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Original poster

Where were you for 9/11

359 replies

Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 09:33

I was in France, i hadn't a clue what was happening. Didn't fully have the language, it was like a film. Watching a doc now, bringing it all back.

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HoldingPatterns · 12/08/2023 10:34

On holiday in Seville.

NormalForNuneaton · 12/08/2023 10:34

I was working but out and about doing home visits to young care leavers in independent accommodation. None of the youngsters had TVs or radios on and I was probably listening to CDs in the car whilst driving between appointments, so I was oblivious until DP phoned me to tell me.

DD was only 18m old at at the childminders at the time and I remember this urge to just go and pick her up immediately.

itsamedicalmystery · 12/08/2023 10:35

I was 16 and working my after college shift at Greggs. Over the road was an electronics shop with TVS in the window, and two boys came running in saying someone had bombed the White House. Never thought anything of it, seemed a little extreme and they were kids. I walked into my house just as the first tower collapsed. No one in my family moved from the TV for a number of hours. I found the images of people jumping from the towers horrifying. And even now I find the voicemails of loved ones from both the towers and the planes so upsetting. For everyone it must have been terrifying.

Downside03 · 12/08/2023 10:35

Had been on a steam train and out for a lovely lunch with DH and 6 month old DS. It was our first holiday since his birth in a lovely little farm cottage. Watched the news as it unfolded around 3pm when we got back. I had been on top of the WTC a few years before.

SternJosie · 12/08/2023 10:35

In school, in history. The teacher rushed out then wheeled in the giant box TV on a trolley and we all watched the news.

Minglemangle007 · 12/08/2023 10:36

Working in central London, dial up Internet was useless and I remember phoning someone I knew at the Evening Standard to find out what was going on.

One member of staff didn't want to leave as didn't want to get on the tube and another got home to find the neighbours having an inpronto party they were so gleeful at the news, they declined their invitation to join them.

piefacedClique · 12/08/2023 10:37

Landing on a flight back in to Heathrow….. I’d been in Indonesia for three months doing my dissertation and was flying home. Arrivals was a very strange atmosphere! And my parents have never been so glad to see me…. Even tho my flight was no where near the states! My friend who I’d been doing my diss with was on her way home to the states and was diverted to somewhere in the Caribbean.

Original poster
Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 10:38

SternJosie · 12/08/2023 10:35

In school, in history. The teacher rushed out then wheeled in the giant box TV on a trolley and we all watched the news.

That was a good history teacher.

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Velvian · 12/08/2023 10:38

At soft play with my DC1. There were TVs on in the background, but no sound. I asked at the desk what had happened. Grabbed my son and went back home. I was back home just after the 2nd plane. I remembered just being really stunned and unable to do anything.

I must have gone to work later that evening, but don't remember that at all. I just remember being alone with a toddler and having no idea what would happen next.

Original poster
Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 10:39

Minglemangle007 · 12/08/2023 10:36

Working in central London, dial up Internet was useless and I remember phoning someone I knew at the Evening Standard to find out what was going on.

One member of staff didn't want to leave as didn't want to get on the tube and another got home to find the neighbours having an inpronto party they were so gleeful at the news, they declined their invitation to join them.

WTAF?

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ZickZack · 12/08/2023 10:39

I was 12 and at school. I came home to my gran watching it on the TV, I thought she was watching a movie.

ScoobyDoesnt · 12/08/2023 10:41

I was breastfeeding my newborn baby at home and watching tv. I knew it must be serious when they interrupted neighbours to bring breaking news.

LetMeGoogleThat · 12/08/2023 10:42

In a council training venue all day, pre smart phones and no news. I put the TV on when I got home as I was getting changed and remember trying to work out what the hell I was watching, flicking through the channels while half undressed standing shocked.

itsgettingweird · 12/08/2023 10:44

Singleandproud · 12/08/2023 09:54

Day after my 15 th birthday, I was at school, got home first and put the TV on and it was on the news. I remember being really worried as my dad and brother had gone down to London to visit my grandparents and there was talk of a possible London attack, I didn't realized that at the time my GP lived miles from the centre, it all seemed close to me. My mum got in from work about 30 mins later and hadn't heard about it yet.

July London bombings I was at College and got it through on my phone, it just about had Internet and access to BBC news.

Global communication is so different now when I'm sure it would come through on notifications instantly from News appsor social media and we would know about it

London bombings I was abroad still in same country.

I knew my dad was heading to London that day.

It was an awful few hours until phone service was good enough for him to return the message me and tell me he was ok.

RenoDakota · 12/08/2023 10:47

At home on maternity leave with my three month old son asleep on my lap. Phone kept ringing and I didn't get up to answer it (no mobiles then) as didn't want to wake him. Found out later it was my husband trying to call to tell me the news.
I was watching a film on Channel 4 called That Hamilton Woman, starting Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and eventually (later than other channels) the film was stopped and they went to the news.

Original poster
Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 10:50

Isn't it horrible that so many of us have a story about a relative getting caught up in an 'event' like this? Like, it's not even surprising now. It's so sad.

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itsgettingweird · 12/08/2023 10:51

Iwantroplayanothergame · 12/08/2023 10:08

My brother worked in the high rise next to the twin towers and watched the second plane hit. 5/7 of his 7 groomsmen worked in those towers and they all lost their lives, leaving wives with young children behind. He ran out of hi building in terror and didn't stop until he had walked for nearly 4 hours home.

My son had just started school and I literally grabbed him and ran back home to try and make contact with my brother. All lines of communication were down. I was beside myself with fear as I knew where he worked. Eventually, at 2ish in the morning he managed to get a call through to me to tell me he was ok. I remember I just sat in a chair and cried as I listened to his tears for his friends. It was horrific and something I never want to experience again.

Too many of my brother's associates lost their lives that day and he has never been the same since. He has spent his life ensuring his friends widows and children are taken care of and have everything they need.

Oh my word that post brought tears to my eyes.

It just brings home how many families were affected by something as ordinary as going to work and how so many lost so many in their lives in one day.

whumpthereitis · 12/08/2023 10:51

In school. I found out what exactly had happened when I got home and it was playing on the television. I genuinely thought a movie was on, initially.

I had an ex from New York that was watching it from just across the Brooklyn Bridge. My husband is from Michigan, and he remembers teachers crying and kids being called out of class. A lot of his classmates, and he himself, had a parent/s that worked in the financial district of Lower Manhattan, so there was a lot of additional confusion and fear on top of the general terror created by such an event. Some parents just pulled their kids from school just to have them close, not knowing if there were going to be more attacks.

Original poster
Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 10:52

My FIL was caught in the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, my aunt was in the Arndale bomb. It's almost normalised now. It's really shocking.

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VariantHela · 12/08/2023 10:52

Sat watching the telly whilst we waiting to leave for a dental appointment. All channels had the breaking news banner that you normally see in the movies and most channels had switched to BBC1. It was surreal and very scary to me - I was 12.

PensionPuzzle · 12/08/2023 10:54

My brother and I were both in sixth form (in the days when if you didn't have a lesson you could bog off out). I got home to see him sitting in front of the telly and asking him what film he was watching. I'll never forget the horror in his voice in his reply 'it's not a film'.

Bonfire23 · 12/08/2023 10:55

At home, walked into the living room thinking it was a film, then saw the second tower on the news as it happened and remember my mum gasping

Needingacoffee · 12/08/2023 10:55

I'd only been married for a couple of months, and had moved away from family. I remember being on a shift in McDonald's, and lots of the staff were in the staff room staring up at the tv. I was about to finish my shift, and I just joined the others staring at the events unfolding. We were all in silence, and in shock & disbelief I think. I was so glad to get home that day.

Oblomov23 · 12/08/2023 10:55

Came back from London, sitting an Accountancy paper exam. Saw it on the tv. Didn't really understand. Couldn't really grasp what was happening. Had no idea of the enormity of it all.

Original poster
Chickenkeev · 12/08/2023 10:55

whumpthereitis · 12/08/2023 10:51

In school. I found out what exactly had happened when I got home and it was playing on the television. I genuinely thought a movie was on, initially.

I had an ex from New York that was watching it from just across the Brooklyn Bridge. My husband is from Michigan, and he remembers teachers crying and kids being called out of class. A lot of his classmates, and he himself, had a parent/s that worked in the financial district of Lower Manhattan, so there was a lot of additional confusion and fear on top of the general terror created by such an event. Some parents just pulled their kids from school just to have them close, not knowing if there were going to be more attacks.

You can kind of understand that though, it was unprecedented so people would have been terrified. It was a bit like the end of the world. You would want your kids close.

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