I was working at Starbucks still back then. I had gone into work at 4:30am, and I believe I was supposed to get off around 10 for school.
Well, Starbucks didn't have a tv or radio. It was a normal Tuesday morning, busy as hell. I was running a register. Then after I rang up one of the regulars, he told us a plane hit the World Trade Center. Then eventually another customer told us about the second one. We were pumping all the customers when they came in for information. The cell phone networks and regular phones were all tied up. I was trying to call my dad and see WTF was going on. My boss was doing the same, trying to call his wife.
We had no clue. My time to leave came, and I stayed. The rest of the staff went home except me, one girl and the manager. Our DM, Kirby called and I talked with him a minute. We were stunned.
Starbucks never closes early, EVER. And we were waiting word from Seattle to shut down. I started pre-closing everything, washing dishes and getting prepped to close, at 11am. It was strange. Then eventually we got word. At this point it was just me and the manager. I wrote out a sign to put on the front door and this jackass customer came up right when we were pulling all the furniture in and said "Why are you closing? It's not like we're in New York." My manager just looked at him, dumbfounded and said in his angry papa voice "Some of us would like to be with our families right now."
It was around 2pm when we finally got out of there. We went to this Colter's BBQ across the street. It was me, my mananger, my roommate (a Starbucks store manager at a different store) and two other store managers. Colter's had $2 beers on Tuesdays and most importantly a tv. None of us had see a tv all morning.
We went and sat at the bar, the only customers in there. And stared at the tv. It was shocking. We were quiet for a long time.
Another thing, this was all in Las Colinas/Valley Ranch, Texas. Near the DFW airport. The silence of no planes in the sky was strange. A not normal quiet.
When we left, I was driving home and I saw one of the planes AA was sending to New York loaded with supplies take off.