Where were you on 9/11/01?

[Era Might]

It seems every generation or so there's a defining moment that everyone remembers (the death of JFK, Pearl Harbor, etc). Everyone always talks about where they were when JFK was shot.

So, where were you on 9/11?

I was sitting in the middle of a physics class, junior year, bored out of my mind, and the principle announced over the speaker that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center (I didn't even know what the WTC was). The teacher was visibly distraught, almost to the point of tears. Perhaps she knew people who worked there. So we went down to the library and watched the second plane hit. Until that point, everyone kind of assumed it was an accident. They didn't let us go home, but the rest of the day was pretty much spent either watching it on tv or talking about it in class.

It's interesting how the United States changed after that. Nobody ever thought about terrorism. It was just something that happened to foreign nations. Now, we can't NOT think about terrorism. It's the new communism.

(And if you old fogies wanna mention where you were when JFK was shot, be my guest : )

Edited September 11, 2005 by Era Might

[zwergel88]

I was in 7th grade pre-Algebra and the teacher looked at her computer and told us that 2 planes had hit the WTC one on either side. I think she kind of thought that it was only one building and that it was some kind of freak accident. Then the principal told all the teachers that they weren't to turn on the tvs. I still thought it was an accident but my friend told me later that it was going to start a war. Most people's parents picked them up from school. I went home at the regular time, and as I was walking toward my house there was a bunch of machines in my yard. My friend told me that my mom was building a bomb shelter. I thought she was too because my mom is kind of a worrier, but when I got there it turned out that the machines were there to cut down a tree that had termites.

Edited September 11, 2005 by zwergel88

[Maester Supremo]

I was at the shops, waiting for the special bus to arrive. Saw it on the tele at one of the electrical stores. So then my special bus arrived, and I was on the way to class. In class I learned about Australian culture and how certain symbols are iconic of the Australian way of life, often referred to as 'Australianism'. Then I saw my Indian friend Pramjeet and we talked a bit and then he went to class. Then I went to one of the other classes and saw it on the TeeVee, and other people were watching, then some sad tree hugging dude said something about how Americans getting what they deserve, so I got furious and had to be restrained. Then I had some lunch, which I think was burger and fries and a coke. So it came to the end of the day and I got to ride the special bus allll the way home. Then I saw dadda and said "hello dadda", then I can't remember anything after that.

[ofpheritup]

I REMEMBER EXACTLY WHERE I WAS and the emotions.

I was teaching at "one of my schools" it was a middle school.
So you know the age range.

One of the teachers whispered what had happened, I barely kept it
together. I got an opportunity to go to the workroom in the Library and see a little of what was going on.

Our school board decided not to tell the kids and not to let them near any TV's. To this day I still think that was wrong. The younger grades I understand, but middle school. Thai I disagreed with.

I spent the rest of my day either holding something in my hand as a focal point or biting my lip to distract me. Otherwise I would have lost it.

As a side thought: The day JFK was killed I was in the first grade.

[Brother Adam]

sittin' in my room on message boards when a friend told me to turn on the tv immediately just after the first plane hit. I made about a dozen phone calls and then watched tv the rest of the day.

[Noel's angel]

geography class

[ForHimAlone]

I was in band class in middle school. The entire school was called to the auditorim for a prayer service. That's when I found out what happened. I knew my mother was flying out of Boston the same time as the hijacked planes did. I had to sit through an hour-long prayer service not knowing if my mother was dead or alive. It was horrible. Praise God, my mother was on the only plane flying that route at that time that day that was not hijacked. My math teacher had received a call from my mother while I was at the prayer service.

I will certainly remember this day always. Being at Ground Zero a few months ago with my mother was a very emotional experience. I just pray for all those who did lose loved ones and for the people who commit such terrible atrocities.

[homeschoolmom]

I was sitting at the table with my daughter. We were in our second week of homeschooling (kindergarten) and I was determined not to get distracted by the phone of anything else. We were going to do this right. Well, the phone rings. Okay, do I get it? The machine wasn't on, so it rings and rings. Okay, I get it. It's my mom and I was pretty sure she was deliberately trying to sabatage my efforts. She appologized and told me that I'd better go turn on the TV. I told her I couldn't do that. She told me the jist of what had happened thus far-- plane one had hit WTC. So, I'm thinking "okay, this sounds pretty important" But at that point, we still thought it was an accident. So we quickly finish up school. And I go down to turn on the TV and call HSdad. What a drag.

Two years later, HSbaby was born. Happy Birthday Johnny!!

And I do remember where I was when Reagan was shot (sitting in my sixth grade class), when the Challenger exploded (sitting in Western Civ class-- 11th grade), and when the federal building was blown up in Oklahoma City (teaching first grade).

[let_go_let_God]

I know a lot of where I was when the planes hit. I was a sophmore in high school. At the time the first plane hit I was in the process of walking to school. It wasn't too far, about a mile and a half. The school day started and my first period class was a "working study hall" as an aide in the principals office. One of the teachers walked in and said that A plane had hit the first building of the WTC and one had hit the Pentagon. I was speechless I thought he was joking. So one of my duties in the morning was to walk around the school and pick up the attendence slips from the high school and the lunch count from the elementary school. (pre k - 12 in one building)

I was picking up the slip from a study hall class and my friends told me I had to watch the terror that was unfolding before the TV screen. I then watched as the second plane hit the second tower. I knew it was real I knew we were at war.

My second period was chemistry. The teacher didn't want to let us watch, but our class begged him to let us watch at least five minutes. He said that if nothing "major" happened within those 5 min. He'd shut it off and we would get back to classwork. Within that time we learned about the plane down in Penn. and watched the first Tower collapse. (We watched the TV for the rest of the hour)

My third period was brit lit. Our teacher wanted us to watch what was happening. In this period we were watching the emergency efforts unfolding and the second tower fall. Our assignment that day was to write a reflection about what we saw and felt. All I could do was write a small poem. The teacher thought I did such a good job, she sent it into a local paper and they published it. (If you want I still have it and I can post it later)

This was truely a day I cannot forget.

God bless and peace on the victims, survivors, and their families-
LGLG

[FutureSoror]

I was homeschooling at the time, and I was doing my computer Latin program. The phone rang, and it was a friend of ours who asked me if my mom had heard about something (I couldn't understand her very well, but she said something about a bombing). I went up to the kitchen and told my mom, who picked up the phone. I went back downstairs, only to hear my mom calling me back up a few minutes later. After about five minutes, we watched the second tower go down live.

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

I was at lunch in fith grade. On the loud speaker students where bieng dissmissed. No one knew why. i went to my homeroom to get my stuff to leave and my teacher had the tv one. i saw rubble on the ground on the tv. i asked what happened he said he couldn't tell me, and i thought a school had been bomed or something. i could never had imagined what really happened. he said that wasn't it. my friends mom picked me up and said that their had been a terrorist attack. 2 planes flew into the world trade centers in new york. before 9/11 terrorist was a word that wasn't used all that often, now its used every day.

[thessalonian]

Sitting in the dentist's chair getting a few cavaties filled. They wheeled a TV in.

[Guest]

i was at my grandmas....where i was liveing at the time.....

[Tony]

I was at home sleeping.. we had some guys over to put in a new bedroom in the basement.. all of the sudden, I was woken up by one of them that was watching it on tv yell " Oh my God! Oh my God!" which then I turned on the tv and figured it all out.. this was a few minutes after the 2nd plane hit

[curtins]

This was weird. When I was walking out to the bus on that morning, I like had like a day dream about explosions and stuff blowing up and fire. Then like about 10am (btw I was in 5th grade) our teacher told us that there had been a terrorist attack on the pentegon. That was all she told us probably cause thats all she knew. I assumed like it was like terrorists raided the place and were holding hostages or something. Our bishop dismissed all the Catholic schools early. On the bus ride home I heard my bus driver talking about the twin towers and I thought he was talking about the 93 bombing, like he was comparing the day's attacks with the last terror attack on US soil or something. 5 minuites later when I walk in the door I see the tv and understood what he was really talking about.

Later that afternoon me and my freinds went and sold magazines for our school. I don't think anyone baught them

[Dudette]

I was doing my math (i was in grade 7, homeschooling)....and all of a sudden my sister calls from London, she told us about it and she had to leave her work because it was government job and the Government was sending all workers home....and yeah. I didn't know what the WTC was either, but I was a little frightened.

[azaelia]

I was in Dunkin' Donuts on my way down to Freeport to do some shopping and meet my cousin who had just flown in from Oregon (what a day to be on a plane). We listened to the radio the whole way down, stopped at my aunt's house and watched the buildings collapse, then spent the rest of the day numbly walking through random stores, pretending like we were interesting in shopping. It was entirely surreal.

[White Knight]

I was in my Softmore year, my Class was: [b]Buisness Tech[/b]

[Totus Tuus]

I was getting ready for a math class. My dad worked on the trade floor of an energy company at the time, so he saw the first crash live, then called us and we watched the second.

[Iacobus]

I heard about the planes during a passing period, but I thought they meant like a small cesna or something crashed in NYC, nobody really knew anything. I went to my second block, an English class, and nobody knew anything. We started class and a little ways in one of the other English teachers came in and wispered to the Student Teacher and she said "Oh my God." That was the first I heard about it and knew really what it was. We then left the room and went to a room with a TV and watched CNN for the rest of the class.