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 19 and working in a retail shopping centre. I was working the early shift and when walking home my friends and i were silent and so scared as a couple of aeroplanes flew over head. So scary and just unbelievable that there is so much hate in the world and normal innocent people like us just carrying out their normal routines were killed. Still makes me sick to the stomach that these things happen, close to home and throughout the world 😞

I was 10 years old and I was living in Saudi Arabia through my Dad's work. I knew what bombings and attacks were, there had been several small scale attacks near where we lived.

The time difference meant that the first plane hit mid-afternoon our time. I got home from school to see my Dad in the kitchen, home early, watching the first tower burn. My Mum came home, and we all saw the second plane hit. I remember feeling this incredible anxiety, like life would never be quite the same again.

It wasn't, terrorism and insurgency worsened in Saudi following 9/11, and less than 2 years later we were living in the UK permanently, having survived two terrorist attacks ourselves. 9/11 was the start of my life changing forever, but in no way was it impacted the way the families of 2,977 victims were that day

My sister worked on a high floor in Canary Wharf and all the bankers in her office ran home. She was left there as a junior and phoned my mum scared because all the bosses had done a runner.
My friend picked me up from Senior school and told us it’s the end of the world let’s go get ice cream. She didn’t explain anything and we got ice cream. When I got home all (5) tv channels were broadcasting it.

I was in work (aged 31) am ashamed to say when someone ran into my lab saying the twin towers had been attacked I had no idea where/what they were .... but I was immediately frightened

When the first tower was hit I was at cortlandt street station waiting for my train reading the New York port. Mayor guiliani getting a divorce was the headline.
When they fell I was near canal street, it was so surreal I feel even today that I wasn’t really there. The whole day was like a bad dream. It took me 8 hours to get back home to system island that day.

Sorry poor spelling, New York post/staten Island

I had lived in NYC for a year in 2000. I'd recently started back for my final year at Uni, I was 21.

I remember I went for a swim and came home and Dad was sitting watching TV still in his work uniform, I sat on the floor to watch. We watch the second plane hit.

I was still there when my brother and sister came home and then when my mum came home from work. I just remember all of us watching in disbelief.

It's still hard to believe it happened.

I was at work at someone came in saying that a plane had flown into the twin towers......he was ex military and was so upset and I had no clue of the enormity of the situation till later that day. I will always remember that moment.

I never forget. My husband and I were in New York. I alerted the hotel staff what had just happened. We wee stuck there for a week before we could get home. It was like being in the twilight zone, The day after there wasn’t a single car on the streets. I saw things I never forget..

I was 26, and it was my Dad's 50th birthday, I had the day off work and went to their house to put up 50th balloons and banners for when he came home, my mum heard it on the radio and we put the telly on, I'd only been in NY the previous year, my 4th visit, I loved it there, we sat in shock thinking it was a terrible accident, then we watched live as the 2nd plane went in.. Then it dawned on us, slowly and horribly, when the pentagon happened, my Mum cried silently and just uttered in disbelief 'we're at war again..: She was a young child in London in WW2 during the blitz, spending air raids in Balham tube station which eventually was bombed. In that split second it was all brought back. I'll never forget that haunted look of fear on her face. As a regular visitor and lover of NY I felt an affinity with it and just sat crying at the sheer loss of life and absolute terror that day. So very tragic and abhorrent. My darling Dad came home ready to celebrate his 50th birthday about 4pm, amazingly he had no idea what had happened. We said the twin towers and he thought we meant Wembley and said oh that's getting knocked down anyway! Then he saw the news. Poor Dad. We still went out for a meal, but all felt we had to keep validating to anyone around us it was Dad's 50th, especially when we toasted him with champagne. He only had 4 more birthdays. He died suddenly of heart failure. So now for me, primarily it's a sad day remembering my Dad.

It really was strange in the city for a few weeks. I’ve never known NY to be so silent. We had to walk through ground zero every day showing our ID to get to the subway. I remember the ground and windows were so thick with dust and debris and the amount of twisted up metal everywhere was unbelievable. I can still smell it when I think back.

I was writing up behaviour reports in a school I was working in. The Caretaker who I knew quite well came to tell me. I simply said. The world is now never going to be the same again. America are going to want a sacrifice on this.

@Lovingthesunshine88

What a ridiculous reaction, to scare the kids like this. It happens in America; 1000s of miles away from the UK.

Some people just love to jump on the 'maudlin and grieving' bandwagon...

'Oooooh, I was in New York for a weekend in 1993; I could have been in the trade centre attack.

Utterly pathetic.

Sorry if people have said the same as me, I genuinely could not be arsed to read nearly 600 posts.

I was a fairly new air stewardess, at home on a day off. I watched it on to, but it felt like a film, didn't really hit me until I saw all the grounded planes the next day when I went to work. I remember everyone being very nervy at work for a while. It changed my job/environment forever (we didn't even shut the flightdeck door in those days, let alone lock it!

No @hiphopchick I don't think anyone has said the same as you.

I didn't know about it until days afterwards.

On 9/11 my DH was in a serious accident and there was a possibility that he wouldn't survive. He was put into a coma. I went between the hospital and home.

A few days later, when it was looking better, i became aware of it. Everyone seemed to be making a fuss, so i took notice of the news.

Things don't reach you in the same way when you've got major stuff going on.

Wondering why all these schools seemed to get the day off as I worked in a primary school at the time - and the news didn't get through to us until it was home time for the children (so around 3.15 ish?) and maybe it came from a parent. How else would we know?

Youre based in the uk and the school closed? Jesus, thats dramatic. I have no idea what i was doing that day. I remember people talking about it here and there but nothung too over the top. So sad what happened to all those innocent people.

I was at school and didn’t get sent home either (Scotland). Was 14 so 3rd year, in a guidance class I think. There was a tv in the room on one of those big stands with wheels. Another teacher came in and called our teacher out, when she came back in she wheeled the tv to the front of the class and we all watched as the second plane hit.

I remember looking out the window at the sky. Just in shock.

Lovingthesunshine88 thank you.thats a lovely thing to say.great thread,emotional and eye opening.

I was 14 and in Italy. Had come back from school, made myself lunch and sat in front of the TV watching 'the bold and the beautiful' followed by something else. All of a sudden the program stopped and if started broadcasting the crash. I remember flicking the channels and every channel was showing the same exact thing. Then I realised it was serious. As the day unfolded it became scary / sad.

I was in an interview for my first job after uni. Member of staff came running into the room to notify the person i was with as the company has a big team in NY. Left the meeting to find 20 odd missed calls from my bf (now dh) who worked in the security industry, and messages from him and other friends telling me not to get on the tube. Distinctly remember waiting around in Trafalgar Sq waiting for him to collect me on his motorbike. Then both of us going home and being glued to the news.

This thread is very very Moving
So many stories have touched me

So many memories . My stupid one is my beloved cat was put to sleep and of course we never mentioned it as something so huge occurred

I was a young and care free 20 something . It was weird and sad I remember exactly where I was sat and watching it at home that evening feeling very alone and weird and sad

I was so immature though . It was Grenfell
That traumatised me more just because I had grown up and realised the horror . Youth is a blessing sometimes

I was in school in a music lesson - we had one of those televisions they wheeled in to show us videos. When the video ended, BBCOne must have come on - I still remember the teacher standing up and staring at it.

My mum picked us from school crying. I must have been about 5.

I was in a ‘ big four’ Consultancy in the city where lots is staff were facing redundancy when my friend phoned from uni and said 2 planes had gone into the twin towers . I was shocked and then my husband called to say he was leaving work and would meet me at Embankment . It was scary and a bit surreal . I think we drank a lot and slept a fair bit that night !