9-11-01: What were you doing?

[nash]

I was back home in hawaii and wasted, just got home from a club and sat down to eat before going to sleep. Turned on the TV and there it was, breaking news.

 

[Patient Zero]

I actually got hit by a school bus that morning. I was at a stop light behind a semi and the bus came up behind me. The drivers foot slipped off the brake and hit the gas. It proceeded to push my whole front end under the semi. The back of the truck was stripped off the frame. I was very lucky. The paramedics came and strapped me up and I went to the E.R. I was fine and went home. Needless to say, the day only got worse. I will never forget that crappy day that was 9-11.

 

[Reinhardt]

I was at Circuit City looking at buying an HDTV - All that was on every single tv was the footage from the Towers... over and over and over again.

 

[Darth Madden]

By the time I got up all the planes had hit so it was just replays of that. I did see them fall before I had to go to work. We had a tv in our break room and I don't think anybody did much actual work that day.

 

[kobayashi93]

It was my sophomore year of high school. I was turning in my lunch money with a friend, when the news of the first hit broke.

 

[Darth Madden]

I also remember that for about a week or so after that I didn't hear anything bad on the local news. There were no rapes, no murders, no kidnappings, no robberies... nothing. And the local news was reporting non 9/11 news since there were car accidents and fires but nothing to those real bad extremes. It was very strange.

 

[Chimera 1]

I was working for a crappy company that didn't allow cell phones or radios. Someone had snuck in a portable tv that day to listen to their soaps. i got up to use the bathroom and saw people huddled around her desk so I went to check it out. Next thing I know the second plane hit and then cell phones, radios and tv's started appearing out of nowhere and everyone was crying because they couldn't call out because the networks were jammed and the managers would not let people use their phones or go home. It wasn't till I got home that I got the whole picture. Needless to say I quit a few weeks later and went back to my previous job.

 

[Toast]

I was in school, I was 11 when it happened.

 

[karamazov80]

I was in a statistics class, and one of my friends got a text message about it from her father. She said something along the lines of, "The U.S. is under attack. New York and the Pentagon were hit." At first, I didn't even believe it, or understand how anyone could do anything to us. I mean, we're the USA!! When we got out of class, everyone was talking about it (still a bunch of hearsay at that point regarding who had been responsible, and what the extent of it was), and people were at the library were just stunned, watching the CNN footage.

 

[Chimera 1]

I was having breakfast before going to my chemistry lab in college. Caught the news right before the second plane hit. At the time, we didn't know what the scope of the attack would be and I was worried about my girlfirend (now wife) who was working at the Governor's office in Harrisburg. It strange beacuse the Governor at the time was Tom Ridge, who later became Director of Homeland Security.

At the time I was living in Middletown (basically next to 3 mile Island), I was worried i wouldn't be able to go home but i knew my wife and son were safe because she was working in Mechanicsburg at the time and my son was in the daycare center next to my job. Until the last plane crashed in PA everyone was saying that the missing plane was headed for one of the reactors.

 

[devilof76]

I worked third shift at Motel 6 and I'd smoke a joint every night while I was at work, and then smoke the roach when I got home. I was at my parents' house because they have a gorgeous backyard with fields and woods and at that time of the morning, it's all little birds waking up and hitting on each other and stuff. Very sylvan, and perfect for smoking before going home to bed.

I hadn't got that far yet for some reason (I got out of work at 7) and the phone rang. I ignored it, but heard the message being left, which was my aunt telling my mother that my brother was safe because the Prudential building had been evacuated. I picked the phone up immediately and asked her what she was talking about. All she said was turn on the tv. So I did. The first tower was smoking, no one knew what was going on, and then the second plane hit.

I sat and watched the whole thing unfold, and once the worst was over, I drove to the liberal arts college down the road from me (Bates College; the three liberal arts schools in Maine are Bates Bowdoin and Colby; it's said that one producers lawyers, one produces doctors, and the other produces activists; Bates is the last one). I went into the chapel there (to look at the Aristotle and Plato stained glass windows) and told the old man sweeping it what had happened. He thanked me for letting him know. Then I sat outside and watched students gradually freaking out, calling home, etc. Then I went into the campus cafe where a bunch of students and staff were glued to a tv. I noticed I was standing next to a professor and I said to no one in particular, "I wonder how American academics feel right now." He turned to me, I looked him in the eye and asked, "Complicit?" I walked out before he could respond, and then I drove home.

I didn't get to bed that day and I had to go to work that night with no sleep.

 

[wofford29]

I worked third shift at Motel 6 and I'd smoke a joint every night while I was at work, and then smoke the roach when I got home. I was at my parents' house because they have a gorgeous backyard with fields and woods and at that time of the morning, it's all little birds waking up and hitting on each other and stuff. Very sylvan, and perfect for smoking before going home to bed.

I hadn't got that far yet for some reason (I got out of work at 7) and the phone rang. I ignored it, but heard the message being left, which was my aunt telling my mother that my brother was safe because the Prudential building had been evacuated. I picked the phone up immediately and asked her what she was talking about. All she said was turn on the tv. So I did. The first tower was smoking, no one knew what was going on, and then the second plane hit.

I sat and watched the whole thing unfold, and once the worst was over, I drove to the liberal arts college down the road from me (Bates College; the three liberal arts schools in Maine are Bates Bowdoin and Colby; it's said that one producers lawyers, one produces doctors, and the other produces activists; Bates is the last one). I went into the chapel there (to look at the Aristotle and Plato stained glass windows) and told the old man sweeping it what had happened. He thanked me for letting him know. Then I sat outside and watched students gradually freaking out, calling home, etc. Then I went into the campus cafe where a bunch of students and staff were glued to a tv. I noticed I was standing next to a professor and I said to no one in particular, "I wonder how American academics feel right now." He turned to me, I looked him in the eye and asked, "Complicit?" I walked out before he could respond, and then I drove home.

I didn't get to bed that day and I had to go to work that night with no sleep.

Sounds like you were baked.

 

[EVILFACE]

I was sleeping when the first building was hit. Then I saw the second one and watched them both fall.

 

[wofford29]

I only used to go through about an eighth a week, but I did smoke fairly constantly. Still, I was straight that morning.

I wish you would have stayed for the answer. I'm sure your point was made, but damnit, now we'll never know!

 

[devilof76]

I didn't want to debate. I just wanted to smack him and walk away. So I did.

They sure did get uppity after it happened though. That may be a clue. I had breakfast with Howard Zinn a few weeks later. I should have asked him too, but I think I knew better.

 

[usswanker]

I was in 8th grade in TN when it happened. It was history class when our teacher came in and said something terrible had happened in NY and it was best if our parents came and got us. So after that I went home and watched it unfold on the news.

 

[Voorhees27]

Its hard to believe that 8 years have passed. I remember getting ready for work, when my brother knocked on my door telling me to watch the news. I remember not saying a single word for hours but having thousands of thoughts. It was a very depressing day.

 

[SOLIDSNAKE]

I was working at NATIONAL car rental listening to howard stern when it happend.

people pulled to the side of the road in shock.
I called my parents and my mom answer the phone in tears trying to reach my familly in new york.

we lost a relative due to the twin towers. I dont like to talk to much about it because it makes so ^^^^ing mad till this day.

I was so close to enrole in the UNITED STATES ARMY.
my girlfriend now my wife and my familly beg me to death not to go.

I am still pissed about this and when i hear people talk bad about The 911 tragedy it insults me and my familly.

I wish I would have sothing to save all those lives.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET !!

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this trubute makes me cry !

MY thougt and prayers to all !!

There was no reason for all the lives lost that day !!

NONE !!

 

[Valfar]

I was working on a CNC machine that morning and then heard all about it on the radio and through co-workers, we actually all got the afternoon off with pay that day so, i took off to my girlfriends and had a couple drinks with her while watching some of the coverage on television. We had quite a bit of fire fighters head over to NYC to help out and send supplies and aid, the people of Newfoundland took in some of the U.S passengers that were grounded there for a couple days and gave them food and places to stay for a few days.

 

[MarrowMan]

After working the late shift at Kinko's (Yeah I know that place sucks) I got home and turned the tv on, and it was the first thing i saw at around 9am est, plane one (American Airlines Flight 11 ) hitting the WTC's North Tower. Not a day I'll soon forget. My father in-law (He wasn't then) was stranded (like many) at JFK trying to get back to Toronto. It was the most horrific thing I had witnessed live (on tv, albeit) in my then 25 years of living.