of us (all women and friends) agreed "we're going"! Nothing was going to break us down and be fearful. We wore American flag pins the entire time and many many people stopped to tell us how sorry they were. In an odd way it almost heightened our experience as we were sooo aware to the value of life in almost every minute of the trip. God bless America!!!

DH and I were packed into a tiny rental apartment awaiting the completion of our new house. Our DS phoned from his work with the news. I knew immediately something terrible had happened. His voice was strained; he was so relieved to find us home.

We switched on CNN to see the severe damage to one tower. I cried to see the firefighters steadily streaming into the base of the building, It was a terrible, conflicted feeling as they obeyed duty in the face of almost certain death while the second plane hit. Unthinkable! Later came news of the AA passengers foiling the terrorists, and the heartbreaking audios of passengers and people trapped in the towers saying good-bye to their loved ones.

Now we've waged war for all these years, before and after, less spectacular, more steady death and destruction.

I was on vacation in Myrtle Beach and while for my friend to wake up, I turned the TV on to watch Regis and Kelly. I did think it was just an accident when the 1st plane hit..That day, we were glued to the TV....It was such an eerie feeling being so close to a naval base and not 1 plane flying over...We had a flight back home the following Sunday and worried that we might not get out..Everyone kept saying, there is no way I'd fly but we figured, it was probably the safest time to be on a plane...It was real strange, all the shops at the Charlotte airport were closed and when we flew into Pgh. we were the only one's walking through the airport....Something, I'll never, ever forget!

Sitting in my living room, watching the news and waiting for my neighbor to bring in her 2-yr. old daughter for me to watch a few hours. Just as she walked in the door, the planes hit - so very sad.

I was home watching GMA. I was so stunned I couldn't think and just sat mesmerized watching it unfold on TV.

DD had just started her freshman year of college at Columbia University and I was unable to contact her by landlines or cell phone. Her college is about 6 miles north of the WTC center but no one knew what was happening. She finally was able to AOL instant message to a friend in Ohio who called me to let me know that she was OK.

Afterwards when we finally spoke she told me how frightening it was. Students started lining up outside the hospital to donate blood within hours of the attack and she still remembers the shriek of the fighters jets flying over the city on patrol.

We were at home, getting ready to go out for breakfast when my girlfriend called and said to turn on the tv. DH was working midnights at the time. We both cried.

I was home in Dallas still in bed. My best friend at the time called me and said can you please turn on the tv I am on the computer in a chat room and someone just said a plane hit the tower and I have no tv here. I said sure I grabbed the remote and turned it on to see the first building in smoke. I was just about to tell her what I saw when I saw the second plane flying in and then hit. I screamed and said OMG someone is attacking the US come over here immediately.
I knew from the minute I turned on the tv what was happening. I just felt it in every part of me. She said ok and hung up. I picked up the phone and called my husband at his office told him to turn on the tv immediately the US was under attack and for him please to just leave and come home now. He could not understand what I was saying he thought I had lost my mind. But about that time I heard screaming in his office it was someone telling them what was happening. I begged him to come home. I said we live in Dallas this is likely a city they will be hitting. Not knowing just how many attacks were going on and where they would hit next.
I then called my Mom and told her to get to my sisters house immediately, and called my sisters to alert them and tell them mom was on her way there.

I stayed glued to that tv, my friend got there so we could be together, she had no family in the area. My husband finally came home.
We all just sat there in stunned silence watching it all unfold before our eyes.
So unreal.

We all had lived in Norman Oklahoma when the bomb went off there it was like living through that all over again. And that was horrific since we had very good friends in the building.

Days and times that are etched into our minds forever. I will...
Never forget the evil that lives among us.
Never forget those that suffered and died at their hands.
Never forget the brave that went to their rescue.
Never forget the RED WHITE and BLUE, the USA and in God we trust.

I was in class, in nursing school. The phone rang and the nursing class secretary had called the teacher to tell her what had happened. After class we all went back to work in labs but watched the footage of the planes hitting the towers on the tv. We were all in shock and finally had to get on with other things. I went home that afternoon and turned the tv on and watched while I tried to study.

Days and times that are etched into our minds forever. I will...
Never forget the evil that lives among us.
Never forget those that suffered and died at their hands.
Never forget the brave that went to their rescue.
Never forget the RED WHITE and BLUE, the USA and in God we trust.

Thanks Raven Says it all

No one will ever forget where they were. I had a cold and slept in and awoke to see a bunch of messages on my machine. As I was going to hear them my SIL called and told me to turn on the TV. I literally watched live as the second plane hit. I could not wrap my head around it. I knew no one flying or near the sites but was so shaken. I sat there glued to the set for long hours. The worst event in our long history.I still cry 11 years later watching film about that day.

I was on the computer, like so many. My sister sent an IM and asked if I heard the tower(s) had been hit by a plane. Being involved in broadcasting so much my first thought was the broadcasting towers were hit again. She said it was on TV so I turned it on and saw it was the World Trade Center. It was a pretty clear, beautiful summer day around here. Went out and ran some errands. After a while I tuned in some other stations, including Canadian and got a few different perspectives. It was interesting.

Frankly, I've been surprised it hadn't happened before. I had said for a long time it seems strange to try to shoot a political figure when they could so easily hijack a plane and crash it and probably be more effective, although they would have to be willing to die too.

It was an important day since (at least some) people finally woke up (a bit) that started to realize that we are not loved world-wide, are not omnipotent and are actually quite vulnerable in a number of ways.

A good friend is a former ATF agent and he was on the verge of being called to go to NYC. He volunteered. He was giving me some other perspectives on it too, again, quite interesting.

I just found this timeline and it brings it all back, vividly. I realize now that I was not home in time to see the second plane hit the tower, but I saw the first tower collapse. It just kept getting worse and worse.

This is a fascinating site, although a bit difficult to maneuver, at least with my touch pad.

Here is a link that might be useful: 911 timeline

I was in my kitchen as usual I don't have my television on and my daughter called and told me. I turned on my television and then I saw the second plane hit.

Sue

At 8:40 am I was ready to log off from here and Ruthie/Tx made a post..turn on your tv a plane has hit the trade center...I don't think I left the tv for a week...My nephew was in the pentagon and killed that day...it forever changed my families lives...

I am so sorry Liz, and for all the others.

Sue

I will never forget that day. I was at work when a co-worker said 'a plane has crashed into a tower in NYC, it's on tv now'. We all rushed into the break room where the tv is, thinking it was probably an intoxicated or stoned pilot. Then the second plane hit, and my blood ran cold as I thought TERRORISTS!
That evening, I sat crying in front of the tv, watching all those sad, grief stricken relatives holding up signs with their missing loved ones' names and pics, hoping against hope someone had seen them and they would turn out to be alive.
At the time the towers were hit, my son-in-law was on a flight from Atlanta to California. Our family was very concerned and anxious to hear from him, since no one knew at that time how many other planes would be hijacked. It turned out they landed the plane at an airport in Texas, since all planes were ordered to be grounded.

I was working in Arlington, VA where the Pentagon is located. We are basically across the highway from the Pentagon. We were having a regular work day. I think Glenda was the one that posted something here. I tried looking up CNN and all the other news websites but nothing was there yet.

The only TV in our office was in the conference room which was being used. Finally after more commotion, we broke into the meeting to grab the tv and huddled into one office. We all watched in disbelief. We also thought an accident at first. There were so many rumors flying it was hard to know what was real. All day we thought the USA today (newspaper) headquarters was bombed down the road. We heard of car bombs at the Capitol and State Dept. After all the shocking things I had seen, I wasn't surprised by anything.

We went outside where people were gathered around car radio's updating everyone. Weather-wise it was a gorgeous blue sky, but it was literally snowing ash from the Penatgon explosion. We could see the smoke plume from the Pentagon and it was black as night. Like pammyfay, I ALWAYS look at the spot where the Pentagon was hit. I can't imagine the people who happen to be driving by at the exact moment the plane hit. I'm shocked there wasn't a massive accident or pile-up?

I remember being glued to the TV for 2-3 days and then I couldn't take it anymore. The sadness was overwhelming. I woke up each day and prayed it had been some kind of horrible nightmare.

Thankfully I didn't personally know anyone who was killed, but there were lots of weird stories of "I should have been there" "changed my appt at the last minute" etc. and friends of friends, or cousin's cousin. A man from our office building, the floor below, was killed in the Pentagon. They put up a plaque in his honor that I used to see everyday and think about all the people who died that day.

But with all the tragedy, I do remember how nice people were to each other. Everyone seemed to come together in common grief and pride in America.

I can't believe it's been 11 years now.

I had taken an early retirement (buy-out) earlier in the year. We were relaxing in front if the TV set and I was worrying about how my retirement choice might behave. I had opted for a lum sum instead of a pension. And then it happened. The twin World Trade Towers in NYC were struck, first one and then the other. I watched my IRA go up in smoke along with the huge loss of relestate and life. My IRA holder had their main offices in that building and held records of my entire life savings.

I was highly concerned until later, I learned they had duplicate records off-site; Whew! Fortunate for my IRA holder, they lost only a few of their staff because the main body had not yet arrived.

In the aftermath, there was a flurry of activiity and heros created. It was sickening to see trapped people jumping from the upper floors to a quicker death. Later, both towers came down in an unexpected way. They collasped straight down. I had expected them to topple, instead.

The entire US was shocked and then a day later, angry, very angry. And yet, all around the world, there were governments and poeple who expressed the deepest sympathy. Symbolic actions came from unexpected sources. A web site was set up to portray those actions. These positive actions were not publicized by our press because other items pushed those items off the page, and it was in the interest of the Administration to keep the public on edge to support coming actions in Congress.

One of those portrails was seen in Russia. Two US flags, one for each tower, were flown at half mast over the Kremlin.

Indeed, 9/11/2001 was a day of infamy.

Yes, I remember that day, 9/11/2001. I had taken an early retirement (buy-out) earlier in the year and I was wondering about my choice: I had taken a lump sum instead of a pension and now market indicators were showing hints of s major downturn. We were sitting befroe the TV when the towers were hit, first one and then the other. I watched my IRA records go up in smoke along with the terrible loss of life and property. My IRA holder had their main offices ini that building. Fortunate for them, they lost only a few people because the main body had not yet arrived.

I was greatly concerned until later, I lerned that my IRA holder had duplicate records off-site - Whew!

It was sickenng to see trapped people jump to a quick death. The towers collaped in an unexpected way. They came straight down. I had expected them to topple and that would have been very bad.

The entire nation was shocked and then the next day, they were angry, very angry. Yet, all over the world, government and people were expressing sympathy, A web site was set up to portray thee actions, but did not get much press. Other actions pushed these demonstrations of the page. Also, it was in the interest of the Adminstration to keep the population on edge to support actions that Congress was committed to perform. One of the displays came from an unexpected source: Russia. The next day, two US flags, one for each tower, were flown at half-mast over the Kremlin.

Heros were made that day. For example, what about the folks who willingly downed their airliner rather than to see it used as a weapon. NYC firefighters made heroic attempts to help against bad odds, and they lost their lives.

Indeed, Sept 11, 2001 was a day of infamy. I shall not forget it.

By that time I was "in retirement" & opting to always sleep in. My husband (also retired, but an early riser) awoke me that morning with the words I'll never forget "It's Pearl Harbor all over again!" (he was about 12 when THAT happened.) He had picked up the evolving story on the radio, so we immediately turned on the TV.

liz_ga

so sorry to hear about your nephew
this day has double sadness for you and your family
HUGS

I've hesitated to post this, so please don't flame me. I love America -- but not 'right or wrong'. The attack WAS *heinous*!

But...

Do we remember WHY this happened? Do we remember that in the eyes of Bin Laden's 'terrorists', WE were the 'terrorists' who had invaded their country, killing their citizens.