My thoughts:

http://werekoalawrites.blogspot.com/

What do you remember about that morning? And PLEASE, PLEASE, FOR GOD'S SAKE - do not use this as a pro- or anti-  whatver-your-axe-to-grind-is thread. Just tell us where you were, what you were doing, and what you remember. Keep it respectful, folks.

I was woken up by the news on the clock radio (about 7am here). My first words were "What the fuck?", then I wandered out and turned the TV on. My first coherent thought was that the reaction of the US was sure to be massive.

I got to work that day and there was a strange atmosphere; kind of hushed. I got to class and one of my students said the first thing anybody had said to me about it since I left home. He was a Serbian boy, still with an accent, and he said "Serve them right for bombing Yugoslavia."

I went to work and saw the paper, pictures of the smoking towers, with the title "War".

Someone close to me was in the city that day, so I took work off to find out what had happened to them. They were not a native of the place but visiting for work, they were injured but survived.

A bit over a year later a similar attack injured this person, who this time did not survive. So there you go.

I went to get coffee after I woke up, and went I got back to my apartment my girlfriend was taking a shower.  I went to sit down on the couch and flipped on the TV hoping to catch the weather report.

The first thing I saw was a plane flying into a building.  My first thought was "What movie is this?"  A few minutes later I was flipping through the channels and it was starting to dawn on me that someone had flown a plane into a building in New York when my girlfriend came in.  She was drying her hair and looking at me and said "What's wrong?" and I said "I think someone flew a plane into the world trade center."  My first thought was this was the Titantic of the 21st century, the day a plane flew off course and crashed into New York.  But I was still thinking "accident."

She sat down next to me and we realized two planes had struck.  I turned to her and said "Oh my god, it wasn't an accident."  We sat there watching for an hour, and I kept thinking "Why isn't anyone saying anything?  Where's the President?  What the fuck is going on?"

My girlfriend -- not the most politically aware person on Earth -- thought it was Iraq.  I didn't think Hussein was that suicidal.

The rest of the day was just muted.  No one talked about it.  Then things started radicalizing, and the right-wingers started in with the "You're with us or against us."

Shortly after that my girlfriend and I broke up.  I left the country for a year.  I just couldn't stand watching what was happening here.  So I left.  In Europe everyone said that same thing when they found out I was America: "Sorry to hear about your troubles."  

I came back just before the war broke out.

Hmm.  Makes me sad.

In the morning, my brother called me to switch on the TV, and that someone had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. I spent the hours watching the same footage over and over again, and listening to the commentators, who were themselves alarmed and still finding it hard to believe what really happened. The following few days were also that way - a lot of speculation, but mostly just a sort of hushed silence at the university and among friends.

I was in college.  We had "Chapel" which were lectures held Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and you had to attend 16 over the course of each semester.  I was just about to take my seat when my friend sitting a few rows away told me "2 planes crashed into the world trade towers"  My first reaction was he was joking, but I immediately could tell by his face that he wasn't.  

Everyone got quite for chapel to start.  The speaker, who I don't believe had any knowledge of what was going on, gave a prepared lecture on the need for greater tolerance for Muslims.  At the conclusion of the lecture, one of the Deans of the college came up to the podium and asked that we pray for "the people involved in the incident in New York".  

After chapel we headed over to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast.  There's a big screen TV in the lounge area right outside the cafeteria.  As we passed it, we saw smoke billowing out of the Pentagon and knew we were at war.

Teaching a grade 6 computer class in Murray Hill (between midtown and the East Village), Manhattan.  Completed that lesson plan, despite most of the other teachers dropping theirs.  A mother of one of the students who had been evacuated and saw one of the towers fall came to just sit in my class.  Later she thanked me for maintaining a stable atmosphere so that she could calm down and feel safe.

I had an interesting conversation with a parent who was British and had lived through the Blitz.  She quietly expressed criticism of the reaction here, how everybody was freaking out.  British stiff upper lip and all, but she was right.

emailed my family that I was safe and spent the rest of the day and most of the evening (we had to wait until every kid was picked up before we could go home) in the school, talking with kids and finding stuff for people to do.  Of all our kids (300 or so), one lost an uncle and another's family ran a bodega in the WTC, but they were on vacation.  They were financially ruined but nobody was hurt.  So really mainly psychological damage, and most of that was among the adults.  

Did some great trekking around the impact zone in the first few days with my brother in law before they locked everything down.  Quite amazing.

My wife called me at work, she was home sick, and said "There's something strange happening in the world today. Find a TV." I did so. A plane from Boston, my hometown, had plowed into the WTC, and the commentators were speculating as to whether it had been planned or was an accident. My actual, literal, very first thought - please don't get pissed, as my thought are always irreverent and willful - was "Whoever planned this wasn't from Boston. Then the plane would have plowed into Yankee Stadium." Then I saw the second plane impact, and learned of the other attacks. I won't delve further into my thoughts, as they now went political, and with me politics is always next to madness. Several people I know, including my boss, a former NYC bond broker, lost many, many friends in the WTC attacks. Another friend's wife was a Flight Attendant who normally would be on that first flight, but who had switched with another FA for some other reason at the last minute. I personally lost no-one close to me.

-clash

I was working at a community college. We had TVs all over the place as part of our PA system. It was on all of them. There was a big crowd in the student lounge - someone had wheeled a TV out there and folks were standing around watching it. It was surreal. Know I know what my mother felt like when JFK was shot.

Seanchai

I was on my way to a job interview. Mom was in NY state visiting her mother. I turned on the local alternative radio station because the morning show is funny, and heard. I thought it was a sick joke.

So I went to talk radio, and heard the second plane hit. So for 45 minutes I was glued to the radio, crying my way down the interstate. When I got home, I got my kid out of preschool, and told my husband (he'd been working late shifts, so was asleep).

I can remember thinking that this is our generation's JFK or Pearl Harbor. We'll never forget what we were doing that day. I also remember thinking only God can save the assholes that did this. The way everyone came together reaffirmed my faith in humanity. I tried to give blood, but I was underweight And with my fear of needles, that is impressive...

The good news is that I got the job. Loved it, too.

I was sleeping, and got woken up by a phone call from my mom.  She wanted to know if I was OK (I was nowhere near the Twin Towers, but that is my mom for you ).  I asked her why she asked, and she told me a plain flew into the World Trade Center.  My first thought was , "man what a horrible accident" and then she amended it to "two planes" and I thought, "fuck, terrorists, we are going to war."  

I was supposed to work a Five For Fighting concert that night, (it was a Tuesday).  It got canceled so we all (me and my coworkers) went to a bar, drank beer, and ate buffalo wings while we tried to figure out what was going to happen next.  Some of it we got right, invading Afganistan we expected, we also expected civil liberties going under fire.  We did not expect Iraq.

I was 11 days into my self imposed exile from working for someone else; eleven days into building a prototype and business plan for an idea.

My wife was 5 months pregnant with our daughter, taking time off from day-to-day operations of the business while we shifted to my working the primary caregiver role to our then 9 month old son.

I remember going to see if my wife needed anything as she was resting in bed. I took my son up and we were kinda sitting there chatting and playing with him, and my wife wanted to see what the weather was going to be like.

I turned on the television, and there was this weird report of a plane hitting one of the world trade center towers. It was very early on - essentially right after the first plane hit. So there were all of these reports about whether it was a jet or a private plane or what have you. When it was thought to be a smaller, private plane, I remember we were talking about what a shame it was and hoping not too many people were hurt.

Then talk shifted to it being a commercial plane. Even before the second plane hit, I couldn't wrap my head around how that could happen. My thought was that either someone had messed with the ground guidance and, like a movie, directed the plane that way, or the guy pilot went crazy.

Then, while were watching the live camera on the impacted tower, I saw the second plane in one of the backgrounds. I shouted to my wife that another plane was coming and watched in horror as it plowed into the building.

At that moment I knew the world had changed in ways I couldn't possibly imagine - except that I would be in financial trouble because the economy was going to be wracked by this. I started looking for a job the next day, amidst constant watching of the television in the background.


Saturday I'm at my son's sporting event. It's a beautiful day; sunny amidst large billowing clouds, if a bit chilly. At some point I notice two fighter jets, F18's I think, off in the distance. I watch as they come closer in a large circle; everyone noticing when they get close. They round and head back north. A few minutes later, they return; a bit lower and closer together. Now I'm figuring it's some kind of training, or maybe we're just witnessing a patrol (if you recall they were regular after). They do their circle and head back amongst the low, white clouds.

A few minutes later, they are back. They are not slow or high. They are low and fast. They are not circling, but in a straight line, one lined up behind the other just off his left wing (IIRC). They are hauling ass, heading in a direct line towards Chicago.

I jumped up and watched and said to my wife "What the hell is going on?" I called my sister (I was not close to the car so no radio available) and asked her if there was anything going on - any attack I should know about. She did not know of anything, but hadn't been watching television or listening to radio. She said she would check and call back if there was anything to report.

I think those planes were doing a fly over of the Notre Dame opening game (my brother-in-law was there and they had two F18's fly over) as the direct line they took would also take them towards South Bend. But my mind went first to an attack.

I had the news radio set as my alarm, or maybe I just had a habit of turning on the radio when I woke up. Anyway, the first words I heard were, "And now we have reports that the second tower of the World Trade Center has come down."

My thought was: I didn't know they were demolishing the WTC. But I wasn't too surprised since I'd had a vague impression that the building wasn't very well-liked.

Not sure if I realized what was going on until I turned on the TV. Once I did, I roused my wife with the words, "Something terrible has happened!"

I didn't go to work downtown that day or the next, the possible extent of the conspiracy and degree of organization suggested to me that similar attacks as well as truck bombs as in 1993 and Oklahoma City were within the realm of possibility.

I was on the second day of leave, in the barracks, asleep.  I got up late, staggered down teh hall to piss and the orderlyroom clerk for a sister battalion in the regiment made a flat statement regarding planes and towers.  

My first thought was 'yup, '93'... my second was 'might as well get dressed, I figure a phone call is coming'.

Two hours later I was back at work, unofficially and the next time I had a chance to see the news I was essentially a prisoner on a very large reservation filled with angry young men.

Quote from: Werekoala;246803My thoughts:
 
http://werekoalawrites.blogspot.com/
 
What do you remember about that morning? And PLEASE, PLEASE, FOR GOD'S SAKE - do not use this as a pro- or anti- whatver-your-axe-to-grind-is thread. Just tell us where you were, what you were doing, and what you remember. Keep it respectful, folks.

I had just walked in the door to my house after visiting a client, my wife was sitting in a chair staring slackjaw at the TV, it took me a few minutes to get from her what was going on because everything on the TV was just so much chaos and confusion.  I arrived just in time to see the second tower go down... I was mystified and dazed.