Where were you when you found out about 9/11?

Question

I know it's a sad question but me and my mom were just talking about it and i was just wondering. For me i was in my 1st period ( i was in 4th grade). And i had to take sompthing to the front office and i heard the pricipal and the vice principal talking about it, then i went back to class and the teacher brought in a tv and we watched the news for the rest of the school day. I rember beinng very confussed, mad, and very sad. So where were you when you found out? What was your first thoughts?

Answer 1

I was barely waking up and having my cup of coffee when I logged on and caught reports of the first plane to hit one of the towers, thinking it was a tragic accident. Then came the 2nd plane I see live and I come to realize it was a deliberate act. My next thought was that it would be only a matter of time that some idiot would spin this tragedy and blame it on his political adversaries. Lo and behold, it happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_8dSnKiaD4

I was actually starting my first day at a new job at the time. Odd.

Answer 2

I was in 8th grade and sitting in first period. Our teacher was about to assign a project when the principal came over the loud speaker. He announced that there had been two planes that crashed into the World Trade Centers and one in the Pentagon (didn't mention the field crash). I can still hear the sadness and worry in his voice (usually a very hard man to read). My teacher fainted. When she came too (seconds later) she ran out of the room crying. Another teacher came in to sit with our class and told us our teacher's father works in the Pentagon. Thank God, he wasn't in the section of building that was hit.

Some students didn't even know what the World Trade Center buildings were. I never heard the hallways so quiet as they were that day. Everyone, including the teachers seemed like they were in a trance. Most kids wanted to ask questions and some teachers tried to go on with the normal class work. They thought it would be better for the students, but what we really needed were answers, as did the rest of the country. The lunch period (which was an hour) was the period that stands out in my mind the most. It was history and our teacher brought a TV in to watch the news. He told us before turning it on, "I don't believe in hiding things from you students. You deserve to know what is going on as much as any adult in this building." He earned a lot of respect saying that from many students. We spent the next hour watching the news and the horrors unfold. No one said a word the entire time. It seems that is what we spent the entire day doing even once school was over. It has been so many years but I can still hear the silence in the hallway and lunchroom. Usually the loudest areas of the school but that day they were just silent. Sometimes, silence is louder then noise.

I still remember seeing my Mom as I walked out of the building. She was crying as most of the parents seemed to be doing. She said later that she cried just knowing that with all the tragedy and fear that her two children were safe. There was no reason we wouldn't be as we were nowhere near any of the crash locations, but she said it was just relief.

As you said, I remember being confused and sad. Once we were told exactly what happened I remember anger and fear. Until that day we all thought we were invincible. This brought that to a crashing halt and we had to face the fact that we were vulnerable. It was a difficult thing to accept.

Later my junior high school (as most of the country we wanted to show our patriotism.) The school choreographed the entire student body into an American flag. They assigned different homerooms red, blue or white shirts. Mine was red. Then in our courtyard they drew out the lines in chalk and put everyone in their place. A cameraman was on the roof and took the picture. It really was a great way to make the students feel like they were showing their love for their country. There were news crews and paper reporters there and it really was a rewarding day. The picture also became the cover of our yearbooks, which is a nice thing to have as a remembrance.

This will be something we will never forget. Obviously the event itself, but also where we were and how we learned of the tragedy. It will be a story we will probably tell many times through out our lives. Especially our future children when they learn of this in school. That inevitable question of "Mommy, Daddy, do you remember that?" Every generation seems to have something.

Interesting answers.
-Brit

Answer 3

I was at my mother's house, visiting. She woke me up in the morning and said that a plane had hit the WTC, and then ran out of the room. My sleepy brain barely registered what she had said, and I turned the TV on to try to make sense of it. The second plane hit seconds after I flipped the TV on.

It is interesting that you ask this. It seems to be an American tradition to explore where we all were during the events that have rocked our nation. Other events that have inspired this question include, Pearl Harbor, V-Day announcement, JFK assasination, Challenger explosion.
There are others, but these I think were the most affecting.

Answer 4

Well I was in my 5th grade class just a normal day like every other day. Like what other people said about watching it on T.V. in their classrooms and stuff, they didn't do that for us. Probably it was because we were too young or they didn't want to scare us or anything. Anyway, I was doing some classwork until i get called from the office for early dismissal. I was pretty much dumbfounded for why they called me, i didn't have a doctor's appointment to go to, no dentist appointment neither So i got my things walked out of the classroom, into the hallways, then i reached the office. The secretary tells me that my mom is waiting for me outside in the front of the school. So then i walk to the front the school and see my mom in the car. I walk over and get in the car to say "hi mom!", but before i could ask her whats up, i see her crying and tears going down her cheeks, AGAIN i still, and was, totally dumbfounded, until she gives me what she was holding in her hand. I ask her "what is that?", she gives it to me and it was a postcard, a postcard with the Twin Towers on the front of it. She tells about everything that happenened but i couldn't believe it. She then drops me off at her sister's (my aunt's) house and drives away. I then turn on the TV and start flipping the channels until I see every news channel; MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN 1 & 2, FOX NEWS, OUR LOCAL NEWS CHANNELS, EVEN SOME CHANNELS THAT NEVER SHOWED ANY NEWS BEFORE HAD ON VIDEOS OF THE TWIN TOWERS BURNING AND SHOWING HOW THE PLANES CRASHED INTO THEM. And so thats what happened on my day when i found out about 9/11.

Answer 5

In front of the TV watching the morning news. I had just gotten up and my first cup of coffee hadn't cooled enough to sip yet.

I saw the report of the fire in the first tower thinking it was really odd, then there was a speck move from the right of the screen and a moment later the second tower exploded. The slo-mo replay showed it was an airliner. At that moment I knew history was being made.

Answer 6

I was cooking breakfast and my then 3 yr old was watching Sesame Street. My brother called me and asked if I was watching the news. He told me what happened and I turned the news on. I had my bowling league that morning and all 4 of us girls showed up and watched the news together. On the way to bowling though, I was entering the freeway when the first tower collapsed. Now every week when I go to bowl as I enter the freeway I think to my self "I was right here when I hear about the tower falling"

Answer 7

I was in school, i think i was like in 8th . I remember being in mrs.cooks class room and watching it on tv. I remember her and all the other teachers crying and talking and i knew it was something bad. But i didnt cry and i wasnt sad. I felt bad for all those fam. im pretty sure we were watching it at 9am in school and then all the rest of the day it was on tv at school and home and i felt like it was never going to be taken off

Answer 8

I was working nights, and so had been in bed. Got up to use the rest room, and my husband said "We are at war" and pointed to the TV.
Needless to say, there was no more sleeping that day.

I could not believe it. A perfectly beautiful day outside my windows. No traffic. I guess everyone who could, was watching TV. Just stunned.
That sort of thing happened in other places, but not here.

Answer 9

I was a on bus heading to high school and heard it on the radio. When I got to school I watched the news coverage for the rest of the school day. This may sound cold but it didn't really shock me. It saddened and sickened me but this kind of tragedy wasn't anything new (Beirut, Lockerbie, WTC Bombing, Oklahoma City Bombing, USS Cole to name a few). What I find really unnerving is the overreaction to the attacks by our country that continues to escalate and provoke more violence.

Answer 10

I was watching a movie on HBO while trying to get my son ready for school.

My father came to my place and told me that a plane hit the Trade Ctr. I thought it was garden variety NYC terrorism. I kept watching the movie. The second plane hit and I started watching the news. When the third plane hit the Pentagon, I knew that we were at war.