Where were you when the towers fell?

[Towelie]

I hear a lot of talk amongst the older folks about "where were you when you heard JFK was dead?" or "Where were you when we landed on the moon?" and for awhile, our generation had no real significant "Where were you when?" incident, until 9/11

For a week or so after the event, I heard people talking about where they were when they heard what was going on... but once the Antrhax scare started, that shit stopped.

So I'm curious, where were you when the towers fell, or when you heard about the attacks?



For me, I was a freshman in High School. It was my second week of high school, and my mommy was driving me there in the morning. We turned on the Classic Rock radio station because it's the only one we ever agree on, and what was the first thing we heard? "Oh my God... the... the second tower has just collapsed." We assumed it was a movie trailer or something and didn't pay attention to it, until it clearly became a breaking newscast when they said the Pentagon had been hit by a hijacked airplane. We looked at eachother and my mom said, "What is this? Some kind of War of the Worlds spoof? Then they did their little "if you're just joining us" and said both of the twin towers in New York had been hit by hijacked 747s and so had the pentagon. Then they started talking about reports of more hijacked planes possibly in the air, and mixed reports about car bombings in Washington D.C., then my mom said, "Jesus, is this the anniversary of Waco or something?". At school it was all anyone was talking about, but they actually specifically told teachers at our school to go on with their lesson plans and to NOT turn on the T.V. and watch the news. I guess they thought High Schoolers couldn't handle the video of the planes hitting and the towers collapsing. So I didn't really grasp the whole situation until I got home, turned on CNN and the first thing I saw was them replaying the second plane hitting the second tower... from different angles.

[FaKToR]

High school, first period class. Got to watch all the footage in study hall.

[Lord Kelvin]

I just woke up to my radio and went to the bathroom. When I came back to my room, my brother said that the radio (which was still on) was saying that the twin towers and the Pentagon had been hit by planes. I thought that it was a mistake at first (pilot error), then I went into my parents' room and they had the TV tuned to CBS, which was covering it live. I figured that I still needed to go to school that day, so I kept getting ready for school. The first tower fell when I was gelling my hair, apparently. Not sure if I saw the second tower fall on TV, but the news was all we watched in my history class, plus some other classes as well.

[Maddog]

I was in school but they refused to tell us anything, or let the teachers tell anyone. And in retro spect that pisses me off. So I didnt know til I got home. Rumors were flying all around and they were outragous. I figured something happened but planes into the towers and them falling seemed far fetched for me. I ended up being wrong on that one.

[marty]

It was just a couple of days after we moved to our new house, so the cable for the TV wasn't installed yet. I found out about it around 7:30 AM PST when I came to class a little earlier than usual and the teacher had the radio on.

After only hearing a minute, I asked "Is this a recording of the news from the world trade center bombing 5 years ago?", because I remember talking about the 1996 bombing a few days before that.

I was pretty shocked to hear what happened (understatement), but I went on with the schoolday as normal (because we were supposed to). I know we talked about it instead of doing any actual work in most of the classes, though, but I didn't get to see the footage. After school was over, I walked to my mom's bank right after school and finally watchedi on their TV for the rest of day before she got off work. I remember that it was so much more gut-wrenching seeing images than just hearing about it.

[Captain Colon]

Watched a bit of it in advisory (study hall for you normal people), then went and hung out with my friends in their advisory room. Pretty much a normal day for me, I don't remember anything that happened.

[GusButts]

I was in 7th grade. I remember the day, too.

I ate lunch at school during grade 7-11, my friend Vince went home every day to eat lunch.

He came back and told me that he saw that the twin towers have been pwnt by terrorists on the news, by planes.

I was like lol wut.

[DasHuhn]

I found out at shortly before my first period class - The Newspaper instructer ran to my history class to tell my teacher what happend. He then turned on NPR and we listend to it, while we did normal studies. everyone in that fucking school got to sit back and relax all day, not do any 'real' studies, except for the 4 classes i took. "Theres no use in learning what's happening now - at least, not in comparison to learning how synthetically divide or about ww2!" Sophmore in HS.

[MeanPatrick]

I actually woke up just as it happened. From a nightmare no less.

[killerfluffy]

I was sitting in AP European History, writing an dbq on Frederick the Great. I remember I was looking forward to taking this artsy chick named Claire to the Ft. Lauderdale Institue of Contemporary Art, it was an early release day. So my head was full of thoughts of Prussian rulers and cute girls. I remember another teacher came into the room looking really concerned and walked up to Mrs. Roberts and said something to her. Roberts is an old woman, born in the 40's and I remember she just looked shocked, she went and turned on the TV.

It showed the first tower smoking and the second tower still intact. The second plane hadn't hit yet. There was no sound because other people were still writing their papers. People finished up pretty quickly.

We put the volume on and listened, I had been thinking someone had hit the tower with a missile, bu that just didn't make sense. Then I remember seeing what I thought was a helicopter behind the South Tower. I figured that made sense, and then bomb. The middle of the building looked like it exploded. The feed was live, and the broadcaster seemed stunned "A plane just crashed into the South Tower." It was a live feed, they hadn't edit it yet. You saw stuff falling, things falling and it wasn't shiny, it wasn't paper. I had a sickening realization, it was people.

We watched and listened, in shocked fascination, as the anchor related more information to us. The bell rang.

I went to AP Lit and the TV was on. The teacher left it on, but muted it and continued with the lesson. No one really paid attention, at least I didn't, I kept looking at the screen. I got yelled at for it, I started paying attention. I looked up a few moments later and there was this cloud covering everything on the screen. It panned up and there was only one tower left. My friend Bilmes says, "Oh my god, my aunt is in there." and runs out of the room. The teacher gives up trying to teach and puts the sound on.

The bell rings.

I walk into AP Physics and the teacher is just sitting there watching the news. As maccabre as it was, he used it as a lesson to explain something we had been studying. He's in the middle of a sentence when the second tower starts to fall. He trails off and watches with the rest of us. There's no more teaching that day.

The bell rings.

Classses are done Claire and I are driving around. The roads are empty, FICA is closed. We see a movie, we're the only people there.

I get home and I turn on the news and start watching. I did my homework sitting at the living room table listening to the news, the latest reports. I did it the next day, and so on and so fourth. I heard references to so many things I had never heard of before. I started reading about US policy, the middle east, foriegn policy, Iran, the Shah and Kermit Roosevelt, Sunnis, Shi'ites and Sufis.

9/11 changed the way I looked at the world.

[Captain Colon]

Interesting how many people's lives were seriously changed by something that didn't really affect them all that much...I mean before all this homeland security stuff that affects everyone, just people's outlooks on things and whatever. I can't really say I felt any differently after seeing it, I don't know why stuff doesn't faze me and it bothers me sometimes. Mostly in a "i wonder why that is" way but sometimes in the "why am i weird? :(" way. It's easy to think that everyone else is overreacting, but are they really overreacting when I'm the only one who isn't?

[Steadman]

Sitting in class staring at a girl who would turn out to be my future girlfriend

[Guinea Pig]

I was a senior in college and I was getting ready for my tuesday morning class (Comparative Politcs: Europe). One of the guys on my floor knocked on my door (I was the RA) and said that a plane hit the WTC. I at first thought it was a tragic accident, kind of like when that B-25 hit the Empire State Building back in 1945. I realized it was no accident when I was watching CNN on my TV tuner card and caught the second plane hitting.

[Noirceur]

So I'm curious, where were you when the towers fell, or when you heard about the attacks?
French class.

[Psyche]

i was asleep. i had had a dream the night before about a plane crash, a building falling, and lots of people dying, so when my mom kept waking me up to tell me what was going on i thought i had just told her my dream.

[Toastar]

I was sitting in math class first year of high school. They started broadcasting what happened over the PA and my teachers like "BACK TO WORK YA SCALLYWAGS"

Then I went home at lunch for the day

[proudinfidel117]

came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth, walked into the living room and it was on tv. just after the first tower fell i think. dad thought they were doing some CG thing for a movie. went to school and it was half work/ half discussion of what happened.

[MGCeilidh]

I was driving home from work after coming down with a stomach bug, turned the radio on and Mr Stern was talking about planes flying into buildings, attacks etc. My first thought was that he was doing an Orson Welles but i had the gradually dawning realisation that it couldn't work in todays world of cellphones and internet...

That morning I had dropped my wife off at the airport to fly down to D.C for some training, according to her original plans, the ones I was aware of she would have flown to boston first and then down. They actually got a direct flight and were in the capitol building when "wild eyed cops burst in through a door in the wall we didn't even know was there and yelled "run for your lives" so we did." as my wife has recounted on occasion...

So had a few hours nervousness before my wifes office got word that they were safe...

[Polish Hill]

I was a freshman in high school during my second period math class. We were only a few weeks into the school year. I went to the same high school that Maddog did and I guess that whole don't tell the kids was in effect but almost all my teachers mentioned it.

So it must have just happened before the class switch because he came in late and told us and I had no idea how to take it. I don't know I don't think I had any real perspective at the time about what it meant to the country and our future. All I remember was later we went outside during gym and that teacher kind of gave a speech and it was weird just looking around at the sky worrying that we might see a plane and if we did what that could mean.

I think I'm glad I was a little bit too naive about the whole matter though because I think a lot of people were just scared that whole year. Rightfully so I suppose but living in fear does not seem like a thing anyone wants to do.

[Daywalker]

I was walking through the hall in school inbetwwen classes and heard someone saying a plane hit a building in NYC. Watched the news in class, saw the towers come down on TV. Activities after school cancled.

I remember some girl saying "OMG THEY MIGHT BOMB US!!" or something to that effect. Mind you this is a small farm town west of Rochester, so even if they did hit Rochester, we would be well out of the danger zone. I wanted to rip into her for being stupid, but I didn't.


If anyone watches Rescue Me. Theres a part where the Lt. goes to some counseling for people with PTSD from 9/11. All these people are going around the circle going "Oh noes I can't sleep 9/11 was so bad." So he asks where everyone was, some were in the city but not in Manhattan and some where traveling. So he goes off on all of them for being big pussies. Thats kind of how I feel sometimes, like some people go over the top with it.

**not accusing anyone here of that***


Along the same lines, my forays into Dingerland as a volly FF has led to some annoyance, as these people get GIANT murals on their trucks saying "9/11 NEVAR 4GET!!!!" The best was a few of us were talking about a new FD's truck with a big memorial mural on it, and one guy says "O, how many people did they have at the towers?" Which I thought was hilarious, sense these people go ape hit memorializing something. Now I support having 9/11 stuff on a fire truck, but not giant ass murals if your FD had no connection to it besides being in the fire service. We have relatively small stickers on all of our trucks for it, but that are by no means big. Maybe 7" by 7" on a large fire truck.

[DunNa]

I was in ROTC, and we were doing our "morning shit" which basicly ment the class leader would be giving out various paper work and abit of discussion of current events (about the first 20-30minutes of each class was like that). Some time during this the first tower was hit and we took a break to see watch the news, I don't remember what channel but generally it was fox or cnn depending which instructor was turning it on :P

While all this was going on and they kept showing replays and what not of the shit happening, most of us were discussing "who done it" and I made a joyious comment of something like "Elvis came back and did it" and had some guy flip out on me since he was sure it was the chinese (as a nation) declaring war.

[pk!]

I was at work (I am a telecoms engineeer), and it was a busy day. Management wouldn't let us put the news on the overhead screens so the only information we had was from the web and, ironically, from people calling us to find out what was going on. I performed my duties as an operative, and declined the offer of overtime.

Then I went to Waitrose and bought some food.

[[Political] Slayer]

8th grade history class D:

[Cloneboy]

Bus stop.
Friend: "Hey, planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
Me: "Wow. Shit."

[Sibby]

Shit... I was only in the 6th grade. I forgot how long ago it was. Weird shit.
I remember being ready to walk to school, walking out with my backpack over my shoulder. I remember looking out the sliding glass door... It was early, there was still some humidity on the glass. For some reason, I remember my mother being on the couch - but she insists she'd just come home from work and was in the kitchen. I remember seeing the news, asking her what was going on. People were still confused, not sure what was going on. My father lives in New York City - in fact, when I was really young, I grew up not too far from the World Trade Center. In fact, we apparently visited there rather frequently. I honestly can't remember at all. But none the less, I was concerned about my father's safety. I still don't know where he was during September 11th. I think he might've claimed that he was helping people get away from the site as it was going down, but I don't think that's true, and I may very well be forgetting. I remember, though, that I quickly assumed it was an attack - I didn't know who, but I was pretty quick to assume it wasn't an accident. Not claiming clairvoyance, I'm just always quick to jump to conclusions.
I remember walking to school. I remember the sky was a sort of lightish orange. Anyways, when I got to school, I started telling my friends a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Nobody really took me seriously, until in 1st period the school PA lady came on and announced what had happened, a plane had hit the World Trade Center, that nobody was sure what was going on, etcetera etcera. Thats when everybody realized something was seriously going down. Nobody knew yet that there was a second plane, third, or fourth plane - though this of course changed as the news started to develope.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur.
Weird the things you remember and the stuff you forget.

[BlindSite]

Woke up and was eating breakfast when I heard it had happened, the second tower fell I think about 11am.

[BS87]

I was in math class and one teacher walked in and said to my math teacher "Did you hear what happened?" and he said "yeah its crazy" and then we were back to trig. Then 2 classes later we watched in on the tv in gym for like 5 minutes and then we went outside to soccer. Everyone was like "oh that sucks HAI SOCCER! YEAY!" and i was trying to explain to them that thousands of people just died... I was worried cause my Uncle is in the FDNY, my other uncle is deptuy inspector in the bronx, and my aunt WORKED in the WTC but she was out on business for the day... In DC which was hit next =/

[GrosPoisson]

I had just poured myself some cereal and turned on the ABC morning news, like I did any other day. Seeing the wreckage of large skyscrapers is a weird thing to see first thing in the morning, and I really didn't understand what the hell was going on at first. I thought there was some kind of massive structural fault until they mentioned planes hit, and then I was wondering how bad an airline pilot would have to screw up to do something like hit a skyscraper. The second tower fell while I was watching, and I recall that Peter Jennings' voice sounded like it was trembling as it went down. I still remember that because it seemed to be the first time I can remember a newscaster actually sounding like a human being rather than someone playing a scripted, homogenized role on television.

After that, I went to school and tried to make sense of what was going on. My math teacher didn't try to teach at all, he just turned on the television and told us to watch carefully because this was something that would change everything. My French teacher tried to make some sense of it by letting us discuss it amongst ourselves, but that just pissed me off because I had to listen to a bunch of idiots come up with conspiracy theories that weren't even all that good. Someone said something about bombing the Middle East, Israel specifically. Yeah, good job, stupid. My Euro History AP and chemistry teachers didn't have us watch anything and made us do work instead. My English teacher had us watch the news, but didn't say all that much, he just looked kind of sad. He had mentioned he had relatives and friends who lived in Israel, so I guess it was because something he associated with happening over there had reached this country's shores as well.

My reaction to the whole thing was kind of weird. I don't want to say I felt excited because that implies I felt good about the whole matter, but I did feel a lot more energetic that day. I guess it was in preparation for any other crazy shit happening as I only live about an hour and a half from Los Angeles, and I didn't want to be one of the screaming, panicking tards that I was sure most people would turn into if anything were to go down. I didn't really factor in the fact that thousands of people died until later, so the shock and revulsion was held off until later that night. Even then, it was still muted. I didn't really feel angry or sad; I didn't really feel anything besides disgust that so many people died. After that, I remember watching the evening news for hours for a whole week kind of numbly, trying to process everything.

Like some others of you have mentioned, I did a lot of reading after that, and paid a lot more attention to international developments. Hell, I guess my choice to major in political science/international relations has something to do with all this. I have this feeling deep down in my gut that I need to try and help with things in some small way, and that I wouldn't really be able to do anything else with a clear conscience.

[Scraps]

In the city.

[Shadow]

Just getting in to bed to watch Third Watch on the TV. I tuned in and saw this news story, thinking it was part of a movie until I realised it had the whole [LIVE] thing happening and it was on all channels. At first, I thought it may have been just a horrible accident, then I watched the second plane fly into the other tower. My heart sank. I couldn't believe that such a thing was happening. Then I got angry. I realised that this was a coordinated attack against friends of Australia.

I was up until 3:00am that night, I went to sleep and then had nightmares of shit like that happening here, in Melbourne. I got to the base the next day, SECPOL and the Reserve unit on the base I was posted to were piqueting the gate, and the alert status was as high as I had ever seen it. And then some idiot decided it was the day to drive up with bombs that were WWII-era his had found on the old airfield nearby and tell us he had them. Then we had to evacuate the area, only to find out they were practice powder bombs.

[SOCOM-DELTA]

I had just finished my second period class, and was about two steps on the door when my friend William darts out the door and yells "they dropped a bomb on the world trade center!"

Me: "What? Who dropped a bomb?"
William: "I don't know! It's on the news; they bombed the world trade center."
Me: "Nobody could have bombed the world trade center." So I went inside to watch the TV for a few minutes, then went on to my next class.

Discussions ensued all day. We all were half doing schoolwork, half discussing the tragedy. My English teacher, and my Health & Fitness instructor, took a good deal of time at the beginning of class (like 15-20 mins or so) to let us say what was on our minds, and it was a mix of discussion & lessons from there.

School didn't really return to some semblance of normality until about two days thereafter.

Whoever said that 9/11 changed their view on the world earlier in this thread was a f***ing genius. D:

i was asleep. i had had a dream the night before about a plane crash, a building falling, and lots of people dying, so when my mom kept waking me up to tell me what was going on i thought i had just told her my dream.

holy f***

[Scraps]

Before 9/11 I wanted to go be an aeronautical engineer. Now I want to "blow shit up" in the Army.

[Shadow]

I can safely say that my life has changed dramatically since 11/09/01.

I'm getting myself ready to transfer to the Army as a Commando so I have greater chances at deployment, a pay raise and get into the field I truly want to get in to - Counter-Terrorism. Maybe I'll get to meet some of you guys.

[Chris R]

I was in math class in 8th grade when numerous notes started coming in from the office to get kids out of class. After about the 5th one we started to wonder (and started placing bets on who would be next). When lunch came there were a decent amount of rumors flying around. The principal had come on to say that there had been explosions in DC and NYC. Someone said that my english teacher had said in another class that planes had been involved. I didn't believe that. One girl I knew was upset because her dad commuted to DC for work. (We were only 50 miles from DC)

Didn't find out what actually happened until 8th period. The students who lived on base couldn't get back home because they shut down the base to anyone coming in. Mostly because the base my mom was stationed at was USAMRID, the Army's research lab on all sorts of dangerous chemicals and bugs. Several hours later (or the next day, can't remember) the base was reopened with Bradly parked near the entrance with it's gun facing right towards the road. The road now had all these weird concrete barriers to keep someone from being able to make a straight shot in and blow past the gate. Those barriers are still there. Now all cars are also checked.

I didn't see the images until I got home. Since the station I listened to was out of DC they were just playing news reports constantly for about the next 12 hours. Watching it again on my TV when I got down to my basement/room to get on the computer transformed my original emotions of pure shock to anger. It pissed me off that people were suffering like that for no good reason. I got on to check a forum I was active in at the time. There were many sections to this forum, it had a hell of a lot of members. In each section there was a different "What the hell is going on?" thread. It was interesting reading the posts of people as the initial news reports came in. The first reports that the capital had been hit. So on and so forth.

[Psyche]

holy f***

yea, i have a friend who 3 months before it happened dreamt about it (knew exact flight numbers and everything) from the POV as a passenger on the planes.

[Mirsky]

In the city.

I was too for a while. I had actually walked through the Path station in the northern tower at about 7:30am on my way to work. I took the train up to White Plains (where my office is) at 7:50am and was there when the first plane hit.

Our apartment was in Jersey City right on the water opposite the WFC and WTC. My 3 month pregnant wife called me up say that the towers were on fire. I told her to take some pictures never thinking that they would collapse like that, I might try and dig them out sometime soon.

In the end I couldn't make it back from White Plains that evening so I stayed with my boss until the next day and managed to get back home the next evening.

For about a week or so after the incident NYC was the weirdest place, everyone was actually being nice to each other and total strangers were having conversations. After living through that I can sorta imagine how people felt after the blitz. I lost a number of friends and colleagues that day but an even greater number survived and their tales will raise the hair on your neck.

I don't think any of us were closer than Killtek who's office was in one of the towers on a lower floor. Since he doesn't post (maybe even read here) anymore I don't think he mind me saying that he was at his desk when it hit, the security people were telling people to stay inside away from the windows but he decided to bug out when he started to see pieces of the building fall past the window.

[Scraps]

I was too for a while. I had actually walked through the Path station in the northern tower at about 7:30am on my way to work. I took the train up to White Plains (where my office is) at 7:50am and was there when the first plane hit.

Our apartment was in Jersey City right on the water opposite the WFC and WTC. My 3 month pregnant wife called me up say that the towers were on fire. I told her to take some pictures never thinking that they would collapse like that, I might try and dig them out sometime soon.

In the end I couldn't make it back from White Plains that evening so I stayed with my boss until the next day and managed to get back home the next evening.

For about a week or so after the incident NYC was the weirdest place, everyone was actually being nice to each other and total strangers were having conversations. After living through that I can sorta imagine how people felt after the blitz. I lost a number of friends and colleagues that day but an even greater number survived and their tales will raise the hair on your neck.

I don't think any of us were closer than Killtek who's office was in one of the towers on a lower floor. Since he doesn't post (maybe even read here) anymore I don't think he mind me saying that he was at his desk when it hit, the security people were telling people to stay inside away from the windows but he decided to bug out when he started to see pieces of the building fall past the window.
Wow. I may post a story if I can come to do it.

[Daywalker]

My Dad was going to go down there to help in the rescue effort after the collapse. I don't know if Rochester was actually considering sending people down, or if it was just the firefighters talking about it. He didn't go, I don't know if they ever did send anyone down.


Now that I hear about all the shit happening to these guys because they didn't have the proper protection while digging through the rubble, I'm glad he didn't go.

[StandingCow]

I was just waking up, I logged onto the FA forums and saw mention of it, said holy shit turned on the TV and there it was.

Our first worry was killtek, as mirsky said, because we knew he worked there.

[Dr Boners]

Grade 8, lunch recess, buddy comes from his house and says the WTC was gone. Thinking he was bullshitting us, we went along with our day, in last period the VP comes on the intercom and says that all after school activities and detentions were cancelled "in response to today's events", it still hadn't hit me, and when he came to our class to talk to our teacher I asked "Is this about new york?" He nodded and started crying and ran out of the room.
I got home at about 4, and then it hit me, I was watching the news with my sister and we both started crying.
I threw up and called my parents, making sure they were okay.
A few of my firends weren't phased at all, which still makes me sick to this day.

[redgun]

i was driving home from dresden/germany with my family. we were stopping at a motorway service area and we immedialy knew that something was going on when we entered the restaurant.everybody was just sitting there and starring in disbelief at the TV.

[tombanius]

I was sitting at home and by chance had BBC world on, i tuned in before the second tower was hit. My thoughts on the issue aside from the "Oh what the <cursewords>" were very soon that who ever did this planned it very well since every camera would be turned on the towers when the second plane went in, and it would immetiadly make it clear it wasn't an accident.

[Airborne506]

This is gonna sound ridiculously creepy. I woke up that morning, I was starting 8th grade, but my teachers were on strike so I got like an extra week or so of summer. Hence I was off on 9/11. I woke up, not even turned on a tv, went right to the comp and played Red Alert 2. It was the mission where you need to capture a oil derrick or something by the WTC. I did the mission and blew up the towers. After that I stopped playing and went on DoD boards and saw something about a second tower falling and that bush better declare war. I went to turn on CNN and there it was. My mom called me a little bit after to make sure I was ok. It was a crazy day, we all just kinda sat in silence.

[neko]

I was playing FA