Do you remember where you were that day

[Lovingthesunshine88]

Do you remember where you were that day 18 years ago? 9/11

I was 13 and had just started high school i was doing swimming when PE teacher got called out, when she came back in she told us to get changed and make our way home if possible and said the world was under attack by terrorists.

Obviously this was scary to hear at 13 i hadn't heard of terrorism. I remember getting home and my mum watching it on TV in utter shock. I was such a sad day and still makes me feel sad 18 years on thinking of all those innocent people losing their lives

I was 7 and got home from school and wanted to watch tv. Turned it on but every channel was showing the same thing so I told my Mum that the TV was broken. That’s when she came in and saw what was actually happening

This was the day I was told my daughter was epileptic. Carried on as normal as I could. She was 3. Picked my son up from school and my brother phoned me to switch the telly on. Stunned.

On holiday in Crete. Titally shocked.

We thought we might not be able to get home due to no fly zones over London.

Titally? Totally!

Probably my earliest real memory. I was 5 years old. I walked out of primary school to meet my mum at the gates. She said to me, "Something big has happened, this will go down in history". She tried to explain, I couldn't understand what the twin towers were or why someone would fly into them. We went home and watched it on the news.
I now find it strange that she was so open about it happening but I think she was just so shocked and scared she didn't know what else to do. I do feel like 9/11 shaped a lot of how my childhood felt, it started a kind of feeling or politics maybe that spanned for the majority of my childhood!

Titally? Totally!

I rather liked titally shocked.

I had just come in from college and put the tele on in the kitchen. I just couldn’t take it in. I just stood there open mouthed..

I remember coming home from my 6th form - it was my second week. My mum had the radio on in the car which was unusual then watching it on the tv in stunned silence.

We then had the phone not stop ringing as my Dad worked in NY a lot and friends and family were checking where he was. He was sat on the sofa next to me.

I was at work age 21 in a tele sales office,we went to the break room and put the telly on and saw it on the news

I was at work and a colleague told me. I asked if he meant a small aircraft, thinking he couldn't mean a passenger jet. Then we all watched the second one hit. It was awful. We got sent home as we were really close to government buildings.

I was at work in London, we had a weekly call scheduled for 2pm GMT with our New York office, which was based in a building just adjacent to the WTC. We were all sitting in a room waiting for the call to start when someone barged in and told us what had happened. I remember hovering over someone's pc after that, watching it all live as it unfolded. Terrifying.

i had to pick the dc up from school, i had seen the news, it was very frightening thinking there were terrorists everywhere

I was on my last week of sick leave (pneumonia) and still not well so planned to sit on sofa watching tv. Just as I got up to get some food and shower etc there was a newsflash, then broadcasting didn’t stop, I saw the 2nd plane hit. I couldn’t leave the sofa after that as every time I got up to leave the room something else awful happened.

It was a very strange time, my house mate and me went to the pub and in the street, shops, everywhere strangers were talking to one another about it.

I returned to work, in the travel industry, it was strange flying for work after this and we all got laid off, the travel industry was on its knees.

I can not begin to imagine how scary it must of been for all of you living in or near NYC that day.

It was a whole range of emotions, really. Fear of course, but also sadness and anger. I remember thinking quite clearly that we were going to make someone pay a proper price for the attacks.

One thing that happened to me that day really stands out. When I got off the train home in my suburban town I saw someone on the platform in black clerical garb with the white collar. As I got a bit closer I realized that it was Mother Hannah, the rector of the church we'd been attending for several years. Lovely woman, she had welcomed us quite warmly and had us over for dinner when we joined, then later baptized my son.

She was there meeting people coming out of the city just to be there to support them, offer some words of comfort and just listen to whatever they wanted to talk about. This was for anyone at all of course, not just members of her parish. When she saw me she ran over and gave me a huge hug. I think I might have cried a bit as we talked about what my day had been like, then left feeling better as she moved on to do the same for other.

Days like that have a way of evoking acts of simple kindness and great decency.

I was waiting in the doctors surgery for my first midwife appointment for my first born.
I heard something on the radio about a plane crashing in America, but didn't think anything of it.
After the appointment I walked home with a smile on my face, hugging my pregnancy pack. Then I turned on the tv.
I spent the afternoon on the sofa, crying, and stroking my stomach, thinking about all those families who had lost loved ones.

The thing I remember most clearly about that day was the fact that our last lesson was RE (secondary school) and we had just been learning about religious terrorism. The teacher described a few examples, including Islamic extremism and it was the first I'd ever really heard of it. My only experience of terrorism was the IRA.

Our school was in central London and I remember leaving for the day and thinking there was a weird atmosphere. We were right by Victoria Station and the extra police presence freaked us out a bit, but I just got the bus home as normal.

When I got home my mum and heavily pregnant sister were just staring at the TV. Dsis was sat on an armchair with her hand on her bump, mum stood with her hand on Dsis shoulder. Then I looked at the TV and saw why they were so still and quiet and I just sat on the arm of Dsis chair, she held my hand and I stared with them.

I think we were all thinking the same, that the world was never going to be the same and the baby she was about to have was going to have to grow up in a world full of uncertainty.

I think sometimes people misremember stuff like this. For example my DM is convinced she watched the Hillsborough disaster happen live, but she couldnt have because the match wasn't being broadcast live. It was actually being recorded to show later in the day as higlights, of course this footage was then shown on the evening news so people think that they saw it live. Anyway, I digress.

I also find it hard to believe that UK schools would have sent pupils home early. Schools in the USA certainly, but not here. Why would they do that?

I was on hidaus from Uni, about to go into Argos and my friend text me. I didn't understand what she meant, it didn't really occur to me it could mean that literally planes had gone into the towers until I got home and turned on telly.

I was 19 and feel like many of my generation and younger lost a piece of innocence in thst moment.

They did show Hillsborough footage live on Grandstand. I watched it.

@Cheeseoncrumpets no idea why we got sent home early but i do remember it very clearly because it was during my first swimming lesson at high school. All the schools in our area were doing the same and sending people home. I think it must of been the uncertainty of how far this terrorism could reach and where would be targeted next. If something so major could happen in one of the biggest cities in the world it could happen anywhere i suppose.
Also people were just upset and in complete shock you just couldn't carry on with your day normally knowing what was happening

@SleepingStandingUp i totally agree innocence was lost that day. The world changed dramatically and became a cruler scarier place to live. It was the first time i actually realised evil really did exist

For 9/11, told by a colleague while at school.

I remember where I was for JFK's shooting, Elvis, John Lennon, London tube bombings, Dunblane.

@MissConductUS one lady had courage to help many others when she was no doubt be struggling herself. It's people like this lady who still make the world feel ok ❤

I remember hearing about 7/7 too. My school best friend and I had gone to the local greasy spoon to get our mid morning instant coffee and there was great speculation going on that it was The French.

And the point of the strike through is ?!!!!????