Where were you on 9/11?

[JorisBonson]

I was 16 and at college, having a rip roaring time in the student union bar with my fake ID.

Noticed a few people gathered round a small TV after the first plane hit. The union ended up pulling down the projector screen usually reserved for football, just as the second plane hit. We sat there for hours and hours just watching and not believing what we were seeing.

Can't believe it's been 20 years.

I was 9 and still at primary school, didn't know a thing until we picked my sister up from her school and she was talking about it. I don't recall being very interested or bothered about it! I don't think mum let us put the TV on and my school didn't really mention it either so it wasn't until the 20th anniversary when it was in the news again that I really realised the true horror of it!

I’ve seen a few documentaries since the 20th anniversary, all really sad.
I read somewhere that someone was in the Windows of the world restaurant a few months before 911 happened and they had an uncomfortable feeling, and couldn’t wait to get down from there.
Yet many of those office workers that worked there probably didn’t think anything of it and had worked there for many years.

Another sad story was about a man who’s pregnant wife was on one of the planes.
That was his chance to be a father, but he never again had that chance.

I think especially with what’s going on in the world now, we need a reminder that life can be so unpredictable and cruel.

I worked as a carer then, and was with my client, sitting watching tv, when it came on the news. We were absolutely stunned and saddened. It was like something from a film.

I worked in an open plan office which had some tv screens in one corner and some rooms off of the main office. In one room the folk who worked there could have a radio on. One man came out of there and said that a plane had flown into a tower in the USA. Lots of people stayed in place and kept working and others crowded around the screens in the corner and tuned into News programmes. After a while the same man came out of the small room and said that another one had flown into the other tower. By the time I came home it was all on the news programmes. I remember that people jumped from the windows.

I'd taken the eldest kids to nursery and gone shopping with the toddler
I'd just come out of the other side of pnd and was still a bit up and down
I picked them up and went home-turned on the tv while sorting the kids out,I turned round and my programme wasn't on-it was a screen with a blue sky but nobody was talking-knew something had happened but didn't know what
I rang my dad who ended up ringing me back and he filled me in
I just sat and cried my eyes out all afternoon
The media filled in the gaps over the next few days

Working in a call centre calling people up to sell them sim cards. They were all the rage at the time.

We had to finish for the afternoon as it was getting inappropriate calling people.

Sitting in the car waiting to pick the DCs up after school.
DH rang me and told me to put the radio on.

At uni & was doing an essay when the tv I was watching was interrupted.

I was working for an international PR firm above convent garden tube station and heard about a planet crashing into the first tower when I was out get my lunch.
Went to the media room to see what was going on, there was just 2 of us. We were watching, the big screen and I just remember stopping our conversation as we watched wide eyed as the second plane crashed into the 2nd tower. We turned to each and said “call everyone”.
We spent several hours watching that big screen, calling our NY office that was close to the trade centers, between going to the roof for cigarette breaks and watching planes coming into emergency landing low over the Thames.
Managed to get in touch with my sister who was working in Canary Wharf and we both managed to get home. I still remember us both walking through Waterloo station and everyone just being totally numb.
We got home, walked through the door and my dad hugged us with tears in his eyes and said “the world will never be the same again…”

I was on a plane travelling back to London. Couldn't land for ages and was held in a circling queue. Still remember it vividly.

I was in year eight - in a French lesson and we watched it ob TV.

Early years in school so blissfully unaware of the whole situation. It's absolutely Devastating.

My partner at the time was a journalist working on Wall Street...he was based in one of the towers that was hit. It was a horrendous time for me as I couldn't get hold of him.

I was teaching in a school that had a very high percentage of Muslim families. When the children came into school the day after the attack, a group of boys ran up to me, and asked me, 'Who's side are you on Miss, theirs or ours?' I asked what they meant, they said 'if you're on their side you'll burn in hell'. It was the worst teaching point in my entire career...the boys were 9 years old. I went home as I couldn't cope (my head was extremely understanding of my situation).

I found out, after a very long 2 day wait, that my partner had died.

At work in the civil service in Whitehall. Shit got very real, very quick.

I was at home with toddler ds and looking after my friends ds too. They were watching a tellytubby video and when it finished the news was breaking on the tv and it flicked on while the video was rewinding.
They were too young to understand what was going on and I watched in growing horror as they played around me oblivious to it.
When my friends husband turned up to collect their ds he commented on the tv being on with the news. He hadn’t heard anything about it and the towers were still standing at that point.
I know someone who lost his wife in the attack. Words can’t express how awful it was and still is.