September 11, 2001

[Olsondogg]

Curious what others were doing that day...

I remember it was a Tuesday, and I was waking up to get ready to start my first day of taking over a HS computing class. I was in a Post-Bac teaching program and was completing my final semester as a student teacher...I was due to teach a lesson on networking to the students...the drive from Tempe to Awahtukee was surreal, listening to Howard Stern talk about what was happening only miles away from the studio.

We suspended lessons for the day, and one girl in the class had her dad in NYC that day, and they couldn't get in touch with him and she was hysterical. I remember being glued to the computer and in disbelief of the images I was seeing.

I also remember getting home, calling everyone I knew just to tell them that I loved them.

Not ashamed to admit I cried that day too.

Crazy that it was 13 years ago.

[UAdevil]

I was in my 2nd semester of Grad School at ASU. Had been out drinking the night before so didn't wake up until almost 10am. Got dressed and headed out for class. I got in my truck and turned on the radio...re-parked, went back home, turned on TV and just watched the news the rest of the day and late into the night. Most of classes were cancelled anyway after the attacks.

[scumdevils86]

I was just a couple weeks into my sophomore year of high school. back then I was more of a morning person than I am now strangely enough so i didn't mind waking up at 6:10 am when ASUHATER came into my room and said that there was a fire at the world trade center. I went out and looked at the tv in the living room and thought it was odd that there was a fire in each building at that point. that's when I heard them saying that they were plane crashes and I thought how fcking odd and terrifying it was that 2 planes crashed at the same time.

That thought didn't stay long in my head. I was on my way to school at 7:00 am when the first tower collapsed and heard people talking about it when I got to school. Strangely enough with being asleep/driving to school/sitting outside a classroom I didn't actually see any of the collapses or plane crashes happen live.

the whole day after that is still clear as hell in my head. what i did in each class throughout the day and everything. very sobering. still gives me chills.

it's odd to think that the kids who are currently seniors in high school were only 4/5 years old when it happened and probably barely remember it.

[Chicat]

I was off work for a week, so I had partied the night before and slept in that morning. When I got up around 10 Chicago time I didn't turn on the TV which was my normal ritual. Instead I read, cleaned, and then took a shower. Finally checked my phone and saw I had a bunch of missed calls and one cryptic voicemail from my buddy who wondered how I was doing "with everything going on in NY". I shrugged it off, continued doing my own thing and then eventually turned on the TV around noon. It was on MTV and they were showing the CBS national feed. At first I thought my cable company fucked up the channels so I flipped to ESPN which had the ABC national feed. It was only then that I actually saw what they were broadcasting.

It was like waking up from a coma and realizing the world had changed and moved on without me. I was stunned. Then I freaked out. My uncle worked in Tower 1 and my whole family was in NY. I called him, my mom, and my sister, who were all in the NYC area and couldn't get through to anyone. I then proceeded to lose my shit. I knew my mom was having lunch with my uncle that week but couldn't remember what day. I became convinced they were both dead. I literally curled up in a ball and sobbed like a baby.

It turned out that my Mom had lunch with my uncle the day before and that he had a meeting uptown that day and wasn't in his office. I got a hold of my other uncle and he talked me off the ledge. Probably the 2nd worst moment of my life after my dad dying a few months before the attacks. I thought I had lost both parents that summer.

Anyway, it's hard to imagine that 13 years have passed. At some point we'll be talking about recruits who were born after the attacks and have only known a post-911 world. In some ways it feels like yesterday and in others a million years...

[scumdevils86]

crazy store Chi. I was overwhelmed that day and I didn't even know anyone personally involved in the whole thing. Can't imagine that. And like I said...we already are in a world where our favorite topic (talking about teenagers playing sports) involves kids who probably don't even remember the event. That makes me feel older than anything.

[Salty]

I was in either 5th or 6th grade at that point. My school was on a year round schedule, so I only got about a month and a half off for summer vacation and took about 3 weeks off during each semester. As it happened, when Sept 11th rolled around, I was on the scheduled break from school so I didn't have to go to class.

I remember waking up and walking into the living room where we had a news channel on. I just wrapped myself up in a blanket and watched, not entirely sure what I was watching. I was too young to understand the depth of what had happened. My Mom was on the phone with various people and my Dad didn't say a word all day.

[BearDown89]

I was driving my ex-wife to pick up her car at a friends house early that morning. They'd seen Billy Idol the night before and cabbed it home. She was pretty green; we had to pull over for her to puke a couple of times. So I was only vaguely listening to the radio and dealing with her. Got to the office early and we had a conference call with an expert witnesses in a case. He was in one of the towers. In the middle of our call he had this freaked out holy shit I have to get out of here moment. He said something about an explosion. There was some garbled noise in the background and he was gone. My partner and I were like, WTF? By then the news was circulating around the office and we turned on the tv in the conference room and all hell was breaking loose. We didn't hear back from our witness for several days. He made it out and was one of those who had to hike and hitch his way home to Weschester County from Manhattan. Ultimately, he made it to Boise and testified at the trial later that Fall. We'd never met him face to face before trial. Crazy circumstances.

[Longhorned]

My sister woke me up with a phone call and told me that the whole east coast of the U.S. was under attack. It was the first time I felt like I was inside of history instead of outside of it.

I remember feeling relief when Ted Koppel, who was stuck and unable to return from Europe, took over the ABC news desk from London.

I also remember having this sentiment that (and I'm quoting that sentiment), "George W. may be a shallow, inarticulate ass, but he's our shallow, inarticulate ass." That sense of solidarity dissipated pretty quickly, though.

I was visiting Arizona from Italy and had no trouble returning.

[Bear Down Vegas]

I was getting ready to move into a new apartment that day. Had already enlisted a couple of friends to help me with the heavy lifting the week prior.

I get a call from one of my flakiest friends first thing - waking me up - & he says I need to get up because New York City is under attack & they're flying planes into buildings and shit. I literally thought he was messing with me because he had likely been out all night & looking for a funny excuse to bail on helping me. I told him to f off & hung up & rolled over in bed.

I lied there for about 30 seconds & thought....that would be a really weird thing to make up though...

Turned on the tv.

[Chicat]

I was driving my ex-wife to pick up her car at a friends house early that morning. They'd seen Billy Idol the night before and cabbed it home. She was pretty green; we had to pull over for her to puke a couple of times. So I was only vaguely listening to the radio and dealing with her. Got to the office early and we had a conference call with an expert witnesses in a case. He was in one of the towers. In the middle of our call he had this freaked out holy shit I have to get out of here moment. He said something about an explosion. There was some garbled noise in the background and he was gone. My partner and I were like, WTF? By then the news was circulating around the office and we turned on the tv in the conference room and all hell was breaking loose. We didn't hear back from our witness for several days. He made it out and was one of those who had to hike and hitch his way home to Weschester County from Manhattan. Ultimately, he made it to Boise and testified at the trial later that Fall. We'd never met him face to face before trial. Crazy circumstances.

Wow, that's crazy!

My wife was on a conference call with a client who was in central Russia looking at manufacturing space when the asteroid hit. They heard a huge explosion, he screamed, and then the line went dead. He called back like 10 minutes later and let them know he was all right. The percussion blew out the windows and showered him with glass. He thought at that point it was a bomb. I guess he didn't see the meteor because it was on the other side of the building and didn't know what actually happened until later.

[BearDown89]

I was driving my ex-wife to pick up her car at a friends house early that morning. They'd seen Billy Idol the night before and cabbed it home. She was pretty green; we had to pull over for her to puke a couple of times. So I was only vaguely listening to the radio and dealing with her. Got to the office early and we had a conference call with an expert witnesses in a case. He was in one of the towers. In the middle of our call he had this freaked out holy shit I have to get out of here moment. He said something about an explosion. There was some garbled noise in the background and he was gone. My partner and I were like, WTF? By then the news was circulating around the office and we turned on the tv in the conference room and all hell was breaking loose. We didn't hear back from our witness for several days. He made it out and was one of those who had to hike and hitch his way home to Weschester County from Manhattan. Ultimately, he made it to Boise and testified at the trial later that Fall. We'd never met him face to face before trial. Crazy circumstances.

Wow, that's crazy!

My wife was on a conference call with a client who was in central Russia looking at manufacturing space when the asteroid hit. They heard a huge explosion, he screamed, and then the line went dead. He called back like 10 minutes later and let them know he was all right. The percussion blew out the windows and showered him with glass. He thought at that point it was a bomb. I guess he didn't see the meteor because it was on the other side of the building and didn't know what actually happened until later.

Nuts. Yeah, we had no way to get in touch with this guy and were literally thinking we may have been his last conversation. Couldn't call his office obviously, didn't know his family - game over. Then he surfaced and we ended up having a great party with him here after the trial. Dinner, lots of drinks and a hell of a story.

[azgreg]

That's crazy BD. The closest thing like that for me is a friend of mine was in the towers about 2 months before. That night he had a lot of trouble. he was trembling and everything.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I was in college and got phone calls to turn on the TV. It's still the most surreal day I've ever had. For such a long period of time, there was nothing but confusion and speculation. People were just wandering around and every conversation was about 9/11.

My uncle worked in Rockefeller Center and took the subway basically right under the WTC. The phone lines in and out were basically shut down, and it wasn't until that night I knew he had gotten to work about 20 minutes prior to the first plane hitting.

I remember sitting and watching CNN that night. There had been such a steady stream of horrific images and tragedy, I was almost numb from all the horror by then. Then, they aired a video shot from a balcony about a half mile away in Manhattan. This one had audio instead of talking heads talking over the video. When the tower collapsed, after that noise settled, you could hear a chorus of people screaming from the street. No words, just screaming. Thinking about that still gets me choked up today.

[ASUHATER!]

I was driving my ex-wife to pick up her car at a friends house early that morning. They'd seen Billy Idol the night before and cabbed it home. She was pretty green; we had to pull over for her to puke a couple of times. So I was only vaguely listening to the radio and dealing with her. Got to the office early and we had a conference call with an expert witnesses in a case. He was in one of the towers. In the middle of our call he had this freaked out holy shit I have to get out of here moment. He said something about an explosion. There was some garbled noise in the background and he was gone. My partner and I were like, WTF? By then the news was circulating around the office and we turned on the tv in the conference room and all hell was breaking loose. We didn't hear back from our witness for several days. He made it out and was one of those who had to hike and hitch his way home to Weschester County from Manhattan. Ultimately, he made it to Boise and testified at the trial later that Fall. We'd never met him face to face before trial. Crazy circumstances.

wow that's crazy...you were actually on the phone with the guy when it was hit?

[ASUHATER!]

and yes most of my story is the same as sd86's. but i just remember getting up and going down the hall at my normal time at like 6:10 in the morning all bleary eyed. my mom always got up a least a few minutes earlier and always put on good morning america or the today show or whatever on the tv. i just remembering going into the living room/kitchen area like always and getting my breakfast and just glancing at the tv and seeing the obviously recognizable twin towers with smoke pouring out of them and just thinking "wow that is a really terrible coincidence that regular normal fires broke out in both buildings at the same time". i went and woke up the lazy sd86 and told him the towers were on fire (since if it even was just a regular fire it's still a big news story). from then on it is as sd86 described, but we did watch the second tower fall in our first period classroom live before school started since we begged our teacher to turn on the tv and let us into the classroom. it's hard to describe what was going through my head when i watched that second tower fall...biggest jumble of anger, fear, nausea..all that i've ever had. then the reports of the pennsylvania flight and the attack on the pentagon came in and everyone then really started freaking out. then the rumors of more hijacked planes going towards the white house/capitol or towards the nuclear plant by phoenix or to the sears tower or to the golden gate bridge, etc... i just remember sitting there thinking "this is my pearl harbor".

[Olsondogg]

I have to say it is interesting hearing the perspectives, from those around my age...to those older, to those that were kids at the time.

At some point in time, there will be those that "Remember 9/11" or were alive during it. Crazy how for once the adage "Life was never the same" is 100% accurate for all of us.

[KaibabKat]

One of my lasting memories from that week comes from the Saturday following 9/11.Commercial air traffic had been shut down for most of that week but started operating again late in the week. On Saturday I drove from Tucson to Sky Harbor to pick up my Mom and Sister who were finally able to fly in from NY State. What was striking is that everyone was driving the speed limit, using the left lane for passing only, and using their turn signals when they did so. Off the interstate other drivers allowed, even invited, you to go in front of them when coming out of a cross street. Nobody was honking their car horns. In the airport everyone was using the words please, thank you, and excuse me much, much more than was usual. The common courtesy and civility from one American to another changed instantly with the events earlier in that week.

The following week when I made the same trip to put my Sis on a plane for her return trip back east everything was back to normal. Horns, and even middle fingers, were once again fully operational.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have to say it is interesting hearing the perspectives, from those around my age...to those older, to those that were kids at the time.

At some point in time, there will be those that "Remember 9/11" or were alive during it. Crazy how for once the adage "Life was never the same" is 100% accurate for all of us.

My mom has talked to me about her generation having a shared memory of the day JFK was murdered. 9/11 is a modern version of that, a day that shapes our collective consciousness. Everybody remembers where they were and what they did.

I remember going to a class on 9/12/01 in college and overhearing two girls (sorority types if I'm stereotyping) whining about how the mall was closed yesterday, and that there was no need for that because the planes were in NYC. Even they can tell the story of the day they couldn't go to Dillard's.

[Chicat]

After the attacks the museum I was working at had most of the private Van Gogh functions cancelled so they cancelled my forced week off and I went back to waiting tables at the restaurant. The mood was so somber. People hardly talked to me or each other. But I did get some nice tips.

Then I got asked to bartend a private exhibition. Turned out to be Aon who lost over 100 people in the attacks. There was a whole lot of hugging and crying and not a whole lot of looking at the art or enjoying the passed appetizers. I asked the first guy who ordered a drink how he was doing and he looked at me with these incredibly sad eyes and said, "Just happy to be alive." I didn't ask anyone else that question. I knew the answer.

[LBdCactus]

I have several memories seared into my memory from that day.

- Stepping out of my apartment in Brooklyn, heading to work and hearing a loud bang. At first I thought it was a nearby construction site or something. Who knows for sure, but the time coincides with the first plane.

- on the subway heading to Manhattan, when the train comes up above ground everyone shifted to look out the windows which faced out towards the Statue do Liberty, pointing at all the glittering debris floating in the sky. At that point the conductor comes on and says "everything is ok". And then the train starts moving again.

By the time I get to the office there is confusion about a second plane. We only had a radio, no one was paying too close attention at that point, and the internet had ground to a halt. Cnn site had crashed, I started getting updates on aol IM from relatives in Argentina.

I remember heading down to Sixth Ave and 25th which was where my office was and having a clear view right down Sixth to the burning buildings. At one point we hear a plane fly over head which made everyone uneasy, and one of my coworkers says "don't worry it's one of ours. It's our Air Force."

I remember going back upstairs, and people telling me the towers had fallen, again getting most things second hand. I remember rumors swirling that the bridges had been found with explosives or people were caught with chemicals in the subway. I remember another coworker saying she was scared to be in our office which was on the 12th floor.

I remember heading back out after everyone decided to head home and seeing the wall of smoke at the end of Broadway. I remember homeboy walking down the street saying he was going to F those MotherFs up. I remember the panic in the street when' a car backfired and running out of the bar we had just sat down in to watch the news. That was the first time I saw with my eyes what was happening. I remember walking towards the Manhattan Bridge because all the subways were suspended. I remember walking all the way down there and the trains started up again. I remember the girl on the train, with her suitcase because she had just gotten to town, on the verge of tears because she didn't know where she was going or how to get in touch with whoever she was visiting,

I remember distinctly the burning smell that invaded our apartment for weeks. I remember the awe of seeing Ground Zero for the first time, at the beginning of November and seeing smoke still coming out of the ground and steel bent in ways you couldn't imagine.

There are a ton of other memories that come to mind from that day, hard to believe it was 13 years ago.

[Longhorned]

Thanks, LBdCactus. Amazing stuff.

[Chicat]

The amazing thing that LBD's post brings up for me is just how many millions of people were in the vicinity of the attacks and how they were all affected both that day and every day since. The terrorists hit us somewhere that so many people had an emotional connection to. No mater how crude their methods or how many idiotic mistakes they made, they still managed to hit us in the most impactful way possible.

[KaibabKat]

Seventeen years now.

[Merkin]

[EastCoastCat]

I was at a meeting at Pepsico in Westchester NY when one of the secretaries walked in and whispered something into my Clients ears and soon the meeting was stopped and we watched the telecast on the screen we were presenting on for the rest of the morning. The whole day was just surreal and everyone had this "I can't believe this is fucking happening" looks on their faces.

The real scary thing was my father-in-law was on a morning AA flight out of Kennedy direct to the west coast so we had to wait a few hours to find out that his plane was not targetted. That was freaky especially as my first boss in NYC and his entire family was on the Pan AM 103 Lockerbie flight.

Fast forward a few years later my son was playing hockey with a kid whose father I found out was working out at the gym in Tower 1 that morning. He was an ex-marine and went into full ops mode and set up a triage tent when the planes first hit. He said the hardest part was finding a safe spot to avoid all of the people jumping out of the windows. He said all he kept hearing was "thud" all around him. He used to speak every year at the Shanksville PA ceremonies - not sure if he still does.

Certainly a day that will live in infamy.

[scumdevils86]

Just realized it's been more years since 9/11 than I was old when it happend. 17 years vs being 15 at the time. Damn.

[Chicat]

17 years later.

I’m watching “102 Minutes That Changed America”.

And I’m crying like a baby.

I just pray my boys never experience anything like what was done to us on that day.