Where were you for 9/11

[Chickenkeev]

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.

I was at school. Mum met me off the bus in tears, the other mums were crying too. We watched the news all evening, kids weren’t really shielded from such things back then (as I remember it). I was in final year of primary.

I understood what had happened but didn’t grasp the complexity or magnitude of it, the USA seemed so far away as to be another planet.

When I was a kid, once I became aware of the news on telly etc yes I did worry about 'getting bombed' even though I didn't really understand it and we didn't live in a city or really visit them. We also had ETA very active at the time near where my grandparents lived in Spain so perhaps I was a bit more aware of it from that too.

I can't think of a non wanky way to say it, but i really admire you for that. I doff my cap to you.

I was a senior in high school, I lived in Florida at the time. I remember our principal coming on the loudspeaker and sharing French., So for me it was I think 1130, and telling the school what had happened. My sister lived in New York City and we couldn’t get hold of her all day… It was quite scary. And I remember the mood at school was very very low.

Do you remember or hear about the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London? when the SAS stormed in the BBC cut broadcasts to go over live to it and some people complained bitterly that the snooker had been interrupted.

On the train back from the West Coast of Scotland. At Glasgow we took at taxi to transfer to the airport to fly back to Stansted. The taxi driver said something we didn’t quite catch and then switched on the radio. It felt very surreal. At the airport all the tv screens were set to non news channels. We were there for 5 hours. The special measures at check in meant I had just a wallet, one spare sanitary towel and an inhaler. I had to justify the last 2 of those before I was allowed to hang on to them. In the early hours they were showing Hollyoakes late edition. First and only time I’ve seen a full episode of the soap.

I was at work, in the Leaving Care Team.
All the staff and young people had watched it in the Day Centre lounge and called me through, stating initially that a light aircraft had flown into one of the towers.
Then the second plane hit, the towers collapsed, they began to talk about an attack on the Pentagon and about another missing plane, possibly en route to London.
We spent most of that day watching and talking with the horrified young people.

I was on an archaeological dig in a rural part of Hungary. We went back to the lodge for lunch and were met by the 3/4 students who'd stayed back to sort finds. They told us what had happened but none of us could really take it in until we were watching the news. One of the Hungarian students was trying to translate it all for us. I remember one UK student had a close family friend who worked in one of the towers. The poor lad was so worried but thankfully got news at some point that his friend/friend's family were all ok.

I was heavily pregnant. I was about to go and lie down when DH called me to ask if anything was happening on the news as they could see stock market, guilt, equity etc data which was changing really quickly but no one could get news pages to load.

I was relaying what was happening to him as the second plane hit and there was a long pause as we both realised that this meant it was a terrorist attack.

Our DD was born two days later. I wanted to keep the newspaper from the day of her birth but I've never given it to her because of what is on the front page.

One of my ante natal class friends lost her brother. She'd been in labour all day and was unaware until they called her parents to announce their DC's birth and her parents had to tell her what was happening and that no one had heard from her brother who worked in one of the towers. To this day they don't celebrate their child's birthday on the actual date.

I'd just got home from school. I remember seeing it on TV but I didnt understand the enormity of what was happening.

I was living overseas, but was in London for the day at a funeral. Saw the news footage at the pub where the wake was. Has to head home afterwards on the first flight out of Heathrow. Unsurprisingly there were more crew than passengers on that flight.

Was sitting feeding dd3 and footage was showing of the wreckage of the first hit. I remember thinking tragic accident, how dreadful etc then watched mesmerised as the second plane hit and being frightened for the future.

I'd left work early for an ante-natal appointment. Heard the news of the first plane hit on the way home from work and when I got into my house heard the news on the TV of the second plane. Went to my ante-natal appt in total shock.

Nothing felt normal for a very long time after that. All those poor people. Was and still feels unbelievable.

I was at home with baby and gad just watched Neighbours. They then cut to the Twin Towers. My overriding memory if it is seeing the planes, towers, and the clear blue sky.

I didn’t actually comprehend what had happened to later but was caught in the unfolding drama on tv .

Not sure now whether the second plane crash was seen live on tv.

I had just moved abroad to teach at an international school. I had an after school club that day along with another teacher, and the headteacher came to tell us. His son had seen the news at home after school and had phoned him. I went straight back to my flat at watched it all unfold on BBC World and CNN.

I was in Central Europe but had almost gone to Nigeria or Iran with the VSO. I remember being really glad that I had turned VSO down and was somewhere that felt safer.

We had American embassy children at our school and we were asked to take down our school sign to keep the American children safe. They clearly expected more attacks. It was all very strange to live through.

I was in school as it happened. Didn't know anything about it until we (DB & me) got home. We walked into the house arguing, and mum was sat on the sofa staring at the TV with the landline phone in her hand and immediately 'shhh'ed us.

Uncle lived in NJ at the time, she'd desperately been trying to contact him all afternoon.

I was in Skiathos with my children in a bar. I commented on the rather realistic film on the TV when the man fell only to be told that it was, in fact, real. My thoughts then shot to the date, etc, and I remembered my foster parents were going to the Twin Towers that day. I'm frantically trying to call them from a Greek phone box. No easy task. I didn't find out they were ok for 2 days. Skiathos went into a no-fly zone, so we had new arrivals that morning mixing in with non departing people. Bless all their souls.

I was driving home and it was on the radio in the car. I stopped the car to listen. It felt very unreal.

At the maternity clinic for my first scan with dc3.
Watched it on the tv in the waiting room.

I had similar with my sister in the London bombings. The 'void' is awful. Having to wait to hear.

I was at work in London when it came up on the office Reuters feed and we all sat there in utter shock and disbelief as the second plane hit. We had a client based in one of the towers. It was a surreal day. There was absolute silence on the train home. Working in the City, you become used to terrorist atrocities or acts but despite being thousands of miles away it had a profound impact.

At home with DS2. I hadn't got the tv on. I rang fellow playgroup mum to ask something, can't remember what, and she asked me if I was watching the TV. When I said no, she just said "you've got to put it on" and hung up. I thought that was really weird but turned the TV on and then tried to make sense of what was happening.

Then I had to leave at 14:45 to collect DS1 from school. I hated having to tear myself away as it was all still unfolding. I got to the playground and some mums had heard, some hadn't. There were lots of rumours.

When I got home my neighbour, who was from NY, was outside, distraught as she couldn't get hold of her brother who worked there. Luckily he survived.

I rang my dh at work, which I never did, because I just wanted to hear his voice. He said lots of people had gone out to the car park to listen to Radio 4 as there was no TV in his office.

My PIL had landed in the UK from Pennsylvania the day before, they didn't have mobile phones so we couldn't contact them.

Such a horrible time.

I'd just finished school for the day, the teachers were all talking in the playground and parents were rushing to collect children. I remember one girl who's dad worked for the government being collected early, we didn't know why.

I think the news reached the UK around lunchtime if I remember rightly, but obviously it didn't get to most people at work straight away. We got in the car with the radio on and they were talking about it, mother turned the radio off and we didn't know the full story until we got home, put the TV on and she explained it. I remember my sister saying "That sounds like a scary film, do we have to watch it?" Only for mother to say it wasn't a film, it was real.

We were meant to go on holiday about a month after, parents cancelled it and avoided flights for over a year after.

The only thing I remember after was our sikh neighbour being attacked in the street- must have been in the week following, but I know racial and religious abuse continued for many years after 9/11. His turban ripped off and he was called slurs- his attackers believed he was muslim and at fault. It was awful.

I thought it was a film too. When i learned it wasn't, i really couldn't comprehend the enormity of it. Looking back, it actually took me years to understand it. And i was an adult.

Exactly a year after 9/11, our vet was coming to put the VDDog we’d had for over 14 years, to sleep.
The news was full of nothing else, but all I could think of, was that the vet was coming at 3.15. And poor old Ddog, who was lying on the front garden grass in the sun, wagged a feeble tail when she saw her. 😰

Re the 7/7 bombings, I remember those especially, because both dds were working in central London and using public transport at the time. Dd1 had an Italian BF staying - he was supposed to go and meet her for lunch. But v early on she rang to tell him not to come - ‘…there’s something weird going on with the Underground.’

So we switched the TV on and saw the appalling news.
The BF was supposed to fly out from Gatwick that night, but that didn’t happen - trains were cancelled.