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“I can remember being at work and somebody came in and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and I thought, ‘OK, well, maybe it was just an error,’ and I kept working. She came back and said another one just crashed. And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!’ So we all just started talking about it and going to watch the news. Yeah, I remember it vividly.”
— Laura Johnson
“I volunteered at the Brainerd Fire Department but I was at my regular job at Liberty Tool and my wife called me at work. My boss made me run home and get a television set and we set it up and we basically didn’t work the rest of the day. Then after that we went down to the fire hall and I don’t remember much after that. Just watched everything at the fire hall about what was going on.”
— Aaron Johnson
“On September 11th, I was at work at Mercy Hospital and I just went into a room and I heard it on the news. I guess I just kind of felt really saddened and helpless because there’s nothing you could do, and I just felt kind of awkward about continuing on with my day taking care of patients when all that heartache was going on.”
— Brenda Jentsch
“I was at home on my computer and a friend of mine called and asked, ‘Are you watching television?’ and I said ‘No.’ He says, ‘You better turn it on.’ I was getting ready for a fishing trip. We were leaving the next day to go to Black Duck Lake. I turned it on and I saw the second plane hit the second tower and I’ll never forget it. I mean, that was just pathetic, and then to see those people jump out the windows like they did to their death, their certain death, was a real low point in my life.”
— Jim Erickson
“I was having a good time at the casino and I found out about it when I went to cash in my chips and someone standing alongside me said, ‘Holy smokes, there were at least 50,000 people killed in an attack on New York City,’ and that was it — then he left. Of course I was stunned and I went back and told my friends and, of course, it turned out to be a terrible tragedy, but not to quite the extent he made it out to be. Not belittling the tragedy — just relieved it wasn’t the 50,000 I at first thought.
“It was a terrible thing. That was the end of our playing at the casino that day. We all piled in the car and went home to get further updates on it.
“That’s a day I won’t forget — one of those days, like (the assassination of )John Kennedy in 1963.”
— Dale Swenson
“I remember I was sitting in class and all of a sudden they came over with the broadcast, and I just thought, ‘Really, what is going on?’ So I walked out of class and I found the nearest television set and I sat there and I watched and I could just see people crying hysterically and people were whispering, going ‘Oh, the Twin Towers were just attacked.’ There were 3,000 people killed or more.’ And if I remember right, all I could do was cry and think, ‘Why would anybody do that?’
“I can just remember tears running down my face as I watched the terror on TV, as families were scrambling to find their loved ones and they were thinking, ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to see them again.’ The entire school was piled around the TV — I know they let us out of class.”
— Brandee Stomberg
“I was at my kitchen sink and I was canning tomatoes and I had the television on — why I did, I don’t know, because I don’t normally. I think one of the Today shows or something was on. And when I heard the first announcement, they said, ‘Oh, that must be a terrible accident.’ That was the first plane. But that changed as the second plane came. Of course I just stopped canning. I had my pressure cooker going and I was making my next batch for the jars but I ended up sitting down and watching it and it was hard to believe, really hard to believe that anything like that would be intentional, especially to the World Trade Center.”
— Mary Lou Cody
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I have been living in New Jersey for the past 13 years. Sept. 11, 2001 was a gorgeous day here. My husband was to drive to Newark on the Turnpike for a job, but for some reason he decided to stay home and work. He told my mom and myself that a plane had hit the north tower and we started to watch the events unfold. When we saw the second plane fly in we knew that we were under attack. Over 600 New Jerseyans lost their lives that day. Our dear friends lost 2 of their friends in the Pentagon attack. We live by McGuire AFB and Philly and to not see any planes in the sky was unnerving. My husband and I went out for a walk in our neighborhood and were passing a couple of young children playing when a low flying plane suddenly came directly over us. The children and us were startled. The one child started to cry and said that he thought all planes were not suppose to be flying. We realized it was from the AFB and reassured them that all was okay. One month later we had the anthrax attacks at our local Post Office. It was frightening seeing your mail carrier wearing a mask and gloves while delivering. We had to go through our mail outside and dispose of it. One of the few survivors was at our local hospital in Mount Holly. American flags flew over every house, street, overpass, etc here. We met firefighters from all over Great Britain that came here to march in honor of the fallen heroes. It was moving and heartbreaking watching them march while playing their bagpipes. We met neighbors we had not been acquainted with until we all had a candlelit memorial a week after the attacks. In so many ways it brought us together and tore us apart at the same time. To this day I can close my eyes and picture the plane hitting the south tower, the towers coming down, the people crying and running as clearly as I did that day. I hope we never experience anything like that ever again. God Bless America and all those fallen and the amazing men and women that show the best of America.