I was on the West Coast and sleeping in as I had been up till the wee hours the night before. Our adult kids had been calling, and DH intercepted the calls and did not wake me. When I did get up, DD called and I turned on the news. She said the towers had fallen, and I replied that no, I was looking at them on the tv. She told me to watch a few more minutes.

Our younger son had been living there until August. Thank goodness he decided to come home to finish his degree at UC Berkeley. (He had transferred back from NYU.)

Our DD was pregnant, driving down from Denver to visit with us, DSIL called her cell to tell her what happened.
MIL was at our house, had come in from California, I kept telling her something horrendous had happened, to look at the TV, she kept saying there's always something happening, took a while to get through to her that this was big news.....

DH and I were asleep when the phone rang.....it was our DS who worked across the street from The World Trade Center. He said he just called to let us know he was OK. Steve rarely calls and then only if it is very, very important so we were confused as to why he was calling so early in the morning.
He then proceeded to tell us he had seen a plane hit one of the towers and how awful it was to see people jumping out the windows to their death. Then the second plane hit and he told us he would be leaving for home shortly and would call when he got there.
By then we had the TV on watching in horror.
We watched the towers fall and had no idea where our DS was. Several hours later he called to tell us he was home. He was only a block away from the towers when they fell. He had to walk home......to midtown Manhattan. Our DDIL had just moved to NYC from Tokyo ten days earlier and could see the disaster from their apartment. She took pictures of Steve's shoes......it was an awful day for everyone.
I have a very difficult time watching any reminders of that terrible day.

I just sat down in the tv room with my cup of coffee... and turned on the boob tube.... I just sat there in shock.

glenda, I was there. right there, in the ashes, in the smoke, watching bodies raining down. I was a cop and went there to help. I will never, ever forget. I thought how bad must it be up there for these poor people to jump? Me and the 84 year old man I wound up with (each of us carrying the other -- his name is Simon - Sy) made it out of there. Then the second tower collapsed. Sy is now 93 and calls me every year on my birthday. Thank God for Sy. He thanks God for me and I thank God for him. See how this works? amazing

I was at home, watching the TODAY show and checking in on the AOL message boards that I monitored for AOL - the Airlines and New York City boards in the Travel section.
The TODAY show broke in with the news...I was looking on my PC at the Airlines board, which lit up with messages about the WTC, and most of them were strange names with the most hateful messages. I went to the New York City, and the same thing..new poster's names that said awful things.

There were so many of them, I got a message from AOL to delete them and asked if I needed help. I did - there were hundreds of messages on boards that were usually slow.

Messages from airlines personnel asking about people who were working the flights, and on the NYC forum, messgaes looking for people who lived/worked in lower Manhattan.

In the mean time, I'm looking at it on TV, and thinking about the Marriott hotel(which was never mentioned on TV) that sat between the Twin towers. I worked at lot in NYC, for the state, and stayed at that hotel several days a month. I knew so many of the employees, and was so worried about them. I went to the Marriott site, and the page for the hotel had been taken down.

The entire day, I sat at my PC, and deleted hate messages on AOL, while watching in horror.

AOL did not close down the boards because regulars were using them to contact each other.

I learned two things that day...that hateful crazies come out of the woodwork when tragedy strikes, and the amazing courage of those in NYC who had to face such terror.

It was a day I will never, never forget.

Thanks you Trisha for your service

I was home DS who was stationed in Nevada at one of "those" bases called me to tell me so I wouldn't worry. I watched TV all day like everyone else and sent up prayers for those in and out of danger.
Like everyone else around out went the flags!!!

I got a phone call from a friend who said "turn on your TV". I hadn't been up long and had no idea of what was going on. Definitely a day I will never forget.

I was sitting in my bed at my old home talking to my best gal pal at the time and watching Regis & Kelly,when it broke into the tv special news--it was 9:17 EST a.m.

My fear when the reality of it all hit for those poor ppl in NY, was my kids and their jobs that at the time were government related here in Canada...I was soo worried that where they were(Toronto & Ottawa) would be next to be hit.

I was on my way to the airport in San Jose Ca when we heard the news on the radio that all airports were closed and no flights were taking off. After we went back home I turned on the news and called family and work to let them know I was safe. My sister thought my flight was earlier and that I'd get stuck landing where ever the planes were allowed to land. I worked 1 exit from Oakland airport, they re routed flights after the airports were opened and it sounded like they were headed directly at the store. There were also rumors of major bridges (Golden Gate etc) being targets. I remember "ducking" many times when I heard jets flying low overhead. Very scary times!

As everyone else says I don't think I'll ever forget. Was home getting ready for work, and I walked into the living room where the today show was on. I stopped to look at the tv and when I looked at it the second plane hit the tower. I just stood there in disbelief and I called my boss, (at the time I worked at a private in home assisted living facility) and told her to turn the tv on. We stayed on the phone a few minutes both watching and not believing what we were seeing. Such an awful, awful time.

I was in Union Station, downtown Chicago, on my way to work when the first plane crashed. At the time I didn't really know what was going on, but I do remember hearing people talk about Sears Tower being evacuated. Just after I got to the office, the second plane crashed. At some point later that morning our building was evacuated. I did not take the train back home. A group of us who lived near each other took a cab together back to the western suburbs. Once home, put out the flag and watched all the news in horror for the rest of the day.

Hubs and I were having our morning coffee and watching the TV. The first plane had hit and we were watching, not believing what we were seeing, when the second plane came into view and flew into the second building. The shock and disbelief, and panic I was feeling, I'll never forget. Our son in CA called and I begged him to to come home, thinking the whole country was under attack. And in MANY ways we were. We would never be the same again, after that awful day.

I was at work in MI (grocery store) and a customer told us a plane had hit the towers. We turned on the tv in the office and all of us were in shock and at first thought it an accident.

I remember that day so clearly. I was driving to work thinking what a beautiful sunny day it was, wishing I didn't have to go to work. I arrived at work and wasn't there more than 5 minutes that I heard that a plane hit the north tower & that they heard some of the company employees were on that plane. They were heading to California on flight 11, the first plane to go into the tower. A short time later the CEO had a meeting imforming us that it had been verified flight 11 was the plane the employees were on. Such a very sad day. I remember I just wanted to go home and be with my children. I watched the tv for a while but couldn't take watching the news showing over and over again those planes hitting the towers and the horror of what everyone involved went through. Just a surreal day. My heart goes out to all the people that lost loved ones and all the people who had to deal with the aftermath.

Like Glenda, I got my first news of it through Ruthie, here at the KT. I stumbled to the TV and just could not believe it was happening. The rest of the day is a blur of what was happening.

I had just woke up and turned on the TV to watch one of the morning shows and saw where the first tower had just been hit. Was still watching when the second plane hit the second tower...that's when I knew we were being attacked.

Like all of us, I felt so scared and sad and wanted to talk and hug everyone I know and loved.

I just put my flag out and will always feel sad on 9/11.
The sadness is mixed with the pride of being an American.

I was driving to work at the nursing home I was to be at that day. I heard it on the radio in the car. When I got to work, I saw my boss and we went in and sat with the residents and watched it on tv, not really believing what we were seeing. For those of you who were there, or who lost someone there, I share your pain. May nothing like this ever happen again.

Had sent the kids off to school, had the TV on in the kitchen -- news coverage (Peter Jennings) interrupted programming. I immediately called DH at his office to report the "plane crash". Watched in disbelief as a second plane hit -- still not believing it intentional -- until the pentagon was hit. Had to wait a good 36-hours before learning that my brothers (FDNY and NYPD) were OK.

I just got online to purchase some TI-83 calculators for birthday gifts, and saw the news...instantly leaned over to turn on the TV. Sat there speechless for about 30 minutes before heading in to my office. On my way, I pass right by our high school, where my twins had just started as freshmen. My 1st instinct was to swoop inside, grab them up and head back for the safety of home. I didn't do that, but when I got out of my car in the office parking lot I noticed how eerily quiet it was outside...no planes, no lawn services mowing, very little car traffic.

I was in the bathroom getting ready for work when Wayne came in and told me a plane had hit one of the towers. I thought what a terrible accident. It wasn't until I got to work that I saw it on TV and realized it was terrorism and the other tower was his and the Pentagon and the plane down in the field. I was sick at my stomach, as were all the other teachers and I just wanted to go home, but of course, we couldn't. It was a long day and then I was glued to the TV.

I can also remember where I was when I heard about JFK, but thankfully, I'm too young to remember Pearl Harbor.

Like Glenda and Phyllis, I learned of the attack from Ruthie G, right here at the KT. I immediately turned on the TV--in time to actually see the second plane fly into the other tower.

Ruthie is our best KT newscaster!

I was at work. My boss went to the high school and came back saying something was going on in NYC. There is a TV in the front office so he and his secretary sat and watched everything. I had so much work to do and stayed in my office working most of the time. When I got home, turned on my TV and sat watching. I realized I stupidly sat working while people were dying. Talk about being a dedicated worker?? I always knew I gave my heart and body to that job and that proved it.

I was about to bring my 5th grade son to school when the news said something about a plane hitting the building and was watching the news before we left. I ended up bringing him in a bit late and had to sign him in. By the time we got to school the 2nd plane hit. I also had to go out to find a new frig. that day because ours had stopped working the day before. It was surreal shopping for a frig. going about "normal" stuff that day. I went to a few different stores and everyone was in shock kind of dazed looking. I felt like people were thinking how can she be shopping for a frig on such a horrible day. I had to do this chore but I felt guilty going about doing "normal" stuff and buying a frig.

I was at work, in a back room, getting trained. A fellow employee ran in the room and yelled "A plane just hit the World Trade Center!" That was about 30 miles away. We all ran to our desks to log on and watch CNN online. Someone tuned in the TV in our break/lunch room and we all huddled arouind it. Our boss dismissed everyone for the day. I drove straight to my home church to pray for those lost. Then I picked up my kids from school, and brought them home. The last thing I did was phone DH to make sure he was coming home. He was. We live on Long Island. We could seee the smoke from where we live.

I was off that day from the retail store I worked at. My boyfriend (now husband) called me and we were on the phone as I watched on TV. He told me that his shop was shutting down for the day and that he was going to the fire house where he volunteers. Maybe they would go to Manhattan to help. (We live on long island 35 miles from NYC) His engine company was sent to a staging area at Belmont Racetrack. The parking lot was filled with fire trucks from all over long island. They were later sent to Queens to cover a fire station that had sent their truck to NYC. My husband was very disappointed not to be sent to NYC. The volunteers all have an amazing desire to serve.

God bless the folks that were there.

~candace

I was at work. Secretary's son called her. She immediately located a very small black and white tv. I could see it in the breakroom right outside my office. I watched in disbelief as the 2nd tower was hit. When I heard about the pentagon, I had an almost overwhelming desire to be with my family.

Shirley

I was on my way to work - heard it unfolding on the car radio. When I got to the office someone had a TV in a conference room and the room was overflowing with people. The whole situation was surreal.

I was at work. I had just registered here at the KT on September 6, 2001. I hadn't posted much but I was reading when I had time at work. I saw the post here and immediately went to the TV in the lobby to see what had happened.

I am probably one of the last people to find out. Guess you could say I had a couple more hours of Innocence in my life than some. I was in my classroom teaching , had just brought the kids in from their Music class and had started the morning lesson. We didn't leave the room till lunch time at 11:45 so that is when I heard about it. I felt sad that I hadn't known about it but at the same time, my kids had a couple hours more of a normal day. After that it was very hard to concentrate on teaching.

Turns out that I had a child who had just moved here, from New City City, where his dad was a fireman. I asked her why she hadn't called the school, thinking she would want her son home with her. Turns out she and her husband had spent the morning on the phone with relatives and friends trying to find out if everyone was okay. She said she had called the school to find out if the children knew. The schools had been directed by the School Board to not have the televisions on but to tell the students about it - at least in the elementary grades. If parents wanted to pick their children up, it was okay for them to do it. This mom felt he was safe at school and that they needed time to focus on finding out about family. Turns out they did have a number of firemen friends who lost their lives.

Having been thru and remembering the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Watts riots, JFK, Martin Luther, the Cuban Crisis this was so scary. I have a relative working at a base, and the it was locked down. The let no one off or on, and the planes were sent up. She finally got home very late, could not talk about it, and we did not ask, but the whole area along with many other bases were on very high alert. We were all glued to the Tv and praying for all. I cannot ever remember a time when every plane in the US was ordered to land at the closed airport. It caused some scary momemts because most did not know why.
Just prayers to all to calm us all down.

I heard about it from friends on a message board, ran upstairs to turn the TV on, watched and felt sick to my stomach. I called my husband and asked if he was watching TV, to turn it on, that we were under attack...the towers had been hit, the Pentagon had been hit, and the White House had been evacuated.

Then I sat down at my desk to work but my hands were shaking. I so wanted it to be yesterday.

I was at work in a federal building in Michigan. We were in a meeting with people that had come from the Pentagon. My secretary came in, whispered the news to me, and we quickly found a TV. We saw the second plane hit the towers. Our building was shut down after the Pentagon was hit, since it was a federal govt building. Everyone just sat, staring and crying in disbelief. My friends from the Pentagon could not locate their families, and I found them a rental car and they drove home since the airports were closed. Such a shock, and so frightening.

Thank you Trish for your service. I am glad you and Simon found each other.

My DH and I were in Washington,D.C. and had just passed the pentagon when the plane hit. It was only mintes later when we saw all the exits to D.C. closed. We drove to our motel in Maryland..guess where..across from Andrews Airforce base. While we were checking in the motel employees were watching on TV the fall of the towers. We were not able to go anywhere from the hotel for the traffic going in and out of the base. We could see the smoke coming from the Pentagon from our room and watched the helicopters circle. We had booked a tour of the White house and on the third day we were allowed to do so. The next day the tours were closed again. Our tour guide took us all over D.C. I have never seen so many tanks, and soldiers with guns, on every corner. We left from D.C. heading for the Rocky mountains to Tennessee and down to Mississippi. There were flags flying everywhere, lining town streets, flying from flag poles, in yards, the American people really brought out their flags. It is a day I shall never forget.

i was in las vegas visiting my mother, who was in rehab with broken hip...my dd in indiana called me and said mom a plane just hit the wtc, then while she was talking, crying, the second plane hit...

i felt so very much alone and isolated from dh and the family at home in mi...it was another 2 weeks before i was able to leave and opted to take the train...in a way, it was a very healing trip...i've have yet to see as many american flags flying in the most isolated places from needles ca to chicago, where my dh picked me up...

DH and I were living in a furnished apartment, waiting for our new house to be finished. Our DS called from work, where they had only a radio, to ask us if this was really happening.

We turned on the TV and saw destruction on the first tower. We watched with terribly mixed emotions as firemen marched steadfastly past the TV cameras and on into the buildings. Then the second plane struck, and we realized this was no freak accident. Horror. Disbelief. Grief. It only got worse as the news came of the Pentagon and of the plane going down in PA. Agony. Listening to recordings of last phone messages of the dying to their loved ones. It was unbearable.

Then came the eerie *silence* as the country just STOPPED. No commercial aircraft. Navy jets screamed over Lake Michigan from time to time. Very light road traffic. Tears.

The whole world had witnessed an epic tragedy, fuled by the hate of one man, AS IT HAPPENED.

I don't think the world had ever been eye wittness to anything like this before. Not Pearl Harbor, not Kristalnacht, not any wars here or abroad -- some with Vietnam. No hate from abroad had previously touched Americans on their own soil like this since the Revolutionary War. We were stunned and amazed.

We wanted to know, "Why?"

What a different world it was before 9/11. I was at work in downtown Minneapolis getting ready to help out with a United Way fundraiser event in our office. My co-worker in the cubical next to mine just stood up and said the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane. As the saying goes, the commonest things happen most commonly, and I immediately thought of the World Trade building in St. Paul and the tiny downtown airport there and knew it must have been a terrible accident. Terrorism never even occurred to me.

It wasn't until I went to the internet that I understood what was going on. I had a very close friend who was a flight attendant for United at the time and she called to let me know she was alright. She was in absolute shock, watching TV and telling me that a second airplane had hit the towers as we were on the phone.

My husband was working in St. Paul at an office that faced southeast. He watched plane after plane head into landing formation towards the airport. The airplanes in the air were simply told to land at whatever airport was nearest and the huge Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport could take a lot of traffic.

The rumors began that the Sears Tower was going to be hit next and the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis, so our company told us all to go home. Out in the suburbs, my brother-in-law and nephew immediately went to donate blood when all of the eastern hospitals were gearing up for the thousands and thousands of wounded patients they were expecting. As we know, that didn't happen.

I used to walk to and from work, and when we went back to work the next day, it was incredibly strange to hear the silence. No airplanes were allowed in the sky for several days and it was soooo quiet.

The Sunday following the attack, church ended and people began leaving and the choir began singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic ("Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord....") and everyone just stopped in their tracks and began singing. It makes me tear up just to type this.

A member of my book club made a strange statement that still haunts me. It was 6-9 months after 9/11 and she said some of her co-workers were STILL wearing small flag pins on their lapels every day. She couldn't understand it and thought that it was appropriate right after 9/11 but that enough time had passed and that people should now put that kind of thing away.

Thank God people won't ever forget 9/11.

Class was about to end...kids lining up at the door waiting for the bell...guidance counselor came into my room and announced "does anyone have parents, relatives or friends that work at the WTC?"

I am on Long Island, NY...approx. 50 miles east of the WTC site.

I had two students who lost their dads on this horrific day.

Carol

I had just arrived at work, my boss and her husband were in Vegas on vacation and the first thing we did everyday was flip the TV on.When that "breaking news" message came across the screen, that was it. The world stood still for the most part.

The weather was just like it is here today in Boston..spectacularly gorgeous.
I will ,like everybody else remember the events of that day forever.

I was having my leg operated on the morning of 9/12/01.My last day of work before my surgery was 9/10/01 so my coworkers took me out that night. As I was going to be on crutches for 6 weeks, my friend and I were going to do major shopping on the 11th. She called me that morning to give me a wake up call and said to get up and put the tv on. I was in no condition to get up due to the previous nights events so I rolled over and turned on the tv just as the second plane hit. I thought I was still sleeping as I watched it. I immediately called my sister and her fiancee. I went to her house and watched tv for about an hour. We called our parents and decided to go to my mom's house. It was so eerie as by then most of the stores and malls had closed and the streets seemed very empty on the drive there. No music in the car either. All the stations had news casts all day. For the next week or so all the channels,including The Food Network,only had news all day. Since my leg was in a cast, all I could do was either lay in bed or on the couch watching everything unfold. My parents told us that this was it was like when JFK was shot. An entire nation in disbelief.

I remember watching the first reports on TV as I was getting ready for work. The Pentagon attack was announced on the car radio as I drove. I teach small children, and I had to keep calm that day and just do my job, no matter how anxious I felt inside.

My neighbor lived in New York at that time. Her job was a few blocks from the trade center and she knew people who worked there, two who died. Hearing the news about the attack, she stayed home that day.

Her stories about the following weeks, and the impact on the city, are food for thought.

I was at the office, we were getting ready to fly to Atlanta for a meeting, we were to leave at 4pm. Needless to say that did not happen.

At the time I was chairman of the Red Cross, at 940 or so I got a call that 2 planes were being tracked over our airspace. A short time later I got a call that our air emergency team was being dispatched that a plane had crashed in Somerset County. Of course that was United 93. That kicked off what was to be the most emotional 4 weeks of my life. We brought in family members of the heroes, planned memorials and cared for the FBI.

I will never forget that time. Every single piece of it lives on in my memories and heart.

I was in my home office just getting my new business off the ground. I no sooner turned on the TV to listen to GMA, when I heard Charlie Gibson say that a plane flew in to one of the Twin Towers. I think I almost gave myself whiplash turning my neck around to see the TV which was behind me. I was SHOCKED and couldn't believe what my eyes where seeing. Needless to say, it took several days to pick myself up and move forward with just about everything.

To this day, I can not watch tapes of that day.

I went back to bed that morning and suddenly woke up. My ringer on my bedroom phone is off, but I went down stairs to the phone ringing and 4 messages on the machine. It was my SIL telling me to turn the TV on which I did just in time to see the second plane hit. I just kept saying ..Oh my GOD over and over. Then the news that there was a plane over PA ,and we were worried about that. I was just in disbelief and felt like I was watching a movie. I relived the whole thing tonight on the History channel. This is very graphic footage and very well put together. I cried for all the people in the buildings and on the planes.

I was on my way to the car to go to work when DH called me back in to see the news on tv. We watched in horror as the 2nd tower was hit. Went to work for a while, as others have said- we were all in a daze.

Later in the afternoon DS's friends all gathered at the local park for a baseball game, all of the parents were there and many joined in the pick-up game. There was a sense of innocence and community as we all gathered together. I will remember it always.