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 21, quite heavily pregnant with my first baby and I was working in a call centre to get some extra money when a customer told me two planes had just flown into the twin towers.

When I got home, I remember my dad saying 'America is going to hit someone hard for this'

To me, it felt like a scary and apocalyptic time...

In our office, no TVs. The internet (as it was) crawled to a halt so no news there. We were getting updates from our press office in London because they had TVs. It was an odd, horrible day.

We were in Washington at the Arlington cemetery, heard the bang and then saw the smoke from the Pentagon. We had been in Manhattan the previous day. Rushed into West Virginia, looking at the sky to see if the 4th plane was still up there. Ended up in a hotel bar, convinced the world was going to end, with a bunch of rednecks who wanted to nuke the middle east. Worst thing was not being able to contact my children in the UK . I go to NYC each year to pay my respects at Ground Zero. Still so vivid.

I wondered what kind of world I was bringing my children up in.

Me too, I remember that thought.

I was 32 and pregnant with ds. In the upstairs office where I worked, and someone had the radio on. My first reaction was one of confusion, as I guess everyone’s was.

I don't recall the afternoon or watching anything happening at the time, but that evening I was painting skirting boards and listening to the radio. It was streaming a NY radio station which was giving New Yorkers the latest info about public transport, where to go for first aid, police helpline numbers, that sort of thing.
I was in work in the afternoon and we had no TV, just very slow internet access and the news websites were particularly slow.

@RosaWaiting

I do agree that there should not be movies made or re-enactment shows. Those to me seem vulture culture, people watching something so awful - because it is so awful.

This thread wasn’t about that though, it was about the moment it happened. No one will ever forget when they heard or saw it. I never choose to watch any of the footage for the above reason it feels grotesque - I do not want to see that again in my life but I have read articles written about the people who were in the towers during the attack and those who did survive and have suffered very bad health problems from the toxic gases. For so many people this has been 18 years of pain and suffering not just that one day, as we all managed to carry on with our lives unaffected

Perhaps I like others don’t want to forget what happened to all those people because that feels wrong to do so. I think that is empathy x

Mona Did your colleagues husband survive?

@RosaWaiting i never ment to upset you in anyway and i truly am sorry if i have.

Today is a very day even for those of us that weren't as close to the tragedy as others.

I just got thinking today i remember everything about that day. Nothing from the day before. Even the smallest details like what i had for tea and not being able to eat and exactly where i was when i got told i know all the lessons I'd had that day i couldn't tell you a single one from the day before.

That day is etched into peoples memories and it changed us all is ways. Life has never felt the same since there's always been fear since that day and every year since it's happened i do think of everyone who lost loved ones. 18 years may of gone but it's still as sad as the day it happened.

I just wondered if anyone else remembered that day as clearly as i do and i seems most do

I remember hearing it and thinking a little plane had accidentally bumped a building
Then I turned the TV on

I was working in London's square mile and my boss cane into our office and told us what was happening. Put it on the office TVs and was horrified. We were sent home as there was a threat that something similar might happen here. London was very quiet that day (but quiet panic) - getting home wasn't easy and very unnerving.

It was my office building that was bombed in 1996 - that was also very scary. Seeing the photos of my PC hanging out of a smashed window was upsetting. Thankfully, none of my colleagues were injured but the man in the nearby newsagents who I used to speak to daily, was sadly killed.

On holiday at a lovely resort in Portugal. DS was only a toddler.

It was surreal. Another tourist came to the poolside and shouted that there had been a terror attack in the US. We all collected our belongings and towels and went to watch the TV in one of the lounges. Everyone was very subdued and the telephone lines were jammed as everyone was trying to make phone calls.
We were meant to be coming back the next day, but of course airports were in lockdown.

I was at home with my six month old baby and FIL who was doing some DIY jobs for us. I heard the news music instead of what was supposed to be coming on so went to look at the tv just in time to see the second place hit. I thought it was a simulation of the first one and it took a while to realise it was a second plane.

I called or messaged dh who was in London to put the tv on and come home but he stayed at work, telling me everything would've okay there.

I watched the news for the rest of the day in complete shock and sadness and have cried many times when watching programmes and reading articles. Only last week there was an extract from the book called The Only Plane In The Sky and it's just incomprehensible.

I was cleaning my dd bedroom with the tv on and I remembered feeling narked because my usual programme wasn't on and I thought they had swapped to a disaster film. Such a shock when I realised..

I was lying on the sofa as I was off work sick. I was watching the report of the first plane and they were talking about it as if it were a terrible accident. Except on the live footage you could see the second plane coming it and you could see the realisation on the news readers faces. Horrific.

It was late where we lived, and my sister (9?) and I (13) were in bed whilst parents were reading in living room or something. Sister was listening to the radio on her Walkman and suddenly jumped up and ran out to tell parents something bad had happened and to switch on tv. We all sat there watching CNN live report the first tower... then the second one got hit. Remember thinking, even though at that moment nothing had been confirmed re terrorism, that this was something truly awful and scary. My mom was sat behind us on sofa weeping, and we stayed up for the next few hours as the reports came in.
Next day at our international school (across the world from the US) everyone looked shellshocked and mood was definitely subdued. We had a special assembly where our head talked about it and reassured us things were going to be ok etc. I had never known an event like that before, and could never have guessed how much of the whole world would change because of it.

I was at work, I just remember everyone worrying about how the USA would retaliate. Truly horrific time.

I was in a psychiatric ward & the tv was always on during the day. The news broke about the first plane. One of my fellow patients was joint American/British citizen from NYC. I remember holding her hand as the 2nd plane hit and later as we watched the towers crumble. There were a lot of tears across patients, nurses, doctors, religions.

I was at home (worked part-time and partly for myself). I'd been worrying about my friend, who had been ill, and he had just phoned to say he was better and that we should go for a drink that afternoon. I had the news on the telly for a bit while I was eating lunch, and then I turned it off and went round to meet him - I think the only bit I saw was the first plane hittting the first tower. I said when we met, some idiot's crashed a plane into one of the skyscrapers, some air traffic controller's having a shit day.
So we went to the pub and had a couple of drinks, and then someone put the pub telly on, so we left the pub and went back to his place instead.

I honestly don't understand how/why people can stand there gawping at the telly when something awful happens. It's bad enough to know that a lot of people have died and I don't know why you want to watch it over and over again. I have never seen more than the first few minutes of footage, because I see no need to watch it. I know what happened.

Yes. I switched on the news to listen to right before collecting my 23 year old from school. I remember feeling really bewildered - why was there an action film on instead of the news? - and then terrified because I had friends who lived literally within a mile of the WTC towers.

I remember standing in my daughter's primary school playground, and thinking how quiet it was. It was absolutely silent. And then all the innocent children came filing out, and it was pretty obvious their teachers hadn't been told, because they looked a bit askance at the unusual silence. No one could believe it.

I shielded my 5 year old from it for as long as I could. But I'll never forget that day. And then, on the plus side, 4 years later my best friend had a beautiful baby girl on the 11th of September, so... life moves on. As it should. But no; I can still picture that playground and hear the oppressive silence.

I lost one friend to that attack. We didn't find out until a few weeks later. Sometimes I think the not-knowing was easier than realising what he probably endured in that tower.

I was also in NY.

As posters have said upthread, I remember the silence, with no traffic buzzing about as usual. Everyone walking down the streets, towards the towers to get a better look.

Over the next few days I remember the fear that WW3 was starting and I'd be stuck in the US, miles from home.

I was 16 and just got home from college. I remember ringing my mum and telling her.

DH rang from work to say put the TV on, a plane has flown into the WTC. I was living room with the toddler and turned it on in time to see the second plane. I suppose I must have done the school run later but have no recollection of it at all.

That evening I phoned a friend whose DH had worked in the WTC until a few months before. Amazingly it turned out that his workmates all survived, but the DH of a former neighbour of theirs was killed.

I was pregnant at the time so am one of many who sat there thinking, what the hell world is this for my baby? I can still remember the depth of the shock.

I was in bed ,I was a nurse and had worked the night before and due to work that night i.was single and childless at the time so slept all.day I only heard about 6pm when I was having a bath and listening to the radio and news readers started talking about the atrocities in America .

Was on holiday with DH and DS1 (in Mallorca) who was just 18 months, came off the beach to watch the horror unfold.

Security on our flight home was very high.

I think we were shielded from the horror as we away.