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 at work, 7 months pregnant wondering what kind of world i was bringing my beautiful baby into. We listened to it all unfolding on the radio, it was the quietest day in the shop ever.

There are some people on this thread that are a bit muddled if they live in the U.K. It didn't happen after school drop off, it was in the afternoon and schools were dismissed because it was nigh on 3 o'clock when they realised it was terrorism when the second plane hit.

I was seven. I remember both my parents glued to the tv. Like pp they’d first thought it was a film apparently. I was too young to know any better or care whether it was real or not. I also remember watching the London attacks on the tv with my parents when I was older. By that point I took it for granted that something like that happened every few years. We experienced pretty much everything second hand on the evening/late night news in Australia. Maybe it’s one of the reasons I’m not for of physical TVs (asopposed to tv programs).

Was on the phone to someone in one of the buildings next door trying to sort out some documentation.
The dome topped building that lost almost the whole of one side but remained upright.
I remember walking through the City and it being so quiet as the exchanges had been closed and evacuated.
I stayed with my husband in his office as he tried to communicate with theirNY office.
We returned home about 1am uk time and back in London at 8am.

We were in the BA lounge in Heathrow, waiting to board a flight home.

Some of these stories of work colleagues are so sad

I was at home doing the ironing watching TV. A newsflash came on and I automatically thought it would be telling us that the Queen mum had died but obviously it wasn't.

I was 15 and off school that day, I watched it all and I remember being furious that my mum put citv on for my little sister instead of letting me watch it when she got home after school. I remember trying to tell them how serious and important it was. I'm sure she knew though and just didn't want us all sitting watching it.

I was at work, I was 20. I had gone out to lunch and the little newsagent next to my office had a TV on with the news on and people were flooding in to watch what was going on. I went back to the office and told everyone what I’d seen and everyone went back to the newsagents to see. I think about 50 people stood there watching in silence (South London). When I went home later I stayed up all night watching BBC news. It was the worst thing news wise I had ever seen and I was convinced the world was going to end.

I was 11, in yr 7. I heard nothing about it until I came out of school & my mum told me on the way home. She found out from my dad- having heard it on the radio- shouting at her to put the TV on, something had happened in New York. She initially thought it would be Wall Street crashing until she saw it. I remember everyone talking about it at school the next day and someone being hysterical with worry about her dad who was supposed to be flying to the US that day. The photo I always remember is the one of the Statue of Liberty (which I already find creepy) seeming to be looking on in shock as the TTs burn.

Certainly wasn't sent home from school. Nor for the London Bombings, although I remember that being announced & the staff checking who had parents in London. I'm on the London/Surrey border so lots of commuter parents and one of girls on work exp just missed getting on an affected train.

I was 20 and at work. We had a TV in our reception area and a colleague came through and said the WTC had been hit by a plane. Didnt even know what the WTC was then. We watched it unfold on TV surrounded by customers. Everyone was in shock when the 2nd plane hit. Remember a lot of people saying they’d watched the live TV through the night to see if anything else happened. Pure sadness.

@ShirleyPhallus - thank you for such kind words - it's very much from the boots on this topic!

@JingsMahBucket - you poor thing, that must have been utterly horrific. The wonder would have been if you didn't have PTSD. And then to be in the midst of another terrorist attack. . .

@DementorsKiss happy birthday

I was 7. My Nana had picked my DSis and I up from school and we all just sat there transfixed by the news.

My DF came to pick us up, panicking, because he couldn't get hold of my DM who was working as BA crew and about to fly home from Washington.

I was in the second day of my first "proper" job after university and we were doing training in central London. There was a lot of worry that London was going to be attacked as well and what other repercussions there would be. We wondered if it would trigger a financial crisis as well and whether we'd still have a job by the end of the week.

I was in my friends kitchen in London having a bit of a chill day. It was utterly surreal to watch it on TV. 7/7 I remember much more vividly as I worked in Covent Garden at the time and ended up walking home to Wandsworth.

I was 26 & in my parents house. My husband at the time rang me from work & told me to put in the news. We watched the 2nd plane hit.
We sat in absolute shock

I was in the car with my boyfriend of the time listening to Chris Moyles on Radio 1. We were parked by the memorial tank eating ice creams at Start Point in South Devon. Couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

At home watching on TV, believing that BIL was in the WTC. His meeting had actually been cancelled at the last minute, but he didn't get through on the phone to DSis for several hours.

I was ironing my baby’s clothes and I could smell the Lenor summer scent, when it came up on the news flash. I went running with ds, who was 2 months old, over to my mum who lived close by, and she was cooking stew in the kitchen, as I flew through the front door shouting to put the news on, and we put the BBC news on and watched as the second plane hit. I remember crying and looking at ds fast asleep in my arms, and thinking what have I done? Bringing him into this.

Then my step dad came home, and his son phoned from over seas, to say to say he had just out the phone down to a colleague in the world trade centre when they were hit.

Then that evening a friend came around, and of course it was the first thing I mentioned and he looked at me and said ‘Isobel X is in Manhattan this week’ and I went ‘ he’ll be fine’ and he went on to say he had tried several times throughout the day but couldn’t get in touch, so he contacted his parents, who were doing the same. Luckily 4 days later he made contact, to say he was fine.

But for the life of me, I can not remember what was the outcome of the guy on the phone to step dads son. I’m guessing I was told. But I just can’t remember.

There are some people on this thread that are a bit muddled if they live in the U.K. It didn't happen after school drop off, it was in the afternoon and schools were dismissed because it was nigh on 3 o'clock when they realised it was terrorism when the second plane hit.

The second plane hit just after 2pm uk time

I was a flight attendant at the time, I watched it all unfold on TV and then put my uniform on and went to work that evening.
It was so weird, the flight deck door was locked for the first time ever, we all had to be spoken with before to check we felt safe and happy to fly, security was intense and the passengers were quiet, no holiday atmosphere at all. It was surreal.

On the tarmac at Heathrow waiting to fly to America for a year. Didn't fly that week, but I went the following week. It was a strange time to go there, DM thought I should cancel my plans.

I was away on a Year 7 school trip and didn’t get back until 12th or 13th, didn’t find out until watching Newsround at home!! Had to go and ask my mum about it! I just remember being fascinated (in a horrified way of course) seeing people jump out of the towers, and just crying.

I was 12 and holiday in Greece (in the days before fines for term time holidays). My dad spotted the news as we walked by a bar with everyone in there sat in silence staring at the screen. We went in and watched it for a while, but were taken out pretty quickly- looking back I understand why as i wouldn't want my own dc watching. It wasn't until a week or so after I saw or read something more detailed and realised just what happened and how many had died.

My grandad died the same day.