Where Were You on Sept 11th? About This Page:

[gym mom]

Living in New Mexico, we are 2 hours behind Eastern Time, so the attacks happened as many of us were just starting our day.

The bank I worked for had an early morning meeting at a local hotel that morning. I took my DD to school and headed for the meeting. I had my radio on the whole time, but nothing was said. I got to the meeting late, but at the end, as they were sending everyone back to their branches to open, the President of the bank made an announcement that something was going on in New York. There had been some explosions. That is all he said.

As I headed back to my car, I decided to tune into an AM station that was a news station. As I tuned in, they were talking about planes hitting the WTC. Like everyone else, I thought, "Oh that is terrible." But as they continued, they used words like "Jumbo Jet" and "United Airlines" and "American Airlines." My initial reaction was "My goodness, there were people in that building. How sad." Then "Jumbo Jet" finally sank in and I thought "OH MY GOD! There were people in those planes!!!"

My husband works at Sandia National Labs on Kirkland Air Force base. I called him to see how things were there. He said security had tightened and he didn't know if they would send everyone home early or even if the buses would run out of the base. He does a park and ride bus.

As I got back to the branch the first tower had just fallen. We were all shocked, but still not really sure what was going on. One of the Loan Officers had a little TV in his office and we watched a few of the images. But now it was 9:00 and the branch needed to be open. We got a radio and listened to it all day. It was a very quiet day, but it wasn't until that night that I was able to watch TV and see the images we all have burned in our memories. That is when it really began to sink in.

The rest of the week was very quiet in the bank. Not until Friday did things begin to pick up. People who had stayed home or in their offices watching the news finally had to get their banking done.

One little side note. My DD had gone to an audition to model for a catalog based out of New York. She had made the final cut, she was one of 10 girls chosen from 77. They were supposed to let us know their decision by the end of the week. Her audition was Monday afternoon, September 10. Nothing ever came of it. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Jennifer

[Flower and Baloo]

I feel a bit selfish, telling this story, but sharing is the name of the game today, so I shall.

I was in the middle of a very bad episode of Sciatica coupled with stress and hadn't been sleeping well at all for weeks. My asthma was out of control. I had gotten so bad that my Dr. said that if my blood pressure hadn't lowered by the time I came back to the office for another visit she would put me in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

I hate being in the hospital after having stayed too many times to count, I took her warning to heart and really slowed down. We had already changed our diet and began a different exercise program. No internet, no coffee, no taking calls from clients for our home based business, no letting family or friend's tell me their various problems, no watching anything on tv, reading the paper, or listening to anything on the radio that could upset me in anyway, NO Football! My husband took time off work to be with me because our lives were very hectic at that point and he could answer the phone and wouldn't allow me to even talk to anyone, it was that bad.

This went on for a week and a half. We turned off the phone ringers and turned on the answering machines in the office the night before my appointment. The fated day arouse beautifully.

The sun was shining, the birds were fighting over seed and bread in the feeder out back. The neighborhood cats were jockeying for position to get to the birds. Even the post lady was early because the weather was perfect. Not hot, not cold, no wind, no clouds. Just gorgeous. My blood pressure was lower than it had been in months before we left the house. We didn't turn on the tv. We had David Eddings on a book on tape in the van, so we didn't turn on the radio.

We drove to the office in record time. There was no traffic on the streets or freeways! The guard at the gate just waved us through after checking our license plate, which we thought was odd. He was staring at his tv, crying. We went upstairs to the office and it was dead silent. No one was in the waiting room. The tv wasn't blaring in the waiting room. Odd. We got checked in and the nurse told us that my 'blood pressure is great, under the circumstances'. Being in 'self absorbed' mode at that point, I didn't think anything of it.

Saw the Dr and she was happy to say that I wouldn't be staying in the hospital anytime soon. Keep up whatever you are doing and don't listen to the radio, tv, use the internet or answer the phones for a while. Especially today! She looked at my husband and said 'I'll leave it up to you when to let her hear the news.' Odd. But I didn't question this.

She called and then sent us down to radiology for x-ray's and this office was also empty, except for all the techs and nurses standing around a tv, way in the back. My husband was curious and he walked back to find out what was going on. He talked to the tech, who was going to do my xray, his face went white and he talked to him a bit more and he came back and told me it was nothing for me to worry about.

The tech did my x-rays in a professional manner and wouldn't tell me what was on the tv. He said 'ask your husband in a few days'. I thought that was odd too, but let it go because the morning had been so wonderful up to then. Came out of the office to a big hug and kiss from my husband who walked out to the front office area from the tv area.

He took me home and there were notes on the door, but he wouldn't let me look at any of them. He told me to put together some breakfast for us, and get some playing cards because we were going to enjoy our day in the sunroom. Then he went into the office and shut the door. I didn't think anything of it and did what he wanted. I even cheated a bit and made turkey bacon! After a half an hour, he came back out and was his happy, smiling self. He acted so normal, just to make me safe and comfortable.

We spent the day talking about things we hadn't talked about since we were dating. Where did we want to go with our lives? What did we want our lives to mean, in the long run? How did we want to change for the better? We remembered all the happy times we had had together. We planned a trip to Las Vegas to just relax and get away from everything. We played cards and games and had a great day. We made dinner and went to bed early.

Since my next appointment with the Dr wasn't for a month, I was the first one up the next morning and went outside to get the newspaper. All the neighbors houses had an American Flag flying outside, including our house(my husband had put it up before he came to breakfast the day before)! Was there a holiday that I didn't know about? I put the paper, without opening it, on the kitchen table and made breakfast. I woke up my husband and he said he had something to tell me before I found out from someone or something else and he broke the news to me.

He put my best interests first. For that I am grateful. He knew my first instincts would be to volunteer for grief counseling and listen to everyone else's concerns and problems. He shielded me from all of it for the first day.

My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones in the airplanes, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. This could have been prevented in the 70's when they wanted to put re-enforced locks and tamper resistant doors on the cockpits.

I feel we have to celebrate those who made it out alive! We must learn from this experience and NEVER EVER FORGET! September 11th should be a National Day of Mourning and Celebration.

[bobwerner]

I was at Disney World. To read how my day went, please go to my website www.robwerner.com there you can read the whole weeks events.

<Shameless plug>

[allysonh]

A lot of you already know this...but here goes:

DH and I were on our honeymoon in WDW on 9/11....we were having breakfast at the character breakfast in the Land in Epcot (I forget the name of the restaurant) and didn't find out about everything until 10:30 when we were in the Pooh Garden Shop in the Land and heard the Manager say to the Cashier something like "Just tell everyone who asks that all air traffic has been suspended in the United States and if they are due to leave home today then they need to go back to their hotel and call their airline or travel agent".

I said "What's going on?"

The cashier said something about a plane and the WTC...he also may have said something about terrorists too, I don't remember.

We went out to where all of the tables are in the Land and I called my mom on her cell phone. She was hysterical and was crying and saying 'The towers are gone!! The towers are gone!'

I calmed her down and got her to tell me what was happening. After I hung up with her, DH and I decided to go back to the Beach Club (where we were staying) to turn on the news.

By now, it was nearly 11 and as we walked toward the World Showcase, I realized they still had the ropes up...I told them we were guests at the BC and they let us through. We got back to our room and we didn't realize that WDW had evacuated all the parks until the lady who came in to check the minibar came in and told us.

It was very surreal being in 'The happiest place on earth' on such a day.....for the first time in my life, I wanted to be home, not in WDW. We ended up having to drive home, as we flew out of Logan Airport and it wasn't opened until the Saturday after 9/11.

[Mypasttimes]

We were living in Chas.,SC at the time. I was checking my email. A Flash came on about the first tower being hit.I knew in my heart is was not an accident..I ran to the living room turned on news..Called husband who was walking around the yard, he was recovering from back surgery. As the second one hit, I had a sinking feeling there were going to be more- and told him so....the day unfolded in what was not dis-belief on my part. I was raised around the military...and have never lived under the false assumption that we are always safe.I knew instantly that America would be forever changed in those minutes .As the day passed..My thoughts went globally first- because my daughter was alone in Okinawa with a Typhoon stationed off the island and my sil was in Saudi. I finally got thru to her to see if she was safe from the storm, and handling the situation of her husband being in a country of "question" at first. I spent the day in prayer and concern for the unfolding situation in the differnt locations...I am a very graphically oriented person, and pictures are "books" to me,my eyes go to the minutist of details- which is a gift with happy events, but not so in this case- sensory overload and exhaustion followed when I finally was able to sleep two days later.
Till next I post,PEG
Thanks for sharing your stories

[Joanne929]

What incredibly emotional stories from all you!

I had just left Jeffrey's pre-K open house, had the radio on (Howard Stern, no less) and didn't believe what I was hearing (thought it was a bad joke). But, when I got to work, I flipped on the TV and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I called DH (he works at Logan) and asked him if work called him to go in (I prayed they didn't, selfish, I know, but he was home with 2 of the kids). I left for home early that day. And just couldn't believe what had happened, like so many others.
God Bless the USA and all of the people who protect us each and every day [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]