If you haven’t had a chance to read Tracy Carson’s beautiful post from this morning on how to talk to your kids about 9/11, be sure to check it out.
Each of us has a different story. Each of YOU has a different story (which we hope you’ll share in the comments below). Where we were, what we were doing, and how we found out about the attacks on September 11, 2001 are details unique to each of our experiences on that day. The details vary, but their permanence in our memories is something shared across the board.
We all remember where we were that day. And this Sunday, we’ll remember it more vividly, and with more reverence, as we mark a decade passed.
The question we asked our SMB Contributors was simple:
Where were you on September 11, 2001? How did you hear the news?
Steph
Where I was: Ames, Iowa
How I found out: It was my freshman year at Iowa State University. I remember my roommate and I sitting around a small little television getting ready for class when we were stunned as we watched the second tower fall. Little did we (or anyone else for that matter) know how much our lives would change from that day forward.
Joy
Where I was: Middle of nowhere, Kentucky
How I found out: When my alarm clock radio went off, the attacks had JUST occurred. I actually didn’t have a TV in my apartment and rushed to my college’s campus to see what was really going on. I was a Junior and a Communications major. I got to the Communications department main office where everyone was watching the attack on the first building. That’s when the second plane hit. Of course, unable to believe what was really happening teachers and students alike were gathered around the T.V.s in complete shock. I called my parents (they were both in Tennessee at the time). I remember wanting nothing more than to be with them.
Beth
Where I was: Asleep on the sleeping porch of my sorority house sophomore year
How I found out: Two girls came in to wake up a third and tell her that she needed to call her parents. Her sister was living in Washington DC and they couldn’t find her. We spent hours reassuring her that everything was fine despite what we were seeing on tv. Thankfully her parents were finally able to get a phone call through to find out she was ok. I spent the rest of the day huddled with friends watching the horrible new unfold.
Cate
Where I was: In our little one-bedroom-newlywed apartment in Scottsdale
How I found out: I had just stepped out of the shower and flipped on the news to be in the background as I got ready. I sat wrapped in my towel in disbelief on the edge of my bed, my jaw on the floor and my cell in my hand relaying everything to my husband who was already at work.
Jenet
Where I was: I had just moved to Phoenix from living in Tucson and taking college courses at Paradise Valley CC
How I found out: I was getting ready to start the day. I felt like I couldn’t move while watching the news. It was almost like an altered reality…could this really happen?!
Noelle
Where I was: I was six months pregnant with my firstborn living in Oklahoma
How I found out: When we heard the news, our entire office gathered in a tiny conference room where we sat glued to the TV. Emotional from pregnancy already, the tears just flowed. I was a wreck.
Sarah
Where I was: I was in Evanston, Illinois about to start my senior year of college.
How I found out: My now husband/then boyfriend got a text from a friend to turn on the news, and when we put on the radio it was tuned to a sports talk station. The DJs were talking about how all Major League Baseball games had been canceled so we knew it was something big. We turned on the news just in time to see the second tower fall on live TV.
Tracy
Where I was: Clinton, SC in my dorm room getting ready for opening Convocation for the start of my Senior year in college
How I found out: I was actually watching the Today Show on my own that morning as I got ready. The first plane had already hit the buildings and right after I turned it on everyone was still trying to figure out what had happened and I remember thinking how confused everyone on air was. I continued to watch, get ready and saw the second plane hit live. It was horrific. I called my friends to turn on their TV’s and we discussed whether we should go to the auditorium for Convocation or stay in our rooms. We went ahead and went to convocation where everyone was of course talking about things. I remember so clearly being desperate for answers and no one had any.
And now we ask YOU, our readers and fellow mamas:
Where were you on September 11, 2001? How did you hear the news? We’d love you to share your story with us and other SMB readers in the comments below. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Alan Jackson singing Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning (if you can’t play the embedded video, try clicking here):
I was here in Phoenix. I was a sophomore in high school and heard the news in the car as my mom drove me to school. I remember every TV in that school was watching the news and I was just stunned. For at least a week afterward, the only thing I saw on TV was the towers falling over and over. I remember how eery everything seemed in that time, if you looked up, there were no planes or helicopters in the sky. It was like the whole nation was holding its breath. I went to NY in 2003 and though it was two years later, ground zero was still such a horrible sight.
my husband and i were just talking about this as i was telling him about the interview i had just heard with the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Amazing story as God didn’t have him at the office yet that morning when his company lost over 650 employees.
anyway, we had flown in late the night before from Philadelphia. my sister in law called and told us to turn on the tv, not even sure we had arrived yet. my oldest was about 6 weeks old. I didn’t want my husband to leave for work and i just sobbed with my baby, knowing that her life/our lives were now changed forever.
I was a freshman in High School in Scottsdale. My parents always had the news on in the morning as we all got ready and I walked in to ask them a question as the second plane hit. I didn’t want to go to school, but my parents believed that it was important we go to be with and comfort our friends. I was in my first class, World History, when the towers fell and we all watched it on TV. Our teacher had to ask us to stop asking questions because he just didn’t have an answer. Other teachers wouldn’t show the news coverage and tried to get us to concentrate on our work, but school ended up being released early that day anyway.
I was getting ready for work, then living in Huntington Beach, CA. My husband pulled me out of the shower and said I needed to see what was happening in NY. As the news came in that the planes that hit the towers were from Boston en route to Los Angeles, I asked my husband, “don’t you have a meeting this afternoon with someone coming in from Boston?” His face turned pale and he reached for his cell, trying to call the man’s company. It was later confirmed he was on American flight 11. My husband still regrets his role in placing his business associate on that plane.
My grandmother also died that day from ovarian cancer. I cried so much that I passed out from exhaustion.
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