Where were you on 9/11?

[mrbiggs]

I was at school. Few of us really cared. We weren't really told what was happening, and weren't old enough to understand the implications anyway.

Everything I had learned about it was second-hand from students whose teachers had let them watch the news.

The school was, oddly, worried mostly about security. It didn't make any sense at all.

[Aqua_volans]

I was trying to sleep. so i figured that since i could not sleep, might as well get up and watch some TV. As i was browsing through the channels, i saw on CNN a plane hitting a building. I paused and continued watching. About 5 minutes later, i went to sleep. It was only until the next morning did i realize this was something on the magnitude of, say pearl harbour.

[Inquartata]

I was asleep as well. I only found out what had happened when I woke up and there was a message from my then-GF on my answering machine briefly telling me what had happened. Then I went and turned on the TV. Since at the time I was wont to sleep until well past noon, this was pretty late in the day.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Sophomore year in high school-- I was in Chemistry class when we were told. I don't remember much about what they told us, but it wasn't a whole lot. There was a TV turned to the news all day in the library, but of course you had to be an upperclassman to have had free time to go to the library, so I didn't see anything until I got home.

The only think I clearly remember from the day was that a kid at my lunch table's only reaction was "my sensei's going to be pissed"--- as the days went on, and the shock dissapated a bit, that continued to be his most emotional reaction to the entire thing. .........he was an interesting kid.

[bousquet]

I was at work. A co-worker came in and told us that the radio was reporting a plane had hit one of the towers. I thought it was a small plane, maybe someone buzzing the towers or something. Someone turned on the TV we have at work and we watched in horror as the second jet hit.

The rest of that morning was hell. I have a friend who worked in the South tower (the second one hit but the first to fall). The morning was full of calls to his wife and to my wife. Eventually we were given the day off as no one was working anyway. When I saw the towers come down, I thought my friend had died. We later learned that he made it out. His supervisor saved his life. They were heading down the stairs when an annoucement was made to go back to your office as their building was safe. His supervisor ignored that announcement and ordered his staff to continue to evacuate. When he was about 1/2 way down he felt the building shudder and smelled the fuel and smoke. They made it out and when he left the building he just kept walking and never looked back. We learned hours later that he made it. It was truly a day I'll never forget. It seems around here that everybody knew somebody that was directly impacted by that event. Either someone working in the building or someone who responded to the emergency.

[Louweasel]

I was at work too. I was on the phone to someone and she got distracted and said "sorry, it's just that we've got the tv on in my office [small provincial car dealership] and a plane's just crashed into the World Trade Centre". By the time I got off the phone all my colleagues were crowded round a portable tv that someone had plugged in and we all watched in silence. I saw the second tower go down. I was fortunate in that i don't know anyone who was directly affected but i was very shaken.

[die Fechterin]

It was my freshman year of HS and I was sitting in my 2nd period Journalism class, working. I had left a poster for another class at home and had called my dad to bring it in. The teacher's phone rang, everyone heard him say "Oh, my God, you're kidding?", then he ran and turned the TV on CNN. By time the TV was on only one tower had been hit. Right after the 2nd tower was hit my Dad walked into my class room. We were the first class room in the entire building to find out. We watched the TV for the rest of the period, during all of lunch, and most of my other classes.

Third period was global history and our teacher didn't let us watch the television but he ~did~ explain to us what had happened (many students still didn't know) , who had done it, and why. That was probably the one hour of my life that opened my eyes to the rest of the world, and much of my own country. I'd never even heard of the "Twin Towers" and never been to New York.

Looking back, I feel really lucky to have been with my dad while it was happening. I also remember CNN playing the collapse of the towers like it was an execution. It made me sick of the media. I'm still sick of the media.

[fencingfrog]

Originally Posted by die Fechterin

I also remember CNN playing the collapse of the towers like it was an execution. It made me sick of the media. I'm still sick of the media.

i agree. they act as if it doesnt really matter. the media always makes things seem un real in a bad way.

that, and the way there are so many people selling things!! to "remember" it by...wtf we don't need souvinirs! they just want to make $$$.

[Go? Fencing?]

I was a freshman in high school. During second period, I was in Freshman Seminar, and another teacher was walking down the hall poking her head in all the classrooms to tell us to turn on the TV. By that time, the first tower had already been hit, and we watched for a little while. I believe that we saw the second plane hit. I can't remember if we watched long enough to see either of them fall, as after a while, the principal made an announcement to turn all the TV's off. We went to the rest of our classes, but as one might imagine, not much was taught nor learned that day.

[D'Artag-NOT]

I'm on the West Coast. My roommate's clock radio goes off at about 5:30 AM (8:30 AM New York time) to a public radio station. We were both getting dressed to go to work, and she was listening to the radio, when she called out from her room that a plane had just hit one of the Twin Towers. We both assumed it was a small private plane, and I remember asking her, "Gosh, how do they even fight a fire in a building that high?" Then we heard that it was a jet plane, and I turned on CNN. (And I never turn on the TV in the morning!)

I went on to work, listening to the news, flipping it off, then listening again. It was like a road accident that you don't want to look at but can't look away from. I can point out exactly where I was on my route to work when I heard that the first tower had fallen.

It was awful at work--a good friend of mine had her whole family in NYC, her mother and sister in Manhattan, and her brother is a firefighter. People kept stopping at her desk and asking if she'd heard from her family yet. Then her phone rang and she snatched it up and I heard her say, "Gina?!" with a little sob in her voice. It was her sister. Her brother was okay--by the time his company in Brooklyn had been called out, both the towers had already collapsed.

I phone my mother, just to hear her voice. I was 48 years old at the time, and I wanted my mommy.

Not much got done at work that day. It all seemed so pointless. There were thousands and thousands of people dead, this hideous thing had happened, and it didn't seem to matter if a particular purchase order got placed that day.

[VELISARIOS]

I remember that day. I was at home and I painted some minatures and my T.V was on. And suddenly I heard my brother said 'Hey, look what happened in US.' And I see on T.V. screen this terrible scen. I said 'Oh, my God what the pilot did.' and then I see the second plane to fly to tower and crush upon it.What I can say now. It was terrible.

[LUDICROUS]

I was in second form, which is the year just before high school. Got woken up early in the morning by my dad telling me what happened, except I didn't really understand the implications/etc of it. Shocked by the footage at the time, tho. (I was about 12.) We watched CNN all day at school.

[DE_Strip_Tease]

I was in 7th grade in a guidance class... whatever that was? I walked into the classroom to see the second plane hit the tower on tv. My friend and I agreed that this seemed just like something you would see in the movies but not in real life.

[bousquet]

>>not much was taught nor learned that day.<<

Not much may have been taught, but you should have learned lots that day. I know I did.

[scrapinpeg]

I was there. Lost some friends. Not a good day.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by D'Artag-NOT

I'm on the West Coast.

As I am. I woke up to an early-autumn morning and turned on our community radio station which normally carries classical music at that hour. Instead, there was a breathless newscaster explaining something about the towers and skyjacking. Confused and thinking I might still be dreaming, I turned the TV on CNN and saw what was happening. For some reason I turned off the sound and put on a Chopin CD and just watched the footage as it happened. The cameras showing the street scenes around the buildings, with human bodies falling in the background...it was totally surreal and I felt queasy and sort of trance-like all morning.

When my wife called out that she was awake, I told her she might want to stay in bed, as the world was turning into a nightmare. She said that might be so, but there were still chores to do and she would have to get up eventually. That pragmatism sort of broke the spell and I could take a deep breath and face the day with her at my side.

[lindajdunn]

I was at work -- at a DoD agency. I was online and just happened to check something when I saw a posting from someone I knew in NY saying that from their window, they'd seen an airplane hit one of the towers. At that time, I assumed a small airplane and an accident. One of my co-workers had a radio and when the second plane hit, we knew it wasn't an accident.

When the Pentagon was hit, everyone stopped working and they tried to make the antique television in the training room pick up a signal by bending a coat hanger and attaching it to act as an antenna.

We were sent home from work because it was feared there would be other federal targets and while they could replace buildings and equipment, they couldn't so easily replace people.

I had a previously scheduled dentist appointment and after driving there, I needed gasoline and found that the lines were incredible and prices had risen sharply. I had no choice in the matter, however, as it took half a tank of gas to go home, go to the dentist, go home again, etc.

One person from our agency died on 9/11 because he was aboard one of the planes that crashed into the towers.

Less than two weeks earlier, my husband and I had been to Worldcon (a Science Fiction convention) in Philadelphia and thus had met up with many people from the east coast. We were immediately checking to insure that everyone was safe. Two of our friends were on their honeymoon and stuck in another city when the planes were grounded. Some friends in NY had to walk across the bridge to reach home. Others were stuck in their apartment and while some continued to have access to services, others did not. One friend's husband had just changed jobs and was no longer working in one of the towers. Another had just changed jobs and would have been in one of the buildings near the twin towers.

All day long, I was periodically checking in at SFF.NET, where many of the writers and fans hang out, reading postings of what people had experienced and checking to see who had reported in that they were safe and that others were safe.

The next day at work was a little surreal. Many security changes followed.

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by bousquet

Not much may have been taught, but you should have learned lots that day. I know I did.

What did you learn? That terrorists kill people? That many people in the world violently hate us?

There was nothing new about September 11th. It just brought the issues to the front of our political debates.

[bousquet]

I'm not going to explain to you the lessons I learned that day, but, if that's all you learned, you weren't paying attention.

[Fencergrl]

I was laying in bed dozing with the clock radio on. I woke to my husband saying "Turn on the TV".

Half a sleep I muttered "Our RRSP's are going to go in the toilet"... my husband looked at me funny as I'm normally quite empathic… and just nodded and went back to watching… while I tried to pull myself into consciousness.