Looks like ya'll forgot.

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bigcountry23

bigcountry23

Asleep in my room. Buddy of mine from the other half of our duplex came busting in my room yelling "turn on the TV" to which I replied "what, are we at war or something" (which was until that day had been my standard reaction to being woken up out of a sound sleep and told to do something). When he replied "yeah" my blood went cold.

Spent the rest of the day watching the TV.

Only year I can't remember wishing my Mom a happy birthday even though I remember talking to her multiple times on the phone.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
I remembered. I just thought I shouldn't post about it, in case it turns into another political rantfest with extra douchebaggery. *shrugs*

Where was I... Hmm... I was driving home from high school. I remember I was worrying about my written French exam in my matriculation exams and listening to the radio. Radio Nova, all music all day... but when I drove past my mom's workplace, the music suddenly stopped and the channel's news reader informed that the Twin Towers had been the target of a terrorist attack. The first plane slamming into the WTC didn't make big news (I guess; I don't know for sure as I was at school at the time), but when the second did... it was on every station.

I pulled over and started laughing like a madman. It was just so goddamn surreal that my brain just couldn't handle it. I sat there, laughing and thinking "Holy shit, holy shit, this is how World War III starts!".

I was pretty much glued to the TV for the rest of the day, following the latest news about what was going on in Manhattan.
 
Vytamindi

Vytamindi

When unbelievable events happen like this, our first reaction is to joke about it while our brains absorb what's really going on. Although this is perfectly natural, we still feel guilty.

So, eHugs for everyone today.
 
Rob King

Rob King

I was in Junior High at the time. I was three months from my 13th birthday. I remember that all of the teachers had a really somber attitude that day, but nobody told us anything. That afternoon, I went home like nothing was wrong. The first news I got was at 3:30, when my friend called me in tears (he was a few years younger) about someone invading America.

I turned on the TV and watched for a bit. I must not have really understood, but I can't remember not understanding. I went to my parent's room, where my mother was sleeping (she had worked the night shift). I told her I was going to my friend's house, and briefly told her that somebody was attacking 'us.' She didn't believe me, so I turned on the TV.

When I got back home for supper, my mother was on the phone with someone from our church, about setting up the church's summer camp as a shelter for delayed travelers. Newfoundland received an incredible number of flights, since we're right on the America-Europe route for aircraft, and since we're rather remote.

One of my best friends' father worked with the Air Traffic Control center in Gander, Newfoundland. They're responsible for all flights coming to and leaving North America over the Atlantic Ocean. He said there was an incredible tension in the air traffic control center: there was a real worry that there might be a nuclear bomb aboard a (or several) plane. And yet, these air traffic controllers were landing the planes in their own hometown, potentially damning their own families to a fiery death.

It gives me chills to think about it.
 
L

lafftaff

I was in 10th grade. It was in second period that I learned what happened & the rest of school was spent watching tv. I have a half-sister who lives in New York & was worried if she was all right.

It's my birthday too. My friend, not knowing what happened yet, walked into class & shouted 'Happy Birthday' & handed me a b-day balloon. It was awkward carrying that balloon around & it didn't seem right so I finally got rid of it.
 
R

rabbitgod

I was my "Junior" year of college. My first class wasn't until later in the day so I was relaxing watching some cartoons. My brother comes in and says that someone crashed a plane into the Trade Center. At first I figured it was just some tool in a little personal prop plane. Then I changed the channel and started watching. I went to school and then ran some errands. Watched the news later that night.

My mom was in Las Vegas at the time. Her flight was like 30 minutes after the second plane hit. Since all the flights were cancelled she stayed there an extra 4 days or something. Luckily her parents live there so she wasn't terribly put out.

We have a lot of planes here in Tucson. Our airport isn't terribly busy but we have an Air National Guard and a fairly large Air Force Base. There are also a lot of hobby aviators. So normally there are planes throughout the day, you don't notice them since they're always kind of there. But it was really surreal that day because none of them were flying. Pardon the oxymoron but the silence was deafening.

It's my dogs birthday as well.
 
K

kaykordeath

I was working evenings in the theater, wife was working a slightly early office job. I was usually home around midnight, she'd head out the door around 6ish. It helped work out day care for our, at the time, 18 month old. She only needed to spend a few hours at grandpa's before mom was home early evening.

So while the baby usually would have me up by 9 or 10ish, that morning, I got the call just after 8. Wifey called in a panic...barely able to speak, and me barely awake...:

Her: They're flying planes into the Towers, I'm coming home....
Me: (thinking) probably "A" plane but she's only lived in the city for the last 2 years now, and she is only a few blocks from their, that's gotta be creepy..."OK hunny, do what you gotta do, it's OK, I love you.
Her: Iloveyoutooigottagonow...

Me..simultaneously seeing the baby-head is still sleeping and turning the TV on just as NBC is reporting but NOT confirming a second hit.

The next few hours are mostly a blur of me starring mouth agape at what's happening to my city, my playground, my backyard. (Living in Queens, but, as mentioned, wife was working on Maiden Lane, a few blocks west of the Towers, I grew up in the City) Logged onto ICQ, AIM, whatever I was using back then to contact anyone and everyone I knew from a couple online communities, partly to let them know I was ok, more so just for the human contact. A lot of talking back to the TV in shock/disbelief. I don't remember when the little one woke up, at some point I know she did because I had to finally back away from the TV, flipped on Nick for her as they were, thankfully, showing mindless toddler cartoons..but I was focused on communicating online.

All the time I "knew" wifey was on her way. No idea where she was or if she got on a train or was walking or a bus or how far she was when the towers came down...just one of those instinctual things...it was nearly 4:00 pm by the time she made it home...

The next few days, all she could do was sit on the couch and watch the news...in shock...she was in a bad way for months after that...and even still to today, after what she saw. She copes by taking in all she can on tv..the documentaries, the National Geographic/Discovery shows...I can't....I know she lived through a lot of it in person, but for me, I lived through it through TV...and I can barely stand to watch any of the recap/memorials that way....
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

^ What rabbit said, the next day was so surreal because I lived under a major flight path. The noise of jets is just a part of the back ground noise. I remember stopping for gas, then I noticed there were no cars on the 5 lane street, and no planes in the sky. I don't even think the birds were singing that day.
 
strawman

strawman

rabbitgod said:
So normally there are planes throughout the day, you don't notice them since they're always kind of there. But it was really surreal that day because none of them were flying. Pardon the oxymoron but the silence was deafening.
Click to expand...
sixpackshaker said:
^ What rabbit said, the next day was so surreal because I lived under a major flight path. The noise of jets is just a part of the back ground noise. I remember stopping for gas, then I noticed there were no cars on the 5 lane street, and no planes in the sky. I don't even think the birds were singing that day.
Click to expand...
This was noticable here as well - I've got two major airports nearby, but no planes, no contrails, etc.

It reminded me of the huge northeast blackout - life had paused while we all took stock of the situation.

-Adam
 
Thread Necromancer

Thread Necromancer

I had a fight with my then wife that morning. Don't even remember what it was about anymore but after driving her to school fighting the whole way I was looking forward to some Howard Stern as I drove back home. Turned on the radio and it was all talk about the first plane crashing and I wasn't even listening as my mind was so preoccupied with the fight I was having. Took me until I was nearly home before the second plane crashed and they were talking about that when it finally registered.

As with most others, I was glued to the TV for the most part of the day after that.
 
Rob King

Rob King

North_Ranger;253063][quote=Methuselah;253051][quote=ZenMonkey said:
Wow, what a snotty thread title and OP.
Click to expand...
Wow, what an unnecessary post.[/QUOTE]

Well, it was snotty.[/QUOTE]

And I can confirm that there was, in fact, both a thread title and an original post.

---------- Post added at 07:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 PM ----------
Thread Necromancer said:
As with most others, I was glued to the TV for the most part of the day after that.
Click to expand...
Despite the fact that my teachers told us nothing about the attacks on the 11th, for the rest of the month they had CNN on the screen in the library, where myself and some others would gather and watch during lunch hour.

For a while they would send the guidance out with us every so often.
 
P

Pojodan

My story:

Was asleep till 11 am that day as I had classes at ITT Tech on M/W/F that didn't start till 1pm. I had my radio set to a music channel, so I woke up to low voices, which confused me at first. Once I managed to focus I heard something about an attack on the Pentagon, which piqued my interest, so I got up and headed downstairs to turn on CNN (Back when it didn't suck)

Almost immediately there was video of the airplane hitting the twin towers, but in my post-waking haze it looked like a missile to me, so I spent the first half hour thinking someone was launching missiles at New York, which had me a bit freaked out.

Once all of the important facts were finally listed while I was listening fully, I caught on to what was happening and called my parents.

I spent the rest of the day hovering in front of the TV, letting the whole thing sink in.

The next day at class we basically had a group therapy session, talking about it and watching the news.


My mother's flight was the very first one to be cleared for actually taking off about a week later, so she got on the news, talking about all the new security added and how she left for the airport 4 hours early and ended up with less than an hour of spare time before the airplane took off.
 
J

jaythen

I was in class. Don't remember the name except it was a class around business management.
I had the dean as the teacher for this class and his secretary came in with the message about the first plane. She had no details except that a plane had hit.

During the break, since this class was a double block in the morning, I called my mom and asked her for more info. All she knew was that a plane had hit and that was about it. Went back to class with no more updates or information.

I went to a private college and they have campus wide chapel meetings every day at 11. So After the class and before the meeting, I ran over to the campus snack shop since it had the closest tv that I could access. I ran into my girlfriend and she had not heard anything at that time. We ran over and got caught up on what had happened.

Within 10 seconds, I saw the horror of seeing two planes crashing into the towers and seeing that one of the towers had fallen.


8 years later, I turned on the news this morning to see what coverage was going on with the anniversary. I saw nothing within the 5 minutes I had to watch before going to work. I saw the Early show was focused Ellen DeGeneres' being named a new judge for American Idol. I listened to the radio...music, but nothing being talked about by the local DJ's.
I haven't forgotten. Looks like many of has haven't either, but my impression from today is that there are many that don't consider today to be that big of a deal anymore.
 
P

Pojodan

Charlie Dont Surf said:
I was just mocking the whole "never forget" thing and pointing out there wasn't a thread about it yet.
Click to expand...
Thank you, Charlie, for helping us to remember.


Unfortunately there's just nothing more to discuss about this anymore than recalling what we were doing that day.
 
strawman

strawman

Charlie Dont Surf said:
I was just mocking the whole "never forget" thing and pointing out there wasn't a thread about it yet.
Click to expand...
I thought about it, even had the title and post planned, but don't have access at work, and knew that eventually someone would post it.

The local fire department had their trucks out in front with a big banner, "NEVER FORGET 9/11" which was awesome to see.

On the one hand it's a horrible tragedy, on the other hand we had an incredible sense of national unity (not to be confused with patriotism - that was there, but unity is more important).

Wish we had that unity now rather than all the bickering back and forth between the replicons and duplicrats. Get it together guys!

-Adam
 
fade

fade

Staff member
History Channel sure didn't forget. They aired a lot of programs, including '102 minutes that changed the world' a real time archive of footage from the morning. Some of it was quite disturbing, including footage of the jumpers and these college girls who screamed very distressingly when the second plane hit.
 
Krisken

Krisken

I haven't forgotten, I just refuse to let it define me. It was a horrible tragedy, don't get me wrong. However, I will continue to endure and refuse to let it change my thoughts and opinions on what is right. Those men who committed that crime wanted it to affect our judgment. That satisfaction I will not offer.
 
Espy

Espy

That footage still hits me in the gut. I remember waking up that morning, newly moved to Minneapolis, laying on my mattress and turning off my alarm. Then I rolled over and turned on my radio.
The very next thing I heard was Dan Rather saying: "America is under attack"
It was... quite a shocking wake me up.

Went and turned on the TV just in time to see the the first tower fall.
It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen, and I've literally carried my own intestines.
That's not said in jest, that's meant to be totally serious.
 
Rob King

Rob King

Espy said:
It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen, and I've literally carried my own intestines.
That's not said in jest, that's meant to be totally serious.
Click to expand...
Not meaning to derail, but sometime you're going to have to elaborate.
 
Espy

Espy

I believe I have told that story here (well, not here, but at our various homes before) a few times... but should a thread about it come up about wounds, etc, I would happily relay it.
 
J

JCM

Sadly, I was at home, and some mates called me asking me to come over to a bar, where they were celebrating and betting where the next attack was.

The days after kinda sucked, because as I was often mistaken for an american there I'd often hear some snarky comments or jokes about it in Malay
 
HoboNinja

HoboNinja

I was in 7th grade. I guess the first plane had hit before I left for the bus stop but I was still tired and wasn't paying attention to the tv and my mom didn't mention it.

So when I get to bus stop a girl says that there was a bomb attack in New York and I was like hmm whatever... didn't really phase me.

Most of the day was normal we just went on with class but some teachers were showing it on TV so I got word on what was happening in the halls between periods and at lunch.

I didn't even know what the WTC was before that day and I don't know it just felt distant, it really didn't effect me till a year after on the anniversary when they were showing clips and I just broke down crying... I do almost every time I see videos or read about it now. As I read this thread I cried the whole time... It was just such a horrific thing, I don't get how anyone can do it... I understand killing in war, but going and attacking and killing civilians is different... you aren't just attacking those people, you are attacking their family and friends and because it was such a big thing everyone in America took it as a personal attack. It united us all under a common cause, the grief for those people and a need for vengence.
 
Docseverin

Docseverin

I was in the field on a company field problem. After the base was secured I was issued a 30 round magazine of live ammo and flown out to a strategic point here on Oahu. I spent the next two weeks, providing medical care for my platoon as we pulled security.
 
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