9/11/01 Remember where you were...

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Dundradal

Frog Blast the Vent Core!
This is one of those events that our parents told us about (mine remember exactly where they were for both kennedy and the moon landings) so I just thought I'd just start this to reflect on the events of three years ago.

I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio attending Antioch College. I was walking up the stairs to my dorm and was about to reach the final landing when my friend Tom told me that a plane had hit the WTC. This was about 9am. At first I figured he meant like a Cessna or something tiny. Not until I went into my dorm and say people running up and down the hallway trying to get images on the net did I realize that it was a large jet.

I saw the 2nd plane strike the WTC and later that morning watched as they both came down. Never did I think they would fall, the whole time I was jsut trying to imagine how they were going to fix them and how they were going to stop the fires raging inside.

9/11/01 was one of the scariest and intense days of my life. Never had I seen anything bring so many people together and send so many into rage as the events of that day.

So again I ask, where were you on 9/11/01 when you first heard?
 
I was driving for work, listening to Mancow on the radio. When he first started talking about it I didn't believe him. I thought it was some sick joke of his that went too far.
 
I was watching something intresting on the television when the TV2 news Logo popped up.
And i thought something like "WTF would make them send news at this time of day"
 
I was in the shower getting ready for school when they made a short one-line annoucement about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I jumped out immediatly and got dressed and turned on the TV, calling over my mom and my sister who were asking all kinds of things about what would happen if a plane hit, I had to patiently explain to them that it depended on what kind of plane. We channel surfed and learned nothing else out so I dug out my walkman and some batteries and tuned into the news to listen at school. I was narrating for my classmates when the towers collapsed. I remember it pretty well, most of the guys were angry, or shocked, and the girls were crying and my teacher was just nodding, shaking his head.

We did nothing in class all day. Later they set up a TV so we could watch the news. I remember that day pretty well.
 
I was at school, when the towers were actually hit I believe I was out at gym. I first heard about it in the hallway when I overheard my my teacher being informed by one of the other teachers. We got back to class, she told us what happened and turned on the tv and watched that the rest of the day.
 
The WTC attack was one of those things that folks of our generation(s) will always remember where they were or what they were doing when they first heard about what had happened- like when President Reagan was shot or when the shuttle Challenger exploded.

I was asleep. The telephone rang but I didn't answer it. I got up a few minutes later and went to the kitchen to listen to the message on my answering machine. It was from my best friend. All he said was, "If you're still in bed you'd better get up and turn on the television." I did. The first plane had hit and I saw the second strike several minutes later. I had hoped that the tower's sprinkler systems would help contain the fires and I never really thought either building would collapse.

I have a cousin who was at work directly across the street from the WTC on 9/11/01. As soon as the first plane hit he left his office, got in his car, and drove home- that despite being told by his bosses to stay put. He was very lucky. Of course I didn't find any of this out for almost a week.
 
i had the flu, so i was in bed, puking my guts out, got up to take a leak when my mom called me into the living room and I saw the second plane hit. i then went to the bathroom and then went back to bed.
 
I just woke up and was watching the morning news (around 5:45AM or so) when I heard about the continuing coverage of what happened to the World Trade Center. It was the time I nearly left for work (6:10-ish AM) that I heard the second plane hit the WTC.

When I got to work, I hit the web sites to find more, and they were all down (except for Slashdot, which was serving up coverage where CNN etc. weren't). That, and wandering to the TV room (yes, we have cable at work!) where everyone was gathered (no mean feat - so many people the room was overflowing, and hot as heck).
 
in the locker room, putting on my school clothes after practice. listening to the radio, thinking it was all a fluke accident.
 
My mom called me and woke me out of a sound sleep saying that something had hit one of the Trade Towers and that it could be terrorists.

I laughed it off. I reminded my mom that planes had hit the Empire State Building decades ago.

After turning on the news, I logged onto #wingnut all day and stayed there.
 
I didn't hear about it live. I was working pretty heavily that day. Then I thought I'll do a small break and zap through TV. First picture I saw was a city under heavy smoke. On second glance I identified that city. First thought there was 'just' a huge fire. Then maybe one minute later they showed a replay of the plane crashing into the building. Not much later there was the same crash from a different angel - just that it wasn't it was the second plane. Immediately run downstairs to alert others to turn on TV.
 
I was at school like a lot of people. A History and a Government teacher both ran down the halls yelling that a plane hit the world trade center. Most teachers really didn't care, and in the class I was in the TV didn't go on until the teacher got through what they were teaching. It didn't really look so bad, I just kind of figured, "Wow it's going to be a pain fixing that, how are they going to even put it out?"

The TV was switched on just in time to see the second plane hit, then everyone was quiet for a few minutes in the realization that this could be some kind of planned attack. So for the rest of the day we watched the news in every class, the Pentagon was hit then they said something happened in Pennsylvania which caused some of the girls to freak out. I remember the news creating more tension by saying things like "There's still at least thirty planes in the air unaccounted for!" and, "The capitol is next!" When the towers fell that was ridiculous, I don't think anyone saw that coming except perhaps architects and engineers.
 
Im from Brooklyn in NYC. I go to college in the Bronx, home of the Yankees. My gf at the time woke my ass up with a frantic phone call about the first tower being hit. I preceded to call my mom at home and my dad at work in midtown. Once i got there take on things I preceded to wake or alert most of my friends on my floor of the dorm. We all sat in shorts and tshirts (most of us had just hopped out of bed) and watched the whole thing.
Then the phones went out and after the towers went down and the wind shifted. Ill never forget that smell. They cancelled classes for two days. everybody basically just kept watching the news and getting angrier and more upset as the week went on. My cousin dennis safely made it out of the second tower where he worked for the port authority.
Yet In all that chaos and all that horror, it was the most amazing time to be a new yorker. for once this whole city was together. everyone suffered. everyone was moved. Instead of tearing this city apart, those bastards actually made it come together for however long it did. Its the one moment in my life that ill never forget.
 
I'm in the UK and I was at work when we first heard the news.
I was sat at my desk, chatting to my colleague. It was just after lunchtimes. Our system administrator came back in from his lunch break and said, as he walked past our desks, "did you hear? some plane has just flown into the World Trade Centre!" He walked onwards back to his work area.
My colleague and I immediately stopped chatting and went onto the net. Everything was down except Ananova.com, which was the first website to give us any kind of coverage.
The rest of the day, we were sat at our desks in disbelief that something as incredible as this could happen.
At the end of the business day, everyone left work bang on time, just to get home and watch the news.
 
I remember sitting on the floor, waiting for my ride to school. Four tiles from the TV. GMA showing how to cook a soufle or some such. The computer graphic about an "ABC Special Report." The Two Towers, one vomiting smoke, the other prestine. The fireball.

I remember telling my friend who drove me to school "They're kicking our a**." I remember being pissed at my Spanish prof for holding a normal everyday class meeting like nothign was happening. Wanting to yell at him that it may be on the other side of the continent but it does affect us all.

And after hearing about all the good that happened afterward I remember thinking that this country woudl never be the same.

If only I knew how right and how wrong I was in jsut that one thought.
I was right because now we have things like the Patriot Act (a.k.a the Bend-Over-So-We-Can-F**k-You-In-A-Very-Uncomfortable-Place-Even-Though-You-Only-Checked-Out-A-Book-For-Research Act or BOSWCFYIAVUPETYOCOABFR Act or the Cluster F**k Act). And we have people wh believe anything that Bush (aka the Monkey) says as long as he throws the words "they are evil" or "they are terrorists" into it to front his personal vendetta against people.

And I was wrong. Last night I had to be at work to do camera work for a football game . Mention at all was made of the date. I know there was a memorial moment for Andrew Smith, the University of North Texas (where I go to school) quarterback who died jsut before two a day practices started. But how quickly we have forgotten that 3 years ago, 2973 Andrew Smiths were mudered. It's great to remember Drew. He was, from all I hear, a stand up guy and great brother and son. But so were the 2973 who died.

9-11-01 did change this country. I wonder sometimes though if it was for the better.
 
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