# Where were you, and could you have walked home?



## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

As most of the nation, remembering 9/11/01 attack and where I was.

Depending where I was, I would not have had supplies to adequately get home. Where I actually was was not in danger, but in shock. I could have walked home but it would have taken all day (17 miles).

Do you remember exactly when you heard about the first plane hitting?

I thought some stupid student pilot had hit with a small plane when I first heard it.

Went to get a soda and some ice. Came back and heard it was a commercial plane, and had really confusing thoughts.

But when the second one hit, then there was no doubt it was deliberately done. Then the Pentagon, and Flight 93. 

Yes, I remember. I became brain shocked and came home from work and sat in front of the tv and watched the coverage. 

What do you remember?


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

I was about 5 miles from home, but my heart was in my old home a few blocks from the WTC and where I had no idea if my friends were ok.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Tiempo - that must have been a really bad day for you waiting to hear from your friends.


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## MamaTiger (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm a SAHM and I was home. We didn't have tv service then and dh called me to tell me. I went next door to mama's to watch the coverage.

Dh is a salesman and was a couple of hours away. As long as he had gas and the roads were usable, he could have made it home. Walking, no way.


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## MOSSYNUT (Aug 8, 2014)

I was 8 miles from home at work in the marble shop. We were listening to Bubba the love sponge and when the first one hit he said it was a terrorist attack. I remember saying how stupid and irresponsible of him to just throw that out there like that. This is America stuff like that doesn't happen here then the second one hit and the whole shop stopped working and everybody huddled around the radio.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I was in downtown St. Louis in one of the tallest buildings there.. 38 stories, so they wanted to evacuate the building as much as possible.. We were on the top floor (the conference rooms) watching everything unfold on TV.. 

I had someone I was dating in DC, and couldn't reach her because of the lines being jammed, plus that day her father died.... After all said and done, she said it was just too freaky of a day because her father had worked for the CIA in anti-terrorism before he retired..

I was actually supposed to leave for DC the day after the attacks. Needless to say, that flight got canceled, so I had to rent a car to drive to DC. I had to be there for work, and I had to also stop in Wheeling WV for a big tobacco trial they were having there to take care of some of their equipment.. When I did get to DC three days after the attack, it was pretty spooky seeing hummers with big machine guns sitting on the corners..

Oh. and no, I wasn't in close walking distance from home in downtown STL.. I was about 28 miles away from home..


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

I was commuting 2 hours to school in those days. I had left class in Orono, Maine and stopped for gas, gas was cheap that year! Everyone in the mini-mart was standing around a speaker in the wall that was broadcasting the attack. I eventually left, listening to the news the whole way home. Would have been a long, long ways on foot. But my brother did live 1/2 way into the commute.

I had no supplies in my car in those days. Maybe some water and a snack in my school bag. I commuted in the winter and didn't even have a blanket or extra clothes in the car!


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

AngieM2 said:


> Tiempo - that must have been a really bad day for you waiting to hear from your friends.


I managed to reach the first one by phone about 24 hours after. Within a couple of days the front door and walls of my old building were plastered with flyers made by family and loved ones of those missing.

Of course most of them were never found. It's still hard to wrap my head around.


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

I was at work in the clean room working on a web server upgrade. One of our interns came in to tell me that a plane had hit. Knowing that Teterboro is right across the Hudson from there, we all assumed it was one of the Gulfstreams or Pipers leaving there. Then the second hit. My thoughts never went to "getting home," they were directed at helping my friends through this. 

We had about a dozen coworkers who had family and friends working either in those buildings or in the surrounding buildings. We all gathered in the conference room and waited for the checkins. Crying. Praying. Begging God really more than praying. By the end of the afternoon, all had been accounted for. Because of the beautiful autumn day, there did seem to be a rash of tardiness. Mercifully. 

The conference room had TVs. A local station was showing the evacuation from the water. The ferry boats and dinner cruise boats and all the small craft from the marinas on the Jersey side going to get people off that island. Someone uttered, "Dunkirk."

My cousin's fiancee was in the first one hit. He and his best friend went to leave and were stopped--there was already falling debris and bodies (an image he said he will never be able to erase from his memories). His friend went back to his office and the second one hit. Bill left and ran to his sister's on the upper west side (about 70-75 city blocks). He never saw his best friend again. 

I live in the flight path of Newark, Teterboro and we also see some of Laguardia and JFK's air traffic. I had never heard it so quiet outside. So still that night. For the following weeks it was heart retching to drive past the train station parking lots and seeing cars that hadn't moved in the time since the attack. Knowing their owners hadn't made it. 

And the endless funerals and services.


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## Palmetto1 (Sep 15, 2009)

I was on a small back road in rural SC headed to a sales call at a plastics plant. Heard it on the radio and stopped a country store and watched it unfold on a tv with the owner of the store. 
My wife worked in downtown Charlotte at the time. I called her and told her to get home ASAP.
I did go on to my sales call but spent the whole next day on the couch watching coverage.

I was 150 miles from home so I guess I could have walked but it would have taken a long time.


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## RWeThereYet (Aug 31, 2014)

AngieM2 said:


> As most of the nation, remembering 9/11/01 attack and where I was.
> 
> Depending where I was, I would not have had supplies to adequately get home. Where I actually was was not in danger, but in shock. I could have walked home but it would have taken all day (17 miles).
> 
> ...


Like you, I thought it was a small private plane that hit the first tower.

Found out it was a airliner, everyone started streaming from different news sources.

Then the command declared all civies off base. But they shut down all the gate but one clear on the otherside of base. So, 7k+ people all trying to get off base at once. Took nearly 2 hrs. I could of walked home in that time, like a 20-30min walk.


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

In England, shopping for a thank you gift. Saw people gathered around TV sets & went to look. Took DD and me 5 days to get a flight home! 24 hours before I could get a phone call through to the States. 

The thing I'll never forget is walking down the LAX concourse and hearing the echo of my footsteps as I was the only one there - besides the guard watching me all the way.

Being in England and glued to their TV gave me a different perspective. When we went out to the store & people found we were Americans - the compassion amazing.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

What sticks with me is not the day itself.. and my story from that day is long.

But the day, much later, when the first jet flew over again.
The skies over me were so quiet... then the first jet flew over again.
People stopped their cars.. got out and stared at the sky.

That was surreal...

And being at work on 9/11 and hearing every car at every stoplight ALL listening to the exact same radio station. That was surreal too.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Driving to work, about 6 miles away when the first plane hit, at work about 11 miles away from home when the 2nd one hit. We had a TV on at work, didn't get much done that day.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

I was home with my 2yr old. DH called and asked me what was going on.....I had no idea as the TV was off (guess he thought I sat in front of the TV and ate bon-bon's all day  ). Anyways, turned it on and gave him play-by-play for a while. He was at work and saw the news feed when walking by the lunch room....but couldn't stop to see what was up. I watched the 2nd plane hit - live. Had to call DH back a bit later and tell him his trip was cancelled (he and some others were leaving that afternoon). They ended up renting a car a few days later and driving down....praying the entire way that the tunnels in VA were open.

The quiet was eerie the next few days, no planes overhead....we live on a flight path to a regional airport.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

I was less than 3 miles from my small acreage home AO at my parents farm watching Big Jake with my father on one of the movie channels when my mother got home from the early shift at the post office and had us turn the channel.

When the reports of it being an attack my father asked my mother what the pantry looked like and told me to go reacquaint myself with his weapon safe in case I had to stay at their farm.

When I mentioned if we were in a possible curfew situation I would have to get back home to take care of my dogs, he told me if that were the case I could come down to get my dogs and weapons and stay in our family farm AO.

To that I replied that they had 4 military veterans neighboring their AO and I had two Viet Nam and Desert Storm veterans and four old country boys bordering the property lines of my home place AO so he told to come home when I needed to take care of my dogs but to radio test my CB base station setup by radioing them in case the land lines went down for some reason since if we were in a nation wide war situation there were too many high threat targets in a 70 mile radius of this area.

While we all felt the security rattle of the attacks, we just got home and stayed hunkered down for a couple days hoping martial law didn't get declared.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I did walk home. I was facilities manager for The Boston Ballet, lived about a mile away and walked to and from work. We had school kids and the company there, and they were sent home pretty early. It was around 2:30 or 3 when the final persons left, and I locked up the building and walked home. The city was a ghost town, no cars or people out at all. My wife had gotten off work some time earlier and met me at the neighborhood pub, T C's. I had heard it all on the radio at work, but seeing it on the TV above the bar was just stunning. The place was packed, but almost silent. No one seemed to want to go home. We watched the planes hit, and the towers fall over, and over and over. I had been a fireman and knew that 1000s of people were dead. That night, laying in bed, was surreal. The city night was silent, except for the sound of fighter jets patrolling the sky above us. 
We had no emergency plan before that. Afterwards, the wife and I had plans, and a meeting spot in a small town about 30 miles away.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I was in a bunker. They sealed the facility when the first plane hit and no one was allowed to leave. Our systems started going down as agencies across the United States started using them to try to find out what was happening. Nothing was working within our systems because they were not scaled to be used by all of their potential users at one time. 

I saw the communications breakdown occurring at all levels of authority. I saw the guy whose job it was to brief the president about what was going on have a breakdown. He locked himself in a bathroom stall and wouldn't stop crying.

Finally someone got a television circuit up and going in the command bunker so we could find out what was happening outside. (We had no phones, no nothing.) We had to get CNN up and going in order to find out what was going on.

It was that day, being on the inside and watching all the experts who were supposed to know things break down, that it planted the seed of "maybe I should rely on myself instead."


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## NJ Rich (Dec 14, 2005)

I was on the way home from the lumber yard when the first plane hit Tower One. I didn't have a cell phone back then. I got home and my wife called the house phone. She said to turn on the TV news. I did and before the set light up she added that Tower One in NYC had been hit by a plane. I was still watching when the second plane hit the other Tower.

My next door neighbors daughter was supposed to be in the first tower hit for an interview that morning but the meeting was cancelled the afternoon before. It wasn't her turn to leave this life.

A distant relation was in the building across the street from Tower One when the first plane hit. He ran out to see what happened and was locked out of this building by security. His wallet and cell phone were in his desk many floors above the street. He started walking towards one of the bridges leading to NJ before the second plane hit.

A man driving by said, "Where are you going"? Andrew replied; "New Jersey". The man said, "Get in". I guess they got out just in time. The man allowed Andrew to call home and tell his family he was OK and on the way home. It was"t his turn to leave this earth either. 

The County where I live lost so many people that day. Families were shattered and they continue to suffer.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

I was teaching school. From the front of it, I can see my place about 5 miles away in a straight line. I could have walked, but with my legs would have taken a long time. Lots of parents hit the school to get kids and take them on home, not much was done that day, .....
Ed


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

AngieM2 said:


> As most of the nation, remembering 9/11/01 attack and where I was.
> 
> Depending where I was, I would not have had supplies to adequately get home. Where I actually was was not in danger, but in shock. I could have walked home but it would have taken all day (17 miles).
> 
> ...


I have to admit that although I can think and remember the morning of 9/11/01 and what I was doing, this morning until I read this thread I hadn't even thought about it. After 13 years of all the media coverage and closure monuments coverage and such, somewhere along the way I started tuning it out and mentally decided that the many enemy our forces have killed in the years since balanced the books on that day and the more current events gain what concern and attention I pay to our terror war situation. 

Somewhere along the way during the last decade I have reached a point that I know our nation will be at war with terrorists for evermore and I don't really feel any need to dwell on this date every year. Maybe all the media over saturation that has been going on every year. I dunno :shrug:


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## sss3 (Jul 15, 2007)

Friend and I were in a travel bus w/many others. On our way to Shipshiwanna, In. Bus driver got a call from his wife. He then turned news on and let us hear. When we got there, every stall, had radio on so everyone could listen. Sad day.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I was at home working, as usual, but hadn't turned the TV on yet. I went and got some hot tea and came back and turned it on right after the first plane had hit. I thought they must be mistaken about it being a jet, but the flames and smoke were so bad it couldn't have been a small plane either.

Then while I was watching, the second plane hit. I remember the people in the newsroom, those hardened professionals, gasping, yelling and crying as they watched it. They said over 100,000 people worked in those two buildings, and I was just horrified at the thought of that magnitude of loss of life. Guess it hadn't dawned on the news people (or me) yet that it was so early that most of them wouldn't be there yet, thank God. It was truly horrible, but it could have been so much worse.

I remember dropping my cup and spilling hot tea all over me and then this total sense of disbelief. I felt like I was on Candid Camera or Punked or something. I immediately called friends and relatives to make sure I really had seen it. I tried to work the rest of the day, but I was just glued to the TV and didn't get much done.

My sister's son-in-law was in the Pentagon when that plane hit, only about 30 feet down the hall from the actual impact site. No one heard from him for almost 24 hours...it was a long, long, scary day. He had just been reassigned to the Pentagon for about a week, coming home from Germany. His wife (my niece) and two kids were scheduled to fly into Dulles a couple of hours later, but of course their flight was canceled. It still seems surreal, even though I know it really happened and even saw part of it on TV. I still occasionally dream about those bodies falling...


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## Oggie (May 29, 2003)

I heard the news that the first plane had hit while I was still at the house. I left to walk our daughter a quarter mile to where the school bus stops. The bus driver told us about the second plane.

I walked back to the house and my wife and I listened to the news on the radio most of the morning. We didn't have TV reception, then.

That afternoon, I drove an hour to work. After midnight, I drove back home.

Getting around wasn't an issue for us.


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## belladulcinea (Jun 21, 2006)

I was home, but went to a friend's house, the same friend I was with when the OKC bombing happened. I was watching when they reported something had happened to the first tower and saw the second plane hit live during the broadcast. That was a freaky feeling. Perhaps much the same for those who lived in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. Scared and confused then angry.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

It was a beautiful morning ! I owned a car service business and had just dropped someone off at Newark NJ airport and was headed north west towards home when I heard the first report on the radio. As it progressed I considered turning around and trying to go back for my customer but traffic was already coming to a stop heading towards the city.

I listened in shock as I drove towards home ( about an hour ) , stopped and filled the gas tank then stopped and loaded up grocery items that I was short on. Just in case

Got home to a panic as my note just said went to airport , not which one, and they were very worried that I may have been on the other side of Manhattan.

Moved things into the basement then went to find a TV where I was horrified by what I had not yet seen .

A friend called , she wanted the taxi to take her to Manhattan as her husband worked at Trade Center and she couldnt get in touch with him. I explained to her that I wouldnt be able to get her anywhere near there. I was also afraid to go , didnt want to leave my daughter. He didnt make it along with 5 others from my town.

Spent the day working on collecting socks , bottled water etc which we sent to NYC for workers and hopefully survivors. Got my friend a ride with the truck

The skys with out air traffic were eerie but nice, but the lack of people traveling and going to airport caused me to lose my car service business and thus my house within a few months.I had been doing 5 airport trips a day . I started over, again.

I will always remember the sense of unity, the flags flying on houses and cars , how polite and tender people were to each other.

Oh yeah PS: My airport customer walked home . took him almost two days


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

I was working at a very busy doctors office when my mother called me (first time she had called me at work). She was telling me to be careful and fill my car with gas on the way home when the second plane hit. She just gasped and said this will change our way of life forever. I was on my break watching the coverage when the first tower went down. Our day was just as busy as any other day and we closed at the normal time. Now my sisters were working at National car rental call center LOL they had a busy day. all the cars were gone in a couple hours and the rest of the time was explaining why they couldn't just find more cars for all the people that were stranded no matter how much money they were willing to pay.


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## Veronica (Oct 31, 2008)

At that time we lived outside of DC. I was homeschooling the kids, and I was running a bit late getting started, so I gave them permission to turn on the tv for a couple of minutes and they saw the first tower on fire. They thought it was an action film and turned it off. But then I received a phone call from dh, and we knew something had happened. I turned the tv and back on and watched in shock as the second plane hit. At one point the news reports were that there had been a car bombing at the state dept, one of the memorials had been hit, and the National Mall was on fire. I couldn't reach dh or anyone else and figured I had better prepare to protect my two kids. Later we found out those reports were wrong.
We did have one relative who should have been in a lower floor of one of the towers that day, but his son had to go to the doctor's so he wasn't there, though we didn't know that until later. We did have relatives nearby, and a few worked to clear the debris in the following days.
Dh could have walked home as he was only 8 miles away, but he didn't have to.
We could often hear planes outside, and I remember how quiet it was, until the military jets went screaming by. A very sad and scary day.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I was driving to work when I heard about the first plane. Since it was the Trade Center I immediately thought it was NOT an accident. When I got to the office I went across the hall to another business and we discussed briefly what was happening. A short time later the lady from that business came over and told me another plane had struck. My boss was gone so I spent most the day in his office listening to his radio. I don't think there was a single telephone call from anyone that day and no one came into the office. 

I called dh who was at home and told him to gas up his car, fill any empty gas cans and to get some cash from the bank. Getting home wasn't an issue as my car had a mostly full gas tank and it was only 22 miles. Dh had major surgery two days later and I spent the many hours in the surgical waiting room watching coverage on the TV.


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## Rainy (Jan 21, 2010)

I was at home getting ready for work and to take my son to school...i sure didn't want to take him to school that day...


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## irondale (Oct 3, 2012)

I rode the bus that day to work. Once I got to work and was walking to my cube I was overhearing people talking a lot a plane crash. Once I got to my cube I start talking to my coworkers but no one really knew much other than a plane hit the WTC and the news sites where getting hammered with traffic so we really couldn't find out any information. I then called my Dad and was on the phone with him when the 2nd plane hit he was relaying info to me as he watched on TV. I was pretty much in disbelief. A co-worker and I found a TV and rigged up an antenna, everyone in the company was in and out watching the news. I caught the bus home and at 10PM put speakers in my apt window and played taps.

I could have walked home it was only about 10 miles, I did walk the last miles home instead of catching my 2nd bus.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

We were home when it happened but didn't have the tv on so we didn't know about it. Dh had the day off and we had a shopping trip scheduled. Picked up a friend and stopped first at a car dealership checking out cars. They wouldn't let us drive one and didn't explain why. After a few more stops we went to Sam's and saw the whole thing unfold on their widescreen tvs. At first I thought it was just another disaster movie and didn't pay much attention. There were few people in the store and I made a comment about it to the cashier. She said, "didn't you hear?". "No, what happened?" It was just a freaky feeling day, kind of like a bad dream that you can't wake up from. I saw lots of planes that day, military ones, more military planes than I've ever seen.


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## Jupiter (Dec 30, 2012)

I was @ home getting ready to go to work when my mom called & told me to turn on the tv. I watched the second plane hit...it was very odd to study the night sky & not see any air traffic.


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## ROSEMAMA (Jan 12, 2007)

Was working midnights when it happened so I was inhere when it all went down. Dh called about 330 that afternoon and said to get the kids from the bus and get the car and all the cans fueled up, cause they were already raising the prices. 

Everything seemed surreal watching on the news what I had slept through....


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

I was at home/work online in a newsgroup when a puzzling post came from one of the regulars who was in England, giving condolences to people in the U.S.. Wandered out and turned the tv on. One of my posts on that group that day:

(the > indicates a line from someone else's previous post, a >> is two posts back, and so on) 

> I'm busy filling jugs of water, in case whoever this is has people
>situated
>everywhere getting ready to take down the water supply. Don't assume
>anything
>impossible during wartimes.

Slow down please. Arafat and the government of Afghanistan have denied any respnsibility and Arafat, at least, has been quoted as willing to help find the perps. Iraq hasn't claimed any responsibility. This appears to be an attack by a small group and not by a country.

There simply wouldn't be sufficient numbers of terrorists to pose a widespread attack. Both the WTC and Pentagon are icons, and the choice of targets was obviously pre-planned, timed, and meant to be of maximum shock value. Having a widespread group in place to wreak nationwide havoc is highly unlikely. In any such large group there would have to be people would would leak information, etc. etc.

Panic stockpiling now would play right into any terrorist plans of disrupting the normal economy. 

These were some sick sick puppies.

One of my posts from the following day:
>> And now they're teaching Israel's friend a lesson.
>
>and let's not forget hilary clinton's kissy, kissy with arafat's wife.
>families of a feather.......

Another idiot meets the killfiles.

Events like this bring out roaches out of the woodwork. Thinking of the number of people who died, and the complexity of the situation, for anyone to use this as a way to complain like this about any public figure other than the perps is sick.

I am thoroughly disgusted how some of the people here are rushing to show true colors, a total lack of respect for the dead, and a penchant for throwing up petty political bile.

If you can't see beyond turning this into another Republican vs Democrat bitching session, I say with all sincerity 

(Deleted strong language)

In case you still don't have a clue, a huge number of totally innocent people died yesterday, only because a few other people like you in so many ways were so filled with a similar style of sick hate that they turned airliners full of people into flying bombs.

Your hate is so all-pervasive that you can't even differentiate between the players. Go back in your hole and let those with half a brain figure out what is going on and what to do.


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## LittleMrsAdams (Aug 31, 2014)

I was in my high school home ec class. The vice principal came in and spoke to the teacher for a moment then brought in a t.v. I wasn't feeling very well and my brain goes a little odd when I'm sick, so my thoughts were something along the lines of 'Oh... this sucks...'


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Watching Today Show and getting ready to work. Got to work no one believed me that a plane had hit WTC. Boss went out to his car turned on the radio. Came back in and told everyone that I was correct. He sent us all home and told us to get our spouses and kids home and be safe.

He lost his son in WT #2.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

I was far into the wilderness in Idaho which was several hundred miles from my home in Arizona. Didn't hear about the whole affair until I got home about six weeks later. Bugged out and didn't know it!


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## ldc (Oct 11, 2006)

I was less than a mile away from where I lived, teaching here in Louisiana, but originally I'm from NYC and NJ. I couldn't find my brother - who was living and working in NYC - for 2 weeks; the phone system from here to there didn't work by the hour following the 2nd Tower attack. My brother had been at the Twin Towers when the truck bomb in the basement had gone off some years before. Our mom was going nuts in Jersey, not hearing from my brother. The 3 guys we'd grown up with in NYC/NJ who were supposed to be working in the Towers that day all escaped death. These were my brother's lifelong friends. Two friends were on late trains into the City and missed it; the third climbed down from the Port Authority offices on the 86th floor over body parts. He still receives treatment for the shock. Our happiness at these guys near miss, made our hearts ache all the more for those who didn't make it.

Later this also became the day that I lost most of my pension.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

My son was getting his braces on that day, and I he had just gotten in the chair and I was walking back to the waiting area when one of the clerks yelled to turn on the TV. At first we didn't know what happened other than that a tower in NY was on fire, and I went to do my grocery shopping - and the stores were deserted! When I got back to pick him up was when I found that planes had hit the building. Although it would have been 10 miles, we could have walked home - although I would have been worried as my oldest son was home with my two younger children.

I was worried as we had many friends in NYC at the time, and my Father-in-law was also to have been on the trip but had been ill about 2 weeks before so decided not to go since there was someone that wanted his spot. We found out later that they were on the way to the Statue of liberty when their bus had to stop - and they were told to get out as the bus had to turn around. They saw the tower on fire, and thought that the 2nd plane was somehow headed to help - until they saw it hit the tower. 

Dawn


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

I was in Martinsburg WV just done the worst job interview in my life, decided to stop and pick the little one up at daycare early to save the 24 mile trip back. but the daycare was locked down, would not let anyone in, got back in the car and it was on the radio. So I came home put the tv on and decided to run the vacuum our new puppy was afraid of the vacuum so I put her in the bathtub, finished the cleaning went to get the puppy and she a strangled on a string from a towel. Bigger kids got home on the school bus as I was trying to bring the puppy back. Very Very bad day for all of us here at home and with all the lives lost. The Puppy lived a little stupid and she is 13 years old. And no I would not have been able to walk the 12+ miles home. I guess I would have stayed at the daycare, or fire hall. And no I didnt have anything in the car but a coke and smokes. And I still dont have anything in the cars, really should. For the last few days I just have not felt right about today.


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## pookford (Jan 11, 2014)

I was at work, 3 blocks from home.

When the wife of a co-worker called, our receptionist gasped, turned really pale and then covered her mouth in shock. Knowing that the co-worker had a son fighting cancer, I thought for sure there had been a death in the family. After the receptionist transferred the call, she told us that a plane had just hit the WTC. In the blink of an eye, I went from, "Oh thank God (his son is okay)," to, "Wait - what happened?!"

Minutes later, the wife called back to tell us about the second plane. Our office had terrible radio reception and no TV or Internet, so I went out to the parking lot to check the news on my car radio. I tuned in just as the plane hit the Pentagon.

The boss ran home at lunch, stopping by the gas station next door on the way. She called in to the office minutes later and said, "drop what you're doing, go fill up your tanks while you still can, and go home." Ours were the last cars to fill up before the station raised its prices to $4 per gallon.


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## sdnapier (Aug 13, 2010)

I was working at a hospital in DC near the Pentagon. We thought we would be receiving patients... Around 9 PM I went out to see what was going on. There was NO traffic anywhere. Everyone had already left or was hunkered down at home in front of the TV. Very odd to see no cars


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

I was on an elliptical machine at the gym with a radio in my ear watching a replay of the plane hit the first tower. Since I couldn't hear the audio all I could think was some small plane hit the building by accident until I saw the second one hit. I still couldn't wrap my head around what was going on so I finished up and drove to my apartment. I was probably five miles from home so I could have walked. I sat by the tv for the rest of the day in shock and disbelief like I'm certain many did. 

I didn't know my SO then but at the exact moment across town SO was having a huge chunk of skin cancer removed. The scar where the cancer was is still so big ... But apparently they were all watching the entire attack during the appointment. The dermatologist didn't know she would be cutting a chunk of SO's thigh out; it was just an appointment to check a festered dark mole but SO wasn't allowed to leave until it was cut out.

On the radio today Paisley heard a DJ mention 13 years ago...and played the Alan Jackson song. She asked me what happened on this day 13 years ago but luckily as I stammered to come up with a response, her sister changed the subject and we were off talking about something different in a flash. I don't look forward to that conversation one day.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

I was home. I had no idea until I talked to my SIL on the phone. My daughter was watching PBS & they don't break in with stuff. I caught the news just as the second plane hit.

My sister was in the hospital delivering her baby. She has since passed away & I think of her on this day more than anything.


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

I was home alone watching Katie Couric when the first plane hit. I continued to watch NBC coverage until just after the 2nd plane hit. I was already late for work and had to drive 5 miles to my office. After arriving there I saw many of my coworkers gathered in the conference room watching the only tv in the building.

I kept up online in my office until everything went dark and our electric failed. We were all notified that there had been a direct order from the governor's office for all government office buildings in the state to go into a lock down. From what we were told there had been a threat made on Fort Knox which is about 70 miles from here. Power was restored in about an hour but the lock down continued until mid-afternoon. 

I became quickly aware that day of how my life could be impacted by terrorists even at a great distance. I could have walked home in those days but I was in a situation where I was locked into a building. Heck, my mom even lived across the street from my office and I had keys to her apartment. 

DH worked at the county road department which also went into a sort of lock down, but he and most of the employees were out on the highways in trucks. By the time DH got back to the county barn the lock down was over. 

The days and nights following the attack were surreal as we all were glued to the tv/radio and talked about nothing else. For those of us old enough it was deja vu of remembering exactly where you were when JFK was killed.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Yes, it was like the JFK assassination type of news/impact event. I'm old enough to remember the JFK also.


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## gweny (Feb 10, 2014)

I was in the NAVY. Just finishing my A school. Once A school is complete I was eligible for the fleet. My last self paced project was to build a radio. That radio was how my class and I found out what was going on, was also our sentencing... We were all going to war and we knew it.
They stuck us in bunkers for a week, locked down the base for 2. There was talk of busing us into Chicago until the national guard got it together but that fell through. Than I spent the next 2.5 years as part if a blockade in the pacific/Indian ocean.


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## majiksummer (Sep 13, 2012)

I was in Jr. High. My dad took me to school that day and we had the radio on when they interrupted the song playing to announce the first plane had hit the WTC. I was trying to ask my dad what happened and what they were talking about. He just kept shushing me and I got irritated and went into school, I walked into the school library and it was packed, I was normally one of the only ones in the library before school started. I looked at the tv screen and couldn't believe that was happening _here_. Just a few seconds later the second plane hit as I was watching, it was completely surreal. People were crying, nothing got done in any of my classes that day, all anyone could do was watch the tv and wait. We were in rural Idaho, there wasn't too much concern over us being hit, but parents were still coming and getting their kids from school early, just in case. 
I was close enough to walk home if I'd needed to but I was a kid and my parents had always said to stay put and they would come find us if something bad ever happened. So I stayed put.


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## teachermom44 (Feb 8, 2012)

The guidance counselor came by and whispered to all the teachers what was going on. I turned the tv on saw the recap of the first planes hitting then they announced the Pentagon was hit and I turned off the tv. I knew we were in trouble then. Parents did come get their kids. And yes I could havee walked home. 

What I do remember is that at some point in the days that followed, I was teaching and had the windows open, when we heard a fighter jet go by and one of my students asked me if we were being attacked again. It was so loud and so strange because we hadn't heard or seen any planes for days. It broke my heart to hear that being asked by a 5th grader.


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## AlaskaSue (Mar 27, 2013)

Was on Kodiak Island with my folks, which is several hours behind the East Coast. 9/11 is my birthday so I had decided to sleep in instead of getting up as early as normal before getting ready for work. But Dad knocked on my door, saying, "Better get up, bad doings on the TV". We both stood there for what seemed hours, watched the 2nd plane hit, the towers fall, the Pentagon, PA....just as hard to get my head around it now as it was then. Decided for some reason to go to work, thought I had it off, and rode the little bus into town, about 45 min away, on a very dark and rainy morning. 

Kodiak is a Coast Guard town and it was very striking to see the boats 'on station' in very unusual positions around the island..very obviously in defensive posture. Passing the airport was surreal - closed, blocked, and billion flashing lights. 

Hunting season on the island, which has as many boats and small planes as cars...I always felt bad for the hunters who were stuck with no planes allowed and no way to know why they were not picked up until they finally were. The foreman at the phone company where I worked put up 6 more flags to fly so we had seven American flags displayed that week. Almost no one came in, so we were able to do computer work and keep an eye on the TV during the day. Extremely odd to have no planes flying...about how most folks would feel seeing no cars on the road.

If I was at work and needed to get home I for sure could have - but it would have been a very long walk.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I was at home watching the Today show - I think I watched the 2nd plane hit, but it could have been a replay. I worked the evening shift, and at work, all the residents (assisted living) were tuned to the news and that was THE ONLY topic of conversation, with many of them sharing stories of their experiences of Pearl Harbor and saying that this was the Pearl Harbor of my generation. The estimated death toll was being listed at upwards of 20K then. The actual total was bad enough, but I really couldn't wrap my head around losing 20,000 innocent people all at once.

Getting to and from work wasn't a problem, other than a temporary spike in gas prices. If I'd been at work and had to walk home, it would have taken me several days to do it, most likely.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I was at home in Wisconsin when they hit , I was starting work late the wife was already at work and very pregnant.
I was watching tv when they came on showing the hit to tower 1 

I had been scheduled to be working (over the phone) with my co-worker and a contractor at tower 1 floor 81 for server upgrades but the contractor had something come up and canceled Monday , my co-worker watched the planes go in from about 7 blocks away.

I watched on tv trying to count floors to see if my customers on 81 would be able to get out the pane hit around floor 90-93 and they did get out.


when i had to stop watching and go to work I loaded up my pistol put it handy but out of sight (pre-Wisconsin concealed carry)just not knowing what else was going to happen , put a few other supplies in the car ,stopped at the gas station and topped off then went to work.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I was at the pediatricians office with a sick kid when the first hit. Admitting my daughter to the hospital when the second hit. Couldn't have gone home, my daughter has intestinal issues that caused frequent vomiting/diahrea which resulted in many, many hospital stays for severe dehydration. She was to dehydrated that day to risk taking her back home. On the plus side, since these "visits" were frequent I was ready for an extended stay away from home.


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## bigjon (Oct 2, 2013)

14 miles from home(at work) absolutely stunned.yes I could have walked home.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

I was in Las Vegas, working, on 9/11. My sister woke me up by calling me on my cell phone. She was freaking out because she knew the approximate date that the job was to end, but not the exact date, and was afraid that I was scheduled to fly back home to Florida that day.

We turned on the tv right away and watched the second plane hit. Could hardly believe what we had just seen.

Headed downstairs to the ballroom where our show was to have been held, only to learn that it had been cancelled because all of the attendees had been scheduled to fly into town that day. We kept the big screen tv's turned on to CNN all day while we loaded out the gear. We were all in shock. 

After the load out we were stuck at our hotel for 6 days. I was dating a guy who was working on a different show for the same client, in the same hotel. It was only the second time we had worked on a show together, or, almost worked together, and I was so thankful that we were together. All of the flights were cancelled and we kept trying to rent a car to drive back to BF's home in Dallas. Finally, on the 7th day, we were fortunate enough to get a car when someone else cancelled their reservation.

It took us almost three days to get to Dallas due to roadblocks and detours and other diversions. The whole trip was bizarre, but the freakiest part was driving past the Hoover Dam, which was crawling with military personnel. And, of course, the complete silence of air traffic overhead. It was days before we heard a plane pass over us, and that was a military plane- still no commercial flights.

Once in Dallas, I was stuck for another 4 days waiting to get a flight home to Florida. Once I had a reservation, the airlines kept cancelling flights. This happened several times- I would be all packed and ready to go to the airport when a call would come from the airline telling me to stay put. On the day I finally left, the flight was delayed several times before I finally left for the airport, and even then, it was delayed again after I had checked in, and yet again after the passengers boarded. We (the very few passengers) sat on the plane for another three hours, not knowing what was going on or whether we would be allowed to fly that night or not. We finally took off. In the end, the flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Tampa safely. But arriving at DFW and seeing armed soldiers with dogs all over the airport was surreal. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around that- it was so out of place here in the US.

In the end, it took me 11 days to get back home to Florida. Obviously, I could never have made it on foot.

I will never forget 9/11. The images of people jumping out of the towers are seared in my memory forever.


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## siyakadog (Sep 23, 2014)

I remember that day, when I got off work at 6pm no one here had really panicked yet. After dinner at 7:30pm I thought I should go get gas..... well every gas station had at least a half mile long line, so I drove straight to Walmart, no one had thought about ammo yet, so I stocked up on ammo.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

siyakadog - what state were you in then? And welcome to Homesteading Today site and this forum.


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## stickinthemud (Sep 10, 2003)

I was a SAHM and home as usual. I heard an odd radio report from the Pentagon "a few minutes ago everything seemed normal" as I passed thru the kitchen. Halfway up the stairs I realized this must be a special report, so turned on the television.
Instead of the Pentagon, the picture was smoke rising from a burning skyscraper. And suddenly there was a full-size passenger jet, obliterating itself in a ball of fire against a second tower. The network news people were confused and confusing, talking in circles. I felt compelled to tell someone, call someone, and ended up calling Mom and telling her to turn on the TV.
Then I watched. 
The local anchors talking crazy-talk: two airplanes running into buildings in New York. And another at the Pentagon in Washington DC. And then they said another plane had crashed in Somerset County PA. Somerset County, too close to home, too close! 
Then I turned to a view of the two towers one behind the other, until a puff of black smoke came belching out from halfway up the sides of the hidden tower, then more smoke puffing out and spreading down and down. And the commentary blather continued--weren't these people even watching? And later the other building collapsed too. It was like a beating, one blow after another and who knew what might come next? 
A long, sad day.


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## handymama (Aug 22, 2014)

I was in keyboarding class as a sophomore in high school. We got an announcement on the intercom for all the teachers to turn on the TV's in the classrooms to the news. By that time both towers had fallen.
My friends and I were upset mainly about the possibility of a war. There were some seniors who were wondering if they were going to be drafted. The principal announced anyone who wanted to go home could, but not many of the kids in my class had cars yet, so we stayed.
I don't think I really comprehended the huge loss of life until I was home that night and my parents were in bed. I had the news on, and watched the second tower fall. I remember sobbing my heart out seeing how terrible it was. 
In the day's that followed, when they would report about how they were finding people trapped, I would imagine what that must be like, and I would feel sick.
When war was declared, I was glad. I remember a deep burning rage, and great satisfaction watching bombs go off.
My cousin who was a senior that year went to Afghanistan as soon as he graduated. I was so proud of him.
He has PTSD from the things he saw over there. Very sick things. I hope with all my heart someday terrorism will be eradicated. I do not comprehend how there could be so much evil accepted somewhere as a way of life.


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## unregistered65598 (Oct 4, 2010)

I was at home. My 2 oldest kids were in San Diego on a navy base. I watched the second tower fall and tried calling my kids but couldn't get through. It was hours later before I knew they were safe. I also lived a few blocks from another military base. My friends kids were in school on that base. She didn't have a car so I took her to get her kids. Took us about 3 hrs to get on that base and get the kids off. We stayed glued to the TV and just cried.


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