24 years ago

[1Cane]

 I was starting a new job as Carpenter foreman on a gymnasium  off of Central downtown LA. On the drive in I heard an aircraft had stuck  a building in New York City I just assumed it was a light aircraft and started new job. There is constant noise on these sites, nearby traffic, equipment moving hammering talking etc. Finally I had to stop and really listen  for something was amiss, it took a bit but there was no aircraft noise. I went into office and learned the news.
 It was 90 min to 2 hour commute home and the next day while driving home got a little depressed because there was going to be a fight and I was to old to be in it for payback.
  Where were you that day?

[Animl-AW]

Ya, I was in bed, GF (later my wife) called and told me. I said “BS!, funny, I’ll call ya back when I wake up “ and hung up. Phone rings again, “No, really, turn on the tv”.  “Ok thats a bad accident”, then the next ine hit right as I said it. <blank stare> WTF!!!

[The Fugitive]

I had taken the day off from work. I was flying Aces High and someone put out on 200 that a plane had slammed into the World Trade Center. I turned on the TV and watched it all unfold with the people that were still in the game.

[Eagler]

Flipped tv on in office at work when I heard about the 1st tower in time to see the 2nd one get hit..

So is the world a safer place with all the changes that event brought about?

Sure as heck isn't any more sane..

Eagler

[Rocco]

I was in high school. I had just dropped off my mom at work and turned on the radio in the middle of the news. Once they mentioned the Pentagon I was sure it was a joke, my go-to radio station liked to joke around, but no punchline came. I went through 5 other stations saying the same thing before I believed it. Ran in and told my mom, then spent the day watching the news come in at school.

It's funny, I remember that moment so vividly. But I don't remember why my sister wasn't there. I usually drove her to school too. Must have been sick that day or something.

[Shuffler]

I was at our shop. We shut down and sent everyone home. Schools let out here and parents were picking them up. No one knew if there would be more attacks. We just prepared for the worst.

[DmonSlyr]

<S> to the men and woman who died that day and to the thousands of men and woman who fought for us years after that to maintain peace and security in our country. 

I was in 5th grade going into social studies class. Waiting outside for the class to be over, wondering why kids were being checked out. Once I saw it, was completely heartbroken.

I was a bit too young to understand then, but after many years of research and understanding because of this event I've grown not to be naive and complacent about what is going on. Its taken many a while to understand, its easier when you are younger to accept a different realization because older folks are stern already in their perspectives. They didnt have phones with internet attached to their hip with breaking news instantly in their hands to do various amounts of research and collection from all over the world. Hopefully more continue to wake up and do more research.

 

[LNG15]

I was 5 at that time. I was in the kitchen and accidentally had my late uncle's White Castle coffee and he gave me a hard time about it for years after. But I do remember seeing the towers burning and thinking what was going on? My 5 year old mind at that time thought it was one of the skyscrapers in Cincinnati, but it wasn't and that's when it hit that it was New York. Thinking about it 24 years later, we got him in 2011. I always think of that day in the back of my mind and remembering 2003 when Iraqi Freedom kicked off. Crazy!

[eddiek]

I was working night shift at the local hospital in the town where we lived.
One of my coworkers, another nurse, came into my house and woke me up to tell me about it.  I was too groggy to understand what she was trying to tell me, until she grabbed the TV remote and turned on the TV. 
That was right after the first plane hit......she left, I fell back asleep, she called a bit later to ask if I had seen the second plane hit.......no, I fell asleep.
Left the TV on, dozed off and on, woke up when the voices on TV sounded like something bad had happened, saw the footage of the towers collapsing.  Back to sleep.
Later that afternoon, of the four places to get fuel in Wheeler, TX, three of them had raised their gas prices to over $4/gallon, citing orders from their suppliers.  The remaining one left their fuel prices the same.  Lots of hard feelings amongst the town folk over those who raised their prices so drastically, not sure how long it took for them to recover.......one never did I think, he closed his doors less than a year later. 
Let's just say, I didn't realize the significance of the event at the time.  Whether from lack of sleep, or that the mentality of "I'm in Texas, what does something happening in New York City have to do with me?", it didn't dawn on me til the following days just how big an event it was.

[Devil 505]

I was a senior in high school. I went to a technical school and was in the auto shop that morning. The usual tasks for the auto shop students on the first week of school was to do all the maintenance on the fleet of school vans. I was at the front desk grabbing the keys for a van when one of my classmates barrels into the shop in another van and comes to a literal screeching halt in the middle of the shop. He leans out of the window and wells, "You all need to listen to this sh*t!" We all huddled around this van listening to Howard Stern relay the events unfolding with total professionalism - very much against his brand. I've never been a fan of his, but I'll always respect the man. I never even saw the footage until lunch time.

[Randy1]

I watched the whole thing happen on TV.  I now know what Pearl Harbor felt like on Dec 7th.  It hurts now just as much as it did on 9/11.  Tears and anger are hard to forget.

When you hear people squeak about our government, but be sure our and other countries government personnel rose to great heights that day and many, many  days thereafter. 

[Busher]

I was taxiing an airliner for departure. The ground controller told us our clearance was cancelled and to return to the gate. The crew saw the horror of the day on the crew room television when we went inside.

[AKKuya]

I was home on my day off from work.  Back when I still paid for cable TV.  Turning on the TV, I hit the line up button to scroll through the programming and settled on the new Jet Li film.  Part way through the film, the phone rang (landline).  My brother asked if I knew what was happening?  He told me when I said no.  I changed channel to cable news and showing recaps of the towers already collapsed.

My personal connection.  Earlier that summer, I visited a flight school at my airport in Deland, FL.  The instructor gave me a tour of the facility including a flight sim room for students.  Among them were the usual students of foreign birth including Middle Eastern.  That was normal with ERAU over at Daytona Beach.  Plus, over at Skydive Deland were many foreign skydivers.  I had always been accustomed to this as a teenager when participating in aviation events as a cadet in Civil Air Patrol.

A couple of the hijackers took flight instruction at that school.  The day I was there.  Was I in a room with them for a few minutes?  I'll never know.  Statistically, the odds are very against me.  I try not to think about this any more except on anniversary day or telling this when conversation turns to this.

[Getback]

I was at work.

I saw a woman waving a flag over I70 today. God Bless her!