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

Tokyo - in an Irish bar of all places.

Was working in a shop in Notting Hill. It was busy and someone turned the radio up. All the staff and customers stood stock still listening to the broadcast. Beautiful sunny day outside.

sashh as the first tower fell, not as the first plane hit. Most people would have been watching by the time the towers collapsed. But yes not many would have seen the impact of the first plane.

Yes in a local radio newsroom! there was disbelif for the first few moments before the Jurnos regained their composture and then all hell broke loose programming to be re scheduled the works!

Still think WTC 7 was planned demolition though !

I was in a five hour meeting at my work but at a site that I didn't usually work at (I had been staying for the Monday and Tuesday). Someone in the office asked me if I was flying home. "No, I'm driving back up with (work colleague). Why?" And he said that the world trade center had collapsed, and I was like what, what has that got to do with my flight to Edinburgh? And then my colleague turned up so I didn't get to ask but I said to him someone said the world trade center collapsed, so we put the radio on and that was the first I knew about it. DH, watching daytime telly writing up his PhD at home had seen the whole thing. We were just back from holidays and the immigration guy had noted that he had four months left on his visa. We ended up deciding to get married the day after. I've met loads of people since who got engaged around the same time - reminders of your own mortality, that sort of thing.

I was 9, sat on the sofa watching my mum clean the windows, you hadto go behind the telly to get to the windows. I distinctly remember saying “wow mum a plane crashed into a massive building” I kept pestering her to look and when she did she said “oh shit what’ve they done”. We’re muslim, so life after that was pretty shitty living in London. She’s english blue eyed and as “saaf London” as you get but wears a scarf so people couldn’t make out if she was a nun or not and kept asking her to pray for the innocent. Terrible terrible tragedy and I’ll forever grieve for innocent lives lost at the cost of politics and hatred.

I was at college. We were in a first aid class. Our class had three Americans in it, two of them from New York and, having seen it on tv in the staff room, our tutor decided not to tell us. I think we were one of the few classes that just went on as normal. We found out after college when we passed the Brighthouse type shop and seen it on the tv. I always thought that was a really cruel way for them to find out what had happened in their home city. Most of the other tutors let people know, and allowed them to go down to the canteen and watch tv if there was no tv in their room.

I was sat in a church hall waiting to give blood when I saw it on the tv screen they had up. Finished what I was doing and went back to the office to watch and find out more.

I was at home, getting packed up to start university. I switched on the tv to see a replay of the first plane hitting and thought it was strange that bbc1 were showing a film at that time.
I watched as the second plane hit and then for several more hours until my parents came home. They knew, we all watched together.
Going to uni a couple of weeks later it was of course something that hung over daily life. We were in a lecture theatre a few weeks in and it got struck by lightning - huge cracking bang sound. We thought war had started.

I came home from school and my mum told me there had been a plane crash in America. She must have heard it on the radio on her way home cos she still thought it was an accident.

I visited the memorial a few years ago and it was incredible. One of the things that really struck me was seeing several names on the memorial as “X and her unborn child”. Absolutely heartbreaking. The museum is amazing, we were in there for hours

We were on holiday in Menorca with our then 18 month old baby.
I remember we'd been on a day trip to Mahon, but came back early as the sky had turned black and threatened rain. Looking back at photos taken that afternoon now, I often think it was kind of an omen! I know that sounds silly but we have pictures taken at almost the exact time the first plane would have hit, and the clouds were pure black, what you'd probably call portentous!
Anyway, the first we heard about the attacks was when some Welsh guy staying in our block came up to us saying "they've blown up the World Trade Center, they've blown up the Pentagon, nuts isn't it," or words to that effect, but we hadn't a clue what he was talking about so we just sort of nodded and shrugged.
It was only the next morning when we saw all the British papers in the shop that we finally realised what had happened :(
The strange thing was, we had actually planned to go to New York for that holiday, DH and I were going to go alone and leave the baby with my mum for the week, but when it came to booking it, I just didn't want to leave him. So we chose Menorca for a family holiday instead!

I'm just watching the documentary Loose Change its on prime video at the moment. Interesting.

I didn’t think there was any footage of the first aeroplane hitting the tower ?
It is very hard to watch it unfolding on footage, now we know how it ended. The initial period when they thought that it was a freak accident, or a gas explosion.
I vividly remember watching live as the first tower to fall came crashing down, struggling to get my head round how many people must have still been in the building. It had a surreal quality.

SirVix there's some footage, it's not great but it certainly wouldn't have been live. It's mostly people's camcorders that have been uploaded to YouTube. There's one particular video I've seen that shows events unfolding, with air traffic recordings, phone calls to emergency services from people on the planes and in the building. There was also messages left for loved ones by passengers on the plane and stuck in the towers. It is single handedly the saddest and most harrowing thing I have ever watched.

I was getting ready to go to start uni, my Mum and I had been shopping for some bits and bobs that morning. Then I was just taking my new stuff upstairs and had a bit of a lie down on the bed, before I heard Mum calling me to go downstairs, right now! And we sat together on the sofa and watched it, in utter horror.

to all those who have lost loved ones, both in the attacks and in the aftermath. So much pain and destruction.

I was in Dublin and DS was 5 weeks old. I remember watching it all and, like lots of you have mentioned, wondering what kind of world I had brought him into.

It was terrifying and horrifying and I will never forget the shock and horror. A friend had driven over an hour come to see me and DS with her dcs and we just sat and watched in shock.

DS is now 18 and we have just been to NY. Got back yesterday. We went to the Memorial and Museum on Monday. I had been a few times before - in 2007 when it was all still a building site and five years ago when the memorial had not long been opened. I wasn’t overly impressed then. This time was different. It’s now finished and I think they have done a really good job. There are lots of trees and although it’s busy with lots of people it feels peaceful. I like that in an city were every square foot is busy and expensive they have left lots of space.

The Museum itself was amazing. Very busy. But very quiet and somber. People were very respectful. I was very teary wandering around. There is a Memorial Room where you can sit and a rolling video on the walls displays the names and details of the victims one at a time. It’s very well done. DS sat for about an hour just watching it all. I had to leave a few times as I was getting very emotional.

The historical museum is very well done too. Starts before the first plane hit and takes you through the day, weeks and months and years after. I didn’t get to see it all as we had to leave but will go back one day. There is a voicemail from a guy on one of the hijacked places calling his wife. It’s heartbreaking. But the reason it is there is because she wanted it there. She also volunteers at the Memorial. It’s not voyeuristic.

There was a thread on Twitter last night about the dogs of 9/11. Very emotional. I had seen some photos and books about the dogs at the Museum but the Twitter thread was very sad. Most of the dogs involved in the search and rescue were trained to find living victims. They became depressed at only finding remains so their handlers got some live people to hide and let themselves be found to help the dogs keep going. One dog found two victims and was so depressed he stopped eating etc. He was retired that day. Some of the dogs worked the site for months. Some of the handlers and dogs died of sickness from the toxins they were exposed to. So amazing and humbling and sad.

@SoupDragon - although I wasn’t on here then I do remember Kateandthegirls from later threads. I thought of her and her family a lot on Monday and wondered how they were doing.

Our school was close to the home office, and I remember there being lots of police in the days and weeks after. I remember my mum looking terrified to leave us at school too. We were primary aged, with the youngest school aged being 5. Her eyes were red and puffy. I think there was real fear London would be attacked that week.

Neveam

Sorry my mistake.

I didn’t think there was any footage of the first aeroplane hitting the tower ?

There is, it was a French crew following a rookie firefighter, they were doing something routine and the first plane went overhead, it was pure luck they were filming and the camera operator caught it.

^he buses were heaving. People thronged the streets. We got to talking, and I got passed from person to person, everyone putting me on the next bus going the right way, until it felt like the whole of London had worked together to get this little Kiwi home.*

Londoners are fantastic when something needs doing like that, they may not be as chatty as the rest of the country but when people need to pull together they do it.

I remember when JFK was assassinated, I was at boarding school

Although I remember where I was, the thing that will always stand out to me. Was tv coverage of children/adults etc in the Middle East country’s responsible cheering.!! I found that chilling.

On holiday in Greece and it came up on the hotel bar tv. No one understood the words but the pictures spoke a thousand words. Utterly awful.

We visited the memorial museum in New York last year and I’d encourage people to go if they get the chance. It really helps to understand that this was an attack on the whole world, not just America or the west. It’s absolutely heartbreaking but completely fascinating.

I had just started year 8 and had just got home from high school and my dad was watching it on the news 😥😥

In Greece for my 18th birthday first time travelling on a plane. I was a bit scared travelling back home!

I was on holiday in Tunisia with a girlfriend and we had no TV. We went out for dinner and everywhere people were crowded around TVs in the town watching. We eventually asked someone what was going on and that’s how we found out. It was a nightmare getting home the next day - they put us all through security several times (which we didn’t mind as we were all so stunned)

I was 15. Didn't hear anything about it at school, me and a friend went back to mine after and every channel was a plane flying into the building. We didn't even look at the headline was just like "what is this? I want to watch x (nonidea what it was now)!!" And my older sister came in and said "put the telly on, something's happened"
I was also not massively interested at the time, I was firmly in the self absorbed teenage period.