Where Were You on 9/11?

[iowawriter]

I love talking history with folks. Something which fascinates me is hearing how people received the news on that tragic day.

I was delivering a free ad paper the local weekly distributed on Tuesday in my small town. The bundles always arrived after breakfast so I was putting everything together while watching the news. My cat loved to play with the bundle ties. So as I watching and becoming more worried about what the heck was going on, my cat was wrestling with the ties as if she didn't have a concern in the world.

It was a beautiful day so I walked the route. I met a woman walking who complained the coverage of the tragedy was the only thing on television. She didn't grasp the enormity of what was happening.

I remember even KFMW, a hard rock/metal station, interrupted their playlists to pick up coverage. It was first time I could recall them doing that.

This is such a silly thing to mention, but it is a memory of mine from that time.

I was in my seventh season of covering Iowa high school football. The Friday night before, we had some massive rainstorms move through the state. Many games were postponed/concluded on Saturday or Monday night. I noticed kind of a difference in how schools did things. The weather had impacted the entire state, but eastern Iowa schools played through, while central and western Iowa games were more likely to be stopped.

Fast forward to Wednesday. I was at the public library in Winthrop. Winthrop is located about 25 miles to the west of where I lived at the time. Winthrop was (and is) a fantastic rural Iowa town. Home to the East Buchanan school district, Winthrop was full of nice, decent, caring and friendly people. The high school had about 200 kids. The town had a grocery store, several businesses and a beautiful library with a friendly staff. All of that along with the good times I had covering East Buchanan football games means Winthrop will always have a special place in my heart.

Anyway, I was at the library doing prep work for the Friday's games. The Iowa High School Athletic Association posted a notice to high schools in regards to those games. The article said they were going to allow schools to decide for themselves on whether to play on Friday night.

The NFL had postponed the coming weekend's slate of games and the MLB was also taking time off. So there was some debate if other levels of athletics should call off their events. The IHSAA was letting schools make their own decisions. I thought that was fair of them.

But then I saw an article about the situation in one of the state's dailies on Thursday. It quoted a school administrator who wished the IHSAA had provided more guidance. I rolled my eyes as I had often heard administrators say they wanted more local control. Well, they were given local control and didn't know what to do with it.

There were several games which were postponed to Saturday. Again, there were more of them in central and western Iowa than eastern Iowa. On the way to my game, I was listening to WHO-AM. They had an interview with one of the Des Moines area coaches who explained why it was important to play. After the interview, WHO said they had an update which was that coach's game was now also postponed.

I'm interested in hearing your memories.

[jfkbengals]

I was passed out on the couch from heavy drinking into the AM from the night before.

I woke up to the phone ringing, so I answered it. My buddy, who was with me the night before, only said "Turn on the TV". I asked "What channel?", to which he replied "any". As I was trying to clear my head to look for the remote, he stated "there's been an attack in NY, every channel is showing it". I'm still hazy on whether I actually saw the second plane hit live, or if it was a replay. Regardless, I was wide awake at that point.

[fredtoast]

I was in court. At first everyone thought the first plane was some kind of accident. After the second plane hit the judge continued all the cases except for the people in jail who might be able to get out. We had a TV in the courtroom with the sound turned down in case something else big happened. It was behind the judge's back.

I remember trying to present the argument of why my client should get out of jail while over the judge's shoulder I could see people jumping from the top floors of the WTC.

At that time I was dating a flight attendant from USAir. She was actually flying to New York that day. They were diverted to Albany and stayed there a few days. I don't remember exactly how she got back. I am pretty sure she flew back, but all commercial flights were supposed to be grounded.

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

I was in my second year of PA school doing my surgical rotation at WACH, Ft. Stewart.

[Jason_NC]

I was working for a small pharmaceutical company in Rockville, MD, which is about 15 miles from Washington DC. I had just finished taking samples of a water system I was validating. I got back to my office a little after 9 and turned on the radio to listen to Dr. Laura. They were talking about a plane that had crashed into one of the towers. I thought it was a little private plane and someone hit a tower by accident. I was listening when the second plane hit. I knew then it was no accident. There was a TV in the cafeteria so it was turned on and I watched some of it. I was still at work when a plane crashed into the Pentagon, about 18 miles away. Being close to DC there were always planes flying overhead, but not that day. The silence was erie. I said to a coworker "I feel like I'm in a Bruce Willis movie." I was watching when the towers collapsed.

One week later I was on a plane from Baltimore to Providence Rhode Island. This was before they had changed the flight patterns and we flew directly over "ground zero" and smoke was still rising from where the towers once stood.

About a month later I met the woman I'm now married to.

[HarleyDog]

I was working for BNSF Logistics then as a freight broker. I started learning of the attack on calls with customers so we turned on the TV in the breakroom. One guy in the office was spouting off "I guarantee it's terrorist's" but nobody paid much attention to him until the second plane hit. Then, we were sure he was right. I remember that morning here in Ohio. It was a very calm and beautiful morning. I still think of 9/11 often on calm sunny mornings.

A girl laughed when the second plane hit. She still feels like shit today. One of the guys in the office looked her dead in the eyes and said, "You do realize there were people in that building and on that plane. Her smile quickly turned to grief and she was heartbroke. I doubt she will ever forgive herself. She even bought a book with pictures from TIME that showed people falling to their deaths and the destruction. Felt kinda bad for her as she sat right next to me at work and she was consumed with it.

One thing I won't forget was the vibe between Americans. There was no race and no divisiveness. We were just Americans united as one. Didn't last long, but it was good for a moment if anything good could have really come from it all. I know that attack touched my heart, as did many, and I will never forget.

[BFritz21]

Came into class and saw everyone staring at the TV.

I quickly read the subtitles, realized what was going on, and my mind immediately shot to my cousin, who played football at Columbia and then got a job at Cantor Fitzgerald (whose offices were on the top floors of World Trade Center 1, but I didn't know where the offices were, just that he worked there). His brother was my Godfather and fell off an overpass coming home from a Reds game when I was in 2nd grade and was in a coma for three years before dying, so I'm thinking "we can't be this unlucky to have something happen again," but I had the worst feeling in my stomach.

Just before lunch, I was called into the gym and saw my dad sitting in the stands with a blank look on his face and I knew........

[masonbengals fan]

I was at work. Maintenance mechanic in a coal fired power plant at that point. Came in for break and were told about it. We had a old tv in a spare operations office next to our break room that barely picked up. We watched in horror of what unfolded. Young & old alike.

[*jason*]

(09-07-2020, 11:56 AM)jfkbengals Wrote: I was passed out on the couch from heavy drinking into the AM from the night before.

I woke up to the phone ringing, so I answered it. My buddy, who was with me the night before, only said "Turn on the TV". I asked "What channel?", to which he replied "any". As I was trying to clear my head to look for the remote, he stated "there's been an attack in NY, every channel is showing it". I'm still hazy on whether I actually saw the second plane hit live, or if it was a replay. Regardless, I was wide awake at that point.

Very similar to me... I just let the phone keep ringing, but it was blowing up. It'd already happened when I answered and turned on the TV. They were still showing it though, and I remember my confusion as to if I was watching it live... I do remember asking my buddy's girlfriend who was the call that I answered..."Who did it?... Bin Laden?".

[*jason*]

Kind of a cool aside but John Thompson former Georgetown coach who just passed was supposed to be on one of those flights, but changed his plans at the last minute when one of Jim Rome's staff begged him to help him out of a jam to appear on the show. That guy bought John Thompson 2 more decades of life.

[Goalpost]

I worked kind of a 12 to 9 schedule so I was home. I was watching CNBC like I normally do...squawk box in the morning. Mark Haines, who died suddenly about 10 years later, delivered the 1st news story on the channel and word was that a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. Shortly after that, the other tower got hit, and immediately he said, well, this is obviously a terror attack going on. Watched the rest of it as it happened, the pentagon, etc. CNBC, being a business channel, had a lot of guests appear on their show, and I still remember some of the guests that ending up dying who worked in the towers...mainly from Cantor Fitzgerald.

[*rfaulk34*]

I was standing by the half wall in our front shop just before heading out at 9 to do my first call when i heard the report come over the intercom/radio speaker that we have running 24/7, that a plane had hit one of the towers. I remember thinking "how the hell does someone not see a tower that big? Get in my truck--at that time, i was listening to AM news stations in the morning--and heard that a second plane had hit and realized what was going on. After doing my first call i was coming down Carthage Ave in Norwood, just before Ross when they said one of the towers had collapsed. I remember it feeling like all my organs instantly dropped to the seat, like i couldn't imagine a 110 story building collapsing in the middle of NYC. 

At the time, there was a hardware store further down on Montgomery rd and i had to stop in there to pick up some stuff, so i was watching a little on their tv before i had to leave. Spent the rest of the work day in a semi-daze before going home and watching the news all night with my wife. 

To this day, i still spend hours and hours rewatching documentaries and specials on that day, around this time of year. 

[CarolinaBengalFanGuy]

(09-07-2020, 03:07 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: I was working for BNSF Logistics then as a freight broker. I started learning of the attack on calls with customers so we turned on the TV in the breakroom. One guy in the office was spouting off "I guarantee it's terrorist's" but nobody paid much attention to him until the second plane hit. Then, we were sure he was right. I remember that morning here in Ohio. It was a very calm and beautiful morning. I still think of 9/11 often on calm sunny mornings.

A girl laughed when the second plane hit. She still feels like shit today. One of the guys in the office looked her dead in the eyes and said, "You do realize there were people in that building and on that plane. Her smile quickly turned to grief and she was heartbroke. I doubt she will ever forgive herself. She even bought a book with pictures from TIME that showed people falling to their deaths and the destruction. Felt kinda bad for her as she sat right next to me at work and she was consumed with it.

One thing I won't forget was the vibe between Americans. There was no race and no divisiveness. We were just Americans united as one. Didn't last long, but it was good for a moment if anything good could have really come from it all. I know that attack touched my heart, as did many, and I will never forget.

I use BNSF now at work to move some of our loads.

As for 9/11 I honestly don't remember much. I know I was in class when it happened. I went to a private school, but I'm pretty sure we finished the school day. I definitely wasn't familiar with the World Trade Center. Sure I had seen it in pictures but not something I thought of. Ya'll all older than me though I was like 12 at the time. Most of my thoughts on the day came later when I was fascinated with reading stories and watching documentaries about it. I don't think at the time it happened I watched much coverage on it.

[Wes Mantooth]

I was on a job site in a big building downtown (Cincinnati). It was my last year of college and I took a part time job as a helper for Heating and Air Co. that I did on my days off from school (Tues and Thurs).

It was pretty wild, as this place was being completely remodeled, so there was no one in this huge building expect about 20 guys working in different areas. Obviously there weren't any TV's nearby.

One trades guy from another company had a small radio, and he was basically relaying back any news or updates to the various people working. But everyone kind of had there own stuff to do, and you had about 4 different companies there doing misc stuff (HVAC, Electrical, Carpenters). So you didn't really know anyone other than the people you worked with. It's not like we could all just huddle around this dude's radio all day.

So I really didn't know a whole lot until I got home that night. Obviously I knew the initial plane hit, and then the 2nd. But there were so many different reports relayed back (2nd and 3rd hand) about maybe the Pentagon being hit, etc., that you didn't really know what was what.

I often think back to that day just as a reminder of how much the world has changed. I couldn't really follow or understand what was happening until about 6 o'clock that night. At that time I had a cell phone that was basically used for emergencies only that I kept in the car. There were no smartphones or texts, or any of that.

It's really strange to think about now, just how disconnected we really were. Probably the biggest story of my entire life and I spent a good 8 hours not being able to follow it. What I knew was relayed back to me from some dude i didn't know, who was listening on a battery powered radio, a floor up from me.

Obviously when I got home that's all we watched. I still lived at home with mom, who's now passed. Thinking back, the best word to describe all of it was surreal. It really felt like a day that was pulled right out of dream.

[MileHighGrowler]

I was in high school at the time, but was home and mowing the lawn. My sister came out and told me a plane hit a building in NYC. I was confused and my first thought was small passenger plane, sad but not completely unknown to happen. When the second plane hit she came out to find out why I wasn't inside watching what was happening. I had no idea what I was walking into when I saw that. Like Wes said, changed the world that day in so many ways.

It feels like it was just yesterday. And then I stop and realize the kids going into college now weren't even alive when it happened and I realize just how long ago it actually was!

[WiregrassBenGal]

It was a normal Tuesday morning at a message paging center where I worked at the time, in Altamonte Springs, FL. This type of business no longer exists, but on that morning we were busy taking calls for doctor's hospitalist groups, a national propane company, and scads of smaller commercial accounts. The training manager and operations manager ladies started frantically trying to set up a box TV on a cart so we could all see. Both of them looked stressed, so I asked Colleen the training manager what was going on. She said, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." Huh? Well, that wasn't very smart. I thought it was a little Cessna or something, but no she said. It was a 747. Oooh. That's gonna do some damage. She and Tammy got the TV set up just in time for us to see the second plane hit, live.

After that it was surreal. Our call volume suddenly dropped as the whole world was watching at that point. We still had to stay logged in for what calls came through though. An hour or so later, when the first tower fell, crumbling into dust, I was so upset I jumped up with the headset still on. I started babbling, "They blew up the World Trade Center! They blew up the World Trade Center." I must have looked freaked out and stressed by then since the manager told me to go home early.

[CKwi88]

8th grade language arts. Blue period. Mrs. Eustis. I grew up on the CT/MA border and their was a mini-golf place called "The Twin Silos". When the announcement came on I though there was a small plane accident. Then in Yellow period History with Mr. Savoie the TVs came out and kids really realized the magnitude of it all. My uncle worked on Wall St. and took into the WTC every morning. Was a couple blocks away. Always would say what he remembered most were all the women's shoes that were left in the street as people were running.

I've been thinking a lot about 9/11 recently with all the coronavirus stuff going on. I always thought that nothing would surpass 9/11 as THE event of my generation. I considered it to be THAT thing I would undoubtedly tell any future kids or grandkids about, much like my old man telling me about the moon landing, or JFK's assassination.

It's wild to me that my one year old won't remember any of this, assuming humanity gets its stuff together over the next year. 9/11 certainly changed a lot, but Covid has certainly overtaken it in my mind.

[*jason*]

(09-08-2020, 05:02 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: 8th grade language arts. Blue period. Mrs. Eustis. I grew up on the CT/MA border and their was a mini-golf place called "The Twin Silos". When the announcement came on I though there was a small plane accident. Then in Yellow period History with Mr. Savoie the TVs came out and kids really realized the magnitude of it all. My uncle worked on Wall St. and took into the WTC every morning. Was a couple blocks away. Always would say what he remembered most were all the women's shoes that were left in the street as people were running.

I've been thinking a lot about 9/11 recently with all the coronavirus stuff going on. I always thought that nothing would surpass 9/11 as THE event of my generation. I considered it to be THAT thing I would undoubtedly tell any future kids or grandkids about, much like my old man telling me about the moon landing, or JFK's assassination.

It's wild to me that my one year old won't remember any of this, assuming humanity gets its stuff together over the next year. 9/11 certainly changed a lot, but Covid has certainly overtaken it in my mind.

9/11 and Covid 19 are very similar in one way. Both of them destroyed the idea that our geographic location insulated us from the dangers that "they" face "over there".

[Bengal Dude]

Freshmen year of high school. I was getting ready that morning to head to school. My dad was supposed to pick my mom up at the airport that afternoon. He called her to iron out the plans of picking her up. She was the one who broke the news to him. It was strange to me because my dad always had some kind of news program on whenever he watched TV, this just happened to be the one day where he wasn't watching it. 

School was just a weird day. The way our schedule operated we only three classes a day. I had science and we were basically just glued to the TV for the 1 hour 45 minutes of class. I honestly don't even remember what my other two classes were that day. We had football practice after school and I remember being relieved when our OL/DL/DC coach wasn't there. I think his wife was in the national guard so he was with her that day. 

We never really talked about it, but everyone seemed to just be in a fog for a week after that.

[Goalpost]

As a side note, the prior Xmas I received a pair of shorts as a gift, which I thought was odd, considering it was December. My parents then referenced that they were Bermuda shorts, which was their way of indicating there was a family cruise scheduled for Bermuda. The ship that summer exited out of NY city, which was cool to fly into and witness the skyscrapers. When we left by ship, we traveled right by the World Trade Center...and it was amazing to see. Took pictures of it, etc, It was a remarkable sight. You could understand that with people who hate us why they were a specific target. It's still hard to fathom that just a couple months later those twin towers were just leveled. You could be awe struck just by one of the buildings, but two next to each other, truly was a sight see'r.