Never Forget.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

It was going to be my first day working at the Atlantis Hotel-Casino in Reno. I woke to a phone call from my girlfriend, telling me that we were under attack. I can remember rolling my eyes (this girl was prone to occasional histrionics) and humoring her, if only to figure out what she was talking about...

... Just in time to see the second plane barrel into the South Tower. Suffice it to say, I wasn't rolling my eyes any more.

The rest of the day... hell, the rest of the week passed in a blurry haze of people going about their business in a muted, half-hearted fashion. It was the easiest training I ever underwent. I lasted at the job less than a month before I enlisted.

I had already desired an enlistment - this just expedited the situation.

It's strange... I've been going around all day, and it's been liked a muted echo of that week after the attacks - people are waving and honking their horns at police vehicles, flags are decorating cars and homes again... it's very surreal down here.

Oh, and HCGLNS - you bastard. I had to pull over to the side of the road and pray that nobody was looking into my car while I was scrubbing at my eyes.
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

I had taken my daughter to school, and come back home. Wife was getting ready for work, we were watching the Today show, at the time it was on a one hour delay (we're in Central time zone) and suddenly they switched to live feed. They were showing the live shot of smoke coming out of the first tower hit and talking about how it could have been a small plane lost in the low clouds that were around a few minutes before, but were still trying to confirm what exactly had happened. You then caught sight of something flying through the area, a large passenger jet... saw it turn, pass behind the first tower... flames erupted from the other side. Shock, surprise, the feeling of "Oh SHIT." from both the hosts and my own head. I called my wife into the room, and just stood there staring at the television, couldn't really believe what was happening, couldn't really process that I had just witnessed murder on live tv. Story started coming together as the minutes passed by, first of the closer shots of the chaos, my wife went on to work, I didn't have to leave for another hour or so, and I continued to watch the events. Actually saw the live footage of people jumping to their deaths as the flames and smoke got worse. They are images that still pop right to the front when I think about this now. I called my wife at work, talked to her about the info that was starting to come out, that the Pentagon had been attacked also, that another passenger jet was "missing" at the time. I was talking to her as the first tower fell. I could tell what was happening as Matt Lauer and Katie Couric were talking about there was a sudden plume of more smoke at the tower, but that they didn't know what was happening. "The tower is gone. It's falling down right now. The tower is gone. I can tell, the idiots just keep talking about more smoke, but it's collapsed." Those are the words I said to my wife as the video was shown. "The tower is gone." I got off the phone with her. I prayed. It was all I could do at the time. I left for work around 9:23am, I always left about that time, got me to work with time to spare and get my day ready. I listened to the radio as I drove, talk was all about the Towers. Got to work, got the store opened, made one sale that day. A box of football cards for a truck driver customer that stopped by the store on Tuesdays to pick up his weekly order. That was it in sales for the day. I think that only two more people came in that day, mostly just to talk, not really interesting in shopping, but just needed someone to talk to. That evening I drove home, I could see the fighter jet contrails of the patrol out of Houston, not a cloud in the sky, other than those concentric rings of vapor behind the two jets making their flight pattern.

That is all still so clear in my head. I understood from that time, really understood, what it must have felt like in December 1941 for the attacks on Pearl Harbor, what it must have felt like in November 1963 for JFK's assassination.

The thing that gets me today, is that so many are posting "I saw the first plane hit." and it's not possible that they did. You saw the second plane hit, and later saw the video that someone just happened to make of the first.
 
Mathias

Mathias

Espy, thanks for chiming in. I created this thread to talk about that day, and remembering the people that lost their lives. Take your politics elsewhere...
Added at: 17:47
Charlie Don't Surf said:
I'm not dodging the question - I'm saying we shouldn't have invaded Iraq, put in the inane and ineffective airport travel "security", shouldn't have passed the Patriot Act, shouldn't have re-elected Bush. That's what we should have done. Not do those things. I don't believe any of that made the country safer.
Click to expand...
Dude, you're really acting no better than a West Buro Baptist member protesting a soldier's funeral. Have some respect for the departed.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

I see people from different parts of the country and different countries saying that there was a clear reaction going on that day for the people around them. I'd been hearing this past year from some in the midwest (who were about Doom's age at the time, so that may color things) that there wasn't much reaction, it wasn't a big deal and I just saw it that way as being from New York, etc. I'd wondered if that was the years talking or if that was the truth, and after seeing this thread, I feel it's likely that the 10 years passing has colored some people's memories, because it sounds like there was a pretty noticeable reaction all over the place, and people outside NY weren't so apathetic as I'd been told.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
I'm actually really ashamed about how I reacted at first. I remember hearing about it at school and thinking it was a hoax or something. My friend made a joke about it, and I joined in. Then we saw the footage on the TVs at school. We cried in English class. I felt horrible. We spent most classes talking about it, listening to the radio, or watching the news. The whole day was a blur. I don't remember talking to my parents about it. A couple of the priests who served mass at school regularly came to the chapel that week to talk to any students who wanted to. A family friend had a brother up there who stopped for coffee on his way to work and missed the attack completely. The thing I remember most about that whole period of shock and hurt afterwards was constantly looking up pictures and videos of the people who threw themselves out of windows. I don't know why I watched that over and over. I would just look and think about what I would have done and what they must have been thinking.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Officer_Charon said:
It was going to be my first day working at the Atlantis Hotel-Casino in Reno.
Click to expand...
Weird. We were in Reno at the same time, then. I saw the attacks on the news and woke my roommate up and we watched the second tower get hit. I had to go and teach a class on Statistics at UNR. I said a thing or two about persevering, I think, before starting. It was hard to figure out how to continue on as normal, but we tried. Also, I asked my advisor, a memory researcher, if we should try and gather some data on flashbulb memories. He said he couldn't see how anyone could under the circumstances.

PS - Researchers did, in fact examine memories of meaningful moments, including people's memories of finding out about 9/11. There is not a lot of strong evidence that they are especially accurate, compared to other, less meaningful memories about our lives. We recall them with great detail and express strong confidence in those memories, but they seem to be as malleable as our normal memories. I always tell my students to keep in mind that even these memories are fallible, in spite of our confidence. It is humbling to think how bad we are at recording the events of our own lives.
 
Piotyr

Piotyr

I was out of work, so was waking up to my morning job search/internet surfing when the forum I frequented went berserk about it. Immediately turned on the news to see the second plane hit the tower. I watched all the way through both towers collapsing before I'd seen enough for the day on the news.

I remember mostly fearing for my dad, who was supposed to fly to Boston from Chicago that morning. I couldn't get a hold of him all day, but it turned out he never left the Chicago airport, and was stuck in lock-down for almost the entire day. So, fortunately for me, no direct contacts were involved in the tragedy of the day, but all the stories that hit the airwaves soon after were really sobering.
 
General Specific

General Specific

I was still in college at the time. I was asleep and my roommate woke me up and told me to turn on the tv, a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I think I was wondering why he woke me up for that when I saw the first tower on fire. Then the second plane hit.

I was in shock for the whole day. I went to my normal classes, but took my mp3 player that had a radio on it and listened to it almost constantly. I was sitting in the lobby of a building one of my classes was in when a friend and German exchange student came up to me asking what was up. He'd been in classes all morning. He didn't know. I just told him flat out, by that point, both towers had collapsed. We went into the building's library and got a connection to a news website, CNN I think, and watched streaming coverage. My friend had come through New York and been to the WTC just the month or so prior. I knew no one who was in the towers or even New York at the time, but that day still affects me profoundly.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
CW Network:

Someone has had a stroke of brilliance, showing The Green Mile today. I think that's an outstanding move.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
The tenth anniversary, emotions run high. I think someone was trying to remind people that behind every villainous act is a human being, for what it's worth.

EDIT: I mean, maybe not. Could be a coincidence.
 
Gusto

Gusto

Cajungal said:
I'm actually really ashamed about how I reacted at first. I remember hearing about it at school and thinking it was a hoax or something. My friend made a joke about it, and I joined in. Then we saw the footage on the TVs at school. We cried in English class. I felt horrible. We spent most classes talking about it, listening to the radio, or watching the news. The whole day was a blur. I don't remember talking to my parents about it. A couple of the priests who served mass at school regularly came to the chapel that week to talk to any students who wanted to. A family friend had a brother up there who stopped for coffee on his way to work and missed the attack completely. The thing I remember most about that whole period of shock and hurt afterwards was constantly looking up pictures and videos of the people who threw themselves out of windows. I don't know why I watched that over and over. I would just look and think about what I would have done and what they must have been thinking.
Click to expand...
My initial reaction was similar, Seej, for what it's worth. This was in 10th grade science class, and this was before terrorism had definitively been linked to it. My teacher said something like "Someone crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre" and I remember thinking or even possibly saying aloud "Who gave that guy a pilot's license?"

Even a few minutes later I felt like a heartless moron. But then, I was in 10th grade, so I probably was.
 
M

makare

I was also in class and a lot of people were joking around. Going to humor is a natural thing.
 
Shannow

Shannow

Staff member
*beep boop beep boop* huh? What the fuck? *still half drunk ass at girls place from night before, answer cell* uh...hello? "What the fuck, son? Get the fuck up." dad? "I just got activated...why the fuck are you asleep?" huh? "We are under attack you lazy fuck..i just got activated, driving down to NYC now. Jesus christ, turn on the fucking TV!" hold on....holy shiiiiiii...... "watch my shit, you know where the house is. Ill see you when I see you." fucking a-----

he got activated, went down there with his unit, I dealt with consoling people all day in college as an RA. A lot of NYC folks at my college, and here I am 20, trying to help console them, allieviate their fears, etc....and waaaaay the fuck out of my depth as I am watching the horror unfurl on the tvs in front of me. he went over seas soon after for 4 years, kept re-volunteering. Fucking A
 
checkeredhat

checkeredhat

Gusto said:
My initial reaction was similar, Seej, for what it's worth. This was in 10th grade science class, and this was before terrorism had definitively been linked to it. My teacher said something like "Someone crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre" and I remember thinking or even possibly saying aloud "Who gave that guy a pilot's license?"

Even a few minutes later I felt like a heartless moron. But then, I was in 10th grade, so I probably was.
Click to expand...
Similar situation here too. Honestly I didn't even really know what the WTC was at the time, so until I saw the news footage when I got home from school, it was hard to grasp what had really happened. I remember I was in grade 10 Canadian History class, our teacher told us what happened, and I remember at lunch there was a big prayer circle outside around the totem pole at school and the flag was already at half mast, but classes continued as normal, for me and most of us the day continued as normal, and it wasn't until I got home that I saw the news footage, realized the seriousness of it.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

4th grade computer class. Teachers took us out to watch tv. We left early, but I don't really remember what I did the rest of the day. I didn't really comprehend it at the time.
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Working in a cement plant in the middle of nowhere. Got a phone call from my wife about it, went to check the internet, it had crashed, no tv reception when word spread the whole plant was huddled around radios. Halifax had become the primary redirection airport for air travel over the Atlantic. Calls were going out for volunteers to berth the passengers of the airplanes, we put our names in but never got called. As a city we sheltered over 7000 strangers that day, and what I remember most is driving by the airport on the way home from work and seeing planes upon planes upon planes stacked out on the runways. A few days later, the refinery in Dartmouth was pumping out truck after truck of airplane fuel, literally every 500m on the highway was a tanker truck, refuelling the extra planes.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

Denbrought said:
297 years ago today...



These heroes refused to be defeated and fought until the streets ran red with their blood, they will never be forgotten.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the Battle of Lake Champlain. Where we drove the Brits back up to Canada before the Treaty of Ghent was signed.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

It's weird to me thinking of kids who were young then and don't really grasp how different things were. It's weird seeing my cousins and realizing they weren't even born until 9 months later in June.
 
R

rabbitgod

I was watching Recess, the usual morning before class. My brother knocked on the door and said that someone flew a plane into the WTC. I thought it was some jackass in a personal plane. Then I changed the channel and...yeah. I went to one of my classes, art history, then swung by my friends dorm and hung out there the rest of the day.

Being so far from NYC I didn't have a lot of connection to it. I knew a few people from, but it wasn't that personal. However, we have a very large airforce base here and an air national guard. There's also an army base about 1.5 hours away. So they fly all day every day. A10s, F16s, A7s, C130S, helicopters whose names I don't know, all through my childhood they had been there. But they were all on a no fly order and all the personnel were waiting to find out if they were being deployed somewhere...anywhere. I also live in the busiest sector of Border Patrol, so you see those guys all over the place and they were no where to be seen, waiting by the phone in case they were called up. And then my brother is a firefighter. Crazy ass day.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

I was working overnights at a different hotel from this one. I had gotten home and had turned on my brand new TiVo to watch the Red Dwarf from the night before. Went back to live TV just after the networks started showing pictures of the first hole in the WTC. Speculation at the time was a small plane had hit. A few minutes later I saw the 2nd plane hit on live TV. Even then, early opinion was of a catastrophic failure of navigation systems. Then the reports of hijackings came in and we knew better. From then on I was sitting spellbound in front of the TV. The Pittsburgh stations cut in to network reporting when word of the crash in Shanksville came in. I finally had to force myself to go to bed just after 1pm because I still had to go to work that night. I got up just in time to see WTC 7 crumble later that evening.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

I was in the computer room at my university in Bristol, UK, so it was in the afternoon for me. I was online, on my MUD, when someone suddenly says, "Are you guys watching the news?" This was just after the first plane had hit.

From then on out, all activity on the MUD stops, people stop playing and killing mobs, and just keep talking about the situation and updating each other on the latest developments. I "watched" the two towers collapse from my text-based online role playing game. It didn't make the situation any less horrifying.

I remember walking back to my dorm room that evening, having spent the entire day receiving updates on the MUD, and while I walked I realized the world would never ever be the same again.
 
Frank

Frank

I was lying in bed with my girlfriend, in my mom's basement, as any 18 year should be I guess. I get a call from my mom. She tells me to turn on the tv and that some crazy shit is happening. I turn on the tv and they're reporting that a plane has hit the first tower. They had a camera on it. Live on TV. I think this is pretty fucking insane. That has to be an accident or something. Not 20-30 seconds after I turn on the TV. Live on TV. I see the second plane impact with the second tower. I shake my girlfriend awake and we sit, aghast, for the next 4-5 hours watching.

It is honestly one of the few moments in my life where someone can ask me where I was when something happened that I remember exactly.

72 police officers lost their lives that day 343 firefighters. People who were running into those buildings when everyone else was running out. I don't know if I was called on that I could do the same.
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

At College, sitting in the library while my GF was in morning classes. I was shitting around as usual, blowing all potential I had at being any kind of college graduate. I see a huge gathering of students around the TV at the far side of the library in the student lounge area. Enough of them to actually draw my attention away from the forum I was part of at the time. I casually walk over and I see a girl crying and another one consoling her. I see students and teachers sitting with mouths agape at the telvision. I took a look up and was immediately enthralled. I honestly thought it was a movie preview or possible prank. It was too surreal.

I immediately went back to my PC while everyonelse was glued to the screen and began looking at CNN.com and a few other news media sites for minute-by-minute updates. At the same time I began posting on the forum as we had a couple of members from NY. One of them had created a thread, he was taking pictures from his window of the towers and the alleys below. His images were 10x more amazing than anything that ever got shown on TV. I remember thinking "Why is he still there? So close to the impact, I can only imagine how many people were being evacuated".

I watched the entire day go by in that library, when my GF eventually got out of her classes, I got her caught up and she called home to see if she had any relatives in that area at the time. I remember thinking how funny it was that I had noone to "worry" about while people who knew a person who knew a person were worried about their wellbeing.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
I was a sophomore in college, in more ways than one. For some reason I woke up before noon, which was weird for me at the time. I was living in a housing co-op in Austin,TX at the time, which is the closest thing to a hippie fraternity as you can get. I didn't really have a reaction at first, it took a long time for me to understand my feelings about it. I didn't know anyone in NYC, and I've never been there. In some ways the emotional reaction was the same as hearing about a large attack in another country.

I know someone earlier said that we aren't supposed to talk about politics or whatever, but for me this event defined me politically, or at least started me on the path to my redefinition. See, the group I lived with was about as close to an anarchist commune as you could get (while still having a legal mailing adress). It was surprising seeing how some people reacted, and to a degree dissillusioned me to their views. A lot of peoples politics and views were challenged on that day. I saw some of the hippiest/anarchist/one-love people I have ever known become convinced of a coming religious war against the muslims. One of them went so far as to call the cops on one of our more 'brown' housemates. The I saw the other side with people regurgitating Ward Churchill like he was some kind prophet. I saw the flaws of personal politics of all flavors coming more obvious when put under a stress test.

It was really hard. I know I came out of it a better person though. It probably took me 3 years before I really started to sort out my views on the event itself. It took me even longer to come to where I am today. In some ways 911 was a good thing for me personally as it made me better than I was, and I don't know if I would have made those changes without an event like that to test me and see if I had the courage of my own convictions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top