Where were you when you heard?

[phatcat 0]

The first I heard of the attack was from a co-worker who came up to me and said “Did ya hear?” I was busy so I just said “No, what?” and I continued working. He said, “they just blew up the World Trade Center.” I just sat there waiting for the punch line, but didn’t get one, so I said, “okay, they blew it up and…” and just waited. After he began to explain I realized that he wasn’t joking. I went to the nearest TV just in time to see the first building collapse in on itself and the realization that this is actually happening literally made me sick. I will always remember for as long as I live that image that I saw on that cheap TV in the meeting room where I work. Thinking of the people that were in that very building that crumbled down while I just stood there and watched. There is so much I could say right now, but I won’t, because I believe that everybody feels the same way, in his or her own way. So just for the sake of conversation, where were you, and what were you doing when you heard the news?
Josh
"Well I may be crazy, but YOU'RE boring!"

[Michele 1]

I was asleep, curled up under my warm comforter, cats twined about my legs. The phone rang. I answered, because NO one calls me that early. It is my best friend, who urged me to get up, and turn on the t.v.
I used to like sleeping. Enjoyed laying there, waking up slowly, cruising through the last dream stages, and into reality. Tucked under my covers, safe from the world, in it but not a part of it yet. Peaceful, quiet, snuggled.
I have not felt that since, and I wonder if I ever will again.
"What of the dreams that never die? Turn to your left at the end of the sky".
~e e cummings~

[outthere 0]

I had just stumbled out of bed and gotten my morning coffee and sat down at home to check my email. A message came up on one of my lists with the subject "Holy Trade Center" and just a link to CNN in the body of the message. and well then you all pretty much know the rest.
e

[Viking 0]

i was asleep my mom woke me up and i just kinda stared at the ceiling for about ten mintues and then got up and turned on the tv and say the replay of the second plane hitting. I couldn't beleive it it took a couple hours for it to sink in.
I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver

[SpeedRacer 1]

Driving to work. I was listening to Howard Stern & suddenly they all started talking about seeing smoke &that they'd just gotten word that some idiot had crashed his plane into the World Trade Center. I got to work & told a coworker, "Hey some jackass just ran his plane into the World Trade Center & there's smoke & flames coming out!" He put on his walkman radio & listened in. I tried to get on the news websites, but I couldn't geton, the servers were jammed
Then he told me that a second plane had crashed into the other one! And we realized that it was no accident, and then I heard a "rumor" that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon!! HOLY FUCK WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON???
So I didn't get much work done that day.
Didn't sleep much thatnight or this week, for thatmatter.
Speed Racer
"Come up to my lab,
And see what's on the slab!"

[FallinWoman 1]

It was passing time between my first block class and study hall. Two of the other teachers came in and told me. I, too, was waiting for the punch line until I looked up and saw their faces.
The worst was not being able to get any information. My computer at work is useless in terms of getting on the internet. I have no access to tv or radio in my room. It wasn't until 1.5 hours later that I had a chance to get to a tv and hear and see some details. Not knowing lead to lots of rumors flying around the high school......

[skyhawk 2]

watching the news i saw verything but the first impact live

[PLFKING 3]

I was in the offices of our headquarters across the street from my office, and saw three co-workers huddled around the radio (about 8:55 am). They said an airplane had accidently hit the WTC. We were listening to a reporter describe the scene, then heard a scream, and the announcer said he couldn't believe it, but a second plane had just flown into the other tower. We had thought the first was an accident, but knew right at that moment that they had to be deliberate. I can't describe the hollowness I felt right then, and the sadness, and the anger. Our corporate offices are a large, wide-open space of cubicles, and usually there is a quiet din over the whole area.......but for about 15 minutes, all you could hear were the radios, and sniffling sounds, and see everyone walking around with long faces....it was very surreal and eerie.
I went back to my office, and got my radio out of my drawer and plugged it in. All through the morning, people kept stopping by my desk, and just listened for several minutes, then wandered back out with shell-shocked looks on their faces. We didn't get much done that day at all. I hadn't felt that lost and saddened since the day the Challenger blew up during launch (was it '86? Has it been 15 years already ?)
Don

[mountainman 0]

I heard Bob and Tom talking about it on my way to class. Right when I got there, I had to do an independant study in Spanish. Needless to say, I wanted to get to a TV and see what was going on.
Ever since, I've been glued to the news.
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Boogie pics coming!!!

[FreeflyPlaymate 0]

Due to the fact that my phone is downstairs and the volume is way low for the answering machine I wasn't woken by my friends' calls about the incident. I woke up...took my shower, and went downstairs like I normally do to go feed my princess cat. Now normally I would have turned on the TV...HOWEVER, I shut off my cable due tot he fact that one, I think TV shows suck (except Jackass)...although the AMC channel with all the old movies I miss watching, oh yeah sorry getting sidetracked...and two I'm moving so why should I pay for it I can make due without. So I press play to hear my friends inform me that everything is blowing up, fires, crashes, planes into buildings, but I wasn't told where...my heart litterally went into my throat, I seriously thought Jesus came back and I was left behind! I didn't know it was just on the east coast, nevertheless humans doing it. Finally the last message left explained the hijacking, and the towers, and the pentagon. I don't know if anyone holds the same belief as I do...but I really thought I was left, and I have never had that feeling before, it made me rethink who I was, and where I was in my walk with God. I prayed right then not only for the souls involved...but for my own....I can't wait until I finally go home.
**BLUE ONES**
BITE ME.... :P

[mountainman 0]

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I can't wait until I finally go home.

Amen, playmate! I just want to live in heaven with God and all my skydiving friends. It will be nice to be able to fly without a plane and rigs.
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Boogie pics coming!!!

[Aviatrr 0]

I woke up, turned on the TV to CNN, and started to get ready to go to the airport and fly my airplane(ok, so it's not my airplane - it belongs to my company) to NYC.. I was brushing my teeth when I really started listening to the TV.. They were talking about the terrorist attacks.....I thought to myself, "what the hell are they talking about?"... I walked back to the TV in time to see the first tower collapse.. Since they grounded all airplanes shortly after, I didn't have to go to the airport - and I was glued to the TV for hours..
Mike

[FallnAngel 0]

I commute to work in a vanpool, we had about 5 minutes before we were going to leave for the hour long drive, and the last person boarded the van. He says "so, everyone has heard the news". I'm thinking that there's some accident on the freeway, and we'll have to change our route. I had left my house to meet the van right as everything was taking place so I had no idea what had just happened. Then all 13 of us turned our attention to the radio...and I start tearing up as I began to comprehend what just took place. Unbelievable.
To make matters worse, when I got to work, my colleagues & I found out that a person from our group that was "given the option to resign" was just discovered to have been making threats of physical violence against us for the past several months. So not only am I devastated over the horrendous violence back east, but now I can't be sure that my family or my coworkers or me are safe from a former colleague, someone I befriended at work.
Like all of you, I won't forget that day.
Wishing blue skies for us all,
Karen

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

I was at Hinton Skydiving Centre in the UK, and to start with, I thought that it was just an accident cos the plane was a passenger jet etc. Then the 2nd one hit and and I just couldn't believe what had happened !!
BPA - A102345
Gravity doesn't exisit - the Earth just sucks !!!

• Quote

[wingnut 0]

i had just landed in a KC-10 refuling/cargo plane here in germany when a guy got on the plane and told us about everything and said we were in "threatcon delta" it was some wierd shit to be hearing. i had just left wright paterson air force base 8 hours earlier and it was now 2pm eastern time. i got my bags from the baggage pallet and went home and watched cnn. it was wierd at first. then some of the guys i work with got home and we started drinking and discussing how we were goping to bomb whoever was responsible back to the stone-age!!!!.......... still seems unreal!!!!!

"up my noooossseee"- wingnut, at first euro dz.com boogie

[JumpHog 0]

I was asleep with the radio on, when they came on and said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. My first thought was that some private pilot in a Cessna had screwed up and hit the bulding. Anyways, I figured I'd might as well wake up and turn on the TV. After seeing the image on the TV (CNBC), I immediately new that this had to be a much larger plane. As I sat there thinking about how terrible an accident this was, CNBC began reporting that they had initial reports that the FBI had been investigating a hijacking before the crash. Right as I began wondering if this could have been intentional, I watched, on live TV, as the second plane crashed into the other tower. At this point, my heart sank deep into my stomach, as I sat there staring blankly at the TV. After witnessing this, I thought to myself that this was the worst thing I had ever seen and that it couldn't possibly get any worse than this. Little did I know the events that would continue to unfold during the next hour. As I remained glued to the TV, I watched as the reports of the pentagon being hit came in, and watched the two towers collapse. I spent the rest of the day in an almost surreal daze. No words can describe the thought and emotions that went through my head during these events. These are images that will remain with me for as long as I live. I pray for all of the victims of this terrible tragedy and for all of the widows, orphans, and childless parents left in the aftermath of these horrendous attacks. God Bless.

[mouth 0]

I was teaching my math class to 7th graders when I heard. It blew my mind as we sat and watched. My kids didn't understand and I was honestly so dazed I did a terrible job of explaining. We watched and took notes on the board of what flight, where, who many dead. It really started to sink in when we were told there were 50,000 people working in the towers, because one of my students commented that was more people than live in our county.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims (even the terrorists families because they too will have to live with this forever...may they suffer for their sins).
Wingie, JT and anyone else serving our country. Please be careful these people obviously have no respect for human life. Revenge will be sweet. Thanks guys.

[freaksister 0]

I was at the DZ, asleep in a friend's trailer b/c I was really sick. He came in and woke me up to tell me...I just laid there and stared at him with my mouth hanging open, completely speechless. I think I managed an "Are you kidding?" Then, because I was so sick, I went back to sleep...and shortly thereafter, he woke me up again to tell me about the Pentagon. He said, "We're going to war." I just laid there for a long time thinking about it...turned on his little tv and watched for awhile...then I was so sick I had to curl up into a ball and just cry and cry. I cried for the country, the victims, and also b/c of the pain I was in. Horrible day. Started with the bombings, and ended with an 8 hour trip to the ER. Great day, huh?
Sis
I lust for the ultimate rush...

[bluestar 0]

I was at work. I noticed that one of my supervisors was upset. When I asked her what was wrog she told me about the two planes and that her uncle works at the World Trade Center. I went out to the casino floor, they had CNN on the big screen tv. I got there just as the second buildidng collaped. I has in shock.As to my supervisior, she or anyone in her family hasn't heard from her uncle.

[skymama 35]

I was mindlessly folding laundry in my bedroom, while Good Morning America was on. Fergie had just been interviewed, they went to a commercial, and then Diane Sawyer came back on and with a very different voice than what she had used earlier in the broadcast, announced what had happened while they showed the picture. It was all so surreal...going from Fergie, to a plane plowing through the World Trade Center in the time span of a 2 minute commercial.
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[nimbus 0]

I'd gone to bed early as I was sick, and left the tv on, thinking I might wake up in a while and sometimes I hate the silence. So I did wake up later, around midnight here I think, and went down to turn the tv off and saw buildings, balls of smoke, flames, bits hanging off, people leaning out. The commentators were saying words like "attack", "hijack", "planes hit the towers". It was unreal. My mind was foggy from sleep and I just sat there, not understanding. What are they talking about? I thought... that's New York... what are they talking about? Then as I woke slowly it became clearer and then the pentagon was hit and then the buildings collapsed, and I sat there all night just watching, sometimes I cried, mostly I just couldn't believe it. I went back to bed around 6am for an hour or so and woke up thinking, god I hope that was a really bad dream. But it wasn't.
What you guys in America are going through must be much worse than my feelings. Even though my best friends are living in Brooklyn right now, I tried not to worry about them as I doubted they would have been doing the tourist thing, especially at that hour. I've since heard from them so they're okay. I know a lot of people, an unimaginable number of people, won't share that comfort.
I've been saddened before by things that have happened in the world - Bhopal, Chernobyl, hurricanes and earthquakes that kill tens of thousands, god there's so much to despair at. I've had tragedy in my own life like I'm sure many of you have. Now I keep seeing those images in my head, the planes, the people. I really don't think watching violent movies has kept us from feeling the horror and pain when violence happens for real.
but I've gone off the subject here... I just can't stop thinking about it.
Larissa

[huffermoose 0]

I was in the u.k and i was just walking into my local bar when my mate the barman says christ look at this the t.v was on and i see a burning building and he explains to me that one of the trade centre building had been smashed into ! so i was wekll freeked he passed me a beer and as i took my first sup live as it was happening the other trade centre building got hit. i was in complete and utter shock i am sorry for any of you all tyhaat was effected by it all my truest condolonces to you all.
take care in these troubled times
Allan

[skyhawk 2]

really don't think watching violent movies has kept us from feeling the horror and pain when violence happens for real.
i agree i think that destroys any argument ppl have about tv desensitising you being in australia i felt sick watching it live and i have never been near new york and im a fan of war and action movie. i think when ppl watch movies they switch off but the world was shattered when it saw this

[FlyHighFallFast 0]

I was awaken by a phone call of the news!! I live in Washington State, but I was in NY less than a week prior to the attack. My boyfriend and I took a nap on a wall in front of the world trade center while we were there...it's a little frightening to know that we were at that very spot!!

[Slappie 9]

I was in my truck mindlessly driving through the Houston traffic listening to the radio trying to sift through what I had to do that day. Then the news came on and they announced a plane had run into the WTC. They made a joke about what an f*ckn moron the pilot was because one of the DJ had flown his cessna into Mexico and crashed and taken to jail as a arms smuggler. My second thought was that some private pilot in a Cessna had screwed up and hit the bulding. I still had about 20 minutes left to work and then they interupted a song and said that another plane had hit the WTC! That's when my heart sank and I thought OMG! Not again! I trudged onto work not really feeling any emotions yet. Just an utter blank stare basicaly. Some of my co-workers have tv's in their offices to catch the news ect... lunch time. I remember all of us huddled around a lil 9 inch b&w screen watching it all unfold! The women were sobbing the men mumbling about Ben Laden...and bombs and guns and skinning alive then pouring salt in the wounds!! I went to my office and sat there for what seemed like 30 minutes thinking about all of it. I switched on my radio and was listening to ABC Radio Network. When I heard about the Pentagon. Tried to get to new sites to find out up to date news, couldn't log onto any of them. So I came to DZ.com and read the threads. Some of the regulars and non-regular posters came to me chat and we sat there trading info and news for a few hours. Then the Company Officers told us all to go home and get with out kids and families. I went to my family {Local Bar} and sat there just watching the news and feeling such utter and total loss of control of my life!
Since Tuesday Sept 11th, I've gone through the gambit of emotions, anger, hate, frustration, emptiness, loss ect... I'm sure you've all felt the same as me. Right now I'm trying to continue on with life as normal as it can be. Trying to refrain from watching the media and news. I'm totaly blanking myself out of it. I keep up with what's going on. I'm just tierd of being bombarded with tradgedy and feelings of loss..... I pray for all of you that have been touched by this terrible attack on the very fibre of the United States of America. May we all become stronger from this and stop the hate and killing.......
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