Reader Friday-Where Were You 25 Years Ago?

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I’m sure this question has been asked before. (Just like, “Where were you when you heard JFK was assassinated?”)

Where were you and what were you doing on 9/11/2001, when you heard about the attack on America in NYC, Virginia, and Pennsylvania?

I was at work as an orthopedic medical assistant. The entire staff and a few patients were huddled around a TV in one of the offices.

Seeing those images changed us forever.

So, TKZers, your turn. Where were you on 9/11/2001?

 

 

34 thoughts on “Reader Friday-Where Were You 25 Years Ago?”

  1. The clock radio came on a few minutes before 6AM on the morning of Tuesday, 9/11, just like it did every workday morning, playing local radio station K103. The DJ, local Portland, OR, radio legend Craig Walker and the news guy, John Erickson, were talking about a “small plane” that had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. I quickly got out of bed, dressed, and went out to turn on the TV and CNN, just in time to see Flight 175 crash into the south face of the south tower of WTC 1.

    I thought, “this was no accident.”

    I was in shock as events unfolded. I started late at the library that Tuesday, at 4PM, and so was glued to the TV until then as the the Pentagon was struck, the two burning WTC towers eventually collapsed, and finally, Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, brought down by the heroic passengers before the aircraft could strike its target (likely the U.S. Capitol).

    I felt like I sleepwalked through work that night, myself and my coworkers still fixated on the events 3000 miles away. I had visited the World Trade Center in June 1979 as part of a post-high school graduation trip I took and couldn’t believe it was gone.

    Like so many millions of people, the world changed for me that day and things were never the same.

    • Hi Dale,

      “Like so many millions of people, the world changed for me that day and things were never the same.”

      I think sometimes, also, we tend to forget about the other two hijackings that day. The Towers remain front and center.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Like many, I was at the day-job.

    The hospital where I worked (and still work), was in the second day of a week-long Joint Commission inspection that happens every three years, and I was doing one last quick walk through of our outpatient imaging center and caught the same “small plane” report Dale mentioned from the TV in the waiting room.

    I paused for a quick second, but had to keep moving.

    I caught the unfolding of the rest of the day from waiting room to waiting room.

    The inspection continued without interruption, and, in fact, our emergency preparedness and command set up was added to the review (we are the regional coordinating hospital).

    That night, when I finally go home, I sat out in the blue-hour just after sundown, with my two youngest sons, noticing the quiet (we lived under the approach path to Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson Airport about 20 miles away), and at one point, heard – but didn’t see – a large, “heavy” aircraft ominously low-rumbling from the north to the south across the still darkening sky.

    At the end of the week, when the airports opened again, I was at my eldest son’s football game when I saw my first plane since Tuesday on approach in the distance, seeing it somehow differently, and sometimes I still get that same feeling from time to time.

    • Hi George.

      You mention “that same feeling” when you see airplanes approaching now. I hear you. We live in a rural area, fairly close to the Hanford site and a military training facility. Many military planes and helicopters fly over our house in any given week.

      It does get spooky sometimes.

      Thanks for dropping by this morning!

  3. Out for breakfast with two close friends, laughing together as usual when we noticed the wait staff all clustered around the radio at the cash counter. It was unclear at this point what had happened, just that is was a catastrophe and we left our breakfast and stumbled out, going our separate ways, home to our television sets. It was horrific and unbelievable.

    • Good morning, Pam.

      “It was horrific and unbelievable.”

      That about sums it up.

      It occurs to us sometimes, all of us I’m sure, that folks who live in other parts of the world live through days like 9/11 all the time-sometimes worse.

      But, not here, not to us. I guess we were wrong.

      Thanks for chiming in this morning.

  4. Working at home when my husband called and said a plane flew into the twin towers. I figured it was a terrible accident, but I had work to do. He told me to turn on the tv, and when I saw the second tower go down, I knew it wasn’t an accident. Didn’t get much work done the rest of the day.

    • Hi Terry.

      “Didn’t get much work done the rest of the day.”

      We had a couple of patients who were scheduled in our office, and had actually arrived, but after hearing the news and seeing the images cancelled and went home. I can still see one older couple, wide-eyed, while they rescheduled, the man saying, “We just can’t do this today.”

      Thanks for dropping by, and have a good day.

  5. You’re right. No matter what else we might forget, that day is indelibly marked in my mind. I was working at the downtown HQ of a hospital system at the time and when it happened there was a TV in the employee lounge and we were watching.

    Despite the fact that I’ve been alive long enough to experience everything from the Vietnam War on (which was horrible in the way returning soldiers were treated), 9/11 was by far the most impactful — which makes me shake my head when I see the dimwitted acceptance of certain ideologies today or the hatred spewed toward a people (and I’ll leave it at that).

    There was the horrible loss of life on 9/11, and there was also personal impact from a life standpoint. One thing I’m not proud of is that not many days after those terror attacks, I was sitting in my office one day thinking “Man, if my building is going to be struck and destroyed by terrorists, I at least want to be working in a job that doesn’t bore me.” My stupidity comes in because I quit my job without having another one lined up first, and the result was financial disaster because it took months to find a new position (I’m talking regular layperson job–I wasn’t an executive or anything like that).

    It was a harsh lesson but I learned it because it took me years to get right side up again. And indeed that self-induced trauma is something that still haunts me when we have the potential for other national disasters and I keep reminding myself, “Please don’t be stupid.”

    But 9/11 is also a reminder to be thankful for our first responders. Yesterday afternoon I got a gift card to a nearby ice cream store and took it over to my local fire station to tell them thanks for all they do. Thankfully a day like 9/11 is the exception, not the rule, but I still appreciate all they do. Now I just need to figure out where my nearest police station is so I can drop one off for them.

    • Good morning, Brenda.

      Life lessons come at us from all angles, don’t they?

      And my hat’s off to you–oh, wait, I’m not wearing one :)–for taking the time to treat the first responders in your area. We need more of that, right?

      Have a good one!

  6. I have been trying to remember what I did on Monday, September 10. I do remember being very happy. My baby was 13 days old. I could go home at lunch and hold her. She was so small and cute. Then it was Tuesday.

    I was at work. My co-worker had a radio that got TV sound. She could “keep up with her stories.” The news cut in. A plane had hit the WTC. I remembered that a plane hit the Empire State Building in 1945. It was an accident. This must be an accident. It wasn’t.

    I went home. I hung my flag. I hugged my baby now two weeks old. I cried and watched TV. My mother was over. She was crying too. She told me about that November morning many years prior. She was alone at home with her baby, crying. The President had been shot in Dallas.

    My brother in law lived in Manhattan. He was at work. Phones were down. Mobile phones, down. My wife, following a family tradition, was sure her brother was dead despite the distance from WTC to his office in Times Square. Late in the afternoon we got a phone call from North Carolina. Brother in law worked for a clothing company in their New York studio. Their internal communications still were working. The NC office had spent the day calling families of their New York co-workers to update them. For us, it meant BIL walked from 47th street to 212th street and home.

    • Hi Alan.

      Thanks for stopping by this morning and telling your story.

      Sounds like it was up close and personal for you and your family–so glad your BIL was okay.

      We’ve lived through things, yes, but 9/11 is different. Thinking it “just had to be an accident–no one would really do that in America” (my thoughts at first) was a form of self-preservation. We really didn’t want to believe it.

      And now we live with it.

      Have a good day.

  7. One more. One of my classmates from high school had a very short resume. U. City High School, USMA, US Army, US Army Reserves, baseball fan.

    On 9/11 he grabbed his uniform and headed to his base. He was in logistics and knew he was going to be needed. At 90 mph an Illinois State Trooper pulled him over. The trooper saw the Col. uniform hanging next to him. The trooper escorted Bob to the Illinois/Indiana line where an Indiiana trooper took over escorting him across the state. Bob didn’t know it then, but four of his West Point classmates died in the attack on the Pentagon.

    • That classmate of yours was a hero for sure, along with the State Trooper, I might add.

      And how sad about his WP friends. I’m sure there are so, so many stories like that–that we’ve never heard.

      Thanks for sharing.

  8. I worked in public relations on the 7th floor of a 9-story building next to San Antonio’s airport. My husband, who was a TV news photographer, called me to tell me about the first plane. The news began to spread among my coworkers. Some cried as the details became known. I’ll never forget how quiet it became when planes stopped flying in and out of the airport. I remember hugging a coworker I didn’t know all that well as we tried to comfort one another. The memories are as vivid and heartbreaking now as they were 25 years ago. Maybe even more because we now know so much more about how those events would reverberate and change our lives (and the lives of our children and future generations) forever.

    • Good morning, Kelly.

      “The memories are as vivid and heartbreaking now as they were 25 years ago.” Yes, indeed they are.

      For the first time in my life, I felt scared for America’s future…and that of my children. If that could happen here, anything could happen here.

      Have a good day.

  9. The TV is never on in the morning so I don’t recall why it was that day. Maybe I heard news on the radio or someone called and I turned it on. I woke up my husband. He’s familiar with building construction and knew the type of construction that had been used on the Trade Center. He said, “It’s going to collapse like pancakes.” Moments later, he was proved right.

    I remember thinking of the similarity to the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941, I wondered if this attack was the start of World War III. In a way, it has been.

    We live in the landing approach to our airport and, as others have mentioned, it became eerily quiet for several days.

    My husband was due to fly out a few days later. Many people had cancelled their reservations. At the airport, a TV reporter interviewed him. asking if he was afraid to fly. He said it was our duty to keeping going. b/c If we gave into fear, that meant victory for terrorists.

    • Hi Debbie,

      I like what your husband said about continuing to be who we are. And, “…the start of World War III. In a way, it has been.” I think you’re right.

      I guess wars don’t all look the same, do they?

      Have a great weekend.

  10. I was in my living room with a new litter of puppies when the news broke. Sleep deprived from feeding 13 pups ’round the clock (Mumma’s oxytocin shot didn’t work), I couldn’t trust my eyes at first. Reality and shock came in slow motion.

    • Hi Sue,

      13 puppies…wow!

      “Slow motion” is a good way to sum the day up. For a few hours at work that day, it felt like I was slogging through a bowl of oatmeal or something. I couldn’t wait to go home, but then, I thought, maybe I won’t turn the news on when I get there.

      I shouldn’t have, but I did.

      Have a good one.

  11. I walked into my church office on my way to a Bible study in the fellowship hall, and the youth leader gave me the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I went on to the class where we prayed. The rest of the day and week is a blur.

    • Good morning, Patricia.

      So many prayers that day.

      Another memory I have is walking across the parking lot at lunch and seeing two ladies sitting in a car with their heads bowed.

      Thanks for dropping by with your story. (I’m certain other groups are sharing their stories this morning as well as TKZ…) There’s healing in that.

      😍

  12. I was working in Rosslyn, about a quarter of a mile from the Pentagon when it got hit. We felt the ground shake. Nobody panicked but we all immediately left our office building. I was almost out of the building when I remembered there was a crew of workman doing some renovations and they didn’t speak much English. I went back inside and found them and explained the best I could. They finally left and so did I. I didn’t want to take the subway, so a friend volunteered to take me to my apartment which was far enough away from DC to be safe. Even though roads were packed, people were being polite and making certain no one was left behind.

    • Hi Joe. Good to hear from you.

      Another “up close & personal” account of that day.

      “…people were being polite and making certain no one was left behind.”

      It’s nice, and sad of course, to hear stories of Americans being who we’ve always been.

      Thanks for dropping by, & have a great weekend.

  13. I owned a home inspection company at the time and had been asked by a Realtor to help one of her clients with a question about a smell in her basement. I was driving, along with a co‑worker, Mike, from my years in Saudi, when we heard about the first plane hitting one of the towers. I remembered that a plane had once hit the Empire State Building and didn’t think of it as an attack. How wrong I was.

    When we left the client’s house, the rest of the story was unfolding and the true scale was becoming apparent. It hit us as it did the rest of the country, but with the added realization in the days that followed that the attackers were Saudis. We had known many Saudis as individuals during our twenty years or so in the Kingdom, but our fellow Americans only knew the Saudi people as the attackers.

    • Hi Marshall.

      Another wrinkle on the “personal” aspect of 9/11. It must’ve been difficult to navigate that while mourning the loss of so many of our own.

      Another teaching moment for me, I must say:
      We can never blame a whole people for the evil of a few.

      Thanks for stopping by.

      • When you have spent decades among people of many different cultures, ethnic backgrounds and religions it can change your worldview. I think for the better, but those who paint in only black and white, us and them, would disagree. For those, empathy, tolerance and understanding are words in a despised foreign language.

  14. On 9/11, I was at O’Hare Airport getting ready to board a plane to Newark, for a meeting. When the television sets at the airport displayed the events of 9/11 in New York and the plane leaving Newark … my flight was canceled.

    • Hi Seajay,

      I guess we never know what circumstance will save our life…even a canceled flight, a canceled appointment, or a canceled date.

      Thanks for adding to the story-telling today, and have a great weekend.

  15. I’d been having weird dreams all summer. On 9/10/2001 one of my close friends emailed to say: Next stop WTC.

    I didn’t think anything about it. But something bothered me. Like, really bothered me. Birds had been gathering in groups of literally hundreds and swooping down and encircling me when I was outside. One time there were so many, my best friend and I had to stop on the sidewalk because we were surrounded by hundreds of birds. The dreams were odd. Then I couldn’t get this weird feeling to go away. At 12 AM on 9/11/2001 I drove to my best friends apartment and did a rambling, nonsensical dump about everything that had gone on all summer. When I was done, I asked, “What do you think all of this means?”

    Without hesitation he looked me in the eyes and said, “It means a lot of people are going to die.”

    I was so utterly shocked. I was like, “WHAT? NO!”

    He just nodded his head.
    I said, “That is what you get from everything I just said?”
    He nodded again.
    “What am I supposed to do?”
    “Go home,” he said, “you can’t stop it.”
    I was so incredibly shocked that I just sat there staring at him. “So I am supposed to go home and go to sleep after you just said people will die?”
    “Yep. Whatever you are sensing is already in play. You can’t stop it.”

    I drove back to my apartment at about 2AM and fell asleep after 3AM. To say I was worried is an understatement of epic proportions.
    Hours later I woke to find my roommate standing over me, frantic. “Wake up,” he whispered. “Someone is driving planes into the world trade center.”
    That got my attention. I sat upright in bed.
    “I wasn’t going to wake you. Someone drove a plane into a tower but now its happened again and I am worried.”
    I got out of bed and immediately went to my computer and turned it on. I checked email and saw that my friend had not responded. Only the last email that read: Next stop WTC.
    I was triple horrified. I started emailing and calling.
    Nothing. All cell phone service to NYC was down.
    I sent more emails and frantically called.
    Still nothing.
    More than two days later I opened my inbox and there was a message from him. No text. Just one photo embedded in the email.
    Him & his girlfriend on top of the world trade center with a timestamp:
    4 PM 09/10/2001
    A mere fourteen hours before the whole thing began.
    Later, he called. They had originally intended to go to the top of wtc on 9/11 for a sunrise photo but settled on a sunset photo on 9/10.
    To this day, it is the only email I have ever waited for and checked for every five minutes.

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