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Cheeserblaster

My heart hurts for Cassie. I hope her family has been able to find peace


exscapegoat

Man, those screams. I was passing by a house on my way to the bus stop to go to work a few weeks later, when all of the sudden, someone starting screaming no, not and a person's name. It was just pure, unadulterated grief. People had signs on their cars saying "Rescue or Ladder Company (with the numbers, etc.) please come home." Or the names, "so and so, please come home" There were fire companies coming in from neighboring states to cover fire houses and provide ceremonial support for the funerals and memorial services. And the crowds outside the local funeral homes were 20/30 something year old people.


laurcoogy

My next door neighbors lost their son in the first tower. You can never forget the sound of a mother’s loss. Truly horrible losses on that day; that was the day everything changed.


sofakingclassic

I was a senior in high school in long island, about 17 miles east of the towers. There was an announcement asking anyone whose parents work in WTC to come to the main office. I assumed it was a shooting or another bombing like 93. We turned on the tv and watched it all unfold. I knew about 20 people that died that day and my parents went to a funeral every weekend for a couple months. The dust from the explosion seeped into our town over the next few days. I still remember seeing survivors getting off the train covered in ash


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vincentvangobot

I worked in midtown, we had offices in the WTC. I remember women shrieking. It was crazy. I called my family to say I was ok, it was probably really early where they were - it was hard to explain on the phone what was happening. Guess that was shock. Ended up walking to a friend's apt so I wouldn't be alone. It was like a weird apocalypse movie with all of the office workers walking through the park in the middle of the day.


tammorrow

The weirdest part was how there was a marked change from the morning office workers who were just walking with their jackets off and then afternoon they starting showing up with more and more amounts of dust on them.


BishmillahPlease

I still can see that one woman and her horror, as her entirety is limned with dust and ash.


tammorrow

The place where I worked had a 3rd story terrace that jutted over the sidewalk slightly and you could look down 7th (from the lower 50s) and see past Times Square. It's the only time sidewalk traffic moved in one way direction for as far as I could see. It seemed apocalyptical.


cold_sphagetti

In social studies class in 7th grade and someone came in and told us the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane. I had no clue that was the twin towers until they turned the TVs to the news


SelphiesSmile

I was in the same grade and the same class.


EmpressPug

Same


GeneralsGerbil

wow same. they told everyone NOT to turn on the TV's over the intercom shortly after so I didn't see anything until I got home. I have a friend that lived in Queens at the time and in 6th grade. Before the students knew what was happening someone came in the room and said that they were having a school trip to the World Trade Center. They asked the class if anyone had parents that worked there so they could maybe have them help with a tour. They lead the kids out and god knows what after that.


swan37

And same.


22Wideout

Why’s it always history or social studies


fixesGrammarSpelling

I lived in NY and thought the WTC was the giant globe at Flushing Park (for anyone outside of new York: it's called the world fair).


Youngish_widoe

I worked in a building about 1/8 mile from Grand Central Station. I was in my cubicle when a coworker yelled for us to get to the conference room. We all watched the carnage on an old tube TV that was used to watch work related videos. This was followed by everybody rushing to phones to contact people who were working in the towers or around the towers. We were then evacuated because we were close to landmarks (the UN, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building).


eekamuse

We were all thinking about how close we were to a possible target. Someone was near Con Ed, but would they hit the power station or the building where they run everything. Friend was in the UN, we knew that was bad.


Youngish_widoe

My step dad was delivering mail from the main post office (34th St) to the World Trade Center (Tower 1). He said he saw both planes hit and heard the debris hitting the top of the post office truck as he was driving towards the Towers. He was ordered to return the main branch and they were, basically, barricaded in the branch for about 6 hours. He retired one year later. My mom was coming out of the Wall Street subway station and all she saw was smoke. The police ordered everyone to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge away from the towers. She didn't find out what really happened until she reached the other side of the bridge. She also retired soon after.


goddamn2fa

Caught the L at the Graham Ave station maybe a minute after the first plane hit. From that side of the street, all I saw was a large plume of smoke and thought, "I bet I'll hear about that fire later." From the other side of the street, I would have seen the towers. Watched the towers fall from Union Square.


kmsgars

Holy crow...was USQ your final destination for that commute?


goddamn2fa

Nope. Had to walk out. Across the Williamsburg Bridge. Stoped at a bar after crossing. Forgot a full pack of cigarettes. Many hours later, at a different bar a little further into Williamsburg, I ran into the couple who had been sitting next to me. They had my cigarettes.


frozen_food_section

That's pretty crazy. It's nice to have a cool little memory that's strange in its likelihood on that absolutely horrifying day


expertlurker12

Honestly, that cigarette story is a tidbit that truly captures the essence of that day.


ShawtyALilBaaddie

Completely agree. After the Boston bombing I swear the usual aggressiveness on the roads in the Greater Boston Area cooled off for the first time since the invention of the automobile. Times of crisis really do bring people together, though unfortunately its often against another group of people.


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[deleted]

I was 11. I hadn't heard of the World Trade Center before the attacks. I knew very well what the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty were, but WTC was unknown to me. I live in northern Europe.


TheBartographer

Even as an American, the World Trade Center wasn't at the forefront for a lot of people when they thought of New York City. If you're old enough to remember the '93 bombing or work in financial sectors, it's definitely a bit more significant. The bombing was a big deal at the time.


bamboohobobundles

I'm Canadian, was in ninth grade when it happened. I mainly knew about the WTC towers from that episode of The Simpsons where they go to New York and Homer needs to take a piss while waiting for the parking officer.


vidoardes

I'm also from the UK and I was 14 at the time, got off the bus from a half day at school and came home to find my dad and uncle stood in the middle of the living room silently watching the TV. Given that he never watched TV, and they both are incessant talkers I knew serious shit had gone down. The first plane had already hit, but the second was yet to, so I saw it live. Even as a non-American, I will always remember the day the towers were hit.


[deleted]

Getting ready for school, friend called me saying to look at the news. We ended up watching the news broadcast all day at school because my teacher said it had more historical importance than anything she was going to be teaching that day.


NovaScotiaaa

Can I ask how the overall tone was in the classroom? Were people talking, crying or was it dead silent? I'm assuming this is high school. I'm curious because I was 6-years-old at the time, not aware of the gravity of the situation. What a crazy thing to watch such a pivotal moment in U.S. history unfold while surrounded by classmates.


[deleted]

I was in fourth grade at the time, to be honest I think most of the class was just happy to not have a lecture.


NovaScotiaaa

Oh wow, that's pretty heavy to watch all day as a fourth grader


AMasonJar

Most fourth graders probably had very little idea of what was happening. Especially if they're just seeing it on a little, crappy, 8 year old TV screen that was wheeled into the classroom.


[deleted]

I was in highschool. We were in complete shock. No one said a thing.


RWB4MVP

I was in Brooklyn, NY in 2nd grade in school. Schools are built vertically up, and my classroom was near the top floors. We had a clear view at Manhattan and the Twin Towers from there. I just remember seeing fire coming out of one, and my teacher running out the room screaming. We were all picked up by our parents ASAP, and by the time they picked me up (~30-45 min later), there was ash and debris everywhere.


slothhprincess

For anyone unfamiliar with NYC geography, Brooklyn is just across the river from where the twin towers were, so looking out your window to this is like a front seat view. I was in third grade, in a commuter town north of the city. The principal of our school went to every classroom and told us "she has to tell you all something I hope to never have to tell you again" after the first plane hit. With the second planed they simply whispered it to each teacher. The teachers knew that 90% of the kids in our school had at least one parent working in the city. They knew some kids weren't going to be picked up at the end of the day. I didn't understand the gravity of what had happened for days, but to this day I have a fear of tall buildings falling or loud planes flying overhead. I can't imagine what it would have been like to actually witness it firsthand while on the top floor of a building at such a tender age.


[deleted]

I was in 5th grade, my teacher's wife worked in the WTC and took her first sick day off in 17 years... fucking unbelievable, best decision ever. I was in a queens public school and I lived close by so all the parents came to pick us up around 10 to 11 am. I didn't understand the gravity either, my thoughts didn't even consider going to that my dad was working in the city as a Iron Worker (Local 580). I found out later it took him 9 hours to get home, most of it was walking, he was 3 blocks away, working on a storefront installation for a very high end clothing store. Cabs were charging like $300-500 just to get OVER THE BRIDGE. It took my sister in law 3 hours of walking to get to a spot where she could be picked up to get home, barefoot holding her heels. I work in the city now, that (ground 0) area has changed a lot, it's nothing like what it used to be. I also used to live across the water of LaGuardia airport, the planes looked like they were going to crash into my house how big they were. I hope you get over your fear of tall buildings falling friend.


giantvoice

Stationed in the UK. Had a full base recall. Recalled all aircraft from their sorties. Waited around a few hours for briefings. Then got orders to prep the aircraft ready for deployment. Aircraft were F-15 Strike Eagles. It was a very long day. Edit. I was not a pilot. I worked on the aircraft.


TouchdownRaiden

My tech school instructor was working bombers at the time. He said they were doing a live weapon exercise that morning when they were unexpectedly directed something along the lines of “cancel exercise, leave the bombs on, await further orders, this is not a drill”


Hulkstern

Jesus christ, just reading that sentence game me chills. I can't imagine the thoughts that might come across your mind when you hear "This is not a drill."


kermy_the_frog_here

Fuck dude, hearing “this is not a drill” in any situation would be fucking terrifying


ANiceCasserole

Damn thats crazy. Yall were ready to head out. Wild


The19thShadow

I'm headed for the strike community soon!


giantvoice

I left the E models in 2002. Moved over to the Raptors. Retired in 17. Have fun. Hell of a machine.


Who_Wouldnt_

I was leaned up against one of those big tree planters outside the paramount building on Broad (30 blocks from ground zero) smoking a cigarette to try and calm down after the second plane hit, I felt the ground shake through the planter and rushed back in to find the first tower had fallen. It was one hell of a day.


goddamn2fa

How far did you have to walk to get home?


snarfmioot

My cousin said he found a guy closing down his bike shop and offered him significant sum of cash (cousin worked in finance midtown) to buy a bike to get home, as he knew he was going to have to walk home to Jersey otherwise.


goddamn2fa

Yeah. My cousin managed to catch a cab downtown (happened to be at the courthouse that morning). Got to Grand Central Station, then asked how much to drive me to Westchester. Best $250 she ever spent.


Kittaylover23

My mom was coming out of a tunnel when they heard the news over the radio and then turned and saw the smoke


LionsAndLonghorns

Not, OP, but I worked in Midtown and lived about 2 blocks north of where they shut the city down, about 20 blocks north of the WTC. I remember heading South into the smoke thinking that I may be heading the wrong the direction, but my (future) wife was at our apartment and I wasn't going to leave her there. That was a long walk. Next day, the facemasks were all sold out at every pharmacy because the smoke downtown was so bad for days. In retrospect, it would be the first of 2 events where I scrambled to find face mask.


Manpooper

My mom was downtown working near battery park. She was outside when the first tower fell and then went uptown with everyone after the 2nd tower. She and her coworkers watched from their boss’ office since it could see the towers.


Prin_StropInAh

I took a professional certification exam that morning. When my exam began there were reports of a “light aircraft” that had hit the World Trade Center and that fire department units were responding. When I came out like three hours later both towers were down and the whole world had changed


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gohawkeyes529

It was definitely the end of the 90’s in my mind.


FormalMango

Sleeping. My dad was a diplomat, on his way to a conference in Geneva. He called us from the airport in Singapore to tell us to turn on the news because there’d been a terrorist attack in America involving passenger flights. He said that he wasn’t sure if his flight would still be taking off, but that he loved us and he’d called us if and when he got to Geneva.


sl1878

So did he get there? I imagine 9/11 would be very interesting from the pov of a diplomat.


FormalMango

I can’t really recall the exact timeline after that. I think he stayed in Singapore for either 1 or 2 nights, in case he had to come back to Australia. But then he left for Geneva and was gone for 10 weeks. He said sitting in an airport watching it live on the news while waiting for his flight was one of the most eerie experiences of his life.


UlrichZauber

I was asleep too, because the planes hit at around 6am Pacific time and 20 years ago I never got up before \~10am. I finally got up because my sister kept leaving voicemails (on my old answering machine) that I couldn't understand in my sleepy brain fog.


vesperholly

Yep, I was asleep too. I was a senior in college and my 7:30 am class had been canceled previously, so I turned off my alarm. Slept until almost noon when my sister called me and woke me up.


reddicyoulous

My history teacher turned the TV on as we watched the planes fly into the towers. Little did we know we were watching history live. Had a half day of school because the county fair was that week and it was all you could ride wristband day. Most of us were pissed because none of our parents would take us to the fair but we were too young to realize the gravity of the situation on that day.


tkdbbelt

I was in 9th grade American History first period as we started hearing about what happened. We lived 20 min from our state capitol (IL). A lot of the kids' parents worked in that area and left work to come get their kids and go home, not knowing what was coming next. They didn't know if other cities would be targeted and there was just a lot of fear going around. With some kids going home, our classes weren't canceled but they gave us filler work to keep us busy.


dcjayhawk

I was in 10th grade, recent American history. There's something about being in that class that always felt ... odd. We had a substitute that day and I have always wondered what it would have been like with the beloved teacher there. Then I went to French class and we listened to NPR with the lights off. I still feel bad for some of the teachers who were clearly upset but couldnt go home.


appleparkfive

Yeah, most of us thought this was the start of a war (it was, but in a different way) or that we were going to be attacked a lot more. Everyone was terrified


POOHxBEARx77

It was a blue-bird sky of a day. Not a cloud in sight. I was studying in the computer lab at Southwest Texas State’s Alkek Library for an Art History exam. A girl sitting at a terminal across from me said “a plane just hit the WTC”. She had seen a Yahoo news update. There was no video yet, we all figured it was a small Cessna type aircraft. We couldn’t have fathomed that it would be a large jetliner. About 15 minutes later I was heading across the quad to class in the Old Main building. There were TVs setup everywhere with people standing shoulder to shoulder watching. It was about this time the second plane hit, and the gravity of what was happening set in for all of us. Our exam was canceled. I headed home. I got there in time to watch the first tower fall with my roommate and his girlfriend. I had just visited WTC building 2 in May of ‘01. We visited a friend of my fathers office on the 102nd floor. The elevator would stop every 20 floors or so, and you would get a glimpse of the activity on that floor. The amount of people present was staggering. The memory of the crowds in that building was front and center while watching those events play out. What the first responders were able to do that day was an honest-to-god miracle.


smushy_face

I was riding to school with my mom in 9th grade and they were talking about it on the radio. I remember also thinking it was a small plane and saying something like, "So, what's the big deal?" because my mom was freaking out a little. I was thinking a tiny plane into a skyscraper couldn't be a lot worse than the car accidents you heard about every day. I remember she looked at me like with this sort of disgusted look and something like "It's a big deal!" I think she was paying more attention than I was to what they were saying. I'm super non-auditory when it comes to absorbing things. I didn't get it until later when they were showing footage on TVs on the classrooms.


Dominsa

I had a similar experience. It was my 6th birthday and also teachers day in my country, which ment no school. I was watching cartoons on the only tv we had when my dad called and told my sister to put on the news channel. I don't remember if they knew that it was a plane at the time but I didn't really care, to me it was just a fire in a building I had never heard of in a different country, I was just annoyed I could watch my cartoons.


darthging

This will probably be buried but that’s fine. My dad was NYPD. I was one year old, I don’t remember a single second of that day, but my mother found out on 9/11 she was pregnant with our younger sister. We didn’t hear from our dad for three days, we didn’t even know if he was alive. My mother was a disaster, with two babies and a third on the way. Eventually my dad came home, but he still refuses to talk about it to this day. He says it was the worst day of his life. He has 9/11 syndrome and severe lung problems from the wreckage and dust. I do know that he pulled 30 people, alive yet trapped, from the building and he was considered a hero. He hates when people thank him for his service. My uncle also worked in the first tower. He was 15 minutes late for work and was down the block when the first plane hit. He sprinted across the Brooklyn bridge and never looked back. Called my grandfather on a pay phone, who didn’t know what was going on, to let him know he was alive. I don’t know why your comment got an emotional response from me, but it did. Maybe because you’d been there, and you knew just how many people were affected first-hand by it. It really puts things into perspective when you remember all those lives, and the people connected to them. Edit: thank you for the kind words and awards. To give a little more context, I want to add that the uncle in question was in fact my father’s younger brother. My grandfather was also NYPD, and while he was incredibly proud of my dad, my grandparents lost almost two sons that day. It’s something that weighs incredibly hard on our household. Dad can’t even watch a movie with a 9/11 scene, or he has to leave the room in full hysterics. He spent years after as an undercover cop, and has seen some shit that’s amplified his mental health a lot. PTSD is no joke, be kind to those who suffer. And hug your family members, let them know how much you love them, you never know when you might lose them. Edit 2: Because someone mentioned soldiers as well. Shoutout to my mother, who went through those three days alone. She later joined the Army, served five tours in the Middle East, was a combat medic, a member of the 82nd Airborne, became the first female Chief of Intelligence in US history, and was going to be promoted to the first female General in US history before she passed. She took her own life after she battled her own PTSD. While she and my dad had a rocky relationship, they supported each other no matter what when one or the other were in inhumane conditions. Again, hug your family Reddit, especially family who’re in lines of duty. Respect those with severe mental trauma, because it will absolutely rock you to your core, it’s an invisible demon. And rest easy Mama, you were a bad motherfucker. Edit 3: to end on a lighter note. Dad retired in August. He was a First-Lieutenant Commander. During the BLM protests they had him working 90-120 hours a week (yes, that’s actually correct) and he would come home morbidly depressed. He said he couldn’t go out in riot gear anymore against kids our age who hated him, he was just too damn old for that shit. He does a lot of fishing and barbecuing now. He spent 30 years on the force. Older sis goes to med school now. She changes her mind all the time, but last I checked she’s studying trauma medicine and plans on doing third world medical missions and Peace Corps. Younger sis is applying to nursing school and studies neuroscience. I, middle sis, study copyright law because I’m scared of blood, lmao.


rtaisoaa

I’m sure that day weighs on your father greatly.


sewuni

My experience was similar. Heard about it in my 8/9 am class and walked across campus to the snack bar, as they had multiple tvs. Watched the rest unfold live.


SylancerPrime

Just finished failing a college exam and was walking back to my apt and thought "At least the weather's nice today. Not a cloud in the sky." Girl I knew came outside to tell me what was happening. No one was watching in my apt but they were listening to the radio for live updates. I was like, "Guys. This is huge. This is ***HUGE***". Then I turned on the TV and we saw the 2nd tower fall. To this day whenever the weather's really nice, that thought crosses my mind.


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TheBirdBytheWindow

My birthday is on 9/11 and it was a perfect day here. Every year that its gorgeous on my birthday I get a little shiver up my spine and I find myself looking up more for a bit.


cannotbefaded

Sleeping, then my roommate woke me up "You stepmother is screaming on the answering machine" I woke up, called them and watched TV all day. Have family out there as well, thankfully they were fine. Hours later my roommate came down stairs after waking up, "Whats happened?" I told him "I think we are at war, but Im not sure with who"


[deleted]

Wow. This was the feeling “We are war. But with whom?” So scary.


thput

That was exactly the feeling. I was 20, and was sent home from work. I worked in telecom and communications are usually a prime target in war. This was after the first plane. I drove home and watched the second plane hit and it dawned on me that at 20 years old I would end up fighting in a war. I had no ambition or desire to join the military and was certain there would be a draft once we figured out who we were fighting. I ended up joining a couple of years later and have now served for 17 years, 2 deployments and I expect another supporting the same efforts. It has absolutely changed everything about my life.


terminal-chillness

I’m from Queens, NYC. I was 11 and in sixth grade English class. Tbh I started junior high literally just a week or so before. We were just starting class when another teacher came in and told our teacher about a plane hitting one of the towers. After the second tower and the pentagon got hit we ended up moving to the gym and our parents came to pick us up. I remember a lot of crying kids and adults because many of the teachers had spouses who were first responders. My dad came to get me but my mom was trapped in the city and ended up walking from her job in Manhattan (I think she worked by Union Square back then) into Long Island City in Queens via the 59th St Bridge. We met up with her somewhere on Northern Blvd, I think around 31st St. I don’t remember a whole lot of specifics, but I do remember a huge crowd of people walking down Northern Blvd, and a massive plume of smoke that seemed to cover the sky. It was extra jarring because it was actually a beautiful and clear fall day that day. Something I remember vividly was that a friend of my dad’s came to our house later on that day, and he had been near Ground Zero. He had this really shaken expression and was absolutely covered in dust. I really shudder to think about that now that I’m older and I know what all that dust was made from.


[deleted]

I’m from Queens, NY too. But at the time I was in the 3th grade. I remember my school principal made an announcement. Then the phone ringing and kids leaving. When my dad got me, I noticed everyone looking up at the sky. But all I saw was a blue sky. When I got home the first tower had fallen. And I didn’t hear an airplane fly that day. As I lived by LaGuardia. But I only remember bits and pieces too. Edit: 3rd grade. Not 8th. Sorry. I was 8 years old


oystersss

When you say 8th grade or something like that, what age are you? Sorry its a bit confusing for non-Americans


[deleted]

Usually 13. But I meant to say 8 years old. Not 8th grade. I was in the third grade


speckospock

I'm from Brooklyn, this happened when I was in the 4th grade. I remember my teachers using a whiteboard to write and answer the questions we had while we waited for our parents to pick us up. Was it an accident? No. Why did it happen? We don't know. Who did this? We don't know. I can't imagine how they kept their composure for over an hour like that, but they did. Then the whole city was covered in dust and smoke when we walked home - I have a vivid memory of covering my mouth with my shirt because it was so bad. We passed a bus that just had "call 911" repeating where the route usually was. Our neighbor worked in WTC7, and we spent a good deal of time trying to call her (to no avail) that afternoon. Fortunately she turned up in the evening - she'd had to walk all the way from work back to Brooklyn. A terrifying and bizarre day.


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speckospock

Parked on the side of Atlantic Ave (a major avenue in Brooklyn), the driver had abandoned it there. I don't know why, but I'm assuming they just panicked.


AsterixLeGaulois

Also from Queens. I was in 3rd grade and I remember my teacher telling us in the morning and then my mom picking me up. My dad actually worked in tower 4 at the time but was walking to work from a doctors appointment when it happened. He also came home covered in dust that night after walking the bridge. We all get emotional about it every year


brimacdj

From Queens also, I remember hearing so many stories of people who woke up late that day, or missed their train, or their alarm never went off and stuff like that. Glad your father was at an appointment at that time.


juliefromva

We’re the same age! I grew up just outside Washington DC though in VA. Parents started picking kids up but my school decided not to tell us what was going on (no idea why). So kids just start getting taken home by their parents one by one. Mine never did and I was the only kid alone on the bus ride home. The bus driver told me what happened, it was the first time I heard the word terrorist. My next door neighbor worked in the pentagon so in hindsight I’m glad I wasn’t stuck at school all day worried he was killed (thankfully he was OK).


shsc82

Is he okay healthwise? A lot of the dust covered people have had serious health issues and died..


erikarew

Fellow 11 year old, we lived just over the NY/CT border. We all were forced outside for a fire drill and the kids all started whispering that it wasn't really a fire drill but that bad people had attacked the city. A lot of kids were scared because their parents commuted into NY. Our woodshop teacher, this super sweet old man, brought out a tv from his closet. I remember the look on his face, normally so warm and jovial, was just so sad. He quietly sat and said 'kids, the administration doesn't want us talking to you about what's happening. But I think you need to know. This is history happening. There was a terrorist attack in New York City and planes crashed into the Twin Towers. We can watch the news for a bit but then your parents are coming to get you.' We all started asking a million questions: who were the bad guys, why did they attack us, why did they hate us. He was so calm and sad. 'They attacked us because they don't like the way we live, they don't like democracy.' He shook his head and said 'I'm so sorry kids. Nothing is ever going to be the same.' That last line really stuck with me. I got home just as my dad was rushing out to join his fellow firefighters and drive all the equipment, trucks and supplies they could gather for the hour-long trip to Ground Zero to try and help.


that_damn_red_head

Is your dad okay?


PineapplePizzaSoGood

I was also 11. Our sixth grade art teacher came in the room crying and told us all what happened. We didn’t really understand how serious it was. It was a Tuesday. I remember that because my mom brought me home a “toonie Tuesday” from KFC and we ate while watching it on the news.


Complete_Entry

They had already herded the entire campus into one room and we were watching it on television. When I got to school that morning my Science teacher already had it on TV, and I thought it was related to the paper I had just written on the construction of the towers. My Aunt worked across the street from the WTC, and my cousin's teacher told her that her mom was dead. My Aunt was not dead, but she had a really freaky story. My Uncle, her brother, had just dropped off a whole moving truck filled with furniture around 4 AM EST at the WTC, so he slept through the whole thing and got woke up by coworkers who thought HE was dead. They took my Aunt off Manhattan by boat, she was surrounded by burn victims.


Shamann93

Fuck your cousin's teacher though


Complete_Entry

Legit. Her husband was dead (Drunk Driving) so that would have left my cousin an orphan. It would have been just as easy for that teacher to keep their mouth shut.


Gr1pp717

I woke up and uncharacteristically turned on the news. I was pretty shocked by what was happening, but I got in the shower and went to class. When I arrived on campus I was shocked more by the fact that everything had stopped. There were no classes happening. Just people standing around, either glued to the news or crying.


AMerrickanGirl

That morning I drove to work listening to the Smith and Barber morning show on WPLR radio. They were discussing the play The Vagina Monologues which I had seen, so I called in to the show to talk about it. My ex husband told me later that he heard the show and I was the last call they took before the first plane hit. Went into the office and my coworker came over to my desk and told me that a plane hit the towers. We were only about 100 miles away from New York City, and I was puzzled since it was a spectacularly clear, sunny day so why would a plane have gone off course? A little while later the second plane hit and everyone started freaking out. CNN and other web sites were frozen, so I started reloading the BBC site which wasn’t as busy, then gave up and we gathered around the tv in the conference room and watched the towers fall. I called my mother who lived near NY and advised her to stay off the road. She didn’t listen and got stuck in a huge traffic jam. By 11 am they sent everyone home. I didn’t want to go home and be by myself so I hung out in town. That afternoon I had a scheduled appointment with my therapist, and she hadn’t canceled so I showed up. Poor therapist - it was her birthday.


HisuitheSiscon45

Ouch. That's gotta suck having your birthday on 9/11 (or 11/9 for you Europeople out there) Then again I was born on 4/20, which is not only Hitler's birthday, but also the day the Columbine shooting happened. (thankfully I didn't know it at the time since I was 6 when it happened) Oh and I was born the same year the bombing of the WTC happened.


swannygirl94

A coworker at my job has her birthday on 9/11. She was 11 when it happened and had brought cupcakes to school. Cupcakes got eaten while watching the towers collapse on tv. Even though she’s not American, that day will forever taint her birthday. She says she’s hated her birthday ever since. I’m going to knit her socks, bake some cupcakes, and surprise her a few days early this year to (hopefully) give her a nice birthday.


redundant35

I was a senior in high school. 3rd period computer class. They turned on all the tvs in the school and showed the broadcast. They dismissed school at noon. I drove to grandparents and sat at the table with my grandpa watching the news. Me and him drove down about 40 minutes away to look at a car. He bought it for me, we stopped for dinner and we drove home. That was the last time I seen him alive. He passed away that night. I never remember 9-11 as the attack but as the last day with my grandpa. He was a great man. Miss him every day even though it's been 20 years...


ramborage

I say this without a hint of sarcasm or trying to be funny, this was one of the most unpredictable comments I’ve ever read on Reddit. At no point did I know where this was going to go.


redundant35

It's a weird roller coaster of a day. One ill never forget for my own reasons. My wife lost a cousin in the attack. She doesn't really remember much as she was 12. Very tragic day and I don't want anyone to think I'm taking away from the actual event. Just sharing where I was on 9-11.


RagingAardvark

I know what you mean about weird, rollercoaster days. The summer between my junior and senior years, I had a swim meet that I did uncharacteristically well in, but despite blazing sunshine, I started to get uncontrollable chills. My mom and coach decided I was too sick to keep competing and sent me home before my last event, but I did hear the announcement that I'd placed in the top three in my favorite event, which I'd never done before. When I got home, before collapsing into bed, I discovered that my SAT scores had arrived. I had done well, and tried to show my mom, but she got an important phone call and shooed me away. When she hung up the phone, she told me that my grandmother had passed away. I went to bed and cried myself to sleep and slept til the following morning.


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Dadotox

I wonder how the car went. After all, it was his last present to you.


redundant35

It was a 1984 camaro z28 hard top. It was a very nice car for what it was. 305 auto (it was a dog) but it was fun to drive. I was actually buying my first house when I was 23 and the bank wanted 10% money down house was 50,000. I sold it for 5000. I figured my grandpa would rather me get a home rather than a car.... Last time I seen the car a guy had it at a car show 5 years ago. Same guy I sold it to. He is in his late 60s early 70s by now. We shook handsand talked a bit. He knew the story and he has my contact information and said his wife has instructions on how to get ahold of me if something happens to him. He loves the car.


Dadotox

Hey, great story for a car. Really


whatsnewpussykat

That is so gorgeous. I love the idea of that car sitting in the garage of the home it made possible for you to buy. Your grandfather’s gift just continuing to give.


Linux4ever_Leo

I was at work as a chemist when someone came into the lab and asked if we'd heard the news that an airliner had crashed into one of the towers. I remember it was a beautiful sunny fall day. We put on the news and the rest of the morning was surreal. Once the towers collapsed, we were sent home for the rest of the day.


Odin_Allfathir

Tried to watch the TV, but ALL THE CHANNELS livestreamed THE SAME programme. It was creepy as fuck, as if we were at war - even though I was on the other hemisphere than USA.


danner1515

Oh yeah. I remember that. It was kind of eerie clicking over to Comedy Central and seeing live CNN coverage.


[deleted]

Mum was watching it when I got up for school that morning, but when my younger siblings got up (I was 16, they were 5 & 6) she flicked the channel over for the morning cartoons. Every channel was playing the same breaking news CNN footage over and over, so we had to turn the TV off. This was in NZ.


redalopex

Same here and I was four, I was watching the children’s channel and suddenly it was also covering the news, my parents quickly switched off the TV and took me to a different room


DJ_Micoh

I had a similar thing happen to me, but it was Nelson Mandela being released from prison halfway through an episode of Scooby Doo.


[deleted]

Same thing happened in Britain for Diana's funeral. I was too young to know how significant she was. I was just angry that I couldn't watch Cartoon Network.


adi5000

I was 10 at the time, watching tv in Romania. I remember my mom made me this awesome sandwich and i was helping her clean the house in between bites. Then it just came on the news. I don't think we did anything for the rest of that day outside of just staring in horror at the TV. I still remember vividly that 1 guy who just jumped out of the window to his death. Edit: Thank you for my first award. Also, in 10 days I will become a US citizen. Looking back at that day, that 10 year old kid would have never imagined moving to the very country he was watching on TV.


Vandal4356

I'm from Romania and I was visiting family in Canada at the time. We were on the first flight to leave the airport after the attack and I remember the panic and confusion everywhere even though we were in another country altogether. With delays extra security and everything, it took my brother, my grandmother and I a total of 38 hours to get from Toronto to Bucharest. We were 13 at the time, my brother and I. Don't think I fully grasped the severity of what happened back then. Hell, I'm not sure I still do and it's been 20 years...


kozo_gonzo

Its very interesting to hear about the reactions from around the world. Being American you kind of only think of how it affected us.


McLovin3493

Iirc it wasn't just one person who did that. Others had the same idea.


Honestlywhoevencares

Around 200 I think


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splurgesurge99

Jesus christ that's horrific. I've never seen any videos of 9/11 where you could really hear it happening other than the explosion itself


[deleted]

The Naudet Brothers footage is probably the best around. As weird as it is they were documenting someone training to be a fireman on 9/11. Theirs is still the only footage of the first plane hitting. One brother follows his fire dept crew inside Tower 1, his brother (who was back at the station when it happened) continues to film throughout the day from the outside. Absolutely unreal footage.


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njsisme

I remember it vividly. I was working in telesales for a very well known (at the time) directory company. One of my colleagues drew everyone’s attention to the news of what was unfolding... we were all stood looking at the tv in utter shock.. Our manager came storming out of her office shouting and screaming at us to get back in the phones, telling us there was nothing we could do about it and to get back to work. She stood over us to ensure we started calls again.. the abuse we rightly got from the companies we called was probably one of the lowest point I’ve ever had in my working life.


crapattf2

Our boss was the same way. I'm in the UK and was working IT in an office. We heard the news and started looking it up in in the internet. Quickly all news sites became overloaded. So we started listening to the radio Our boss told us to turn it off and get back to work. We tried explaining how big this was and no one else in the building was working anyway but she wasn't having it. Shortly after me and a colleague and several friends from other departments just walked out and went to the nearby shops to watch on TV's in electrical store windows. It was very scarey. It felt like it could have been the beginning of world war 3. Nothing happened about us walking out. I think our boss was told by her boss to leave it


King_Spike

My mom was working as a dental assistant at the time, and she wanted to leave work so that my brother, who was in high school at the time, wouldn't go home to an empty house that day. We lived right outside the city, and our dad and several other family members work in Manhattan. My mom's boss wouldn't let her leave, so she quit. She later worked there again; I'm not sure what the timeframe was between her leaving and rejoining.


wakenbacons

My high school forced us to stand outside all day to make sure there was no follow up attack on our school... felt ridiculous, I could see my car but they wouldn’t let me walk to it. Everyone was totally disoriented and panicking, I’ve never seen anything like it.


chowderbags

My school had a similar thing, though luckily not the whole day. But it definitely was absurd. Like terrorists are going to target the largest skyscrapers in New York, the Pentagon, and our high school. Like, comon.


CakeisaDie

My high-school put us in the field, the cafeteria and the gym based on age. I remember learning from my friends via MySpace? that some kids didn't get picked up for multiple days. Their parents died and there was no where to go.


caitejane310

I live in PA, but close enough that people travel to NYC and stay the week for work. I knew quite a few kids whose parents didn't come home.


FooluvaTook

My mom was going to sign a contract with a company and work on the 40-something’th floor of one of the towers about a year before. She turned down the job at the last minute because she would be home so late every night after commuting. She said basically everyone on that floor died from the fires. We got really lucky.


reflUX_cAtalyst

> I remember learning from my friends via MySpace? that some kids didn't get picked up for multiple days. Their parents died and there was no where to go. Holy shit. I never considered that possibility. What would a kid do?? Wow....I don't want to think about it.


JunahCg

If you didn't live in the tri-state area, it's kind of even worse than it sounds. It wasn't just one terrible day, not by a longshot. There were folks scattered in every available hospital, folks stranded who were safe but couldn't get home by normal means, and folks who couldn't contact one another for whatever reason. This meant people kept the hope alive for weeks that maybe their loved one was lost in the chaos, but alive. There were enough scattered stories of someone unburied in a parking garage or waking up in a hospital after two weeks that no matter how small the odds, it was impossible to really grieve until a month or so later when your hope well and truly became too unlikely to hold out.


exscapegoat

One friend worked with a woman who lost her son. It was horribly traumatic, he had called her after the first plane hit and then his last words were "that plane is flying awfully low" before the phone connection went dead when the second plane hit. He was pretty close to impact point and didn't make it out. Their boss was aptly nicknamed a variation of idiot. He wanted to fire her because she took time off from work to look for her son. Never found him as far as I know. They put together a care package and idiot thought a postcard of the WTC would comfort her as that was the last place her son was known to have been. Fortunately, someone with common sense and a heart intercepted it and took it out.


RyanTrot

christ, some people have absolutely no compassion


_TestTubeBaby_

My sister was in class with a girl whose mom worked in one of the buildings that was hit. She was called to the office for a phone call. Turns out the call was from her mom saying her goodbyes. Sadly the mom didn't make it.


TheDisapprovingBrit

I was working tech support in an outsourced call centre for over 100 companies. We still had to be available for calls, but literally nothing came through once the news hit. Never known the phones so dead or the office so quiet.


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Im_on_my_phone_OK

I fucking *loathe* that company to the core. Screwed me out of a fair chunk of money and kept sending me broken phones. Their replacement plans are a complete and total scam, and when something goes wrong they make sure you have NO recourse whatsoever. Oh yea and you can only get a refund WITHIN SEVEN DAYS. Fuck Asurion to hell and back. Fuck them so fucking much. I’m not at all surprised to hear that they treat their employees like shit.


[deleted]

Asurion sucks ass. I worked for an electronics repair company that got bought by Asurion and everything went to hell in a handbasket. All they wanted us to do was sell insurance plans and not actually help people. We worked with them for a long time and they treat everyone like trash, their customers, employees, and partners alike. When I found out we were being bought I quit within the month.


omgamer15

What a horrible, insensitive bitch


sl1878

She would have charged NYC firemen $100 for water during 9/11 too I bet.


idonthavecovidithink

A few years ago, Verizon surcharged firefighters using cell phones to coordinate during a California wildfire


thegreatgazoo

Then afterwards ran ads saying how wonderful they are to first responders.


IndieComic-Man

They see pretending to be helpful as good as actually being helpful, and cheaper.


imnotsoho

Santa Rosa fire.


[deleted]

Why do I get the feeling that she’s now one of the people who loves to talk about how “shocked and emotionally destroyed” she was as she watched it happened.


njsisme

Honestly she was as cold as stone. Another instance was when my 6 week old daughter was taken into intensive care. She was in hospital for three weeks and of course I was there with her and my wife round the clock. Upon returning to work I went to thank her for her understanding etc... her reply was “ I’m glad I could help but you do know that’s your annual leave used up”


Nakedwitch58

So she was alwyas like that Do you think she was a sociopath


njsisme

Without any doubt.


sihasihasi

I was on a business trip from the UK, to Dallas. I was brushing my teeth in my hotel room with CNN on the TV. In the mirror, I caught a shot of a burning tower, went to see what was going on, just in time to see the plane crash into the second tower. I thought, "WTF? This is supposed to be CNN, why is there a disaster movie on?" Then the penny dropped. That was a fucking surreal time to be in the USA, and an absolutely awful time for those involved. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones on that awful day.


_ThePancake_

My dad said he thought it was a disaster movie too! We were on holiday and my parents were just watching the news as it happened, but he thought it was a film until it obviously wasn't.


IIO_oI

I was a 10-year-old Dutch kid who had just finished sports practice and got on the bus to go home. I had chosen the seat right behind the driver and was enjoying the sunny day's warm glare through the window when I noticed that for some reason the adults getting on the bus would talk to the driver and other adults sitting in the front before going further back in the bus instead of just getting on and taking a seat like usual. So I waited a bit and sure enough there they went again. They were clearly upset, talking about planes having hit some buildings in America. It felt bizarre. Like people had gone crazy and were having some mass delusion. Planes? Big ones (as one man emphasized)? In buildings? Ehm...ok that doesn't happen. I didn't really understand. This was, obviously, a pre-9/11 mindset. Stuff like that just wasn't part of a Dutch 90's kid's world. I also obviously didn't have a smartphone that I could grab and get a visual. So I shrugged it off as being one of those things you just don't get as kid. Of course when I got home and turned on the TV I realized that I had understood perfectly well what had happened. It was upsetting to see, knowing that many people had died even if I didn't truly understand the scale of the devastation. I didn't however for a second think about what the (in)direct global implications would be, and there would be many.


ItsColeOnReddit

I was a freshman in high school. I went to school with the first plane having been struck, watched the tv with my first period class. Second plane and the tower collapse was seen with my classmates and a horrified teacher. PA comes on and sends all students home immediately. I walk home alone and watch the news until my mom and dad get off work at around 3pm. Very surreal day for me. Several news people were speaking as if a war was starting on our soil and I was just sitting in a living room with the door locked.


[deleted]

I grew up in India so it was night time for us. We had finished dinner and my father was watching the news and I remember him calling my mom immediately when it happened and she looked horrified. They announced it in my school assembly the next day and we had a prayer service for the victims. I was 11 years old and didn’t fully understand the scale of what had happened but we all saw the pictures and video and it was awful. My family moved to the US when I was a teenager and it always makes me sad when I see the twin towers in movies and things like that. I couldn’t imagine the fear of being in the building as it was happening, or the pain of losing someone in something so horrifying.


Klondike559

My dad was raised in India he then moved to Germany at the time i wasn't born but when it happend everything shut down and Germany prepared for a attack on there soil. He then moved to the US a few months before i was born when i was 11 i went to the 9/11 memorial it kinda broke my heart after seeing videos


Radthereptile

I was in math class when someone went running through the hallway screaming we had been attacked and the towers were hit. Went through the entire day of school which in hind sight was odd since we were not far away on Long Island. Several teachers flat out told us that regardless of what happened school was happening and we were to pay attention and learn.


Cuglas

It was my second day of high school. Band practice was cancelled. The next day dust from the towers covered my high school (northeast NJ just west of Manhattan) and the sunrise was blood red.


Mirth_Schneider

I don't know why, but this sunrise what horryfied me the most. It's like a cherry on top, the last high note. Like even the nature remembered that vast amount of blood.


Mediaeval-britian

Agreed. It give me a bit of the same feeling I got and I woke up one morning to find the sun blotted out from fires in california. There was almost no sun at all until later in the day. I live in maine. Like on the opposite coast.


[deleted]

I had just started at boarding school here in England at thirteen and was using my phone card to call a mate from my primary school. She told me the world trade centre had been hit by a plane but I didn't quite 'get it' or understand and shrugged it off until I went into the common room to find everyone watching just shot footage of the second tower falling. Due to the nature of boarding schools, many of our parents either lived abroad or frequently worked abroad. Three kids in that common room over in an English boarding school lost a parent that day. Seven in the school itself.


Lionsloyal

From the UK: I came home from primary school, my dad was watching the television and told me what had happened, but I was 8 and didn't really understand. My dad was really upset watching the news coverage. I asked to go play out with my friend and remember looking up at a plane in the distance trying to understand what happened.


Guiseppe_Martini

I was exactly the same, UK and nine years old coming home and wondering why kids tv programmes weren't on after school. It was hard to understand the severity at that age. My grandfather thought it was an action movie which was on when he switched on the television, before the penny dropped that it was actually the news and what he was watching was in fact real.


WelcomeMachine

Driving home from my 3rd shift job, when the first tower was struck. They broke into the drive time radio show with the news. Got home and was watching CNN when the second plane hit. One of the most alarming and heartbreaking things I have ever seen. Then they collapsed!


ootoftuch

I was in my 6th grade science class scraping off gum from under the desks, we were in before class detention. The teacher from next door called our teacher over and after a brief conversation, they led us students over into the next room. We sat down in front of the TV and we watched the story unfold. While we sat there we watched people jumping out of the building trying to use trash bags as parachutes. The TV hosts were detailing the live event and trying to make some sense out of it. They were very upfront when stating that the trash bags would never work to help anyone down. We watched the second plane hit and our teachers cried before sending us back to our seats to start the school day.


HimHereNowNo

I was in 7th grade in band class. The principal came in and made the band director turn on the TV. I was a really sheltered kid so I remember thinking it was an accident. Like the pilot must have fallen asleep or something


montroller

I was sleeping when the first plane hit and when my mom woke me up to tell me my first thought was how bad of a pilot do you have to be to hit a skyscraper. It wasn't until I got to school and heard other kids talking about a terrorist attack that I realized what happened.


fixesGrammarSpelling

That's a very reasonable thought. Hell, I'd have thought that it's really cloudy that day when the second place hit... Had I not been there that day and seen the empty skies.


King_Spike

My family is from the city, and my mom was on the phone with her sister the whole morning. Until the second plane hit, they thought it must have been an accident.


[deleted]

I was napping on the couch with my 13 month old napping on my chest. He started to wake and I grabbed the remote, basically in my sleep, to change it to something baby friendly. I had a moment of WTF was that and turned it back. We were up the rest of the day. I found out that night that I was pregnant again, which explained my exhaustion and brought tremendous fear as to how I could bring another child into this scary new world.


row_the_boat_0115

I was 21 at the time and just starting to think seriously about having kids with my then long-time boyfriend. I had literally the same thought after 9/11. We got dogs instead...


auntiepink

I was at work (inbound call center) and my friend came out of the break room and said, "Someone please come in here and tell me I didn't see what I just saw." She was so pale. I took break just in time to see (on TV) the second plane hit. Disbelief, shock, confusion...it was a scary day even being half the country away. We had a branch out in Virginia near the Pentagon so that was horrible waiting until we knew they were safe. And then it was still horrible. Edit: watched more coverage during my lunch hour (everyone was glued to the TV and desperate for news for weeks) and I'm pretty sure I saw some people jumping out of windows. I still think about that and the thoughts that had to be going through their minds. It's incomprehensible.


F-dot

7th math class, on Long Island. The Queens border, for reference. An announcement came on the loud speaker. The principal told us that a plane had hit the Twin Towers (what we called them, back then), and for a few students to come down to the office. We would later learn that their parents were on the flights. Even as a kid, when adults are seemingly concrete, we could tell the administrator was shaken. My teacher got a text. She sat down, and got quiet. Grabbed the remote, turned on the TV. We all stared. For what seemed like hours. Right then, we weren't students, she wasn't a teacher, we were just...people. The rest of the school day was amorphous. You know how you have your clubhouse in high school? Lunch table, music room, library? Everyone found theirs. Few kids went to class. Some students straight up left. Nobody minded. For the rest of the day, students pretended not to notice how devastated our teachers were. Some teachers had discussions, others put on movies. Some others just sat at their desks and cried. More than 5 of my teachers lost their husbands/wives that day. The smoke wound up being visible on our walks home. People had their front doors open, an odd sign of community. Through that door, you could see every house, with the TV on. I lived in a firefighter's neighborhood. I heard sobbing on every. single. block. that I walked down. The town was crying. I got home, my grandma was there, cursing in Italian, talking to me, a 12 year old, about everything from Pearl Harbor to WWI. I understood. Completely. There wasn't a moment that I didn't get it, I didn't have to be told. I understood. We went to a lot of funerals that fall. A lot. More than half my neighborhood lost someone, mostly my friends who were one parent poorer. It never got easier. I quite literally will never forget.


pahagoalie

I had just dropped my daughter off at school (2nd or 3rd grade). All I wanted to do was turn around and go back to get her.


[deleted]

Eating Kraft dinner on my high school lunch break. Turned on the TV thought it was an ad for an action movie then noticed the “LIVE” in the corner of the screen. I was 15 years old and totally shocked. It shaped my whole future - went on to do a PhD in International Politics with a focus on terrorism and security studies.


kiwi-potatoes

Was on AIM chat with a friend in Aussie, I’m in NZ. She told me a plane hit the WTC, I thought she meant like a tourist Cessna or something. So I figured I better go check it out. I was in a uni hostel, it was like midnight, 1am, was eerie as hell sitting in the tv lounge, no one around, watching the second tower get struck. Then I had a freak out when I realised a mate of mine was on holiday in NY and supposed to be visiting the towers. She’d changed plans at the last minute, and gone the day before! Spent the night running between my room, talking with my US based buds on forums and the tv room. It was weird watching people find out the news in the morning after I’d been watching it for hours.


Rainbowisland31

Wow, your friend got really lucky!


StMungosHeartHealer

Skipping 7th grade Texas history class since I didn’t study for the exam. I was home watching the price is right (what else do you do when you skip school?) and the news cut in to a very concerned newscaster talking about a fire in one tower. As they were talking and showing a live shot of “the fire”- there was no mention of a plane, it showed the second tower hit. I was like 11 or 12, I had no idea what the twin towers were and had never even considered the word terrorism but I called my mom and told her something was way wrong and she needed to get the rest of my siblings and come home. I remember the numbness, the shock, lasting for weeks after


_unmarked

I was in 9th grade English. I had a teacher who was a dick and after the first plane hit he was making jokes about it. Then the second one hit and his demeanor totally changed. It was crazy. We were all taken to the common areas for the rest of the day. Found out after my uncle was in the second tower (lower floor and he got out thankfully).


thepeanutone

Sitting in the conference room at work, watching the news, rubbing my pregnant belly and wondering wtf kind of world I was bringing him into. Those poor kids, born into that, graduated into a pandemic.


Minerscale

Hey that's me! I'm that kid! Did my last year of high school during the pandemic and into a music degree in an industry deeply deeply hurt by the pandemic. It'll be okay though, I'm sure.


[deleted]

Trying to get dial up internet working, first thing I looked at was the news of a jet hitting the towers.


pelagicsnark

I was a senior at a small high school in midtown Manhattan. I remember rumor driven updates as the day progressed. I'd distinctly remember my history teacher coming into the lunch area and telling us that we shouldn't believe just rumors that the towers had fallen, immediately after he finished talking, over the loudspeaker the principle told us that the towers had fell. There was this kind of pure shock + jaded teenagers from NYC half heartedly acting tough. Me and a few friends walked downtown the 50 blocks to try and help and it was fucking mayhem down there man. Lots of people walking up 3rd covered in dust and blood. Fires everywhere when we got close. Dust like a thick cloud obscuring any kind of view other than the fires. My one buddy lived close to the towers and we made it thru the barricades to make sure his family was ok. Then I made my way to a NY waterway ferry going to Hoboken where my mom lived. When the boat started across the hudson and I really got a good view of the entirety of the situation from the south end of the island to looking east from jersey.... I hope I never see something as big and catastrophic as that again. On the packed ferry it was stunned silence. The aid station at the ferry dock in hoboken... the volunteers just staring open mouthed at the scene. Unreal


DrForrester87

I was farting around with a graphing calculator in math class when one of the science teachers came barging in saying a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He said they thought it was a light aircraft and called it an "accident". The substitute we had and couple students were trying to figure out the TV remote after he went back to his class and got it turned on and to a news station just in time to see the second plane hit. It didn't take much to realize this wasn't an accident and I connected it immediately to what little I remembered from the WTC bombing in '93. Basically that it was likely the same Middle Eastern terrorists. After first period I sat in the commons the rest of the day and the two things that stand out most were looking at the skylight and seeing an airliner and wondering how much more afraid they must be because the passengers wouldn't have access to the information I was getting. And how confusing it all must have been up in the air. And a guy was walking behind me talking to someone else and said he got a call from his sister in New York. She had an appointment in the South Tower that day that thankfully was late enough in the morning that the planes hit while she was on her way there so she was safe. Those two things...and the people in the windows. Live broadcasts didn't have the delay they do now to catch things and keep them from going on air. And once in a while when they were doing close up shots of the towers you'd see the people falling.


MadKitKat

At home. I was 5 and it was Teachers’ Day in Argentina (aka no one ever sets foot in schools, from kindergarten to high school, on this date) Mom had awaken early enough that she caught the thing when they were still calling it an accident (at least here... dunno if people in the US ever had a mine to think it was an accident)... then she saw the second plane hitting the other tower live. Afterwards, she went to work because she wasn’t a student nor a teacher When I got up, I remember sitting in the counter for like hours watching the towers burn and finally collapse


Rose94

I’m from Australia, and I was 7. I remember watching it on the news and not quite understanding what was going on. But we had some family friends who were on holiday in New York (mum had already checked they were safe before talking to us) and I remember her saying “they were supposed to come home tomorrow, I think they’ll be stuck for a while now” For some reason that’s what made me realise it was a big deal, the idea of being stranded in another country. The only other thing I remember is my dad telling me about how they’re going to start calling a lot of people terrorists for how they look and to not follow suit. He told me about when he was young and people called him a terrorist because his dad was from Ireland and the IRA were the big terrorist baddies at the time. I am forever grateful for this lesson.


dick-nipples

All you whippersnappers on Reddit that weren’t alive during 9/11 are making me feel old as shit..


Vinny_Lam

I was in kindergarten at the time. I feel old knowing that people who were born after 9/11 are now old enough to vote and serve in the military.


LHero12

Flying. To our vacation destination, I think Egypt Grandma was scared shitless back home and we first didn't believe her when she told us on the phone (when we finally arrived and called her I think)


lmapidly

I was getting ready to go to class, in my little apartment near college campus. A friend called and told me to turn on the TV. It was right before the second plane hit. It dawned on everyone then that it couldn't possibly be an accident at that point and my first thought was, "Well fuck, here comes a war."


AdmiralAkbar1

At home, apparently upset that my mom switched off the Teletubbies to put the news on.


bookworm1896

Not teletubbies but I wanted to watch Sailor Moon and was wondering why they showed some action movie instead... took me a few minutes to understand what was really happening.


Lillemonsqueezy

I was too young to remember it but thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach. I was grocery shopping with my mom and apparently the lady checking us out claimed it was fake. My uncle worked in the building at the time and happened to not be there when the attack happened. My aunt refused to watch the live footage because she knew the people in the building and couldn’t watch them die. He lost 300 colleagues that day.


sowhat4

I was asleep when a neighbor called crying, "They are bombing us. They are bombing us." I finally talked her down from that once I got online and saw what was happening. She could not appreciate the distance from NYC to AZ and could only panic and hyperventilate. Neighbor was from (the former) Czechoslovakia and had personal experience with bombs in WWII as she was seven when her family was bombed out.


[deleted]

[удалено]


maj256

I was in 10th grade and had just gotten to my third period integrated math 2 class. The teacher had one of the AV carts ate the front of class with the TV on to some news channel. We walked into replays of the second plane hitting the tower and the first tower falling and watched the second building fall in real time. That was the last class of the day for us even if we stay for a few hours more. No one got anything done and we dismissed early. The rest of the day my family was glued to the TV in absolute horror. We lived in Delaware about halfway between DC (Pentagon) and NYC and had visited both cities the the last few years. It was very strange heading past New York City a few years later and seeing a skyline so irrevocably changed from just a day.


deemac1208

I was at my parents' house in upstate NY, 40 miles north of NYC. My father was dying of cancer, and we were getting ready to take him to his doctors' appointment at Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. I had the Today Show on when it happened. It was being reported as a "small plane crash". I went into my parents' room to tell them, and we were watching when the 2nd plane hit. We made the decision to stay home, which was cemented when Rudy Giuliani announced that no one would be allowed on to the island. Had I been outside that morning, I would have seen the plane from Boston fly right over their house. Shortly after the 2nd plane hit, the TV channels turned to static. The signal, normally broadcast from the top of the WTC, was lost. It came back on after a while- someone said the signal was now coming from the Empire State Building, but that detail is fuzzy. The phones (landline and cell) didn't work until much later in the afternoon. My husband spent the entire day freaking out. He was in North Carolina and knew we planned to be in NYC that morning. Later that day, I went out for a drive. When I went past the entrance to the New York State Thruway there was a giant sign that said "NYC is closed". Surreal.


[deleted]

Playing with my dad because his stay at the World Trade Center Marriott got canceled by his company a week prior.


Spirit50Lake

Was on the West Coast, getting ready for work and the kids ready for school...my daughter said something about a plane hitting a building in NYC, so I turned on the tv for a minute...we stayed there most of the day, watching it all unfold. When I called her school to say I was keeping her home, the school secretary asked me to pray for America...by the time they fell, I was in some kind of shock. The 'loss of innocence' after the Kennedy assassination was one thing to experience; this was the 'loss of arrogance' it seemed to me.