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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:
DerekTheBrave · 12/09/2018 22:41

Sitting in a double history lesson. My teacher went and got the massive box TV on a trolley and we all sat and watched it on TV for two hours.

HerRoyalFattyness · 12/09/2018 22:45

I started my period. I was 10.
My cousin was around watching the news (i hadn't been in school because i was ill...with stomach cramps, thought i had a tummy bug) and he was the one who had to go tell my mum for me because i was stuck in the bathroom. Then my mum sent my dad to the shop to buy me towels, and he came back with absolutely massive nappy things Grin

Cindefuckingrella · 12/09/2018 22:53

At work in a well known high rise office building in central London. We got sent home early, just in case.

Beverley71 · 12/09/2018 22:57

I was in my second year at Uni working a shift at Viking Direct, we all turned the phones off and watched in the staff canteen. It was very surreal and scary.

Shewhomustbeobeyed1 · 12/09/2018 22:59

Had just had lunch with a friend in a pub in Knightsbridge. Popped into Harrods and it was empty. Thought this is a great time to shop as so quiet. The guy at the pay point asked me if I had heard what had happened and then told me. Two ladies in full burkas came up to ask him a question for something and he ignored them...

Itsmeaga1n · 12/09/2018 23:00

I was breastfeeding my 5 month old daughter whilst watching it unfold live on tv.

MarthasGinYard · 12/09/2018 23:02

I was airborne at work.

Captain called us into flight deck for a briefing about what he'd heard.

Confirmed when we landed.

Sad day

Twiggle81 · 12/09/2018 23:22

I was at college. The really shocking thing for us was we had been on a college trip to New York in the February and some of us even went in the towers. So very emotional 😢

impossible · 12/09/2018 23:39

I was seven months pregnant, just begun maternity leave, and watching it unfold on tv at home. I was terrified, wondering what the future would hold for unborn ds and dd aged 2.

nannykatherine · 12/09/2018 23:59

i was in central park pushing baby in the pram , beautiful early autumn sunny crisp morning . with a friend laughing vaguely wondering why there were so many sirens and fire engines rushing thro the park when a woman rushed over and said “ you’re laughing you haven’t heard what happened a plane crashed into the tower , you better go home “
went back to the apartment to see news on tv showing people jumping ..
never really recovered from that ....

toxic44 · 13/09/2018 00:06

In the public library in Ballina. A guy said, 'Hey, they've smashed the Twin Towers!' and asked the librarian for a print out. 'That will cost you 50p' she said, totally oblivious of what was happening.

HerRoyalNotness · 13/09/2018 00:19

I was getting picked up for work in Oz. The driver told me what was happening, I said you’re joking! No he wasn’t. We all spent the day watching live feeds on our computers. No work was done that day.

My awful mother was on holidays in Vietnam and on her FB status she’d written “Gooooooood morning America” in the style or Robin Williams. I still can’t quite believe it. I’m NC with her.

pallisers · 13/09/2018 00:22

Part of me still gets a bit nervous when I see a plane that is flying low, even though I know it's irrational.

yeah me too. Not very nervous but aware. I'm in Boston. What I remember of that day is the utter silence in the sky. Friends of ours worked with people who died (mum dad child) on one of the planes. Their mutual boss went into their home to make sure it was ok for their family arriving in. He wept seeing the cup of milk on the counter, the bag for daycare by the door, the notes on the fridge, the laundry in a pile - expecting to come home after a few days away. An entire family entirely wiped out. I had children the same age at the time and what struck me was what would happen to all the things this family had kept for their son - baby pictures and keepsakes etc. Who would remember that baby since his parents were also gone.

Thehappygardener · 13/09/2018 02:37

Was working that day in the NHS, in a very boring meeting. Can remember feeling appalled at self because at the time I was safe at work, so many people were dying in an awful way. Watched it on television when I got home, it was hideous, surreal. Still feel sad for all the people who died and their families.

MrsCatE · 13/09/2018 02:59

Mobiles weren't allowed at work - had to be locked away however, I had a pager and couldn't help blurting out news in shock at boring, pointless meeting. Meeting droned on even when I got news of second plane. Never forget how eerie London was that day - empty streets let alone empty skies.

WelshDragonMam · 13/09/2018 04:42

I went into Greggs to buy a cake for myself - the lady in front of me worked in the bookies across the road & was telling the girl at the counter what was happening. I sprinted around the corner to the pub where I worked & got them to turn the TVs on - was only a few minutes after the 2nd plane had hit. Then called my mam in work to tell her & spent nearly 15 minutes relaying the news to her which she was passing on to her colleagues. After I went home, it was just news all night.

A couple of days later, found out that a colleague of my uncle had a close friend who worked in the WTC had been sent home because they were so upset/shocked at the unfolding events. The friend worked on something liked the 89th or 91st floor of one of the towers - uncle's colleague got home to an answerphone message saying goodbye 😢

sashh · 13/09/2018 06:22

LapdanceShoeshine

The planes diverted to Gander were those almost at New York , Gander was the nearest place with a big enough runway. Planes from Europe to NY would not have much fuel left.

Planes half way across the US landed at the nearest airport. Planes from the west coast, Mexico etc would not be diverted to Gander.

Basically the US government had no idea how many planes there were being used so if you ground everything ASAP the only things left in the sky are 'enemy' planes.

Flights into and across the USA were grounded for a few days, 5 I think so the people in Gander were basically stuck there but people flying to other places could fly, just not across the US.

Loving the story of the animals.

mathanxiety · 13/09/2018 06:31

I was in the US, in suburban Chicago.

DD4 was exactly three weeks old that day. The oldest three DCs were in school and DD3 was at home with me and my mum, who had flown from Ireland to help out when DD4 was born. It was a sparkling September morning. School had been back since just after DD3 was born. Mum had walked them all to school along with DD3 and they had played for a little in the park on their way home.

The incredible tiredness of the newborn phase had hit me and I was having a lie in when my mum came to my room and said something had happened in NY and all the TV stations had started coverage (she had made a cuppa and was watching TV with little DD3).

I got up to see and had just settled on the couch when the second plane was spotted and of course it slammed into the second tower.

We tried phoning my cousin in NY but phone service was cut off in lower Manhattan, so we didn't know if he had been injured, trapped in his home or at work, or what. We had to phone mum's sibling in London for news - cousin was fine, was on vacation away from NY at the time. We were so relieved.

A little later there was news of the plane coming down in a field in Pennsylvania, the plane hitting the Pentagon, footage of George W. Bush in the Florida school being told the news, and news that Air Force One was in the air heading for some secret location. It was all very dislocated.

Mum guessed immediately that they had hijacked planes heading all the way from Boston to LA to maximise fuel.

Then the school phone tree sprang into action with notification that the school would close for the day at lunchtime, and mum went off to pick up the three oldest DCs. Commuters were streaming home from the city, train after train and car after car. The city emptied in the space of a few hours. The DCs had heard the news at school and had said some prayers in their classrooms (RC school). I made lunch for DD3, who was delighted that everyone was home early.

Planes were grounded and the highways were empty. The usual background buzz went completely quiet. We heard the occasional Air Force jet overhead but most of the planes we saw were miles up and we heard nothing.

Mum realised she was stuck in Chicago for the foreseeable - she had been due to fly back to Dublin the following day but she ended up staying another week. She really had ants in her pants by about day five of her bonus week...

When she arrived home and unpacked she realised that she had inadvertently packed a roll of packing tape with a built-in 2 inch blade in her carry-on luggage, but it wasn't spotted by the 'new, improved' security, despite the fuss about prohibited items and having to leave several personal items behind as they were verboten.

thefraggleontherock · 13/09/2018 06:51

I remember walking home from school with a friend and an old man who we used to see and say hello to everyday stopped us and was saying about planes crashing and there was going to be a war, we just smiled and carried on, saying to each other how sad it was that Mr xxxx seemed more and more confused recently.

I got home and was about to put the radio on to do my homework when my friend rang me and said "Mr Xxxx isn't losing the plot put on the news!!"

Mum came home from work with my younger brother and we all watched the news all night

Like many others I didn't understand the term terrorism until that awful day.

expatinspain · 13/09/2018 07:01

I was on holiday in Spain with my ex husband. He had gone to the shop to get us some food and came back with the news. I think we spent the rest of the holiday glued to the TV in absolute shock.

Twinmumuk1981 · 13/09/2018 08:20

Working in Greece, and due to fly home that evening for university in London. Watched it standing on the beach looking into a beach bar TV, surrounded by all different nationalities, some with not so positive opinions of Americans. Deciding with my parents whether to fly or not (I did). Felt very surreal and far away, like watching a disaster movie and took some time to sink in and become real...

WalkingTed · 13/09/2018 08:23

at work in London... we all gathered in the conference room to see it unfold on tv... were granted permission to go home if we felt the need... my journey home was surreal.. never has London city ever felt and been so quiet.

Cedar03 · 13/09/2018 08:34

I worked in London. Someone in our office announced the first crash. We assumed it was "just" a small plane as no-one in their right minds would crash a big plane when there was loads of water to ditch into if the plane was in trouble. Then the second plane hit and we all spent our time trying to find out what was happening. In the end we were watching on the TV as the internet crashed.
A friend's parents were on a plane heading to the US. They were somewhere over the Atlantic and their plane was diverted to Canada.

strivingforsuccess · 13/09/2018 08:52

I was a holiday rep in Austria and was taking s group of tourists home after an excursion
The coach driver took a call from a colleague, all sketchy details tho suggesting terrorists, then once back in resort, just posted in front of the tv watching it in utter shock

Movin · 13/09/2018 08:56

I was backpacking round Spain. Got off an overnight train and checked myself into a big hotel with CNN and watched in horror as the world changed forever.