I was going to middle school in Houston at the time. Our classes didn't start till 9:15. The day before the local news station had run a segment on Blue-bell ice cream and they sometimes reran fun segment the next morning. I was brushing my teeth getting ready for school and My Mom called me into her bedroom. I thought they were replaying the segment.
Saw the first Tower burning and heard the speculation of an accident. A few minutes later the second plane hit. During home room We watched the news on a super grainy reception from a set of cheap rabbit ears that my teacher had in her cluttered closet. The Pentagon was next and the state department also (later proved false but still) then the scenes of people sprinting from the White House and the Capitol building. The first tower fell then by the end of first period they decided to just let everyone go home.
Everyone was home that day. We all just sat in shock watching the TV as they replayed the collapses over and over. Bush stopped at military base and then fled to an undisclosed location. I lived a neighborhood close to the Houston Medical Center. All the doctors were called in case there was attack in Houston and a few went to New York the next day. I don't really remember much more from that day except Peter Jennings hour long World News Tonight special and Bush's White House address.
Wednesday was perhaps the scariest. We didn't know who had hit us, why they had, and whether there would do it again that day. Most people stayed home, I didn't go to school that day and didn't know anyone else who did. Even being told about Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda was strange like they might as well named a alien.
I remember the biggest change over the next months and years was fear and dread that it would happen again and soon Our church service was irrupted by our youth pastor to let us know We were at war. The Anthrax attacks started about a month a later and it seemed another shadowy terrorist group. That spring the Second Intifada in full swing Israel and that generated a lot of fear of suicide bombers attacking crowds in the U.S.. The DC sniper attacks a year later only increased the culture of fear an uncertainty. I recall at neighborhood functions my parents discussing how to protect themselves from chemical weapon attacks. The government had suggested using ductape and garbage bags to created sealed safe areas of our homes. Our neighbor had picked out the bedroom half of the house while my folks preferred we stay in the living room and kitchen. My family went so far as to get assurances from a family friend that We could with them move to their farm if shit went down and we need to leave. Another time my folks called 911 because a plane was circling around Transco Tower and the Galleria mall.
I remember the pre-9/11 world as one where you could meet you Aunt as she got off the plane. Going to get Christmas present with out bomb sniffing K-9 units wandering around. All my history books ended with collapse of the Soviet Union (The end of History) rather than a super glossy pages of 9/11 and the start of the Afghanistan war.