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Pad Patter 9/11: Where were you?

lmccandless

lmccandless

The Force is strong with this one.
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Mar 9, 2009
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Where were you on 9/11?

I had the Today show on and I was making beds while talking to my mom when the first plane hit the North Tower. My daughter's preschool was scheduled for a pumpkin patch trip that day, so we left before they fell. The news kept getting worse while we were on the field trip. As a former New Yorker, it was unbelievably surreal to be standing in the middle of cornfield hearing that the Towers were gone. Of course, as the fact that it was a terrorist attack crystallized, I decided to go home where I was glued to the news. Even all of these years later, it still brings me to tears.
 
Well I was at work in Richmond, but the better question is where was my now DH. He worked on the 88th floor of tower 2 but was traveling that day. Thank God, literally.
 
I turned on the Today Show, and the first plane had hit, but not the second. I remember calling my husband before his shift change, yelling at him to turn on the TV.

This time of year is doubly hard for us - my best friend's husband, and my husband's co-worker, was killed in a car accident on September 12.
 
Oh Molly...I cannot imagine being that "close" to the situation.

I too had the Today show on, and watched it all unfold -right from the beginning. It was surreal. It was heartbreaking. I called my husband just to talk thru it. We were in our first year of marriage - our first year out on our own, and this was such a BIG thing that happened. We went to New York City just less than a year after that to see the memorials and the destruction. Can't believe it's been 12 years - I can remember it like it was yesterday. I will never forget. Even today as I listened to a CD my sister made me after the attacks of songs that related and to some news reporter clips, I teared up numerous times. I just can't imagine what it must have been like for those who were directly impacted. :(
 
I was driving to Atlanta for a medical procedure for my little boy when the towers fell. Was listening on the radio. Spent all day watching from waiting and exam rooms. We ended up in lock down all day at the Children's hospital which was right across the street from the CDC b/c it was a suspected target. Heartbreaking and terrifying day.
 
I was at work, and pregnant with DD. There were no televisions in the building, something I am thankful for, because I don't know how I would have been able to cope. I sat in my office with co-workers who were dear friends, listening to reports on the radio, just kind of in shock and not wanting to believe that it was real.
 
My mother called and woke me up soon after it happened. I tried to turn on the TV to watch (I didn't have cable), but most of the TV signals back broadcast from the Towers. I live right across the river from Manhattan in NJ. I drove down to the waterfront near were I was living - and one of the towers had already fallen. There were lots of people just standing around watching. And because I didn't know what to do - I drove to a doctor's appointment and then I went right to work. I work for a newspaper so I was pretty much there everyday for the month after it happened. I am lucky that no one I know personally was lost, but one of my very good friends from grade school escaped only because she was outside smoking a cigarette. I was a wreck after 9/11 for a long time - maybe I still am.
 
I was at work and had the tv on since it was my planning period, but it was turned down and I wasn't paying any attention to it. My coworker came in and told me to watch and I spent the rest of the day in shock. My dad works on an Air Force base and I wasn't able to reach him, I couldn't reach my husband at his job and I was super stressed about him... he'd just enlisted in the Army a few months before, so I wasn't sure how it would impact him.
 
I was home, was supported to be (computer) working and was transfixed by the tv. I had a headache and lump in my throat all day and felt kind of spacey as it just seemed so surreal. I spent the majority of the day standing in my kitchen with the door open, trying to get some air and clear my head, while the news played all day on the kitchen tv just inches from where I stood. I just couldn't seem to move away and stop watching. It was the most horrific day. I imagine it was very similar to what my parents must have felt the day that Kennedy was assassinated years ago...that same kind of shock at trying to comprehend the magnitude of what you are seeing and hearing. I often can't remember past dates and events but that one will never fade in my memory.
 
I was a "new" mom to our first son, he was at kindergarten, and the school was on lock down. I sat outside the school (he was on half day) until they let him out. I asked him today (now 17) if he remembered, no not a thing. I just remembering holding him and being so scared that I would lose him.
Our lives changed that day, as my hubby and I had an appointment to leave our little town and go anywhere due to personal reasons. We cancelled those plans because they all seemed so trivial after the attack on our country.
 
I remember I got to work (i worked in a library at the time) and there were a few of my coworkers huddled around a small tv at the circulation desk. It was just before the second tower was hit. I got back to my department and shortly after someone from the circulation department rang us to tell us that the second tower was hit. Since I worked in the children's dept and we had story times that morning (which meant lots of little tykes all morning long) we did our best to not talk about what was going on. It was hard though, and so surreal. I also remember being so thankful that my daughter was only 6 mos old and I wouldn't have to come up with the right words to explain to her what was going on right then.
 
My daughter was in kindergarten and I usually don't turn the TV on in the morning. We were/are on the West coast. All the news was already at least three hours old and repeating by the time my husband called me to turn on the TV. The skies were completely quiet except for the military jets and radar planes from AF bases flying back and forth. It was eerie. On top of that, I realized that flight 11 was the same flight my mother took to fly out here a week earlier. Anyway, I couldn't leave the TV on watching every moment; my daughter didn't understand what was going on and I didn't want to expose her to too much of the news. I do remember seeing footage that day that hasn't been seen since.
 
I was at work and a co-worker saw the news pop up when the 2nd plane hit and she kind of hollered it out. So then I was online trying to see what was happening and then we have a back area at work with a TV that a few of us went and turned on. It was impossible to concentrate on anything else. I was watching that when the towers fell. It still seems like yesterday and I'll never forget the feelings of anger and sadness I felt that day watching TV. I finally had to turn it off in the evening.
 
In a college class. I spent the whole afternoon glued to TV in the commuter lounge while on the phone with BF/now DH who was at school in Ohio.
 
It happened in the middle of the night here and the first I knew of it was on the way to dropping my daughter at preschool. I called my husband to turn on the tv because the radio report wasn't that clear on what happened, just shocked when we saw the first images. Spent the rest of the day watching and waiting for a reason...
 
I was at work (I used to be an elementary teacher...before kiddos) and the janitor came around to all the classrooms to tell us. We had the radio on and there were a few TVs in the building that we could watch to keep us updated.
 
I was home sleeping after a very very long night with my 1 month old baby... I was told by my then husband that a plane had hit the towers before he headed out to work...

I didn't take much notice thinking it was a what if thing (I worked for the Fire Service here in NZ and we often had what if's to deal with to see how we reacted etc) and dozed off again... Little Miss decided it was time to feed yet again and the phone was ringing colleagues at the FS calling to see how I was coping with the news? Huh? What news? Turn the TV on was all I got... they sat there in silence till I caught up...

I spent most of the day wondering what kind of world my daughter was going to grow up in?
 
I was driving to work and heard it in the radio. Went to work, and realized my sister's husband worked there, so freaked out and had to leave work. Finally got a hold of her and she told me that he had transfer jobs 2 months before.
 
With the time difference here it was early in the morning. I was heavily pregnant and my husband was getting ready for work and came in and said he had to go but I should turn the tv on. I spent most of the morning in bed feeling shocked and very emotional.
 
I had just had my oldest, Noah, so we were sitting on the couch when I turned on the tv. Can you imagine what that did to my state of mind? I called my Mom sobbing. I just held my new baby as tightly as I could and thought "what kind of world have I brought you into?" Not exactly the kind of way I wanted to start his life out. I cried most of the say and my friend I was living with called me all day long to check on me because she knew I was so upset. I was a single Mom at the time. Anyway, I decided that I was going to be the best Mom that I could be and make the best life that I could for me and my son. He played his first football game this year (12 years later) and I was taken back to the day when I was holding him on the couch when it all happened. So, I know that for me I will never forget that day.
 
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