NationStates Jolt Archive

Where were you and what did you do?

I was on my way to school. I changed the radio station to rock and roll.

sept 10th here so I guess playing RA2

as for 9/11 normal day for me with a few scared teachers I was 11 and English I didn’t know about the twin towers existence or give a rats arse

I was getting ready for school then I was at school then the teacher turned on the radio for art class and then I found out. I was 11... yeah I was surprised. Then I moved on to math. (I was told it was a technical thing at that point and not terrorism or anything)

Technically it's 20 minutes till September 11 where I am so I'll get back to you then.

I'd just moved into a new flat in Edinburgh. I turned round to watch the TV, which I had switched on earlier, and saw the first tower in flames. Shortly afterwards the second tower was struck. I called a friend and he came round, and we just watched the TV for ages. We had no clue what it all really meant.

I was in school. Some teacher said a plane hit a biulding, I'm like "whatever" and went to math class.

Still not yet 7pm on the 10th here. This day 5 years ago was my 34th birthday. What was I doing on the 11th? watching it on TV, like many others in this country.

I was getting a C on a biology test. The principal came over the PA and told the school that planes had hit the towers. We kind of hurried with the test so we could turn on the classroom TV.

Of course September 11th is tomorrow so this thread should have waited I think...

It was a normal day, except that school let off early...


I must be in the same time zone as Manieiacs. *starts stalking*

I was 9 and at school. There was a lockdown but I didn't know about the WTC till later.

I was reading a story to an grade school class ... Oops, no, I mean I was at work and very confused about what I saw on CNN.

I was in high school when it happened but being Canadian, and somewhat apathetic at the time, I didn't care. To me it just meant the next few days off. Although that event would spark my interest in politics even more so then it was.

I was in my band class, getting set up when the teacher came in and said a plane had hit the WTC. We thought it was an accident at the time, after band class I went to my science and there was CNN showing the two planes hit...

It's roughly 26 hours before the event but...

I was at work, at a NYC public high school. It was, I remember, a beautiful and perfect fall day -- blazingly blue sky, perfect weather. I was in the office on a prep when a former colleague of mine ran in the office saying, "Guys, a plane just crashed into the Twin Towers!"

We scrambled for a radio, and I thought it must be a Cessna, a Learjet, something small. Pilot error, maybe some air traffic control issue. Then I heard it was a passenger jet, and the announcer said, "Oh my God, another plane just hit the other tower."

I knew then we were under attack... annnnd had to go to class.

The students knew what was up -- the school was deathly quiet. I tried to teach simply because I figured my job then and there was to keep everyone calm with some semblance of normalcy. Everyone more or less followed along in a dazed state.

Then the ash and concrete dust started raining in through the windows, and I had to run around shutting them.

I heard a jet, and I must have gone white. All I could think was that there as absolutely NOWHERE I could move them in the building that would be safe if a plane crashed into it. One of my students, who was maybe 13? ran up to me and said softly, "All the commercial airliners are grounded. It's a military jet. Don't worry, miss."

On the way home from school, I had always been able to see the towers from my neighborhood. I remember quite clearly that by the time I got home (and some teachers stayed well into the night, because we were not letting kids go home till their parents came to claim them -- and some never did) the towers were down and all there was was this filthy plume of smoke that was to be our constant companion for a few months.

I had to take off my shoes and socks before I came in the house every day and whack my socks to get all the ash and dust out of them. Boy, you better believe I showered the second I got home.

Burned memos and plane tickets rained in my front yard.

My then six year old niece had nightmares about a hand coming to get her... because she'd seen a photo of a severed hand lying in the street.

Several students from my school were AT the towers during the disaster at a Work-for-Credit program called CoOp. They saw things that give me nightmares just thinking about.

A number of my family were supposed to be at the Battery that morning, but were not --

My cousin missed the Staten Island Ferry -- she had to get on the next one, which turned around before it got to Lower Manhattan.

Another cousin was home, depressed that he'd gotten his pink slip from Deutschebank the Friday before.

A second cousin was in a meeting uptown, and lost a number of her friends and colleagues.

My uncle was out on sick leave. He lost many colleagues that day, as well.

A friend I went to college with was right there when it happened. What little he told me two years later was horrifying. He described a ginormous fireball falling from the second tower and burning people on the ground who were not inside other buildings. He had been unemployed and in therapy for a bit -- he and his co-workers on the next block were trying to help people and realized that some of the people they were dragging off the street and into the lobby of their building were quite, QUITE dead. As in missing vital body parts. They had been so stunned and shocked that in their need to help, they could not comprehend the grievous injuries that had been done to some. Needless to say when they realized they were hauling in the dying and dead along with the wounded, it messed them up pretty damned well.

The first week or so for me was marked by quiet panic (OMG OMG OMG what do we do?) not helped by the martial law and complete isolation of Long Island, Staten Island, and Manhattan from the mainland, and of NY state in general. My cousin had just had knee surgery, and she and my aunt were trapped in Queens, with my uncle DESPERATE to bring them back to PA, to no avail.

Then came an amazingly deep and frightening fury which lasted months. Then came the acceptance that one could die at any time and there was nothing anyone could do -- so why worry, and why NOT do everything you'd ever wanted to but were too afraid or apathetic to try?

Now, I'd say I don't particularly fear living where I live -- I keep my eyes open and yeah, if I see unattended packages in trains or buses, I get my ass off and tell someone. Other than that, I don't let it stop me from traveling where I want and living my life. Will there be another attack? Maybe, and either it will be countered or it will succeed, but I am not going to waste time worrying about it until and unless it happens.

Sorry for rambling.

I was sitting in my English class, with my English teacher talking to me.
Then another teacher came up and started whispering to her.
The thing was, I didn't know what had happened until 5 hours later. All I knew that was something had happened, most likely bad since a lot of kids had left school.
I have to say, this event actually did change a lot about who I am.

I was just starting school. I had no clue anything had happened until I got home, and saw my parents watching the replays on T.V. in the living room. My school didn't announce it over the PA system or anything, we just went through our day like normal.

I was in my Advanced Placement American History class, taught by one of the greatest high school teachers ever, Mr. Collier. We were getting ready to have the 'Colonial Debate', and I was a representative of the middle colonies. Principal came on over the announcements and told us to turn on our TV's because something had happened in New York.

Hmm. I was in my Grade 6 English class. He mentioned the attacks and we talked about it for 15 minutes then continued with our schoolwork.

By the time I've written this it will officially be September 11, 2006 in the GMT zone.

When the actual attacks happened, I was in my local school. Prior to that day I had no knowledge of what the WTC was. I was also blissfully ignorant of who the Taliban where. When I was so young, I simply treated every disaster story on the news with hardly any sympathy or care. I didn't truly feel the need to care too much about people who'd been killed in an earthquake, war etc. because it was always so far away. I'd give my collection to the church, who I'd assume would put the money into some sort of charity, and that was it.

So when I walked back to my house, I found my grandfather watching the TV. I asked what he was watching and he said, "The World Trade Center's been attacked."

I saw on the screen a building I'd never seen before in my life with a single plane jutting out of the side and a lot of smoke. I didn't really care. Someone flew a plane into a building in America. Just another disaster story. I actually chuckled in order to get his attention, but he stayed rivetted. I grew worried and continued to watch. Over the time I watched it, I think I grew up a lot.

I started to care about the people on the news. I started to take some interest in current events. And ultimately, 9-11 is probably the driving force behind my current interest in politics. So there you have it.

I was in high school when it happened but being Canadian, and somewhat apathetic at the time, I didn't care. To me it just meant the next few days off. Although that event would spark my interest in politics even more so then it was.

We didn't even get the rest of the day off, much less "the next few days."

I was in school...

I'd just walked in the door home from school when I saw it on the TV. I know one guy who did much the same and thought he was watching a movie. It was unreal.

I was in the middle of a wake and bake and trying to figure out why I had gone to sleep watching CNN. I couldn't hear the TV but to me it looked like it was just a fire on one of the floors of the Towers, so I kind of chuckled because California gets so many jokes about our natural disasters.

Then the second plane hit, that changed things. I watched for a little bit and then showered and left to take a test. There where some people in the living room crashing, I poked into the living room and said, "Hey. Turn the TV on. The world's ending."

Thing is, even then, the thing I was most afraid of was how we where going to react.

As it turns out, that was the scariest part after all.

I had just come home from school where I did an intership (future teacher Eng/Bio) and had lunch in front of the tellie. I was channelsurfing, hoping to get an idea for English class on the next day. I kept switching between BBC and CNN and fell asleep with CNN on. That kind of digestive slumber where while you do have your eyes closed and the brain shut on stand-by, you still hear what they're saying.

And then they talk about some airplane hitting a building in NYC. Huh. Those crazy sports airplane pilots, trying to pull a stunt or what? Three years before that in 1998 I had been to NYC (only made it to the 1st floor of the WTC, lacking time that day...) and my sister and me were invited by one of her teacher's friends to take a flight around Manhatten in a Cherokee Piper.
Still have some great b/w pictures from that flight (if only I knew where!).

Anyway, I kept listening to them saying that it was the WTC which was hit - and then my sister and mother got home as well and they started showing the planes hitting the towers.

Spent the whole day watching 3-4 different channels on 2 televisions. And I didn't have any problems finding a topic for English class the next day.

And this thread isn't even a month old! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=495976)

In the 7th grade.
In Spanish class when
some girl came in and 'casually said'
oh by the way, the world trade centers got blown up'

I was in Geometery when the IA teacher next door came in and talked to the teacher, he than told us that a plane had hit the first tower. I was honestly sceptecal and thought he was just trying to wake the class up, especialy since he didn't decide to stop with class to turn the TV on, class was just geting out when the IA teacher came in to tell him about the second plane. The rest of the day was kind of like that some teachers just having us watch the news figureing we wouldn't be paying attention anyway and others teaching cause they said their wasn't anything new being reported yet. I do remember at the end of the day there was a bit of a comotion about their announcing tha Bush was stoping at Offite(sp) after all the other stops had been kept secret, mainly about why the hell it had to be the one near us that they let out, but that was mainly hot air.

Well, it's 9/11 in Japan so...

I was in a motel in Elko, Nevada. My club had driven out to Elko from Reno the night before to do a recruiting trip from my university in Elko the day of Sept 11 with the second half of the group flying out that night. I had gone down to the lobby to take advantage of the free breakfast (sweetrolls and coffee) when I caught site of the TV that was on.

My first impression was that a plane had acidently hit the tower like when that fog lost bomber hit the Empire State Building during WWII. Then the second plane hit and I knew it was an attack.

I went back to my room to call our advisor and the rest of the members to see what we were going to do with all air traffic grounded and this going on. I also woke up my roommate, an ex-Marine, who couldn't believe it.

He just kept saying, "No way, no fucking way!" until I turned on CNN and showed him. Right then one of the towers fell.

We both got very quiet and he turned to me and said, "We're at war now, you know."

Our event was cancled and we had to make the long drive back to Reno that day trying to catch radio stations in the middle of Nevada to keep up with the news about NYC, Washington, and Penn. There we were tortured by being forced to listen to the US Senate sing God Bless America (100 different Senators, a 100 different tunes) a few times.

The only two things I really remember that day was getting in the same area as Fallon (Naval Air Station) and hearing military jets screaming through the skies heading towards Reno and Carson City on patrols, and getting the news that while UNLV suspended classes for the day, UNR did not because the president said that changing our lives, stopping them, giving up, doing anything do that effect would be an insult to those who had just died and would let the terrorists win.

Sorry for rambling.

it was worth every word, kat. the story of the 13 year old student calming you down brought tears to my eyes.

i was at home 2000 miles away and ill never forget that day and never get over it. at least not until justice is done.

I was watching CNN headline news right before going to school. It was about 15 til 8 here. then at school, 1st block we watched everything fall apart as the pentagon was attacked and the towers came down. I remember hearing people say end of the world...Stupid kids. I thought to myself "what has this new president got us into?"

On my way back from school. I remember swearing alot and saying that the President would go overboard. A bit later, I went to a scout meeting. It was pretty hushed.

I also remember that the school had to usher out all of our muslim students, due to death threats and such. That really pissed me off.

I also remember that the school had to usher out all of our muslim students, due to death threats and such. That really pissed me off.

Unfortunately true here too. A number of my students were beaten on their way home, didn't come in for a few weeks because they were justifiably afraid. My heart ached for them -- I mean come on, if they were involved they would not be alive, what idiot beats on a thirteen year old?

At school talking about how badass it would be if the school got hit by a plane.

Unfortunately true here too. A number of my students were beaten on their way home, didn't come in for a few weeks because they were justifiably afraid. My heart ached for them -- I mean come on, if they were involved they would not be alive, what idiot beats on a thirteen year old?

Well this is america, the same place that condemed the nazi's for the holocaust but rounded up all the Japanese Americans. A lot of ignorance here. I hate it. We are so ignorant and arrogant here. And its sad that even children have to suffer.

I was going to school, and was actually one of the first in my school to know about it, seeing it on the news before going. The teachers decided not to tell us about it, instead saying that we will find something shocking on the news when we get home. I brought up the trade center and my teacher was concerned how I knew.

Interesting story. On 9/11/2002, the principal of my high school asked everyone to stand for a moment of silence. Many of the students ignored his request so they never tried it again after that.

Unfortunately true here too. A number of my students were beaten on their way home, didn't come in for a few weeks because they were justifiably afraid. My heart ached for them -- I mean come on, if they were involved they would not be alive, what idiot beats on a thirteen year old?

Hmmm...my school didnt have any Muslim kids...


Anyway, I was just on my way to the bathroom, passing by the history class when I caught a glimpse off the TV and the plane crashing into the tower. I ran back to Spanish (all thoughts about my full bladder forgotten) and told the class to come with me to History class, the World Trade Center's blowing up.


I have no idea how many hours we spent staring at the TV.

Unfortunately true here too. A number of my students were beaten on their way home, didn't come in for a few weeks because they were justifiably afraid. My heart ached for them -- I mean come on, if they were involved they would not be alive, what idiot beats on a thirteen year old?

The same kind of country that lynched Sikhs in the NYC area during the aftermath because people were too stupid to tell the difference. The same kind of country that produces the "round up all the ebil Muslims and slaughter them" idiots that post here on a regular basis.

I was ill in bed that day. Caught 2 minutes of it, then meh'd and went back to sleep.

I was at school in the 7th grade on my way to 2nd period science from gym class. I had just walked out of the classroom to go get some water when the teacher in the next room over runs out and yells that the Twin Towers were hit.

I was fixing my HMMWV in Friedberg, Germany. It was in the afternoon for us, so we were getting ready to wrap things up to go home. We heard on the radio that a plane hit the World Trade Center, and all of us thought it was a Cessna or something, so we didn't care. Then we heard it was a 707 or something, and we still didn't really care, except for the guy from New York. When another one hit we expidited the packing up process and went back to the barracks to watch the news. We got word that the First Sergeant told everyone to have a rucksack packed at the 1700 formation, so we packed those. At the formation the base was put at the highest alert level there is, with tanks at the gates and armored personnel carriers patrolling inside the base. My scout platoon was put on quick reaction force duty and we had to live in the MP station for a month. We got to leave once every 3 days to take showers. We got called up at one point to go help the MPs round up all of the soldiers downtown because the Turks were rioting, but the Polizei handled it rather quickly.

I was sick in bed with the flu... missed the whole deal when it happened and saw it all later.

I dont know exacty where I was, I was either in class and saw it when I got home, or I was off ill(a regular occurance)and saw it later in the saw once I had awoken.I didnt really realise the significance as I was 15 with no interest in politics and no idea where the twin towers were.I thought it was terrible, but I had no idea what it meant or would lead to.I made up my mind the next day to take an active intrest in politics and to visit ground zero.The next year I enrolled in 6th form to study politics and flew to ny with my best friend(who had family in new york)and visited ground zero.

Chances are I was either laying down to bed in my dorm, chatting with some of the guys on the floor (been there for like a week and a half by now), or was on the phone with the g/f. Either way it was not anticipating what was about to happen in 9 hours. Scary huh?

I was in the fourth grade, and I was sick that day. Well I wasn't really that sick, but I felt sick. Anyway, I was about to play on my Dreamcast, but I had to toggle the video button, so I saw the two burning buildings on TV. I called my parents and told them, and then I think my dad came home since I was scared. I do remember the news reporter saying, "The tower MIGHT collapse." Due to the warping metal and what not, and sure enough, it did.

I was a freshman, in my World History class, bright and early in the morning. We were probably learning something, and the assistant principal came in. She wispered something in the ear of the teacher, and he announced that 2 planes had hit the world trade center.

When I heard this, I froze at my desk. My mother was flying to New York the same day. At this time we didn't know where exactly the planes had come from. I had fear. Fourtunately, she placed a call to the school, telling me that she was OK.

The rest of the day was dominated by that. Every teacher had something to say, and many of the students siad things as well. But one teacher stuck out in my mind. In science class, Mr. Vandenburg actually turned off the TV. He said that we would all remember this day. He said days like these are the ones that define human history. Heh, how right he was.

Obviously, nothing really got done that day. Football practice was cancelled, and they ended up pushing back the varsity football game (but not the JV one, oddly enough).

I was in Chennai (aka Madras) in India, preparing to give my GRE test (req for getting admission to a US school). I was studying and the TV was on but I wasn't really paying attention to the TV. Then I looked up and saw smoke from the first tower. I thought it was a movie scene first and it took a few moments for me to comprehend what was going on.

At that time itself I knew it was Al-Qaeda, because I knew that only two days before Ahmad Shah Masood was assassinated and there were some analysts who wrote that it was a prelude to something big.

Mixed with my feelings of horror, sympathy for the victims, etc there was a tiny feeling of relief that atleast now US will at last understand what it means to have bombs/terror attacks like what we were facing in India. I thought that atleast now they will understand the danger of the monster they have fed and let loose on us (islamist jihadis in Pak-Afg).

Imagine my horror when a few days later Bush announced that Musharraf is the ally....and my feeling was...uh oh...this is not going anywhere....and sure it hasn't gone anywhere....

I was gathering my Roman army for a counterattack against the Celts.

Thing is, even then, the thing I was most afraid of was how we where going to react.

As it turns out, that was the scariest part after all.

Same here.

I was at work when someone came in the office with the news that the first tower had been hit by a plane, we turned on the television just before the second tower was hit and saw it happen. My first thought was that this was an attack and said "Oh sh**, some body is going to get their fu**ing a**es kicked." Too bad our goverment had to go off on a (not good) sidetrack instead of doing what should have been done.

(the language editing is because some schools use this site not because I don't talk that way, I do):headbang:

What amazes me is how terribly young some of you are. If I'm feeling old now I'm really going to be in for it when I actually do get old.

What amazes me is how terribly young some of you are. If I'm feeling old now I'm really going to be in for it when I actually do get old.

I was 15 when on 9/11, but it feels like a whole lifetime since it happened.Time is odd like that.

In bed. I did nothing. Call me inhuman, but 3000 people doesn't affect me much. Way more than that are killed daily by disease and poverty in third world countries. Keep things in perspective, folks.

Can't believe that was back when I was 15. I was in French class in Sarasota, FL, and President Bush was at a school right up the road that a few of my friends' younger siblings went to. I remember hearing some commotion out in the corridors, and adjacent classroom doors slamming a lot as the teachers opened their email and started running around talking to each other. We left class and I was on my way to Algebra and I could overhear people talking about something important, and when I arrived, the TV was on CNN and the teacher was nowhere to be found. By the time I saw what was going on, the video they were playing was of the towers having just collapsed, and then the breaking news that the Pentagon had also been hit. When I saw the tower collapse, I remember saying out loud 'That's really cool'. Logically I had assumed that the tower was empty. I mean how could it collapse if there were still people inside? That didn't register in my mind until the girl in front of me turned around and bitched me out for being so insensitive, so I apologised and said I had no idea what was going on and I asked what happened. Then people started bombarding me with 'four planes' and I was thinking 'four planes per tower?'. Around that time, my teacher came frantically sprinting back into the room. His face was a bright purple and drenched with tears and he was hysterically trying to get out a call on his phone. Wasn't until a few days later that another teacher told us that all three of his kids worked in the World Trade Center and he didn't know if they had survived or not. They volunteered in the lobby three days a week, and fortunately it was one of the days that they weren't there so they were okay, but I still remember that look of utter despair on his face. A lot of parents came and started picking up kids early. I remember our European history teacher saying that it was probably al-Qaeda that did it and that we would certainly go to war. Then when we went to English, the teacher made us watch a movie instead of the news which pissed us off. The rest of the day, week, month and so on was spent in front of the television watching the news like most people. Sorry for such a long post.

What amazes me is how terribly young some of you are. If I'm feeling old now I'm really going to be in for it when I actually do get old.Hehe. Actually coming over to the US and being only a year above drinking age makes me feel so much younger :D