What were you doing 17 years ago today?

[PepperSteaks]

I think September 11th is definitely one of those moments when you remember exactly where you were. As MN is such a cross section of society I thought it would be interesting to know where people were when it happened.

At school, I think I found out about it in afternoon registration. I was year 7 and I think I was in my form room, unless we were just talking about it in afternoon registration.

I must have been off school ill because I was there when my mum answered the phone to my dad's boss. My dad was in Washington DC on business. The boss started his call with 'I suppose you've heard about these terrible terrorist attacks in the states' - we hadn't (no TV) and my poor mum nearly fainted right there. Fortunately my dad was fine but it was a stressful time with him not being able to get back, and us not knowing what further attacks there might be.

My 39th birthday, working from home listening to radio then going out for a meal

Stock take at work. It was for a record shop chain that is now defunct. Because we were holed up inside with the doors locked from 8.30am we didn't get the news until people started texting us later on. It wasn't until I got home at 5 that I saw the footage.

Oh god yes Sept 11,wow.

17 years ago already.

I had actually just got back from NYC, I worked at a camp over there, heard the news on the radio and was completely shocked.

I was 19.

I was at school our teachers never said anything. Mum picked me up crying

I was painting the sitting room with the TV on. I must've turned it off to go out just before the first news reports came in. I went out and did a bit of shopping and went to pick DD up from reception class. Some of the mums were talking about twin towers falling but I remember it was around the time the old Wembley stadium was being demolished, so I thought they were talking about that. When me and DD got in she put the TV on to watch Tweenies and I went in the kitchen to put the shopping away. Few minutes later she came in crying because 'the plane smashed into the building'.

Stayed up all night with exH watching the news come in, devastated and in utter shock.

I was ironing my uniform before a late shift at Heathrow, in front of the TV when the news came on. Watched what I could then went to work.

Spent the evening dealing with passengers whose planes had been grounded at the nearest airport, who had no idea why their plane had just landed in the UK, what had happened, where they were going to go and when they were going to be able to make it home.

Particularly difficult breaking the news to US passengers who hadn't been told anything whilst still in the air. Who could well have had friends or relatives in NY.

After all the planes were grounded, the next few days were very strange, everyone caught up with paperwork and we deep cleaned our office as with no passengers, we really had nothing to do!

17 years? How is that possible? I arrived at a friend house and the news was just breaking. I remember walking into her living room and her saying some helicopter or aeroplane had crashed into a building in America. Who knew what it would turn into.

As a side note, so much time has passed and I feel I’ve achieved very little. Hmm.

I'd been at work teaching, about 3 months pregnant with dd and my friend in hospital due to give birth.

I heard in the news in the car after leaving school. I was in my way to my parents to see my sister. We sat watching it unfold on TV in silence and shock.

Was at work in London. Had to go down to the 2nd floor for something and a television was out and everyone was just standing there staring.

Does anyone else remember the poster KateAndTheGirls who used to post on mumsnet? Her DH was killed there. And I think it was their DD1s 2nd birthday and she was pregnant with their DD2

I was 18ish and I was working in a solicitors and couldn’t be arsed with work that day so I pretended to be sick and left, wandering up the main shopping street as I did so. There was a huge crowd of people outside of Dixon’s so I stopped to see what was going on just in time to see the second plane hit.

It was a few days into my first year at 6th form college. My sister was still home before going back to uni. As I left college (it was my early finish) she texted me to say what had happened. She was into watching news 24 at the time so had seen the first news release. I got home in time to see the towers burning shortly before they collapsed.

One of my subjects was Media so we spent the rest of the term studying how the newspapers reported on it. I sometimes wonder what I would have learned if that hadn't happened! It also means I remember a lot of the coverage very well, including falling man.

They evacuated my mums work building as it was a potential terror attack target so she picked me up and we just sat in the car in silence listening to the radio.

Sitting on the sofa at a friend's house at uni. Not sure why the tv was even on. I can't remember it being so any other time I was there. Watched the whole thing play out...

I was at work in West London and it took a while for the enormity of it to sink in. Not much work was done after we realised.

At school (primary)

Working on the support desk for internal IT for a US bank. HQ was two blocks from the WTC, and there were offices in the WTC.

We had TVs in the office (in case and my thing happens which would affect share prices.) At first I thought it was an accident, till the second one hit. We were sent home early, "because you're not doing anything useful, just watching the news, and we may be needed later. Keep your phones with you." It turned out that most of the systems over there carried on running, even though no one was there in the buildings, though I think a couple of systems automatically switched to a disaster recovery site. All the costs of mirrored DR sites paid off.

I remember a mail the next day from a US colleague who had recently been over working with us in the UK, and he described how he'd been part of the crowds walking out of Manhattan, covered in dust. And a couple of weeks or so later, there was an official notice listing all the staff who had died.

I was at work, teaching. Heard from a parent at the classroom door (Primary) what had happened at home time. Obviously everyone else had too as as soon as the children left people sort of congregated in the staff room. Someone had set up a tv in there and we all just stood and watched in silence - very eerie, incredibly distressing.

ExH worked in a huge government building and in the following days they were told it was a potential target. They had to have security checks as they went in, cars were checked for bombs etc. I also remember fighter jets screaming overhead several times and people in the street panicking because they thought there had been an attack. It was a horribly surreal, edgy time.

I was at home with DH as we both had the week off. I think DD must have been at GPs as she was only 2 and she wasn't with us.

DH and I had plans to start decorating but we ended up sitting all day watching the news.

We vsited New York in 2011 and the whole area was very surreal and moving.

I was at the cinema. I asked a member of staff why it was so quiet. She said a plane has crashed in New York. I was really confused about why that would stop people going to the cinema. What’s the big deal I thought to myself.

Obviously it hit me later when I got home and watched the news.

At work, would have known nothing about it but we had builders in doing some renovations in the office and they had a radio on. My (now) DH worked in the warehouse downstairs and I remember running down to tell him and finding everyone gathered round the radio in complete silence. The rest of the day just felt surreal but I remember it so clearly.