Where were you and how did you learn about the 9/11 attacks?

Parent Cafe
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With the 25th anniversary of the attacks days away I find myself astonished that it has really been that much time, most of my adult life. I think for many people 9/11 is one of those “flashbulb” memories.

My story rolls back the clock to the earlier internet days. I had a slow connection at home but at work we had pretty fast broadband and computers on our desks. So I read newspapers online during breaks at work, and the NYTimes back then didn’t have a paywall. They had recently offered a service where they would send you an email if there was an important breaking story and I had signed up. So far maybe 1 or 2 emails in a few weeks.

I drove into work out here on the West coast earlier than most of my colleagues to beat traffic a bit, and as usual listened to CDs in my car. Blissfully unaware of the outside world I arrived at my mostly empty office building, went upstairs to my desk, and turned on my computer. I opened the mail and to my dismay the NYTimes had filled my inbox with email. That wasn’t what I expected, just another company trying to figure out ways of making money on the internet by spamming users. Then I started to read the emails…

addendum: we had just been on vacation in NYC in July 2001 and took the photos below

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It was a beautiful morning in NoVA. S was in PM kindergarten so my friend picked him up to take him and her son to AM gymnastics class. I went to the supermarket and a friend told me a plane had hit the WTC. I wasn’t even suspicious of terrorism until I went home, turned on the computer and saw the second crash as well as the others including the pentagon. When my friend dropped off S we debated whether to send the boys to school and decided to do so to keep it as normal as possible.

I was pretty much glued to TV all afternoon until the kids came home and I shut it off. D had heard quite a bit with her 5th grade classmates. Because kids at the school had parents who worked in the pentagon, some were very upset and scared( luckily all parents from that school were spared).

Because were lived close to Dulles, the lack of air traffic was very surreal and creepy.

I was just talking with my hairstylist about this yesterday. She is my son’s age and didn’t know a lot about it but is watching current shows to learn more.

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Was at work in LA. Horrible morning, added to by my Jack a$$ boss adding there’s no way your friend made it. Sadly he was right but an inconsiderate a-hole.

I kept calling my friends wife and brother. We were in each other’s wedding parties. What a horrific day.

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I had the TV on, watching Sesame Street, with my then 1 year old. PBS cut in to the news when the first plane hit. I’m from NY. Many of my friends and family lived and worked in NYC, including in the Twin Towers. I immediately called my parents who were still in NY. I was on the phone with my dad who thought it was an accident when the second plane hit. My H was at home that day and we were glued to the TV and the telephone.

Sadly I had friends who were missing and trapped and couldn’t get word out for days; friends who had parents die; and friends in DC working for the government when the Pentagon was hit. And we had a family member who was supposed to have been on one of the planes but had to cancel at the last minute.

It was a very very dark time and hit way too close to home. I remember landing at Newark for the first time after 9/11 and starting to sob. I still can’t see a photo of the Manhattan skyline without getting choked up and thinking about all the lost souls and all the families that were impacted.

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Two events I will always remember where I was.

The first being September 11. It was boring as I was home watching the Today Show and I’ll never forget Katie Couric when the 2nd plane hit the tower.

I live in the Midwest so away from the horrible events but I’ve never felt so unsettled like that before.

My kids were in elementary school.

The second of January 6, 2021. I was on a walk talking to my mom. She was watching tv and said something is going on. I walked home and was in shock watching that also.

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I was at a United Way meeting at work. Came back to my desk to find a coworker announcing that America was being attacked. Spent a good part of the day in conference rooms watching events on TV. Called DH at some point to ask status of NYC relatives. All were okay but we didn’t know for hours. One witnessed the second plane hitting. The ones that were children had the school calling them down to the office one by one to find out if their parents survived.

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I was at Fort Polk, LA working on the DOD’s residential communities initiative. We were outside the director of housing’s office, waiting for a meeting to start and watching the news on TV. After the first tower was hit, we thought it was a terrible accident. After watching the second tower hit, several of us - almost simultaneously - said something to the effect of, “that was no accident” or “that was a coordinated attack”. Ft. Polk went on lockdown, and all the civilian contractors were ordered off base. Since the airports were shut down, my financial analyst and I drove from LA back to Chicago.

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Standing in my living room watching the news. First thought was how awful. Then the second plane hit so realized it wasn’t a mistake. Total disbelief.

Then first thought went to gather my kids from school. And second thought was to leave them where they were depending on chances of where next strikes might be.

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I was in a meeting at my school. A school secretary asked the admin to leave the meeting, and told her what had happened. The principal of the school was out of district and our other admin actually managed our school until the principal returned.

She went from room to room, and told the teaching staff so they would know. But everyone was asked to continue teaching. This was a primary school. I should mention, we had no media in our classrooms at the time…no internet, no TV. It was probably a good thing.

We had a very old small tv with rabbit ears that was hooked up in the teachers room.

Many many many parents came to school to pick up their children.

We live in CT, and just about everyone was touched in some way by the World Trade Center in particular. People who worked there, or at the Pentagon, pilots for American Airlines, people who worked near or in the WTC.

Really, it was an awful piece of news.

But I do remember how everyone was so sensitive and caring about others.

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I was in the PNW, and when I woke up for work I would normally flick on NPR to listen to the radio as I got ready. The first plane had hit, but the second one hadn’t, or it hadn’t been reported just yet at the time I turned on the radio. I remember running down the stairs to turn on the television and both towers were on fire. Shortly thereafter the third plane hit the pentagon. At this point anchors were saying that Americans around the world may be under attack.

My parents lived in Tokyo, and while this was all happening it was the middle of the night in Japan. I called them, panicked. I woke them up and quickly tried to tell them what was happening (which they understandably couldn’t really comprehend, being awakened in the middle of the night) and I said: “they’re saying Americans abroad might be in danger, you need to—” and then the phone lines went dead. I wasn’t able to reach them when I called back, repeatedly, for hours. It was terrifying. I couldn’t reach my sibling in San Francisco either, for hours, and when we finally spoke I learned that they couldn’t reach our parents, either.

Many years later, I had tickets to go see Come From Away with my then 8th grader. I realized the morning of the show that they probably had no context for what we were about to see, being born years after 9/11 and not talking about it in school yet. So I asked them if they knew what “9/11” was, and they told me that they had heard “that word,” but didn’t really know what it meant.

So I began explaining what happened, and I actually became extremely choked up, as I explained: now we know what happened, and when things “finished,” but at the time, we didn’t know what could happen next - if there were more planes, or if there were bombs, or other things that might happen. Nobody knew. And I couldn’t reach [your grandparents], and the internet, and news, and information wasn’t fast back then…and I didn’t know all day if they were actually okay in Tokyo, because I couldn’t reach them on the phone and the news was all about New York and the Pentagon, and repeating that Americans abroad should be very very careful…

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I was at a car dealership getting my oil changed when it came on the tv in the waiting room. When I got home, I called my mom since we were due to meet at my dad’s cemetery for a High Holidays visit then go to brunch for an early birthday celebration for me. I called her and told her to turn tv on. We decided to meet; my drive took me past O’Hare and the skies were empty.

Later husband checked on sister who lived and worked in Manhattan, not that far south on the island. She did have to walk home. I checked with brother to make sure he wasn’t on business in NY. Son was in middle school but I can’t remember anything in particular except support and comfort for him.

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It was mid-afternoon where I was. A colleague and I were presenting to a client when someone knocked on the door and said “I don’t know what you’re doing, but whatever it is this is more important”. My colleague and I exchanged looks -“rude” - but we all followed out to the reception area where there was a TV, and watched in disbelief. We decided to pack up and go home (this was one of the few clients who had an office in the suburbs so I was only about 15 minutes from home). My dad and his family lived in NYC. My stepmom worked on Madison Avenue (somewhere in the 20s I think?) and I didn’t know where my dad, a contractor, was supposed to be that day - he often worked in Manhattan. Of course I couldn’t get through trying to call and was panicking, then I thought to email and - it worked. My dad had not been in Manhattan and was fine, my stepmom was fine but ended up having to walk all the way home to Queens, along with thousands of others, took her something like 5 hours.

The NY office of the company I worked for at the time was right next to the WTC. Everyone we knew was fine (physically) and got out and out of the immediate area, but the building was badly damaged after the towers fell and one of those since demolished. And we all knew people who worked in the WTC from the financial industry. I don’t even have words to describe how horrible it all was.

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It was listening to the close calls following 9/11 that really hit home. We had friends who were late to work that morning and survived–stuck in traffic.

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I was getting ready for work and listening to the radio when the news broke. I turned on the TV and the Today Show was on live. (The show is tape delayed on the West Coast.) I was watching the show when the second tower was hit. I remember how quiet and subdued my office was that day-no loud chatter, few phone calls. In my city, the federal building is an exposed, tall building. A decision was made to close the building.

Over the years, I’ve talked to many people about that day and where they were. One person did not hear the news and was on the way to the airport to catch a flight. That’s where she found out that all flights were cancelled. Another person was at a national convention and had to figure out how to get home.

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Driving home in our college town, heard a news report and thought I hadn’t understood it, that couldn’t be true. Walked in the front door, grocery bag in one hand, picked up the clicker and turned on the TV just in time to watch about 30 seconds and the first tower falls. I drop the groceries on the floor, barely hearing the smash, and as I turn to close the front door, my husband pulls in the driveway, bounds out of the car (and I remember this so clearly) leaves the door of the car open and I am thinking “this must be bad he’s left the door open”.

He works for a [ {redacted} DOD related ] and everyone had been sent home fearing it was a widespread set of attacks and that they might be in danger as well. (not the case, obviously we know now) He had friends at the Pentagon. HIs workplace knew about that plane before the media did.

Our sons were given age-appropriate info by their schools, we were impressed. And remember the weeks after? The anthrax scares about the mail? The American flags everywhere? How geniuinely useful Giuliani seemed? Trump mentioning that now he had the tallest building in NYC? The unwarranted attacks on anyone remotely Arabic? The flyers of photos of missing people? It seems like yesterday, it seems like a lifetime ago.

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I was home for the day with my youngest age 3. We had just done school drop off for the 2 oldest. I was upstairs and my husband called on our landline and said “you gotta call and see if (my brother and sister in law) are ok - a plane just crashed into some NYC buildings). I forget how I found out they were ok - did I call them, did they call me…but my brother was home with his 6 week old son…and his wife was running late that day. She had just started back to work part time. I turned the tv on and saw them replay the crash. Except nope, that was a 2nd plane crashing :sob:. Seeing it happen nearly live was unreal.

My brother later told me he stood on the roof of his Brooklyn brownstone with his newborn in his arms and just watched the smoke rise in the direction of midtown. When you live and work in the city most the people in your daily life spend their day there. It was frightening.

I remember wanting to get my kids from school but knew that would only alarm them more. One moment that is so clear to me is that around noon I took my 3 year old out to play. It was a warm sunny day. I can see her just frolicking in the yard as we played - her world untouched while mine felt like it was flaming. :cry:

I also remember for weeks and weeks that I would wait till the kids were in bed and then I’d turn on cnn and just hate seeing the aftermath but also not being able to look away. How could that happen in America?!

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I worked for the local newspaper. For some reason, I decided to go into work early that day and was in the car at the McDonald’s drive-thru when DJs Bob Cole and Sammy Allred said a plane had hit a twin tower. No thought of terrorism, but as I got to the newsroom, early arrivers from various departments were watching our newsroom TVs. I got there just as the second plane hit.

The few newsroom employees there jumped into action to create a special edition.

The thing I remember most is my boss working on the front-page headline. We went with “Attack on NY.” Then the plane hit the Pentagon, and I told the designer to change the hed to “Attack on US.” The rest of the week was a blur of long hours and fear. I finally cried that Friday.

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It was an absolutely horrible day.

I was working in New Jersey back then, and I had the radio on while driving to work. Just as I pulled into the parking lot, I heard the news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. At that point, like many other people, I thought it was a small plane that may have gone off course. Of course, 20 minutes later, news of the second plane came through, and it was clear that this wasn’t an accident.

We all stopped working and went over to one of our colleagues’ homes nearby to watch the news on TV. I called my wife, who hadn’t heard the news, and went and picked her up, as did several of my colleagues. Most of us knew friends or neighbors who worked in the city, and we watched with horror and fear, wondering about their fate. Many of us were in tears thinking about them, while the rest of us were too shocked to fully absorb everything that was happening.

Several people I knew personally perished that day. It’s hard to even write this.

One of my neighbors was in one of the towers. He called his wife to tell her that he wasn’t going to make it and wanted to let her know how much he loved her and that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. She was in the shower and missed the call. He left a voice message on their answering machine. It took her years to overcome her sense of guilt at missing that phone call

Another one of my neighbors was an Indian-American family whose cousin was visiting from India on a business trip. We had met her outside their home that weekend. She was a bright young woman with two young kids who was excited to be here and proud to be representing her firm. Her business presentation was in the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Her remains were recovered several months later.

The memories are all so painful and raw. I can’t believe it’s been 25 years.

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I had moved to NYC about a year earlier. I was living with my boyfriend (now husband) on the 5th floor of a walk up on 6th Ave and King Street (SoHo/West Village border). We had some friends visiting New York at the time, crashing on an air mattress in our living room.

The night before, we’d been out late and we stood in the middle of 6th Ave at 1 am, pointing out to our friends that there was a direct view of the Empire State Building to the north and the WTC to the south.

The next morning, my husband and I were getting ready for work (we worked at an ad agency on Hudson and Canal). I was blow drying my hair when I heard the birds screaming outside our apartment. I didn’t hear the first crash, just those birds. That was my first signal that something was wrong. Our friends turned on the TV and Katie Couric was reporting that “it looked like a small plane had accidentally hit the WTC.”

We thought, wow, that’s not good. But went back to getting ready. Then we heard the second plane hit loud and clear from our apartment. We could see the smoke billowing up. My husband said, “this is no accident.”

We didn’t know what to do, but just minutes later, someone banged on our apartment door. There was a truck outside our building with the word BOMB spray painted across it. Because we didn’t know what was going on, the person at the door said we should leave the building. My husband put on his flip flops and I told him to wear sneakers … because we might have to run.

We left our building in an hurry but spent the day walking around the city in a daze. Our pizza place guy was giving out pizza for free, bars were tuned into the news, and everyone was scared, or crying, or in shock.

We managed to get back home later that night. It was a devastating day, week, month. Our work was cancelled for the week, so we mostly wandered around and volunteered where we could. As sad as we all were, there was so much love for New York and for our fellow New Yorkers during that time, too. There were a lot of people leaving the city then, but for us, it was through that tragedy that New York became home.

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I feel the same. I’ve been crying reading every post.

I feel like I was forever changed that day.

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