# 11 September 2001. Where were you?



## sospiro

15 years ago today. Where were you on 9/11?

I was on a plane which had just landed at Milan Malpensa airport, on a week long organised trip to see the Italian Grand Prix. As I sat on the coach, a friend text me to say a plane had crashed into the WTC and that there were possibly casualties. I remembered reading about a small plane which had crashed into the Empire State Building many years ago and assumed it was something similar and as the coach set off for our hotel on Lake Como, I thought no more of my friend's message. 

Other people on the coach started to get messages from friends and relatives at home and by the time we got to the hotel, most of us realised the enormity of the situation. After we checked in, many of us sat watching the TV screens in the lounge, not really believing what we saw.

Grand Prix trips are usually great fun but everyone felt dreadful and several people returned home immediately. There was talk of the Grand Prix being cancelled but it went ahead and I don't think many people could say they enjoyed it. 

On the way home we had to be at the airport four hours before our flight because of the enhanced security checks. Everything in everyone's hand luggage was inspected in great detail and the flight home was totally uneventful but even so was a frightening experience as most passengers were imagining what it must have been like for the people on those planes.


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## Pugg

I had the flue and laying on the couch being ill.....I switch channels and saw it happening live on CNN, I called my mother and she almost fainted, my dad ( captain at KLM royal Dutch airlines at that time) was on his way to New York with a full Boeing 747-400. 
To cut the story short, he ended up in Canada after hours in the air and surrounded by army plains. I still remember him walking back in to the house ( safe) he hugged her and me and give us a big kiss. 
He said :" never let terror get the better of us."


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## Ingélou

Just at home. I got back from walking the dogs & got a phone call from Taggart telling me to switch the television on because something dreadful had happened. When I saw the footage, I was absolutely aghast - I think I realised even then that a new era had begun in the world's troubles.


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## joen_cph

I had been at work in a news stand kiosk in central Copenhagen´s pedestrian street area, when, while I was walking back to the commuter train station, people with CNN logos on their clothes approached passing people with news leaflets, telling about the attack. 

I had never seen such news-announcing people before here (or since), and to tell you the truth, I thought that it was probably some theatrical-political event (seen here regularly) & didn´t take that much notice of it. 

Later, after reaching home and hearing some people talk about the attack on the commuter train, I turned on the TV news, which would run for many, many hours consecutively on the subject, to a large degree repeating the same, chaotic but also limited information. 

I think I saw the second tower collapsing live & I also got irritated at some local television hosts for being relatively uninformed about the collapses, even after they had obviously happened.

There was a general, surreal atmosphere of emergency and a possible world war or catastrophe, that lasted well into the next day, when things began to settle down a bit. I began realizing that there was probably not going to be any further attacks, after about 15 hours or so.


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## sospiro

Pugg said:


> I had the flue and laying on the couch being ill.....I switch channels and saw it happening live on CNN, I called my mother and she almost fainted, my dad ( captain at KLM royal Dutch airlines at that time) was on his way to New York with a full Boeing 747-400.
> To cut the story short, he ended up in Canada after hours in the air and surrounded by army plains. I still remember him walking back in to the house ( safe) he hugged her and me and give us a big kiss.
> He said :" never let terror get the better of us."


I just cannot imagine how terrifying that must have been for your father.


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## Guest

I don't remember where I was when this horror was unleashed on us. I remember though the next day's headlines in one of the leading French newspapers really choked me up: "We Are All Americans". Absolutely.


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## Pugg

sospiro said:


> I just cannot imagine how terrifying that must have been for your father.


I do remember he told us once, weeks later, he felt save as soon as the U.S army guided him trough airspace and kind off praying that all the crew and passengers keep their heads cool.
Four days later he had his next shift and without a shadow of a doubt he went to work.
He never doubted his work, he missing it actuality now he's retired.


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## sospiro

joen_cph said:


> I had been at work in a news stand kiosk in central Copenhagen´s pedestrian street area, when walking back to the commuter train station, people with CNN logos on their clothes approached the passing people with news leaflets, telling about the attack.
> 
> I had never seen such news-announcing people before here (or since), and to tell you the truth, I thought that it was probably some theatrical-political event & didn´t take that much notice of it.
> 
> Later, after reaching home and hearing some people talk about the attack on the commuter train, I turned on the TV news, which would run for many, many hours consecutively on the subject, to a large degree repeating the same,* chaotic but also limited information.*
> 
> I think I saw the second tower collapsing live & I also got irritated at some local television hosts for being relatively uninformed about the collapses, even after they had obviously happened.
> 
> There was a general, surreal atmosphere of emergency and a possible world war or catastrophe, that lasted well into the next day, when things began to settle down a bit. I began realizing that there was probably not going to be any further attacks, after about 15 hours or so.


This was before everyone had access to the internet and CNN was the only English language channel on Italian TV and as you know, American TV refused to show or make reference to the fact that people were jumping out. I'm not exactly sure why but I think it was considered cowardly and un-American. It wasn't until I read a British paper that I found out about this appalling aspect.


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## joen_cph

sospiro said:


> This was before everyone had access to the internet and CNN was the only English language channel (...)


Yes, news technology has made incredible steps forward since then.

There´s a detailed rendition of the president´s evacuation into the AirForce One published here today 
(it´s not a politically loaded report) 
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/were-the-only-plane-in-the-sky-214230

telling of a general confusion and a lack of efficient communication possibilities even at the highest levels, that is quite startling.


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## sospiro

Pugg said:


> I do remember he told us once, weeks later, he felt save as soon as the U.S army guided him trough airspace and kind off praying that all the crew and passengers keep their heads cool.
> Four days later he had his next shift and without a shadow of a doubt he went to work.
> He never doubted his work, he missing it actuality now he's retired.


Your father must be an amazing man to be so calm and courageous at a time like that. I am sure many people in his position would have taken time off so he's is doubly courageous to go straight back to work.


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## schigolch

I was at work in what it was then my office, located in downtown Madrid, when I received a phone call from my mother asking me to turn on the TV, and watch the WTC towers in flames. 

I immediately suspected a terrorist attack by Al Quaeda (they have tried in the past to blew the towers using a bomb in the underground), and regrettably I found this was indeed the case.


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## Art Rock

In Singapore, at home, watching CNN.


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## Crudblud

I was out playing (I was 11 at the time, so probably skateboarding) and this boy I knew ran up to us and said "they blew up the twin towers!" and ran off again. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about until a few hours later when I got home and my mum put the news on. Don't remember much else about the day, really.


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## joen_cph

Before, it was remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall that could make one feel a bit old by comparison; 
now it´s becoming the 9/11 events ...


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## hpowders

I was watching it live on TV as it unfolded in real time at home.

My wife lost her best friend, Mary D'Antonio, working in the World Trade Center on that dreadful day, 09/11/2001, so this is a personal loss for the hpowders family.

Just saw her name pass by on the ticker. As emotional an experience as it was 15 years ago.

Simply devastating.


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## sospiro

Crudblud said:


> I was out playing (I was 11 at the time, so probably skateboarding) and this boy I knew ran up to us and said "they blew up the twin towers!" and ran off again. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about until a few hours later when I got home and my mum put the news on. Don't remember much else about the day, really.


Ah - the resilience of youth!


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## Dedalus

I was also 11 when I saw it. I lived in Hawaii at the time, so for me it happened early in the morning. I got woken up by my mom and my dad was leaving for work because he worked for the Navy and I guess pretty much the most military personnel possible were sent to work when it happened.

I remember it was before sunrise and I know I saw the second crash live. I remember spending the rest of the morning watching the news with my mom and even flipping through the channels to count how many stations were covering it all at the same time. I think the number was above 30, on basic cable, which really isn't surprising given the event.

I don't think I totally understood the significance of it being so young, but I know everybody was very serious about it so I understood it was something big. I even remember them saying Muslim extremists may have been a part of the attack which I had never even heard of at the time. Of course I know now that Muslim extremists existed long before 2001 but I suppose that event made it blatantly clear that it was a problem.

I'm pretty sure they made a big deal about it at school as well with all the teachers telling us their take on it. I don't really remember what they said but I'm sure they drilled into us how serious this was and how sad we should be for the then unknown number of dead. I'm not saying I wasn't sad, but I was 11, and I knew about things like the holocaust that killed far more, and I didn't know any of these people who died/were dying on ground zero so it didn't really phase me deep down. Of course I know better now how much of a tragedy it was.


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## DiesIraeCX

I was in the 10th grade (at the school where I'm now teaching world geography), I was on the third floor of A hall in Mr. Cotton's room (computer/tech class) and he told the class that something terrible had happened. We all sat there watching the news, we saw the second plane hit. As a 10th grader, I don't think I truly understood the weight of the tragedy that befell us. Now I cannot see footage of that day without tearing up.


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## sospiro

hpowders said:


> I was watching it live on TV as it unfolded in real time at home.
> 
> My wife lost her best friend, Mary D'Antonio, working in the World Trade Center on that dreadful day, 09/11/2001, so this is a personal loss for the hpowders family.
> 
> Just saw her name pass by on the ticker. As emotional an experience as it was 15 years ago.
> 
> Simply devastating.


Oh how awful for your family and for Mary's family. It affected so many people. My best friend's sister worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and had been on secondment to NY from her office in London just a few months prior to 9/11. She lost many friends.


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## Guest

I was at work when the news came, I don't remember how. I do remember having trouble getting on the internet. When I finally got on, I saw photos of the towers right after being hit. I thought at that time they were probably going to be saved. I remember a kind of ticker tape thing scrolling across the bottom of the screen saying that four planes had been hijacked and that two were used to hit each tower of the WTC, there was also an attack on the Pentagon with a third plane and the whereabouts of the fourth were unknown. I think it was like an hour later, a news item scrolled by that said the fourth plane--Flight 93--was located over Pennsylvania and was shot out of the sky by a military jet that witnesses said pulled up almost alongside it. That item never scrolled by again. After that, it only said that Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

One of my coworkers had a radio going where an anchor was talking to a reporter on the scene. he asked how the first tower was doing. The reporter on the scene said, "That structure has collapsed and is no longer there." I remember another coworker looked sharply at the radio in a kind of annoyed, "That can't be right" look. I felt the same. Surely they saved it. The anchor must have felt the same way because he said, "I'm talking about the tower itself." The reporter said, "Yes, it has completely collapsed and is no longer there. The second tower will also collapse as it is too far gone to be saved now and they'll never get the fire out before it collapses." And I thought, "Holy shyte!" That's when I realized just how bad the devastation really was.

Ever since then, I have been skeptical about the story of Flight 93. The heroic passengers sacrificing themselves to make the plane crash. Doesn't seem likely to me. I think a military jet DID blow it out of the sky. Think about it. What else could they do? They couldn't let it get to its destination. But it doesn't sound good to tell the public that the govt took that plane out. They had too but it doesn't sound good. So a heroic cover story has to be invented. The Bush administration did the same thing with Jessica Lynch--made her the hero of a story they virtually invented, a story she denied many times before she got tired of repeating herself and gave up correcting it. She was far too severely injured to have been able to do what they said she did--her pelvis was crushed, for god's sake. I know what I read about Flight 93 that day because another coworker was reading the monitor with me at that moment. We talked about it afterward and he said that now that the govt invented that cover story, no one will ever believe any other. And after that movie came out in 2006, it's a done deal for sure.


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## SarahNorthman

I was in the 6th grade. I remember being in class when it happened. We did not do one bit of class work that day, just watched the news. Later that day I was in the hospital. All that was on TV was news on 9/11 or the baby channel. I remember them air lifting people in from New York to UNM Hospital that night.


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## znapschatz

It was a beautiful day in Columbus; perfect weather and we were feeling great after a workout at the gym we attend. We returned home in a cheerful frame of mind, poured our drinks, sat down in the living room and turned on the television. The first thing popping up was video of the explosion as the first tower was hit (a replay, the towers were attacked while we were away.) Then we saw the rest as it played out. Without knowing anything more, we could sense that world affairs had been instantly and permanently changed, quite the ruin of what had started out as a gorgeous day.


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## senza sordino

I was getting ready to go to work, it was early in the morning here. My alarm clock radio came on with the news. I could hear it was bad, so I switched on the tv. I went to work and then the students and I watched tv all day. It was the beginning of the school year, and it took a few weeks to begin teaching. 

One month prior, my then girlfriend of two years dumped me. I now know that was the best thing. I had just bought my first apartment and I was to move in at the end of the month. And I had just started grad school at evening classes. I had a lot going on at the time. I know this all pales by comparison to the families and the victims of 9/11. Devastating was 9/11, after all this time I am still tearing up when I hear about 9/11.


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## sospiro

Victor Redseal said:


> I was at work when the news came, I don't remember how. I do remember having trouble getting on the internet. When I finally got on, I saw photos of the towers right after being hit. I thought at that time they were probably going to be saved. I remember a kind of ticker tape thing scrolling across the bottom of the screen saying that four planes had been hijacked and that two were used to hit each tower of the WTC, there was also an attack on the Pentagon with a third plane and the whereabouts of the fourth were unknown. I think it was like an hour later, a news item scrolled by that said the fourth plane--Flight 93--was located over Pennsylvania and was shot out of the sky by a military jet that witnesses said pulled up almost alongside it. That item never scrolled by again. After that, it only said that Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
> 
> One of my coworkers had a radio going where an anchor was talking to a reporter on the scene. he asked how the first tower was doing. The reporter on the scene said, "That structure has collapsed and is no longer there." I remember another coworker looked sharply at the radio in a kind of annoyed, "That can't be right" look. I felt the same. Surely they saved it. The anchor must have felt the same way because he said, "I'm talking about the tower itself." The reporter said, "Yes, it has completely collapsed and is no longer there. The second tower will also collapse as it is too far gone to be saved now and they'll never get the fire out before it collapses." And I thought, "Holy shyte!" That's when I realized just how bad the devastation really was.
> 
> Ever since then, I have been skeptical about the story of Flight 93. The heroic passengers sacrificing themselves to make the plane crash. Doesn't seem likely to me. I think a military jet DID blow it out of the sky. Think about it. What else could they do? They couldn't let it get to its destination. But it doesn't sound good to tell the public that the govt took that plane out. They had too but it doesn't sound good. So a heroic cover story has to be invented. The Bush administration did the same thing with Jessica Lynch--made her the hero of a story they virtually invented, a story she denied many times before she got tired of repeating herself and gave up correcting it. She was far too severely injured to have been able to do what they said she did--her pelvis was crushed, for god's sake. I know what I read about Flight 93 that day because another coworker was reading the monitor with me at that moment. We talked about it afterward and he said that now that the govt invented that cover story, no one will ever believe any other. And after that movie came out in 2006, it's a done deal for sure.


I've heard about the theory that Flight 93 was shot down and I can't decide whether or not it's true but I'm always puzzled at the idea of shooting down a plane to save lives on the ground.

After 9/11 there were several instances where a military jet would 'escort' a passenger plane if its behaviour or signature seemed unusual. But if the plane was being flown by terrorists intent on crashing it, surely being shot down by the military would produce the same result. You can fly alongside a plane but you can't force the pilot to do what you want. You couldn't, for example, force it to fly over water.


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## joen_cph

It´s not so that there isn´t any documentation for the passenger´s rebellion. Wiki-articles on the flight have summaries of it, for example.
I won´t go into a detailed discussion about the documentation´s value or that of Wiki here, however.


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## hpowders

sospiro said:


> Oh how awful for your family and for Mary's family. It affected so many people. My best friend's sister worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and had been on secondment to NY from her office in London just a few months prior to 9/11. She lost many friends.


Thank you. Yes. Cantor Fitzgerald. Completely wiped out. My son-in-law lost a close friend too on that day. Far-reaching effects for so many people. Every year on Sept. 11th, I watch for Mary's name, along with the other almost 3000 innocents. A sad ritual.


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## znapschatz

sospiro said:


> I've heard about the theory that Flight 93 was shot down and I can't decide whether or not it's true but I'm always puzzled at the idea of shooting down a plane to save lives on the ground.
> 
> After 9/11 there were several instances where a military jet would 'escort' a passenger plane if its behaviour or signature seemed unusual. But if the plane was being flown by terrorists intent on crashing it, surely being shot down by the military would produce the same result. You can fly alongside a plane but you can't force the pilot to do what you want. You couldn't, for example, force it to fly over water.


Whether or not Flight 93 were shot down to save lives on the ground, there would have been good reason to have done so. The plane was in flight to an unknown destination, but the others were crashed into significant buildings. The lives saved on the ground could have been in the Capitol building or the White House.


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## sospiro

hpowders said:


> Thank you. Yes. Cantor Fitzgerald. Completely wiped out. My son-in-law lost a close friend too on that day. Far-reaching effects for so many people. Every year on Sept. 11th, I watch for Mary's name, along with the other almost 3000 innocents. A sad ritual.


I didn't realise the names were remembered like this every year. A very fitting tribute and I hope it continues.


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## schigolch

John Adams - "On the Transmigration of Souls":


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## hpowders

sospiro said:


> I didn't realise the names were remembered like this every year. A very fitting tribute and I hope it continues.


Every, 09/11, there are several national TV news stations in the US where all the names go by slowly on a lower ticker tape. It takes quite a few hours, but is well worth it.

At the same time, there is a ceremony at ground zero in NYC where survivors read the names of all who perished on that day.

Always mournful classical music performed live, accompanying the reading of the names. I'm sure it's not intentional, but it does re-enforce the negative stereotypes of classical music on the general populace. Morbid. Music only good for funerals....

Plenty of pop music that's appropriate to the occasion. I would gladly program the whole event if they would allow me.

Just an aside.


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## Sloe

I heard about it on the radio when I was on the bus on my way home. I remember when I came home to read more about it on the homepage of a evening newspaper they had made a simpler former version of the page because of all the traffic.
A TV channel was going to show "Con Air" but it was replaced with "What's Love Got To Do with It" because of that I always associate these films with that date.


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## Guest

sospiro said:


> I've heard about the theory that Flight 93 was shot down and I can't decide whether or not it's true but I'm always puzzled at the idea of shooting down a plane to save lives on the ground.
> 
> After 9/11 there were several instances where a military jet would 'escort' a passenger plane if its behaviour or signature seemed unusual. But if the plane was being flown by terrorists intent on crashing it, surely being shot down by the military would produce the same result. You can fly alongside a plane but you can't force the pilot to do what you want. You couldn't, for example, force it to fly over water.


All I can tell you is that the first news I read about the fate of Flight 93 on September 11 was that a jet shot it down and that witnesses had seen it happen. It makes sense because it went down in a field. If the passengers caused it to crash, it seems a bit too fortuitous that it crashed in a field but if the jet was under orders to take it out when it was least likely to kill people down below, the pilot would have waited until it was over an uninhabited area. It just makes more sense to me.


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## Guest

znapschatz said:


> Whether or not Flight 93 were shot down to save lives on the ground, there would have been good reason to have done so. The plane was in flight to an unknown destination, but the others were crashed into significant buildings. The lives saved on the ground could have been in the Capitol building or the White House.


Exactly. They couldn't let it get to its destination.


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## hpowders

Rest in peace sweet Mary D'Antonio. Linda misses you terribly.


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## JamieHoldham

Honestly I was kind of oblivous as to what happened, and I didnt know what actually happened at the time since I didn't live in America, also I never watched the news when I was that young.

Theres nothing nice about the event, but with how often terrorist attacks happen nowadays it's just become the normal, which says something about the government.


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## Pat Fairlea

As 9/11 happened, I was on a flight from UK to Poland. As I was waiting at Warsaw airport to transfer to an internal flight, another transfer passenger got a 'phone call and immediately jumped up to turn on an overhead TV. The image was of a burning tower, which made no sense at first. Then the second plane flew in. Like most people in the room, I couldn't understand what I was watching and assumed it was a movie trailer. I was genuinely wondering when Bruce Willis would come in. Then I noticed the words 'CNN Live' in the corner of the screen and realised with dumb shock that this was actually happening. And at that moment, our connecting flight was called to board.

Later that day, a fairly international group of us were in a bar in downtown Krakow discussing what we had gathered about that attack. An American in the group sadly commented "Well, somebody will get their butt kicked for this". "Yes Frank", I said "But who?". "Oh", he replied "That won't matter, just so long as somebody does". In retrospect, how perceptive he was.


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## EdwardBast

A few minutes before the first plane struck the World Trade Center I was in an apartment on 204th St. in Manhattan wondering about the sound of a plane overhead where there is usually no flight path. Somewhat later my mother called from Pittsburgh to ask if I was okay. I said "Why do you ask?" She said turn on your TV. I did. By that time both towers had been struck.


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## Idealist

I was 4 years old. I was watching the TV and I asked my mom who were the bad guys doing that and why so many papers were flying across New York.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Driving to work in Brisbane Aust was normal day for a start until


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## Judith

I was at home having my hair done by a mobile hairdresser. Television on and we were watching it as it was happening. Both ended in tears.


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## sospiro

hpowders said:


> View attachment 88666
> 
> 
> Rest in peace sweet Mary D'Antonio. Linda misses you terribly.


It must be heart breaking to see her name but none of the victims should ever be forgotten and I hope this memorial continues for many years to come.


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## sospiro

Idealist said:


> I was 4 years old. I was watching the TV and I asked my mom who were the bad guys doing that and why so many papers were flying across New York.


It's strange what we remember as a child but I also remember the papers flying out of the windows.


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## Pugg

sospiro said:


> It's strange what we remember as a child but I also remember the papers flying out of the windows.


And the people running in despair, not knowing where to go........breathtaking.


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## sospiro

Pat Fairlea said:


> As 9/11 happened, I was on a flight from UK to Poland. As I was waiting at Warsaw airport to transfer to an internal flight, another transfer passenger got a 'phone call and immediately jumped up to turn on an overhead TV. The image was of a burning tower, which made no sense at first. Then the second plane flew in. Like most people in the room, I couldn't understand what I was watching and assumed it was a movie trailer. I was genuinely wondering when Bruce Willis would come in. Then I noticed the words 'CNN Live' in the corner of the screen and realised with dumb shock that this was actually happening. And at that moment, our connecting flight was called to board.


It definitely seemed unreal. I remember the clarity of the sky as if it been specially arranged.



Pat Fairlea said:


> Later that day, a fairly international group of us were in a bar in downtown Krakow discussing what we had gathered about that attack. An American in the group sadly commented "Well, somebody will get their butt kicked for this". "Yes Frank", I said "But who?". "Oh", he replied "That won't matter, just so long as somebody does". In retrospect, how perceptive he was.




Indeed.


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## Dr Johnson

I was in the car at the time. Someone rang me and I put the radio on. But it wasn't until I got home and saw the images on the TV that the enormity of what had happened really struck me.


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## Idealist

sospiro said:


> It's strange what we remember as a child but I also remember the papers flying out of the windows.


It is my earliest remembrance, even earlier than the birth of my brother in the same year.


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## EricABQ

I slept through the whole thing. I was working a swing shift that ended at 3:00 am so I got to bed about an hour before everything started. I slept about 8 hours and when I finally tuned in to the news they had shifted to more of an analysis mode as opposed to minute by minute updates. My dial up Internet wouldn't load so I had a hell of a time trying to figure out exactly what happened. It was very surreal knowing something massive had happened but not being able to piece it all together.


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## sospiro

EdwardBast said:


> A few minutes before the first plane struck the World Trade Center I was in an apartment on 204th St. in Manhattan wondering about the sound of a plane overhead where there is usually no flight path. Somewhat later my mother called from Pittsburgh to ask if I was okay. I said "Why do you ask?" She said turn on your TV. I did. By that time both towers had been struck.


How close to the WTC is 204th Street? I bet your mum was frantic.


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## Bellinilover

On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was at home, getting ready for school (I was attending George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, for an English degree). I had recently recovered from a viral infection, and it would be my first day back. My mom came into the kitchen and told me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. Of course, I assumed it was just a small commuter plane or something. Then we heard about some terrorist incident at the Pentagon in Washington, DC -- which worried us a little, because my dad worked at the International Trade Commission in DC. Soon we had the TV on, and when the towers fell I screamed. It was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life. My dad did get home safely by about 2:30 that afternoon, and needless to say I did not go to school.


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## sospiro

Bellinilover said:


> On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was at home, getting ready for school (I was attending George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, for an English degree). I had recently recovered from a viral infection, and it would be my first day back. My mom came into the kitchen and told me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. Of course, I assumed it was just a small commuter plane or something. Then we heard about some terrorist incident at the Pentagon in Washington, DC -- which worried us a little, because my dad worked at the International Trade Commission in DC. Soon we had the TV on, and when the towers fell I screamed. It was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life. My dad did get home safely by about 2:30 that afternoon, and needless to say I did not go to school.


I remember feeling totally shocked but it must have been a million times worse for people in the States.


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## EdwardBast

sospiro said:


> How close to the WTC is 204th Street? I bet your mum was frantic.


It is about eleven miles away, so not close at all. My mom knew I lived very near the north end of the island while the WTC is near the south end. The "pilot" followed the east bank of the Hudson River in from the north and my apartment was a short walk from the river.


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## starthrower

sospiro said:


> I remember feeling totally shocked but it must have been a million times worse for people in the States.


As Hunter S. Thompson put it, "where were you when the fun stopped?" It was extremely shocking and scary. I was working second shift at the time, so I was home mid morning when I turned on the TV. Needless to say, there wasn't much going on when I got to work. Everyone was standing around mumbling about the days dreadful events.


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## geralmar

My department managed the cable television contract for the township and a small television sat atop a filing cabinet across from my desk in my office. All day employees filed in and watched silently, then left stricken. I left my office to complete my work elsewhere. The father of a young woman in the office worked in the Pentagon and she made and received frantic calls all morning until he phoned to say he was safe. At home I deliberately left my television off for nearly two weeks, preferring to listen to classical music on the radio and on my stereo. (Television coverage was terrible anyway: empty, repetitive and bathetic.) I read an occasional newspaper instead.

I lived near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, one of the busier U.S. airports. Every day and especially at night until the flight ban was lifted I would go outside and marvel at the empty and silent sky. It is my most vivid memory of that time.


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## KenOC

I was working at home in California, putting together a daily industry newsletter that I published for some years. I was on the Internet and corresponding with a lady technical writer who lived on an island off the East Coast and helped with this. She wrote, “Have you looked at the news? New York is burning up!”

I quickly opened a news site and saw what was going on. After a few minutes, I saw the plane hit the second tower, live. That was truly terrible.

Later, I went to the office. My boss was a Pakistani man, who I respected (and still respect) very much. He was distraught. He said, “After today, everything will be different.” And it was, and is.

I wonder if anybody has ever commented on the closeness between the number of people killed in the 9/11 attacks and at Pearl Harbor.


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## jurianbai

I was playing online game and chatting with the community. It was midnight in my place which is the other side of the world. Suddenly the chat room switch to talk about incident in New York and that's how I received the news. I switched on the TV and there was live report on our local channel. We then all know the scale of this attack and the forum started doing extra moderation to prevent nasty discussion heated on.


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## sospiro

geralmar said:


> My department managed the cable television contract for the township and a small television sat atop a filing cabinet across from my desk in my office. All day employees filed in and watched silently, then left stricken. I left my office to complete my work elsewhere. The father of a young woman in the office worked in the Pentagon and she made and received frantic calls all morning until he phoned to say he was safe. At home I deliberately left my television off for nearly two weeks, preferring to listen to classical music on the radio and on my stereo. (Television coverage was terrible anyway: empty, repetitive and bathetic.) I read an occasional newspaper instead.
> 
> I lived near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, one of the busier U.S. airports. *Every day and especially at night until the flight ban was lifted I would go outside and marvel at the empty and silent sky. It is my most vivid memory of that time.*


It's often the _lack_ of something which is normally there which affects us the most.


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## KenOC

sospiro said:


> It's often the _lack_ of something which is normally there which affects us the most.


 I remember reading that the amount of haze in the North American atmosphere was much diminished in those days.

I wonder who remembers this: A couple of Arab students were driving south on the East Coast and became irritated at people in a restaurant obviously trying to overhear their conversation. So they spoke about bombing Florida or something, just to be irritating in return.

After they left the restaurant, their car was stopped. They were held by police while a robot just about disassembled their car. The nation was hanging on edge with the TV coverage.


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## Potiphera

I was at work when the news broke out. The television happened to be on in the hospital Outpatients waiting room when we seen the horrible images or World Trade Centre on fire and enveloped in thick smoke. It was my colleague who drew my attention to the news.


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## Varick

I was leaving Manhattan at the time on my way to my mother's house in New Jersey (I was living in Manhattan at the time). I was in the Lincoln Tunnel (Tunnel under the Hudson River that connects Manhattan to New Jersey) when the first plane hit. I remember driving south on the NJ Turnpike looking at smoke billowing out of one of the World Trade Ctr building thinking, "Wow, that is some fire they have there. Let me turn on the news and hear how it happened" (I was listening to music at the time). Before I could hear a radio report of what happened I saw another plane flying low towards the buildings thinking it was on it's way to La Guardia airport but also thinking, "Hmmm that seems a bit lower than usual."

Suddenly I saw the plane fly into the building and knew immediately that we were under attack. Almost everyone swerved to the shoulder of the Turnpike, stopped, and got out of their car completely shocked. After looking at each other in utter disbelief, I got back in my car and drove over 100 mph to my mother's house. For the rest of the day we just sat and watched the TV and I tried to get in touch with a bunch of friends I knew that worked downtown to no avail. Luckily, none of my close friends had died, but I knew a number of people through others that died that day. I drove back into Manhattan the next day, got in touch with three of my friends who were police (one in the Port Authority PD - who lost his partner and best friend that day, and the other two in New Jersey), and was down at the site with them on Friday, three days later.

The devastation was unreal and no matter how good the camera angles were or how close up they got, no images on TV could come close to seeing it up close. There was nothing but a sick pit in my stomach. I never saw my friend Vinny (Port Authority Cop who lost his partner and best friend) in that state before. To this day, he has never seen a movie, or special about 9/11. He has gone to a few memorials, but they are extremely difficult for him.

I know a lot of people who lost dear and close people that day. My heart aches to this day for those people and I can't help getting choked up every time I see memorial services. Last year I ran the Stephen Siller (If you want to know about an amazing man, read about Stephen Siller and what he did that day) memorial run from Brooklyn to the Twin towers through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. It was an amazingly powerful experience to see the FDNY, NYPD, & PAPD lined up as I exited the Tunnel in Manhattan holding posters of all the men they lost that day. I will be out of town this coming weekend when the run in NYC will happen again, but next year I will do it again.

V


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## Bellinilover

Varick, what an amazing account. I too get choked up now when watching Youtube videos of the 9/11 tributes from other countries, especially those from the UK (they sang our National Anthem in England:angel. However, like your friend I would never be able to watch the TV footage of the collapse again; I saw it on TV as it happened, and that was more than enough. And I could never in a million years listen to those tapes of the final phone calls from people who died. To a certain extent, I think I understand now why some people who lived through the Holocaust never want to hear it mentioned again.


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## georgedelorean

I was at home, getting ready to attend my college classes for the day. Saw the first tower burning, and the second get hit. Had to leave for class, so I didn't see anything else. However fear was rampant that day as one would expect, and they cancelled classes at SLCC for a few days after.


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## Taplow

At the opera. Bizet's Pearl Fishers. Went to fill up with petrol on the way home and overheard something on the radio at the petrol station about a plane. Didn't think too much of it, but it did fill me with an uneasy feeling. Then we got home and turned on the TV.


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## Tchaikov6

I wasn't born yet...


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## znapschatz

On one of the most beautiful days of the season, after working out at the OSU athletic facility and feeling great, my wife and I returned home, had something to eat, and then turned on the TV. The image on the screen was both towers burning. It was a mood changer, to say the least.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

I was in 6th grade, it was like 2nd period or something and they took us out into the field like it was a fire drill. When we went back in we were told the news. 

I didn't feel that worried or concerned, perhaps because I was used to already being paranoid about things, like the ozone layer and stuff like that....the only thing that concerned me was my mom talking about how wars are going to be fought and that me and my brother would be in danger of being drafted at some point.

My dad didn't seem afraid at all, and he, for his faults, is a highly intelligent man and especially perceptive where politics and world affairs are concerned. If my dad had expressed fear I would have been afraid, but he clearly was not perturbed.

Long-term nothing really changed for me that day. Though I guess you could say it helped form my perception of the US economic and political establishment as being supremely untrustworthy, and the duplicitous wars that followed make me think just as poorly of the military.

Biggest takeaway: People are lemmings.


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## Flamme

On a bus stop, returning from study in faculty library...


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## Bulldog

I was entering the workplace parking lot and saw a bunch of people standing around. They told me about the attack, and I told them all to close up the building and go home. I also went home and watched the whole terrible event on tv. My basic feeling was intense anger.


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## Kieran

I'd skived off work, pulled a sickie - on September 11, Bob Dylan's great album Love & Theft was released. Myself and my mate from youth both rang into work groaning and sputtering, bought our copies of the CD in town, and decamped to mine to listen.

We put on Sky News at about 2pm (Irish time) and were hit by this. We both knew it meant war, and huge trouble. We rang family members and everyone was talking about. Opinions varied, opinions changed, and things haven't been the same since, really...


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## Granate

I was in Kindergarden, too little to understand the horror of the attack. The following days I talked about it with the security guard like it was an amazing action film. And some months later I was playing those old videogames where I had to shot Bin Laden in the head. Sorry if this hurts you. I try to be honest.

I remember way better what I was doing in the 3/11 attack in Madrid in 2004.


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## hpowders

I was getting ready to play golf early that morning; checked in with CNBC to see how the stock market was set for the day, and then it all became surreal.


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## hpowders

I'll never forget that tape of President George W. Bush reading to pre-schoolers in Florida on that awful morning, when an aide came over and whispered the horrible truth into his ear.


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## Flamme

Surreal is the right word, it all looked like a scene from a HW movie...


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## hpowders

Flamme said:


> Surreal is the right word, it all looked like a scene from a HW movie...


I pray it never, ever happens again.

My wife lost a good friend that morning and so did my wife's son-in-law.


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## Merl

It was my first few days of teaching at a primary school in North Manchester (as an NQT). I came into the staffroom and the school TV was on. I just watched the images in horror. I had to explain to a bunch of 6 year olds what had happened, the next day. They asked me about it so I owed it to them to explain as sensitively as possible. I cried during the explanation. Just awful. Remember it vividly.


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## Flamme

I think this was one of them ''watershed'' events like JFK or Jack The Ripper, or the assassination of russian royal family...Nothing will be the same anymore, innocence of 90s was shot in the back and every new decade brings more cunning horrors, unimaginable before.


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## Pat Fairlea

I was en route from Yorkshire to Krakow. That required a change of flights at Warsaw. As we sat in the departure lounge, one man took a cellphone call, jumped out of his seat and turned on the TV. There was the burning tower. I had just taken that in when an aircraft flew in and hit. I honestly thought it was a movie. Where's Bruce Willis? Then I noticed the words CNN Live in the corner of the screen. It was for real and happening as I watched. Then our flight was called so off we went, stunned, to step aboard an airliner.
Late that evening in a bar, an international bunch of us were trying to process what had happened. An American friend commented:
"Somebody will get their butt kicked for this".
"Sure", I replied "But who?"
"Oh that won't matter. Just someone".


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## Larkenfield

I had a very different experience. I was at home and saw the Twin Towers hit, saw the fires in WTC 3 that was not hit, saw all three suspiciously collapse into their own footprint as if by three controlled demolitions... Later, after looking into the video live coverage of these events in great detail, and the testimony of witnesses deliberately left out of the official report, I felt that something was afoot and the American public was not being told the truth of what was behind these events, and that this conspicuously suspicious attack would eventually be used for political purposes, such as an excuse to justify war and a regime change somewhere in the Middle East. It happened... But then I also lived through the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK and felt that the public had not been told the truth there either... I have no further comments to make other than to deeply regret that loss of lives that changed America's destiny forever, the consequences of which are still being played out today in America's troubled political landscape and the tragic chaos in the Mid-East with millions displaced. I think it's important for citizens of the world not to take such events at face value, when there's a large body of video evidence available and eye-witness testimony that contradicts the official versions of what happened.


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## Crystal

I hadn't been born!


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## Pugg

What's next, where were you August 31th 1997?


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## ST4

I was fixing a tractor late afternoon, back on my old farm in Quebec. It was quite a normal night until my then-girlfriend (ex) rushed over to me and told me the horrific news.


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## Kieran

Pugg said:


> What's next, where were you August 31th 1997?


I was lying in bed with a beautiful woman, and I woke up early to check the tennis scores: Sampras was facing Korda in the fourth round of the US Open. I saw the news that princess Diana had died. I was sick to my core and didn't rest all day - _how the hell did Sampras lose to Korda? _I became fretful and fearful. I knew even then that Korda was drug cheat, and true enough, he was busted the following year. But still, that loss hit me hard. Sampras was a heavy favourite, and lost in a fifth set tiebreak, if memory serves.

I didn't bother watching any more of the tournament...


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## Totenfeier

September 11, 2001, I was just starting my 15th year of teaching high school. It was lunchtime, 11:00, and I was supervising students eating outside on the picnic tables at the school. My principal came out, and we talked briefly about a student we were having a problem with. Then she said, "I don't know if you know what's happened." (I didn't: it was before constant communication and I had been teaching classes all morning). She said, "The Twin Towers in New York have collapsed. The Washington Mall is on fire (incorrect information, of course), and the Pentagon has been attacked. It seems as though America is being attacked." She went on to say that she was trying to get the word out to as many teachers as possible to keep the students calm, and to try to get through the day as normally as possible. As you can guess, that didn't work; eventually, I suppose that every T.V. on campus was turned to the news, and we all watched it over and over again, as everybody did that day. As I watched the video of the planes crashing into the towers, the fire, the collapses, and the jumping, I had a strange sensation: the phrase "I can't believe my eyes!" had always been hyperbolic before, but now it was utterly real: in the most literal sense, I could not believe - process- what my eyes were telling me.

And I can never forget my frame of mind as I stood watching the laughing, chatting students eating lunch under that perfect, sunny blue sky. I was thinking, "This is a war. This may be World War III beginning. Some of these boys could be drafted and killed." Horrific.


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## KenOC

I was working early in the morning on a daily industry newsletter, helped by a lady across the country on an island off the East Coast. We were on the Internet. She said, “Did you see? It looks like New York is on fire!”

I clicked on the news and it was! I saw the second plane hit. There were reports of a small plane crashing in the Pentagon parking lot. Things developed from there.

Later I went into the office to work. My boss, a Pakistani gentleman and a long-time US citizen, was very upset. He said, “After today, everything will be different.” He was right.


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## Templeton

I was in work, in Liverpool, and going through a very painful divorce. My son was very young and living with his mother in Washington DC, when a colleague called me and told me what was happening. My first thought was for the safety of my son, who was still in kindergarten in the area of the Pentagon and then for very dear friends in New York, where I spent several wonderful years. The phone lines to Washington and New York were down for 48 hours, when I tried to call but I eventually got through to my former mother-in-law, in Florida, who confirmed that my son and ex-wife were safe. It was a couple of days before I got through to friends in New York, all of whom had survived fortunately (I had several friends who were based within a couple of hundred yards of WTC). Friends in NYC all spoke of the stench of death. It is a day that I will never forget and I still feel very emotional, when thinking back to it. I don't cry very often at all but a few days after 9/11, Leonard Slatkin conducted Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' at the Proms and whenever I watch the video, I cry like a baby.


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## hpowders

Being financiually solvent at the time, and I didn't work, I had the TV tuned to CNBC to check the stock market futures when the news broke.

My wife lost a good friend and my son-in-law lost another with the fall of the towers.

We always look for their names every 9/11 as is the custom to ticker the names of all those who died on that awful day across the bottom of the TV screen.


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## hpowders

Templeton said:


> I was in work, in Liverpool, and going through a very painful divorce. My son was very young and living with his mother in Washington DC, when a colleague called me and told me what was happening. My first thought was for the safety of my son, who was still in kindergarten in the area of the Pentagon and then for very dear friends in New York, where I spent several wonderful years. The phone lines to Washington and New York were down for 48 hours, when I tried to call but I eventually got through to my former mother-in-law, in Florida, who confirmed that my son and ex-wife were safe. It was a couple of days before I got through to friends in New York, all of whom had survived fortunately (I had several friends who were based within a couple of hundred yards of WTC). Friends in NYC all spoke of the stench of death. It is a day that I will never forget and I still feel very emotional, when thinking back to it. I don't cry very often at all but a few days after 9/11, Leonard Slatkin conducted Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' at the Proms and whenever I watch the video, I cry like a baby.


Thanks for liking my older posts on this thread, especially the one regarding Mary D'Antonio, my wife's friend, who was cremated in an instant on that dreadful day. Seeing that post again emotionally shook me up.


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## Guest

I was fixing breakfast (it was about 6:30 AM on the West Coast) with the sound down on my little kitchen TV. I saw one of the Towers on fire and thought, "Wow, that's a terrible high-rise fire" and turned up the volume. I soon learned a plane struck it. Not too long after, the second plane hit and a sense of chilling horror went through me. I thought it was the beginning of WWIII. I then went to teach high school students, but we didn't cover any curriculum that day--the students were too scared, and several were in tears or just numb. I took one class to the library to watch the news on a large screen TV--it looked like a scene from an alien invasion movie when the Towers came down. The entire day was surreal.


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## Templeton

hpowders said:


> Thanks for liking my older posts on this thread, especially the one regarding Mary D'Antonio, my wife's friend, who was cremated in an instant on that dreadful day. Seeing that post again emotionally shook me up.


No problem at all. 9/11 is my JFK day, as in the day that I will never forget. I still struggle to deal with the memory of that day, not knowing for days whether loved ones and close friends had survived or perished, being so far away and feeling so helpless. My sincerest condolences for your family's losses; I was lucky.


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## Vasks

I was teaching an applied instrument lesson at the college when a student knocked on the door and said that a plane had struck the tower. I thought it was just a small plane and blew off it's importance....until the student then explained it was a passenger jet and the tower had collapsed. At that point I told both students that thousand of people would be in that building and such an event could not be just an accident. At that point everyone in the Fine Arts building went to the nearest TV to watch the rest unfold. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day a few hours later.


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## hpowders

Templeton said:


> No problem at all. 9/11 is my JFK day, as in the day that I will never forget. I still struggle to deal with the memory of that day, not knowing for days whether loved ones and close friends had survived or perished, being so far away and feeling so helpless. My sincerest condolences for your family's losses; I was lucky.


Thanks. Much appreciated! :tiphat:


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## ldiat

i just remember that day. we closed the club. its terrible to remember too many things JFK MLK - RFK - Los angeles -KSU-V'NAM-444 days- boat bombing. then desert shield- storm--and and these terrible things latley.


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## Couchie

I was 12. I was living in a complete dream. I learned the powers of denialism that day. Only when the second tower collapsed did it register as an actual event.


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## Capeditiea

Couchie said:


> I was 12. I was living in a complete dream. I learned the powers of denialism that day. Only when the second tower collapsed did it register as an actual event.


i was ...*does some math... 15... or 16... 
i was on my way to school... i thought it was a diehard movie coming out... or something... i got home from school excited to watch Poke'mon... turns out every channel had it on... so i instinctively cried... (being the sensitive person i am)

(the reality didn't hit me until after coming home... but yeah similar aspect.


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## Couchie

Capeditiea said:


> i was ...*does some math... 15... or 16...
> i was on my way to school... i thought it was a diehard movie coming out... or something... i got home from school excited to watch Poke'mon... turns out every channel had it on... so i instinctively cried... (being the sensitive person i am)
> 
> (the reality didn't hit me until after coming home... but yeah similar aspect.


We watched it on the TV monitors at school, then I went home for lunch and watched CNN. Did not go back to school that day. Horrible tragedy for my American friends.


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## Couchie

I feel bad for the children aged 1-5 during that event. They are irrevocably mentally ****** up. At least I grew up during the optimism during the 90s.


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## Capeditiea

Couchie said:


> I feel bad for the children aged 1-5 during that event. They are irrevocably mentally ****** up. At least I grew up during the optimism during the 90s.


*nods. i agree fully. (it really did effect their mentality...)


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