Where were you?

[jimmy 194]

I was at a meeting at a defense contractor and one of the attendees from the FAA got a cell phone call from a controller at the ATC Center who told him of the hijacking. The planes hadn't hit yet. Shortly after 1st plane hit. Me and my staff were recalled to our military base pending instructions. It was a messed up day. At the time we thought the country was being attacked and were preparing for who knows what.

[calihockey11 0]

i was in the 4th grade, so i was like 9 or somethin. we didnt really understand what was going on at the time, but the most vivid thing i remember is my teacher breaking down in tears because she was from NY.

9/11 NEVER FORGET

[haiko17 0]

i was in a sec.5 (grade 11) economics class

[RonLopez 0]

I was a sophomore in High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn right across the water. We were called into the auditorium where they told us. You could see the black smoke out the window.

[ndlancer95 0]

I was in 3rd grade, and mxi, I feel you. Our teacher told us that we were getting a half day, due to teacher meetings. I feel so bad that I could just take a day off when all of america was working their asses off to keep us safe. I want to hunt down the biotch that lied o us.

[DCott 0]

I was in 7th grade Latin class. Our teacher was pulled out of class, then she came back in and told us. No assembly or anything, no one had any details or anything, so no one knew how bad it really was until they went home and saw the news.

[brettlynch11 0]

I was personally in 7th grade, and nobody would tell us what was up. Not that I could have grasped what was going on anyway.

Weird to read these stories... ask someone to recall some random day a week or two before that and they have no clue, but then remember everything aobout that day. Funny how the brain works.

[canadian_man_44 0]

I was sleeping after coming off of a night shift. My wife woke me up and told me to come watch the news. I saw the second plane hit the towers as well. Definitely an event that changed the course of history and a time that I'm sure none of us will ever forget where we were at the time.

[guasto74 0]

I've told this story a lot but I'll try and write it for the first time and keep it short.

I was a couple of blocks away on Maiden Lane, working for the City of NY. From my office, the Chase Manhattan building was in the way to have a clear view of the WTC. When the first one hit, it felt like a mini-earthquake. Out of our window, it was snowing office paper as far as the eye could see. We had heard a plane hit but I though it was a small cessna type craft. Then the second one hit which was an even bigger thud. One of my co-workers and I went outside to check it out and walked right up to the towers and just stood there looking at this jet sticking out of the side of the tower. Everyone was leaving their office to take a look. Finally a cop told us all to leave the area and we walked back to the front of our building. People were saying that the Pentagon was being hit and I just didn't believe it. I remember telling everyone to calm down b/c this was probably an accident. Suddenly, there was a rumbling, sort of like a subway train underneath the street. It was the collapse of the first tower and there was an avalanche of debris coming right for us. I barely made it into the door of my building and everyone ran to the back to try and get out and the avalanche rushed passed that door too. At this point, people who didn't make it inside in time started to come in and they were covered in soot from head to toe; all you could see was the whites of their eyes. Everyone was panicking b/c we thought other buildings were being hit. It was at this time that I was afraid for my life and didn't know what to do. One of my co-workers said to me, "I have to ge the hell out of here." The problem was the debris was all around and you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. Still, I had to get out of there too. So we walked outside and it looked like a snowstorm in September. The cars and streets were covered in white debris and you couldn't see the blue sky because there was a cloud of soot overhead. We had to walk with our eyses closed because it burned to look straight ahead. We decided to walk to South Street and then up to one of the bridges to Brooklyn. When we made it to Chinatown the second tower fell and I had a bird's eye view of it. It just crumbled like it was nothing. Wound up walking to and over the Williamsburg bridge into Brooklyn and then caught a bus (they were giving rides to everyone) into Queens not far from my apartment. I then drove to my parents house in Long Island and got there about 3 in the afternoon.

When it was happening I didn't think of how lucky I was. Now, 8 years later I sometimes reflect and think that had I stayed closer to the WTC when the cop told us to leave or if I stuck around longer than I did, things might have been very different.

I've been a NY'er my entire life and as strange as it sounds, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else on 9/11.

[vnderachiever 3]

I was in 8th grade. Long Island New York. Was still in Homeroom because We had a school mass (catholic school) at 9:30. There were some rumors about what happened going around, but I saw my mom at mass and she said 'whatever you hear, dad is alright'. He work(ed) at NYMEX, which used to be in the WTC.

Scary story: During the first WTC attacks (early 90's forget which year) he was supposed to go upstate NY on a skiing trip that night, and he had his truck with all his equipment parked in the parking garage. He was going to meet his friend in the garage and leave from there. His buddy called him and said he missed his train, so my dad stayed up in the building at work. Turns out had his friend been on time he would have been standing 15 feet from the explosion when it went off. Yikes.

[fawn111 0]

Just moved out of NYC back to the beach in Jersey.... I surf and there was a real good hurricane swell that day.... arguably the best day of the year.... 3 of my friends drove up to Rhode Island to surf for the day... we left at 3am and got in the water around 8am.. surfed for a few hours and we got out and it was the weirdest scene.... everyone was standing around their cars listening to the radio.... we were like WTF..... someone said that the a plane hit the WTT and it exploded and was GONE,,,, words cannot describe how we felt... we all have friends in NYC and live only about an hour from the city.... so we did the same thing,... sat and listened to the radio.... the second plane hit and the other tower fell, then the pentagon.... it was a day unlike any other I'll ever have....

all the bridges were closed so we could not get anywhere near the city to get home so we stayed in RI. I did not lose anyone I personally knew but had friends who were affected terribly.

9/11 changed the world and our lives as Americans forever.....

[MattyBoy 1]

I'll never forget, I was sitting in my freshman english class in Xavier high school on 16th street in Manhattan... didn't have much idea what happened for a little while then as they started telling us everything that was going on all i could think of was the fact that my father and 2 uncles are firefighters. when i finally got in touch with my mother later that day i had learned that she spoke to my father and he was with 1 of my uncles. My other uncle is still missing..... NEVER FORGET

[NYR1982 0]

I had an off day from school so I was working at the pool store and heard it all on the radio. I had no idea what was really going on but I was getting scared. I walked across the street to a little cafe to get lunch and they had their TV on and I saw the south tower go down and was in shock. I went back to the store and some of my friends came in telling me about what was going on just in our area with people jumping on the LIE and headed west to the city. I live on Long Island about an hour or so (without traffic) east of the city. Someone actually tried to burn down a gas station around the block from my store because of the nationality of the owner. The pool store was maybe 1/8th of a mile north of the LIE so all I heard from about 2:00 on were fire engines booking down the LIE headed west. We ended up closing up shop out of respect and some asshole tried giving us a hard time for closing early as my boss and I were leaving. My boss would never talk down to a customer, but that day was different. He looked at the guy and said "there are more important things happening right now than your bullshit pool problems."

My uncle actually worked adjacent to the trade center but Tuesday happened to be his day off. It took him a little while before he could physically go back into the city to work due to the clean up effort but it messed with him mentally also. I had friends lose relatives but I was extremely fortunate to have everyone close to me be safe on that awful day. The one positive effect that I remember was how everyone seemed to come together and support those who were unfortunately affected on 9/11. A lot of Long Islanders, along with people from all over the country, stepped up to support those who responded and those who did not return. I'll never forget that day as long as I live.

[sitzlejd 0]

After reading some of this I went back and watched the cnn broadcast as it happened, quite surreal.

I was a senior in HS and sitting in first period art when it started. We just stayed glued to the TV the rest of the day.

[dtodd380 23]

Was in my third year of college and working in radio. I showed up in class and the Prof. put the TV on and we just watched in silence. After about an hour she said, go home and watch the coverage of this...you're witnessing something that will change your lives.

I spent the rest of the day on the phone with guys from the station figuring out if I had to come into work.

I'll never forget the feeling on campus that day and for a few weeks afterward.

[starsfan71 9]

3rd Grade Mrs.Lynseys class were told it was no big deal until people started getting pulled out of class then we were told against school rules. I remember everyone just kind of sat around at recess and some of the more rambunctious kids played soldiers vs. Terrorists. Gotta love Texas. <_<

Saracasm there

[Leafsrule16 5]

3rd Grade Mrs.Lynseys class were told it was no big deal until people started getting pulled out of class then we were told against school rules. I remember everyone just kind of sat around at recess and some of the more rambunctious kids played soldiers vs. Terrorists. Gotta love Texas. <_<

Saracasm there

I was in third grade as well. We were sitting around having some sort of story time or something and the teacher left the classroom for a second, came back and told us the news. I thought nothing of it tell i got home and my parents were freaking out and it was on the news for like a month. My family got pretty worked up over it because my uncle was in N.Y but he was fine. I was really too young to comprehend what had happened. Still, I remember the day like it was yesterday.

[K9 Unit 1]

damn lets see...i think grade 5 in hong kong watching something on tv when it was just cut short and all of sudden i see this plane fly into a building...stupid hong kong news didn't start talking until like 10 mins after, my parents were freaking out though

will never forgot it

will also never forget the first baseball game after...think it was a mets game, that one was really moving

it is amazing how everyone has taken a snapshot of this moment in their minds, what they were doing, who they were with, etc.

my dad said that happened when he found out JFK got shot

[porky45 1]

9th grade. woke up to my alarm clock which is usually music, talking about a plane crashing in thte WTC. didn't really know what it was but figured it was a big deal cause they wouldn't stop talking about it. So i stumbled down stairs and told my dad. he basically said wtf are you talking about...i said i don't know, it's all over the radio. so he turned on the tv...it was there...i asked him if i had to go to school and he said yes, then we got to school and just sat in class all day watching the news. continued to watch the news for a couple days/weeks and all of our assignments were switched. That's all i did for a week. go to school and watch tv, come home and watch tv... it was intense.

[Aussie Joe 0]

my dad said that happened when he found out JFK got shot

My Mum said the same thing when 9-11 happend, whilst we were watching it on TV. She can recount exactly where she was when it happend, any detail you can ask she remembers. Really surreal.

Hard to beleive in just a few yrs it will have been a decade since it all took place and changed the world forever. I think one of the biggest things I remember about it all was the West Wing episode they did shortly after the event, named "Issac and Ishmael". Really took some amazing swings at the questions that allot of people were asking of themselves at the time.

[li7039 0]

i was in 4th grade and the principle told us all to say a prayer and we had the next day off. my dad was in NYC that day and he remembers watching the 2nd plane hit and the towers collapse

[kovyperron5727 0]

3rd Grade Mrs.Lynseys class were told it was no big deal until people started getting pulled out of class then we were told against school rules. I remember everyone just kind of sat around at recess and some of the more rambunctious kids played soldiers vs. Terrorists. Gotta love Texas. <_<

Saracasm there

Haha I was in DFW too. 4th grade, when it happened all the 4th and 5th graders were called down to the gym and the teachers told us. Of course I was in the bathroom when my class left, so I walked back to class and everyone was gone. I walked around for a good 10 minutes before soem lady told me to go into the gym. The teachers then told us not to tell the younger kids about what happened. I also remember many kids were taken out of school

[usahockey22 0]

In classes at HS, where we were all watching the events on TV beginning first period...just a lot of confusion.

What I remember even more vividly is our brilliant dean, shortly after 9/11, spotting "anthrax" in the school cafeteria and getting the whole school shut down and investigated by a biological weapons team. Big surprise, the mysterious white powder in the cafeteria turned out to be sugar, but our little "anthrax scare" got school shut down for a day and caused a lot of extra tension right after 9/11.

[n3ss 0]

8th grade English class i believe.

some of you guys were in 3rd/4th grade?

jesus, i feel old.

Kind of on topic, my 8th grade class took an unofficial school trip to NYC that November. we raised a lot of money and took toy donations to the kids who lost parents on 9-11. Actually got to meet with some firefighters and visit the WTC site.

[McDougalfaschnitzer 32]

You could see the towers from my high school that day. When news first broke I too thought it was a Cessna type plane that crashed just because of the tours they used to have. Obviously it turned out to be otherwise. I was in class when they announced the flight numbers for the other planes and a girl in my class got to realize that a family member of hers was on flight 93. Was pretty horrible. I remember feeling sick when they announced that school would be closed the next day and some kids actually cheered.

My cousins worked in the chase building that was mentioned earlier and they had a clear view of everything that happened. Everyone else that lived in my house was stuck in new york so I was just home alone watching the news and didn't sleep at all. All I could do was watch the news to no end. My brother went to ground zero shortly after to deliver lighting equipment but I'll let him share his side if he wants.