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What were you doing on 9-11?

I was sitting at my house with my best friend who had just flown in from NYC, waiting to hear from my parents who had taken off for a cruise to Bermuda the day before. Another one of my best friends had just moved to NYC 2 weeks before for grad school at Columbia. It was crazy, I was crying and trying to get a hold of my family that worked at the Pentagon and my parents were trying to call at the same time to make sure I was ok- out of all the phone calls I tried to make- the one call that went right through was to my BFF who was sitting on a bench a few blocks away from the towers and watched the planes fly overhead and right into the towers. It was horrible and crazy. I will still sit and think about how odd it was the first time I saw a plane take off after that, it was just surreal.
 
Just realized I would have been a sophomore in high school, not a freshman.
 
I was 3 states away going through training for a management program at the headquarters of the company I worked for. We had to be at HQ at 9:00 and it was about a 5 minute drive, so we were all downstairs grabbing breakfast in the hotel. In the dining area there was a television...I came downstairs just after the first plane had made impact and we all watched the second one hit. We went to HQ and tried to stay focused on training but were sent back to our hotel at noon. Several of the buyers in my department were at market in NYC and they ended up stranded there for several days. We knew them personally from store visits so we were obviously quite worried for them. We spent the rest of the day watching t.v. in our rooms, getting gas because we were worried the price would skyrocket, and calling family and friends. I can't even name anyone I was with that day or week...it was such a surreal experience.
 
Gosh Monarch - I had forgotten all about the gas scare afterward. I remember now that many of our stations simply shut down.
 
Yeah, I think I remember it shooting up to $3 that day or the next, and later all the stations were accused of price gouging.

Another thing I remember is seeing American flags EVERYWHERE, people were of course flying them at their homes and places of work, but driving back to Indy that week they were hanging from overpasses and bridges everywhere as well.
 
I was living and working in northeastern NJ at the time.

My regional manager had left me in charge that week as he was vacationing in Europe. Tuesdays were our meeting days, so I had gone in early to prepare that week's agenda in his absence. I had just sent the agenda out via email to our reps in other locations when I got a call from one of them. He sounded panicked and said, "Do you know what is going on right now?" I hadn't, because 9 years ago, I really only used the internet for email - I hadn't been checking the news. At the time of his call, only one tower had been hit. Soon after, one of my co-workers walked in the door, and he was sobbing. I asked him what had been going on, and he could barely speak. He had driven in and been listening to the radio coverage, which is what brought him to tears. At that point, I knew something horrific had happened, so I got online and discovered what was going on.

I sent my co-worker home and got on the phone with a few other people - we talked about shutting our offices and soon thereafter got word from our corporate office to shut everything down. We stayed closed until Friday of that week.

Shortly thereafter, internet and cell service became spotty. People were unnerved and a bit frantic because they couldn't reach out to see if their loved ones were OK.

Several of my co-workers lived in NYC and could not get back downtown. One girl stayed with me for three days. Another one had planned a vacation and couldn't get a flight out, obviously. The three of us stayed with each other and stayed glued to the TV for days.

The towns we lived and worked in were all commuter towns into NYC. The streets were empty. For days afterwards, you would drive by the commuter train stations and see cars that were never picked up. It was haunting.

We worked with kids, and we knew several families who lost parents. We had one co-worker who had just started with us the day before, and her father worked in the Trade Center. He made it out alive, but for most of the day Tuesday, she was just waiting for news.

I had just been at the Towers a week prior for an MBA information session, and I just remember thinking, "I was *just* there." It was so surreal.

It seemed like every night there was a candlelight vigil. You'd just step outside your door and see people everywhere lighting candles. There was definitely a tremendous sense of unity that followed the tragedy.

Later on that week, we had a bachelorette party for a co-worker in Hoboken. The smell of the smoke and ruins was so hard to ignore. It was a very strange night out for us all.

I didn't cry on 9/11, mainly b/c I was still the primary contact for everyone in our region - I was trying to ensure we knew where everyone was, make plans for how we'd handle the business that week, etc. I made sure people had places to stay, had all of their loved ones accounted for, etc. So I sort of felt like I had to keep it together.

About two weeks afterward, I was talking to my mom on the phone, and I just totally lost it. I cried and cried and cried for what felt like hours. I still can't think of that day without crying.
 
I worked for an international software company in 2001, but we were all very close, especially in the Dallas and UK offices, to the point that many of us felt like family. I was scheduled to leave later that day for London for a quarterly team building trip. Drove into the office before 7:00 am, got settled into my office, did some browsing, then read about the first plane hitting the towers. One of my colleagues, very visably shaken, had just arrived and had been listening to the radio coverage so we headed for the only conference room with a TV and we watched as horror as the second plane hit. My office at the time was directly under the flight path for a small local airport here in DFW, so a lot of people just didn't want to take their chances and left to try and account for the people in their lives who might have been in and around the area of the WTC.

We felt so helpless, so we all started trying to locate some of our remote employees in and around NYC, and thankfully, everyone was accounted for by noon that day, but those few hours, not knowing if some of my friends were ok . . . my heart was already breaking for everyone on board those planes, everyone on the ground, and all of their family and friends. My cousin lost her fiance that day. ;(

Since there was really nothing else I could do at the office, I left as soon as I knew everyone was safe, went home, and watched the coverage with my roommate and then boyfriend. I got gas on the way home because my Mom warned "better to be safe than sorry" and I clearly remember breaking into tears when I saw a Marine dressed in his fatigues walking into the gas station to pay for his gas. Was a surreal day, not knowing what was going to happen next, or when the next city was going to be attacked. We were just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I can't think of my specific actions that day without tearing up. There was such a sense of community, even here in Dallas, that was overwhelmingly touching.
 
I was in my 3rd period accounting class during junior year in highschool when our class noticed what we thought was a far away fire outside. From our location it is easy to see the NYC skyline but not a real view from the highschool. Then another one of the teachers came in to speak to ours who had to call her husband and she announced to us what was happening. They turned on the TV and everyone was allowed to call their parents and to go home since so many lives were effected by the tragedy. It was truly a horrible day.
 
My brother was over today and we watched a show about it (Guiliani's 9-11 or something and I'm sure I spelled his name wrong) and were talking about it. A lot of the footage I'd never seen just b/c I can't bear to watch it, and it was just like watching it happen all over again. Hands up over my face and gasping "Oh God Oh no" at the footage of people falling. The horror *we* felt out in the middle of Nowhere Iowa, trying to wrap your mind around what happened and comprehend the tragedy and what it must have been/still be like, for people who were actually there. It's like my brain feels fried and there is a sign that is flashing "Does Not Compute"-it's just so hard to fathom. After he left I finished watching it and there was a scene of an elderly gentleman singing a patriotic song and crying, his voice cracking-it lasted all of 5 seconds but it was enough.

A lot of videos on youtube of footage of 9-11, the military etc, and one in particular I watched several times with the song Proud To Be An American and it was just a beautiful tribute.
 
Packrat, I was in Davenport that week. I guess I was actually 2 states away from IN and misspoke when I first responded to this thread. Please extend my thanks to your brother for his service to our country. Sometimes when you post I feel that you and I share some similarities...but what your brother has gone through for our country is amazing and I am so happy to have made your acquaintance here and so proud of your brother--our big brothers are truly our heroes.
 
Awww Monnie that's sweet! I will tell him, thank you! And I think we have things in common too!

9-11 is actually what made my brother want to join the military. He'd talked about it before but that really sealed the deal.

Talking about the flags earlier, I remember that too. I remember thinking HOW in the world did people get them so fast?? It was like, the very next day they were everywhere. I enjoyed seeing them. Our local newspaper for about a week or more printed a full page flag on the last page of the paper every day for people to hang up in home and business windows. It was nice, the feeling of togetherness, if that makes sense, that people showed/extended to one another-even here, no where near where it happened. It didn't happen to us specifically here in my town, or in Montana or Oregon etc, but it did happen to *us* as Americans and I was proud of how everyone pulled together.

What I thought was sad was that it took something like that to get that type of a reaction out of so many people. Like at Christmas time-people are a lot nicer and more friendly, and I tend to think it should be an everyday occurrence, rather than just b/c a fun holiday is coming up.

You know what else I liked were all the pictures we got in emails of buses and trucks and semi's and barns and huge rocks that people painted in memory of 9-11.
 
packrat said:
Awww Monnie that's sweet! I will tell him, thank you! And I think we have things in common too!

9-11 is actually what made my brother want to join the military. He'd talked about it before but that really sealed the deal.

Talking about the flags earlier, I remember that too. I remember thinking HOW in the world did people get them so fast?? It was like, the very next day they were everywhere. I enjoyed seeing them. Our local newspaper for about a week or more printed a full page flag on the last page of the paper every day for people to hang up in home and business windows. It was nice, the feeling of togetherness, if that makes sense, that people showed/extended to one another-even here, no where near where it happened. It didn't happen to us specifically here in my town, or in Montana or Oregon etc, but it did happen to *us* as Americans and I was proud of how everyone pulled together.

What I thought was sad was that it took something like that to get that type of a reaction out of so many people. Like at Christmas time-people are a lot nicer and more friendly, and I tend to think it should be an everyday occurrence, rather than just b/c a fun holiday is coming up.

You know what else I liked were all the pictures we got in emails of buses and trucks and semi's and barns and huge rocks that people painted in memory of 9-11.
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Your post is a really nice remembrance of how things were in the Midwest, Packrat. I am so impressed that your brother felt (like lots of others) that he needed to go and serve his country based on the events of 9/11, good for him. It chokes me up just to think about the guts it took for him to stand up and go sign up for the military and be willing to give his life...it takes such a strong person to do that. Many of the men in my family, including my brother, have served in the Armed Forces and have either given or have been willing to give their lives for this country. Words really can't express how humbling it is to know someone or be related to someone who is willing to do that.

Anyway. It's funny, I was reading your post and thinking right before you said so, that it's strange how it takes something very shocking and tragic to bring people back to each other and to treat each other well again. We can all learn lessons from tragedies, but if we don't apply those lessons every single day, then have we really gained anything?

I find myself getting very defensive and not treating others as I'd like to be treated a lot of days, simply because people are short with me, or don't give me the sort of response I think they should. I really need to remember every single day how short life is, and that we are all going through our own struggles on this earth, and that each one of us just needs a little kindness or a hug rather than a shove.

Thanks for sharing your stories, and for supporting your brother, and for just being you, Packrat. It really has been a pleasure reading your posts here on PS and I am happy we have a few things in common. :wavey:
 
Oh Monnie you are so sweet. Right back atcha babe!
 
DH and I were on vacation in San Francisco. I remember the people feeling paralyzed by what had just happened on the other side of the US. Our problem was finding a way to get home because all air travel was canceled. Luckily, the car we rented was allowed to be driven out of state. We just wanted to be home with family during this time.

I know my BIL was in NYC when all this happened and he was devastated by what he saw. He took photos but to this day cannot bring himself to download the photos. He just keeps the memory card in a safe deposit box. One of his business partners had an apt in Manhattan and they went back there to watch it on tv. To this day BIL still cannot set foot in NYC.
 
I was living in (uptown) Manhattan and at the time not working and interviewing. I had gone for an interview at one of the WTC Towers (not the Twin ones, but they are all interconnected) a few weeks prior. On 9/11 I was actually sleeping and was woken to ringing phones which kept stopping. I was annoyed thinking it was recruiters. Finally got a sense that something was up and turned on the TV to see one tower already down. The calls were from my parents, but due to high volume were unable to go through. It was difficult to process what was happenening since I didn't wake up/ turn on the TV until 10am after so much had happened! At that point I was freaking out about all my friends who worked at Lehman in WFC..it took me about 20mins to realize that they were not in the towers but the adjacent buildings. The next day brought that awful smell that wafted through the entire city and stuck around for days/months. Anyone who lived in NYC at the time will never forget the smell.

I did not know anyone personally who was in the Towers at the time which is remarkable considering I work in Finance. I did know of many indirecty though--2 brothers from high school who worked at Cantor and my cousin's best friend's father who worked for the Port Authority (and went back in to assist,etc.). Awful.
 
Packrat's experience was pretty similar to mine. I was driving to work- I was working by myself that day, my husband & I worked (and still do) together and for some reason he was at home and I was going from Seattle about 40 miles north by myself, in my ancient Hyundai. I had the radio on very low and wasn't really listening (or awake) but something was filtering in and making me uneasy- I mean, those news bulletins were on every channel, confused and scary. I finally realized that Something was Very Wrong about the time I was nearing the the I-90 freeway entrance and I just stopped. The car behind me almost rear ended me, actually. I pulled over to the shoulder for a few minutes to try to assimilate and understand what was going on (was it real? was it a terrible joke? what?), and I remember the guy who'd nearly hit me flipping me off, and I wondered if he would understand later when he listened to the news.

I spent the next three hours trying to get my husband to wake the heck up- he sleeps with his head in a box fan usually and can't hear a phone ringing. I finally did and told him to turn the TV on.

I worked as usual, watching news on the computer in the back office when I could, and it was oddly busy. I remember wondering all day if most of the people shopping for antiques just were clueless and hadn't heard any news reports or were just utterly self centered and didn't care. I was mostly in a state of shock I think by then. I think most of the people shopping that day simply had no idea what was going, because the antique mall was dead empty for about a week afterwards. (We sold out of every single patriotic rhinestone flag pin we had in the place over the next few months actually- there were dozens at first, but everyone wanted one.)

My husband & I went to Oregon for the next two days, ostensibly to go do something at the two antique malls his dad owned down there, but instead we spent most of one day glued to the news in a random hotel room in Seaside.

The empty skies were totally apocalyptic feeling. We lived in a direct flight path from SeaTac at the time, planes flying low overhead constantly, and the utter silence in the skies was scary and visceral.

Selfishly speaking, I was *very* glad we'd gotten married in March 2001 and spent two months in Europe and Africa already.

This 9/11 I spent 12 hours on a plane from Costa Rica to Seattle. That was... weird. Nobody mentioned it, but I think everyone was quite aware of the date and what a strange feeling it was to be on a flight that day. I wouldn't have picked it myself, but the dates were set in stone by my family months ago.
 
I was living in Alaska at the time. Woke up, had breakfast, mulled about the apartment for a while. Got to work and someone said, hey don't you have family in NY?

By then, it was all over, AK is 4 hours behind the east coast. I couldn't get in touch with any family because all the phone lines in Anchorage were busy! That would actually happen from time to time when the lines were overloaded during holidays, etc. but it wasn't until the afternoon that I could actually reach home.

Had some friends that had relatives up visiting for a big hunting trip - they were stuck in the interior because the float plane that brought them out wasn't allowed to fly back in and get them! They had no clue what happened. A lot of hunters/fishers were stuck in the bush for many days with no idea what was going on, no idea if the planes that were supposed to pick them up had crashed or just forgot about them.
 
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