Where were you on 9/11?

myself

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 1:44 pm

I had just gotten home from school when a friend called to tell me the news. (Note: I'm in a different time zone so it was after school hours) All I remember is standing next to the phone, dazed, shocked, confused, sad and very afraid! It was probably the first time I just sat and cried. I said Tehillim over and over again and prayed that the world wasn't over.

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 1:47 pm

9th grade... everyone was waiting to call their parents. And I didn't. I figured if there was bad news for me personally, I didn't want to hear about it at the hallway payphone Smile

Turns out my father didn't go to work that day, so he was safe!

gp2.0

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:17 pm

I was in seventh grade. I remember looking out the window during davening and wondering why a bunch of people were crowded on the roof of the apartment building pointing at the sky.

A couple hours later all the high school students were spreading the news. I couldn't believe it. How could a plane crash into a huge target like that by accident? It couldn't be true. It didn't even occur to me that someone had done it on purpose.

I also remember seeing tons of torn paper fluttering on the streets that day.

Every year since, on 9/11 I watch footage and listen to 911 calls and read first person narratives and I cry for all the losses. Every year I cry again.

Raisin

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 2:19 pm

Both my babies were napping and I was listening to a news station on the radio when the first plane hit. The first reports seemed to think it was a small plane that hit by accident. The reporter was actually standing in the lobby of one of the towers, happily oblivious to upcoming dangers.

Frumdoc

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:48 pm

I was coming home from work after doing a 26 hour shift, so exhausted I was still wearing scrubs with bloodstains on the knee from a horrendous night, and overheard some women talking about a plane crash and the end of the world. I thought I was having a dream so ignored it. Oops.

For me, the big one was 7/7, when they suicide bombed London underground. I should have been on one of those trains, that was my route and my usual travel time, but decided I had too much paperwork so went to work early, and decided to drive halfway across London and deal with the mean parking officer who always shouted at me and never let me park in the car park. I had never ever done this (drive, not use the train) apart from at the weekend before, and still have no idea why I did it apart from Hashem made it happen.

seeker

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 6:56 pm

Funny how some of these posts really date people! I won't share because I don't want to be identified though my story is hardly unique... particularly those elements of early confusion followed by dawning understanding that two planes ain't no accident, followed by shock at the total collapse of the towers, with a background of worry about all the people. The relief finding out that people I know and love are OK, followed by the sinking realization of how many others weren't. The total insanity on the radio with casualty estimates bouncing wildly up and down on one hand and the confusion about how and why and who did it on the other. I remember the smell that lingered for days (weeks?), unlike ordinary fire, and wondering if that's what the Holocaust death camps smelled like.

But this year, I remember most of all the confidence with which Americans everywhere united to demand aggressive action against terrorism, and the appreciation everyone had for the leaders and politicians who made it happen. Everyone knew it would not be cheap or easy but everyone equally realized it had to happen if we didn't want the world as we knew it overrun by the type of people who arranged 9/11. And what I want to know is how the heck did that change so badly in such a short time?!

mommyla

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 8:27 pm

bigsis144 wrote:

In the afternoon, we got a call that school was still in session, so I got dropped off at school. I was late for math class and my teacher still gave me 5 points off for tardiness.

Classic. Good ol' Mrs. K.

I was in 10th grade, same school as bigsis. By the time I woke up in the morning it was all over. We were all pretty freaked out that LA was going to be hit next, but went to school anyway, then spent the rest of the afternoon glued to the TV. It was surreal.

Can't believe it's already been 13 years...

wife2

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 9:32 pm

I was in 6th grade and they told us about it at an assembly. It sounded so serious but I had no idea what the WTC was. I never heard of it before and didn't understand the big deal about a building being hit or what it meant and symbolized, didn't understand that it was an act of terror and why everyone was so afraid. My father walked home from work (he works for the government and was scared his building was in danger). I didn't understand why he didn't drive home. He wouldn't let the kids in our family walk outside and I totally did not get it.
I do not live in NY.

June

Fri, Sep 12 2014, 3:01 am

I was in 5th grade, not in nyc.

class was already in session when it happened and if my morning teacher heard about it during recess, she didn't say anything. we only were told about it after lunch, when our English teacher came in all serious and said, "a terrible catastrophe happened this morning..." catastrophe had been a vocab word that week.

truth is, I didn't get the horror of it until years later, when I realized the extent of the tragedy. now with this realization, "catastrophe" seems too little of a word.

windowsill

Sat, Sep 13 2014, 5:12 pm

Emotional wrote:

I had been married a week and a half. 9/11/01 was my second day back at work after Sheva brachos. I worked in a store on 13th Avenue in Boro Park. The sky was raining down ashes like confetti.

Oh wow we got married similar time.. That day was actually during my sheva brochos and all of our american guests (I live across the ocean) had their flight postponed by a few days.. I heard it whilst having a family lunch with my new husband and his family.. This was all we could talk about at that time...
My daughter was all proud in school last week when they discussed it, that her parents got married then..

eema2five

Sun, Sep 14 2014, 6:21 am

My son is a few years younger than you, and he and his friends all remember it clearly. But kids the same age who didn't live in NY have no recollection.
I was driving carpool in Toronto, I shut off the radio as soon as I heard 'plane accident at the WTC'
but the kids all heard about it in school. Of course , they're young (4 and 5) imaginations were in overdrive and the wild stories that they came home with...!
I remember cooking for YT that morning, running back and forth between the stove, the TV and my newborn!
My family lives in NY and my youngest sister was in E"Y for sem that year. She couldnt reach my parents but could reach us in Toronto....
My husband was underground in the subways as the events unfoilded and didnt hear about it until he called in to the office!