Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

[PVarck31]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was a junior in college living in a studio apartment. My friend called me and told me to turn on the tv something crazy was happening. I asked what channel and he said any of them.

I turned it on about 5 minutes before the first tower collapsed. When that happened I almost puked.

One thing I remember about that day is a girl I knew said that maybe we deserved it because of all our meddling in the middle east. I seriously wanted to slap the **** out of her. Needless to say, I never spoke to her again.

I honestly wish I was too young to remember it. This may sound weird to some, but everything that happened that day still gets me.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was a junior in college living in a studio apartment. My friend called me and told me to turn on the tv something crazy was happening. I asked what channel and he said any of them.

I turned it on about 5 minutes before the first tower collapsed. When that happened I almost puked.

One thing I remember about that day is a girl I knew said that maybe we deserved it because of all our meddling in the middle east. I seriously wanted to slap the **** out of her. Needless to say, I never spoke to her again.

I honestly wish I was too young to remember it. This may sound weird to some, but everything that happened that day still gets me.

Everything changed that day.

Glad they finally got Bin Laden.

[Bellsprout]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

There were quite a few stories like that of people that were supposed to be there that day, but for whatever reason wasn't.....

Seth MacFarlane was actually supposed to be on the plane that hit the north tower. A hangover and an incorrect departure time from his travel agent saved his life (per Wikipedia).

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I think I was in 5th grade when it happened. I just remember our principal coming over the loudspeaker announcing what happened, and then the entire school crowded into our auditorium to watch the news as it broke until our parents could come to pick us up.

It was especially scary here because there's a nuclear power plant not too far from my school and it's considered one of the more likely terrorist attack locations in the country. I remember when my mom picked me up, my dad was calling on his cell phone to tell us that if anything happens to the power plant, my mom should just get us in the van and drive south as fast as we can.

[Brandon13]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was in eighth grade at the time. I was in a weightlifting class when I heard on the radio that a "small plane" had struck the WTC. Homeroom followed and on the PA one of the assistant principals announced for the classes to turn their TVs on for breaking national news. It was then when we realized just how bad it was. I watched the towers fall in math class.

Such a surreal day.

[FreAk47]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Foods Class my sophomore year of highschool. I still feel the rage when I watch the old documentaries about it they show on Natgeo and Discovery around this time of year.

[TarHeelMan]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was sure that I had posted my story in this thread. In fact, I went back to the first page to check and was shocked to see that it wasn't a 2013 post originally.

Anyhow, here's my recollection. I lived in the northern part of Brooklyn, right across the river from lower Manhattan. I had dropped my son off at the babysitter, and took the train across the Williamsburg Bridge. It was about 8:30 or so when I crossed the bridge, and to my left the towers were in full view. But as a native NYer, they weren't anything special that day... yet. They were just part of the landscape that marked my trek to work. After crossing the bridge, I remained underground until I got out at 57th St. Even though it's a short distance geographically, you would have thought it was a world away. I got out the train station, and as I recollected afterwards, there was no hysteria or anything, at least in my immediate area of midtown. I got to my office building, and as I passed the front desk, the guy there told me "a plane hit the Trade Center". I was thinking it was just a small commuter plane or something. Then I got to my department, and everyone was in panic, trying to contact friends and loved ones in lower Manhattan. This was a pretty large firm, and for some strange reason, with all those conference rooms, there was only one TV, and you had all these people trying to get news from there. I heard all sorts of strange reports and stories of the White House being blown up, planes attacking other national landmarks. You didn't know what to believe.

I went down to my wife's job on 34th street, and surprisingly, they weren't dismissed even though they were right across from the Empire State Building, which was still a primary target at the time, since there was still a plane unaccounted for. I made a big scene about how stupid it was to be in the office right there when everyone with sense was getting out of Dodge. Her boss eventually came up with the brilliant idea of shutting it down for the day. (Thankfully she was still employed after my tirade)

For all the stuff going on that day, I still had no idea what ACTUALLY happened at that point, even after we got back to my job. I had heard the towers had fallen, but I still wasn't sure what was fact and what was rumor or hearsay. Plus everybody was kind of in a stupor, like we had all gotten a collective kick to the nuts. Eventually, the trains were back running, and we were able to get back to Brooklyn and pick up our son. It was only after I got home and was able to turn on the news that I was able to see and try to process what had actually happened.

It was brought completely home (literally) that night. I went to sleep and my son got up hungry in the middle of the night. So I went to go get him a bottle, and as I walked to the kitchen, I could smell smoke, like something in the neighborhood was on fire. But as someone in the city can attest to, when you smell the smoke, usually you would hear sirens, indicating that the fire department was on its way. But everything was deathly quiet. I looked out the window, to see if I could find where the fire was, and I truly though the fire was on my block. That's how strong the smoke was. But I was still sleepy, and then it hit me that I was smelling the smoke from ground zero. That's when it really hit home.

[jhogan3132]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was a freshman in college at the time. My mom called our dorm room and my room mate answered the phone. He told me that my mom really needed to talk to me. I answered the phone and she told me that a plane had hit the world trade center. I asked her if it was foggy in New York and she told me to turn the TV on. I turned it on just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. After that I was shocked and taken back by everything that was happening and not quite sure how to react. They canceled classes that day because we were near some plant that they thought could be a target of some kind. I had never felt very patriotic, but 4 months later I joined the Army and have now been in the service 11 1/2 years.

[Money99]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was in Mexico on my honeymoon with my wife.
We woke up late, and when we went downstairs to grab breakfast at the resort, everyone was staring at the TV's.
I stopped one of the employees and asked what was going on and he replied "U.S.A. go boom".
Very surreal.

My wife and I didn't have a problem getting back home 5 days later, but a nice couple we met from Rochester was supposed to fly out on the 13th.
Because the planes were all grounded they were told to look after themselves if they wanted to get back home.
They had to drive to the Mexican/Texas border and then taxi over, then get a bus back to NY.

[kaletore11]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I'm not American but I've definitely had one of the most traumatic days of my life on Sept 11th, 2001.

My stepfather was at the Quantico Marine base from 1999 to 2002 with a few breaks. He returned to Croatia in August 2001, and stayed here for a month. On Sept 11th, he was supposed to return to Quantico but this time my mom was going with him. They sent me to my grandfather's house for two weeks. They were scheduled to fly to Frankfurt (Germany) on the 10th, and then board a plane for Washington, where someone would pick them up and drive to the base.

The first night I got a call from my mom that their plane was cancelled and they had to spend a night in the Frankfurt Airport. Nothing special, I really didn't make much of it, as young as I was, I knew flights get delayed and cancelled all the time.

So, I woke up the next day, mom called me at 7am Croatian time (1am NY time) and told me they're about to board their plane for NY and that the flight takes about 7-8 hours. We say goodbye, I'm happy because grandpa allowed my to play my PS One all day and everything's fine.
Fast forward 8 hours, to 3pm Croatian time (9am NY time), my grandma is screaming and crying while watching TV. I come up to the screen and see a tower burning, having no idea what it is or why grandma's crying. She tells me two planes crashed into the WTC in New York.

New York. My mom. 8 hour flight. Everything just goes black for me. I try calling her but my phone didn't have the ability to call abroad (parental control). Everyone's scrambling to find a way to contact my mom but to no avail. Grandpa calls the embassy but they have no idea who was on the plane.

The day passes. Still no info.

2 am Croatian time (6pm NY time), I get a call. It's my mom, she's alright. She tells me the planes were from Boston (our local TV station didn't say that), and that they could call me because the lines were jammed. I tell everyone the good news.
My mom never flies again.


That would be about it.
One of the worst days of my life.

[ehh]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Intriguing thread to read through.

I was in college in an 8:45am class. Our professor was nowhere to be found which we thought was curious. A few more minutes went by and then she finally walked in the door and in a very somber way told us to go back to our dorms and to turn on our televisions because "our country and the world may have just been changed forever". In hindsight that was somewhat impressive since a lot of people thought it may have still been an accident prior to the second plane. She proceeded to tell us that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I remember, being the immature dickwad that I was at that time, actually being happy that it got me out of class. This was before I knew it was an attack but it's still shameful to think back on.

So I left class and made the quick walk to my college's dining hall and there were tons of students standing outside the cafeteria watching the TV's mounted to the wall. I was standing there for maybe a minute when we saw the second plane crash live. Without a doubt the most bizarre feeling I've ever had in my life. It was crazy hearing the gasps and screams from the people around me.

I went back to my dorm and one of the more idiotic things I remember about that day is that I watched all of the coverage on ESPN. Every single channel was covering the attacks and ESPN had the ABC feed but I remember leaving ESPN on for some reason. That's where I watched the towers fall - for some reason it took the towers collapsing for me to finally have my "OH ****!" moment. Up until that point I thought the causalities would be the plane passengers and people on the WTC floors where the impact was. Now it was a true catastrophe in my mind. I also remember thinking that it was just the beginning of the attacks. I thought Manhattan would be obliterated by the end of the day. From then on it was the most sad/surreal day for me that didn't involve the death of family member. I watched coverage in a trance for the next eight hours until we went to get dinner.

I also remember our college holding a huge candlelight vigil out in the quad at night. Some jokers came walking through with a boombox blasting "Born in the USA" which seemed defiant and cool at the time but is also a disgrace looking back on it. But college kids will be college kids, it was their way of showing patriotism.

[The JareBear]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was driving to school. Junior year of HS. Had just gotten my first truck, black 2001 Ford Ranger. Crap, I think it was an 01, it had the pull out seats behind the driver/passenger seats.

Heard about it on the radio, went to first period and they wouldn't let us watch the TV. It was English class, and they had us free write instead. I wrote a really long "dissertation," that's what I referred to it as anyway, about how freaking ridiculous it was that we were not allowed to watch was happening on the news. It's funny, because I got a referral for the essay (I used a curse word) and then got some positive attention for it as well, the school newspaper as well as the little local "small town times" paper published it.

I remember that stuff pretty vividly. I remember the radio station, the crew that was hosting the morning show at the time, and they kinda befuddled "So we think there was just an attack in New York..." kinda intro to the whole deal.

I definitely remember the first time I saw footage of the second plane crashing into the building. That kind of "shocked-heart-skip-a-beat-eyes-wide" moment is pretty rare for me, but the insanity of the reality of what I was watching almost felt like I had been slapped in the face.

[bgeno]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was in eighth grade. I remember my cousin (same age as me, we were friends) early in the morning saying "we're being bombed" and not thinking much of it.

I don't really remember when exactly I found out what had really happened. I know that my class right before lunch was Honors Algebra with this no-fun, no-nonsense teacher who always played by the rules, but he let us go get our lunches and bring them back to his room (unheard of at my middle school) to watch the news. I can recall having an immature reaction of "that's awesome" as I saw one of the videos of the second plane striking the towers, and the teacher basically explaining why it wasn't awesome.

Then my last class of the day was social studies, and I believe by then we had some idea of what exactly was happening (terrorism, Al Quaeda, etc) and our teacher just spent the whole class telling us everything he knew about it.

I know I didn't understand the severity of it at first, but I remember the exact moment when I started to understand...

They had cancelled middle school football practice that day (our coach was actually in the military, so he didn't coach the rest of the year), so I had to go to a friend's house after school. We watched the news, but I guess I still didn't "get it." Then, when my mom came to pick me up, I saw the glossy look in her eyes as if she had just been crying, and that's when I knew that something big had happened.


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[The JareBear]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

This had me thinking about how much things changed after the attack, as others have mentioned.

I remember being able to go with people all the way to their terminal. Or being greeted by whoever was waiting for me right when I got off the plane.

[loccdogg26]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was asleep in the living room of my mothers house. Was in the process of a little downtime after getting honorably discharged from the Air Force on August 29th.