Where were you when.....

[Dancing Dave]

We finished early in school that day and I was knocking on the door no one was answering, eventually one of my brothers opened the door and I followed him into the TV room and a few minutes later the second plane hit the towers. So, so strange. My whole family sat around watching for the day - stills begs belief now as an adult something like that could and did happen. July 7th is another story.

I've been to the WTC a few times and it's so solomn. Like the whole city has switched off when you're there.

 

[Toffee finger]

I was in secondary school walking through the corridor when my tutor came past babbling about an attack on New York. My friend and I looked at each other like wtf is he on about (turns out he had a friend who worked there, fortunately they were ok). I arrived home and my grandparents were round watching the news with my mum. We’d been there the year before and I remember thinking about how busy it was and how many people were going to lose their lives. I can’t believe it’s been 19 years

 

[sarahboo]

I was at my nans house, I'd faked earache for a couple of days after a hearsay concert. My nan was upstairs when the breaking news story came on, I remember shouting her to come downstairs & we sat & watched it all unfold. The second tower being hit was terrifying. I was only 9 & remember being unsettled for months afterwards, the news & documentary coverage was constant & I vividly remember my friends & I living in fear of more terrorist attacks happening.

It was such a tragic event, it always saddens me when I think about it. Even after 19 years I am still shocked it happened.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

I was in my little rented flat with my baby daughter. I’d just put her down for a nap, turned the television on, and the second plane struck.
I remember going to look at my sleeping baby and crying and crying. I thought the world would end before her life had even begun.
I was a single parent at the time. The next day an ex boyfriend came to visit me and we had a very, um, passionate week together. I honestly think it was some kind of response to trauma and the sense of impending doom, like maybe we’d never get another chance!

 

[Quattro formaggi]

9/11 I was at work at a temping job my work colleague told me what had happened her mum or someone kept phoning her to tell her I couldn’t believe it. Then someone who had the internet in the office printed off the sky news story for everyone.

diana - was on my way backfrom a club in mcr with my friend at it was on the news on the radio in the taxi she had been in a car crash and dodiwas dead but she was still alive at that point. l must have found out next morning she was dead but I don’t remember specifically.

 

[eSsExBiRd]

Day off work so at home. My Dad called me asking me to put the TV. It was just as the first news alerts went live and from there I don’t think I moved all day. Watching the second plane going in live on TV and hearing the reactions as it happened had me in tears. Watching the horror unfold, people running for their lives, jumping from the towers, reports of other hijacked planes and the towers falling with all those souls

I visited the 9/11 museum earlier this year which is located in the footprint of one of the towers. Seeing all the names at the remembrance pools, seeing the steel supports in their original positions, damaged fire trucks and reading personal accounts was harrowing. There’s an iconic picture with people escaping via steps and they are still there, preserved in the museum.

 

[svdwoodsen]

I was a child but I remember seeing it on news at school - we were all completely horrified. The school sent all of us home by mid-day after calling our parents and there were fears that something similar would happen here in the near future or even on the same day given it was multiple incidents during 9/11 (I lived in a major city close to NYC).

Many years later, after I graduated college, I ended up working for one of the companies that used to be in one of the towers in New York. Luckily, most of the people evacuated on time but the firm still had some casualties. There was a big plaque in the office with the names of all the people who passed away that day. I used to walk past it every time I went in and out of the building and it was sobering to see. Some of my colleagues had already been working for the company back then and they avoid talking about it mostly, but it was traumatizing for everyone. 9/11 was always a hard day for the firm because some of the people who had worked there for years escaped and knew multiple people that perished.

 

[HoGi]

I was in year 7 and my mum came to pick me up from school at the end of the day. Got in the car and the radio was on, which was odd for her she never listened to anything whilst driving. As I got in the car she said sit down and be quiet (again unusual) and then she said a plane had flown into a building an it was all over the news

 

[chandlercheesecake]

I like reading stories from people who got caught up in it, although there aren't that many as most people are prob traumatised by it.

I was 7, and I just remember seeing it on TV and asking if any kids died.

 

[ClockworkDolly]

Was shopping. Happened to walk past a shop selling televisions and electrical goods. It was showing on one of their televisions. Couldn’t believe it, stood rooted to the spot.

 

[Razzledazzlex]

I was in school and another teacher interrupted our lesson to say we had to listen to the radio.
After school at home, I just remember it being on the tv the whole evening and how my mum was saying how serious it was. Quite scary, I was only 9 at the time!

 

[judsmum]

I find it fascinating how we all remember exactly where we were.

@svdwoodsen I can only imagine how emotional the atmosphere is there and poignant seeing those names in your office. I also hope that your colleagues take some comfort in the fact that even people from tiny Yorkshire villages like mine send nothing but love to them.

When Diana died I was at my mum and dads caravan in flamborough with my sister and brother in law. It was astonishing. My mum was heartbroken. She always had Magic radio playing quietly all through the day and night and that day they cancelled all shows and put music on a loop of about 8 songs. Each of those songs now reminds me of the day she died.

 

[svdwoodsen]

I find it fascinating how we all remember exactly where we were.

@svdwoodsen I can only imagine how emotional the atmosphere is there and poignant seeing those names in your office. I also hope that your colleagues take some comfort in the fact that even people from tiny Yorkshire villages like mine send nothing but love to them.

When Diana died I was at my mum and dads caravan in flamborough with my sister and brother in law. It was astonishing. My mum was heartbroken. She always had Magic radio playing quietly all through the day and night and that day they cancelled all shows and put music on a loop of about 8 songs. Each of those songs now reminds me of the day she died.

This means a lot, thank you.

I think it's one of those events that shaped an entire generation of people for sure. Unfortunately, the idea of terrorist attacks has become almost ingrained in our generation and when I'm out and about in a big city and hear an explosion or loud bang, that's the first thing that comes to mind. It shouldn't be this way but it is.

I was really young when Diana died but I remember my mother being devastated as well. She was well loved around the world and I think a lot of women really identified with her struggles despite being from different backgrounds, cultures, and circumstances. Truly the people's princess.

 

[under the ivy]

I was 8 and I remember being home from school and my Great Nana was at my house, telling me to ‘sit down and watch the news because something bad has happened in America’. Remember her saying that to me clear as day. It was the BBC News Channel that was on, and I remember seeing the 2nd tower collapse.

I visited NYC 2 years ago and visited Ground Zero. I cant imagine the horror that people witnessed.

 

[Peggy5]

I was in Benidorm of all places, people were running through the streets and piling into restaurants. We were oblivious until a fellow tourist told us what happened. I remember my dad pulling us into a Chinese restaurant to watch it on the tv, everyone was silent. It was just bizarre, like everywhere was playing the same film.

 

[TheFabFader]

I heard the news flash on Radio 4 after The Archers and then turned the TV on. My younger daughter had just started school and she watched the news too, I didn’t stop to think it might be a frightening experience her. I called my husband on his recently purchased mobile to tell him and, as the older children drifted in, they watched too, hardly believing what they were witnessing. The news was on the rest of the day. At that time I was quite religious and our church held an emergency prayer meeting. I suppose it brought some comfort but I doubt it did any good.

 

[Curlygirld]

I remember both 9/11 and Diana vividly.

Diana I would only have been around 6 years old but my grandparents were visiting and out the back having a crafty cigarette and I just remember my mum yelling to them “she’s dead, oh my god Diana is dead”. I didn’t grasp why that was important but I understood the emotion in my mums voice to know it was very bad.

9/11 I was 10 and playing hockey after school, my mum picked me up, she told me what happened in the car and we watched the rest of the news that night on the worlds smallest tv. I could even tell you the layout of the living room that day (which is no mean feat because my mother rearranged the living room every month! Still does actually..).

I was also in an airport flying out on holiday when the 7/7 bombings happened, watching it on the airport TVs and being quite terrified in case the planes were next!!

 

[LittleMy]

I was in second year of secondary school (12 years old). My best friend was in New Jersey at the time on holiday staying with family. I remember getting home and sitting in stunned silence watching the news with my mum. I remember being so worried about my friend. I’ll never forget it, everyone thought the first plane was just a horrible accident and then when the second plane hit, just, god...

Those poor people, they must’ve been so terrified and their families so helpless.

Diana, I was 8. I remember waking up in the morning and my mum and dad were watching the news and it was on all day. Very sad. I remember feeling incredible sadness for her sons watching the funeral procession on TV.

 

[or JusRollWithIt]

Pregnant, working in a clinic. Had a full schedule and no time to leave my work room. As each patient came in, I heard snippets of what was unfolding. Couldn’t piece it all together. A co worker went home and recorded the news and brought it into conference room and pressed play. We all watched, unable to believe what we saw. Went home end of shift and wondered what kind of world I was bringing my child into.

I remember spending the next day glued to the tv. People putting up posters of their missing loved ones. People on the news, bystanders, had made makeshift gurneys out of plywood to help transport survivors. There were no survivors.

I remember going for a walk at night, and the sky felt empty and quiet as all flights grounded.

It was a very sad, very heavy time.

 

[Kat5998]

I was only 3 years and exactly 6 days old when 9/11 happened so I have no vivid memories of it being shown on the TV, I think my parents distracted me away from the news coverage