9/11 Stories

[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."

[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.