9/11 Stories

[Rose]

I still remember walking through the streets of the City that horrible day. The worst was the bone chilling silence of everyone and everything. It was almost as if the very streets I walked on were wallowing in a deep, dark sorrow. I was 11 at the time. My mom and dad worked at the site for months... they are in the news business. My mom rushed down to the site to cover a story, and as the cameras were rolling, building #7 collapsed behind her. I was only 11, but as I watched my mom on TV 100 feet in front of a collapsing building... damn, that sticks with you. But there was a silver lining to it all. The unity amond NYC residents, the friends my parents made down at the site... There really is a silver lining to everything.

Tell your 9/11 story.

[Onkel Neal]

Good thread, Rose.

I was in the trading room, working, glanced up and saw the CNN monitor. Saw a burning building...the WTC. The first reports were a small plane hit it. How? It was easy to see it was a clear day.... then the 2nd plane hit.

An awful day.

[TteFAboB]

I was playing Anarchy Online and saw it on TV just like Neal.

When the second plane crashed I took a few seconds to realize what had just happened. Perhaps a TV helicopter was caught in a gust of wind? No, the fireball made it clear, a large plane had just crashed on the second tower. The host didn't knew what to say. He hesitated, remained silent.

Later, still live, I saw people jumping out of the windows to their certain death. By now players in the game started talking about it. And it was then, like today, that I discovered the most important fact to be remembered from 9/11:

A number of people far larger than one could possibly imagine or deem reasonable celebrated 9/11. And to this day, defend the attack.

This is where you draw the line and take sides.

[Syxx_Killer]

It was my senior year in high school. I was at the local area tech center for the half a day (either that or take regular classes in the morning :p). I was working on the computer when I heard someone mention a plane hitting the trade center. I thought maybe it was a Cessna or something. Well, they turned on a TV and by the time I saw it, the first tower was burning. I think I saw the second plane hit. I know I saw both towers come down. I had turned to the girl sitting next to me and said, "What's next, the White House?" I then followed up by saying, "This is like Pearl Harbor." When the towers were smoldering, a friend from a neighboring class walked by and asked, "What movie are you watching?" I then said that it wasn't a movie. The whole thing seemed surreal. I was sure hard to get anything done that day. When we got back to the school for the afternoon classes, all we did that day was watch the TV. Everyone was glued to it. On that day I still remember what I was wearing - a yellow shirt and black pants. Oddly enough, that is what I have on today. I didn't even realise it until, when watching the news, they started talking about when the first plane hit.

[The Avon Lady]

Was at work in Jerusalem and someone said put on the TV. This was around 4PM local time.

When we saw the 2nd plane strike, everyone knew that Muslims were behind it.

It has made an emotional impact on my husband and myself to this day.

We personally know of no one who was lost. At most we know a good friend who had just stepped out of the subway station across the street and saw the world rushing northward.

I lost much sleep after that. I was traumatized by the footage and photos I had seen.

For the last 5 years, I've watched the world react, including people's writings on forums - Subsim's as well. Most of the world still doesn't seem to know what hit them, literally.

Never forget. Never forgive.

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Rose

But there was a silver lining to it all. The unity amond NYC residents, the friends my parents made down at the site... There really is a silver lining to everything.

I was born and raised in NYC. Since 2001, we have traveled with our children to NY and I was shocked by a friendliness and politeness of complete strangers on the street, in buses and subways, that I almost never witnessed growing up there.

If you would have told me this 6 years ago, I would have paid for your cab to Bellevue.

[Sea Demon]

I had just come off of 2 weeks of straight work. And I had the day off. I was planning to take the boat out and go fishing that afternoon. I was asleep. It was around 6 A.M. when my wife came into the room to tell me that the the first tower had been hit. At first I thought she was joking, and I was tired so I rolled over and went back to sleep. After a little while she came back and told me that the second tower was hit and the Pentagon too. This time I thought I better get up and see what was going on. Suffice it to say, I was speechless as I watched the news until around 1:30 in the afternoon. And no I didn't go fishing. Not a good day for me.

[Phantom II]

I was sleeping (it was night time in New Zealand) then my dad got a call from one of our friends in South Africa who heard it over the radio, so my dad woke us all, I remember my mum rushing into my room, saying "America is being attacked". At that point I just felt a massive chill down my spine. So we all went and watched CNN, not long after we started watching, we saw the second plane hitting one of the towers. The whole thing was quite frightening.

-Phantom

[JSLTIGER]

I was in 10th grade at the time, and was at my high school just outside of Philadelphia, PA. We went out for a fire drill at about 8:47, about a minute before the first plane hit the towers. We went back inside about 9AM, and proceeded to go on to our first period class, mine happening to be History. We went to the computer lab to work on an assignment on Teddy Roosevelt. After about 10 minutes, I remember hearing the New E-mail tone on my teacher's Outlook, and I recall him telling us "OK...I want you to stop what you're doing and try to log on any news site that you can. The World Trade Center is being attacked." Naturally, I thought he was joking. I tried to get onto cnn.com, and failed miserably, as the page was overrun and wouldn't load. Then one of my classmates called out that he had gotten onto a site, and we all crowded around the computer. We saw an image of the towers on fire, and I continued to think that it was a hoax until I saw the URL of "www.foxnews.com." We went back to the classroom, and turned on the TV and proceeded to watch the first tower collapse about two minutes later. The second tower also fell during that period, and I recall looking at my watch and noting that it was 10:29AM. We continued to watch on and off for the remainder of the day, nothing really got accomplished as we were all fixated on the TV.

I can't believe its been five years already...time goes by so quickly...

[Camaero]

I was sleeping and was awoken by my dad just after the towers fell. I stayed home from school that day. (I think I was sick) I was sleepy and groggy but I will never forget his words and I will never forget how I felt and still feel. He said: "Jason, turn your TV on, we have just been hit." I was fixed to the TV the next few days. Watching the towers fall over and over again. It can still bring me to the edge of tears when I really think back on that day. At the time I was 13 and didn't even know the muslims were sore at us. After that I wanted nothing but to join the military as soon as I was old enough and to strike back hard. Those plans are still in motion. I fully agree with Avon about the fact that most Americans still don't understand fully what happend on that day and what we are still up against.

[The Avon Lady]

Only slightly OT news item: big Al-Qaeda fish caught today.

Plenty more in the sea, however.

[Pioneer]

It was almost 11pm in Brisbane Australia. I was on the phone to Germany as I was scheduled to fly out the following week. We were talking about NYC as I had made reservations at The Restaurant at the Top of The World. The person at the other end of the phone said "Hey, just heard, a plane has crashed into a building in New York."
My response: "You know, that's been an accident waiting to happen for a long time. Those planes fly in real close to the buildings on the approach to the airport, and New York sometimes has a wicked fog."
I looked at the clock and thought that in late summer the fog shouldn't be around at almost 9am in the morning.
I clicked the internet to get the CNN website, to no avail.
I said to the caller that I was heading to bed and fell asleep for about 10 hours. A buddy of mine called me at about 9am.
"So I guess you won't be going to NYC now?"
"Huh?"
"You haven't heard - go look at the TV."
"Which channel?"
"All of them."

Couple of months later when I went to NYC and met outgoing Mayor Rudy Gullianni(sp?) and we brieflly spoke. When I asked him what he would miss the most about not being the mayor he said "Sleep. I haven't had a good nights sleep since 9/11."

[Immacolata]

Was idling chatting in IRC instead of doing my job at the computer. Suddenly someone writes that a plane crashed into the WTC. It is on CNN. I turned on, and yeah, so it was. I turned my back to the tv and chatted on, speculating about why, then the speaker on tv got excited and the second plane crashed into the WTC. Untill then I believed it was an accident. I did think terrorism, but nah, unlikely. When the 2nd plane hit, I knew it couldn't be anything but terrorism.

I distinctly remember someone writing about how this would affect the whole world, kind of like kicking to a hornets nest full of abrams tanks or something. And the comment from another chatter was "Poor world".

How right he or she was.

[joea]

I was working at a private langauge school at the time as well as studying. I had a class with a bunch of guys from Reuters (believe it or not) during the attack. When I got back to my apartment is when a friend phoned me to tell me about the attack, I saw the towers collapse live.

Of course I tried to phone my sis and brother in law (she was working in MidTown Manhattan at the time) and could not get through for hours. I finally got through and talked to my brother in law, they had been married since the start of 2001, who let me know everyone was ok, my sis had to walk across a bridge to get back to Queens. Then phoned my parents in Canada to let them know everyone was ok.

The most chilling thing for me was when I went out to meet some friends to watch the news together that night, I saw a fellow I guess of North African descent. I was parking my bike to go into my friend's apartment while he was getting ready to go out on his scooter. He then said something (in French) about "well done in the USA, Allah akbar" then drove off. Just a guy who was sharply dressed to boot. I heard second hand sentiments like that even from others Latin Americans and in front of me by a guy from Geneva I felt like killing. This type of hate is more than anything else what led me to reject conspiracy theories.

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

Only slightly OT news item: big Al-Qaeda fish caught today.

Plenty more in the sea, however.

He wasn't an Al-Qaeda figure per se. He has been one of the most vicious murdering warlords in Afghan history and that is saying something. It's good news but as you say there are plenty more.

Back on topic. I was at home (Sydney, Australia) watching the late night news on tv at 10:30pm. It was about two thirds of the way into the news I think when a report came thru saying that a light plane had crashed into the WTC. From that moment I remained glued to the tv screen as the shocking events unfolded. I didn't sleep at all that night and turning up at work the next morning was a strange experience.