I was running a little late to work, but had taken the the time to stop at McD's for a breakfast sandwich. I had the radio on and heard the first reports that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. At that point no one knew what type of plane it was or whether it was an accident or not. I was the clerk-treasurer for our town and when I got to work I asked my assistant and deputy if they had heard anything (they had a different radio station on). They hadn't, but just as soon as I told them what had happened, the news came on that a second plane had just crashed into the other tower. I remember saying there's no doubt now, this is definitely a terrorist attack, as we all stared at each other in horror.
It was such a long day. We had no tv in our offices, but listened to the news on our radios. We were going through an audit, but it was terribly difficult to concentrate on anything except the news. One of the auditors kept calling me with questions regarding the audit (he was SO annoying) and during one of the calls he told me about the Pentagon being hit. I had a long meeting that evening, so it was quite late before I could watch any television coverage.
We live in a small town about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus and at that time we had a subscription to the Cleveland Plain Dealer as well as our local newspaper. I vividly remember how thorough the PD's coverage was and how I'd read each day's stories about the heroes and the dead with tears running down my face.
Our first granddaughter was born that year on September 23 and I remember how, in the labor room, our SIL kept watching news stories about the terrorists until I finally asked him to turn the channel to something more cheerful. It was so nice when our sweet Cleo was born and our focus turned to her and away from the horror and sadness of 9/11.