Where were you on 9/11?

[jamesearl]

I was at work.I grew up in Elk Grove Village,Ill. A town right next to O'Hare airport.Planes were louder years ago.Elk Grove is right in a flight path.In the 60's at grammar school,our teachers would actually stop talking and resume after a plane went over.There were always planes in the sky,and often loud.Before I knew of the catastrophe,I noticed something was different.For the first time in my life,the skies were silent,you didn't see a single plane.Then I found out.And realized all aircraft were grounded.Kind of an eerie silence,as never before.Like the day the earth stood still.My fear after that,was that the Hancock bldg.,or Sears tower,or the Standard oil bldg. were going to be next.Thank goodness they weren't.

 

[dbmg]

That was quite a eerie sensation not hearing planes in the sky. The house we lived in at the time was on a flight path also to Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. I never experience such a calm and quiet in the skies. What would scare the bejeezus out of you is when the Military would fly over, especially in those big planes low to the ground. I was at work in the suburb of Pittsburgh and my Wife was in downtown Pgh. Her building was evacuated and she was on her own to get home for she rode public transportation and it of course was a mess also. Cell phones were jammed so it was hard to communicate........

 

[Jack Klarich]

I was off work that day, I had the stereo on and redoing my kitchen cabinets. The phone rang, it was The Redhead telling me to turn the TV on, I was glued to the TV the rest of the day, that day my sister in law was diagnosed with breast cancer also

 

[fin_676]

I was in my bed with influenza youngest daughter was at home and came up the stairs and said dad switch on the TV I did and almost immediately the second plane crashed did not have another day off sick till February this year

Brian

 

[Breeze3at]

I was working swing shift at the local Air Force Base, and out for my morning walk. Listening to John Boy and Billy, on the earbuds the when first news came on. I remember they were cautious about what was said, pending verification. They thought it was a small personal plane. I beat feet home to the TV shortly before the 2nd plane hit. My mind would not believe what my eyes were seeing. To say that Base security changed after that day is an understatement. I still can't believe the precision in which both buildings collapsed.

 

[rusntx]

Oh the good ole John Boy and BILLY show know it well. We used to listen all the time affectionally called it the "bubba yuk fest". Made time go by while working on jets. I too was at work and someone mentioned a plane hit the tower. Of I said " yah right get out of here". Only to notice the look on his and others faces to know it was no joke. We all tuned in to the radio and found a TV. Soon after is when the second jet hit, we were all dumbfounded. Nothing else got done that day other than watching all the horrible things that followed. We knew it was game on then! May they all rest in peace.

 

[oldhippie]

On my way to work listening to a live news report about the first plane hitting. When I got to work the manager and other supervisors brought out the TV to the front office and we watched it live when the second plane hit and it became evident this was no accident. We were all saying someone is asking to get stomped by waking the sleeping giant. I don't think there was any country that didn't have one of their own working in the Trade Center, including us Canadians.

 

[zoob2]

i remember on the day like it was yesterday when i walked into our[wellington,new zealand] electrical wholesaler who had a large t.v set up in the middle of the showroom because the latest cricket game was on and i walked in and saw what i now know was the second hit to the sky scrapers and thought this must be some sort of disaster movie and noticed that the handful of people in the showroom were speechless-i was in disbelief and to this day still am-all those poor folk-made me question my own beliefs

 

[gator508]

I was a work, there was a ceiling mounted TV in the hallway between our offices, one of our techs came in and said a plane had hit one of the twin towers in NY, we watched the report and to our horror we saw the second plane hit the other tower. Work pretty much stopped for the day and the plant was put on alert. We were all in disbelief of what had just happened.

 

[Joyflyin]

I was working in the small town of Wayne, WV at the time. I spent my first couple of hours in the office each day dealing with routing & contractors, since this system was undergoing a new build. I had two contractors that I called the Skipper & Gilligan, you can imagine why. They had left the office about 8:30, but came running back in yelling for me to turn on the TV. I normally don't watch TV, so I was like why. They kept saying they heard on the radio that a plane had flown into the WTC. I too was thinking some clown, not happy with his life had flown his Cessna into the tower. I was stunned when I saw the footage. I had already called all my techs back to the office and we just sat and stared at the TV in shock. We got the mandate from the company that under no circumstances were we to do anything to take down the cable system until further notice, (If there was a declared outage, we were to fix it.) That lasted for 2-3 weeks, depending on the area. Then we still had restrictions for quite a while longer.

Later, I kept thinking of December 7, 1941. How the people must have been glued to the radio. They must have had the same hollow feeling. I wasn't sure if it was worse watching it live on TV, unfolding before our eyes, or hearing such devastating news, but not having any pictures until tomorrow's paper was delivered. But then you saw the soft, blur of the black & white picture in the news paper, the only way they could print on the news papers then.

Tomorrow, I hope to be enjoying a family reunion with my mother's family in WV. Most of which are still living in that small town of Wayne. Or OW, for 'Out Wayne' . So if you are ever driving down the road and see a little white, oval sticker with the letters 'OW' on it, you will know they have been 'Out Wayne'.