I was working away in the machine shop at the time. There were about 25-30 of us in the shop(about 150 in the whole company) and we were allowed to have radios in the shop while we were working which I would turn on or off periodically through the day depending on whether I wanted to hear some music or not.
Anyway, one of the other guys who had his radio on up the other end of the shop says a plane just hit the WT Tower according to a report on the news. We never thought too much of it at first, as we thought it was a small private plane or something like that(still bad though). So we went back to work again, when my buddy comes back a couple of minutes later and says it was an airliner that hit the towers. Of course we knew now this was very serious but never thought it could be anything but a serious accident so I flipped on Q107 out of T.O. who at that time used to simulcast the highly unentertaining Howard Stern, to find out what was going on. At that point everyone was thinking "accident" then that's when the second plane hit and you then realized what these animals were doing and felt sick to your stomache. I remember wondering how many more planes/people might be at risk as we all stood around the machine shop listening to the radio ect. Howard Stern was basically narrating what was happening live, over the radio and I remember him making a very derrogitory comment aimed at Canadians/Canada when he said we should line "them" all up at the border, or something to that effect, implying that all these animals came out of Canada. I'll admit, though, that I was releived that they hadn't when the facts unfolded later on, but who would ever suspect people of committing such utter disrespect for human life.
I also remember wanting to slap some sense into a couple of co-workers who didn't seem to grasp what was happening. Some people just refuse to see things the way they are.
One of the guys I worked with, also had his son working in the shop, just doing basic jobs here and there. He was prone to epileptic seizures due to a very serious accident as a child, and 9/11 triggered one on him that day.
A terrible day, but we need to remember it for the sake of those lost and for the sake of what we believe in and for those who would try to take it away from us.
