5 years later, what is your memory of 9/11?

[Guest oldschooler]

There`s nothing to really debate here.

I would just like to hear everyones memories of 9/11.

What were you doing when you found out about it ?


What were your thoughts ? ect...

I don`t want to hear about what people think now.
I want to hear about what people were thinking THEN.

I would ecspecially love to read what people I disagree with
politically have to say. Thanks in advance.


I`ll start.

I remember it just like it was the other day.
It was a Tuesday, I was working 12 hour shifts
at my job, and wasn`t feel well that morning.
I called off work and went back to bed.

My alcoholic friend worked 3rd shift.
He came over at like 8 o'clock in the morning.
He said he was driving bye and saw my car.
I was pissed ! I told him I wasn`t feeling good,
and wanted to sleep. He begged me to let him
hang out, because he didn`t want to go to bed
and waste his buzz. I said whatever, and he fired
up a joint. I hoped that it would make me feel a little
better anyway.

I turned on the TV, and was flipping through the channels
on my way to ESPN, to watch Sports Center.

I watched a little bit of Sports Center, and started flipping
channels again. I came across a News Break of a Plane
hitting the World Trade Center. I stopped and watched.
At first I was like Damn this has to be some kind of
accident. Then I saw another plane flying into picture.
It flew right into the building, and it was obvious that
it was no accident.

I was speechless. My buddy just kept saying What the fuck is going on ?
Is this shit real ?

I was just staring at this horrific tradegy taking place on my TV screen.
And it seemed like that`s ALL I could do. I felt helpless and numb for awhile.
At first I was just like a deer in the headlights.
I said nothing, I did nothing. I just stared.

After seeing the Towers fall. I couldn`t help but think of all the people in there.
The Police and Fireman that had ran into the buildings to save people, their families.

The first emotion I remember having was sadness.

I admit I had heard about bin Laden just a few times before.
And at first I didn`t care who was behind it. It never crossed my mind as to why this was
happening. I was just shocked that it was happening.

I felt like I was watching someone I know die in slow motion.

I don`t think I stepped away from the TV screen for even a second.
All I really remember was sitting there for hours taking it all in.

It took HOURS before anger set in. It was dark outside before
I ever really started thinking about who, or why this happened.

It was a day that I will never forget. It changed me.
I had never felt the way I felt that day, before. And I hope I never
feel that way again.

[Guest WhoDeyForever]

I was in 5th grade class Just got back from band class I think it was and my teacher had the tv on and I saw what happend. What scary about it was that my brother was in the navy at that time and I just knew somethin was gonna happen with him. Very sad day

[85fanwilkes]

I was in 7th grade and I remember it perfectly we were the first class to find out about it and ironically we had just finished religion class. And I remember all the rumors floating around at recess such as there are more planes in the air, etc. I was really scared/ confused as to why this was happening. So we watched for the rest of the day then I found out my dad's best friend from highschool got killed in the 1st tower. So I was angry and sad throughout the whole time. And I just had the sickest feeling in my stomach I might have been young but I knew the extent to which the whole thing was happening and how it would affect our country and I remember thinking how in the hell could any reasonable person or group could have done this.

[Guest mongoloido]

I was in the shower, getting ready for work, and had AM Sports radio on (not sure if it was 1360 back then or not... 1160? 1230? can't remember). It was tough to hear everything, but the radio guy was talking football, then got interrupted, and said something like "a plane hit the World Trade Center?" I thought it was a joke. I think the radio guy did too. Then, obviously, someone turned on a tv for him and he got real serious.

I got out of the shower, thinking a Cesna or something had bounced off the Tower, but realized the Sports guy had given way to a news reporter. It sounded serious. I made it out to my TV just in time to see the second plane hit... Not sure I moved from that seat for an hour or two, not until my mother called all frantic. My brothers lived in New York, worked as grips, and frequently found themselves all over the city. No phone calls were getting in or out of the city, and she was freaked. I spent forever reminding her she had raised bright, resourceful children.

My brothers both managed to get calls out eventually, confirming their safety. I think I spent the rest of the day in front of that tv. Sometime in the evening, I took a look at Peter Jennings, hair messed up, collar button undone, five o'clock shadow, sounding ragged, and decided he looked like I felt. I stopped watching, popped in a Christmas movie (The Bishop's Wife. It's my favorite), and tried not to think.

[eva4ben-gal]

I woke up about 5 minutes before my 8:30 art history class, sleepwalked from my dorm to the classroom. Pretty normal tuesday so far.
Then a kid came into class and said a plane had hit the WTC but he thought it was a cessna. I immediately thought it was another teen on anti-depressants committing suicide.
Our prof seemed to care little of this news and continued to teach her boring ass class without even checking a radio so I went back to sleep.
45 minutes later, and a little more alert now that I had my mid-morning nap, I headed back to the dorms to find not a single person in class and everybody talking about the planes. I was confused over what the big deal was since at this point I still thought it was one cessna.
I went to a friends room and got filled in and then when I saw the footage of the second plane my jaw hit the floor.
My immediate thought was "How in the fuck do they let this happen?" I knew it was terrorists at this point and I didn't know who I was more pissed at, the terrorists or our military for not shooting those planes down.
I figured they would have easily been able to tell these planes were not in their proper flight lanes and would have found out long before they got to NY that something was wrong and not have let them enter the airspace above the city.
I didn't go to another class the rest of the day and I found out later that most of them were cancelled anyway.
When the plane hit the pentagon and word of the highjacked flight over Pennsylvania got out I thought we were in for a lot more destruction.
When the towers fell I knew I was witnessing the single most important event in my lifetime. The one disaster I would vividly remember for the rest of my life. I also knew at that moment that we would be going to war.
With who, I did not know nor care. I wanted blood to be spilled by those responsible. I wanted their families to be wiped off the map. I wanted swift and brutal retribution.
I couldn't even begin to wrap my brain around how many families would be impacted by this tragedy.
That whole day after that seems like a blur to me now but I can still clearly remember that first time I saw the plane fly into the building and the sight of those towers falling and the feeling of confusion, saddness, and hatred I felt.

[Guest bengalrick]

i was selling cars at the time, but it was my offday... i finally got up about noon, and went on like a normal day... then turned on the tv, and had no clue what was going on... i watched for a few minutes, literally bawled my eyes out, and watched for the rest of the day, trying to put 2 and 2 together... i think i'm still trying to answer that question, b/c it makes no sense to me to hate someone to that degree....

sometime during the day, my fear and extreme grief turned into anger and determination....

[JBandJoeyV]

I was sitting in my class in High School waiting to take a test on Biology, when one of my classmates came in and said a plane hit the world trade centere. The kid that told me seemed like the kinda kid that would make something up like that, so I was just like shut up. Then another kid came in and said the same thing, so we turned on the tv in the classroom. We turned it on right after the second plane hit the tower...no one really knew what to say. Our teacher still made us take the test, but left the tv on during the test. I remember thinking how the hell am I supposed to take a fucking test when thousands of people are dying. I mean the first tower even fell while we were taking our test. I finished the test as soon as possible, and then went back to watching the news, and thinking about my aunt that works in downtown NYC. (She was fine) I remember a lot of parents picking their kids up from school and everyone was kinda freaking out. Didnt really do much in school the rest of the day besides watch the news and pray.

[Guest CincyInDC]

I was in Bernheim Forest doing ecological research. We could pick up NPR on the vehicle's radio, and as we drove from site to site we would listen for 5 mintues, then work for 20-30. Not seeing images until later that night probably softened the blow.

The next morning on my way from Frankfort to Lexington it was a clear, crisp fall day, and there was a pillar-shaped cloud that rose from the east. It really creeped me out even though I knew there was no way I was seeing the effects of the attack on the Pentagon. Or was I?

The next big thing that weighed on me (and still does) was Bush's speech that told us to prepare for a long, protracted war on terror. I felt sick. Love him or hate him, he certainly wasn't lying.

[Jamie_B]

I had woken up and was heading into work. I was listening to the radio and they were broadcasting ABC News through the local channel on DC101. Now the host for the morning show is a comedian type so I thought at first this was some sort of sick H. G. Wellian joke. But the tone of voice over the radio just didnt sit right with me...my thoughts on the drive went back and forth between "could this be true?" to "this is very tastless"....when heading in I hear them say the Pentagon has been hit, and callers are calling into the radio show now saying they saw a missle while many more were saying it was a plane. My stomach dropped and I didnt want to believe it, I had to see I wasnt imagineing things, so I kept going to work so I could see others were hearing/seeing what I was. When I got there I knew it had happened people were had the look of shock on their faces they had the TVs on in the meeting rooms and I went in to make sure. I couldnt beleive this had happened but it did. They told us to go home, like they could have stopped me, and I did. I drove to my parents place because living in DC and the Pentagon just getting attacked I feared the worst and feared that it might be mine and my families last days and I wanted to be with them in case the attacks got worse.

My father had called my mother about an hour after I got there saying he was at the Pentagon helping but couldnt talk but wanted us to know he was ok. We waited for hours, and while it became more obvious the attacks were over, at least this day, we still didnt know what was going on with my father other than he was pulling people out of the Pentagon and dealing with the aftermath. We finally got another call and knew things were going to be fine. My sisters close friend wasnt so lucky, she hadnt goten a call from her father who was in the Pentagon that day and didnt know his fate untill he had gotten home, as the phone lines were nuts and he only tried to call once, didnt get through and decided to help in the area, so his family didnt know how he was untill he got home that evening.

Most surreal day of my life, bar none.

[|Bunghole|]

I was on my way to work in Northern Kentucky, I worked at the Party Source selling wine at the time, and I live about an hour away in Indiana.
As ironic as it was, I was listening to Howard Stern that morning (which I very rarely did when I had that car, as it had an absolutely POUNDING stereo system in it that I had spent thousands of dollars of student loan money on), and then the news of the planes started coming, and it was SURREAL to listen to Howard report this as it was happening, given what he does for a living.
I switched to a more reputable news channel and listened to the carnage all the way to work. I had tried to use my cellphone to call my Mom and Dad as they lived just outside of DC in Maryland at the time over and over, but the lines were jammed.
When I finally got through to Mom, I didn't know what to say. She just said "I know, honey" as I started crying. I told her I loved her, said I didn't want to tie up the phone in case someone that needed to get through could use it, and went into work.
Me and my co-workers in the wine department pretty much sat in stunned silence, watching the live feed from CNN.com on our computers. My boss said "Hey, if you just want to get out of here, I'll understand"
I went home and watched the news the rest of the day.
I haven't forgotten about this, nor have I forgiven who did it. We're hunting him still.

[Paul]

I was in highschool in my AutoCadd class when halfway through class were finished early on turn on the news and see the second plane slam into the WTC, shortly thereafter the priceable decides to lockdown the school and later on that day when the pentagon was hit my friend was neverous as hell becasue he dad worked in the Pentagon. We are only 30 miles from Washington so it was rough day.

[SCARFACE_BENGAL]

[b]I was out of the country in France, working for about 2 1/2 weeks doing what its call an "installation" on a brand new cruiseship from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines with a co-worker. It took us a week to go from France to the Port of Boston. We arrived that morning to the port around 7am and we had to wait for customs to clear us and disembark. I called whos is now my ex-wife to let her know that I was in Boston waiting to get out of the ship. She then informed me that a plane had just hitted one of the WTC towers. We were doing the line to go thru custums to get the clearance and all of the sudden a customs officer comes up to the table running to were the other officers were sitting, said something to one of them and they left the room running.Thirty five minutes later they came back to tell us that no one could get out of the ship. We had to spent three more days at sea until we docked at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale. That is a day that I will never forget....[/b]

[WhoDey48]

math class in 7th grade. the principle came over the school speakers and said the world trade center had been hit by a plane and to turn on cnn... thought the dude was on crack. then the tv came on and i saw some tower smoking... thought it had to be some movie or something. then i realized what was going on... then the bell rung and we had to go to our next class... and my teacher in that class wouldnt let us watch because we had a quiz. took the quiz and he turned the tv on... and then we saw the second plane hit. our football game was cancelled that day and i was pissed. but i went home and just watched the news for the rest of the day, recording it all. i somehow lost the tape though. which pisses me off. horrible day.

[Homer_Rice]

I listened to the radio off and on most of the day. I deliberately did not watch tv because I wanted to think and tv has a way of dulling the synapses.

In no particular order:

1) Extreme sadness.
2) Worry about a few friends who live in the city.
3) A "more than meets the eye" conclusion. (But not like some folks here might suppose.)
4) Taking a phone call that night from a buddy of mine who, as a semi-joke, tried to understand why he and his wife were banging the hell out of each other all afternoon. (I understood why, even if he didn't.)

[Guest BlackJesus]

[b]
I was in Cincinnati for the Bengals/Patriots game that weekend. However I was doing my undergraduate in Illinois and was scheduled to drive back that Tuesday morning ... so I got up early about 7 am ... and actually watched the 2nd plane hit live. At the time of watching the plane - I thought that it was a replay of the first ... but it didn't make sense because of the fact the bldg was still smoking. I thought maybe it was a split screen.

At the time I was angry and saddened. I remember suspecting that there were going to be dozens of such attacks through the next hour.

Later that day I needed to stop for Gas around Indianapolis - and the result was a 4 hour gas line (that stretched forever) and I had to pay 4.50 $ a gallon. When I got in line the price was 3.00 ... and I watched it get raised every half hour ont he board. Everyone had turned their cars off ... and were pushing them into the line (thus it took even longer).

All day I drove back listening to a mix of rightwing and progressive talk radio. However that day they both had exactly the same message ... and the unity was suprising but expected.

That night I listened to Bushs speech while arriving back at my college in Illinois ... and I waited in another 1 hour gas line ... (this time I only paid 3.25 a gallon or so).

I remember being upset ... and thinking that whomever had attacked us should be severly punished in order to get the message across that such an attack will not be allowed to stand.

In the preceding weeks I bought everything the govt told me hook line and sinker .... and now it makes me sick to my stomach how I was fooled. [/b]

[Chris Henrys Dealer]

I was at at work. The first sign that we knew something was wrong was due to the Cantor Fitzgerald screens not updating their prices. They were and are (again now) the world's largest interdealer bond brokers and their pricing screens are like christmas lights going off. Constant flashing / activity. (Their NY Head office took the brunt of the first plane)

When the screens showed no updating for a minute, we called them on the direct line, but there was no answer. At that time Bloomberg tv started reporting a plane had hit the WTC, we assumed it was a Cessna or something small like that.

Again, more calls were placed to Cantor, as other brokers / trader screens seemed fine.

The minute we knew something was horribly wrong was when someone from our NY trading floor called us and said that it was serious, and that they were getting the hell out of there.

Knew the 6 peeps on the Cantor desk who covered us. They had all been in Toronto the previous week to visit. RIP. A couple of people from other firms here also passed away that day. There are still memorials held for them every year, and a charity golf tourney to benefit their young families.

We could only watch in horror as the attacks continued.

What did leave a bad taste in my mouth was that when we were told to evacuate (our floor is the highest inhabited floor in Toronto), about 50% of us were sent to our second back up trading floor (which exists only for emergencies)in the burbs. And with the instructions that trading was to continue. It was only when the severity of the attacks and the level of co-ordination revealed, that we were told to stop, pack up, and go home. Still, getting there was pandemonium. All of downtown Toronto was being evacuated. Any one in a skyscraper was leaving. Traffic was blocked solid, and the street cars didn't work.

More panic occured as all planes in American airspace were diverted to Canadian air space, mostly in Eastern Canada. The sky was chock a block with planes...not only with Canadian air traffic, but about 70% of the US air traffic. Given what was going down in NYC, the level of panic was pretty high for that day, seeing that many planes in the sky.

Also trying to get through to friends and relatives in the NY area was tough. Cell phone service was zapped for two days.

Edit: Another thing that pissed me off the next day. I remember watching tv coverage flicking through channels, and Entertainment Tonight came on. I initially thought, wtf, how can there be anything but news. But then realised that they were showing WTC attack footage, alright. Then, they broke down the segments saying that they would be interviewing Celebrities to ask them what their reactions were to the attack. That just further added to my whole "society is completely fucked" thinking, and I switched the tv off in disgust.

[Guest ONYX]

I remember that day. I was off work that day so I slept in late, when I turned on the TV around 10am,
I couldn't believe my eyes. It seemed like a bad dream or some kind of horror movie, part of me wanted
to stop watching but I couldn't. i think I watched the news, every station for about 20 hours straight.

I was angry and sad. I'll never forget that day because my opinion of this country and the world has
changed since that day.

[Guest fredtoast]

I was dating a flight attendent for USAir at the time. I knew she was in the air so I was really worried about her. She ended up stuck in Syracuse for almost a week.

I had to appear in General Sessions court that day. That is the lowest level criminal court in Tennessee. They had a TV in the courtroom for watching videotape evidence. They turned on the TV, and we watched for a while to see what was going on. As the morning wore on the judge decided that we had to finish the court docket for the day. They turned off the sound on the TV but they left it on in case there were any new big breaking stories. The TV was behind the judge, so as I argued my cases I was looking straight at the screen. I remember at one point I was trying to keep some guy out of jail on a minor violation of misdemeanor probation while watching the falling bodies of people jumping out of the windows of the towers. It was just impossible to concentrate on my job. We finished quickly and I was home by lunch. I spent most of the day glued to the TV, but by the evening I was burt out. I just turned off the tv and lights and listened to old Stevie Wonder CDs while drinking heavily and smoking a few fatties.

As I told my friends it was just as unbelievable as if Godzilla had walked out of the ocean and attacked NY.

[Nati Ice]

i had just walked into chemistry after overhearing someone mention something about a plane crashing into a building in new york city. as soon as i walked into class i saw the footage up on the tv in the left corner of the room as our teacher and a few other students watched closely. initially i had just assumed it was a horrible accident. as class slowly started to file in, we sat around and watched and talked about what was going on. after watching the smoke pour out of the building for awhile we witnessed the second plane crash live, and like many of you, we couldnt tell what had just happened. it appeared to be an identical image so i had just assumed that they had received video of the incident. the class continued to softly discuss the actions and their possible ramifications as we heard about another plane that had hit the pentagon and how several other planes were reportedly all hijacked by possible terrorists and bound for destinations such as the nations capital. after thinking about enlisting and moving on about my daily routene i was informed that the school had decided to send us home early and was trying to reroute all of the busses so that they could make it happen. well, as it turns out either our emergency plan or our administrators were completely inept because that never happened and we just went about the day reflecting on the prior happenings. initial reports had indicated that up to 60,000 people may have parished in the attacks, but for somereason those numbers only seemed to provide a spark and nothing more. i felt like i assume bush must have felt. i had just witnessed a deliberate attack on our country and felt that we needed to attack the perpatrators on a much larger scale and that the attack needed to be insanely massive in order to be considered even remotely close to being on par with the actions we had just witnessed. i could tell immediately that it wasnt some rogue govt but some group of insane individuals, and that the invasion needed to realign my perception of our nation, and of the world, would not and could not justifyably happen.

as time went past i soon found out about our planned attack on iraq, i had cheered on the bombs from my ap american history class as the night vision flashes of retaliation rained down upon the evil doers of saddams regime. later i grew to hate myself for expressing those feelings once it became apparent that our incompetent leader led us into a false war with irrelevant leaders in order to further boost his approval ratings, regain stragetic fob's, make money, and play the american public for what they are, an easily force-fed entertainment junkie out of touch with a worldy reality.

however, i still hate france and i always thought bushs early speaches were corny and didnt come from the heart.

[Guest Coy Bacon]

I was at work and my wife called and said that two planes had hit the WTC. My first reaction was to say, "Aw shit!" and kind of chuckle as I thought, "Slo THAT's how they're doing it!" I had been wondering if maybe I had been wrong about some catalytic event jumping off to accelerate the policies I expected to be eneacted. Then I thought that, given US policy and a couple of things the administration had recently done in support of Israel, some Islamic operators just MIGHT have brought the chickens home to roost, but that didn't seem all that likely.

Next I braced myself for the great spate of fear and misplaced anger that would manipulated in Orwellian fashion and started looking for the supicious behavior. I was not disappointed - well I was disappointed but my grim expectations were fulfilled. The event was so true to form on a political level that I didn't really start considering the loss of life until I saw the first building crumble, which was rather unexpected because up until that point there was nothing to suggest that that would happen.

So anyway, while my coworkers wandered around in shock, I started getting pissed, thinking to myself that these same silly fucks that backed every wrong thing in the world would never march up to Langley or the White House, or wherever this shit was hatched, and drag out the real perpetrators (regardless of who the "mechanics" were).

Later I called my mother to see if she'd heard from my relatives in New York. She had and they were alright. My cousin's wife used to work at the WTC, but she had retired. Some people that she knew died up there.

I had actually thought something even more disastrous would happen specifically in New York and Washington, and I don't remember exactly why I was so inclined to think that it would be those two cities, as obvious as some of the reasons are. I thought that to the point that I almost said something about getting out of them to people I knew in both cities over the few months preceding the event - this was due purely to consideration of political issues rather than some otherworldly premonition. I thought better of that, given that it would be pointlessly alarmist even if founded.

So my perspective all along seems to have been different than most people. I expected something different in its details but similar in its effect for different reasons than most people. I shared that expectation with a lot of people, mind you, but not the mainstream of society. Then I watched the subsequent events and the explanations and exhortations roll out in predictable fashion. If something truly unexpected had happened, I might have to change my ideas about what actually happened, but that's not the case.