What were you doing 10 years ago today?

buckeye2
buckeye2 Member Posts: 428 Member
in Colorectal Cancer #1
I was in my office talking to a parent when the secretary came in and said someone called and said a plane flew into the Pentagon. I didn't realize the ramifications of that until we turned on the TV and saw the Twin Towers. I was a middle school principal in building shared with a high school. I went down to speak with the high school principal and we tried to contact the Superintendent who was out of the district at a meeting. The decision to be made was what to tell the students. We had students as young as 9 up to 19 year olds. We didn't want to scare the younger ones but realized some of the older students might be called upon to fight for their country over this incident. We decided to have teachers share with their students what was occurring rather than risk the rumor mill. What we didn't know at the time was that those fourth graders would also be subject to fighting for their country over this incident. I don't think we have lost any of those students to the war although have had many serve, one who has lost a leg.

The main thing I remember is that I just wanted to be home with my own children and the feeling of depression the days following the attacks.

Comments

  • abrub
    abrub Member Posts: 2,174 Member
    #2
    I had just gotten into my car
    after a shoulder MRI, and turned on the radio part way into the event. At first, I thought that this was a broadcast of a prior event. I had no sense of it being current, and I was trying to figure it out. Then the second plane flew into the other tower, and I realized that this was NOW. I used to work in one of the towers - I wondered about my former colleagues (the business had moved out 3 weeks prior.)

    My brother, a lawyer, was in the subway, heading to lower Manhattan for a court hearing, but wasn't allowed out - didn't know what was happening. His wife saw the planes hit.

    My close friend who worked in the towers was late to work that morning, which saved his life.

    What a terrifying day!
  • ketziah35
    ketziah35 Member Posts: 1,145
    #3
    abrub said:

    I had just gotten into my car
    after a shoulder MRI, and turned on the radio part way into the event. At first, I thought that this was a broadcast of a prior event. I had no sense of it being current, and I was trying to figure it out. Then the second plane flew into the other tower, and I realized that this was NOW. I used to work in one of the towers - I wondered about my former colleagues (the business had moved out 3 weeks prior.)

    My brother, a lawyer, was in the subway, heading to lower Manhattan for a court hearing, but wasn't allowed out - didn't know what was happening. His wife saw the planes hit.

    My close friend who worked in the towers was late to work that morning, which saved his life.

    What a terrifying day!

    I was at work I worked
    I was at work I worked across the street from the state capitol building. We saw it on TV. Like then I knew this was bad and went back to work. I should have gone hme witH the rest of the people$

    What a life changing day!
  • laurettas
    laurettas Member Posts: 372
    #4
    A friend called to inform me
    A friend called to inform me of what was happening so I turned on the TV and watched the horror with a teen-aged foster child that we was living with us at the time. Had to take him to school and then watched the unfolding events throughout the day. It all seemed very surreal.
  • Lovekitties
    Lovekitties Member Posts: 3,364 Member
    #5
    Day of my greatest fear
    I was watching tv in my home in Florida, so I saw all that live broadcasting was capturing. My immediate concern was to know exactly where each of my family members were, as they all were living in Northern Virginia. Prayers were answered when all were well.

    For days I watched nothing but the news, wanting to escape from it but feeling I had to know whatever was happening.

    While we all can visualize the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that day, my greatest admiration goes to those on the flight which crashed in PA. Those passengers took control of their destiny, saving untold lives which might have been lost had the hijackers been able to get that plane to their planned destination.

    May we never forget that each day is precious.
  • karen40
    karen40 Member Posts: 211 Member
    #6
    Home
    I was home. I just moved to a Chicago suburb from Chicago. I got my boys off to school and turned on the radio. I could not make sense of what was going on. It was on every radio station. I turned on my t.v. and seen the second plane go into the second tower. I was mortified and scared. I didn't know what to do. I went outside. I looked around. The streets were quiet. I couldn't understand why people were not up in arms. I ran back in the house and called the kids' schools. I was told school would resume as normal. It made no sense to me. I called my father. He worked for the City of Chicago. His place of work would have been a prime target. Thank God, he was off work that day. I than called my now x-husband who also had some work in down town Chicago that day. I couldn't get in touch with him. I was panic stricken. It wasn't long after, I received a call and learned my x-husband was o.k. I continue to watch the t.v. I watched day and night for weeks. I have certain images scorched in my brain forever. Today is a very sad day.
    Karen

    -It was nice to hear Peter Jennings voice today in the old 9-11 footage. God rest his soul - Lung Cancer. He went back to smoking during the 9-11 crisis. I do miss his broadcasts.
  • Daffodil324
    Daffodil324 Member Posts: 59
    #7
    10 years ago today
    I was in my classroom for high school students with intellectual disabilities that morning. My aide had taken some paperwork to the office, and when she came back she told me that they had the TV on in the office and that there had been a plane crash in New York. I always discussed current events with my students so I put our TV on too to see the news about the plane crash. As we watched the reports about what we'd first thought was an accident, we saw the first tower fall and the second plane hit the second tower. The news started coming in about Washington and the third plane. My students didn't seem frightened, but were very quiet and serious and watched intently. I remember telling them that what they were watching would be in history books some day, and that they should always remember that they had watched it happen on live TV.
  • Annabelle41415
    Annabelle41415 Member Posts: 6,742 Member
    #8
    Terrible
    Was at home watching TV, had just turned it on after the first plane struck and called my husband. Just thought it was a small airplane that had engine failure. We were talking and then told my husband another plane hit. We knew something was on and something was wrong. He then went to watch TV in their break area and we both continued to watch the events unfold. It was devestating. Even today tears come to my eyes watching the ceremonies taking place. We went to ground zero on July 5, 2002 and it was still devestating. The amount of people visiting was unreal.

    Let us never forget.

    God Bless America

    Kim
  • marqimark
    marqimark Member Posts: 242 Member
    #9
    Sleeping
    Happened at 6in the morning Alaska time.

    Reminded me of Oklahoma City, Shuttle Columbia or JFK only much larger. All were terrible losses and left us feelin helpless.

    Thank God we got the ****/s -- sorry about the langauge.

    Mark
  • LivinginNH
    LivinginNH Member Posts: 1,456 Member
    #10
    I was in my office when a

    I was in my office when a couple of my co-workers ran in asking me where they could find a television. At first we thought it was a small plane that hit, so we went back to work, but then the library in our atrium turned on two televisions, and we soon discovered that it was so much worse. Within minutes about two hundred of us were either standing in front of the tv's or looking over the rails at the televisions on the lower floor. We stood there transfixed at the horror that was unfolding, until the Pentagon was hit. The alarms then sounded, and it was announced over the loud speakers that we were now at Level Delta, and soon soldiers were running down the corridors with machine guns ordering us out of the building. We lost several friends at the Pentagon that day...

    God Bless America
  • plh4gail
    plh4gail Member Posts: 1,238 Member
    #11
    LivinginNH said:

    I was in my office when a

    I was in my office when a couple of my co-workers ran in asking me where they could find a television. At first we thought it was a small plane that hit, so we went back to work, but then the library in our atrium turned on two televisions, and we soon discovered that it was so much worse. Within minutes about two hundred of us were either standing in front of the tv's or looking over the rails at the televisions on the lower floor. We stood there transfixed at the horror that was unfolding, until the Pentagon was hit. The alarms then sounded, and it was announced over the loud speakers that we were now at Level Delta, and soon soldiers were running down the corridors with machine guns ordering us out of the building. We lost several friends at the Pentagon that day...

    God Bless America

    This was my facebook post today and what I was doing :)

    On September 10,2001 when I was 10 days overdue with my baby and my doc wanted me to wait a few more days to see what happens I said no, its tomorrow. On September 11,2001 as we were driving to the hospital and turned on the radio driving to the hospital, we heard the 2nd tower fall. ...Kacie had waited to come into the world and we made sure it was this day. An Angel for an Angel. Her name means alert,vigorous,noble, vigilant. Happy Birthday beautiful!
  • lisa42
    lisa42 Member Posts: 3,625 Member
    #12
    9/11
    I was at home & was getting ready for work (I'm on the west coast, so we're 3 hours behind). I was a first grade teacher at the time. We had a staff meeting before school and discussed how to approach the topic with the kids. Most of the kids already knew & were talking about it. I realized how young the kids were and some didn't realize how real it all was. One boy said "yeah, it was so cool cause people were falling out of buildings". It was like he thought he had been watching a special effects movie or a video game or something. I had to bring them to reality about how this was very real and those were real people and how awful it was. It was a tough thing to talk to the kids about, but we did talk about it after that off and on for awhile. My school had the kids make a human flag the next week and it was a very emotional ceremony that we had with that & it was televised on the news at the time.
    Tom McGuiness, the pilot for Flight 11 the first plane into the twin towers, was a man who used to live in my area and attended my church. He moved away about a year before I started attending the church, but it was very emotional at church as many people there were friends with him and still kept in touch with him.
    Actually today at church, they played a video clip of the pilot who was supposed to be the pilot that day on Flight 11. He was scheduled for the flight & apparently when pilots check in on their home computers to see what flights they're assigned to and what flights are open for them to fly, pilots have 30 minutes from the initial posting to "bump" another pilot if they have seniority. This particular man was bumped from flight 11 by Tom McGuiness. It was very moving to hear him speak about how he knew that should have been him killed, yet it was Tom McGuiness instead.

    I was very relieved to see nothing in the news today happening terrorist attack-wise, as I'm sure most people are also.

    That was definitely a day that changed us Americans. Occasionally, now I'll see an airplane that seems kind of low and my first thought is either "it's going to crash" or "it's flying into a building or into a crowded area on purpose". Scary.

    God bless everyone-
    Lisa

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