9/11 is one of those events that allegedly seared itself on the memory of an entire generation but I wonder how universally true that is. Is there anyone who was 15 or over when it happened and yet doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what they were doing when they first heard the news?
I remember all too well. I was at work (a temp job with a local food service company) when someone came into the department and said something about a plane hitting the WTC. When the second plane hit, someone brought a little 12" tv in from storage and we started watching the live newscasts.
We were given the option to go home if we felt unsafe (we were across the street from a petroleum storage facility) but most of us opted to stay.
I was on my way to work and heard about it on the car radio. I live in Tucson and it was just before 8:00 am, so it was just before 11 in New York and both towers had fallen by that time.
I turned on the TV and Judy Woodruff was on CNN. She said they were switching to a reporter on the street because there had been some sort of explosion at the World Trade Center. The reporter on the street didn’t know what happened exactly, she mentioned someone had said something about a plane hitting the building. Then she “Said, oh no, there’s another one.” I don’t remember the details after that, just the smoking buildings, and then the collapse.
I’m 62 and live in the UK.
I don’t remember where I was when I heard about 9/11.
However I do remember JF Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.
Hell, I remember where I was when Queen Elizabeth was coronated in 1953.
Yeah I was at the city hall paying my taxes and I am over 30 yo !
For me, horrific events “seared in my memory”:
JFK
Challenger
Lennon
Diana
9/11
I wasn’t feeling well and was planning to come into the office later that morning. Turned on the tv to watch the local morning weather. Instead there was a special ABC report about a plane hitting the tower. About 5 mins or so later here comes the second plane and I saw it hit the other tower on Live tv. Then reports about the Pentagon being hit. I didn’t go to work that day. Stayed glued to the tv wondering if another city would get attacked. Maybe even several cities 
I had no idea how many targets might be on the terrorist’s list.
Reminded me of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald. I’ve been told that was broadcast live.I was probably in my crib at the time.
I think Challenger was broadcast live too? I was working that day and was told about it by coworkers.
I was asleep. My husband came running into the bedroom and woke me up. He was shaking and bouncing up and down like a little kid who has to go to the bathroom. He stumbled through “Someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center!”
I was still half asleep, and had worked late the night before, and told him essentially, so what. He didn’t say “Jumbo jet,” and I imagined some private pilot had rammed a crop duster into the building, and a few streets might be blocked off for a couple of weeks while they repaired the building, and the pilot just won a Darwin Award.
My husband seemed shocked at my callousness. I really wanted to go back to sleep.
45 minutes later, he woke me up again, and told me another plane had flown into the second building. This seemed curious, and now I was a little intrigued, but I figured it would be all over the news, and I could catch it later.
“Can I go back to sleep now.”
When I got up an hour later, he told me the buildings had collapsed.
“WHAT? from a little plane hitting them?”
“They were jumbo jets.” He was pissed at me for dismissing his news earlier.
“OK, you left out the ‘jumbo jet’ part.”
We watched the news for the next several hours, then took our dogs out. Everything was very eerie.
He tells the story pretty much the same way, except I am much more of an asshole.
I was at the gym running on the treadmill watching it all go down on the TV. The TV was muted, so at first, I just thought it was an unfortunate accident. Then when I saw the second plane crash, I stopped dead in my tracks thinking “WTF?!” is going on.
Hell, everybody stopped what they were doing. Manager couldn’t figure out how to get the sound to play, so I packed up and made it home fast as I could.
Not only do I remember where I was, but I remember the day of the week it happened on. (Tuesday)
I remember hearing the news of just about all the events mentioned here, although for some I don’t remember where I was when I learned about them. For the ones I do recall exactly, they are:
JFK
Moon landing
Challenger
Murragh Federal Building*
9/11
*As an aside, the picture of the firefighter holding little Baylee Almon’s body, from the next couple of days, is what REALLY seared this into my memory. All you saw was a leggy blond curly headed kid in a diaper, It could have been my nephew, who I discovered was only two days different in age than that little girl. When I see him now, aged 22, I thing of how Baylee should be graduating from college, getting married, or having kids of her own. Not in this lifetime I guess.
I think most of us have entirely missed the point of the OP.
Nope. We’re just doing it inductively.
I think if the people who couldn’t remember what they were doing on 9/11 were the only ones who posted, this would be a very short thread.
I believe I knew before I got to work, so I must’ve read it on the web or heard it on npr.
Since I saw a lot of nbc nightly news as a kid where planes got hijacked sometimes and crashed sometimes and blew up from bombs sometimes, I didn’t realize everyone on earth was going to completely freak the fuck out over the fact that this time it was in the US.
“Crowned” not “coronated”.
I do remember where I was for 9/11, though it happened overnight my time, so it was all over by the time I was watching on CNN.
I’ve always wondered about the people who were off-grid for some reason and didn’t hear about 9-11. One of my co-workers was backpacking for a week (with cellphone off) and found out about Diana’s death only when he turned on the car radio as he started home. He was shocked because the announcer was talking about it in past tense ("…since Diana’s death in the crash last Sunday…"). He was stunned and trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
I’ve hiked the Grand Canyon for a week, and there was no cell service and no way to get in touch* with the outside world at all. I’ve always wondered what the canyon rafters/hikers thought 9-11 week. I distinctly remember how visible all the aircraft were above me as I lay down every night. Eventually someone must have noticed all the airplanes were gone.
*At the time, the guide could only use a portable radio on the aviation emergency frequency and attempt to contact overflying airliners (in hopes they could relay info).
I don’t recall her suffering any cranial damage from the experience. 
I never watch the news and was somewhat mystified to hear about the 9/11 event two days after it happened. I can’t say it has affected me at all in any way other than making me extremely reluctant to fly due to the annoying and totally pointless security precautions put in place as a consequence.