Like gardengal, I was home alone, dressing and watching Today show, when it became apparent something was really wrong. I sat and watched things unfold most of the morning, then met outside with neighbors where we comforted each other. I'd had to turn away from some of the coverage, it was too horrific to watch.

Just a few hours before a planned shared birthday party, mine and my brother in law's. We talked and decided to go ahead with it - while we weren't celebrating, it felt like a time for family and friends to come together.

I was in a "No interruptions for any reason" client board meeting that started very early and ran until mid afternoon. It was all over when we popped out of of the boardroom.

In class, one of my nursing classes. The secretary of the nursing program called our teacher and told her what had happened. On our break we all watched the news on one of the tvs in the nursing office.

I was heading to church for bible study. Called my brother's wife, his usual flight duty was the United flight that hit the tower. He's a pilot but wasn't flying that day.

I had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and was watching Good Morning, America. I was stunned and not thinking clearly, just sat there in front of the TV until I suddenly remembered that my DD was in NYC for her freshman year of college. She had a cell phone but the circuits were overwhelmed. She was finally able to instant message a friend in Ohio who called to tell me that she was all right.

At work in a Government building. We had TV monitors in the hallways at the time, so everyone was watching. Not long after the Pentagon hit, we were sent home as there were fears other Government buildings might be targeted.

We were living on the bayou. Jody was shrimping and I was still in bed, tv on but the volume turned off, When I finally looked at the tv and saw the first building on fire, I turned up the volume. Then I got on line and talked about it with a small group that I kept in touch with every morning. One of my friends lived in Johnstown, Pa. and that is very near Shanksville. She was also involved with the Red Cross, so she had more info about it. I visited her the next summer and we went to the site in Shanksville where the plane went down.

I had just started a new job at a hospital system near my home. I was in an orientation meeting with someone else when another employee came in and told us what had happened. We all went to the office of someone who had a radio and tried to make sense of what we were hearing. I left that hospital and drove to my home nearby, turned on the tv and saw the collapse of the towers. Because I was new, I felt obligated to drive to my office in another hospital, not that anyone was getting any work done.

I remember the beautiful weather and how kind everyone was to each other.

Spike Lee has a 4-part documentary about NYC since 9/11 on HBO. The 3rd part is the best depiction of that day I've ever seen, although it includes some incredibly disturbing footage.

My husband had dropped our daughters, 9 and 6 off at school. I was getting ready to leave for work when my brother called me. Told me to turn on the news I worked with him and his partner in the flower shop down in Soho. No cel at that time. If he hadn’t called I’d have been heading in. He was there with a worker but was told to get out of there by our neighbors in Ladder 20 right next door.

I couldn’t believe my eyes We live in Astoria, NY. From that old apartment, if we headed to the roof we could see the city.

So many people on the block were on their rooftops. We were looking towards the city, then to each other in shock. I have goosebumps writing this. I saw with my own eyes the second tower hit... it was horrifying, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

My husband and I put our son (9 mos) in the stroller and headed to the school to get the girls

We were friends with one of the firefighters who lost his life that day. We knew his wife. They had a little boy and she was expecting their second.

A friend lost her son who worked in one of the towers.

I can’t think of that day, and all those days afterwards without feeling horrible

I was still in bed when the first plane hit and I don't have a phone in the bedroom. When I got downstairs the answering machine was blinking with six messages and then the phone rang. It was my son-in-law calling to tell me about the event and to turn on the TV. I thought this can't be real...it's like a movie and then the second plane hit. We knew there was one over PA and we were so scared as the path would have gone over our houses. I will never forget the sadness of that day and now I am reliving it again with all the footage. It must be awful to have had friends and family die that day and to have this dreaded feeling come around every September. As I recall, it was one of the most gorgeous days with vivid blue cloudless skies. I have yet to get to Shanksville but plan to one day. The passengers were such brave heroes.

I was just about ready to leave to take my son to grade school when the first plane hit. I usually have the morning news on in the morning so watched it for a bit before leaving. By the time I got him to school the second plane hit. Of course with the second plane we all knew it wasn't an accident.

I had to go out to purchase a new frig on 9-11 because ours went out and everything was in coolers on ice. It was surreal to have to do that. At the appliance store everyone was watching the news. I just bought the first one I looked at, not much thought went into it. Didn't even get the right color, I didn't care.

I was living in rural WV and the meter reader from the electric company told me that the US was under attack, a plane had flown into the twin towers and another had attacked the Pentagon. I have a sister in Manhattan and immediately phoned her and was able to get through. She had watched the second plane hit the towers.

Dh and I were traveling in New Brunswick. At about 10:30 we stopped at an inviting looking gift shop where a radio was playing inside. The voice on the radio caught our attention and we paused to listen. Our reaction to what we were hearing was noticed by a clerk. She asked if we were Americans and then filled us in on what was happening and offered her sympathy. All Canadians that we encountered that day and over the next 5 days did the same. The border crossings to get back into the states from New Brunswick were very backed up, so we added a couple extra days to our trip and traveled to Quebec to see more sights and enjoy the Canadian hospitality, crossing into Maine from the most northern crossing.

I was at work on the 19th floor of an office building in KC. We watched the coverage for awhile in a conference room and saw both buildings collapse. Shortly afterwards management decided to evacuate the building out of an abundance of caution.

My brother was in Alaska on a fishing or hunting trip and was stuck there an extra week before he was able to get a flight home.

You'd think after 20 years I'd have words. Still don't. Tend to actively avoid talking about it and won't be watching any documentaries about it either.

At the time, I was an assistant in a kindergarten class. Parents kept showing up to take their kids home. No one from the school administration told any of the teachers about what happened.

I should probably add that I live in a NYC suburb where easily a third of the residents commute to the city. I know at least 20 who died, including one 22-year old, who was on his second day at his dream job at Cantor Fitzgerald.

We were having breakfast while on vacation on the OBX just sitting down for breakfast watching the Today show. Just as I was taking my first bite the news broke in showing pictures that a small plane had hit the Twin Tower. I turned to VgQn and said, "That was no small plane".

I was at work. When the second plane hit, we sent home.

IIRC, the school did not allow pick-up.

A co- worker lost her nephew that day.

I was working at home...had just arrived home the day before from travel. My boss called

me on the phone and said, "put your TV on". I said, "what?"...he repeated it, and said, "I

have to go"..I could hear the strangeness in his voice, and when I turned on the TV I

understood why. Basically spent the day watching the TV, and talking on the phone

to several people off and on all day. DH came back home from being on his way

to work when he heard it on the car radio. We sat together, mostly stunned, the rest

of the day checking on everyone we could think of. The crashing of the plane in PA really did a number on me...I had been

in PA the day before and had flown back to MI.

Was at home, watching the Today show and stayed there all day long.

Here where I am it was about 9pmish. I was home alone while DH did traffic patrol on afternoon shift. I was watching TV, and had just changed channels only to find the new channel was blank. In the country here this is rare but not unknown, to not be able to pick up a particular channel broadcast from the city because were pretty much on the edge of reception due to distance. So I switched back to the original channel, only to find that blank as well. Then it said, "News Flash" and started showing footage of the first plane flying into the north tower. I was gobsmacked.

Just the week before, in the TV series "The Lone Gunmen", the episode was about the Lone Gunmen foiling a plan to crash a commercial plane into the World Trade Centre. (It was released in the US about 6 months earlier.)

I called DH on his mobile phone, and said, "You're not going to believe this, but it's like the Lone Gunmen episode. A plane has just crashed into the Twin Towers." He and his partner gave up patrolling and went to his partner's parents' home and turned on the news.

I watched most of the night, and saw it all unfolding. It was too terrible to comprehend.

It was pretty early for us here in SoCal...just before 6 am. I was still in bed but awake and the radio came on. At first I thought they were talking about a movie. I turned on the TV once reality hit me. Unreal! Once the plane hit the Pentagon I started thinking it was going to happen in every major city in the country. Like everyone else, it was just surreal. It's also surreal that 20 years have gone by.

I still think about Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham and the other heroes on Flight 93. So many heroes in the air and on the ground that started out that day like most.

I was up early and in my studio working on a painting. I went to get a cup of coffee in the kitchen and made a decision to take a break and watch tv. I NEVER watch tv in the daytime. I was horrified and crying when my husband came into the room, immediately he said "this is no accident, it's terrorists, and shut down after that. I watched and talked to people all day long. I never finished the painting, I glued the last brush I used and hung it up as is. It's my reminder daily to be thankful that we live in America.

We had taken the day off as it was our son’s first day at a prep school as a day student and they had programing for parents. DS and I were watching the Today Show waiting to leave when they came back from a commercial with the news that a plane had hit the first tower. Reporters speculated it was a small commuter plane. Then we watched in disbelief as the second plane hit. At the Academy, they had TV’s on everywhere. I remember being in the Bookstore and hearing the Pentagon had been hit. There was speculation that the State Department had been hit. In the afternoon they held a special assembly for students and parents to provided updates on what had occured and tried to put everyone at ease. Since the student enrollment comes from all over the country and world, parents of new students could not fly home immediately and returning students who were moving in the following day were not able to come if they were flying. Hard to believe it’s been 20 years. I remember details like it was yesterday.

As everyone says " it was a beautiful day, skies were clear as a bell". So i was hanging laundry on the line. children were in school.

my GF called and said "i know u don't watch TV during the day, but go turn it on.

i did.

watched non-stop trying to absorb the enormity of it all.

kids came home at normal time., all in elementary school. we explained it to them, on their level.

we were fortunate not to have lost any family or friends but of course we still felt the loss for other families - the horrifying nightmare, i can't imagine.

DH and I went to lower manhattan in 2018. the freedom tower & the 9/11 Memorial and Museum were completed. Everyone should go, see and reflect on it. please allow at least 4-5 hours. there is so much to see and absorb, truly it is a full day from beginning to end.

DH and I were having breakfast in the furnished rental we'd moved into, waiting for our new house to be completed. DS called from his work to tell us to turn on the TV because a plane had crashed into a skyscraper in NYC.

It still hurts to remember seeing two lines of firefighters in full gear marching purposefully in to the first tower as ash and debris fell around them...going to their nearly certain deaths. Bodies plummeted. The second plane hit. News came of the damage to the Pentagon. Later Chicago stations relayed that a local man had led fellow passengers to confront the hijackers of an American Airlines jet over Pennsylvania, heard on another passenger's cell phone saying, "Let's roll!" (His widow was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune recently. He left behind two small sons and the baby girl she was carrying at the time.)

Then, of course, we made it all worse, with only one sane member of Congress voting not to try to avenge ourselves by attacking Afghanistan with no strategy or exit plan.

I was getting breakfast for our girls who were to embark on their first full kindergarten class (3 hours.) My husband called from work and said are your watching TV? I said "of course I'm not watching TV, I'm getting the girls ready for kindergarten." I thought what a stupid question! He said "well turn it on, there is something crazy going on in New York." I turned it on and watched til the last possible minute, then walked the kids to school and came home and was glued to the TV until it was time to pick them up and then for many days after.

I was managing a business that had 5 locations and the managers were scheduled to have a meeting that morning. It was cancelled quickly. However, my boss called me into his office and had me on the carpet because our numbers were not up to his satisfaction.

We kept on working that day as we needed to get things done. One of my salesmen called in to say that it was a waste to stay out there and I told him to return to the office.

By the time that I got home to watch things on TV, most of the horrible events were over and it was just a matter of the news people trying to summarize what, when, where, etc.

At my foot Dr. office, I found out I had Plantar Fasciitis that day.

I was living in a one room storage building in the back yard of where my new house was being built. When it aired on TV I went out and told the carpenters who were on top putting up roof trusses. They came down. One who was also a minister said a prayer. I will always remember that prayer.

This post had me thinking about that day. It is bringing back memories forgotten. Right after the plane crashed into the Pentagon my sister called in a panic, sky is falling mode. She said the US was under attack and wanted me to pack up my family and drive 90 miles to my cousin's rural farm. She said we would be away from the city and safe. I refused. The irony of it was my cousin's farm is 4 miles from the Shanksville crash site. Boy did I tease her about that one.

My daughter and I went to the memorial museum the day after it opened for people after relatives. It was so moving and poignant and I will never forget it.

Elmer,

I am sorry that you lack empathy for other people's suffering.

Just one little thing.

Only human beings are capaple of such atrocities. Animals hunt and kill to survive. Or sickness. Or they’ve been trained by human beings.

I was teaching 7th grade. Someone came to the door and whispered "turn on the tv" . I did and we watched for about 10 minutes. Then the principal emailed us all to turn tv's off, he didn't want kids upset. Parents began coming and taking kids home. NO one knew how widespread it might be. I personally thought of Pearl Harbor and the start of WWII . Thankfully it never came to that.

I was enjoying the most beautiful morning with my 4-year-old granddaughter who had stayed the night. I was swinging her in the child's swing hanging from my dogwood tree when my daughter drove up and told us about the attack. When I think back, the innocence of that scene grates against the other when so many of my fellow citizens were dying.

After an upsetting morning we turned off the news and spent the afternoon in our back yard. Such a clear blue sky, such a lovely September day. So calm and quiet. Only the military jets streaking by -- an unusual event -- reminded us of what was unfolding.

Like Elmer, I later visited the memorial site in NYC and didn't "feel" much. But then I'm not a city person at all, I'm a country gal. So if I ever visit the site near Shanksville, then I might be more emotional. I will always remember my tears coming as I picked up my daughter from school -- seeing her little 3rd grade self innocently walking down the hall to me, and so. many. people. who would never hold their kids again.

Elizabeth, I have no problem being empathetic. There's no one right or wrong way to react or to "feel" about particular events. I'm sorry you can't see that and are intolerant of what I said because I've expressed a view apparently different from your own. .

Where's your insult for nickel? Her view seems to be similar to mine.

It was my day off, and my high school DD had stayed home with a cold. I was watching the Today show while I had my tea. As someone posted above, when they said a "small" plane I thought no way that was a small one. I am sure that the hosts were in such shock - but when one of them posited, after the second plane hit, that it must be something wrong with the air traffic control system I was surprised that they didn't suspect this was intentional.

DD came down a bit later to see what was going on - I remember that at that point the towers were clearly starting to slump and lean, and I said to her that they were going to fall down soon.

I was glued to the TV the rest of the day.

Such a loss of life - killing for the sake of killing, because how could the terrorists think this would advance any cause?

I took DD and her best friend for a weekend in NYC the following January. Every shop, restaurant and taxi driver said "Thank you for coming".

I was at home watching the news with a cup of coffee when it happened. I thought accident just as the newscaster did. I saw his panic and confusion when the second plane hit and shock and fear ran through me. I didn't even grasp the idea that the towers would fall at first. I managed a few phone calls to family and friends to make sure they were OK. The rest of the day was a blur of horror and grief.

I have been to the city since but not visited the memorial. I plan to avoid watching video of that day as I do not wish to re-live it.

I arrived at my office that morning, settled down at my desk then opened the laptop to check emails and took a glance at CNN webpage with a headline photo of a plane crash into the one of the twin towers. At the time the news source had not yet reported the event as an attack but I sensed something horrible was going on. Then more news flashes on plane crashes at other locations. I looked at the calendar, it was Sept 11 and I thought of many frantic 911 calls happening at that moment. It suddenly dawned on me that we were under attack.

Elmer,

It was inappropriate for me to say you were incapable of empathy. I apologize.

Thank you. Accepted and I appreciate the gesture.

I was here, at the KT, when Ruthie G. posted. I will never forget it.

I was like many others,drinking coffee and watching the morning news with DH before getting ready for work. We heard the breaking news of the first plane and instayed glued to the TV while DH jumped in the shower. The next thing iI clearly remember was seeing the second plane hit and throwing open the shower door to tell him athat it was a terroist attack. DH went on to work that fday (about 4 bocks from home and calling my daughter and waking her up a time zone away. ,I stayed home instead of going to work in the tall building in the city 35 miles away and I think our offices closed early. I remember being glued to the TV all morning as the news of the other planes came in and the towers fell. Simetime in the early afternoon, I saw my elderly neighbors out in their front porch and went overband sat with them a while. I think I needed the grounding that I innately knew they could provide. I will never forget that day.

I was scheduled to appear for jury duty that morning. As I got out of my car just before 9:00 I heard a brief news report mentioning an airplane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC, I pictured one of the small sight-seeing planes that used to fly around the city. I got out and walked to the courthouse.

Inside I was selected as one of the people who might have to serve on the jury, after which the lawyers get to ask questions and each excuse 3 potential jurors. One of the questions they asked which seemed quite odd at the time was "Do any of you have something going on that would prevent you from paying attention during the trial?" Another, more relevant question was "Have any of you been injured in a car accident?" since the trial was a criminal trial dealing with a driver with a suspended license who hit another car injuring the occupant of that car. I responded that I had been injured in a car accident. Probably because of that answer I was excused from serving on the jury.

I left the courthouse and walked the 3 blocks to my office, and found most of my co-workers gather around a computer streaming the news reports while a few were trying to rig up an antenna on a tv so it could be used.

I live under the approach path of one of our small local airports, and one of the after effects of the attacks is when a jet comes in a little lower, I always instinctively think of 9/11 and wonder if the plane is going to crash.

I was at work. Got notified university was closing and canceled all classes. I didn't know at the time the extent of what was going on but was annoyed cuz radio station shut down all shows that night. (It was 1st show of the semester). Was looking forward to going on the air until I saw what was happening.

Samkaren your resident dj