What were you guys doing on 9/11/01? Were any of you east coasters in or near NY?
I was in grad school full time and living at home with my parents. My first class of the day was cancelled because the professor was speaking at a conference in England. So I slept in. I woke up and turned on the TV and saw the coverage on the Today show. It woke me up right away....usually I would snooze a little. My dad was retired and was home getting ready. I didn't realize at first how many people had died. I remember him saying oh it's absolutely horrible. I asked if I would be safe driving on the highway and he said I would be fine. I remember driving to school and the radio had all talk on it. Someone called in and asked the country station to play "I'm Proud to be an American." The DJ said we could probably do that and they did. That song was played millions of times over the next weeks and months. My research professor said he would lecture for a little while and then we would get out early with the events of the day, but he lectured the whole time. A girl who I had just met in grad school and we were partners on a project was getting married in ten days and was worried her dad would be called overseas b.c. he was in the Reserves. He did get called over but not until after her wedding. It is weird to think that I didn't even work at my job then..didn't even know where I would be working. I was at a different point in my life.
Re: 9/11..where were you
I was in my senior year of college in California. My roommate always had early classes, so she woke me up and told me what was going on and to come watch the news. I went to class that day and was surprised that classes were not cancelled until noon. My women's studies professor basically didn't utter a word about it and we went on with our lecture. The two other professors I had that day did address that it was a significant event in history and then went on with their lectures.
When I was in high school, I intereviewed a family member about where they were when JFK was shot. She remembered that moment just as vividly as I remember finding out about all the horrible things that happened on that day in September.
On 9/11, I was just a few short days from turning 20. I still lived at home with my parents, and worked full time at the same job I do today (I have been there 12 years).
I work in banking, and shortly after opening, one of our customers told us a plane had hit one of the towers. We turned on the radio, and after hearing some of the reports, our manager rolled out a TV that we have into our lobby. It was slow that day. I imagine most of our customers were home glued to their own TV's. We spent the rest of the day out in the lobby watching all the events unfold. When a customer would come in they would sit down and watch with us and talk (our bank is a small locally owned bank in a very close knit community. We know all our customer by name, and are very close with a lot of them). One of us would get up and run their transaction, and bring it back out to the customer. They would usually hang around for a bit longer with us, before wandering out. It was unlike any other work day I've ever had. Nobody cared about getting any work done. Including the customers. I think most of them that came in, just wanted to be around other people. We even had some that stopped by without any transactions to do. They just didn't want to be alone.
Leaving work was horrible. All of the local gas stations had raised their prices to $5 and over. People were freaking out, and all the gas stations had cars backed out to the streets with hour long waits. Traffic was all backed up, and their were cops trying to direct traffic. It took me forever to get home. I then went to my ex fiances house (although he wasn't my fiance at the time) to watch the President speak. It was the first time I had ever sat down to watch a Presidential address.
The next morning while driving to work, God Bless America & I'm Proud to be an American played back to back on the radio. All of a sudden tears started streaming down my cheeks. I pulled into the lot still crying, and our flag was at half staff. It was the first time those songs and our flag have ever evoked that kind of emotion in me. I think before that day, I took for granted the meaning behind those symbols. I've never looked at them the same since.
I heard about the first plane hitting the WTC while I was getting ready in the bathroom of my sorority house. We always had a radio going and they interrupted the song to talk about it. One of my sorority sisters was from NJ and had a lot of family and friends who worked in and around the WTC. We had class together so she brought her walkman (can you believe it...a walkman!) to class and we shared the earbuds. We were listening to the broadcast when the towers fell. Our professor was a total idiot and yelled at us for being disrespectful in her class. That's when my friend started yelling at the professor that SHE was being disrespectful for thinking the class was more important than a national tragedy.
I also remember calling home (but it took forever to get a line) after we heard about the Pentagon because my dad worked in DC.
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I was teaching 3rd grade in Delaware. It was my 2nd year teaching and maybe the 4th day of school. Ironically, I was reading a book with my kids that took place in NYC. The guidance counselor came in with a folded note that said, "For your eyes only" that said 2 planes had hit the WTC towers. All the teachers kept gathering at their doors trying to find out more info from one another and wondering how we could keep teaching. About 10:30, the state of Delaware closed all government buildings including schools. The concern was that we were midway between NYC and DC and at that point they really were not sure what was going on. Keep in mind, the plane that crashed in western PA was still missing. They did not know what had happened to it yet. After the kids left, I watched coverage with a bunch of teachers on TV. I remember the towers coming down, but am not sure if I saw it live.
Yesterday at school with my 7th graders, I told them this story and read them the book Fireboat about an old fireboat that helped put out the fires at the WTC. I was surprised by the students range of knowledge about 9/11. Some new a good amount and some new nothing. One did not realize that 9/11 referred to the date; he thought it meant 911. We even had to discuss how we were honoring this date and not celebrating it.
I was so glad that my administration honored the day with announcements, stories, and a moment of silence at 8:46. I was really proud to work there and be able to talk about this date in our history.
I was in my junior year of HS in Wayne, NJ (about 15mi from NYC). I didn't hear anything in the halls, but a few friends started talking about a fire in the WTC after 4th period. 5th period (10:30am) the official announcement went out via a handout given to the teachers to read; we didn't have tvs is every room and due to our proximity to the city, administration chose their words carefully and waited a while to tell us, I imagine so they coudl figure out what the heck was going on so as not to cause a huge panic. A bunch of kids had already begun disappearing from school (parents picking them up) and we were allowed to use cell phones (if we had them) to call our parents - most parents in my town work in NYC; thank God mine didn't...by the end of the day, over half the school was gone b/c their parents had come in to take them home.
Things were still so confusing the announcement said that 2 plans hit the WTC and one of the towers had collapsed (we didn't know at the time the second had already collapsed too). they didn't know the cause of the crash, if it was an accident, and we could call home if we needed to by seeing our counselor or the front office. I recall being glad I heard it from the band director, because he was a teacher I trusted and knew would keep us safe in case of an emergency.
It was pretty scary. There were a lot of kids not in school on the 12th, and we had bomb scares every day the rest of the week. By the end of the week I knew too many friends' parents/relatives who had been hurt, were missing, had died and a miraculous number who had been late for work that day for one reason or another and didn't get to NYC until the bridges had closed. In the long run, it's sometimes amazing how many people we knew who didn't get hurt, who would have died/gone missing/been hurt had they been on time for work that morning.
I still have trouble talking about it or seeing stuff about it because I just go back to how scary it was for me, and watching my friends and their families and all those families go through that again.
Wow, I guess I'm going to show my age here...
I was in eighth grade. I remember hearing about it on the bus on the way to school, and the smartest kid in our class was talking about what a huge deal it was. At the time, I didn't really understand. I remember my history teacher shutting the door and letting us watch the news, even though the principle had said we were not allowed to. She said that real history was taking place that day. I remember going home and watching tv with my family all evening.
Sophomore year of college - I had had an early morning class and then had some time to kill until Women's Chorale, so I was sitting in the diva lounge doing some homework. Someone came by and told me about it around 9:30. A professor cancelled my afternoon classes, so after WoCho a couple of friends and I went to my dorm room and watched it on tv.
DH has a different story...he was in the WTC complex, right next door to the towers. He'd just graduated college. They were told to evacuate after the first plane hit. They went outside and after about 15 minutes they were told to go back inside. He said eff that, I'm going home - and he ran over the Brooklyn Bridge.
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I was walking to my 3rd period Health class when I was a sophomore in high school and kept hearing something about a plane crash. I asked my friend who sat in front of me if she had heard anything once I got to class, but she hadn't. Right then, our teacher walked in and turned on the TV and we saw the image of the plane hitting the second tower...something that's now burned into my mind. I remember telling my friend, "I guess something did happen." We watched it for the rest of the period, and then I watched the towers fall during study hall. It was unreal...no one expected that to happen.
What I remember most was how astonishingly blue the sky was that day. It was beautiful out, but it just seemed wrong with all the horror in NYC, DC, and Pennsylvania.
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I was in my first class in High School. It was the first week of school and my teacher turned on the news. I didn't even know what was really going on and didn't even know what the twin towers were.
But that was my first week of high school...watching the news about that terrible day.
(I'm late to this thread but i'll still tell my story!)
I was a sophomore in high school, and in Ecology class when the first plane hit and they announced it over the loud speakers. Then classes changed and I went to math, but was in a math class full of freshman (there had been a scheduling problem so i had to swap out my math classes for freshman and sophomore year to fit them in right). The teacher turned the TV in the classroom on, and we watched lived as the 2nd plane hit the towers, and as both towers fell to the ground. It was devastating to watch and i will never forget that day.
The 9th graders in the class were all joking and not understanding the severity of what was happening and i was much quieter in those days, but i blew up at them. I yelled at the whole class to have some freaking respect because thousands of people had just died. The next few days were very difficult for our school because of our proximity to NY we weren't sure who in school would have lost parents/family members in the attack on WTC. One of my aunt's IL's was actually in one of the towers when it happened and escaped with his life, though he is forever changed by what he saw that day.
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It was my second week of my freshman year in college. I got to my 9:00 Economics class and someone said that a plane hit the WTC. I thought it was a joke and didn't really believe it until my professor walked in confirmed the plane crashes and said class was cancelled - he knew people in the towers. I remember getting back to the dorm as quick as possible and watching the towers collapse in my friends room.
I called my mom to see if she had heard about it - she told me that my dad's friend sometimes works in the WTC but I guess he wasn't there that day.
Somewhere in my old room at my parents house is a journal that I attempted to keep my first year of college - there is an entry in there about 9/11.