I had spent the night of the 10th with an umfriend. I slept in late the 11th and was awoken in this manner:
“Rachel, get up! World War Three just started.”
“What, did both of your exes just show up?”
That would’ve been better, I think.
I eventually made it in to work. where my co-workers were cranked off with me because I was the only one who knew where NPR was on the dial :rolleyes: By the middle of the afternoon we had one computer on CNN, another on CNBC, and the radio on NPR, and we were yeslling across the office every time we heard a new news tidbit.
I was at home, getting ready for class. I checked my email, and found about 10 CNN Breaking News emails in my Inbox. “A plane has just hit the World Trade Center”… “A plane has hit the Pentagon”… “FBI suspects foul play may be involved”… and so on. I went over to a friend’s house and watched news for the next 4 hours. Needless to say, classes were cancelled that day anyway.
In this thread, I’ve noticed something. Two of us who have posted here were there - Zev_Steinhardt and me.
Almost every post that’s been made here has been longer than ours.
I think that says something about the magnitude of what happened that day. I could say more about what happened to me then. But I don’t want to. And I sense that zev doesn’t want to, either.
And I remember Cartooniverse’s post afterwards that made it to Threadspotting. He was one of our heroes. I’d rather hear from him a dozen times than from someone, like me, who just happened to be there and got out without looking behind her to see who was jumping out of a window.
I should have said that that doesn’t make the experiences that the people who heard about it afterwards felt any less significant. But I watched the CBS documentary for the first time tonight. And I remembered where I was and what I saw. And what my family felt, worrying for someone who never should have been anywhere near there.
All of our experiences meant something, and will always mean something. We will all always remember until our dying days, where we were on 9/11/01.
And, for what it’s worth, that’s a wonderful thing.
I had gotten off work about 6 that morning, and woke up again (for some reason) about 8:45 or so. I started up my computer and went to check my e-mail. The first headline on MyYahoo was “Plane Strikes the World Trade Center”
My first thought was that it was some sort of accident. I tried to get details from that link but it was bogged down, so I turned on the TV just in time to see the 2nd hit. I spent the rest of the day on SDMB with the TV on in the other room. I did call my folks, but other than “can you believe this?” none of us had much to say; we were too overwhelmed.
I’m glad the SDMB was here that day.
Like Johnny I was right here in this very forum when I saw a thread title about a plane crashing into the WTC. And I’m glad I was here as I had people to share the experience so as not to have been swept away in the madness. That thread is so weird and amazing to read.
Normally, I’m a night owl. It was around 11pm Australian time when the towers were hit. I must have gone to bed as it happened. I don’t know why I went to bed that night - I thought about staying up - but I guess I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I’d heard the news before bed, and I lost enough sleep in the weeks that followed.
So the next morning I wake up to the phone ringing. It’s Mr Cazzle, and he’s calling from work to tell me to get ready, that he’s taking me down to pay the gas bill. I hang up, and call Mum to pass on a message and she says to me “Have you heard what’s happening in America?” I said no, and I felt a cold chill throughout my body. Mum said “Four planes have been hijacked, and two have been crashed into the WTC, one into the Pentagon and the other out in farmland”. I was stunned, and rang off quickly so I could rush to my computer and see what was going on.
I know for you in America it was a case of seeing the second plane hit and then realising it was no accident, but for me the revelation was that these planes weren’t hijacked to be ransomed - I thought there must have been a period of negotiations that broke down and lead to the hijackers defiantly crashing the planes into the towers. Realising that they never attempted negotiations, that they hijacked the planes to crash them hit me like a physical blow. At that point, Mr Cazzle rang. He was in his car coming to get me, and just starting to hear the whole story on the radio. He’d overheard people talking in the office about a plane crash, but had no idea the extent. He was shocked and rang me, and I filled in the details he hadn’t heard on the radio. I shed some tears before he arrived, and clung to him like a lifeline. On this day, I did not want to be alone.
We drove to the bank in shock and grief. We paid the bill, then drove home. Then Mr Cazzle dropped me off at my mother’s house so I wouldn’t have to spend the day by myself. It was there that I first saw the footage. Oh my God, I’ll never forget that. When I saw the plane hit the tower, I felt like I wanted to vomit. I was so scared, and so distressed, and so shocked. I kept wanting to crawl back into my bed and sleep, and wake up yesterday. From those first moments, I felt like nothing could ever be the same again
Well, Mr Cazzle and his partner couldn’t concentrate, so they both went home for a while - Mr Cazzle joined us at Mums while his partner went home to his wife. We all sat there and just watched the footage repeating over and over. That night Grandfather joined us for dinner, and it was all we could talk about. We were all so fearful of what would happen next - we couldn’t believe that there weren’t more attacks planned. I couldn’t sleep at night for nearly a month - I sat here scanning CNN and all the other news sites all night. Gradually the fear has subsided, but I will never forget those early days.
Meanwhile, just after I got to Mum’s, I called a friend to tell her that I was there and not to worry if she got no answer at my house. I left that message on her machine. She rang me at Mums and said “What’s wrong?”. I said, gently, “Haven’t you heard what’s happening in America?” and she said “Oh is that all? I thought someone must have died”. Now, I’ve spoken with a lot of people since 9/11, and all have varying reactions to what happened, but I have never met anyone else so utterly unconcerned about it within 12 hours of it happening. That was the beginning of the end of our friendship - I couldn’t get over the fact that she didn’t care. In fact, when I said to her “Doesn’t it put all our petty concerns into perspective?” she said “I don’t think so. My problems are pretty bad you know”. :eek: I couldn’t believe she was comparing her broken engagement to the destruction of the World Trade Center, the imminent outbreak of war, the deaths of thousands and the defining event of our lives. Incredible.
I was getting the kids ready for school. My brother phoned and told me to turn on the TV, a plane had hit the WTC.
I was horrified, but secure in my isolation. Nothing ever happens in the North, there’s nobody here for it to happen TO.
I logged in at the Straight Dope, 'cause, well, I was worried about you guys. I knew some of my favorite posters were living and working there, and I wanted to be sure everyone was Ok. As well as a really bad feeling for poor Alphagene, who had gotten his new job the day before.
The bit about US-bound planes being diverted to Canada didn’t really sink in until NORAD told us they were gifting us(!) with a possibly hijacked jet and the RCMP evacuated the schools and the downtown core…I split for my Mom’s house, very far away from the airport (and behind some small mountains). Unfortunately, there was no 'net access there, and there was a cable feed. By two in the afternoon or so, I let the kids take over the television. I had had all the horror I could stomach and there was no real news after that.
I awoke just after 6 on the morning of 12 September our time to my neighbour yelling “turn on your TV Merryl, America’s been attacked”.
As the morning news programmes ended, all networks decided to extend their coverages and for the next 3 days I was pretty much glued to the TV. I think it took those 3 days of seeing those images over and over and over for the enormity of what had happened to sink in - I know that there was a sense that I might wake up the next morning and find I’d dreamed the whole thing.
Apart from the media images, the thing I remember most is how much kinder people were to each other in the days immediately following September 11.
America was attacked as I was driving home from work late at night. I turned on the TV just after the second aircraft hit. I logged on to the SDMB a few moments later and participated in the most moving thread I have ever seen.
I think with all the rage, grief, determination, and other emotions we have all dealt with in the last six months, we must remember that at the time, when we were seeing this terrible thing unfold live on our screens, we were scared. The scariest part for me was when the Pentagon was hit, and we didn’t know when the horror would stop. How many more planes? Would it go nuclear? Biological? Even on the other side of the world, I was not above feeling this most basic of emotions. The fear was at once heightened and assuaged by the fact that I was going through it with my American Doper friends. My girlfriend was at work on nightshift, my son was asleep, and apart from my cat, I was home alone.
I’m a big, mean-looking bastard, but I’ll admit to one thing -in the absence of anyone else, yes, I did hug my cat.
There’s one thing we can say for sure - America, you were never alone in this. On the other side of the world, we were feeling your pain and sharing your fear.
I was in the air, flying from Hong Kong to San Francisco. The bombing happened while we were 3 hours out and none of the passengers knew about it. You guys ever flown where you get your own personal TV and you can turn the channel to the flight path and see a little picture of the plane on the map and the travel speed and where we are due to land, etc. etc? Well, about 2 hours before we landed, that got turned off and that was the only inkling I had that something was odd.
We were due to land in San Francisco where I would connect to Seattle. We landed, and the guy sitting next to me said, this isn’t San Francisco. Odd thing number 2.
The captain came on the loudspeaker and announced that we had been diverted to Vancouver and we should all sit tight. Then, the people behind us used their cell phones to call home, and we all knew the awful truth.
We were on the ground for nearly 2 hours before they let us off the plane and we had to go through an incredibly stringent security check. A huge number of wide bodied planes (most of them from Asia) were being diverted to Vancouver and airport personnel did a great job, but they just couldn’t handle the amount of people.
They wouldn’t give us our checked luggage, and just shouted at us to move out of customs and keep moving. The lines to payphones were 20 people deep and there were many asian people who didn’t understand English or what was happening. All rental cars were gone. All surrounding hotels were booked.
I ended up being incredibly lucky (in so many ways). A kind gentleman loaned me his cell phone and I was able to call my boyfriend in Seattle (who had been panicky all day, unsure of my exact itinerary). Although there was a lot of confusion whether the borders were open, an online Canadian friend assured us the Canadian border was open, so we set up a meeting place in the airport and he drove the 3 hours to get me in Vancouver. Of all the places I could have been diverted I was incredibly lucky to land in a place that was so close to my home, I would have been sleeping on the floor otherwise.
I ended up at the Elephant and Castle pub in the Vancouver airport watching Star Trek Next Generation (they werent’ showing any news about the terrorist attack). It was an English style pub with a red British style phone booth out front. It turned out to be an actual working payphone that the huge mobs of people never noticed. I was able to call my mom, my dad, my boss and let everyone know I was okay.
It was a terrifying day, but I was so lucky! My heart aches for everyone that lost someone that day and for America who lost something that day as well.
Like Reprise, I learned about it after it had all happened, at 7am or so local time the next day in Sydney.
We had a TV going in the lunch room all day, and staff would drift in and out, just taking the time to come to grips with it.
In my lunch break, I saw the most horrific news story I think I will ever see - a camera crew following a family round all the roadblocks in Manhattan, trying to find the father, who ran a food shop at the base of one of the towers. Reporters would stop the family to ask the kids “how do you feel?” and “What will you do now?”. It even had a happy ending - finding the father in a first aid station, with tearful reunions live to camera.
The exploitation of their turmoil and vulnerability made me sick.
I was asleep in my bed when my mother called me at around 9:45 or so (maybe a bit later) to tell me the towers and pentagon had been hit (it’s been a bit and my memory is kinda foggy). I rushed over to the nearest computer lab and started reading the threads and went into chat to see what was happening.
At around 11 AM my mother logged off AIM without saying a word. She works in DC, so I was a bit nervous as to whether or not something bad had happened to her.
At around 11:45 I went off to class, having checked out news coverage on one of several televisions now turned to CNN. Class was basically canceled, so I went back to the same lab, same computer, and resumed chatting.
My mother was back online at home at 2 and didn’t seem to understand that my sister and I had been justifiable worried when she (mother) had signed off without saying a word.
I was at work in New Jersey, having had one of the best weekends of the year. I was sorting some bills according to which account to pay them out of when I got a phone call. While I was talking, a cow-orker came in, said hi and went to his office. As I was hanging up, another line rang and cow-orker picked it up. He’s a very laid back guy, but he started screaming “Turn on the radio. Get on the Internet.” I turned on the radio, just in time to hear “It must have been an accident. No pilot would deliverately hit a build…ohmigod, the second tower has been hit.” Seems another cow-orker had been at a meeting in an office overlooking the Hudson River and saw the first plane hit.
I’m a senior in high school, and I was in my second period English class when the principal announced over the intercom that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that America was under attack.
My teacher immediatly stopped teaching and turned on the TV. For the rest of the day, in all my classes, we did nothing but watch MSNBC.
I was in my 9 am Criminal Procedure class. The professor doesn’t like his students using the internet while in class, but he can’t see my laptop screen so I usually get online anyway. I tend to roll through the news sites every few minutes…Drudge, FOX, CNN, etc. By 9:45, Drudge was reporting that a plane had hit the first tower. My mental picture was of some small plane going out of control by accident; sad, but they’d get it fixed.
By about 10 a.m., Drudge was blasting “Who Did This?!?” I was tempted to raise my hand and announce what happened, but again figured it wasn’t important enough to bring up. (I still wasn’t sure that this was a terrorist attack, and Drudge tends to exaggerate anyway.)
At 10:15, class let out and I went next door to Constitutional Law. Con Law was in the largest lecture room in the building, and most of my classmates were taking it. By that point, the Dean had cable hooked up to the classroom monitors. More confusion. The first tower had already come down and I didn’t even realize it. I ran over to my best friend, who quickly updated me. As a class, we all watched the second tower come down, and quickly learned about the Pentagon after that.
Classes were cancelled immediately after that. Our chaplain quickly arranged for a school-wide Mass. Most of the people spent the day either glued to the TV or in the chapel in prayer. I personally spent a good part of the day trying to call home. A reporter mistakenly said that a plane hit Philadelphia (where I’m from), so I really wanted to call my parents and find out they were OK.
I was sitting here at work, like I am now, reading the board and surfing. My SO called me and said that he heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC Towers. I started looking on the Internet for something about it and could only find one small picture and a caption that read something like, “Plane crashes into WTC - 9:45 a.m. Est.” One of my co-workers came over and told me to come into his office and watch the news with him. We sat there and watched as the second plane crashed into the WTC. It was horrible. I called my SO and told him what I knew. That was around the time all the planes were redirected and ordered to land. My SO was working on the interstate and watched as several planes turned around to return to the airport. I felt physically ill for the next several hours. I went home and hugged my kids and said a little prayer for our country and all the lives lost and torn apart by what had happened that day. It was definitely a life changing event for me. Really put my life into prespective.
Mr. Rilch had to leave for work before 6. We live in a building where the second-floor apartments open onto a balcony. That morning, our neighbor had his shades open and the TV on. “That’s funny,” Mr. Rilch thought. “Why is Wally watching Die Hard first thing in the morning?” Wally saw him looking, and opened the door to tell him what was up.
Mr. Rilch came back in, woke me and said, “Something’s going on in New York.” From the stairway, I saw the smoldering columns. “Did that fault line finally let go?” I asked groggily. He stayed a few minutes, long enough to see the first tower collapse. I was brushing my stupid teeth, and came out to see an enormous beige puff next to a lone tower. Mr. Rilch left and I continued standing numbly in front of the TV. Commentator commentator commentator, then there was a flume of smoke. Male commentator said, “What— Is that—” A beat. “There are no words.”
You’re right about that. I used up my four cigarettes just watching the news while the towers were still standing. When they were gone, I thought, “This is it. Now the Sears Tower, and the Space Needle, and what will they hit in LA? NBC Studios, maybe, to avenge any remarks Jay Leno has made?” I decided that if this were the case, it wouldn’t matter if I were at home or two miles away at the cigarette store. I hopped in the car and waited for the store to open at the tables outside the bagel shop next to it. The seniors who always hang there were listening to a transistor and telling me where they were for Pearl Harbor and JFK. When the store did open, I numbly explained to the owner that I was a dollar short, and he just handed me a pack. I guess he thought what I was thinking: that by nightfall, it might not matter. FTR, I did give him the dollar later.
**
Indeed. When I got back home, I had the TV on but was mostly on SDMB, following links for news. Read. Post. Read more. Check e-mail for threads to which I’d contributed. Back to where I’d left off. Post again. Check e-mail again. Rolly polly gammon and spinach.
Had a short time of thinking Vix was dead. Enormous relief when she checked in.
Knew I’d be hearing that Enya song a lot more. Was right.
Later, I went out to vote, partly because I already had the mindset of “If X doesn’t happen, the terrorists have won!” and partly because I wanted to get out in the community and hear what others were saying. I’d forgotten that the polls were at the local firehouse. Needless to say, those guys were pissed. I did not hang around; nobody was.
Evening. Mr. Rilch in chair looking gloomy. Friend on couch looking ravaged. Checked cabinet: pancake mix, just enough for one batch. Syrup: yeah, we had syrup.
“How would you guys like…some pancakes?”
Friend: (smiling) “I would love…some pancakes.”
Pancakes came out beautifully in new Calphalon skillet. Carefully divided them equally. Best thing I could have done, I think.
Didn’t cry until next evening when “Imagine” was on the radio. I just didn’t think it was my place. I hadn’t suffered a direct loss, and nothing would be helped by falling apart.
Spoofe actually woke me up and told me that a plane had just flown into the World Trade Center. It didn’t register in my sleep-addled mind until a few moments later. I made it downstairs just a few minutes before #2 hit.
I felt like I was going to puke, but I didn’t dare leave the TV. I knew after seeing the second plane that it was intentional.
I couldn’t believe she was comparing her broken engagement to the destruction of the World Trade Center, the imminent outbreak of war, the deaths of thousands and the defining event of our lives. Incredible.