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Original poster

Do you remember where you were that day

653 replies

Lovingthesunshine88 · 11/09/2019 15:41

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

OP posts:
Dowser · 12/09/2019 23:07

Yes at home. Mum and friend came from the gym and told me to put tv on so ethuawful had happened
I just looked at it open mouthed.

yolofish · 12/09/2019 23:10

I was working at home, tv on in the background, phoned my friend/childminder to say fgs dont put the tv on around the kids, something really bad has happened. Can still remember the total shock and sadness.

The following summer, we went to Bruce Springsteen The Rising tour at Crystal Palace, and in the middle of clear blue sky a jet went overhead. Even though it was 9 months later, people were still frightened.

KatherineJaneway · 12/09/2019 23:10

Vividly. Working in London when the first reports of a plane hitting one one the towers came in. Initially we thought it was an accident but the horrors just got worse and worse throughout the day.

Evilspiritgin · 12/09/2019 23:38

I had just come home from shopping with my 18 month old son, I can remember thinking like others oh dear it must have been a small poor buggers and then the second plane hit

My mum and I had spent a weekend in New York a few years before and had spent a wonderful afternoon in the Windows on the world

Evilspiritgin · 12/09/2019 23:39

*Small plane

insideoutandback · 12/09/2019 23:58

@Hefzi yes the silence of after an attack will stay with me forever.

I wad working in a call centre with screens watching unfold. Wegot sent home early. All very unreal

bonbonours · 13/09/2019 00:54

We were in Columbo Airport in Sri Lanka waiting to get a flight to the Maldives. Our driver, whose English wasn't very good, told us 'A plane crashed into the World Trade Centre and it' s falling down. ' We thought it couldn't possibly be true then went upstairs where there were tvs showing it all happening with no sound which made it even more surreal. Then we flew to a tiny island with no TV, no phones no Internet for a week so missed all the aftermath and barely believed it had really happened til we came home.

CauliflowerBalti · 13/09/2019 00:59

I was at work, in a city in England. When the first plane hit, the big TV in the boardroom was put on and a handful of people - me included - drifted in to watch the rolling news. I saw the second plane hit as it happened, and it was such a chilling moment. I didn't experience the first impact - I watched that as news. I experienced the second. I wasn't there, and found it petrifying and confusing. God knows what it felt like to be in New York that day.

Within about 45 minutes, all pretence of work had stopped and the whole business (50+ of us) was squashed into that room. So we saw the cut to the Pentagon being hit. They sent us all home at about 3pm - not through fear of anything similar happening here, but because we were doing fuck all and it just didn't feel right to go and sit back at our desks and carry on. I guess it was kind of in respect, and also a recognition that we were all in shock after watching the things we did. Ghouls.

I visited the memorial at Ground Zero a few years ago. Profoundly moving. Big love to anyone affected by it, or any attack before or since.

tigwig76 · 13/09/2019 06:10

I was in Orlando in the water park Wet n Wild. It was just after 1pm and had started to rain. An announcement over the tannoy said the park was closing and everyone had to leave. We thought it was because of the rain! Until we got to the road outside and could hear people saying Disneywold is shut. We had no idea what was going on until back at the hotel and the staff said we are under attack! Couldn't phone home for over 24hrs either as all phone lines were blocked.

Original poster
Lovingthesunshine88 · 13/09/2019 06:19

@hiphopchick no not one other person has said the same as you. People have just said like me yes they remember the day very clearly and remember where they were at what they were doing very clearly as it was such a horrible day but thanks for your input

OP posts:
Ithinkmycatisevil · 13/09/2019 06:56

I was just turned 16, in me last year of school. Our school actually said nothing about it to us and just let us carry on with the day.

I didn’t realise what had happened until I got home and my mum was sat in front of the tv watching it with tears steaming down her cheeks. I can remember feeling in total shock.

Thegracefuloctopus · 13/09/2019 07:00

I had just turned 6. My mum picked us up from school and my dad had rung her before hand as soon as he had been told (police). We went home and put the TV on I remember realising it was something serious and to just sit quietly. No one knew what to say.

RedSheep73 · 13/09/2019 07:08

I was on the Isle of Mull with no phone, telly or other news. Knew nothing about it till we went to the pub for tea and people were talking about it.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 13/09/2019 07:11

I was at home with my mum. My memories are a little muddled due to the heavy medication I was on due to severe depression and a mental breakdown.
I remember my dad phoning and telling my mum to put the news on.
This was just as the second plane hit.
I have a very clear memory of the reporter interviewing someone who had come out of one of the towers when it fell right behind him live.
The look on the poor man's face has stuck with me. Then the realisation that there was absolutely no hope for anyone left inside.

I had the privilege of visiting NYC about two years later. We paid our respects at ground zero.

Original poster
Lovingthesunshine88 · 13/09/2019 08:01

@4everhopeful ❤❤ big hugs

OP posts:
Twinkles72 · 13/09/2019 08:16

I was in grade 9 music class. A boy came bursting into the room shouting that New York was under attack. My friend and I went to another boys house at lunch and watched everything unfold on tv. Very scary.

Ohfuckinghellwhatnow · 13/09/2019 08:43

In Florida at a theme park. Got evacuated and assumed a bomb threat or practice drill. They didn't know if the next mass targets was the many parks with tens of thousands of people in. Orlando was like a ghost town for a few days. It was nerve wracking.

berlinbabylon · 13/09/2019 08:56

I was at work - at the time I worked in a reasonably large building not that far from Heathrow. I hadn't heard of the WTC until that day, like a pp. I remember a note going round work asking us to get off the internet because we were crashing the company's systems.

It's funny that someone said we're getting muddled about the time of day in the UK - I would have said it was the morning, too, and of course it couldn't have been because we are 5 hours ahead. I went into town and looked at TV coverage in shop windows (I'd have said it was lunchtime but of course it wasn't).

There was some panic/rumour about a plane being missing and because we were so close to Heathrow and the building was tall (not really about 8 stories, but the highest in the area) we were sent home early.

What I remember is having a fire drill a couple of weeks later and we were going down the stairs and someone couldn't get the firedoors open at the bottom so we were all banked up in the stairwell. Although we were pretty sure it was a drill it was scary - I think everyone was a bit jumpy for a while afterwards.

I also remember it being a lovely few days weather-wise but every time I saw a plane after that it looked like a sinister weapon. I did fly very shortly afterwards though - to Frankfurt. I got the train into the centre and the train arrived in an underground station underneath the main station. I remember hoping it didn't collapse on top of us. Irrational fear but as I said, people were a bit jumpy.

Funnily enough I was literally just looking into the sky outside my window and two planes just crossed paths. They looked really close! I guess they weren't.

4everhopeful · 13/09/2019 08:57

Thank you 😘

4everhopeful · 13/09/2019 08:58

Thank you @Lovingthesunshine88 😘

berlinbabylon · 13/09/2019 09:26

'I was giving birth

That would kind of stick with you

I was just thinking about that - if you were born that day you have the most notorious date ever, whenever you give your date of birth people are going to do a double-take.

iklboo · 13/09/2019 09:33

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

Maybe you should have instead of assuming what was being said. People here lost friends and loved ones.

Lweji · 13/09/2019 09:58

we are 5 hours ahead. I went into town and looked at TV coverage in shop windows (I'd have said it was lunchtime but of course it wasn't).

I know it was before I had a late lunch and I was on the same time zone as the UK.

Original poster
Lovingthesunshine88 · 13/09/2019 10:05

Well said @iklboo 👏🏻

OP posts:
EllenMP · 13/09/2019 10:09

I was on a bus in Kingston with my oldest son, who was three months old at the time. My best friend in New York called to tell me what was happening. Both her husband and my sister's husband worked in the next building over from WTC and neither could reach them. Spent all afternoon watching the news with baby and waiting on two different phones with sister and BF for news of their respective husbands. (Both were fine, but very traumatized.)

That was my oldest son's lifetime ago, but I'm taking him to Uni 250 miles away today so his lifetime seems like the blink of an eye today. And 9/11 seems like it happened last week.