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.

I got fired in the morning....

Visiting parents as I was 9 days overdue with first daughter had her 2 days later on 13th. I did wonder what have I done bringing a child into this world with that going on. Seeing those poor people jumping was so hard absolutely awfu

I was sitting at in a boarding gate at an airport waiting to get on a plane. I still don't understand why another passenger felt the need to share the fact that there had been a disaster involving several planes and that the prime minister was going to address the nation.

I'd just finished a week working away (Mon to Mon) as live-in carer for a lovely lady who had Alzheimers, whom I'd worked with for about five years. She couldn't communicate in any obvious way but I felt a good sense of communication had developed between us. In the middle of the week I thought she'd suffered a minor stroke and on the Friday I called the doctor and he confirmed this, and said to just keep on doing whatever I was doing for her. She died on the Sunday evening and I went home the following afternoon, completely drained physically and mentally as my focus had been totally on her for the past week. I was still so tired and detached from my own surroundings that when I watched the news on the 11th it seemed surreal to me and as though I was watching from a great distance. The enormity of it all didn't touch me until I watched the re-runs a year later, and then all the horror and sadness was overwhelming.

The other 'what were you doing when you heard' incident is absolutely clear in my mind. I was starting a late shift at work and a colleague who'd just left to go home at five came back in the building and said 'President Kennedy's been shot'. Even now I can picture the scene with such focus and detail. It was as if our small group were frozen in time with the shock.

At work, someone called me over to a TV or computer screen as the tragedy unfolded.

I'd just gotten home from school. 1st year secondary school.

Harrowing to watch. I can't quite believe it's been 17 years..

I'd taken my eldest who was then 21 months out in the pram to the shops - I'd come home and walked into the lounge and put tv on to find cbeebies and the breaking news was on - I stood there for ages not believing what I was seeing and when the second plane struck it felt so surreal and I felt so dreadful knowing the buildings were obviously full of people - so horrific

At work. Internet was still new in my Civil Service department. People clustered round the desks where people had it and we watched the horror unfold. Everyone was in shock. Then we saw people jumping from the buildings. To me that was worse than the planes hitting, strange as that may sound. To see individual lives being lost before your eyes - I’ll never forget that.

Driving to work to teach English in a company. I was listening to the radio and didn’t really get everything that was going on as the broadcast as I was abroad. Lesson plan went out of the window and I got the students to explain what had happened to me.

Living in Washington DC.. DH worked close enough to the Pentagon to see smoke etc from that plane.

Was with an acquaintance from a baby group. Walked back to where we were living, and saw a nose to tail jam out of the city, everyone with the radio on, every face silent and grim. No-one at all in the lane going into the city.

It was a strange and harrowing day. I also remember having to pull over and weep by the side of the road when they played Adagio for Strings at the Proms a few days later.

I lived on the west coast of the US and it was very early morning. I was nursing my 12 day-old daughter and blearily watching some infomercial on tv when the news broke in. At first it appeared to be a freak accident, and the news channels didn't realize what they were about to be showing live. I remember watching the approach of the second plane and first feeling confused, and then realizing what was happening and shouting "No, no no NO! Stop!" at the television. Later watching live and seeing rubble falling from the buildings and realizing that it wasn't building rubble, I was actually witnessing people jumping to their deaths. Watching the buildings fall and knowing how many people were still inside and how many it was falling on while I was sitting in my rocker with a fire going and cup of tea near me. I've never felt so helpless and vulnerable as a human.

I'll just never forget it. I'll never forget the feeling of looking down at my newborn and thinking "what the fuck have I done. What have I brought you into?"

At work in Salisbury. Colleague came and told us the awful news.

11/ 9 is memorable in many ways.
Watching TV and realising what was happening, but Personally I was in a state.
On 11th packing my hospital bag, 12th going in hospital and the 13th having an op for breast cancer.
New York did put my 'worries' in perceptive. and 17 years later I'm lucky enough to still be here but my Bessie mate of 40 years never made it !!!!!
Keep having your checks.

DH and I were sitting having lunch watching BBC news, it came up as a news flash when the first plane hit and I'll never forget the live footage behind the newsreader of the smoke coming out of the first tower and they were dis using how this "accident" could have happened and the second plane flew into shot and hit the second tower live on tv

I was 6 months pregnant and was due to fly back from lanzorote that evening ,spent a long night on airport bench. Got home the next day and watched it on TV ,did make me think what kind of world I was bringing baby into. Hard to believe that's 17 years ago.

I was working at a national newspaper. We watched it on huge screens, in silence for a minute or two before everyone scattered back to their desks.

I was living simply in that I didn't have a TV. I was striping a carpet and painting a room and listening to a cd. My mother rang me to inform me. I spent the rest of the day adhered to the radio thankful I couldn't see the images. The next day I went to work and remember the American and Muslim colleagues being very sombre and loving and respectful of each other. The images I then saw in the metro paper are burned into memory. At work yesterday no one mentioned it. I'm ok with that but the date still holds a lot of significance for me.

I was half way through my training contract at a law firm in the City. Everyone gradually stopped work. We watched the news on a screen in a partner’s office. I remember bring very frightened about going home later on - not wanting to stay in a potential target in the City and also being scared about taking the tube home.

i was at the maternity hospital having my 12 week scan with now 16 year old DS. I watched it on a small TV in the waiting room.
That night I had to visit an elderly Muslim lady whose son i was helping with his English, and she was sitting on her bed crying and saying "not in my name. This is not done in my name!" and we just held each other and cried.

It was my 13th birthday and we were waiting by the phone for news of a close family member who more than likely should have died in the towers. I’m lucky to say we still have him.

Watching Sky News in the reception at work (with no sound) and phoning my dad, who was a pilot & at home at the time, to tell him to turn on the TV as something awful had happened...

I was home alone when my better half phoned me to tell me a plane had hit the twin towers and to turn on the TV - barely a minute later the second plane hit as I watched, hardly believing the unfolding horror. We spent the night glued to the tele and thinking about what this meant for so many people and the wider implications and possible consequences - a very dark day in human history.

I'm American and was teaching at a private school. The principal came in to tell me something had happened and not to tell the children (we had from preschool through middle school, and they were worried about the little ones hearing the older ones talking). I heard bits and pieces during my lunch break, including talk of a plane crashing somewhere in western Pennsylvania. I lived in western Pennsylvania, so we were all terrified that it could have been somewhere close. Turned on the radio as soon as I got into the car and began driving to the school I was a volunteer cross country coach at. Ended up going home because I was having a hard time with what I was hearing. Immediately went to the television, where my brother couldn't understand why I was so adamant to watch (he'd been home all day and was at his limit of seeing the same scenes). The visuals were horrifying, and I knew that things would never be the same.
I remember going to a friend's wedding a week or two later. It was near a major airport and was right after they started letting planes fly again. One was coming in for a landing and happened to be flying low over the highway I was driving on. I was really freaked out. Part of me still gets a bit nervous when I see a plane that is flying low, even though I know it's irrational.

I was at a meeting in London and had to get the train back out of London, There was chaos on the train, and concern about the rumours of more planes at Heathrow.