Where were you?

[miss pie]

Where were you on 9/11?

That day is one I'll never forget - even half the world away, people were grim,with looks of sadness and question on their faces.
How do you remember that day?

[paulb]

ya i remember it. i lived in Peru and my american teacher for English class was all depressed and we asked him what was wrong, then he told us. I had never heard of the twin towers before, so i really didnt care.

[ericlee]

In the army at the time. I had just came back from p.t. and my barracks mate was watching the news and he was like, "holy shit, a plane just struck one of the wtc towers". We were all shocked and then the next plane hit.

[laurie_hammy]

I remember waking up and about to have breakfast and turning on the TV and seeing CNN news talkers on every channel. Then I saw all the replays. And it showed people on the street being chased by a HUGE cloud of smoke. One person was filming and ran into a shop and filmed the smoke going past and when it had covered the window the room went PITCH BLACK it was nuts.

[BionicEye]

On my way into Manhattan (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/BionicOne/e7446d7b_edited.jpg)

[laurie_hammy]

On my way into Manhattan (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/BionicOne/e7446d7b_edited.jpg)

Thats nuts ! Hows the smoke ! Did ya turn the fuck around ? Or did ya go check it out ?

[scotty]

I woke up for work at 5am and switched on the tv to see all the chaos. I was all bleary eyed and half asleep and I thought it was stock footage and didn't pay much attention to it. In the car the lightbulb clicked and I spun way out (in my mind not on the road).

[Tzar]

i was sitting in the lounge room watching Rove Live with my folks. they had the little text scroll along the bottom of the screen. i told my folks to change to switch to channel 2. there it was... about 5 minutes after the first tower was hit. and we saw the second one hit live as well...

stayed up all night watching it.

[Kid Presentable]

I was at work in a drive through bottleshop. Someone said that the Trade centre in Malaysia had been hit by a wayward Cessna.

I met up with some girl after work, and spent the whole time ignoring her, and glued to the madness playing out on screen.

edit: Yeah Tzar, I saw that too... :(

[breibender]

I was at work and the moment we heared the news my whole office was around the radio we had there, even in the netherlands ppl where shocked... i will always remember that day.

[TonsOfFun]

Was it a Monday cus I was off that day at that time in my life.

I remember seeing 2nd plane live on TV. Then I came on this board and I was saying stuff that I thought people was taking it out of context what the retaliation would be cus people was scared there would be mindless bombing of any country the western world didn't like and people was talking about the draft.

Well I was right about the draft not coming, the reaction I totally misunderested.

Then I went to Meadowhall cus I needed some junk and it was empty and thought that was sweet cus I hate shopping when people are about.

Then I called FL

Then I probably had some joints.

It's amazing how you remember one days details like that. I'm not sure about the joints but it sounds like something I would do in a sad situation.

[paul jones]

I came home from work just after 2pm and saw the first tower with smoke coming out of it,then saw the second one crash

it was a real WTF moment

[jackrock]

i was in school. i was rather young so i was kinda confused about what was happening. until i saw the footage :(

i am trying to find a picture from a website that showed the smoke from the events from space... it was truly amazing, but i can't find it. ill keep trying.

[kleptomaniac]

i was in sixth grade, social studies.

we were just sitting there when the principal made an announcement that something tragic has happened...but she didn't say what...and what really confused me wuz that everyone kept saying there wuz a bomb in our school or something....those losers (n)



9-11 was sad :(

but let's think about the future instead...

[Videodrome]

i was at my dad's house. my dad who was still drunk from the night before woke me up on the couch right before the second plane hit. i remember feeling so sick from going to bed like 3hrs before and being completely shitfaced. i know when i first saw it happening i wasn't quite sure what was going on. then i remember feeling extremely scared.

[Monkertrol]

i was a junior in a new highschool. biology lab, some kid walks in "they just crashed planes into the world trade center" everyone just looks around wondering if this kid was joking. then the pa system of the school started up, i dunno i must admit i was a little scurred

[YoungRemy]

Was it a Monday cus I was off that day at that time in my life.



it was a Tuesday..


i was asleep in Spanish Harlem, my roommate called and told me to turn on the tv, "I would be interested in what had happened... some nut flew his plane into the WTC"

his girlfriend was on jury that day in lower Manhattan, and he couldnt locate her for a couple of hours.

NYC was surreal that day, there were no subways running, everything was shut down, no police or fire fighters in my neighborhood, some punks were causing havoc with bee-bee guns, and nobody knew anything...

and the smoke stayed in the air for days: burning metal, plastic, and those that lost their lives in an instant...

a coworker of mine lost his brother on the flight that went down in Shanksville, he was the judo champion who called his wife and said he wouldnt be coming home, he was part of the revolt that took their plane back and saved more lives on the ground...


"Since 9/11, we're still livin', and lovin' life we've been given...Ain't nothing gonna take that away from us, we're looking pretty and gritty cause in the city we trust..."

[like2_drink]

i was in grade 7, i think french class when i first heard of it. nobody understood, we all thought a plan crashed or something, but i had no idea so many ppl had died ( or that it even crashed into a building ) until my bus driver told us.

[Funky Pepp]

I just came back from a vacation to Denmark that afternoon
(you know we're 6 hours later). And I just wanted to watch a
little TV before going to a Radiohead concert in Berlin. I turned
the TV on short after the first tower came down...

I went to the concert anyway. And it was really sad. But it
was the best concert ever, 'cause the music of Radiohead was
just as sad...

Has somebody ever been up there on floor 107? I have been
there about 20 years ago in 1986 or something. That was so
cool. I've got some really cool pictures from that...

[faz]

I was playing a mega drive in school round about the time it happend (y)

Then I met my mum after work and she said what she had heard. Then we got home and put the tv and the news was on most channels

[BionicEye]

On my way into Manhattan (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/BionicOne/e7446d7b_edited.jpg)

Thats nuts ! Hows the smoke ! Did ya turn the fuck around ? Or did ya go check it out ?

I didn't... I didn't realize what was going on at that point.


I was driving into Chelsea that morning. It was so nice out. I had the top down - - it was a beautiful day (just look at the pic... there were no clouds in the sky. I was flying down the highway listening to a tape of the Beastie Boys in Philly, it was on loud enough on my speakers that I could hear it in the wind. As I'm getting on the elevated part of the 95South Bruckner Expressway I remember looking and seeing the smoke. I had gotten into the habit of traveling with a disposable camera, so with one hand on the wheel scrambled to find it. At first I thought that maybe it was just a fire at the WTC. I don't think anyone from my vantage point could imagine what that day was becoming. The first plane had just hit.

I snapped a couple of pics then popped the tape out of the deck to hear Howard Stern on the radio. I didn't think of putting the news on, I was in disbelief. Howard was talking about a plane crashing into the tower. Of course I thought it was a joke and was waiting for a hint as to the punchline. Howards joking started becoming more and more serious. As I drove on, over the Willis Avenue Bridge traffic started to back up. The sirens started - the faces I saw in the traffic around me started to take on a look a panic.

As I got to the FDR Drive somewhere in between 125th and 70th Street traffic had come to a standstill. Everyone was trying to move to the right side of the road... making room for the ENDLESSSSSSSS stream of emergency vehicles caravaning downtown in the left lane. I could not believe police car after police car after firetruck after police motorcycle. seemingly out of nowhere. I couldn't believe we had this many forces that could respond so quickly. In my rearview mirror the stream of police and fire response was endless.

Eventually after sitting there for what must've been 15-20 minutes, a few police on motorcycles started waving people off the highway. We were in between exits, but i remember a cop waving me to go over the median/sidewalk... probably the second or third time I'd used the four-wheel-drive. He waved us to go up a street that usually went in the opposite direction and to ignore all the signs. A New York City cop telling you to break the rules. My heart really started racing.

It took me about 5-10 minutes to get to work from the Upper East Side to Chelsea. I had stopped listening to the radio so by the time I switched to 1010WINS the second plane had hit. By this time I was on Fifth Avenue looking downtown with the Flat Iron building on the left and the Towers in the distance on the right. I snapped some more pics. People were leaving their buildings. Smoke filled the cavern of Fifth Avenue in the distance. The towers were still there. The sadness on the faces of all those strangers matched my incredulousness... all of a sudden I felt like I knew them all.

I finally got to work. I parked half on the sidewalk right in front of the building where I worked. When I got upstairs it was just the kids, me my supervisor who's about two years older than me and most of the interns. I worked at a film production company so there were lots of them. One of them was a girl who I was dating. She had recently finished a documentary for school about discrimination faced by muslims in the US. It was an excellent piece of work that had taken her a very long time to complete. She was on the couch against the wall in a near fetal position crying. I just wanted to hug her.

Most of us lived outside of Manhattan but by that time there was no way out. The radio said that bridges and tunnels had been shut down. The trains and subways were a no go. We didn't have a TV antennae and the phones were jammed so a group of us went down to the street to get some coffee and see if we could find a television somewhere. There was a bagel shop on 21st and 5th Ave where people were crowded around televisions, eyes wide open in disbelief. That was the first time we'd seen what had happened. The stations kept playing the images of impacts over and over. People cried out. I walked outside and there were people in the streets, all looking downtown. There were people praying. There were people on sitting on the curbs with their heads in hand, staring at the ground in hypnotic silence. There were groups crowded around cars with the news blaring. All types of people, many of which would never interact with eachother in everyday life, we were all together.

I turned to go back into the shop when the people looking up watching the tv mounted screens started screaming. I looked up and one of the buildings was starting to fall... I turned right back around and ran to the middle of Fifth Avenue to see it with my own eyes. I will never forget the sight of that monstrosity collapsing and the screams of people behind me. We all imagined that tens of thousands were in there. Faceless droves finished that instant. Without knowing it I was actually watching the death of a high school classmate and another friend's dad along with the other thousands of innocents that actually died. In silence I could not believe what I was seeing. I was witnessing a nightmare right there in the broad daylight. In my disbelief I felt a surreal calm. I had just seen something that I had never in my wildest dreams thought I'd see. At that point, what more could happen?

People cried and screamed. Some people ran. For the most part people stayed where they were. I went back and got my mates from the bagel shop and we went back to the office to figure out what we were going to do. Somehow someone got the internet working and put the internet radio on. The second tower was coming down. The girls in my office cried in huddles, the guys just looked at eachother trying to remain level or at least act it. The radio said that there were ferries taking people out of Manhattan. We shut everything down, grabbed our stuff, shut off the lights and locked the door behind us. A bunch of us jumped into my Jeep. I dropped some people off near the Brooklyn Bridge... we hugged eachother then the rest of us drove off. I drove the rest of my friends to the Ferry off the West Side highway. They all got off, scared with an air of relief that home was just a few minutes away. I gave my girl a kiss and a hug. I'll never forget the look on her face. And off we were.

As I drove away, up North on the West Side Highway, the streets were completely clear with the exception of some groups of emergency vehicles coming down the opposite way in tight packs - I had the road to myself. It was like something out of a movie. Imagine driving in New York City on a bright sunny day... with the roads only to yourself. Even the toll booths were vacant. Everything about that day was unbelievable, but just this alone weirded the shit outta me. An apolocalyptic feeling.

As I drove up, there was a guy with his thumb in the air, hoping to hitch a ride to where ever he was going. He looked old and sorta creepy so I kind of slowed down to get a better look at him when he ran to my car and just hopped right in. "Thanks dude!" he called out as he got in and put on his seat belt. I sighed an "Ooooo-k...". I asked him where he was going and it turned out he lived just three blocks away from my house about 25 miles away. Talk about coincidence. He told me that he had just gotten out of rehearsal and that he played the Pharoah in Aida. At first I kind of rolled my eyes but the more I looked at him and the more I heard the timbre of his voice (and later his house) the more I believed him. What was usually a 45 minute ride to the Westchester suburbs this time of day was only about 10 minutes with no other cars on the road, no tolls and no speed limit. I dropped off the Pharoah and got home to my mom's screams of joy and to my dad staring at the tv.

That night a big group of my friends got together and went to the park to regroup.... as we passed around a blunt and drank some 40s we all stared at the dark silent sky and off into NYC in the distance. We all joked about what this day would become. What would they call it? What would the calendars say? Twin Towers Down Day? Impact America Memorial? We talked about how our generation had it too good for too long. Ones past had Pearl Harbor, The Assassination of JFK, Vietnam, but we had lived without a defining moment our whole lives. We all knew that nothing would ever be the same again. It took something like that to make me realize that I love my country more than I'd ever imagined. The silence in the air would last for days but the memory will last forever.

[MagicCowboy]

Back then I lived in Australia. I was waiting for Rove Live to come on, but instead we got this scary news footage. And so on.

[P of R]

Can't remember.

[mp-seventythree]

I was at the gym when it happened. The radio was on and a song had just started, then the news cut in saying that a commercial airliner had crashed into one of the WTC towers. I remember thinking how fucked up that was, but carried on training. Then a while later the news came back on and the guy said "you're not going to believe this, but another plane has hit the other tower".

I ran home and put the tv on, Jenn was out working on site near my house and had come round to use the bathroom, and we ended up watching it for the rest of the day. The first tower fell just before I got home, and just after I sat down and started watching the news the other tower fell. At first we thought it was just one of the many replays of the first tower....then it dawned on me that only one of the towers had an antenna on the roof.

For two or three days after it happened I just felt numb.

[instigator7022]

I was in gym class and the radio said something. No one understood. Then in Science the teacher told us and some people went off to call their parents. I didn't get it until the next period which was study hall. They had the TV on and we were watching it. It was so scary. Then the principal made some sort of an announcement and no one was allowed to watch it anymore. My mom came to school and picked me up. I sat around for the rest of the day on my porch wondering what the fuck was up.

[zippo]

I didn't... I didn't realize what was going on at that point.


I was driving into Chelsea that morning. It was so nice out. I had the top down - - it was a beautiful day (just look at the pic... there were no clouds in the sky. I was flying down the highway listening to a tape of the Beastie Boys in Philly, it was on loud enough on my speakers that I could hear it in the wind...

thanks for writing that testimony up for us bionic, that was incredibly interesting and great (y)



...testimonies about world issues from people you interact with, detailed news from individuals like yourself, journalism is definetly up for a transformation, the potential message boards have is huge

[DandyFop]

It was my first year of college, I was living in the dorms. I was riding the shuttle to school and the radio was on, talking about it. To be honest, I didn't really know what the WTC towers were besides if I'd ever seen them in footage of the NYC skyline.

Some stupid person on the shuttle made a joke, I can't remember what it was, but something out of line. Of course none of us knew how serious it was.

I went to work at the U bookstore and of course it's all anybody could talk about. My dad came in because he was going to buy a computer and I was the one to break it to him. I still remember how upset he looked. He bought the laptop that day, and it became mine later. There is only one Word document on there, and it's him writing that he bought it on Sept. 11th, and how the planes had crashed into the towers.

Man it feels so long ago.

[QueenAdrock]

Freshman year of college. I got up, took a shower, shaved my legs, was getting ready to eat breakfast when my goofy motherfucker of a friend called me and said that the WTCs were attacked, to which I told him "It's too early in the morning for your crap," and he told me to turn on the TV. The towers had collapsed by then, I just saw it and thought "Wow, neat," because I had no idea what had been going on and guess I thought it was some sort of implosion they had done to the building (I usually see shit like that on TV, collapsing buildings are kinda interesting). Then I heard what happened, and how there were people in the building, and all this other crap, and just...wow. (n)

I actually felt one with the rest of America that day, like we were all going through the same thing. Everyone was nicer to each other on the road, for once, everyone was civil and politics didn't matter. We all were going through coping with this tradgedy. Strangers were comforting each other.

And then politics came around and took "9/11" and made it another fuckin' catch-phrase everyone rolls their eyes at. It's sickening how much this tradgedy has been exploited for gain.

[YoungRemy]

I went to the concert anyway. And it was really sad. But it
was the best concert ever, 'cause the music of Radiohead was
just as sad...



funny you mention Radiohead. In Late August 2001, I saw them play at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. It was the best view of the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan I had ever seen. I remember looking up at those towers and when they played "You and Whose Army" Thom looked behind him to the towers and all they symbolized- Money, power, corruption...


just two weeks later they were gone, which made the memory of the concert even more spookier...

[BionicEye]

thanks zippo. i really appreciate that. there are millions of others just like that.

[YoungRemy]

Bionic, do you remember Union Square in the coming days after 9/11?

there were hundreds of missing persons photos plastered all over the park, there were people of all ages and races, singing songs, praying, candle light vigils, people just wanted to be with others, there was a feeling in NYC that no one had ever felt... we were all hurting together, and all the walls people put up, all of the attitudes had vanished...

[QueenAdrock]

Was it a Monday cus I was off that day at that time in my life.

It was a Tuesday. Unless there's some sort of time difference that I'm not accounting for.

[DapperDiverge]

its wierd because that monday i wasn't feeling to well and wasn't sure if I should stay home that tuesday, but my mom said I could... just starting a brand new school, junior yr, in a whole new state, that I never wanted to come to.

It was 8'oclock in the morn, and I was sleeping when my mom busted in my room and said turn the channel to good morning america... and around 9:05 I saw that other plane plow right into the 2nd tower and I started balling my eyes out!!

Then around 9:30ish or 10 something I heard that the pentagon got struck and I just moved here to VA and I said oh shit any minute these bastards are going to start invading our homes and shooting everything insight

I don't know if any of you remember that sniper incident back in 2002 around the DC area but remember that part where all the news stations were at that exxon gas station because they thought they were in the white van? I lived like 2 inahalf miles from there. My mom refused to send me to school, she thought I'd get shot like the boy did.

[QueenAdrock]

I live in Montgomery County (where the snipers were). My dad even had the pleasure of working on that case. Where are you again?

I remember the pentagon being struck. My friend's father died there, he was there to say goodbye to his old co-workers and to leave some more details to the person that was replacing him. He had just retired a month earlier. And then I remember after that, the other plane being AWOL in Pennsylvania, saying it was headed towards DC. All airplanes were grounded they said, but there were sniper jets outside of my house, which freaked the fuck outta me until I realized they were from our military.

[YoungRemy]

every airplane in the North American sky was brought down that day. this was unprecedented in American aviation history...

there were reports of four or five more planes unaccounted for, so many rumors flying around...

[mc_bunsey]

I was coming home from school with some friends and saw a crowd outside a television shop. I didn't even know what the WTC was at the time but when I heard the Pentagon was hit I realised the gravity of the situation

[BionicEye]

Bionic, do you remember Union Square in the coming days after 9/11?

there were hundreds of missing persons photos plastered all over the park, there were people of all ages and races, singing songs, praying, candle light vigils, people just wanted to be with others, there was a feeling in NYC that no one had ever felt... we were all hurting together, and all the walls people put up, all of the attitudes had vanished...

I definately remember that. I remember people actually looking at eachother. Strangers talking, hugging and crying together. People say that New York is an unfriendly place. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Those days were when New York was itself without the protective shell that people usually wear here. Thanks for reminding me - I want to write about that when I get the chance....

[tracky]

I put on "The Late Show" video I'd borrowed from a mate at work at about 9:00 - I fell asleep watching it. When I woke up, at about 11:00pm (Australia), I woke up to TV, cause the video had finished. The shit had just started to hit the fan (ie the first plane had just hit and no one really knew what was going on) and I lay there in a semi-awake state not really gripping the importance of what was happening on the screen. I just lay there and watched, never really having much emotion at all. It was only in the morning that I realised how serious it all was and then I was a bit more shocked.

[ChrisLove]

I was at work in the UK t the time, office job, frst I heard was after both planes had hit when word got around the office (it was around 2 in the afternoon /uk time i belive) I remember everyone was trying to find out what was going on but as always in this situation, it was impossible to connect to any news websites.

The crazy thing was that my girlfriend was on a plane from the UK to Dubai at the time, they didnt tell her anything about it tho until after they landed about 5 hours leter

[Kid Presentable]

I put on "The Late Show" video I'd borrowed from a mate at work at about 9:00 - I fell asleep watching it. When I woke up, at about 11:00pm (Australia), I woke up to TV, cause the video had finished. The shit had just started to hit the fan (ie the first plane had just hit and no one really knew what was going on) and I lay there in a semi-awake state not really gripping the importance of what was happening on the screen. I just lay there and watched, never really having much emotion at all. It was only in the morning that I realised how serious it all was and then I was a bit more shocked.

Yeah, I'd knocked off work at 9:00 pm W.A time. The first tower was burning. I couldn't believe my eyes.

I was in a practically empty dive of a bar (my place of employ at the time), but everybody was glued to the T.V. When that second plane hit, It was like watching something you should never have to see.

I rocked a U.S.A shirt for a week following 9/11. A pathetic attempt at solidarity.

[like2_drink]

a coworker of mine lost his brother on the flight that went down in Shanksville, he was the judo champion who called his wife and said he wouldnt be coming home, he was part of the revolt that took their plane back and saved more lives on the ground...


i live in atlantic canada and i know of that guy, i heard a decent amount of him, i was blown away by his heroism. that's incredible that you know his brother.

[QueenAdrock]

I think I realized the gravity of the situation when I saw Jon Stewart get choked up on The Daily Show. He said one of the most beautiful quotes, I'm not quite sure the exact wording, but along the lines of "I live in an apartment that faces the Twin Towers. Though those towers may be knocked down now, I now have a new view. I'm facing the Statue of Liberty. And let me tell you, you can't beat that....you can't beat that."

Just hearing the emotion in Stewart's voice was enough to make me go over the edge. When the man who brings you comedy every night is reduced to tears...wow. I don't think one person who saw his show was dry-eyed by the end of it.

[laurie_hammy]

thanks zippo. i really appreciate that. there are millions of others just like that.

Your story was Amazing man. Thanks for telling us. My eyes were glued to the screen.

[Freebasser]

In England.

[ToucanSpam]

At school. They didn't tell us, and I didn't find out until like 4pm that day. I was horrified.

[Documad]

I was at work and my friend emailed me about the first plane. I thought she had it wrong because she often mixes things up. Then I went to my staff meeting, but it was dark in the conference room and all the secretaries from our floor were watching the TV in there. By then, both towers had been hit.

The secretaries left, but then my whole group sat there watching TV because our manager couldn't bare to turn it off. We watched for a couple of hours and saw the buildings fall.

I watched a lot of TV for the next 36 hours, then turned it off completely and decided to make some big changes in my life.

It's funny that I wasn't home. I have a knack for being home sick when news happens (Columbine, Wellstone's plane crash, local school shooting).

[hitmonlee]

i remember i was at my house with my boyfriend watching rove live. (not something i do anymore). at the time we were into meth, and were angry, angry young people.

his brother showed up, and i was really annoyed, becuase his brother wanted us to leave right then to go back to his house for various reasons. i wanted to stay at mine, and not go to his just to help his brother out.

my bf and i got into a fight about it, i was really angry.

rove still on in the background, i saw the headlines go across the bottom of the screen saying a plane had crashed into one of the WTC, and then rove finished early (this never happens) so i knew something was up.

jumped in the taxi to my bf's house, taxi driver had the radio on quickly filled us in.

got to his house, turned on the tv. suddenly, the fight was forgotten..... i was no longer angry at him, suddenly there was something sooo much more important, that made fighting with him seem so petty.

sat there watching the footage - was probably about 11pm our time, still watching the first building burning, then saw the second plane and just couldn't believe it. saw the collapses... couldn't look away. couldn't comprehend the enormity of the situation.

watched as much of it as i could, probably until about 2.30 am, but i was already dead tired, and had to be at work early.

go to work on time, but everyone in the office was wrecked cos we'd all been up all night watching the footage.

[icy manipulator]

i didn't find out about until thursday because i was on an art camp at Fraser island. In a true australian sense i thought about what happened for a sec and then calmly and collectively said "shit hey"

there was a couple of guys who were lucky it happened tho because on september 11 they lit a bush fire that turned about 50 sq metres of Fraser Island to charcoal. Lucky for them the twin towers collapsing pretty much nullified the fact that they were looking at expeltion

[BionicEye]

Your story was Amazing man. Thanks for telling us. My eyes were glued to the screen.

Thanks Laurie... :) I wonder - did they show GWBush addressing America that day over in Australia? It was so weird that they were trying to play it off like he was speaking from the white house when it was so obviously green-screened from some bunker somewhere deep in a mountain or some shit.

[Kid Presentable]

Thanks Laurie... where were you? I wonder - did they show GWBush addressing America that day over in Australia? It was so weird that they were trying to play it off like he was speaking from the white house when it was so obviously green-screened from some bunker somewhere deep in a mountain or some shit.

Within an hour of seeing it, I saw images of Arabic people rioting, and 'Russia' and 'Pakistan' being mentioned a lot.

The footage was fairly stock, I think from the Gulf War.

[BionicEye]

Interesting, KidPres....


To anyone living outside of the US:
How did your media portray America, Americans, Bush, New Yorkers ?

[Kid Presentable]

Interesting, KidPres....


To anyone living outside of the US:
How did your media portray America, Americans, Bush, New Yorkers ?

Victims.

Many saw your nation become agressors quickly.

[kll]

On vacation in Europe.

We were shopping in a ski shop in Solden, Austria when news came over the overhead speakers saying "a plane has hit the World Trade Center." We decided we should head back to the hotel to see what is going on... The only news shows were in German, so we watched the TV while I called my family. My brother informed me that 2 planes had hit the WTC, a plane had hit the Pentagon and there was a 4th plane that was still in flight. I was on the phone with him when the first tower came down.

Travelling abroad was scary - when we didn't know what was going on. Our flight back to the U.S. was supposed to be on 9/13. Since our vacation was now "extended" as all flights were cancelled, we flew from Munich to London to stay with friends. It was weird to be a tourist in London with the financial district closed. The double-decker red buses were able to drive down streets that are normally off-limits. We were re-routed by St. Paul's while there was a moment of silence for the victims (many British employees) of the attacks. Oddly enough, the friends that we stayed with are Russian. She is from Russia and he is an American born to a Russian father. She kept shaking her head as we watched BBC and SkyNews and said over and over, "this wouldn't be on the news if it had happened in another country." She was almost angry at the amount of news coverage. Strange.

It took everything in me to fly from Munich to London and then from London to the U.S. Since you had to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of your flight time, the only thing to do was drink STELLA. I suspiciously eyed everyone on the plane. Our huge plane only had about 10 people on it. The flight attendants were nervously friendly. We could see fighter jets out the windows at various times of the flight. When we arrived at LAX, the passengers on our flight were the only people walking the halls of the airport. We were bussed like refugees several miles from the airport where our family waited for us. It was truly surreal.

[Kid Presentable]

It took everything in me to fly from Munich to London and then from London to the U.S. Since you had to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of your flight time, the only thing to do was drink STELLA. I suspiciously eyed everyone on the plane. Our huge plane only had about 10 people on it. The flight attendants were nervously friendly. We could see fighter jets out the windows at various times of the flight. When we arrived at LAX, the passengers on our flight were the only people walking the halls of the airport. We were bussed like refugees several miles from the airport where our family waited for us. It was truly surreal.

Fuckin hell.

[BGirl]

I was at the World Trade Center, on my way to work


. . .







I wrote it all down in the days after as therapy for myself, it can be found on my web site for those interested in reading. I never did go back and give it the editing it needs... it is what it is.

The day was pure horror and the way Bush & co have used it to advance their agenda is sickening. (n)

And yes I remember going to Union Square in the days after to mourn.

[hpdrifter]

A friend called and woke me and the fiance up. It was 7:30 in Seattle. He said "are you guys up?" I thought he was kidding and was all fake snotty to him, "No, I'm sleeping for another half an hour." He's like turn on the news now." It was truly surreal. I spent the whole day at work listening to the radio and clicking refresh at cnn.com and msnbc.com over and over again.

[hpdrifter]

Travelling abroad was scary - when we didn't know what was going on. Our flight back to the U.S. was supposed to be on 9/13.

Yeah, one of my friends was in isreal at the time. Imagine trying to get back to the US from there after something like that.

[BionicEye]

I was at the World Trade Center, on my way to work

I wrote it all down in the days after as therapy for myself, it can be found on my web site for those interested in reading. I never did go back and give it the editing it needs... it is what it is.

The day was pure horror and the way Bush & co have used it to advance their agenda is sickening. (n)

And yes I remember going to Union Square in the days after to mourn.


Post it here please, or the link!

[kll]

I was at the World Trade Center, on my way to work


. . .







I wrote it all down in the days after as therapy for myself, it can be found on my web site for those interested in reading. I never did go back and give it the editing it needs... it is what it is.

The day was pure horror and the way Bush & co have used it to advance their agenda is sickening. (n)

And yes I remember going to Union Square in the days after to mourn.

Wow. I can't even imagine...


and

BionicEye - GREAT story.

[BGirl]

Post it here please, or the link!

okay (http://www.apartment5d.com/special/WTC.htm)

[Hiebz]

wow. even after some time has passed since then, I appreciate everyone's stories here and it is still a bit theripudic to hear your first hand accounts and thoughts!

I certainly won't forget that day for a very long time, it was the 25th anniversary for Habitat for Humanity and we were celebrating in Indianopolis, Indiana with a get-together and house dedication and speaches from Jimmy Carter and others. I was working as a volunteer in the computer department and had to set up a workgroup of 7 computers for registering the attendants of the event from all around the world. So, the 10th was a pretty busy day getting the booth set up and testing the database one of the software guys had set up. My boss said I could sleep in the next day and show up back at the booth when I woke up.

So, I woke up, headed for the pool at the top of the hotel (17th floor maybe?) to relax and exercise a little bit. Swam from side to side and watched up in the sky and enjoyed some tranquility. I returned to my room to take a shower and get ready to go back to the booth and continue work. On the way to the room, I crossed the maintenace guy who shared a room with me and he said something about "the tower being hit by a plane, turn on the news." I was like, okay, odd... hmm what tower? I immediately learned with a push of a button and saw what appeared on the television. By then, there was black smoke coming out of one, and I believe the other was hit.

Got dressed quickly and headed to the booth to meet with my boss and see what was going to go on after that. There were televisions in the lobby area and people were gathered constantly watching what was going on. I called my mom and left a message that I was okay. I remember another person at the both took the american flag out from behind it and placed it defiantly in front of the booth. It's interesting in reflection how people react to things differently. She wanted to show her pride and through some fear obviously be defiant. After she left to do other things, I retracted the flag back to where it was, considering this was a international gathering and I figured there would be others pretty damn scared already and that there would be plenty of USA!!!! in their face for some time, I wanted to be more humble and respectful of their situation also. It was pretty clearly a mess for the delegates from sensitive countries who were now stranded here during the chaos.

I remember feeling very sad for those in the planes and towers, and fear for the reprecutions of the reactions to it all. The waves or ressonance still tread water even now. I certainly watch the news more often, and remark that when I was much much younger I couldn't understand why my parents watched the news. So boring. What's the use? I have a better understanding why. A definative moment like this and JFK being shot, it certainly changes things.

[BGirl]

Have I brought this thread to a screeching halt? :(


In September of 2003 I met Art Spiegelman when we were both working at the annual New York is Book Country festival. I had been manning the Center for Book Arts booth and he was signing books a couple blocks down. Anyway, I bought a book so I could meet him and we had the following conversation



me: Thank you for your Sept 11 New Yorker cover. It was just the perfect thing.

Art Spiegelman: Thank you. Were you in New York at the time?

me: I was down at the World Trade Center that morning.

(Mr. Spiegelman looks up from his drawing)

me: so uh... I was pretty much a basket case for a little while.

Art Spiegelman: Oh, me too. Me too.


He describes his experiences in the book In the Shadow of No Towers. Worth reading.

[BionicEye]

not at all bg... your account is excellent! I do think that there is a huge value to be gotten from writing down experiences like this. That is quite a story you've got there. What was it like for you in the following days?


ps. thanks kll. i really appreciate that.

[voltanapricot]

I came back from school and my mum was telling me about it, we had the radio switched on. Then we had to go to town to pick up some post where we'd stopped outside an electricals store where it was on telly. The second tower was going down.

[roosta]

i was at home, still on summer holidays.
went down stairs and put on tv just after the first plane hit, then parked myself on the coach and watched the whole day unfold.

craziest moment was when the early reports of the pentagon being on fire came out, it thought it was the end of the world. my brother walked in and i told him what was going on and he called me a liar.

[BGirl]

not at all bg... your account is excellent! I do think that there is a huge value to be gotten from writing down experiences like this. That is quite a story you've got there. What was it like for you in the following days?

Thanks.

Well, like I told Art Spiegelman I was a basket case... pretty much nonstop crying for days... mostly sat on the couch with the TV on, crying... ventured downtown a couple times, to Union Square and to brunch with a friend who is actually in town visiting right now (he lived here at the time and worked downtown, his lungs have probably been damaged by the nasty pollution in the air in the days after)... wrote down the account that you read, blogged and took calls from family and friends outside NY who were checking on me. Smoked a lot of weed.

On Sept 12 hubby did take the day off to be with me (as Rudy Giuliani had encouraged people to do) and I remember spending a little time in the park near our apartment, squatting on rocks and looking down at the tiny critters in the salt marsh. It was a gorgeous day weather-wise just like the previous one had been.

I remember I cried so much my eyes got all chapped (ow). I remember watching Letterman about a week after and when I laughed I realized it was the first time since that day. I couldn't listen to music for a long time either. And when I had to go back to work the following Monday I was physically nauseous sitting at my desk. I was actually relieved when they shut down my company three months later and I was laid off, so I could finally start to do something more worthwhile with my life.



It all feels like a long time ago now though. This past Sept 11 was the first one since 2001 that I didn't spend in tears.

[YoungRemy]

BGirl, I admire your bravery...

even four years later, this is therapuetic to talk about what happened and somewhat of a catharsis...

9/11 made me a news junkie. before then, I never went to cnn.com or anything like that. it seems that whenever "Breaking News" hits I am always tuning in to CNN or NY1, its like I am waiting for another tragedy to strike...

it could be some sort of post-traumatic stress mechanism, but ever since 9/11, I immerse myself into news stories...

[redhead]

I remember being here in Halifax at work when the newsflash came on the radio...We all went into the boardroom and turned on the TV's...it was unreal. I work in a travel agency, and our reservation system had its servers or something in the World Trade Center, and when this happened we couldn't access our systems. We spend the morning taking calls from frantic stranded passengers across North America, but only to tell them we couldn't do anything for them as all planes were grounded and our systems were down. Our building is actually right beside the U.S. Embassy, and they were redirecting alot of flights to Halifax airport,so they sent us all home around 1pm, just in case. I went home and watched CNN in tears for the next few days.

[kll]

oh yeah. i forgot to mention that 9/11 was my wedding anniversary. funny how that slipped my mind.

[BGirl]

it seems that whenever "Breaking News" hits I am always tuning in to CNN or NY1, its like I am waiting for another tragedy to strike...


Yeah I know what you mean..




And kll... bummer. I also feel bad for people whose birthday is that day.

[abcdefz]

...I heard about the WTC on an Aint It Cool talkback. I was reading along and somebody said that a plane had flown into the tower and I thought, "That's a pretty sick joke," and then other people started chiming in and then posts started saying a second plane had hit and at that point I think was when I jumped over to CNN.com and saw it was the real thing. They had video up that I kept replaying.

Then I ran across the street and downstairs to tell the preschool teachers what was happening, and they had a TV set turned on facing one of the walls so the kids couldn't see, but a couple of children did come over and started asking questions and we stood there trying to explain that people did bad things, and this was very bad...

[BionicEye]

craziest moment was when the early reports of the pentagon being on fire came out, it thought it was the end of the world. my brother walked in and i told him what was going on and he called me a liar.

that was one of the scariest parts of the whole thing to me. of course we all know that was a missile. http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm
:rolleyes:

[DapperDiverge]

I live in Montgomery County (where the snipers were). My dad even had the pleasure of working on that case. Where are you again?

I remember the pentagon being struck. My friend's father died there, he was there to say goodbye to his old co-workers and to leave some more details to the person that was replacing him. He had just retired a month earlier. And then I remember after that, the other plane being AWOL in Pennsylvania, saying it was headed towards DC. All airplanes were grounded they said, but there were sniper jets outside of my house, which freaked the fuck outta me until I realized they were from our military.

I'm in henrico county...I still can't believe richmond is the 5th most dangerous city in the US... I've lived in detroit and houston...trust me, this place is not dangerous...only if you go to the south side

This place was so quiet until 9/11 and that sniper incident happened...

[jackrock]

oh yeah. i forgot to mention that 9/11 was my wedding anniversary. funny how that slipped my mind.
:eek: 9/10 is my parents! weird... 9/11 is my cousins birthday. thought id share.

[King PSYZ]

i will never forget that day, the same way people who saw kenedy get shot will never forget that day.

i had fallen asleep on the couch watching cnn as i used to do a lot. i woke up to a paniced voice and i blurrily see the smoldering of the first tower, this was something like a few moments after it had struck. then i rushed to wake everyone up in my house. at first we all thought oh my god a plane lost control and hit the world trade center.

then we continued watching, not sure why we were and the second plane hit that tower while i watched in horror and knew this was no accident. my first thoughts were this is it... america is at war. this is gonna be some red dawn shit right here. and thank god the people involved weren't that orginized or motivated to launch a full scale invasion because i fear a lot of damage would have been done that day.

then they started talking about the plane that went down in the woods and the pentagon being attacked. i was never that afraid in my life, i knew everything would change that day. i don't think i even took a piss that day, i just started at the tv dumbfounded for 30 some odd hours. i called in sick to work and everything. i figured if this is world war three, i sure as shit dont want to be working. i remember all my co workers coming over and we just sat there stunned.

[Rawr]

i was in my room crying with my old bestfriend hiding under my bed scared to death... i was younger then

[YoungRemy]

i live in atlantic canada and i know of that guy, i heard a decent amount of him, i was blown away by his heroism. that's incredible that you know his brother.

this is the charity I donated to in the months after 9/11...

http://www.jeremysheroes.com/inspire.html

[jennyb]

Waking up to a phone call of someone telling me to turn on the tv...

1st thought, no shit. "Oh my god! The Beastie Boys!!!! I hope they are safe and sound"

2nd thought, "Ho shit! My super close friend Christine who was attending Columbia at the time"

:o

3rd thought, "What the FUCK?!" :confused: :mad:

[marsdaddy]

I had Lasik surgery that day. I woke up to the radio talking about the towers, turned on the TV, watched the building fall, then call the opthamologist to see if the procedure was still on -- it was.

Worked out well because I couldn't focus on the TV for a full day so my exposure to the imagery was limited, at first. Plus, I have 20X30 vision now -- from 20X650 before.

[Junker]

I was leaving my class whebn someone said: "Fuck.......it seems that someone explode something in NY"............And I thought "So?? Its not a big deal right? Every minute fanatics explode something in some places"

Later I realized that was something huge. :(

[jaymasterfunk]

I was in the office minding my own business when someone told us about the first plane. By the time the second one hit we were talking, faxing and mailing to people all over the world to help out customers in NYC or en route to the US (remember when they blocked all air traffic to/over the US?). We stayed there from about 3pm local time when they hit until well passed midnight helping out people, rerouting them, informing families and colleagues. (I'm in a major travel business).
Lost 11 US colleagues that day.

[Calimero jr.]

I was in Santa Fe while doing a fieldtrip with collegues from my University. We woke up and put the TV on, there was an image of the first tower burning and nobody really seemed to understand what was going on. They talked about some plane that crashed in the tower, so we thought it might be some small aircraft that made an accident. Then when we were about to leave we saw the second airplane crash. We just couldn't beleive what we saw....
Driving in the van we put the radio and heard about the other hijacked planes and the crash at the Pentagon, we really wondered what would happen, they sais they closed the airports...
That was really some surreal day. :(

[BionicEye]

We could see fighter jets out the windows at various times of the flight. When we arrived at LAX, the passengers on our flight were the only people walking the halls of the airport. We were bussed like refugees several miles from the airport where our family waited for us. It was truly surreal.

That's insane about the fighter jets and having the plane to yourself. Do you remember at what points you had tem escorting you? How close were they from your plane.

Did they bus you straight from the tarmac?

...but there were sniper jets outside of my house, which freaked the fuck outta me until I realized they were from our military.

What made you go out and look? Where they flying low? With all due respect to all involved, but I think the heroism story for the 'fallen' airliner is concocted to take the pain away from the more likely version that those jets like the ones you saw took it down.

I rocked a U.S.A shirt for a week following 9/11. A pathetic attempt at solidarity.

That makes me happy and sad at the same time. Fucking Bush and his 'brilliant diplomacy' turned people like that into flag burners.

I watched a lot of TV for the next 36 hours, then turned it off completely and decided to make some big changes in my life.

I'm curious... what changes did 9/11 affect you to make?


i didn't find out about until thursday because i was on an art camp at Fraser island. In a true australian sense i thought about what happened for a sec and then calmly and collectively said "shit hey"

there was a couple of guys who were lucky it happened tho because on september 11 they lit a bush fire that turned about 50 sq metres of Fraser Island to charcoal. Lucky for them the twin towers collapsing pretty much nullified the fact that they were looking at expeltion

That's pretty lucky for them. A lot of people got away with a lot of shit that day. Someone I know saw a Muslim looking guy being chased across the street and then shot that night. I doubt there were police or ambulances available to help. I also know that someone stole $25k in cash from the theater where he worked.

There is only one Word document on there, and it's him writing that he bought it on Sept. 11th, and how the planes had crashed into the towers. Man it feels so long ago.

I bet that's interesting to read... do you ever look at it?



YoungRemy: You've got a double whammy with tv bringing horrible news that hits close to home. I'd be the same if I'd gone through 9/11 AND Katrina and having family there.

[cookiepuss]

Well I was driving to work in San Fran and fliped on the radio...the first thing I heard was...."and there are still six planes missing and unaccounted for" and it was obvious something huge was going on... I kept fliping stations and getting partial stories and honestly from the bits and peices I heard, it sounded like aliens were invading. I almost pulled over and went home. but instead I called my mom who was still sleeping. I asked her to turn on the tv and tell me what was happening...so she did and said "oh shit! someone flew planes into the world trade center! and the towers fell down!" :eek:

So i got to work, and no one was really working...all of us listening to the radio and my boss despretly trying to reach our founder/president in NY. At this point they were starting to evacuate the Civic Center due to terrorist threats and even though we were only two block from the Civic Center my Nazi boss wouldn't let us go home. She felt it would be better if we just tried to go about things as normal..but all we did was surf the net for the latest breaking news.

the end.

Actually I'm not sure why I responded, I'm really tired of talking about 9/11.

[kll]

That's insane about the fighter jets and having the plane to yourself. Do you remember at what points you had tem escorting you? How close were they from your plane.

Did they bus you straight from the tarmac?



They didn't escort us. It was like they were flying in general and just keeping an eye on things. They were pretty close. Like, you could look out when we were at cruising altitude and see them- 3 at a time periodically during the flight. It's rare to see another plane at all when you are flying as it is, so it was weird.

They didn't bus us from the tarmac. We all went to baggage claim and then got on a bus that we picked up outside the terminal - just as you would catch a cab. There were no other vehicles other than cop cars and the bus. There were hundreds of people waiting for passengers at the "refugee camps" and you had to fight your way through the masses when you got off the bus. So weird.

[abcdefz]

I had Lasik surgery that day. I woke up to the radio talking about the towers, turned on the TV, watched the building fall, then call the opthamologist to see if the procedure was still on -- it was.

Worked out well because I couldn't focus on the TV for a full day so my exposure to the imagery was limited, at first. Plus, I have 20X30 vision now -- from 20X650 before.





....did you wear contacts? I don't remember you wearing glasses.

Sunglasses, maybe...

[marsdaddy]

....did you wear contacts? I don't remember you wearing glasses.

Sunglasses, maybe...Yeah. I wore contacts for 16 years.

My future's so bright, I have to wear shades.