9/11 - 10 Years On

[Mr Silver]

For me and others in the UK as I type this, it's officially September the 11th, 2011. It is of course the 10th anniversary of one of the biggest tragedies in modern history, in which nearly 3000 people lost their lives in a single day.

I know how deeply this tragedy affected the people of the USA and despite the fact I'm not American, but my thoughts are still with your country and its people.

I think everyone remembers what they were doing on that day. I was 12 years old and drying my clothes after a pretty miserable morning. I remember my family and I were told what was going on and we all crowded round the TV to see what was happening. I'm not sure if I saw the second plane go into the WTC, but I remember being pretty shook up from seeing the replay footage of it and wondering what kind of people could do such a thing.

Despite the horrible events, we witnessed some true bravery in the form of the NYC fire department and anyone else who risked their lives to save people from the World Trade Centre.

Whilst nobody will likely forget that day, we can remember the bravery and selflessness demonstrated by all those who saved lives on that day as an example of the best of humanity.

My thoughts and sympathy go out to those who lost somebody and may they rest in peace.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I was in bed and unable to get to sleep so I turned the TV on, just in time to see the second plane crash into the Tower. I think this had to be sometime between 11.30 and midnight Australian time. Before long I received a ohonecall from my best friend. We talked for about 5 minutes before I told her I was going to have a look online. I was on dialup back then.

I went online and heading straight to Trekbbs. One member (Captain Maestro???) had a clear view of the Towers from his office across the river, while another member (probably The Master) had a good view from the top of his apartment building. If I remember correctly Captain Maestro was very concern about a friend wgo worked in the Towers.

I stayed up all night, alternating between Trekbbs and talking to my friend on the phone. When my sons got up around 8am, I told them what had happened. It was now the 12th in Australia and my youngest son's 19th birthday. We didn't really feel like celebrating his birthday.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I was 16 years old. Junior year of high school had started a few days before, so I was still asleep in my warm, comfy bed listening to the radio, when they broke in on their regular broadcast to say that the first tower had been hit. I was still half asleep, so i didn't believe it. When i heard that the Pentagon had been hit, i instantly woke up and turned on the TV, in time to see the second plane hit the tower. Then the world changed.

When i finally got to school, we didn't do much of anything that day, just glued to the TVs in our classrooms, watching the news. What lessons were happening were half-hearted, really.

I stayed glued to the TV for the next week.

 

[Skywalker]

I was almost 18, and in my senior year of high school. We were just finishing up our first class of the day when one of the other teachers ran into the room and asked my teacher if she'd heard about what happened. My teacher didn't know, obviously, so she turned on the TV in the classroom and we saw one of the towers on fire. The rest of the day was very surreal. The mood in the hallways was pretty somber. One of my teachers wouldn't let us watch what was going on during his class (I guess he thought it'd be better if we focused our minds on something else), but in every other class we just spent the whole period watching the coverage on TV.

I lived in a town built around a U.S. Naval Air Station at the time, so a lot of us were worried that this might have been the prelude to something bigger and that military bases might have been targeted next.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I think everyone remembers where they were that day. I had just arrived at the office and was in the break room getting a cup of coffee when one of the administrative staff came in and told me that a plane had hit the WTC. I immediately went back to my office and got on the CNN website, but although I was able to verify that indeed, the WTC had been hit, further refreshes of the site were fruitless - CNN, MSNBC, etc were impossible to view. Just too much traffic.

I had a radio and turned that on and followed further events that way...but it was a while before the big news websites became accessible. I guess a lot of people here on the East Coast were already at work and had no access to TV...so many of us were stuck with only a radio or continuing to attempt access to CNN or the others.

Of course, being in public accounting, the partners were not about to let everyone sit around all day non-billable to clients...so about 2 hours after the towers fell, they were going around asking about jobs in progress, as if nothing was going on. Cold-hearted bastards. A few of us (myself included) had relatives in NYC who we were concerned about...but in a CPA firm, it was back to work by about 11 am. I was really glad I had that radio!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I didn't have cable TV. I usually just watched DVD's and videos.. because there was nothing on TV I wanted to watch.. of course a week or so later I got cable so I could watch a little show called Enterprise. Anyway I was asleep and this kid from work calls me... I worked at a daily newspaper and we paginate in the evenings.. he told me a plane hit the tower and he said "it looks like the Death Star under construction" from ROTJ. I never took him seriously, especially when he said we might do an evening edition (which hasn't been done since Pearl Harbor) but I started calling people. I couldn't get online.. it was dial-up and CNN was probably so full of traffic there was no way I was going to see anything. The guy on the radio made it sound like we were in a world war, and as he described smoke visible in Mall in Washington, I only had my imagination to see what was happening...

...at least, until i got to work. Then the images were everywhere... and the footage was being replayed constantly. I also had access to the AP wire, which had all the photos you could imagine.. and I saw some that were so graphic they would never ever be published. As a side-note, our competitor was the Allentown Morning Call, and they did print a controversial photo, the one of the falling man, which was covered in this documentary, and people from the paper (some of whom I knew) are interviewed in the doc about why they used it. I saw the photo on the wiire but there was no way we were going to use it, particularly not so large and obvious. So anyway, I saw news footage all night, including the collapse of building 7. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but it looked like that was either was demolished or just lacked the integrity to remain standing and it fell on its own.

It was quite a day... quite a week, actually.

I do remember how pretty the sky was where I am.. perfect weather. Kind of odd.


BTW it would be nice if everyone on the board had a memorial avatar just for today.. people can use mine!

 

[tomalak301]

^Flying Spaghetti Monster

You're comments about Enterprise made me realize this was the time shows like Enterprise and 24 premiered, and 24 had to be edited because of a plane scene that would have hit way too close to home. Actually, it's interesting. Last night I was watching an episode of Rocko's Modern Life and there was an episode where Heff and Rocko were going to Las Vegas and had the flight from hell, leading to a plane crash. I was watching that and the first thing I thought was "nice going Teen Nick for playing an episode that might hit too close to home this weekend."

Anyway, moving away from TV, I was 17 years old and a Senior in High School. My alarm woke me and while still being about 75% still asleep, I heard something about a plane crashing into the world trade center, and thought I was dreaming. When I was able to fully wake up, I heard the news again and rushed out to turn on the TV and see the news for myself and I typically don't watch morning TV. I just couldn't believe it, and I felt sick that whole day through school. When I got home, I called my mom and dad, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary (the day is actually the 9th of September) just to see if they were ok. They were, but because planes were grounded, they couldn't come home until Friday.

I turned on the news and pretty much watched it the rest of the day, until that night when I decided to watch something else and put on Farscape's "PK Tech Girl". For those moments, I smiled, but I was shocked and sad.

Looking back on that day, 10 years ago, I'll never forget it. Tonight in church we commemorated the day with a very beautiful song and I choked up. Thank you to the firefighters, police, volunteers, military and everyone who defends our freedoms.

 

[Australis]

The late news was just about finished, and was waiting for a first run ep of TNG. (yes, we were that far behind), when Sandra Sully said there was a fire at the WTC and cut to a cam on the top of one of the news corp buildings. A bunch of US commentators were on (three, I think), trying to figure out what had happened... when we watched, real time, the second plane hit. At first there were saying that the plane flew past and the first tower had exploded again (such was the camera angle), but they wound the footage back and played it again and again, and we could suddenly see the plane had hit the second tower. They didn't play TNG that night. Sandra Sully stayed on, they went ad-free, and swapped between different news feeds across America.

I stayed up 'til 3 (I had to catch a train at 6). My little son was 10 at the time, he'd fallen asleep on the floor, but woke up to watch some of this. Saw both towers collapse. too. I realised that the world had changed, and not for the better. We'd had NY 2000, we'd had the Sydney Olympics, we'd had a whole bunch of good stuff happen, and the 21st Century was looking good for a change for the better... then this. This fucking, fucking awful thing.

Yeah, the world changed.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

I first heard what happened the next day at work, as the night before I went to bed around 10.30pm. Didn't do much work that day, as were several TVs setup so people could watch updates.

 

[Candlelight]

As I type this, September 11 is almost over; for New Zealand everything happened in the early hours of September 12.

I remember waking up to the radio news, and instantly my (now) wife and I shot out of bed and into the lounge to turn the TV on. The towers had been down for a few hours but everything was being repeated constantly. Couldn't believe it. I worked at a TV station so we changed our schedule to bring in as many rotating international feeds as we could (and on a side note won an award for coverage that day).

For the next year I had a mobid fascination about the towers coming down. Nothing sinister or over the top, just something I couldn't get out of my head. It wasn't until a Robert Deniro documentary on the first anniversary that I was finally able to let go.

My heart goes out to the families who are still grieving, and best wishes to the construction team building the new WTC 1 tower.

Oh and NZ began the commemorations today - in typical NZ fashion being related to Rugby - with this:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americ...03290/9-11-memorial-service-boosts-USA-Eagles

 

[iguana_tonante]

I was 23 and a grad student at the time. I was home, reading for my quantum mechanics exam. My mother called me from the sitting room to watch the news.

I didn't study much after that.

 

[spooky spice]

It was lunchtime here, and someone told us "a plane crashed into a building in New York", then we found out it was the World Trade Center, then that it had apparently been deliberate. I was childminding at the time and picked the kid up from school and brought him home - his mother rang and told me not to let him watch TV, so I put him in front of his PlayStation, and turned the TV in the other room on to Sky News. They were re-showing what had happened, and I just stared at one tower on fire and a plane making a swooping dive to hit the other tower.

Then they cut to live footage of the tower falling. I must've started shouting cos the kid came running in, and I had to change the channel. I hustled him back out of the room and went back to Sky News, but the kid kept running into the room (even though I wasn't shouting) as he was sure he was missing something interesting and I was being rotten for not letting him watch

Sept 11th is my friend's birthday, it felt strange phoning her to wish her a happy birthday in the midst of all the horror that was going on.

 

[Emher]

I was 16, and home sick from HS. Was watching The Mummy commentary on DVD I think, it was afternoon. And my mom comes down and says that a plane's crashed into the Empire State building.

My first reaction is sorta "Aw, that sucks, I like that building!" and I follow her up the other TV where she has Sky News on. I immediately see that it's the World Trade Center. I know what it represents, and I say "Mom, I don't think this is an accident." Half a minute later the second plane hits.

We kept watching for hours. Just sitting there in front of Sky News. CNN delayed their coverage about 15 minutes or so, Sky showed what happened when it happened and for that I applaud them. There's no use in looking away from the horrors of the world, they need to faced head on and fought back.

I've changed a lot since then. But one thing I always do every year is watch this clip: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-20-2001/september-11--2001
I think it says all that needs be said.
​

 

[Rarewolf]

I only worked part time back then, so had just got home from work. Exactly what I was doing when the TV programmes were interupted - I was eating a Hot Dog.

 

[MacLeod]

I was on my day off work, switched on the TV and it was on the news report, though it was still earlier in the news. Can't have been long after it first happened.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I was 21 and slept through the attacks. Then woke up around 11 in the morning PST and flicked on the television. Still being groggy I wasn't really comprehending what was going on but then after flipping channel after channel I quickly realized that something huge happened and obviously discovered what had happen. I remember feeling blown away and having this weird sad feeling the entire day. When my best friend got home from school (they had cancelled classes at college, this was in Vancouver) and sent everyone home, we basically watched the news all day long until I went back home for dinner and then I watched the news with my family.

I remember having a sense that the world had suddenly changed and in a huge way. I also remember that it delayed the premier of "Smallville" I think a month which was supposed to debut that week. It is still surreal watching the footage of the towers today. One of the important things I remember was feeling pride at seeing and hearing stories of Canadians helping out our American brothers and sisters during the crisis. Then feeling anger when Bush snubbed us his in his speech, I believe he recognized Britain and other allies but not us. A lot of Canadians felt like that was a further damper in American/Canadian relations during that time period.

 

[Darth Picardous]

The late news was just about finished, and was waiting for a first run ep of TNG. (yes, we were that far behind), when Sandra Sully said there was a fire at the WTC and cut to a cam on the top of one of the news corp buildings. A bunch of US commentators were on (three, I think), trying to figure out what had happened... when we watched, real time, the second plane hit. At first there were saying that the plane flew past and the first tower had exploded again (such was the camera angle), but they wound the footage back and played it again and again, and we could suddenly see the plane had hit the second tower. They didn't play TNG that night. Sandra Sully stayed on, they went ad-free, and swapped between different news feeds across America.

I stayed up 'til 3 (I had to catch a train at 6). My little son was 10 at the time, he'd fallen asleep on the floor, but woke up to watch some of this. I realised that the world had changed, and not for the better. We'd had NY 2000, we'd had the Sydney Olympics, we'd had a whole bunch of good stuff happen, and the 21st Century was looking good for a change for the better... then this. This fucking, fucking awful thing.

Yeah, the world changed.

Ha ha I was doing the same exact thing as you on that Tuesday night waiting for Star Trek to play and channel surfing and coming across Sandra Sully on Ch 10 at 10:40 pm EST talking about a plane hitting the WTC .... but it was definately TNG's second run on Channel 9 I was waiting up for. When this incident happened I thought "they ain't playing Trek tonight".

 

[Australis]

^ Could have been 2nd run, Ch 9 reception in my area, between Sydney and Newcastle, is dodgy, even today, and their scheduling of Trek was awful.

Small world.

 

[Squiggy]

My roommate came in my room about a half hour before I woke up and told me a plane had hit the WTC. I thought a Cessna had clipped it and kept going so I didn't think much of it.

When I actually woke up, it was to the Top 40 station I worked at which had already gone wall to wall Dan Rather so I knew something big was happening. I was supposed to be flying into New York later that afternoon to attend the College Music Journal Conference and one of the messages on my machine was from my mother demanding that I not go.

"I'll go unless they close the airports. Gaw!"

So, they closed the airports.

 

[mimic]

I was a sophomore in high school. I found out during 3rd period English class when another teacher came in and whispered something to my English teacher. We were working in small groups and I didn't think much of it. Maybe ten minutes later she stopped us and turned on the TV, and we watched the smoking towers.

Between classes it was clear that approximately half of the students knew. People were laughing and normal, others were staring blankly. We turned on the TV in French class and within a few minutes a tower fell.

My math teacher made us take a test, but none of us really minded because it was nice to have a distraction from the news. Later he apologized for it; as it turns out he didn't know anything was going on.

We still had soccer practice and I remember looking up at the sky and thinking how strange it was not to see any contrail lines.

When I got home I came here and posted in the thread.