September 11th: Where were you?

[Alex]

I woke up on the 12th here when it was all over the news at about 6am - I was off to camp for three days that morning.

[Rissa]

I was in school in fifth grade. (This makes it seem so long ago...) We'd just come back from math class, and the television was on with the news, replaying the videos over and over again. At the time I really didn't understand why it was such a huge deal; I don't think I even knew what the World Trade Center was.

I remember our teacher explained what happened to us and then told us to write a journal entry about who we thought was behind the attacks. Looking back on it, I don't think it was a very good exercise, pointing fingers and putting blame on people when it had just happened.

[Cyanna]

Senior year of high school, second period, US History 2.

The vice-principal came on the loudspeaker and announced that both WTC towers and the Pentagon were hit by planes. I don't remember much about the immediate reaction. I think there was a moment of silence...maybe a prayer (I went to Catholic school). But he didn't go into details about it. Some teachers had the news on in their classrooms but none of mine did. Rumors were flying everywhere. I even heard one kid claim the Sears Tower was also hit. I know some kids with parents who worked there were called out.

Almost everyone I was friends with actually had a relative that worked in the area but they didn't know it until 9-11. I totally forgot that my Uncle gets off the train in the station under the 1st tower. I came home and my sister ran out of house telling me he was in the station when the 1st plane hit but he's alright. The whole thing really didn't hit hard until I saw the towers collapse on the news. I knew there was going to be a lot of damage but the last thing I expected was for the WTC to be GONE. That was when I started crying.

[Miyu]

Lets see.. I live in the West coast, so I was sleeping.

I used to go to sleep with the radio on, and I remember waking up to one of the VJ's saying something about a plane crashing into a tower. Naturally I was still in sleep mode, so I thought it was some kind of joke, I didn't really understand. Then when I got to school, pretty much what we did all day from class to class was watch the TV/News.

[Shifty]

It happened at noon for me, I was at home watching Days of our Lives as my mom called to tell me. I flipped the channel to CNN, and only 1 building was hit. At the time I never thought that they would actually collapse.
Also it happened 1 year after I moved out of New York, but my dad was still living there. He on the other hand experience it much more than I.
He was on one of the bridges that go into the NYC( he works in Manhattan), and he saw it all, including one of the planes hitting the tower.

[Igg]

I was at school. But I must have been down town for some reason, or it was after school doing sports because I remember my dad telling me on the playing fields. Unless he didn't and that's a fake memory.

[Bruces galore]

I did and still do work for the Federal government in a government building. My siter called me to tell me about the first plane hitting and then again when the second plane hit. She was home with my nephew who was still a baby so she was watching the news. The news spread through our building and someone found a t.v. set which everyone crowded around to watch the news. A few hours after the WTC collapsed they decided to close the building due to security concerns. A lot of people had already left work by then because they didn't feel safe. I went home and watched the news in shock for the rest of the day.
Sadly about a week later one of the security guards in our building was shot and killed by someone trying to bring a gun into the building. All in all it was a very rough time for everyone who works here.

[Cassi]

I was in sixth grade, and they didn't really tell us anything -- all we heard was more filtered down from the 7th and 8th graders, who were able to watch the news and know what was happening. Our school went into lockdown for a while, but then a lot of parents were coming and taking their kids home. (I remember thinking then how ridiculous it was...) When I got home that afternoon, I remember turning on the tv and just sitting on the floor. I don't remember if my dad called me or if I called him, but we were just talking about it some...

I was supposed to have dance, and went over for it (I lived next door to my dance studio), but it was locked, and there were a lot of people standing outside. So I went back upstairs and called, and the answering machine said that classes were cancelled, because it seemed better for us all to be at home. I remember on the 12th, when I did have dance, us all sitting in a circle around my dance teacher and just discussing how we felt, and her telling us why she'd decided to cancel classes, then us just getting up and going on with the class as normal.

[Ixist]

I was in P7 at the time, and when I got in the car after school my Dad told me that 2 planes had hit the Twin Towers in New York. We went home and I turned the TV onto the BBC to watch the coverage. My dad had to go pick my mum up from her work, and when he did I phoned my then-best-friend Sian and askred if she'd turned the TV on yet. She hadn't but she did once I told her to.We talked on the phone for about 5 minutes before the first tower collapsed.

[Regan]

When it happened, I was showering. It was quite early in the morning, as I'm in mountain time. I remember first hearing about it after listening to the radio shortly before school started. I remember the guy was saying that initially they thought foul play was involved so I really thought nothing of it. It hadn't crossed my mind that the destruction was intentional. I remember kids were trying to get out of school, which was silly because I live in Alberta. Erm, that's really it. I was in the ninth grade and we discussed it in English class. I remember we mostly talked about the irony of the plane hitting the pentagon.

I watched the coverage all night after I got home from school. I also bought a newspaper on the 11th and 12th to keep for memories.

[Light]

8:45 - School bell rang, I was in Grade 3. First plane crashed into the towers. Some of my family members saw it live on CNN. I saw after school, though.

[Zilary]

It was in middle school and I believe I didn't hear about it until lunch when parents were taking their kids from classes. I recall one friend of mine thought it was a joke, but if it was, I didn't know why parents were taking it so seriously. I went through the rest of the day kinda oblivious of it until I got home and watched the news.

[Twinkle]

I was in the car on the way back from school so I heard it from the radio. I didn't hear anything about it at all at school until the day after.

I don't think I realised how bad it was until I got home and watched the news.

[Rox]

I think I was at my gram's. She had the TV on and was watching an inauguration (I think) then the plane crashed. I was: "What the hell, did that thing just explode?"

[DM was on fire!]

I was on my computer, playing a game. I leaned over through the doorway of my room (right in front of the door was the living room television), and my mom leaps up all of a sudden, and runs upstairs to tell my dad. I then saw it.
I think I was too young to understand, though.