Where were you 10 years ago (Houston, San Antonio: insurance, co-op, movies)

[Athena78]

I was working in my cubicle when suddenly somebody screamed "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!". Everybody ran to the break room and we saw what was happening. Coincidently, the moment I got to the break room to watch the television, the second plane had hit WTC1 before my very eyes. Everybody were either in shock or crying. We knew for sure we were under attack when the pentagon got hit too. We ended up leaving that day depressed and it was all over the radio and TV stations here for the next day or too. Instead of hearing music on my way home it was the radio DJ talking and talking to people on the radio about it. Life has never really been the same again. Wow, 10 years!! I was 22 at the time.

[DexterCat]

there was an image i saw on the day after 9/11. the text that went along with it was something like 'terrorists, you thought you could spread us apart' or something similar. the picture was of a neighborhood where each and every house had an american flag up and underneath said something like 'you only unified us even further'

[Rustybolt]

Dyess AFB TX. That day we barricaded the place like you wouldn't believe since we didn't know what we didn't know, to quote a former SecDef. Three weeks later I moved to Andrews AFB. Andrews stayed at a high alert condition for a very long time and it was exhausting. The anthrax thing made it even more stressful.

[Dreadlockd]

Downtown Detroit at a training class for my job. We were in the middle of team building exercises when a security guard came in very serious and pulled my Director to the side. Immediately she announced there had been an attack on the WTC. They dismissed us from work and told us to please stay out of down the downtown area and go home.

Well I pretty much heard "No work today, go have fun" and that is what I did. I didn't realize the severity of what was going on, since there weren't any televisions near me to see what was transpiring. A friend and I ate an early lunch at a small diner downtown and then we left to explore the abandoned Book Tower building a few blocks away. We spent most of the day there going from floor to floor messing around looking at old paperwork, the offices, pictures people left behind, and talking about what kind of attack could have taken place. We both had our cameras (film) and climbed the the top floors fire escape and took birds eye view pictures of downtown, mostly down Grand River. I went home about 9 pm and turned on the TV and watched the news and it was pretty surreal, I had spent the whole day completely oblivious of all the craziness going on. For me that was a very enjoyable day. It would take a few days to absorb the impact of what happened.

@ TexasNick...I dig what you're saying about the 40's & 50's, fortunately for you being a white male that particular era means something completely different for those of us who are not white. Do I think your comment is racist? Not at all, but I do believe that is white privilege speaking. You can see that time period as being idyllic, others may see a complete opposite picture where terrorism (domestic), oppression and inequity in social structure of America was real and overwhelming.

[LiveUrban]

I was a teenager living on a military base in Turkey at the time. I remember my mom watching coverage of the first plane that hit the tower. She told me to come and sit with her and watch what was going on. Soon thereafter we saw the second plane hit and we were just in agony. It was absolutely horrifying watching what was going on and thinking about the innocent human beings who were in the towers. Hearing about about the plane crash in Pennsylvania and the the attack on the Pentagon exacerbated everything. I was scared for our country but at the same time I had deep anger towards whoever did it. The military base we were in was in absolute lockdown. Since our proximity to countries that harbor terrorists, everyone was worried for our own safety. Being a military kid, I knew that war was coming and a few months later, my mom, brother, and I evacuated back to the States leaving my dad in Turkey.

God bless the victims and families of that horrifying day and give strength to our troops who protect us.

[smuboy86]

I was also a Sophomore in High school. I remember turning on the TV getting dressed before school and turning on the Today show, the first tower had just been hit, but not the second. I finished getting ready and went into the living room where my dad was reading the paper. I turned on our living room TV to CNN and said, there is something happening in New York it looks pretty bad. My mom and I got into the car and about halfway to school the radio was interrupted with a CBS News special report, the second tower had been hit.

She dropped me off and I went in the school building, we had a large classroom space, like a college classroom with a projector that was on with CNN. We stood around mouths agape as the buildings burned.

The bell rang and we went to class. I was sitting in chemistry our teacher giving the lesson the TV off. The way the science classrooms were build they were all connected with an interior corridor with lab storage. We heard yelling from the other rooms, out teacher went out to see what was the matter, came back and turned on the TV, tower one had collapsed. We watched live as the second tower went down. We were silent our teacher went out again, the other classrooms were loud. She came back and closed the door she told us how proud she was of us and how maturely we were handling it.

The rest of the day progressed. I remember speculating with the rest of my classmates, is this over, what about LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and US here in San Antonio? My mother picked me up on time I don't remember too much about the rest of the day.

The next day though was Tennis Practice I remember setting on the Tennis court with my teammates in the morning. We usually were on the flight path to SAT, and next to a Mall. That morning though was absolutely quiet and still. The sky was a clear deep blue and empty. That's what I will always remember.

[hadleyzoo]

Stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. It was still early morning and I was getting ready for work while hubby snoozed as long as he could...we were 3 hours behind central time. The phone rang and it was my mom yelling at us to turn on the tv. At that point all I saw was the Pentagon on fire, people running, medics helping, etc. I didn't know what was going on, but then the reports went to the towers and showing what was happening there and I lost it. I told my mom we had to go and hung up on her. My husband shot out of bed and got dressed faster than I had ever seen. He was security forces at the time so he knew as a first responder there was lots of work ahead. I finished getting ready quickly, got the kids up and dressed...took my son to daycare and my daughter left for school. The base locked down...nobody was allowed to leave and every car coming in had to be searched by military dogs. But after a couple hours, the dogs just shut down from exhaustion and refused to work. Since I lived on base and worked with the civil engineers, I was one of only about 30 people at work that day just fielding phone calls from everyone stuck on the highway trying to get on base. I told everyone to just turn around and go home because getting on base wasn't happening that day. I didn't see my husband for about 4 days.

Teachers couldn't get on base so school was cancelled that day and my 8 year old daughter ended up riding her scooter to my office and she hang out with me at work that day. I think school was actually cancelled for the rest of that week.

Anything that happened after that day, I don't remember. But that day is etched in my mind forever.

[HillCountryHotRodMan]

I was at work (as usual) and the television in my office was on... so I just about **** myself... figured it was probably a terrible accident until the 2nd plane hit! Then I got extremely pissed off. And I had no joy when Bin Laden got what was coming to him - it was fully expected.

[Bo]

I was at work 10 years ago. I had a TV in my office that I probably turned on less than once a month. For some reason, I flipped it on as I walked into the office that morning and saw The Today Show covering a mysterious fire at the WTC. I kept the TV on the rest of that day and encouraged my coworkers to turn theirs on, too.

[The Black Irish]

I was a Junior at Southwest Texas State University. I was in in my 930 AM Social Work class when a classmate came in and said a plane flew into the WTC tower. Class continued and it wasn't until I made it to the student center when I saw it all on tv. They had setup big screens throughout the entire campus so we watched it unfold before us. Needless to say the rest of the day, week, month, and year was rough. It is still sad to think about it ten years later. I haven't bothered watching tv today b/c I know it will be everywhere. Weird thing is it didn't "hit me" until years later. I was driving in from San Marcos and Born In The USA by Bruce Springsteen came on and I was driving by a car dealership with a huge American flag waving in the wind. I basically broke down in my truck. It was, and still is, a very sad day in our country's history.