9/11/01--Where were you when you heard the news?

Still selling cars....come up from a sales meeting....happen to glance at the
television and see the plane hit the second tower.

First song I heard on the radio after it happened was with a DJ who was a cross between crying and was mad at the same time. First time "Born in the USA" ever brought tears to my eyes.

I think of that every time I hear that song.

 

I was dropping my stepdaughter off at school when Mike and Mike in the morning first announced that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers...by the time I reached work they were still surmising that it was an accident...

Watched the rest unfold on TV and the interweb while at work...

 

Waking up after a frantic message was left on my answering machine from my mom, since she knew I was going to NYC and Times Square that day and had tickets to the Yankees-White Sox game. Called her back, turned on the TV in time to see the second plane going into the tower.

Walked outside and was able to see smoke from over 60 miles away down the shoreline. Went to give blood, got a fucking haircut and went into work on my day off (I wasn't called in, just showed up because I thought they would need any help and I needed to stay busy or I would've lost it).

I will never forget the images of seeing the emergency vehicles zoom down I-95 and the "All bridges closed to New York City" signs on the highway like we were in a war zone.

 

Was supposed to be jogging during a running/jogging class in college. Instead was in a computer lab surfing the internet when someone came in and said something about the first plane. The strange thing was I couldn't find anything online and assumed the person was lying.

Driving home from class, I was listening to a CD when I noticed all of the cars pulling off the road and people just sitting there with these strange looks on their faces. I turned on the radio to an FM station to be greeted by ABC news or something and found out that way.

I rushed home, woke up all my roommates and we watched it unfold. I also called my parents in Seattle and woke them up with the news.

Edit: Strangest thing was, I wouldn't have known about it until midday if I hadn't actually gone to class that day. We didn't have cable, so we rarely turned on the TV. I guess my sister would have called me, since she lived in Kansas City and would have been awake. But with my parents in the Pacific Time Zone, they wouldn't have gotten up for another couple of hours.

 

In my bedroom. I had just woken up. Then I went to work at the paper. Long, long day.

 

My story was similar, except rather than being anywhere close to New York, I was in Kansas. Mom called enough times that I finally picked up the phone, she told me what was going on, and then I turned on the TV just minutes before the second tower strike. I was stunned, like everyone else.

 

It was my freshman year at college, so only a few days after I had gotten there. I was just about to get up for a class when one of my suitemates woke me. I'll never forget that.

I went to school near Boston so there were a lot of fears that the city was another target. In a way, seeing as my suitemates and I were freshmen, it was sort of the first thing that brought us together-just dealing with the sadness.

And I still went to class that day. Needless to say, we just talked about what had happened.

 

On a bus in Athens, Ga., listening to NPR when the first plane struck. Ran up the hill to the library and a crowd was already gathered around a TV when the second plane hit. Watched it live, didn't leave the room for 2 hours. Nor did many other people.

 

Working at my desk on the news section for the sh*t-kicker weekly where I spent a few months in 2001.

I got most of my news that day from NPR, which I thought did a fine job and had yet to become infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome. The tobacco shop across the street had cable and I wandered over there a couple of times – the second time, I think, just in time to see the first tower start to fall.

The story only came home to me, really, when all of the airports were shut down. That took the emerging national tragedy and made it local for us, in a manner off speaking.

We tore up the front and made that the lead (no wire, just me winging it), with a local sidebar inside.

Still basically made our mid-afternoon deadline and we were selling papers at the front counter that night by 7:30 p.m. or so. Dozens of people came by that evening.

I had to drive about an hour away to go to a wine appreciation class (I still am thankful they didn't call that off.) People were going crazy at the gas pumps at 6 p.m. or so, some places ran out of gas and one station, at the Tennessee-Mississippi line, was gouging people for $3.50 a gallon at a time when I think gas was $1.60 or so. By the time the class was over the bubble had burst and those places that had gas were back to normal.

Two reactions the next day:

1, A woman called to complain we didn't have more coverage of the story.

2, A local PR professional called to marvel that we had as much as wel did, on such a short time frame.

 

You had class that day? I went to a college in Idaho and we cancelled. I can't fathom having class in a major city where they didn't know if it was a target or not.

 

litterally just stepped out of the shower – timed to the minute – as I got ready for school. My roommate had the morning news in Edmonton on, was interrupted with a report that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. No one knew eaxactly what had happened or the extent. By the time I got to college they were showing replays of the second plane and reports of the Pentagon being hit. We spent the day watching the events unfold on TV instead of doing any kind of class work. I remember talking to my dad and him making me promise that I finish school and not run off to join the military. A promise that truthfully I regretted for a number of years. Now, not so much.

 

It was my third week of college, I was just pulling into the commuter parking lot when they came across the radio and said a plane flew into a building. During class another prof came running in saying towers had fell, they had hit the pentagon and I started to worry. My dad works for the NSA and wasn't sure if he was the next target or something. Turns out he was fine, didn't come home for 3 days. Spent better part of his time at work pulling fiber to set up new computer networks and went back to work for his old job at the place just as an extra hand to deal with the stuff.