Where were you on 9/11?

[Dry]

I was in mission for my company in Munich, Germany. I was concentrate on solving the problem we had, when I saw people grouped around a PC. I first thought they were looking at some strange, funny or nude pics, like it sometimes happen. Being concentrate on my work, I was not listening to what they were saying.
One of the guys then called me an explained. They were in fact on some german news site.
I didn't realise what really happened until the evening, when back in my hotel room, I saw the pictures and heard the numbers on television (I didn't knew the towers were so big).
And I have to confess that my first guess was for some eco-terrorists: after all it was a symbol of world's trade that was attacked.
I flew back home on the friday that week.

[Boris Godunov]

In my Midtown Manhattan office, where I am now. I attached a photo taken from my office window of the second plane hitting the towers back in September last year, but I couldn't find that thread in the archive.

[loinburger]

I was sleeping, didn't wake up until after both towers had been hit (but before they collapsed). Logged onto 'Poly, was wondering what the deal was with all of the disaster threads, finally turned on CNN and just kinda sat there gaping at the screen for awhile.

[JCG]

I was in a certain class on a certain subject, when someone who had a radio began alerting the rest of us to the event, that a plane had crashed into the WTC.

It was rather surprising, but at the moment nobody was crying or screaming or laughing or whatnot, it was just like a sudden shock.

Some time later, when the other crashes occured, people began to mention that WWIII was imminent, that more attacks would be forthcoming and the government response would be nuclear....Initally we thought that Hamas or some other Palestinian movement was responsible.

A couple of guys, none of them arabic nor muslim though, actually expressed that in a way, the U.S. might deserve it due to it's flawed foreign policy, nobody openly said anything to the contrary. We didn't get to see the video footage until a couple of hours later...and it certainly changed the opinion of many of us; it was truly shocking....

[ixnay]

I was woken up by my roommate, and stumbled out into the room to see the sight of one smoking WTC tower standing. Confused and tired, I said, "there's two of those towers, right?" After failing to reach any news sites, I relied on apolyton for updates. I remember sitting there on the computer, next to the tv, when the 2nd tower collapsed. "My god," I thought.

[Solver]

I was returning back from work, and came home exactly the minute the first tower collapsed. I turned on the radio, and heard: "Today, a plane has crashed into a World Trade Center tower in New York, USA. 18 minutes later, a second plane crashed into the second WTC tower, and also, a third plane has crashed into the Pentagon. All three planes were hijacked by the terrorists. And, we have just received a report that one of the towers has collapsed". I ran over to the TV, and watched it without stopping that day...

[hexagonian]

I missed the initial reports because I had gotten to work a few minutes before the first plane hit, and for some reason, I had not turned on the radio yet.

A co-worker came in about a 1/2 hour later walked past me saying 'I gotta get to a radio - did you hear what happened' At that point, I turned on the radio and heard about it. We all were glued to the news on the radio all day - needess to say no work got done. I came to Apolyton and saw the personal reports and the up-to-the-minute reports from people in the NY area.

I worked on a gamemod, just to keep my mind somewhat occupied while hearing of the ever-increasing tragedy - just to try to take it in was hard enough and it seemed like it was somewhat unreal - could this be actually happening????

I went home in a daze - turned on the TV and saw the footage and at that point it really hit home...it was as tragic as anything could possibly be. Just seeing the footage of the planes as they hit the WTC and thinking of the people on that plane and the last few seconds of their lives.

[Asher]

I was home, sleeping. My brother woke me up and I watched the 2nd plane hit and both buildings collapse live on TV. Sureal doesn't even begin to describe it.

I had to go to my first day of classes on my first day of university later in the day, which was also weird. A very weird, sad day...

[Arrian]

At work. Shortly after I got in, people were talking about a plane hitting one of the towers. I figured maybe it was an accident (like the plane that hit the Empire State years ago). We have a TV in a corner conference room, and the news stations were all reporting it, of course, and it was pretty obvious it was no accident.

Shortly thereafter, we were all sent home. I spent the rest of the day glued to the TV.

-Arrian

[atawa]

I was playing civ as usual when a friend called and said a plane had flown into the WTC in NY.

At first I thougth it was a joke but when I turned on the tv it was just before the second one crashed.

[Adalbertus]

I was at work when I logged on my favourite newspaper, and read about a plane crashing into WTC. At first I didn't want to believe, then I thought about an accident. About at the same time others found it out also. The rest of the day most of us were more busy trying to get information than doing their actual work. Being more used to the sort of central European terrorism (where they try to aim to individuals - car bombs are rare outside IRA and ETA) I still had problems to imagine what happened, or who could have an interest in doing such an attack. Then I followed the countries which condoled the USA, it was everyone except Taliban and Saddam (I think he said something remotely like "unfortunately, it wasn't I who did do it"). Anyway, it became quite clear that it came from some Arabic group. I got a high respect for those passengers who stopped the fourth plane.

[FlameFlash]

I was at work... here... just doing my normal at work-style stuff when one of the ladies in the office got a call from her retired mother saying a plane had crashed into one of the towers.

We gathered round her radio after that... though soon I went to the web office and unfortunatly got to see the second one fall live...

/me shudders...

My wife at work, didn't know anything about it... the few rumors she heard at her daycare were either wrong or terribly inacurate... she called me to find out what had happened... my other big shock was that all the news websites were down... and then later seeing that cnn.com one page news article...

[Boris Godunov]

The strangest story I heard was from a coworker about one of her friends. This man was working overseas, and his flight from Europe arrived at JFK airport at like 4 AM on September 11. He lived on 4th Street in Manhattan, and his bedroom had large windows facing south directly at the WTC. He got home around 5 AM, turned off his phone and went to sleep. He woke up at around 4 PM, got out of bed, looked out his window, and the WTC is gone, a huge cloud of dust left in its place. He said he literally stood there for 2 minutes, gaping, thinking he was dreaming. Then he smacked himself across the face a couple of times. Finally, he turned on the TV, and learned what had happened. He had lived in the apartment for almost 10 years, so you can imagine the shock of waking up to seeing those huge buildings suddenly gone.

Perhaps the last man in NY to learn what happened...

[Caesar the Great]

en route to my dad's funeral

[walruskkkch]

I was at work when someone said a plane crashed into the Sears tower. Getting the radio on I found out that it was the WTC and as they were describing what happened the second plane hit. Staying at work was hard, you wanted to get home and watch the TV, but our bosses decided to keep us at work. The Library, as they described it, was a bastion for Freedom against terrorism. I was more nervous that there were still planes up in the air unaccounted for and our building is situated inbetween the two tallest structures in Boston. The rest of the day was spent in shock and wonder why people were still showing up at the library. A few hadn't heard and you tried to do your job but it was damn tough.

[Thucydides]

I was doing KP that day (as I had for too many days to count ). I heard rumours of the towers being hit by an airplane in the morning, but I had dismissed it at first, as it sounded like something out of a bad movie. It wasn't until the afternoon that a sergeant came in and explained everything that happened and that the base was now on threat-con D. That afternoon I was able to see the news on the TV in the dayroom. Watched the news for roughly an hour before I went to my room to go to sleep. Once I knew it was true, the rest was just details, and the bullshizer I was doing was fricken exhausting. Nobody went anywhere for a while (I don't remember how long), so I believe that it meant I was off KP the next day...

[Solver]

I am probably extremely stupid, but I first thought of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia for some reason...

[Rasbelin]

Don't worry, Solver. You were like me when Estonia was sunk in 1994. First I thought it was a catamaran that had sunk, but several hours later on I recognised the whole story when I read the extra edition of Ilta-Sanomat (English: Evening News).

[Shi Huangdi]

I was in 5th period AP European History class. At the start of the period, the teacher announced what had happened that the two towers had collapsed. We talked about it for that class. We were evacuated from the high school because it was right near DC- many of us had parents who lived near DC, and they had extreme difficulty getting out of the city because everything was shut down, including the heavily relied on subway system. We got off of school for the next day, though I was unable to do much but watch the news and Post on Apolyton for that day and the next...

[Zoid]

I sat in a meeting when someone ran in and said that terrorists had crashed into WTC. My first thought was "Whoa! Payback time!"

[Chowlett]

It was lunch-time over here, and I'd just finished singing for Lord and Lady St. Leven on St Michael's Mount in Cornwall with the cast and chorus of Patience, which we were rehearsing that week. I remember one guy got it through on txt message, and I checked on the Orange News service (which took ages to get through to, and evntually just told me that we were scared Canary Wharf was next).

As we walked back along the beach, I remember seeing a sunbather pick up her mobile, read it, and suddenly look shocked, ad I thought - she's just heard. For the rest of the day, I fielded and sent out txts to folk, as I was in a car with the news on for most of the day.

[Heresson]

Well I think I was just back from my holidays and playing my comp when my father told me to look back for a while because a tower in New York is burning. I thought "big deal"
and "cheap sensation" and came back to my game.

[Traianvs]

I came back from school that day (thank god that's over for me now ) and immediately i got like 10-20 calls from friends of my parents asking me if my parents were alright and all, in the beginning i didn't know what the hell they were babbling about but then i turned on the tv...
it was pretty funny, because my parents, and one of my 2 sisters were on a trip to NY (for some congress or something, my father's a cardiologist), and even funnier was that they visited tha twin towers just the day before they were wrecked

pretty lucky for them they didnt go visiting the twin towers early in the morning

its a small world ey, everybody has something or someone involved with the whole thing... me too as you can see

[Jac de Molay]

I had crashed my honda in a pretty severe wreck that morning. By either sheer luck or divine providence, I had buckled my seat belt. I don't know what would have happened if I hadnt.

Between crashing cars and crashing planes, I took a year off and hid in the corner of the nearest bar, drinking away the darkness til it bleeds daylight. The mayor of new york said in today's paper that we should grieve today and grasp tomorrow. So, I think that's what im gonna do.

Dave

[GePap]

I was asleep in my apartment in NY when it begun. I woke up, went to the bathroom. While there I hear my mother leave me a tense message. I tired to call back but could not since the phone system in NYC was very unrelaible that day. I went to make breakfast. I friend of my mother finally got through and asked me if I was safe. I had no idea why he would ask me, and then he mentioned that he was watching it (he didn't mention what 'it' was). I went to turn on the TV. Since I didn't have cable at home, the first channels I tired were not there (the North tower held most local transmitting facilties for NY's TV stations). I finally changed to CBS, who was still broadcasting from the Empire State, just in time to see the North Tower fall. After that, I steyed watching the news, switching over to Radio (the first time I had listened to radio voluntarilly in years) when I got sick of CBS's coverage since it was the only TV statation I had.

[Dom Pedro II]

I was in my high school history class. Suddenly, almost at 9:15, a teacher came into the class and started whispering to my history teacher. My teacher then got on his cell phone and tried calling someone. We had no idea what was happening, and we were like "what is it??"

And he said: "They've taken the World Trade Center! They've bombed it with airplanes!"

Now, immediately, I'm thinking military jets have bombed the building, which is basically a virtual impossibility with our huge navy and air force.

At that moment, the bell rang, and we were getting up to leave. Everyone except my friend Mike Della Barca. I said "Mike, what's wrong?"

He looked at me and said "My dad works there..."

I went about my next few classes. Nothing. I mentioned it to my english teacher, but he had no idea what I was talking about. Second period, I heard nothing. Then at the beginning of third period, this was around 10:00... I heard a teacher said "The whole top twenty stories are gone!"

I went to her and said "It's true then?" Her response was "Get away! I'm having a conversation!"

I went inside my third period class and asked Mike if he had heard anything. By the good graces of God, 18 of his family members who worked in the buildings had all gone to the funeral of another co-worker that morning! To think, one completely unrelated death could have saved the lives of so many people!

In my next class, reports were filtering in. Some factual: the buildings had collapsed. Some completely unfounded: the Sears tower, the State Department were both gone, and more planes were taking off from Teterboro airport and as many as 8 more planes were in the air on their way to unknown destinations.

In my next class, chemistry, the class looks out over I-95 that runs to New York. It was empty. About twenty minutes into the class, something like 75 ambulances came down the road on their way to the city.

Lunch time. We went outside and watched the smoke from the burning buildings, but we could not see the buildings themselves. Of course, all of our classes and lunch had merely been time to reflect on what had happened.

In my English class after lunch, I got into a fight with my teacher, Mr. Reeves, who said we should irradicate 1,000 of "them" for every one of "us" they kill. And this kicked off a huge fight since I was explaining that to kill a thousand of one terrorist's countrymen in not only ludicrous, its just unfair. I said, he could only promote such an idea, if the next U.S. bomber that hits a civilian target in another country that he and his family willingly give themselves up as some of the thousand Americans to be killed for the one life lost abroad.

My mother came at that moment. I panicked. If my mom was there, it was because something had happened to my father. He worked in the city, and he was uptown, but for all I knew, he could have gone to meet a client downtown. There were a thousand reasons for me to be worried, but it was mostly the reasons I couldn't think of that had me scared on that long walk down the hall. As it turns out, he was fine. Physically anyway. From his vantage point on the 35th floor of his building, he had a clear view of everything: the second plane hitting, he heard the first plane fly over head, he watched the people jumping from the buildings, and he watched them collapse.

He didn't come home that night. There was simply no way for him to. My mother was completely shaken. When I got home at around 2 PM, I got my first glimpses of the horrors of the day. I fell on my knees in front of the TV screen and just wept. I'll admit it. I watched the news all that night. It seemed like hours past like minutes, and yet, it seemed like the longest of all days....

When it was all sorted out, a class mate of mine lost her father, the only FBI agent killed in the WTC. He ran into the building to save as many people as possible. He had gotten out with then first collapse happened, but he didn't get out of the second one in time.

My 6th grade teacher lost her son. He worked for that company that lost 700 of its employees. The name escapes me at the moment. My friend lost her cousin who was recently married I believe.

A month later, I was up in front of 1500 people delivering a speech trying to give people some idea what it must have been like to simply live another day and then to have it change so dramatically. We never see those moments that destroy how we planned our lives to go, that change everything. I felt it was a good speech. Of course, how could it possibly ever give you the genuine feeling? Hopefully, we won't have to find out...

[JtheJackal]

My period 3 English class was about to start when 2 people came in and said terrorists had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center. At first I didn't believe it, but I soon realised they were being serious. We asked to turn on the TV, but the teacher (who had just been told by another teacher) said the TV in her room didn't work. The bell rang ang a girl came in and heard us talking and seemed so confused because her father worked at the WTC. There was some talk about where in the tower he worked. Was it the upper or lower part? But she left to go call her mom. She came back crying, her father was okay, but obviously she had been really scared. (Her father remained okay) After bearing the class with a desperate need for news the bell rang and a ran to my next class. I asked my visually distrought teachers if the TV worked. They said yes, but wait for she could tell all the students what had happened. Someone ended up turing it on anyway and I'll never forget what I saw. The towers on fire. Than I saw the footage of the plane crash into the second tower. Shocked I all this footage. Then it went to live coverage and there was all this smoke and I read the caption "Tower Two collapsed". I went "What? Tower 2 collapsed?", searching for signs of the second tower. Someone said acting like it was obvious "Do you see it?"
I mumbled something about the smoke obscureing the rest of the tower, then they went to footage of the Tower colapseing. That 110 story building with 10000 employes that was there all my life had completely colapsed. After that I completely lost it, its bascially a blur. The second tower colapsed, the Pentagon was hit, a plane had crashed in PA, everything was closeing down. It's still inconciveable.

[CapitanGarlic]

Driving to school. Plain and simple.

[Ninot]

I was on the bus towards school when the first two planes hit the WTC.

But i didnt hear about any of it untill around 10:30 that day. Rumours were spreading around french class about, and i quote "there is a fire in the twin towers". Honestly, our school did a very poor job of informing us in the first few hours. The Principal came on the intercom system, and announced "There has been a great trajedy, and our thoughts go to New York". No word yet on what kind of trajedy.

When I finally got out of class at roughly 11:20, what must have been half the school population was gathered around 3 TV sets.
None of us could believe what we were seeing. By then, CBC was showing the skyline of NewYork, minus two big building, and with alot more smoke.

None of us had a real clue of what was going on untill lunch. After lunch, a teacher with some thought for us let us listen to a radio all period.

A surreal day I will never forget, and which I hope is never reproduced.

Never Forget.

[Method]

in school. lunch. some people came back to school after lunch and told us. nobody believed them . then we checked cnn.com in computer class only to find:

AMERICA UNDER ATTACK
Terrorists attack WTC