Where were you/What were you doing when you heard...09/11

I was in third grade, and all I remember is my teacher freaking out, and like none of us know what was happening and then my mom came and picked me up.
 
My parents woke me up from a solid sleep telling me to run to the tv. I was in nursing school at the time. I sat, stared in belief at the first tower being hit and then saw the second plane hit the other tower. I called the school only to be told I did have to attend both classes and clinicals. All my family had work cancelled and I was not home for 12 hours to try to catch up. I watched tv all night and felt such profound grief.
 
I was at home making breakfast for my dad. We had a tv in the kitchen and we were watching the Today show. They were showing what I thought was reruns of the first plane hitting. I then realized that it was the second plane hitting the other tower. We were just glued to the tv watch such a tragedy happening. I remember crying all day. I still cry every time I see a story about 9/11. Such a great loss for our country.
My prayer go out to all who suffered on that fateful day.
 
I've been avoiding this thread for a while. I was at work that morning. I'm a State Employee working on a National Guard base. At the time I worked for the Directorate of Military Support (DOMS). They coordinate various National Guard support in the community, everything from loaning tables and chairs and/or tents to some group holding a large activity, to providing water for cities under a boil order, to soldiers helping out during ice storms or tornados or other natural disasters, to providing military support for visiting politicians. That morning, I'd argued with my oldest daughter, who at the time was 7 and an only child. She and I have horrible time management skills and are perpetually late for everything. Any attempts on my part to hurry her up resulted in her being grumpy and an argument often ensued. To compound my mood, every poor/slow driver on the road seemed to be in front of me. I wasn't in the mood for what my favorite radio station was playing, so I’d put in a CD – Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt, but I don’t recall what song. My boss came in from a meeting somewhere else and, in very serious and intense tone of voice, asked if I was listening to the radio. I replied no, that I was listening to a CD. He told me that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York and there was a possibility a second plane had hit the other tower. By time we got to the break room (at the back of the building) and turned on the TV, the second strike was confirmed.

When we heard The Pentagon had been hit, one of my co-workers, who had just returned from National Guard Bureau (located in The Pentagon) said “Does anyone have a cell phone I can borrow?! Mine won’t get a signal here and I’ve got to call my mom. I was supposed to still be in DC this week and she doesn’t know I came home early!” I offered mine and quickly retrieved it from my desk saying “You’ll have to go outside, it won’t get a signal in here.” Then I directed him to the best spot behind the building to get a decent signal.

Lula said:
I was in third grade, and all I remember is my teacher freaking out, and like none of us know what was happening and then my mom came and picked me up.
Click to expand...

My oldest daughter was in the third grade too. [Correction - she was in the second grade.] She was really freaked out for a while about the possibility of us being attacked here in Arkansas, especially since my husband worked in one of the taller buildings in Little Rock, for the Federal Reserve Bank, and I worked on a military base. To her, Little Rock was a really big and important city. I tried reassuring her that it’s actually a pretty small city, but that didn’t work. Telling her how many floors the building in the Twin Tower had and how many the tallest building in Little Rock had (a figure I actually knew at the time), but it still didn’t help. Finally, I dug out a bunch of pennies, one for each floor in the shorter of the Twin Towers and one for each floor in the tallest building in Little Rock. I laid them out in rows of ten and had her compare the two groups. Once she had a visible illustration of how much smaller than New York City Little Rock really is, she finally began to relax.
 
I was a sophmore in high school at the time...Our Spanish teacher mentioned something about a plane hitting one of the towers. At first we thought it was an accident. I had a free period the next class and was able to go home. When I got home my dad had told me everything and I sat in shock and disbelief. Many times I went to the very top of the twin tower observation deck/windows of the world. I live in North New Jersey just outside of the city so we could see the smoke that day...It was all so surreal. And it was just weird not to see those two buildings there after growing up and seeing them all the time. ITs still weird to look at lower Manhattan and not see those towers. It'll always be like that I suppose. I did go back to school after that and it was so sad to see everyone crying...I had a few friends who had parents working in the towers or in that area who couldn't get a hold of their parents. I'll never forget that feeling in my stomach. Thankfully all my close friends parents that were there were ok. It'll be a day I'll never forget and I hope we never see something of that magnitude again.
 
It was a little after six am and my husband and I were both on a treadmill at the gym watching in live time as the second plane hit the building. The idea that the building could actually collapse did not even seem possible. When the impossible happened, it was so shocking, and heartbreaking, even today it does not seem real. I am happy you are alive BlueEye, and so sorry for the ones you lost.
 
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