Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What were you doing 17 years ago today?

662 replies

PepperSteaks · 11/09/2018 09:03

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.

OP posts:
Shitzandfanz · 12/09/2018 18:01

I was at home with my 4 day old little girl seeing it on the news 😱

sophisticatedsarcasm · 12/09/2018 18:02

I was in science class in year 9, it was just after lunch and our teacher told us there was a plane crash in USA. I didn’t quite know how bad it was, went to town to get some stuff for school when I got home is when I realised just how bad it was.

Port1ajazz · 12/09/2018 18:03

Sitting in the car waiting for the ferry home from the IOW . DH had gone to shop or drinks and came back her been told by the shopkeeper there had been planes to a skyscraper in New York . We sat and listened to the reports coming through on the radio . It was horrific , reminded us of the assassination of JFK and most people who are old enough will remember where they were then !

AgathaRaisinsCat · 12/09/2018 18:03

Living in New Zealand and so slept through the attack. Spent the next day glued to the news though.

Lovelymess · 12/09/2018 18:03

At school, still clearly remember it

Whatsischops · 12/09/2018 18:09

Sitting where I worked at the time thinking about the People in those buildings I spoke to every day

cindermeg · 12/09/2018 18:12

On holiday in Turkey.

Dorsetdays · 12/09/2018 18:13

I was watching it live on TV whilst on maternity leave with our 6 week old DS and my DH was in NYC on a work trip...worst few hours trying to get hold of him but just thankful that he was ok amongst all the terrible loss.

JosieJasper · 12/09/2018 18:13

I was at work and my Mum called me to tell me as I had visited New York the year before. As we were talking, the second plane hit live on the news. Still makes me cry today. So awful, so many lives lost and many more changed forever Sad

Ravenesque · 12/09/2018 18:14

When it started happening I was in my living room, in front of my gas fire combing my wet hair and getting ready to go to a local church to light candles for my mum who had died two years previously on that day. A news flash came on to show the first plane hit the first tower, which was quite shocking. As they were reporting this the live footage showed the second plane crashing into the other tower. I'd stopped combing my hair by this time and was sitting down open-mouthed. One news anchor then said to the other "do you think that this may be a terrorist attack?" I responded to the TV - as you do - "No shit Sherlock" and that was the beginning of a long day being glued to the television. A friend phoned later to ask if I still wanted to go to the cinema, and I said, absolutely, we can't sit round watching this into the night. When she turned up to pick me up I was hugely grateful because I'd just seen footage of people falling/jumping and it was all too much.

We went to see Moulin Rouge - her first time, my second. That had been arranged as a night for me to go out and not think about my mum.

It's an odd day for me every year, because there's that September 11th, and then there's my September 11th. It sort of reminds me that people are dying every single day, that there is grief every single day and, well, that really.

user1486250399 · 12/09/2018 18:15

I was at work as a waitress in a pub. I overheard someone say "there's going to be a war". I went home at the end of my shift and watched the news.

MadameOvary · 12/09/2018 18:15

I was in a chemist shop, having probably been on two-day shift as a housekeeper and was headed home. My then-DP called me and said "A plane's hit the Twin Towers"

I couldn't take it in.

biglips · 12/09/2018 18:15

i was in work at a motor claims dept. I remember the phones never rang for 2 hours, the silence that we had was eerie, by watching the massive TV in the room, of what had happened. i remembered my dh's sister and grandad was supposed to be flying home that afternoon from NY, but they were stuck there for the next 2 weeks.

it is still shocking to watch it now

Bananaramamamama · 12/09/2018 18:15

NC as outing...but I flew back from the US the night before. As we flew over NY there was really bad turbulence and the captain said we could take our mind off it by admiring the view of the city at night. “On the right you can see the twin towers...”

Landed at Gatwick and took train etc home. Unpacked and switched on the TV just as the second plane hit.

YearOfYouRemember · 12/09/2018 18:18

At home with DS who was almost six months old. We'd been living in our new house for just under a month and FIL was doing some jobs for us. I came into the lounge to see the second plane hit the twin tower. I watched tv all afternoon in complete confusion.

Over the road two neighbours were having their babies.

ModreB · 12/09/2018 18:18

I was at work. At the time I worked for a shit PR company, and we had big TV's all over the office that showed different news channels. We watched it all unfold, with horror, as our shit MD wondered aloud who was doing the PR for the airlines. Angry Sad

I left that job very soon after.

Frazzledstar1 · 12/09/2018 18:19

At work. I’d left home for the bus and all was right in the world, but by the time I’d got there the towers had been hit. We had the big screen on in the bar and were just watching in disbelief Sad

happinessiseggshaped · 12/09/2018 18:20

Working on the checkouts at Asda.

museumum · 12/09/2018 18:21

At work in central London. Press office saw first as they had rolling news feeds. We all got sent home as there was genuine worry other major cities could be next.

val4 · 12/09/2018 18:22

Having dd2.......no one forgets her birthday!

Parr1960 · 12/09/2018 18:29

I was at work and like others have said I thought it was an accident. I watched the news that evening and for days afterwards.

It really got to me as the week before I had visited and been up the twin towers and had seen them from the river on a boat trip around the Statue of Liberty. But the most upsetting part for me was that I had been working in Ft Laurderdale the week before and had met and had a great day and evening with a volunteer fire fighter and his 2 friends, full time fire fighters from Brooklyn. They were going back to work the following day. Im sure they would have been called in. Ofen wonder what, if anything, happened to them. I have a great photo of us all at the pool bar but cannot remember their names. Very sad.

paintedwingsandgiantrings · 12/09/2018 18:29

Had gone to NY for the summer to visit an old friend, after splitting up with a long term ex.

Had a plane ticket home for the afternoon, from JFK.

Was staying in a flat with no TV, the neighbours came up in the morning to tell us to come down and watch the telly.

We went downtown to see the carnage. There was that huge plume of smoke in the air, but no cars on the road. It was a very, very strange day.

Got stuck in NY for a week, made it back a week later, had to phone BA for an hour or so, every day, till they said I could fly.

I was up the twin towers 4 days before.

AvaJane · 12/09/2018 18:33

I was sat in the Antenatal clinic waiting to go in for my 20 week scan. It came on the radio that a plane had crashed in America just as we were called in. It turns out it was the very first report.

It wasn't until I got home and turned on the T.V that I realised that it wasn't a sad tragic accident. I spent the rest of the day watching the news in horror.

I didn't even share my news from the hospital that we were having a girl until 2 days later. It just didn't feel right.

AccidentallyRunToWindsor · 12/09/2018 18:41

@Ravenesque I went to see Moulin Rouge the next day with my mum as it was her birthday.

I love that film, but it makes me feel odd watching it still. I remember being sat in the cinema and feeling that I shouldn't be enjoying myself when so many people had died in such a hideous way.

paintedwingsandgiantrings · 12/09/2018 18:42

My weirdest memory from that day, is walking downtown towards the burning towers.

There was this huge plume of smoke in the air, and the streets felt really eerie with no cars on them. There were a fair number of people out and all walking south, but NY was really quite with no traffic.

We were walking down the middle of the road.

Then, sitting on a wall or something, I forget, was a guy who wasn't looking at the towers. He was facing the people, and saw me and my friend.

"Hey, pretty ladies!" he said. Standard low level street harassment on a normal day - BUT DID HE NOT CARE ABOUT THE CARNAGE BEHIND HIM?!!!

Seriously, WFT? That truly boggled my mind. No one knew what was going on, it could have been WW3. But this guy was like - another day, another pretty lady.