Where were you?

[esoxlucius]

I don't need to tell you the significance of tomorrow's date. Whether you are American or otherwise, the events that unravelled on that fateful day 20 years ago will forever be remembered.

Where were you when the dreadful news started filtering through?

I was at work. We had no radios or televisions in the works area, and mobile phones back then were nothing like they are now, but one of the office girls had a tiny radio on her desk that she listened to whilst going about her work.

For the rest of the day snippets of info filtered down to the site where the guys were working. It wasn't until when I got home later that day when I switched on the TV that I saw the absolute devastation that had happened.

I was living on my own back then, i wouldn't meet my wife until 7 years later. I remember sitting in the armchair, numb, tears streaming down my face.

My thoughts tomorrow will be with the people who lost someone dear to them, or anybody else who's lives were changed forever by the tragic events which unfolded that day.
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[Jexnell]

It was my day off. I worked 4 tens and got Mon thru Wed off.
I wake up and turn the TV on, living in a studio apt six floors up in downtown Portland. I see news, was expecting something MTVish as that's the channel I was on. Half asleep I turn the channel, again it's news...so I start to actually pay attention to the news. Then it hits me, what is actually going on.
There I sat for three days watching it all unfold. The planes being grounded, the American flag showing up everywhere. My successful efforts to get one the day of to fly outside my window for years.
Sadly I watched as they fell live. Never in my life had I cried so hard.
My mom called frantically asking if I was OK, she had mistaken the first collapse for a building in downtown Portland that look very similar to the WTC.

I had to explain to a frantic mom that this wasn't happening in Portland, but in New York city.

 

[Rtc/tsn]

I wasn’t born yet but it’s my parents anniversary so funnily enough they go out she celebrate all day.

 

[fishguy1978]

I was newly married and putting my bride through college. I was an aviation major and sitting out so we could afford for her to finish. I worked fuel service at the local airport in Greenville, SC. The sky was clear blue and lovely when news came through the walkie talkie on my hip that an airplane had hit a building in NYC. We assumed it had gotten lost in bad weather. I watched the rest of the day's events live at work. I still cry even now. I'm in the Air Force now partly because of 09/11/01 the day before my birthday and a month and 7 days after my wedding anniversary.

 

[robmcd]

I had partied most of the night prior, and was woken up by my girlfriend at the times roommates. I was still in a daze from 3 hours of sleep when I watched what was going on. We went to get a juice a few blocks away and came back to both of the towers gone. I was on a 2 week break from work and was supposed to drive down to my house in Mexico that day, but they closed the borders. I was pretty much in shock that day and drank a lot of beer as well as smoked some stuff that was illegal at the time. We ended up in Mexico a day later as the border had opened and did our best to have a normal vacation, surfing, fishing, and riding motorcycles, but the reminders were everywhere we looked, even though we were in a different country.

 

[kno4te]

Was finishing up medical school at the time. I was away from home, queens ny. Soon as I heard about it I called my dad who was working in Manhattan. He was home safe, thankfully. I was glued to the tv after in utter sadness, panic and confusion. Felt like i was out of my body that day and the next. Cant unsee what i saw. RIP…to those lost that day. Also i hope for comfort and peace to those it truly affected.

I’m gonna hug my family a whole lot tomorrow. I hope all the mfk members do the same with their loved ones. Just don’t know what tomorrow brings!

 

[FJB]

I was in Cincinnati working as a science teacher, but was not teaching in the classroom at the time. Everybody piled to watch on the single tv set around, disbelieving the awful events going on. Awful.
It seems hard to believe that 20 years have already passed, and then again, at the same time it seems like forever ago!

 

[jjohnwm]

I was working in a downtown Toronto office building that was undergoing badly-needed renovation and restoration. I had one apprentice on the job with me, and he came into the work area and said "A jumbo jet just crashed into the World Trade Centre". I remember looking at him blankly; he said "I'm serious".

We watched the news in the staff lunch room; it was crowded but deadly silent. Most of us quietly left and went home, the normal end-of- day rush hour starting hours earlier than usual.

The video footage showing a jet striking the tower...it was not shown often, and not at all after only a day or so...burned itself into my head, along with footage of people, some holding hands, leaping to their deaths from the upper floors of the collapsing burning structure. Other images joined that collection of horrifying memories in ensuing days; the enraged NY Times headline demanding to "Nuke The B******s!" and the sickening television footage of a street celebration in the Middle East where a cheering crowd behaved as though the home team had just won the final game in some obscene sporting event.

I continued to commute into downtown Toronto to work for another ten years before moving out of Ontario. I don't think I ever drove in without thinking of that day as soon as the downtown skyscrapers became visible.

 

[Ulu]

I was having my first cuppa coffee and just preparing to get into the shower, when I turned on the TV and saw the tower on fire. I yelled for my wife to come and get out of the bathroom, and a few minutes later the second plane struck.

 

[krichardson]

I was at work,transporting clients in one of the company's vehicles and as I was driving I was listening to the breaking news on the radio....then it dawned on me that my aunt was up in NYC for work that day.