I was driving to a career fair in Joliet IL. The person that was to pick me up at the airport couldn’t. They rented a car for me. This turned out to be a blessing because there wouldn’t have been a way to fly home and trying to rent a car after the fact was impossible. I ended up driving home.
It was hard to focus on interviewing when we could see the start of a war.
I was with my college friends in our house watching TV going WTF!!
I was painting a house in Lake Elmo. Heard the first hit on the radio and we were like wow that was a bad mistake for the pilot. Heard the second hit on the radio and we knew we were under attack.
Thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones on that horrible day.
Thank You to all that put themselves in harms way to help others in need that day and thank you to all of our veterans who stood up for us 
Had a work trip scheduled to Bismarck North Dakota. I picked a rental car up from the MPLS airport at 5:30 am. Worked in the office for a while and loaded the car up. The news had broke of what happened before I left. The 7+ hour drive was surreal listening to the news reports the entire time. I ddin’t see any television until I arrived in Bismarck. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
stopped in to buy a new plate tamper for work.. they had the news on.. 1 plane already hit and I watched the other hit.. I can still remember how i felt and the concerne I had for all those that were in desperate need of help..
blows my mind how little respect some have for life and others….
Austin TX at a clients. After 3 days of canceled flights ended up driving the rental car home.
I was driving down to Jackson,MN as my former employer moved there and I helped them set up the production lines, before resigning. I heard it on the radio and pictured a little Cessna or something smacked it like a mosquito… wish that would have been the case.
Quote:
I heard it on the radio and pictured a little Cessna or something smacked it like a mosquito… wish that would have been the case.
That’s exactly what I thought. That would have been bad enough.
On 9/13 I was fishing in the Afton area on the St Croix. No jets in the air. One vapor stream from a fighter I never did see.
As I looked around at the picturesque St Croix River Valley, it dawned on me how fragile our freedom and what we grew up with could be.
Standing at a bearing press at Clyde Machine in Glenwood.
DT
Working. Our boss sent everyone home with the instructions to hug our loved ones.
I was at the Mayo clinic in Rochester
we watched it on the tv there
My junior year in high school. Heard something about it in the halls in between classes and by the time i got to my next class thay had a tv on watching it all unfold. Still hard to imagine what we saw on tv that day was actually happening.
was at work at DCI INC in st cloud………….wondering what the heck all them dang office people where doing in the lunch room watching TV for?? then i joined them and couldnt believe what i was really seeing! 
I was nursing a hangover w/ from the night before watching Monday Night Football with guys from NYC. There office is at 75 Park Place, the 2nd jet sent its engine into their building.
We were on the phone with our associates in Jersey City trying to figure out what is going on when the 2nd plane hit the tower. They are on the river w/ a view of lower Manhattan from 20 stories up.
My NYC friends were stuck here when all they wanted was to go home. One left after 24 hours, rented a car and drove home. The 2nd waited for a flight and returned a few days later.
My 1st trip to NYC was right before 9/11, late summmer, hot, beautiful, amazing city, amazing people. My 2nd trip was in Feb 2002. I remember unseasonably warm temps in the 70s. Any cold climate city w/ a mid winter thaw should have been full of life. The streets were quiet, empty and extremely eerie.
I was in my shop working on some oak for a light unit I was building. Heard it on the radio and then turned on the TV. Never got back to the woodworking that day.
I was getting ready for a class in downtown MPLS that turned out to be cancelled, of course. I heard about it on the radio and turned on the TV just before the second plane hit.
Today I’m at the airport, getting ready to board a flight. 
At work, listening to the KQ morning show.
I was working at the MPLS airport when it happened, when they ordered an emergency evacuation of the entire airport property.
All airport personel had to report to the police Department,where we were assigned areas to stand guard around all airport gates and access areas as the, police escorted all passengers and non-emergency personel off the Airport grounds.
Utter Chaos ensued
I was watching a firey sunrise over Lake Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park and I have an erie photo of the perfectly calm lake that is timestamped 9/11/2001 and was taken within minutes of the fist plane hitting the WTC back east.
We were with some friends from the United Kingdom who had flown over to experience The Great American Western Roadtrip. And we had had a terrific time.
We packed up the camper and proceeded to drive out of the park and because radio reception is so spotty out there in WY, we had CDs on in the truck for the next 6 hours. We were completely oblivious to what happened until almost 2:00 in the afternoon when we pulled into Gilette to fill up with gas.
As soon as we got off the freeway, I knew something was terribly wrong. There were lines of 20-30 cars at every gas station. I pulled up to one and asked the guy in line ahead of me what was going on.
He looked at me and said, “They’ve attacked New York. The World Trade Center towers are gone.”
I couldn’t freaking believe it. We spent the next hour in absolute disbleief watching CNN play the collapse over and over again on the TV in the SuperAmerica in Gillette.
We listened to the radio all the way to Rapid City, deliberately stopping at tiny towns that were way off of the freeway because we were afraid there would be fuel shortages at stations near the freeway and we’d be stranded because the way people were panic buying.
Our friends from the UK had to stay for an additional 3 days, which all considered wasn’t nearly as long as I’d thought. Needless to say, dropping them off at the airport was creepy, it was the first day flights had resumed and they had the first Europe-bound flight that left MSP. As they say, tensions were running high. . .
Grouse
I can’t imagine re: Jeff’s post.
In Perkins at a business breakfast – looked up and saw the planes hitting WTC buildings.
We stopped the meeting and sat is shock at what we saw. I remember the TV people talking about how the piilot of the small plane must have lost his way – I told the guys I was with – that that was not a small plane because of the size of the hole in relation to the building – most people had no idea how BIG the World Trade Towers were. Not like a Minneapolis sky scraper. They were BIG!!!
Then…the next plane hit.
Went home and watched the day unfold in compete disbelief as to what I was seeing….Still seems like yesterday. Still can’t believe how the world changed that day.
Dog 
First heard about it while driving into work… listening to KQ. Listened as Tom and company debated on whether it was a Cessna or larger plane. Then.. they said something like “what was that”… was that another plane? or were they replaying the one that hit? Turned out..was a second plane.
I work downtown Mpls.. and was a bit nervous. Got to the office and we turned on the couple TVs that were in the office. VERY few calls coming in.. so most of us gathered around the TV. Then… we hear the IDS center was being evacuated. We thought there was a threat.. and were told by management that we were allowed to go home. Sat at home the rest of the day in disbelief watching the events unfold.
I also remember flying for work – for about 5 months post attacks – with hardly anyone on the flights with me. Once, I flew to NYC with 3 people plus the flight crew – that was very odd….
Dog
I was at work at 3M. Guy on the loading dock had a small TV on. Saw the first tower on fire.Couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
As BK said it was really eerie after that of the silence in the skies and hearing the fighter jets patrolling the skies but to high to see them.
I heard the first reports when waking up to KQ. I remember them talking as if it was a small plane. The second one hit when I was on the road to work. At that point you knew and you could tell the KQ crew was just in shock realizing what was happening.
I remember the day too. Beautiful bluebird skies and it was still out.
I also remember seeing the towers start to lean and thinking that they were going to collapse above the fire…little did I know.
I also remember how eerie it was to not hear any planes flying at any given time, not even in the faint distance. Well except when you saw and heard the lone jet fighters patrolling far up in the sky.
I had a TV in my bedroom back then… a lifetime and a different marriage ago.
She woke me up and turned the TV on. I saw the second tower fall, live and all too real. I may have been 1000 miles away from it, but all that means was that it happened on my TV too.
Called work (worked a sh177y retail job back then) and the mall was going to be closing for the day. I worked in a luggage and travel shop… we had no idea how much this was going to affect our lives.
11B, 2nd BN 22nd INF, Ft. Drum, NY.
Working in the basement of the Quest phone building in Owatonna on the cooling for the phone servers, I came up and was told that Quest ordered all non employees out of their bldgs. I asked why and they said because of the terrorist attacks, puzzled I asked whats up and they explained what happened. I told them I need to fix their cooling otherwise the phone system will go down (not good), I completed my work and drove home. Very odd how quiet the skies where
I work right next to the airport and watched as all planes were ordered to the nearest airport. I have never seen so many planes land that quickly and hopefully never will again.
I also have many clients / friends in New York, so that is a day I will never forget.
I know somebody who was in the subway under the World Trade Center when the first plane hit…
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
