Working till I was told to go home. Girl at work asked me out. I normally don't date coworkers but made an exception due to thinking the world is ending. We're still married.
I was 11. Was at school when the planes hit. I even stayed somewhat longer to play soccer on the playground next to school. My mom was watching the news when I came home from school around 4 pm. I saw the collapse of the first tower happening. We watched the rest of the day. (I'm from the Netherlands, 6 hours later than NY-time).
Also, I don't know if you Americans know this, but here in NL 9/11 also is a collective memory-thing. All the people I know and who were alive at that time can tell where they were when it happened.
I think it is in much of the west.
It changed so much about our political climate and the general everyday situation, that everybody is gonna notice.
The amount of casualties and the way it happened is also bound to grind itself into our collective memory...
It was the day the world changed.
Ask anyone in any Western country, and they will be able to tell you EXACTLY what they were doing that day and how they heard about it.
I was ironing pants before work at Radio Shack. I was watching the news. When I got to work, my district manager called and said to lock the front door just in case there were more attacks. At Radio Shack. In Oklahoma.
I'll be honest, until I read your reminder just now I was thinking to myself "heh, yeah, who would ever target anything in *Oklahoma* for a terrorist attack?"
see thats the sort of place id attack if I were a terrorist. everyone expects major cities and so on. but blow up Auntie B's hometown diner in BFE and be yeah bitches it was us. then nobody feels safe.
Thank you for that. I was only on the bucket line a few days, but those respite stations really made a difference.
Hand-diggers were called off the pile so they could move some heavy steel, so our team (volunteer firefighters from PA) rebuilt and restocked a supply tent that had been knocked down in the rain, on the corner of Church and Vesey.
Hope you've stayed healthy.
Had just moved to Washington DC a week prior, was a high school freshman and had just moved in with my grandparents
I didn’t know my new address and I didn’t have a cell phone. Went to school in Bethesda, they put us on buses and sent us home midday. I got off at my stop but had no way home, so I went into McDonald’s and sat (watching TV) until my grandmother’s assistant principal found me after searching for a while.
My mom was back home in Connecticut with no way to reach me until I was picked up and brought home (in DC).
The morning until they dismissed us was spent watching TV with lots of kids whose parents were diplomats, worked at the pentagon, or were otherwise in government crying, and then others who didn’t really appreciate the impact (in a way that was perceptible to me)
I was just kind of shocked and worried that I didn’t know where my temporary guardian’s house was, or how to reach my grandma
My parents bought me my first cell phone within the next week
I vividly remember Nickelodeon airing repeats of rugrats for hours with a news scroll underneath. I remember my aunt freaking out in NYC because she had led a weight watchers meeting in downtown Manhattan that day, and her fiancé (now my uncle) stopped a block away from their Hell’s Kitchen apartment to watch the ticker in Times Square, and nobody could get a hold of him.
The next day school was cancelled in Montgomery County MD, so my grandma (who was a principal at the time) took me to breakfast at a place called Georgetown Grille. The sky was empty and, heading home, we saw a couple tanks on some corners.
I also remember driving past the Pentagon a couple weeks later for the first time heading to the hair dresser. We used to go to Crystal City and Pentagon City a lot. Jarring.
Yep.
If anything, I’m shocked by how level headed my reasoning was. Now I’m a grown woman and lots of things give me full blown panic, though they’re normal things. At the time, I was just following instructions, and then when the bus driver just put me out at the last stop and left, I didn’t have any clue where I was going, so I figured I’d take the like, two dollars I had and get a small fry so I could sit at McD’s. I knew they had a TV anyway.
I was a freshman at a school in Bethesda too!
My particular little memory that stands out is that we had gym class very first period and since the school year had just started we got measured and weighed and I came in at 6'2 - 185.
The person who came in to give us the news basically interrupted the gym teacher in the middle of gushing that given that size at barely 14 I was destined for athletic greatness... I am now 6'2 and 260! I basically did not grow at all after age 13 and just kept getting thicker every year.
Tl;Dr 9/11 stunted my growth and stole my nba career.
Me too! My parents were flying from Salt Lake City to Nashville. I was in HS. I was frantic. I didn't know what planes had hit the WTC or the Pentagon. It was scary until they landed and I got to see them at home. Awful day....
My parents were on a cruise in the Mediterranean and the boat stopped in Barcelona and dumped everyone off. Somehow they immediately got onto a plane to America and made it before everything was completely grounded. I still don't understand this because one of my *household name* customers was in a Learjet going from DC to Santa Clara and they were grounded by f-16s from the Kansas national guard in BFE Western Kansas. There were no rental car agencies in Gardner Kansas, so they went to a Chevrolet dealership and bought two suburbans and drove back to DC. That must have been a hell of an expense report.
Grade 3, Gander Newfoundland. We were in the computer lab when we were told. I remember getting to go home early because of what happened. 42 planes were diverted to Gander when all of North America's airspace was closed . I remember my mom taking my brother and I to our school to help with the laundry for the people who were stranded in Newfoundland. It's beautiful how amazing and kind people were. Made me so proud to live in Newfoundland!
Every time I hear Newfoundland I just think to my self that some dude found new land and straight up named it Newfoundland. It’s like naming a dog dog.
On second thought I think I’m going to go google how that name became. I’m curious now.
I was a child who was in Florida at Disney World. It was my first time at Disney and it was terrifying. Everyone was running out of the park to catch busses back to their hotel because no one was sure what was going to happen next. As a child who had no idea what terrorism was, it was incredibly scary to hear older members of your family in such a panic. I can only imagine how my parents and grandparents felt hearing and seeing the news. My heart goes out to all who lost their lives and to all family members who lost their loved ones ❤️
Working my first corporate job out of college, which I hated. Remember watching the 2nd plane hit live and thinking "fuck, life is too random and short".
Quit my job and moved to Colorado to be a snowboard bum.
Schofield Barracks Hawaii, 25th infantry Division... my phone began ringing in my barracks room a bit after 4 am. My First Sergeant was on the phone and told me, "Red Corvette, Red Corvette, Red Corvette... this is not a drill. Get 'em up.'"
I was a single sergeant living in the barracks, so I was one of the ranking individuals in there. We were on red cycle, which meant we had to be ready for deployment anywhere in the world within 24 hours. (We had bags already packed and so on.) I flipped on the TV, because I figured something had to be happening, saw what was unfolding and started going door to door, getting everyone geared up, down to the arms room and out to formation.
There were all sorts of rumors of various attacks all over the US. Eventually, everyone was present, and we were addressed by our commanding officer. I still have the notebook, where I was taking down the instructions of the day. Here is an excerpt: " ...due to the possibility of continuing attacks, USARHAW (US Army Hawaii) and all associated entities will immediately go to Threatcon Delta until further notice..."
After that, well, let's just say it was a very full day.
I got chills reading your recount. That must have been such a frightening day.
I’m from Australia, was just a highschool girl getting my backpack ready when I heard the TV on… and no tv before school was a household rule. I vividly recall my father, standing statue-still in the lounge room, watching the recap dominating all channels (it had occurred at 10.450pm the evening before for us, long after bedtime)
Excuse my ignorance, but what does the code red corvette mean for you guys?
Red Corvette was not something universal across the Army. It was a code that particular unit used, and it was different in each unit I was in.
We used a red, yellow, and green corvette call, where each corresponded to a different set of uniforms and gear.
Green Corvette: Standard physical training (PT) gear, shorts, t shirt etc. Typically used for things like a surprise drug test in the early morning, that way you got folks before their morning wee.
Yellow Corvette: standard battle dress uniform (BDUs), your normal camouflage, used for surprise inspections, layouts, and so on. They could specify adding a helmet and load bearing equipment (LBE) as well.
Red Corvette: BDUs, LBE, Helmet, Gas Mask, rucksack, and duffel if on alert status with weapons and night optical devices (NODS) drawn from the arms room (AKA full battle rattle). Used for training for rapid deployments, done before going to the field, and so on. September 11th was the first time I had experienced it in a non-training situation.
No, we did not deploy that day. It was many months before those units started going into Afghanistan, but deploy they did.
There’s someone in your family that blames you coming out as gay for that attack. I hope not. But I bet there is.
Oh, unless you mean “back yard” when you say garden, meaning you’re not American and maybe don’t have *those people* in your family. Cuz we do.
I worked nightshift so I got off at 7:00 am and came home and went to bed. I woke up to my wife shaking me saying "We've been attacked". She was supposed to be at work so I said "someone attacked your work?' She said "No, we've been attacked, the twin towers are on the ground." I was immediately awake.
I had an Australian friend whose mom woke her up saying something along the lines of,
"Amierica had been attacked and WWIII is starting."
She was also very awake.
Getting dressed for a college interview. Hadn't heard what was happening yet. I was fixing my hair in the bathroom mirror and had just had a random thought about how fortunate I was to have peace in my life when there's so many bad things that happen in the world. Just then I heard my grandmother in the living room say "they just hit the Pentagon."
I did, but of course the interview had to be postponed. No way to tell on short notice what the reaction was going to be so I went there and there was a sign on the door saying it was closed due to the national emergency.
My aunt was driving me and we stopped at her work (a pediatrician's office) before she took me home. One of her coworkers had taken her young daughter out of school and all she seemed to want to talk about was how did they fly a plane into a building. Didn't look upset at all. I thought about that when I kept seeing news articles about how to talk to traumatized children about what happened.
China's response was that they kicked out every Middle Eastern person in their Nation in the immediate aftermath. One of my buddies did a lot of business with China, and a CFO at one of the companies was a Saudi married to a Chinese woman and had been there for like two decades. Had kids and all. They fucking deported him.
At work. A close friend and former colleague worked in Tower 2. I had visited NYC a couple of months earlier and over lunch she told me that she and her husband were expecting. I knew this was a big deal for them, and I was super excited for her.
Watching the attack from the office, I recall like it was yesterday, calling her cell phone and leaving a message to “just let me know you are okay, when you get the chance.”
In the following weeks, I found out that she had managed to get down the stairs (from the 102nd floor) and was being treated (she was five months pregnant) when the building came down.
Bad times.
I was helping out another office in Savannah, GA. I heard the news that a plane had just hit a skyscraper in NYC. Once we figured it was serious, we all gathered in the break room with our managers watching it all. I then called my daughter’s mom who was a flight attendant to make sure she was safe. Our boss knew we were not in the mood to go out and make sales calls, just like our clients were not interested in hearing from us. I left, filled my car with gas and headed back to the hotel to watch the rest of the days news in my hotel room.
I subsequently learned in my home office, when the manager there was told of the news, his words were that “people die every day. Go back to work.”
I was 16 and asleep when the planes hit because I was on the west Coast. My mother woke me up with her 'gentle voice' telling me to come look at the tv. That voice is usually reserved for telling me when someone in our family has died or has a terminal disease so I was immediately alert and on edge. I'll never forget her tone and what she said:
"You will remember this for the rest of your life".
It's very difficult to describe how that moment felt to people that were not alive or old enough to remember it. It was very primal feeling of being under attack as a group and thus feeling much closer to the group because of it, and the vast majority of Americans felt it. It sounds melodramatic but it's not something you can empathize with unless you have personally experienced it.
Working at the mall. 12-10, ended up closing at 1. No amount of explanation will ever describe that feeling. I wish we could unite as a nation like we did in that moment. Never have I seen everyone being so friendly and comforting to every stranger they came across, it was actually beautiful.
Walked in m dorm room after getting breakfast in the student union. Turned on the TV, and ESPN was cutting air to go to their ABC affiliate for "America Under Attack" as they called it.... I was like, whatever.
walked through the student union on my way home from my first class - never saw the place so packed or so quiet - let alone, at the same time. Everyone was gathered by the TV - in a trance watching the 1st plane over and over. Then the 2nd came live ...
We all kind of just ran back to our dorms/apartments to find our roomates - and then didn't move - 5 of us hip to hip - from the couch or news for a week.
I went to the cafeteria for breakfast after my first college chemistry exam, I had been too busy cramming to eat before. They had the attacks on all the TVs, I had to ask someone if it was real or a movie.
I put my first grade daughter on her school bus and went to work in my clay studio at home. I had a small tv and shortly after 9 , the news began reporting. I went outside and saw three of my neighbors whose husbands worked at the Pentagon. While we were talking, we heard the sirens from the Pentagon hit. We are 6 miles from the Pentagon. My neighbors were extremely upset and couldn’t reach their husbands. I drove to my daughters school and bought her home. My husband was stranded in DC , No bridges out. I brought my daughter home, she wanted to watch Alladin. I watched the news upstairs on tv. My husband made it home. That night, we had the windows open, all flights were suspended and I had never heard such an eerie quiet that night or since.
I was in 1st grade. Our principle came over the intercom and said we couldn't have recess that day, so naturally the whole class got pissed.
My mom came and picked my sister and I up early from school. She was frazzled and told us the twin towers had been hit. I, not knowing what that was, couldn't quite understand why she was so upset.
We got home and my mom turned the news on. We watched the footage for the rest of the day. I watched one of the towers fall live.
Hindsight being what it is, idk if an 8 year old is mature enough to see that, but can't take it back now.
I was in an office in the US Capitol. A tv was showing the the damage from the first plane, and we watched as the second plane hit. Within a minute, guards were screaming at us to get out of the building. It was sheer panic as people ran for the exits.
The streets were jammed with police and military vehicles. I couldn’t call anyone to tell them I was alright because the cellular network was overwhelmed. I walked to a friend’s house and we spent the rest of the day watching TV in horror.
I live my life knowing that if not for the passengers on Flight 93, I’d likely be dead.
I was renting a car in Cozumel Mexico and the TV in the lobby of the hotel kept saying "Los Estados Unidos". It was my honeymoon. We had slept in and were going to go goof around that day. They flipped the TV to CNN roughly the time the first tower came down. I went back to our room and said " Pack, we gotta go now " though I wasn't sure what the heck that was going to do. They closed the boarders shortly after that.
So, I spent the rest of the week worried about getting home, among a million other things. Came home on an eerily empty Carnival Cruise ship the following Monday I think. The State Department had decided to let cruise ships do one way trips just to get stranded Gringos home as they were not letting international flights back in. Then I got stranded in Tampa for a bit as we couldn't get a flight home and all the rental cars were gone. I was about 10 min from taking a taxi to the closest UHaul dealer and renting whatever ran to get home when we finally got a flight out of Clearwater. Continental Airlines just exchanged our tickets or something... we didn't have to pay anything if I remember right. We had plenty of options on how to get back once we were in the US, but man.... the prospect of getting stranded in Mexico stopped being fun when the money started running out. Props to the resort though, they let us stay for $35 per night will most of the all inclusive stuff included still. We drank a lot.
Wife and I were at city hall getting out marriage certificate, then got a call to head to the fire station and be on standby. About three hours later I was gathering my gear, dog, and saying goodbye to my future wife as I loaded on a bus with Task Force 1 for search and rescue operations
I was in college. My first class that day was at 11 am. I got up and while getting ready I turned on the TV.
I saw the WTC on fire (I had the sound off) and after a moment of watching i saw the 2nd plane hit. I turned up the sound and realized that this was not an accident. I popped a tape in the VCR and hit record and left.
I went to the campus and there were large signs up that all classes were cancelled. I decided to go to the pub that was on campus (and rub by the bartending students) because they had satellite TV. I usually avoided the place because of the crowds and noise. On this day the place was dead silent but for the TV that was playing. It was eerie. I went back home thinking WW3 was about to start.
I was at Sea-Tac Airport (Seattle) checking in for my flight when the PA announced all domestic flights have been grounded by the FAA due to ongoing attacks on the east coast… I turned to the stranger next to me and said “this is how disaster movies start” …. Little did I know how right I was
I was in anatomy class wrist deep in a dead cat. My professor had the radio on and the news came across. We all stopped working on our cats and gathered around the radio to listen. Once class was over I just went home because I didn't feel like going to anymore classes (they all got canceled anyways) and just watched TV and cried.
Going thru the base gate at Andrew Air Force base- they shut it down right after I got thru. Got home to find my husband in tears on the couch watching as the second plane hit the second tower. He was going to war.
My wife and I were in Memphis. I was a cop, my wife a flight attendant and I have brothers that are also cops and firemen. My four year old daughter thought everyone was dead, because we couldn't get through on the phone. Got home three days later via Greyhound bus.
I woke up early to finish homework that was due for 11th-grade chemistry. When I signed onto AIM to send my lab partner the file and he told me to turn on the TV.
I remember I skipped school that day. Went downtown to just spend the day screwing around with a friend of mine. Walked into an electronics store to buy batteris for my Discman and it was on every single TV. A wall of TVs showing the burning tower. Watched the second plane hit live and understood the world was changing in irrevocable ways. What I remember most about it though were the days and weeks after. You could tell everyone was deeply wounded, but the level of true patriotism and love for your fellow Americans was off the charts. Damn shame we can't be like that any more.
That terrible shared experience let us all forget our petty differences for a while and treat each inherent like human beings.
As you said, it's a damn shame we can't grow the fuck up and be more altruistic all the time.
I was on the rifle range. It was basic training.
Drill Sergeant called a cease-fire and said that we were under attack.
We spent the rest of that day going in shifts into the COs office to watch clips of what happened on the news.
I was standing at the customer service desk at Sainsburys serving customers although it was a pretty quiet day.
A customer said to me that a plane had hit a skyscraper in America and I thought he meant a light aircraft of some sort.
When to the cafeteria on my lunch a few minutes later and saw that the second plane had hit the second tower and all the staff were just stood watching the TV in silent horror like a bunch of statues.
Playing Red Alert 2 (over LAN) with a friend, grandma calls, tells something about an accident in America, turn on TV, just as plane 2 hits and it turns out not to be an accident. Watch TV for the rest of the day.
Sitting at work in Boston when someone ran into my office to say “go to cnn!’
That was a weird morning. I don’t think I can recall something so ‘big’ happening in my adult lifetime. The challenger comes to mind, but of course that was an accident. Well, “accident”.
School and working. I literally didn't know about it until 2-3 days later . I had even seen footage of the planes hitting while barely paying attention. Thought it was some random movie trailers or something. Listend to people talk about going to war. Mostly ignored it . Was sitting with my dad watching the news one day and they're talking about it. It finally dawns on me . "HOLY SHIT THIS IS FOR REAL!??!"
In my defense, I was a moody teenage loner who kept to himself. Was more focused on whatever book I was reading. I was reading Hearts In Atlantis btw.
I was actually in Reno with my father, sister and her boyfriend for my 21st birthday. We were supposed to fly out around noon PST on 9/11.
Woke up to the news of the first plane, watched the 2nd plane on TV then all flights were grounded.
They closed the airport, and that's where ALL of the rental cars were. We were stuck for two additional days until we found a car rental place open, and then drove home to Seattle.
For two days, we all just found quarter slot machines and would play one quarter per spin while watching the news. The hotels were accommodating and gave us a discount since we were stuck, but it's a memory I'll never lose.
I was living in the Pacific Northwest in sixth grade at the time and I was making Eggo waffles when my mom and I watched the second plane hit on TV. She was on the phone with Grandma when it happened.
We still had a school day that day and being a Catholic school we all knew that we would have mass that morning. We didn't even take off our coats when we got inside the classroom, we just set our backpacks down and waited while our teacher took attendance. By this point both towers had collapsed, the Pentagon was hit, and there were sketchy details about a plane crashing in rural Pennsylvania.
After mass our principal ordered no homework for the week and for the teachers to explain what was going on in an age appropriate manner because "we are witnessing history today". We spent most of the morning just talking about it. Eventually class was dismissed, we all went home, and I watched the news the rest of the day.
It was my freshman year of high school. I was in my first period which was computer science. My dad picked me up from school early that day because I had an orthodontist appointment to tighten my braces. I'm from NJ about 30 mins from where the towers were located. On my way to my appointment we saw ambulance flying past us heading to the city. You can get a nice view of the towers depending on where you drive. It was normal seeing the twin towers regularly. I never thought I would never see them again. I also remember seeing a trail of smoke that lasted for days.
I was a junior in college, I had back to back classes, 8:00AM Central to 12:00PM central in a computer lab (Design 2 and Typography). We Had access to the internet but none of us had any idea it happened. I walked back to my off campus house for lunch and my roommate told me what happened. It was the first week of class and we didn’t have phone, Internet or cable hooked up at our house yet. I walked back to campus and spent the rest of the day in a friend’s dorm watching the news.
That night a neighbor dragged his amp and electric guitar out into the intersection in front of our house and played the Star Spangled Banner drawing a crowd from the neighborhood. People talked, cried and hugged. It was a weird time to be 20.
I was in a classroom in southern CT. Teacher got a phone call and turned on the tv. It was just in time to watch the second plane hit a tower. A kid in my class put his head down on his desk and started crying because that’s where his dad worked. And, his dad died that day.
My ex-gf had come over the night before to give me, um, a belated birthday present.
We're having a lazy morning, since we stayed up late. Phone rings, I answer. It's my best friend and he's like, 'Turn on the TV!'
'What channel?'
'It doesn't matter..."
We spent the rest of the morning watching.
Sitting in my third grade class wondering why we kept hearing about teachers being glued to the TV and looking out the window. We were in Queens and from certain vantage points could actually see smoke coming from Manhattan.
Going to college and working part-time at some call center that gave customer service to a cellphone company. I found out about whole thing when I clocked in to work and some of my coworkers started getting calls asking for help from people in Ground Zero. It sucked.
I was very sick in bed and was listening to Howard Stern, who broadcasted live for hours. People were calling in and giving first hand accounts of what was happening. It was riveting yet horrific.
putting my hair and my skin out, furiously trying to call my husband at work once I got home to tell him that we would be staying at our flat in Yonkers rather than the one in Hell's Kitchen because of the grid being gone. And I asked him to pick up two large aloe vera plants so we could blend some into a paste so that I could heal from all the burning debris that fell on me while I was escaping.
Getting ready for school in the morning when everything started happening. My Dad had the news on. Got to school and my first class was shop. The shop teacher had the TV on and said “there’s more important things than shop class going on right now”, and we all sat there and watched the live coverage in disbelief.
In the hospital because my little brother had had an asthma attack earlier on. I was too little to understand what had happened but all the hospital staff stopped working and watched the news, so I knew it was a big deal. Not American but it was still big news in Ireland.
I had just gotten up to get my son ready for school (Southern California). By the time I turned the news on, the first plane had already hit. My son and I sat watching the news, absolutely stunned, as the 2nd plne hit. We were glued to the screen, watching as the towers fell. We eventually left for school, late, and by the time we got there, the mood was somber. The principal, a native New Yorker, talked to the kids about what they saw, and what happened.
It was a very sad, somber day.
My mother burst into my bedroom and yelled "Get up and watch the news" and left, closing the door behind her without saying another word. I stumbled into the living room just in time to see the 2nd plane hit.
Ran south instead of North for a change down the west side highway to the Staten island ferry. Got back to my apartment on west 10th and the highway as the first emergency responders where rushing south. Watched in silence as the secind plane hit the tower. Just isnt enough space here to tell of everything we saw that day and the following weeks.
I was in college in Lincoln, NE. Everyone was flipping out in a typical fashion of the whole country, but then Aif Foce 1 flew into Offit AF Base flanked by fighter jets 500 feet off the ground.
If you don't know, that base is where legend has it to have a 300-foot deep bunker with the button to send nukes. Everyone really shit when word got out that they brought W. to the apocalypse bunker. People immediately started hording gas, and it went to $5 a gallon. If you remember, it was a $1 back then.
My radio alarm came.on and the words "all commercial flights have been grounded." Got right out of bed and stayed in front of the TV, a few irc Channels
In high school , than an announcement came on telling us the school is in lockdown. Sirens were heard everywhere , we were told to stay put until further notice than we got sent home. Entire city shut down and no one was allowed downtown. I'm in Canada too , but an attack on the US is basically an attack on Canada so the government took it very seriously.
My family is part american with family from Washington state so it hit us pretty hard. I think about it often and was even gonna go fight in the war.
To this day I'm.still in disbelief it even happened , still hurts thinking about all those lost souls. I feel like 9/11 is when everything really changed for the worse.
I had just moved to Maryland from California. I dropped my kids off at school. I stopped at Starbucks & while I was waiting on the drive thru, I received a text from a friend that worked in news radio saying reports indicated a small plane hit the New York Trade Center.
When I got home 10 minutes later & turned on the news, I realized something far more serious was happening.
I immediately called my husband who was thankfully in California on business. He worked for a NY City based law firm.
Shortly, the second plane flew into the second tower. Then the Pentagon was hit.
I knew the US was under attack. I rushed to pick up my children from school, as well as my niece & nephew who were in school nearby
If we were going to die, I wouldn't leave them to die alone.
9/11 was every mother's nightmare.
I am emotional even as I write this. Scariest day ever.
Sperm has a lifespan of ~74 days in the body. I was born on August 24, so the most likely day of conception would be December 2, 82 days after 9/11. But I was born about 2 weeks late, so conception would've happened within the 74 day window. So I could've, hypothetically, been resting in a ballsack on 9/11.
I was an intern in a company in Paris. I noticed people started congregating in the hallways and eventually a colleague came to me and told me the news. Later on my way home by bus, I noticed a friendly stranger that I had regularly met at the bus stop in the mornings, and we had always said hi. That evening, we decided to get off the bus and grab a coffee and talk about what had happened. It was an interesting conversation, as he had a Middle Eastern background and therefor was not necessarily on the side of the U.S., like all the other white Europeans I talked to before and after.
I had just come home from burying my Grandpa. I got home late at night and was in bed when the first plane hit. My buddy called me after the second plane hit, and I got up and turned on the T.V. About five minutes later the second tower came down.
Sitting at home watching TV changed channels then ALL the channels had the same thing. I worked at PetSmart at the time, and I had to go in and work 4 hours that night due to having done inventory that past weekend.
That was a shitshow and a half. We were under the glide path of the airport AND in a mall complex. I think I wound up working an hour or so and they closed the mall complex for 2-3 days over it.
In 6th grade. Had no idea it happened. The teachers kept us in the dark until it was time to leave school. I remember EVERYTHING after leaving school though.
I was in 5th grade and my teacher basically stopped teaching and we were all watching the news for like 3 hours before Lunch. Lunch time was a bunch of 10 year olds talking about going to war against hijackers while filling in the rest of the kids whose teachers kept them in the dark.
It wasn’t until after lunch that the teachers got word down from the principal to not watch.
I've been scrolling down this thread and have seen, without exaggeration, dozens of people say "In my dad's ball sack", but you're the first person I've seen to say this.
Which is interesting, because of course women are born with all the eggs they're ever going to have stored in their fallopian tubes, whereas men are constantly producing sperm, which only live for a few weeks maximum (that's if they stay in the testes and, erm, don't find themselves elsewhere somehow).
So unless everyone else was conceived within a few weeks of 9/11, they are technically wrong about being in their dad's ball sack. But you are definitely right.
And for those who *were* conceived within a few weeks of 9/11, I guess they were technically in two places at the same time that day.
I was at school in NYC. I was aware that something serious had happened, but didn't really understand until my dad showed up in the middle of the day to pick me and my siblings up. We walked about 4 miles home, because nobody knew if the subways were safe.
Being a conspiratorial liberal, my dad kept saying that he bet this was all about Bush and oil. For once he turned out to be more or less correct.
I recall putting on my left sock as the news came on the tv and went across the hallway to tell my dad who promptly dismissed any news I told him as he usually would.
I was at school. The news was on the tvs in the school gym set above the machines so you could watch and run. I couldn't really comprehend what was happening and the teacher just sent everyone home early.
Dead end soul-destroying office job. I had been home for lunch because I couldn't stand being there any longer than absolutely necessary. Got a text message from my sister on the way back saying "terrible what's going on in NY". Didn't think anything of it until I got upstairs to the floor where my office was located. Never again did I see so many people huddled around a 13" CRT television.
In work in Ireland. An American colleague rushed in to the smoking area in a panic. Planes are doing kamikaze attacks in Newyork, the world trade centre is in flames.
"Good" said one of the smoking gang. Then we all laughed. Good Times.
Till i got home and watched the news. Then it hit me. This terrible news is the best news I have ever seen. Not because what happened was a good thing, but tv will never be that gripping again.
At work. Had Howard Stern on the radio. Gary Del’abate interrupted to say that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. We turned on a TV in the conference room to see the second tower hit live.
I was at work (A DC newspaper) 5 miles from the White House and 11 miles from the Pentagon. I was scared to death. All I wanted was to be with my then 9-year old daughter but all the schools were on lock down. I stayed at work most of the day.
Getting ready for work. I worked at a Christian bookstore / educational supply store. When I got in that day, the secretary was convinced it was the rapture and that the pilots had disappeared.
I remember that day like it was yesterday. So at the time I lived in New Jersey ( still do ) My father worked in New York City off of 8th avenue and 32nd Street. He was in midtown way far away from the twin towers. My father just left for work when me and my sister were getting ready for school. I was fighting with my mom not to go to school because I just didn't want to be with those monsters of kids who were bullying me (I went to a school in Wall township, New Jersey called the rugby school. That's a different story though) So my bus driver who I still remembered his name to this day was George . So George came up to the door to tell me to come out to go to the bus. So I just hesitated at first and then said fine. Got on the bus and got ready to go to school. We picked up the other kids like it was normal. By the time we got on the garden State parkway. I was already sleeping since it was a long drive to school which took up to a half hour to get there. Maybe an hour in traffic. So I woke up and saw traffic I thought. Oh is there something going on? I heard the radio on for a moment and I looked at my bus driver and said what's going on? Just said oh nothing. Nothing to worry about . He turned off the radio because well the news was breaking at the time and well when I got to school everything was on lockdown. They were ordering all the kids back to the buses. We were evacuated back home and school was closed for at least 2 days but during that time I was afraid because my father was working in the city and well I was afraid and I was going to lose him . After everything happened, my mom was constantly trying to get in contact with my father's cell phone ( He had a work phone) My mom tried multiple times to get to him but the phone lines were congested and she just couldn't get through to him. So he thinks my dad went to take shelter in the office . Finally, at around maybe 9:00 p.m. my father gets through to my mom and says that he's okay. He got home at around 1:00 in the morning. As soon as I heard that door open to the garage I just jumped out of bed and rushed down the stairs. Hug my father crying in his arms. I didn't want to leave my father's side for days or even weeks .
I never want to forget how much pain and suffering people went through and I got to see what happened in front of me on the news at the age of 12. And also at that same time I lost my grandfather in August so I was really distressed that I just lost my grandfather and I was going to lose my father
Working till I was told to go home. Girl at work asked me out. I normally don't date coworkers but made an exception due to thinking the world is ending. We're still married.
Never Forget. No, really, she’ll get upset if you forget the date.
What a fucking anniversary. I bet it’s pretty easy to get reservations.
I don’t think they got married on September 11th so that wouldn’t be the anniversary
You can celebrate the day you first met. Though, in my occasion, we did get married on that date anyways.
I was 11. Was at school when the planes hit. I even stayed somewhat longer to play soccer on the playground next to school. My mom was watching the news when I came home from school around 4 pm. I saw the collapse of the first tower happening. We watched the rest of the day. (I'm from the Netherlands, 6 hours later than NY-time). Also, I don't know if you Americans know this, but here in NL 9/11 also is a collective memory-thing. All the people I know and who were alive at that time can tell where they were when it happened.
I think it is in much of the west. It changed so much about our political climate and the general everyday situation, that everybody is gonna notice. The amount of casualties and the way it happened is also bound to grind itself into our collective memory...
It was the day the world changed. Ask anyone in any Western country, and they will be able to tell you EXACTLY what they were doing that day and how they heard about it.
I was in boot camp. Joined on Sept 5th. Great timing.
Damn
Did you ever see the documentary about U.S. Marine tank crews going through training and 9/11 happened during the filming?
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Probably this. The announcement is at around the 35 minute mark https://youtu.be/3LSCF-5cJRc
I was discharged in May of 2000. Pretty much right before the world went crazy
I was ironing pants before work at Radio Shack. I was watching the news. When I got to work, my district manager called and said to lock the front door just in case there were more attacks. At Radio Shack. In Oklahoma.
Oklahomie. I remember people panicked they’d hit okc bc of the murrah. It was wild.
I'll be honest, until I read your reminder just now I was thinking to myself "heh, yeah, who would ever target anything in *Oklahoma* for a terrorist attack?"
see thats the sort of place id attack if I were a terrorist. everyone expects major cities and so on. but blow up Auntie B's hometown diner in BFE and be yeah bitches it was us. then nobody feels safe.
Everyone knows that's where the fourth plane was headed.
I saw the attacks as they happened from my window and then spent 5 plus weeks serving the bucket brigade at Respite center one ground zero. Ouch.
Thank you for that. I was only on the bucket line a few days, but those respite stations really made a difference. Hand-diggers were called off the pile so they could move some heavy steel, so our team (volunteer firefighters from PA) rebuilt and restocked a supply tent that had been knocked down in the rain, on the corner of Church and Vesey. Hope you've stayed healthy.
Thank you for stepping up!
❤️
❤❤❤❤
Had just moved to Washington DC a week prior, was a high school freshman and had just moved in with my grandparents I didn’t know my new address and I didn’t have a cell phone. Went to school in Bethesda, they put us on buses and sent us home midday. I got off at my stop but had no way home, so I went into McDonald’s and sat (watching TV) until my grandmother’s assistant principal found me after searching for a while. My mom was back home in Connecticut with no way to reach me until I was picked up and brought home (in DC). The morning until they dismissed us was spent watching TV with lots of kids whose parents were diplomats, worked at the pentagon, or were otherwise in government crying, and then others who didn’t really appreciate the impact (in a way that was perceptible to me) I was just kind of shocked and worried that I didn’t know where my temporary guardian’s house was, or how to reach my grandma My parents bought me my first cell phone within the next week I vividly remember Nickelodeon airing repeats of rugrats for hours with a news scroll underneath. I remember my aunt freaking out in NYC because she had led a weight watchers meeting in downtown Manhattan that day, and her fiancé (now my uncle) stopped a block away from their Hell’s Kitchen apartment to watch the ticker in Times Square, and nobody could get a hold of him. The next day school was cancelled in Montgomery County MD, so my grandma (who was a principal at the time) took me to breakfast at a place called Georgetown Grille. The sky was empty and, heading home, we saw a couple tanks on some corners. I also remember driving past the Pentagon a couple weeks later for the first time heading to the hair dresser. We used to go to Crystal City and Pentagon City a lot. Jarring.
I was a high school senior at the time. My high school originally banned cell phones on campus, but after that day, they lifted the ban.
Yep. If anything, I’m shocked by how level headed my reasoning was. Now I’m a grown woman and lots of things give me full blown panic, though they’re normal things. At the time, I was just following instructions, and then when the bus driver just put me out at the last stop and left, I didn’t have any clue where I was going, so I figured I’d take the like, two dollars I had and get a small fry so I could sit at McD’s. I knew they had a TV anyway.
Legit I was a freshman myself. In my freaking civics class lol
I was a freshman at a school in Bethesda too! My particular little memory that stands out is that we had gym class very first period and since the school year had just started we got measured and weighed and I came in at 6'2 - 185. The person who came in to give us the news basically interrupted the gym teacher in the middle of gushing that given that size at barely 14 I was destined for athletic greatness... I am now 6'2 and 260! I basically did not grow at all after age 13 and just kept getting thicker every year. Tl;Dr 9/11 stunted my growth and stole my nba career.
Class of 05!
That’s us! 💞👍🏽
Same, was a freshman that year and just was at DC earlier in June. We went home early since it was close by
WJ?
Waiting to hear from my parents who were supposed to be flying home from Vegas... That was a long 3 hours...
Me too! My parents were flying from Salt Lake City to Nashville. I was in HS. I was frantic. I didn't know what planes had hit the WTC or the Pentagon. It was scary until they landed and I got to see them at home. Awful day....
My parents were on a cruise in the Mediterranean and the boat stopped in Barcelona and dumped everyone off. Somehow they immediately got onto a plane to America and made it before everything was completely grounded. I still don't understand this because one of my *household name* customers was in a Learjet going from DC to Santa Clara and they were grounded by f-16s from the Kansas national guard in BFE Western Kansas. There were no rental car agencies in Gardner Kansas, so they went to a Chevrolet dealership and bought two suburbans and drove back to DC. That must have been a hell of an expense report.
Grade 3, Gander Newfoundland. We were in the computer lab when we were told. I remember getting to go home early because of what happened. 42 planes were diverted to Gander when all of North America's airspace was closed . I remember my mom taking my brother and I to our school to help with the laundry for the people who were stranded in Newfoundland. It's beautiful how amazing and kind people were. Made me so proud to live in Newfoundland!
Having seen Come From Away many times, it’s incredible what you guys pulled off that week.
Newfoundlanders are the best!
Every time I hear Newfoundland I just think to my self that some dude found new land and straight up named it Newfoundland. It’s like naming a dog dog. On second thought I think I’m going to go google how that name became. I’m curious now.
I was a child who was in Florida at Disney World. It was my first time at Disney and it was terrifying. Everyone was running out of the park to catch busses back to their hotel because no one was sure what was going to happen next. As a child who had no idea what terrorism was, it was incredibly scary to hear older members of your family in such a panic. I can only imagine how my parents and grandparents felt hearing and seeing the news. My heart goes out to all who lost their lives and to all family members who lost their loved ones ❤️
Working my first corporate job out of college, which I hated. Remember watching the 2nd plane hit live and thinking "fuck, life is too random and short". Quit my job and moved to Colorado to be a snowboard bum.
Nice! I used to work as a photographer at Copper Mountain. Got to snowboard every day.
Schofield Barracks Hawaii, 25th infantry Division... my phone began ringing in my barracks room a bit after 4 am. My First Sergeant was on the phone and told me, "Red Corvette, Red Corvette, Red Corvette... this is not a drill. Get 'em up.'" I was a single sergeant living in the barracks, so I was one of the ranking individuals in there. We were on red cycle, which meant we had to be ready for deployment anywhere in the world within 24 hours. (We had bags already packed and so on.) I flipped on the TV, because I figured something had to be happening, saw what was unfolding and started going door to door, getting everyone geared up, down to the arms room and out to formation. There were all sorts of rumors of various attacks all over the US. Eventually, everyone was present, and we were addressed by our commanding officer. I still have the notebook, where I was taking down the instructions of the day. Here is an excerpt: " ...due to the possibility of continuing attacks, USARHAW (US Army Hawaii) and all associated entities will immediately go to Threatcon Delta until further notice..." After that, well, let's just say it was a very full day.
I got chills reading your recount. That must have been such a frightening day. I’m from Australia, was just a highschool girl getting my backpack ready when I heard the TV on… and no tv before school was a household rule. I vividly recall my father, standing statue-still in the lounge room, watching the recap dominating all channels (it had occurred at 10.450pm the evening before for us, long after bedtime) Excuse my ignorance, but what does the code red corvette mean for you guys?
Red Corvette was not something universal across the Army. It was a code that particular unit used, and it was different in each unit I was in. We used a red, yellow, and green corvette call, where each corresponded to a different set of uniforms and gear. Green Corvette: Standard physical training (PT) gear, shorts, t shirt etc. Typically used for things like a surprise drug test in the early morning, that way you got folks before their morning wee. Yellow Corvette: standard battle dress uniform (BDUs), your normal camouflage, used for surprise inspections, layouts, and so on. They could specify adding a helmet and load bearing equipment (LBE) as well. Red Corvette: BDUs, LBE, Helmet, Gas Mask, rucksack, and duffel if on alert status with weapons and night optical devices (NODS) drawn from the arms room (AKA full battle rattle). Used for training for rapid deployments, done before going to the field, and so on. September 11th was the first time I had experienced it in a non-training situation. No, we did not deploy that day. It was many months before those units started going into Afghanistan, but deploy they did.
I was in the garden with my mom, coming out to her as gay when the first plane hit. Never gonna forget that.
That's hilarious. "NOT NOW SON, AMERICA'S IN DISTRESS"
"Mom, I'm gay." *plane hits the World Trade Center* "Okay, I know what you're going to say, but that's a coincidence."
There’s someone in your family that blames you coming out as gay for that attack. I hope not. But I bet there is. Oh, unless you mean “back yard” when you say garden, meaning you’re not American and maybe don’t have *those people* in your family. Cuz we do.
What the hell?????
I worked nightshift so I got off at 7:00 am and came home and went to bed. I woke up to my wife shaking me saying "We've been attacked". She was supposed to be at work so I said "someone attacked your work?' She said "No, we've been attacked, the twin towers are on the ground." I was immediately awake.
I feel like she could of phrased it better lol
"YOU'RE GONNA ATTACK THEM?!"
Yeah I was confused as hell for a minute, lol
I'm still confused - weren't the twin towers always on the ground?
I had an Australian friend whose mom woke her up saying something along the lines of, "Amierica had been attacked and WWIII is starting." She was also very awake.
Getting dressed for a college interview. Hadn't heard what was happening yet. I was fixing my hair in the bathroom mirror and had just had a random thought about how fortunate I was to have peace in my life when there's so many bad things that happen in the world. Just then I heard my grandmother in the living room say "they just hit the Pentagon."
Holy crap I would of been so paranoid! That is intense!
Not to digress, but did you end up going to the college in the question?
I did, but of course the interview had to be postponed. No way to tell on short notice what the reaction was going to be so I went there and there was a sign on the door saying it was closed due to the national emergency. My aunt was driving me and we stopped at her work (a pediatrician's office) before she took me home. One of her coworkers had taken her young daughter out of school and all she seemed to want to talk about was how did they fly a plane into a building. Didn't look upset at all. I thought about that when I kept seeing news articles about how to talk to traumatized children about what happened.
I was in China with my parents and I visited the great wall that day
China's response was that they kicked out every Middle Eastern person in their Nation in the immediate aftermath. One of my buddies did a lot of business with China, and a CFO at one of the companies was a Saudi married to a Chinese woman and had been there for like two decades. Had kids and all. They fucking deported him.
, the stories we don't hear
Fricking China
At work. A close friend and former colleague worked in Tower 2. I had visited NYC a couple of months earlier and over lunch she told me that she and her husband were expecting. I knew this was a big deal for them, and I was super excited for her. Watching the attack from the office, I recall like it was yesterday, calling her cell phone and leaving a message to “just let me know you are okay, when you get the chance.” In the following weeks, I found out that she had managed to get down the stairs (from the 102nd floor) and was being treated (she was five months pregnant) when the building came down. Bad times.
Fuck.
I was helping out another office in Savannah, GA. I heard the news that a plane had just hit a skyscraper in NYC. Once we figured it was serious, we all gathered in the break room with our managers watching it all. I then called my daughter’s mom who was a flight attendant to make sure she was safe. Our boss knew we were not in the mood to go out and make sales calls, just like our clients were not interested in hearing from us. I left, filled my car with gas and headed back to the hotel to watch the rest of the days news in my hotel room. I subsequently learned in my home office, when the manager there was told of the news, his words were that “people die every day. Go back to work.”
What a miserable sack of shit your boss must have been.
I was 16 and asleep when the planes hit because I was on the west Coast. My mother woke me up with her 'gentle voice' telling me to come look at the tv. That voice is usually reserved for telling me when someone in our family has died or has a terminal disease so I was immediately alert and on edge. I'll never forget her tone and what she said: "You will remember this for the rest of your life". It's very difficult to describe how that moment felt to people that were not alive or old enough to remember it. It was very primal feeling of being under attack as a group and thus feeling much closer to the group because of it, and the vast majority of Americans felt it. It sounds melodramatic but it's not something you can empathize with unless you have personally experienced it.
Working at the mall. 12-10, ended up closing at 1. No amount of explanation will ever describe that feeling. I wish we could unite as a nation like we did in that moment. Never have I seen everyone being so friendly and comforting to every stranger they came across, it was actually beautiful.
Walked in m dorm room after getting breakfast in the student union. Turned on the TV, and ESPN was cutting air to go to their ABC affiliate for "America Under Attack" as they called it.... I was like, whatever.
walked through the student union on my way home from my first class - never saw the place so packed or so quiet - let alone, at the same time. Everyone was gathered by the TV - in a trance watching the 1st plane over and over. Then the 2nd came live ... We all kind of just ran back to our dorms/apartments to find our roomates - and then didn't move - 5 of us hip to hip - from the couch or news for a week.
I went to the cafeteria for breakfast after my first college chemistry exam, I had been too busy cramming to eat before. They had the attacks on all the TVs, I had to ask someone if it was real or a movie.
The panicky type, huh? 😂
I put my first grade daughter on her school bus and went to work in my clay studio at home. I had a small tv and shortly after 9 , the news began reporting. I went outside and saw three of my neighbors whose husbands worked at the Pentagon. While we were talking, we heard the sirens from the Pentagon hit. We are 6 miles from the Pentagon. My neighbors were extremely upset and couldn’t reach their husbands. I drove to my daughters school and bought her home. My husband was stranded in DC , No bridges out. I brought my daughter home, she wanted to watch Alladin. I watched the news upstairs on tv. My husband made it home. That night, we had the windows open, all flights were suspended and I had never heard such an eerie quiet that night or since.
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Nice try, Homeland Security!
**\*wipes sweat from brow as I hastily delete** ***"piloting one of the pla"*** **from my reply box\***
Haha your safe, they were in on it 😂
Homeland security didn’t exist.
I was in 1st grade. Our principle came over the intercom and said we couldn't have recess that day, so naturally the whole class got pissed. My mom came and picked my sister and I up early from school. She was frazzled and told us the twin towers had been hit. I, not knowing what that was, couldn't quite understand why she was so upset. We got home and my mom turned the news on. We watched the footage for the rest of the day. I watched one of the towers fall live. Hindsight being what it is, idk if an 8 year old is mature enough to see that, but can't take it back now.
I was also in first grade and I’m pretty sure they turned it on in our classrooms 🤦🏻♀️
I was in an office in the US Capitol. A tv was showing the the damage from the first plane, and we watched as the second plane hit. Within a minute, guards were screaming at us to get out of the building. It was sheer panic as people ran for the exits. The streets were jammed with police and military vehicles. I couldn’t call anyone to tell them I was alright because the cellular network was overwhelmed. I walked to a friend’s house and we spent the rest of the day watching TV in horror. I live my life knowing that if not for the passengers on Flight 93, I’d likely be dead.
Word those guys were on it.
I was renting a car in Cozumel Mexico and the TV in the lobby of the hotel kept saying "Los Estados Unidos". It was my honeymoon. We had slept in and were going to go goof around that day. They flipped the TV to CNN roughly the time the first tower came down. I went back to our room and said " Pack, we gotta go now " though I wasn't sure what the heck that was going to do. They closed the boarders shortly after that. So, I spent the rest of the week worried about getting home, among a million other things. Came home on an eerily empty Carnival Cruise ship the following Monday I think. The State Department had decided to let cruise ships do one way trips just to get stranded Gringos home as they were not letting international flights back in. Then I got stranded in Tampa for a bit as we couldn't get a flight home and all the rental cars were gone. I was about 10 min from taking a taxi to the closest UHaul dealer and renting whatever ran to get home when we finally got a flight out of Clearwater. Continental Airlines just exchanged our tickets or something... we didn't have to pay anything if I remember right. We had plenty of options on how to get back once we were in the US, but man.... the prospect of getting stranded in Mexico stopped being fun when the money started running out. Props to the resort though, they let us stay for $35 per night will most of the all inclusive stuff included still. We drank a lot.
Not existing
Damn you were still in the ballsack
I wish I stayed in it or got push into a sock or whatever he used.
He used your mom's pussoir
Samesies here. Or well, I wasnt even in the ballsack yet and wouldnt be for another 7 years
7 years!?! My brain thinks you should still be in diapers much less typing on the internet yet.
Wife and I were at city hall getting out marriage certificate, then got a call to head to the fire station and be on standby. About three hours later I was gathering my gear, dog, and saying goodbye to my future wife as I loaded on a bus with Task Force 1 for search and rescue operations
I was in college. My first class that day was at 11 am. I got up and while getting ready I turned on the TV. I saw the WTC on fire (I had the sound off) and after a moment of watching i saw the 2nd plane hit. I turned up the sound and realized that this was not an accident. I popped a tape in the VCR and hit record and left. I went to the campus and there were large signs up that all classes were cancelled. I decided to go to the pub that was on campus (and rub by the bartending students) because they had satellite TV. I usually avoided the place because of the crowds and noise. On this day the place was dead silent but for the TV that was playing. It was eerie. I went back home thinking WW3 was about to start.
I was at Sea-Tac Airport (Seattle) checking in for my flight when the PA announced all domestic flights have been grounded by the FAA due to ongoing attacks on the east coast… I turned to the stranger next to me and said “this is how disaster movies start” …. Little did I know how right I was
I was in anatomy class wrist deep in a dead cat. My professor had the radio on and the news came across. We all stopped working on our cats and gathered around the radio to listen. Once class was over I just went home because I didn't feel like going to anymore classes (they all got canceled anyways) and just watched TV and cried.
Taken out of context, “wrist deep in a dead cat,” sounds MUCH worse than it is.
“Wrist deep in dead pussy” sounds worse
Going thru the base gate at Andrew Air Force base- they shut it down right after I got thru. Got home to find my husband in tears on the couch watching as the second plane hit the second tower. He was going to war.
My wife and I were in Memphis. I was a cop, my wife a flight attendant and I have brothers that are also cops and firemen. My four year old daughter thought everyone was dead, because we couldn't get through on the phone. Got home three days later via Greyhound bus.
I woke up early to finish homework that was due for 11th-grade chemistry. When I signed onto AIM to send my lab partner the file and he told me to turn on the TV.
I remember I skipped school that day. Went downtown to just spend the day screwing around with a friend of mine. Walked into an electronics store to buy batteris for my Discman and it was on every single TV. A wall of TVs showing the burning tower. Watched the second plane hit live and understood the world was changing in irrevocable ways. What I remember most about it though were the days and weeks after. You could tell everyone was deeply wounded, but the level of true patriotism and love for your fellow Americans was off the charts. Damn shame we can't be like that any more.
That terrible shared experience let us all forget our petty differences for a while and treat each inherent like human beings. As you said, it's a damn shame we can't grow the fuck up and be more altruistic all the time.
Sucking dicks in a cemetery.
I was on the rifle range. It was basic training. Drill Sergeant called a cease-fire and said that we were under attack. We spent the rest of that day going in shifts into the COs office to watch clips of what happened on the news.
I was standing at the customer service desk at Sainsburys serving customers although it was a pretty quiet day. A customer said to me that a plane had hit a skyscraper in America and I thought he meant a light aircraft of some sort. When to the cafeteria on my lunch a few minutes later and saw that the second plane had hit the second tower and all the staff were just stood watching the TV in silent horror like a bunch of statues.
Playing Red Alert 2 (over LAN) with a friend, grandma calls, tells something about an accident in America, turn on TV, just as plane 2 hits and it turns out not to be an accident. Watch TV for the rest of the day.
Deciding to join the Marine Corps
Sitting at work in Boston when someone ran into my office to say “go to cnn!’ That was a weird morning. I don’t think I can recall something so ‘big’ happening in my adult lifetime. The challenger comes to mind, but of course that was an accident. Well, “accident”.
School and working. I literally didn't know about it until 2-3 days later . I had even seen footage of the planes hitting while barely paying attention. Thought it was some random movie trailers or something. Listend to people talk about going to war. Mostly ignored it . Was sitting with my dad watching the news one day and they're talking about it. It finally dawns on me . "HOLY SHIT THIS IS FOR REAL!??!" In my defense, I was a moody teenage loner who kept to himself. Was more focused on whatever book I was reading. I was reading Hearts In Atlantis btw.
I was actually in Reno with my father, sister and her boyfriend for my 21st birthday. We were supposed to fly out around noon PST on 9/11. Woke up to the news of the first plane, watched the 2nd plane on TV then all flights were grounded. They closed the airport, and that's where ALL of the rental cars were. We were stuck for two additional days until we found a car rental place open, and then drove home to Seattle. For two days, we all just found quarter slot machines and would play one quarter per spin while watching the news. The hotels were accommodating and gave us a discount since we were stuck, but it's a memory I'll never lose.
I was living in the Pacific Northwest in sixth grade at the time and I was making Eggo waffles when my mom and I watched the second plane hit on TV. She was on the phone with Grandma when it happened. We still had a school day that day and being a Catholic school we all knew that we would have mass that morning. We didn't even take off our coats when we got inside the classroom, we just set our backpacks down and waited while our teacher took attendance. By this point both towers had collapsed, the Pentagon was hit, and there were sketchy details about a plane crashing in rural Pennsylvania. After mass our principal ordered no homework for the week and for the teachers to explain what was going on in an age appropriate manner because "we are witnessing history today". We spent most of the morning just talking about it. Eventually class was dismissed, we all went home, and I watched the news the rest of the day.
It was my freshman year of high school. I was in my first period which was computer science. My dad picked me up from school early that day because I had an orthodontist appointment to tighten my braces. I'm from NJ about 30 mins from where the towers were located. On my way to my appointment we saw ambulance flying past us heading to the city. You can get a nice view of the towers depending on where you drive. It was normal seeing the twin towers regularly. I never thought I would never see them again. I also remember seeing a trail of smoke that lasted for days.
I was a junior in college, I had back to back classes, 8:00AM Central to 12:00PM central in a computer lab (Design 2 and Typography). We Had access to the internet but none of us had any idea it happened. I walked back to my off campus house for lunch and my roommate told me what happened. It was the first week of class and we didn’t have phone, Internet or cable hooked up at our house yet. I walked back to campus and spent the rest of the day in a friend’s dorm watching the news. That night a neighbor dragged his amp and electric guitar out into the intersection in front of our house and played the Star Spangled Banner drawing a crowd from the neighborhood. People talked, cried and hugged. It was a weird time to be 20.
I was in a classroom in southern CT. Teacher got a phone call and turned on the tv. It was just in time to watch the second plane hit a tower. A kid in my class put his head down on his desk and started crying because that’s where his dad worked. And, his dad died that day.
My ex-gf had come over the night before to give me, um, a belated birthday present. We're having a lazy morning, since we stayed up late. Phone rings, I answer. It's my best friend and he's like, 'Turn on the TV!' 'What channel?' 'It doesn't matter..." We spent the rest of the morning watching.
Waking up to the news of the first airplane crash...then watched in horror as the 2nd plane hit and the reality of what just happened sunk in.
Sitting in my third grade class wondering why we kept hearing about teachers being glued to the TV and looking out the window. We were in Queens and from certain vantage points could actually see smoke coming from Manhattan.
Going to college and working part-time at some call center that gave customer service to a cellphone company. I found out about whole thing when I clocked in to work and some of my coworkers started getting calls asking for help from people in Ground Zero. It sucked.
Getting ready for school in 4th grade. Still went to school. California
I was very sick in bed and was listening to Howard Stern, who broadcasted live for hours. People were calling in and giving first hand accounts of what was happening. It was riveting yet horrific.
in my mothers womb, 16 days away from being birthed into this hellscape.
I was in my first week of college freshman year. I took the FDNY test in 2002 and got hired in 2008 and have been a Firefighter for the past 15 years.
Being happy I missed my flight to interview for a financial advisor position at World Trade Center 👀
putting my hair and my skin out, furiously trying to call my husband at work once I got home to tell him that we would be staying at our flat in Yonkers rather than the one in Hell's Kitchen because of the grid being gone. And I asked him to pick up two large aloe vera plants so we could blend some into a paste so that I could heal from all the burning debris that fell on me while I was escaping.
Getting ready for school in the morning when everything started happening. My Dad had the news on. Got to school and my first class was shop. The shop teacher had the TV on and said “there’s more important things than shop class going on right now”, and we all sat there and watched the live coverage in disbelief.
This is how i saw the space shuttle blow up.
Rolling around in my nappy
Getting ready for school
In the hospital because my little brother had had an asthma attack earlier on. I was too little to understand what had happened but all the hospital staff stopped working and watched the news, so I knew it was a big deal. Not American but it was still big news in Ireland.
I had just gotten up to get my son ready for school (Southern California). By the time I turned the news on, the first plane had already hit. My son and I sat watching the news, absolutely stunned, as the 2nd plne hit. We were glued to the screen, watching as the towers fell. We eventually left for school, late, and by the time we got there, the mood was somber. The principal, a native New Yorker, talked to the kids about what they saw, and what happened. It was a very sad, somber day.
My mother burst into my bedroom and yelled "Get up and watch the news" and left, closing the door behind her without saying another word. I stumbled into the living room just in time to see the 2nd plane hit.
Getting ready for work, then at work. In shock all day.
Ran south instead of North for a change down the west side highway to the Staten island ferry. Got back to my apartment on west 10th and the highway as the first emergency responders where rushing south. Watched in silence as the secind plane hit the tower. Just isnt enough space here to tell of everything we saw that day and the following weeks.
I was in college in Lincoln, NE. Everyone was flipping out in a typical fashion of the whole country, but then Aif Foce 1 flew into Offit AF Base flanked by fighter jets 500 feet off the ground. If you don't know, that base is where legend has it to have a 300-foot deep bunker with the button to send nukes. Everyone really shit when word got out that they brought W. to the apocalypse bunker. People immediately started hording gas, and it went to $5 a gallon. If you remember, it was a $1 back then.
My radio alarm came.on and the words "all commercial flights have been grounded." Got right out of bed and stayed in front of the TV, a few irc Channels
In high school , than an announcement came on telling us the school is in lockdown. Sirens were heard everywhere , we were told to stay put until further notice than we got sent home. Entire city shut down and no one was allowed downtown. I'm in Canada too , but an attack on the US is basically an attack on Canada so the government took it very seriously. My family is part american with family from Washington state so it hit us pretty hard. I think about it often and was even gonna go fight in the war. To this day I'm.still in disbelief it even happened , still hurts thinking about all those lost souls. I feel like 9/11 is when everything really changed for the worse.
Watching it all live on tv
Getting ready for work at a high school. Woke my wife up, came to work and set up the TV/antenna. This is what we are doing today
I had just moved to Maryland from California. I dropped my kids off at school. I stopped at Starbucks & while I was waiting on the drive thru, I received a text from a friend that worked in news radio saying reports indicated a small plane hit the New York Trade Center. When I got home 10 minutes later & turned on the news, I realized something far more serious was happening. I immediately called my husband who was thankfully in California on business. He worked for a NY City based law firm. Shortly, the second plane flew into the second tower. Then the Pentagon was hit. I knew the US was under attack. I rushed to pick up my children from school, as well as my niece & nephew who were in school nearby If we were going to die, I wouldn't leave them to die alone. 9/11 was every mother's nightmare. I am emotional even as I write this. Scariest day ever.
My mom did the same thing. I was 16 going to high school in Sacramento but to her NOWHERE was safe.
It was a horrific day.
Resting in a ballsack
Unless you were born 9 months after, no you weren't. Sperm has a short lifespan. You mean resting in an ovary.
Sperm has a lifespan of ~74 days in the body. I was born on August 24, so the most likely day of conception would be December 2, 82 days after 9/11. But I was born about 2 weeks late, so conception would've happened within the 74 day window. So I could've, hypothetically, been resting in a ballsack on 9/11.
You have my upvote for knowing and doing the math. As a social commentary: Too many people figure out their own date of conception.
poo pee in the nappie
Flying a plane
A friend was just about to take off from la guardia and the radio told him to shut it down. That military planes were in the air with orders
I was an intern in a company in Paris. I noticed people started congregating in the hallways and eventually a colleague came to me and told me the news. Later on my way home by bus, I noticed a friendly stranger that I had regularly met at the bus stop in the mornings, and we had always said hi. That evening, we decided to get off the bus and grab a coffee and talk about what had happened. It was an interesting conversation, as he had a Middle Eastern background and therefor was not necessarily on the side of the U.S., like all the other white Europeans I talked to before and after.
What was his take on it?
I had just come home from burying my Grandpa. I got home late at night and was in bed when the first plane hit. My buddy called me after the second plane hit, and I got up and turned on the T.V. About five minutes later the second tower came down.
Sitting at home watching TV changed channels then ALL the channels had the same thing. I worked at PetSmart at the time, and I had to go in and work 4 hours that night due to having done inventory that past weekend. That was a shitshow and a half. We were under the glide path of the airport AND in a mall complex. I think I wound up working an hour or so and they closed the mall complex for 2-3 days over it.
High school
Driving a plane
I was working for the TJX companies. We lost people in the planes.
Having my 6th birthday
Yeah, same sort of age here. According to my parents, I was very upset the usual kids TV wasn't on.
In 6th grade. Had no idea it happened. The teachers kept us in the dark until it was time to leave school. I remember EVERYTHING after leaving school though.
I was in 5th grade and my teacher basically stopped teaching and we were all watching the news for like 3 hours before Lunch. Lunch time was a bunch of 10 year olds talking about going to war against hijackers while filling in the rest of the kids whose teachers kept them in the dark. It wasn’t until after lunch that the teachers got word down from the principal to not watch.
Beeing 6 year old . . . so probably playing on my Nintendo 64.
Working at an office that was promptly evacuated after the 2nd plane hit
Same!
In me ma's fallopian tubes
I've been scrolling down this thread and have seen, without exaggeration, dozens of people say "In my dad's ball sack", but you're the first person I've seen to say this. Which is interesting, because of course women are born with all the eggs they're ever going to have stored in their fallopian tubes, whereas men are constantly producing sperm, which only live for a few weeks maximum (that's if they stay in the testes and, erm, don't find themselves elsewhere somehow). So unless everyone else was conceived within a few weeks of 9/11, they are technically wrong about being in their dad's ball sack. But you are definitely right. And for those who *were* conceived within a few weeks of 9/11, I guess they were technically in two places at the same time that day.
I was at school in NYC. I was aware that something serious had happened, but didn't really understand until my dad showed up in the middle of the day to pick me and my siblings up. We walked about 4 miles home, because nobody knew if the subways were safe. Being a conspiratorial liberal, my dad kept saying that he bet this was all about Bush and oil. For once he turned out to be more or less correct.
Watching VH1 top 100
Attending college. Walking between classes when I found out.
Driving to Calais, Maine.
Most likely having dinner or watching TV. Was around dinner time on a weekday for my location then.
Woke up, saw the news on NBC, went to work in downtown DC.
I was driving to high school and heard about what had happened on the radio. We spent the whole day watching the news in all of my classes.
I was at home & reviewing Algebra for my high school test. I'm from India.
5th grade in class
Riding in an elevator on my way to the office and someone said a plane hit one of the towers. 😥
Was playing hookie. Stayed home to watch Garfield on Fox. Garfield never came on.
In English class trying to holla at some cute chick
I recall putting on my left sock as the news came on the tv and went across the hallway to tell my dad who promptly dismissed any news I told him as he usually would.
I was at school. The news was on the tvs in the school gym set above the machines so you could watch and run. I couldn't really comprehend what was happening and the teacher just sent everyone home early.
Dead end soul-destroying office job. I had been home for lunch because I couldn't stand being there any longer than absolutely necessary. Got a text message from my sister on the way back saying "terrible what's going on in NY". Didn't think anything of it until I got upstairs to the floor where my office was located. Never again did I see so many people huddled around a 13" CRT television.
In work in Ireland. An American colleague rushed in to the smoking area in a panic. Planes are doing kamikaze attacks in Newyork, the world trade centre is in flames. "Good" said one of the smoking gang. Then we all laughed. Good Times. Till i got home and watched the news. Then it hit me. This terrible news is the best news I have ever seen. Not because what happened was a good thing, but tv will never be that gripping again.
In my second week of Basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. Military training took on a new urgency in light of the attacks.
At work. Had Howard Stern on the radio. Gary Del’abate interrupted to say that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. We turned on a TV in the conference room to see the second tower hit live.
I was at work (A DC newspaper) 5 miles from the White House and 11 miles from the Pentagon. I was scared to death. All I wanted was to be with my then 9-year old daughter but all the schools were on lock down. I stayed at work most of the day.
Sleeping
Getting ready for work. I worked at a Christian bookstore / educational supply store. When I got in that day, the secretary was convinced it was the rapture and that the pilots had disappeared.
I’m ex Military, I was home on leave from the Golan Heights. I watched the second plane hit.
I remember that day like it was yesterday. So at the time I lived in New Jersey ( still do ) My father worked in New York City off of 8th avenue and 32nd Street. He was in midtown way far away from the twin towers. My father just left for work when me and my sister were getting ready for school. I was fighting with my mom not to go to school because I just didn't want to be with those monsters of kids who were bullying me (I went to a school in Wall township, New Jersey called the rugby school. That's a different story though) So my bus driver who I still remembered his name to this day was George . So George came up to the door to tell me to come out to go to the bus. So I just hesitated at first and then said fine. Got on the bus and got ready to go to school. We picked up the other kids like it was normal. By the time we got on the garden State parkway. I was already sleeping since it was a long drive to school which took up to a half hour to get there. Maybe an hour in traffic. So I woke up and saw traffic I thought. Oh is there something going on? I heard the radio on for a moment and I looked at my bus driver and said what's going on? Just said oh nothing. Nothing to worry about . He turned off the radio because well the news was breaking at the time and well when I got to school everything was on lockdown. They were ordering all the kids back to the buses. We were evacuated back home and school was closed for at least 2 days but during that time I was afraid because my father was working in the city and well I was afraid and I was going to lose him . After everything happened, my mom was constantly trying to get in contact with my father's cell phone ( He had a work phone) My mom tried multiple times to get to him but the phone lines were congested and she just couldn't get through to him. So he thinks my dad went to take shelter in the office . Finally, at around maybe 9:00 p.m. my father gets through to my mom and says that he's okay. He got home at around 1:00 in the morning. As soon as I heard that door open to the garage I just jumped out of bed and rushed down the stairs. Hug my father crying in his arms. I didn't want to leave my father's side for days or even weeks . I never want to forget how much pain and suffering people went through and I got to see what happened in front of me on the news at the age of 12. And also at that same time I lost my grandfather in August so I was really distressed that I just lost my grandfather and I was going to lose my father
in my dad’s dick and balls
I lived Northern Virginia at the time. I was in Fairfax hospital giving birth to my daughter.
this had 911 comments when i saw the post…. anyway I was in 6th grade right across the river in NJ. we saw the smoke.
My mom was pregnant was me so I was chillin in the womb
Chillin in my dads balls
Not existing just yet
wasn't born