Your Sept 11

[Spiffor]

Well, I wanted to o this thread for a long time, but I am completely drunk + completely exhausted today, so please have mercy for my English and my general furuming skills

What are your own memories of Sept. 11 2001 ? What did you experience yourself this very day ?
I have very precise memories of hat happened to me during this historical day, and I think I'm not the only one. Please share your intimate memories !

[Oerdin]

I was in the UCSB Geology department's computer lab when one of the student's turned into NPR. That's when we heard the news.

[VetLegion]

News is the only thing I remember from the whole day. I just watched CNN and couldn't believe it. Not one but two towers.. who did it? Why? That sort of thing.


If this is just a clever way not to get your drunkenpost thread closed then well done

[GePap]

I woke up, heard a terse message from my mom on the answering machine asking me to call, but the lines were busy. I just went on my business, when I got a call from a family friend asking if I was alright (I was in NYC that day), i said I was fine, wanted to know why he called, and he told me to turn on the TV. I went and most channels were offline (did not have cable at that time) which told me something was wrong, and then I turned to the last working free broadcast in time to see the second tower fall.

[Skanky Burns]

I was asleep at the time. My sister heard about it first, called my parents who got me up. I watched it on tv and went onto Apolyton to find out more.

[Menlas]

It was my first day in my engineering high school...not a common day, trust me (I had intensively worked 2 years in the french "classes préparatoires" for that ).

So, I'd say my mind was rather busy with other things than that. I only realized how huge it was at the evening...couldn't believe it

[notyoueither]

I was at work when the first tower fell. We were watching it on CNN and other sites. Several of the people I work with knew people working in IT in the towers.

We closed early. I told those with family to go home and hug their kids. Sounds pretty stupid maybe, but we were all a little numb.

[Spiffor]

Even if it misht hurt some people here, I must admit my Sept. 11 wasa great day, on a strictly personal basis. I was on vacation at that time, and I had a really great day.

I woke up late, and begun to browse the internet, when my father called my to say there was a plane which crased on the WTC. I've quickly watched the news (before the towers collapsed), and I went back to my daily life.

I had a movie planned this day: I was to watch the French remake of [i]Absolutely Fabulous[i] at the theater with a friend. I went there and enjoyed the movie. When we came back from Paris to our suburbian hometown, we noticed the worried faces in the subway. There was a rumor our quarter of Paris (our theater was in the businees quarter, La Défense) would be evacuated, but it didn't happen. My frend also informed me everyone was passing the news with his cell phone. He himself got several calls telling him what happened.

I've spent some time at my friend's house where we could see some of the footage of the collapse. I was sickened by the fact this footage was airing repeatedly, so my friend and I went to discuss more cheerful things.

He had just acquired many books of the Nausicaa comics, and he lent me his complete collection.

In the meantime, another frined of mine, who just loves doomsday theories, explained why Bush would start the nuclear apocalypse (through internet). The repeating pictures of the collapse on all channels, aloong with his doomsday predictions, really gave a feeling of "end of the world" that very day. I strangely thought Spet 11 was the first step of a fast process leading to a global destruction, but in the meantime, I couldn't believe it.

My friend lent me his whle Nausicaa collection. I went to another friend's as planned that evening, and we discussed + watched some anime, and I must say I very much enjoyed my doomsday evening. Sure, the attacks on WTC were part of our discussions, but not the main part (despite the media's insistance to make us aware of the catastrophe). We discussed on general things, like we ar used to.

When I got home I hardly watched TV, because I was sick of the same pictures over and over. I was also sicked by the pundits'assumptions it was all Al Qaeda's fault, despite the utter lack of evidence.

I went to bed with all these Nausicaa comics, which depict a major catastrophe for mankind, in an already post-apocalytiptic world. I read them all, and I went to bed very late. At then end of my reading, I confused reality and fiction, and wondered which was worse : the catastrophe depicted in Nausicaa or the attack on the WTC. Both things seemed so irreal to me...

[SlowwHand]

I was online at ACS most of the day, with a small televison on the side.

That night my dad cat died, leaving behind a wife and young son.

Overall, a suck day.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Menlas
It was my first day in my engineering high school...not a common day, trust me (I had intensively worked 2 years in the french "classes préparatoires" for that ).

So, I'd say my mind was rather busy with other things than that. I only realized how huge it was at the evening...couldn't believe it

Wow, first day in École d'Ingé ? Which one are you intending ?

[gsmoove23]

I was on the BQE(Brooklyn Queens Expressway), which was backed up for some reason, right across the river from downtown Manhattan. On the radio I heard some goofy thing about an airplane flying into the WTC(I couldn't see it, on a portion of the BQE thats just changing from below ground level to elevated highway). I start to change the station to confirm that its just a big joke, at the same time bits of white are falling from the sky. Looking more closely the bits are pieces of paper, some with writing on them.

I'm trying to understand why this is happening as I'm stuck on the BQE which is at a dead stop, while I'm finding that station after station is reporting that the WTC has been hit. I don't know how long it took for me to make the connections, but it seems like quite a long time in my memory.

I got off at the next exit and drove through downtown Brooklyn trying to find a spot on the water where I could get a good view. People were standing out in the street all over, I stopped the car and watched it burn. While I was driving I remember the second one hit, some witness had sworn it was a military plain that hit the building. Weird, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I was listening to WBAI.

[Menlas]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Wow, first day in École d'Ingé ? Which one are you intending ?

See my location


Ok, it's Centrale Lyon... yeah, for me too, this day was a great day (personnally of course).

Though I remember having discussed a bit with other frends if it was the beginning of WWIII... seems absurd now, but two planes crashing in WTC didn't really seem less absurd at the moment...

[Spiffor]

Well, some other memories :

My friend (the one who lent me Nausicaa) had a call from a family's French friend who was very near of the WTC at that time. This witness alone made me know it was not some elaborate prank.

A fe months later, I have worked for an insurance company specialized in Air transport in Paris. A usual partenr of this company was a WTC based company named AON. My colleagues explained to me how they have lost many individual partners, and how they had to cope with their death. AON took many months to do business orderly again, and or dealing swith them have never been the same

[Zero]

I woke up and my roomate told me plane struck WTC (at that time it wasnt clear if it was terrorism.) after I got ready to goto class and as I was leaving, Second plane struck so I stayed around and watched it. During Medieval History class, one of my friend just yelled all of sudden What the ****? because he wasnt paying attention to class and was listening to news on walkman. Thats when the first building collapsed.

When class was over, All my friends came wit me to my dorm, watched the news and cracked open the beer (I guess we subconciously knew school would be cancelled ) Then we got drunk and watched News half of the day. Most of us were in a joking mood about how world is gonna end, we aint getting no job, and we'll get shot by terrorist as soon as we get conscripted as we played cards and drank, but this one kid was really depresed about it. So rest of the day went to lifting that friend's mood by letting him win couple of hands and trying to hook him up with free ass.

[Inverse Icarus]

I was in my AP Physics Class, and it was mostly just rumors at the time. people telling people that a plane hit the WTC. everybody assumed it was a Cessna or something, some moron kid in his plane having an accident.

as an ironic twist of fate, it was school spirit week, where we have all those stupid theme days, like "hat day", "weird hair day", or on that day, "twin day". everyone was encouraged to dress up like one of their friends and pretend to be twins for the day. a guy a knew and his fried dressed up as the twin towers, and were asked to remove their costumes.

to quote my friend, "those damn towelheads ruined my idea". much more than that, my friend.

then there was an announcement, about both planes, how they were real planes, etc, etc. my physics teacher said, flat out, "what the f*ck?", and then the he started to explain how the towers were build to handle a hit like that.

he didn't see the images then. he didnt account for the jet fuel. he was wrong.

the day went on. i was in social studies. the teacher got a call, and i was called down to the office. my dad wasn't answering his cellphone, or pager. he was unaccoutned for. i was to leave school early and go home to my family.

my mom is completely destroyed, a f*cking wreck. i told her dad would be fine. that he got out. that nothing would change. i was wrong. everybody was wrong. the world is hell. lifes a *****.

i loathed religion before 9/11. now i wouldn't mind seeing the genocide of their entire people.

[VetLegion]

i loathed religion before 9/11. now i wouldn't mind seeing the genocide of their entire people.

Whose people?

[Inverse Icarus]

*muslim slur deleted*

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by UberKruX
he didn't see the images then. he didnt account for the jet fuel. he was wrong.

the day went on. i was in social studies. the teacher got a call, and i was called down to the office. my dad wasn't answering his cellphone, or pager. he was unaccoutned for. i was to leave school early and go home to my family.

my mom is completely destroyed, a f*cking wreck. i told her dad would be fine. that he got out. that nothing would change. i was wrong. everybody was wrong. the world is hell. lifes a *****.

I'm hesitating between and That's truly a cruel story

[Straybow]

I worked the night before and happened to wake up around noon (Eastern Time). Normally I'd just roll over and go back to sleep. Or maybe turn on the radio. But for some reason I turned on the tube, and there it was.

At first I thought it was a movie trailer. I said to myself, "There would be screaming crowds in a movie scene. This is real." It still took a bit to sink in.

[Zero]

he didn't see the images then. he didnt account for the jet fuel. he was wrong.

Nobody did. We had some engineer majors drinking with us and somone mentioned why the building didnt explode with such an impact and they were talking about how much force would be necessary to take down WTC blah blah

Looks like I was the only person who had an unemotional 9/11

[Spiffor]

Actually, my Sept. 11 was pretty emotional, as I was more concerned by my everyday life than by what happened on the other side of the pond. I have clear memories of this day because I was aware it was a historical one, but this very day, the terracts were little more tahn an annoying and repetitive background noise on the TV.

It is surprising you had an unemotional Sept. 11 for a NYer

[MRT144]

My dad woke me up about 2 hours before i had to go into work at Round Table Pizza. I watched it for a bit and then went into work for about 8 hours, and then came home and watched some more news. pretty uneventful because literally 5 people came in that day to eat.

[Shi Huangdi]

Went to school, started out as a normal day. Then out of nowhere in AP European history I had it announced. I didn't grasp the whole thing of what was happening. We talked about all throughout class that day with the teacher. We went on to the next class, where they still didn't teach and we discussed the implications. We still weren't sure what was happening, whether this would lead to war or not. Some didn't think so. Others had already suspected OBL was behind this and predicted that we would be embark on some sort of war on terror. Some friends who had family who worked in DC were concerned for their safety, as we were hearing reports there were 11 planes still in the air. Finally we were evacuated from school. I ran home, and began watching the terror and the horror on TV. I also spent time on Apolyton then..... Most of Apolyton was united, even the communists then spoke of rallying behind america, with the exception of a few posters like Saint Marcus and Eli who either showed no sympathy in this hour or were still calling us warmongers even on that day.

[Lancer]

I had worked all night splitting freight. My co-worker and I took a break and flipped on the tube, the first tower was burning. We sat there trying to assess the damage when the second jet flew into the second tower. The implications of that were obvious, and I started getting angry, really angry. That anger is still there, but now I'm determined too. I want the guys found that planned this thing. I want them to pay with their lives. I want those nations that support the terrorists through training camps and refuge, crushed. I want those countries that obstructed the US to pay as well, France particularly. France worked actively to undermine US policy in a time when we needed our allies. France stabbed us in the back, and the French supported their government. Any American worth a damn will remember...

France will pay too.

[Zero]

Originally posted by Spiffor

It is surprising you had an unemotional Sept. 11 for a NYer

It wasnt all that strange. Everyone around me wasnt really in a caring mood that day either.

But we were a bit concerned with friends who had family in the building. But thats about all.

[Victor Galis]

So I rolled out of bed (ok, I actually climbed out of it, had I litterally rolled out I would have been in the hospital), I start to check my e-mail, when i notice the headlines (yay, for that screen on AOL that you can't make go away) about how a plane crashed into the WTC. The first thing that reminded me of was this episode of the Lone Gunmen where the federal government plans such an attack. In a way, my mind just refused to deal with the fact that a plane had actually crashed into the world trade center. So I went down to the student centre to meet my friend who was visiting me and other friends before going off to college himself. He hadn't heard, so we crowded around the TVs in the student centre (only thing that's drawn so many people around those TVs since was a cricket match). Then downtown was ordered evacuated so I went home for a bit. Me and two other friends (who all lived fairly close to eachother were riding the subway homewards discussing how this would strengthen Bush, how he was going to do something stupid, and how none of us really knew anyone in New York, and how sickning amounts of patriotism would spontaneously spring up).

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I was in the hospital. I'd just been run over a couple of days before, so I was still on a pretty heavy morphine dose. But even given that, I still remember it. We were watching the Today show, when they started talking about getting reports that a plane had hit the WTC. I knew that it was intentional as soon as they said it, but I never imagined the second plane, or the third, or everything else...

That's the only thing I remember between arriving in the emergency room and about a week later when I started getting out of bed again.

[Lord Merciless]

I got to work at 9:30AM and saw all my coworkers clustering around TV sets, some visibly upset. In our cafeteria, a projector was showing the CNN live coverage on a big screen. I saw my former boss crying there.

[CapitanGarlic]

Woke up. Ate breakfast. Saw it on TV. Drove to school, heard it on the radio. Saw the same thing over and over for the whole damn day. Nothing else happened at school.

[Harovan]

It was a working afternoon, I was sitting behind my desktop and coding, when I got a SMS notification about an incoming mail from a friend from Florida. She wrote, that America is at war, NYC and other places under attack, the WTC towers and the Pentagon destroyed.

I immediately looked up the web for news, and borrowed the radio from my bosses room (he was away this day) to hear the news. After I did, I answered her, that it sounds more like an act of terror, like by OBL, Ghadafi or Hussein (the first names that came to my mind), that it's terrible of course, but I think it's over now and won't grow into a war. I offered her a chat later on at my private IRC server, and the next evening (9/12) we talked for 2-3 hours.

Later I talked with my colleagues, and I remember me saying "They (the US) have one war free without me complaining." That was later the Afghanistan campaign. As promised, I didn't complain about it as a whole, however I didn't like the way it was fought. As a matter of fact, it achieved next to nothing. OBL is still free, one city is liberated (is it really?) and the rest of the country is still in the hand of islamistic and militaristic fanatics.

Overall September 11th was a tragedy not only for America, but for the whole world. Terrorism continues and there's no hope it's going to end soon. The US administration as well as a lot of others (including ours) went mad. The years to come will be not nice.

Uber: I knew before about the fate of your father and I feel very sorry for your loss, as well as for all the other victims and their families. You have my entire sympathy. I respect your feelings. Find those who did it and burn them at the stake, and although I decline death penalty, in this case you'd get a thumbs up from me. But by no means this is a reason to let a whole people and their religion suffer for the deeds of a criminal network.