where were you on 9/11?

[mr_j]

i've been going through my old journals and writings, and found something i wrote that day, which is to be published elsewhere. but i'm just curious...where were you that day?

[roach]

it seems this thread was made like 5 times on the esspeeare-e-e board.

I was on a couch in LA.

[aquaphase]

I was in my office at work coding a function that distinguished journal entry transactions by category.

[eebs]

i was at work hearing about some explosions in america. then i went home and watched it on the news.

[Tracy]

i've been going through my old journals and writings, and found something i wrote that day, which is to be published elsewhere. but i'm just curious...where were you that day?

In the car, had dropped the kids off at school. I had just turned the radio on to the NPR station. The first attack had already occurred and the second plane had been spotted and was about to hit. I couldn't what I was hearing on the radio, I thought it was a broadcast like War of the Worlds. I drove home, turned on the TV (we had cable then) and like most of the country was glued to CNN.

You didn't ask but in 1991 (it was my husband's birthday), when Desert Shield became Desert Storm and the bombing of Irag had begun, the kids and I were in the car - getting gas at a station between Fresno and Lemoore, CA on the way home from a La Leche League meeting. I felt much the same saddness about hearing that news on the radio.

[katie]

at school. modern european history, to be exact. they made an announcement over the loudspeaker when the first plane hit, and our teacher brought us down to the admissions office so we could watch the coverage on tv. (he said this was modern history if he'd ever heard it, and we'd never forget that moment as long as we lived. turns out, he was right.) we saw the second plane hit. one of the single scariest moments of my life.

[James]

I was waking up...my alarm had gone off once and there was some crap music so I hit snooze...when it came up next there was some serious news talking going on, which never ever happened on whatever crap radio station my alarm was set on...I got out of bed and went to turn on the tv, only to see billowing smoke coming from one of the WTC towers. At the time they weren't sure what was going on, but they thought a plane hit the tower. One of the newscasters was giving their take on the events and out of the corner of the screen, the second plane slammed into the other tower. My stomach dropped a thousand miles.

I was then told not to go in to work that day because the building I worked in was next to the Dallas World Trade Center, and there was a high alert there for obvious reasons, and I wouldn't be allowed in the car park.

That was on a tuesday, and on Friday the 14th we were scheduled to play the Melodica Festival in Fort Worth. They didn't cancel it, and I remember rehearsing for that was tough. Playing that show was tough. We played The Star-Spangled Banner rather badly, but nobody seemed to care. The backdrop the entire night was the US flag. In a way it was therapudic.

[ifihadahifi]

I was sitting at my desk and turning on my phone and computer and stuff... getting ready for the day when my cubicle neighbor walked in and told me about news reports that the WTC had been hit by a plane.

My first thought was of the bomber plane that hit the Empire State building. I thought it was just a terrible accident.

Then someone walked in and said a second plane hit the second tower. Like everyone that day, I knew something more sinister was taking place.

Our CEO decided that we would continue on with work. It was an assholic move on his part. Only one person made a call and immediately was yelled at for making a sales call on such a day.

So, without a radio or a tv... we were all glued to news websites trying to find out what was going on.

[ree-ree]

Downtown at CRIS radio.
Jack came and got me.
Then someone phoned a bomb threat to the Cultural Center that housed us (unfortunately a not uncommon occurance), so they were evacuating the building and when we got outside, pretty much the whole downtown was evacuating.

Jack lost many friends and co-workers that day. Their firm in NY was decimated. Their stories were too awful to bear.

[Irock]

Work. I overheard Jeremy mentioning the fire on the top of the WTC but I thought it was just an accident. I had ended a five year relationship three days earlier and my ex called me freaked, that's how I found out.

That night I saw some footage taken from the street, during an explosion by a guy that was hiding behind a car. Millions of pieces of paper that someone had thought were important just a few hours earlier were swirling around and on fire. After that I refused to watch the footage of the plane actually hitting for weeks; when I finally did see it it was by mistake.

[sam]

I had just bought a new (to me) car the evening before. I was just pulling into the parking lot at work after enjoying the inaugural commute when I heard it on the radio. There were very few details and I figured it was something like the accident that had happened at the Empire State Building in the 40s. By the time I made it inside people there were much more graphic descriptions rolling in. We had a TV and VCR for presentations in the conference room and had to fiddle with a piece of stereo wire in the antenna input to get a picture, just in time for the second collision.

[Rebecca]

It was my senior year of high school, and I was in Government class. Our teacher, Mr. Leifeste, was lecturing, when Mrs. Leifeste (she worked in the front office) came to the door and whispered something to him. He walked over to the TV, but it wasn't working or something. So he told everyone to go out to the parking lot and turn on the radios in our cars. I remember sitting in the backseat of this guy's old red Thunderbird and hearing them announce that the second tower had fallen. It was a sad, terrifying moment, and I'll never forget it.

[Capricorndog]

i was woken up my my radio alarm in los angeles. the mornig comedic radio personality was being serious for the first time ever.

[froggorino]

i was woken up my my radio alarm in los angeles. the mornig comedic radio personality was being serious for the first time ever.

i know what you mean. i was driving home from dropping the D off at school and i thouht the Hip Hop DJ that i was listening to was playing around. when i realized that was not the case, i turned around and went back to school, where i retrieved the D.

they were talking about the atacks moving south after the DC one, and everyone was thinking that communications were going to be cut here any minute. i just wanted to die with my kid, if we were gonna die.

i had been sober for 12 days. what a freakin good excuse to drink if there ever was one. but i didn't. YAY for me!

[mere1975]

I was walking into work when I heard it from a friend (Sara Haas) in the parking lot. At that time, only the first plane had hit and we agreed it was probably some yahoo who didn't know how to fly, and what a shame.

The rest of the morning, my coworkers and I watched in shock as the confusion unfurled -- going back and forth between CNN, Internet news sites and phone calls from around the country.

(Remember when the first tower fell, they thought that bombs had gone off inside?)

We were waiting all day for instructions from our headquarters in NY. From their location in Long Island City (Queens), they saw the entire thing happen, then had to walk miles across bridges to get home.

I was worried for my friends who worked in the Bank One tower in downtown Dallas, too.

I had just started dating someone (pre-Sam) and we went out for a weird, sad, quiet dinner. When we got back, I said I couldn't watch any more news. I stupidly suggested watching a movie -- how about Independence Day, which a friend had just lent me? Then remembering how the aliens blew up the White House, decided against it.

That was the saddest and loneliest week ever.

The first time it felt "normal" again after that for me was the Polyphonic Spree show in Denton a month later. (At Dan's?)

- Mere "thanks James, Michael and anyone else who was there that night" 1975