I was at work, and a friend sent me an email; he said, "Did you hear a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?" Like many of you, my first thought was some poor person had a heart attack while flying a small plane and crashed. At that point, who could conceive of someone purposefully flying a plane into a building? Then someone told me another plane had crashed into the other tower. And then we knew...and it seemed to get worse and worse.

A bright blue September sky, with just the right amount of crisp coolness in the airI will never seem so innocent again. Remember what a beautiful day it started out to be?

Where were you when it happened? What were you doing? Did you spend a few days glued to the tv, hoping for a bit of good news?

I was at work when it happened. It was a nightmare. I remember I had a patient come in for a physical who had JUST dropped her grand-daughter off at one of the Towers for work and on the way to my office she heard the news. She was inconsoleable.
All roads going to NYC were closed. It took me hours to get home because I was detoured all over the place.
We attended candle light vigils, prayer services, and put flowers and flags on cars that remained parked of those who never made it back home that day.
Sad doesnt even describe the feeling.....

God Bless all the victims, their families and all those affected by 9/11.

I was at work. My boss had just called in to say she was running late, but was on her way, but that I should go check out the news because a plane had crashed in the WTC. I turned on the tv in the service customer lounge (I worked in the office of a car dealership) just in time to see the second plane crash. I will never forget how cold I felt as my stomach hit the floor. The whole day felt surreal. It seemed no one wanted to speak much above a whisper. The dealership felt like a ghost town. The phone didn't ring. Because I worked so close to NYC (about 40 minutes away), I saw convoys passing me on the other side of the highway as I made my way hope that afternoon. Eleven days later my Gram suffered a stroke... and I will forver associate that time with when my entire world was turned upside down.

I was home alone and my dad called and told me what was going on, so I turned on the TV. By the time he called me, the towers had already collapsed and I remember he told me they were gone and I truly thought he'd misunderstood. I remember saying to him, "That's crazy, how can they be gone?"

J was in Mexico on business and I remember the worry of how and when he could get safely home again. (It took a while!)

And one of my memories of that time was how eerily silent and still the sky was for days afterward, with no planes in the sky.

At that time I was working 2nd shift and had just gone to bed at about 2AM. My husband woke me up when the first plane hit and I spent the day numb and in disbelief sitting glued to the TV. Something that would persist for days.

My father was working on the floor of the Stock Exchange at the time and there was a period of hours where we had no idea where he was or if he was ok.

Mama Kelly

I was at work. My sister and I worked together then, and we heard a bunch of students talking about it in the hall. I immediately turned on the radio, and we tried in vain to get CNN's website to load. I remember calling my husband, calling my mother, to make sure they heard the news. My husband called and told me to go home--we live in Texas and obviously were in no danger, but he wanted me home anyway. I was glued to the television until I reached saturation point and knew that I couldn't take it anymore. So I read "The Railway Children" in an attempt to distract myself. It was so unreal. I couldn't have imagined anything like it.

It was gorgeous. I was with my best friends husband. He is a reading guru and the school was trying to put my 5 year old daughers into special ed because they could not read very well. Needless, to say we did not have the meeting as we watched the TV.

It was an odd time. I remember the first time I heard a plane after that and got scared.

That day is etched deeply in my memory. It impacted work & family, and left my world changed forever.
My recollection is posted ~ SW

I was in my dorm room when my friend imed me about it. What an awful day, not sure what was going on, what was going to happen...

I was driving to work when they broke in on the radio that a plane had hit the WTC. No one knew the extent or serious of the situation at that time.

I can't say that I was glued to the TV after that, as my son was only a second grader at that time and I wanted to limit his exposure. I kept him informed, but not overwhelmed. Too many kids saw too much in the weeks to follow, IMHO. I tried to keep it age appropriate.

I was getting ready for work, and was just coming down the stairs. The the first tower was on the TV, smoking. I remember thinking, "This looks like a Tom Clancy movie, but that can't be because the image is wrong... this is live... oh my God." Then my husband and son told me what was happening. We all saw the second impact. I saw the first tower collapse while they were in the kitchen with breakfast.

I went on to work, though of course my students were hardly focusing. One of my co-workers was distraught, as one son worked in the towers (it turned out he didn't go to work that day) and one son worked in the Pentagon (not in the part of the building affected.)

...

I was at home flipping between M*A*S*H and the Today Show when tney broke in with the news. I too thought it was a small plane that had lost its way. I took a shower, and when I got out the second plane had hit. I left my apartment and followed the trail of smoke until I heard screams from the waterfront. I called out to a guy to ask what happened, and he said, "The whole freaking tower just fell." I looked at the other burning building in utter shock, then ran back to a friend's apartment only to learn that the other tower had fallen. Then I booked it out of town, heading for my parents, staring at the Statue of Liberty from the Jersey turnpike and praying that if it was next, I wouldn't have to see it.
Luckily, I didn't lose anyone I knew that day, although two people in my building did work there. . . they got out okay. Not only do I mourn for the 3,000 people killed that day, I mourn for those buildings that were destroyed. They were beautiful.