Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I realize this probably doesn't fit the somber mood of this thread, but I was in college and in bed with my girlfriend and her roommate on 9/11/01. OK, so the roommate was in the next bed over actually, but not a bad start to the morning until people started running through the residence hall shouting...and then we turned the TV on...surreal...people were scared as **** about where the next strike would be. Those of us living in Chicago at the time surely thought the (then) Sears Tower would be next. I remember my (then) roommate coming back from his business classes in the Loop with stories of all kinds of panic downtown.

17 years ago, huh. I'm thankful there hasn't been anything quite like this since then.

EDIT: I remember we had just gone to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field the night before. Jon Lieber was on the mound.

[SPTO]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was thinking at school today as I was teaching.. none of the kids I taught today were alive when this happened.

It's incredibly sad to see where we are as a society and how it seems like it takes tragedies like this and others that our country has experienced to bring people together... only for them to be torn apart a short time later.

I was thinking about that yesterday as well. The teenagers we see milling around out there have NO concept of what it was like that day 17 years ago. It is indeed a sad fact of life that after we as people came together united to take care of one another have so easily become fractious and in some respects probably moreso than it was in 2001.

It's a shame that it takes tragedies on a massive scale for us as humans to shake our heads and realize there's something greater than the petty squabbles of every day life. At least 9/11 is to us what 12/7 was to our grandparents/great grandparents. A moment where we reflect on our lives and each other and to realize that there's something greater than the every day banalities.

[3304Life]

Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was actually supposed to be in school but I was off ‘sick’ because my dad had been working hard for weeks for tickets, first to the Browns’ season opener on the 9th, and then for the Indians’ series against KC which was supposed to begin on the 11th. Of course, the Browns did nothing that year and afterwards my broken soul changed allegiances to Carolina. And the Indians didn’t make the playoffs again for years after that season.

I was only 8 or 9 at the time, didn’t really have any idea what was going on. I just remember my parents being scared because when it became obvious that it was a terrorist attack and the idea was attacking ‘Western’ culture, I grew up in Canton, home of the pro football hall of fame, only around 50 miles outside of Cleveland and the rock and roll hall of fame. They’re two huge beacons of American culture really. I mean of course looking back it was paranoia. Canton, OH is not New York City and I’d be surprised if the people responsible even knew we existed, but that fear was very real for a long time after that.

Much the same as Jr too. I teach in England now, and the kids here don’t really know why 9/11 was as huge as it was. They know about incidents here, like a bomb going off at an Ariana Grande concert last year in a city that’s really only 30 miles away from where I live. But with all due respect, that wasn’t anything on the scale of 9/11. But I suppose the fear that terrorism brings with it kind of supersedes the size of the incident itself.

[pietasterp]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was driving in to class listening to the radio. I always listen to music in the mornings (I really don't care for talk radio) and I was wondering why there was a newscast on instead of music. I think I might have flipped the channel around as I wasn't really processing what was happening via the radio news. When it finally dawned on me, I drove to the student union and got in front of a TV as fast as I could. I'm not sure I moved from that spot for the rest of the day.

The crazy thing is, like a lot of people, I actually personally knew someone who died in the towers on that day. Very smart, promising individual I went to high school with that was just starting what was sure to be a promising career.

Remembering all who died that day.

[jake44np]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I am 46 years old and have been at my company for 18 years now.
Yesterday one of our new warehouse workers came into the break room to eat and sit next to me.
He knew nothing about 9/11, he is 19 years old.
Of course he has heard of it, but he knew none of the details.
Simply said..Yeah I know the Twin Towers where run into by planes, but that's about it.
Actually he called them the Two Skyscrapers in NYC. He was one year old when it happened.

I am in sales at my company, have been for about 15 years.
I was actually working in the warehouse doing the same thing this young guy is now.
I was pulling orders in the warehouse when it all went down.
My boss called us all in the same break room and turned on the news.
About 10 of us watched it all day long.

[Herky]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was 24 years old and was a year out of college but was still living with my college roommates. Most of us were graduated and were just hanging around the same college town. I had been laid off the week prior to September 11th and had gone out the night before to watch Monday Night Football. One of my roommates ran into my room after the first plane hit and was yelling "We are under attack!" Then said something hit the World Trade Center. I was still drunk from the night before and told him to shut up. Then another roommate came in and said something was going on so we all went into the living room. Then the second plane hit and I sobered up real quick. Most employers in town canceled work that day outside of bars. I remember the sports bar near my house was full of people watching the news. We start there glued to the TV and then the second plane it. Then the reports of another plane that went down. My roommates and I wee utterly speechless. That night we went to one of the popular college bars. No music was played and every TV there was on CNN.

That was my Kennedy moment. It didn't seem real at first. I remember Tom Clancy was on CNN I think after the first plane hit and was saying it probably wasn't a terrorist attack. Then the second one hit and the tone changed.

[m1ke_nyc]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I was sitting in my 6th grade classroom in Brooklyn, NY watching everything go down. We had a clear line of sight to the Twin Towers. My mother worked for NYC transit and came home covered in dust. She worked at a station close to the WTC.

[Blzer]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Tutored all week and wasn't able to catch my yearly viewing of United 93. I watched a lot of stuff about 9/11 throughout the course of last year during this time though, and rewatched this film and its commentary several times too. I'll never forget.

[shogunofharlem3]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I graduated college in fall 2000, extra semester, I am now 40. My girlfriend, who I married, worked in the athletic dept of the college I played baseball at. I was at my parents house in my room on my crap computer which kept blue screening every 5 minutes and I was going crazy.

I was trying to order Gamecube on Amazon and we were emailing each other back and forth just chatting between blue screens. I had my tv on and the news switched to the tragedy. We emailed back and forth some more and that next plane hit.

Took my breath away. I will never forget where I was on that day.

If you haven't gone to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York, you need to go. It is incredibly emotional and powerful. Never Forget.

[bcruise]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

18 years.

Nothing to add from from what I've said before, but I still won't forget.

[phenom1990]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Someone born that day can now vote, legally buy cigarettes and/or serve in the military.

[Blzer]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Time to get my annual viewing of United 93 on soon.

Never forget.

[slickdtc]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

A thing i read yesterday that I did not know was that when they scrambled the jets to intercept the planes (I believe just the one that went down in PA, maybe the Pentagon one too), the jets didn’t have weapons on board. The pilots were going to ram the airliner, at the front and back if all went according to plan.

Hearing/reading the pilots and others accounts of the day and the circumstances around it, we were sooo unprepared for an incident like what happened. I read many times how we didn’t have this or that set up correctly because it didn’t occur to anyone that this would happen.

In today’s world, not having extra security measures in place seems insane. Then again, we often don’t hear about these measures unless they are needed/breached.

I mentioned to my wife yesterday, but between being young (I was 11) and probably the truth, it feels like “terrorism” has been THE word since. I don’t remember ever hearing it before, even as acts happened enough (OKC, the first WTC bombing, etc) to have entered the daily lexicon. I do long for the days of innocence (childhood or otherwise) where this type of **** wasn’t a possibility. Not saying I dwell on it, but every time I fly, I always think about it a bit.

[countryboy]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

Meant to post yesterday

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[phenom1990]

Re: Where Were You on September 11th 2001?

I end up watching that 102 Minutes that Changed America every year. I think it’s the timing of when I get off work and one of those things where once you commit 5 minutes to it; it’s impossible to walk away.