I had been laid off days before. That morning, I had roofers on top of my house, and I was calling into the unemployment office, and the woman on the other end of the phone asked me, "Do you know what is happening in NYC? Can you turn on your t.v. and tell me?" I turned on the t.v. just as the 2nd plane hit. I then yelled up to the roofers and told them to quit and come inside. So I sat there in my living room with a bunch of roofers and the phone on speaker, as we relayed blow by blow to the unemployment office what was going on... it was all very surreal.

I remember I was happy to be laid off as I was looking forward to a break (my last job had stressed me out), but as the reality of 9/11 sank in, I began to fear I may never find a job again as the world seemed to change in an instant.

Kids were dismissed early from grade school. When they got home, I turned the t.v. off for the rest of the day. They didn't need to see the images. The school arranged counseling and assemblies and sent home letters with guidance about how to talk to them about it.

As others mentioned it was very eery having no planes in the air, though occasionally you could hear planes scrambling from Hanscomb.

Next door neighbor is a pilot for AA and he lost coworkers. Other neighbors were middle eastern and drove a van with black out windows, and I admit I was paranoid about them for awhile. The hijackers stayed in a hotel in Newton the night before; that hotel is no longer there.

I was worried about my friends who lived and worked in NYC and PA. It took awhile to hear from them that they were okay. I didn't lose anyone personally, but I have friends and family who did.

For months after, I was jumpy. In January we were out a restaurant when a transformer down the street blew up -- it looked like a mushroom cloud -- and the electricity went off. I freaked out thinking it was a terrorist attack. Took awhile to be able to sleep soundly again.