When I showed up at my school to teach, the first plane had already hit one of the towers. I immediately thought of the B-25/Empire State Building. I was supposed to work on the school’s computer plan that day, so I had no classes. I wheeled a TV into the workroom and watched the news. At first there was speculation that it might be a small plane or a private jet. Then the second plane hit and the real horror of what was happening came home. Obviously, no computer planning occurred that day.
The fires were burning and the people trapped above them were at the windows and started to jump. From such a height, they had seconds to think about what was happening to them. This part of the horror has seemed to have disappeared down the memory hole. Then the first building collapsed. I went and told the other teachers who were trying to make it a normal class day. And then the second was gone. I often wonder if the buildings had not collapsed how high the piles of the jumpers would have been.
As others have noted, no planes in the sky for the next week. A background noise that you forget is there. And for a while, we were the UNITED states. BBC news readers wore US/UK lapel flags. The Queen sang our national anthem. Special forces riding horses were in Afghanistan, to hunt down the plotters.
And then after only a few months, politics resumed.
My recollection is that politics resumed about two weeks later, with the Democrats demanding to know why George Bush hadn't warned the country that the attack was going to happen, and why he let members of the Saudi royal family leave on a special flight after the aircraft ban was in force.
“And then after only a few months, politics resumed.”
Really, only about a week.