9-11-01

[buckweaver]

Can't read that column again, Beej. Don't make me click that link. :'(

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As for me, I was riding a bus from the East Campus parking lot up to the J-school building in Athens. The driver had NPR on the radio and I heard something about an explosion at the World Trade Center. When I got to my stop, right as I was getting off, I heard something about a plane hitting the building and that it sounded pretty serious. So I skipped my class, hustled up the hill to the library, and joined about a dozen people in one of the conference rooms watching CNN.

About a minute later, the second plane hit the tower. I saw it live. I'll never forget it. I can still hear myself letting out an audible gasp when it hit. A couple people near me tried to call friends in New York, and couldn't get through, and that's when it really hit me.

All day, I was in shock. I didn't go to my 11 a.m. class, either, because I was still in the library with about 50 other people in that room watching on the TV. Later, of course, we learned all events had been canceled. There were a lot of biological warfare fears around UGA that day. I remember hearing that the CDC would be high on the terrorists' list.

Like everyone else, I started calling everybody I knew -- especially my best friend from high school, who was in the Marines. Never could get a hold of her. She sent me a text about eight hours later, said she was scared to death and the whole base was on lockdown but she was very proud to be where she was and do what she signed up to do.

That night, believe it or not, I booked a plane ticket to see a friend in Denver the next month. I didn't know what was going to happen to the world as we knew it. I wanted to take advantage of every day that we had, not knowing if we would ever get that chance again.

There was a real sense of urgency, that everything would be different now. And it was -- my life has never been the same. I know I'm not the only one.

 

[KevinmH9]

IIRC, I was a sophomore in high school and I was in French class that morning when a teacher from the other room stormed into our room telling us that the WTC towers were attacked. They eventually rolled a T.V. into the room and we watched CNN and ended that day's lesson. After the bell rang, life went on. The principal made a small announcement, but classes continued regularly.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Just at that moment, I was thinking to myself that, seven years later, I was going to tell an anonymous Internet board poster to go soak his (or her) head. In ice water, preferably. That moment has come 'round at last.

*****

As with at least one other here, it was deadline day at the weekly.

No cable, so I ambled across the street several times to the tobacco store across the street to see what was happening on TV.

Listened to a lot of NPR, too.

The future Mrs. and I were going to a wine appreciation class on Tuesday nights and at that time I was working about an hour away. I was low on gass and every station was filled with cars and the price was spiking. I even saw one place where gas was $3 (!).

Funny thing, by 9:30 p.m. when we got out of class the great gas rush was over.

 

[Songbird]

Putney, Vermont. A phone call woke me up with the news.

 

[Cape_Fear]

I was working for the minor league baseball team here in town and was getting ready to go to the ballpark to do some of the season-ending chores before going to my regular job at the paper at night.

I flipped on the TV. It was still on CBS from the night before and I remember the confusion in Bryant Gumbel's voice as they were showing the first tower. At that point it was still thought to be an accident so I went to the ballpark anyway.

I remember driving down and here in central Illinois it was an absolutely gorgeous spring-like day. The skies were a clear, vibrant blue. I had the talk station on and they went to the ABC News feed and I was stopped at a red light when the other tower was hit. When I got to the ballpark we just sat in the conference room watching the coverage.

I went home and when I was walking the dog before going into the paper I looked up and saw a couple of planes in the air, much higher than the normal air traffic over the apartment. It was Air Force One with its fighter escort.

 

[slappy4428]

Just at that moment, I was thinking to myself that, seven years later, I was going to tell an anonymous Internet board poster to go soak his (or her) head. In ice water, preferably. That moment has come 'round at last.

*****

As with at least one other here, it was deadline day at the weekly.

No cable, so I ambled across the street several times to the tobacco store across the street to see what was happening on TV.

Listened to a lot of NPR, too.

The future Mrs. and I were going to a wine appreciation class on Tuesday nights and at that time I was working about an hour away. I was low on gass and every station was filled with cars and the price was spiking. I even saw one place where gas was $3 (!).

Funny thing, by 9:30 p.m. when we got out of class the great gas rush was over.

One gas station by me spiked to 2.25 and backed down to 1.60 the next day. But they got reported and Michigan went after it for price gouging...

 

[BYH]

I remember driving down and here in central Illinois it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day. The skies were a clear, vibrant blue.

Same here.

I will never, ever forget that. A beautiful day and the worst day ever, all at the same time.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Getting ready to give a presentation for a seminar, going over my index cards and eating a muffin when the professor came in late and told everyone class was canceled. Was in traffic for three hours.

 

[imjustagirl]

I was working at a PM paper at the time, so I'd been at work. I got my part done, and headed across the street to visit with people at the DIII school over there. Was in the men's basketball coach's office when we heard about it. He flipped the TV on seconds before the second plane hit. I gasped, then grabbed a phone in the SID's office and called the office. My ME at the time always had his TV in his office turned to CNN, but I wanted to make sure he had seen. We went to press, I believe, before the towers fell but after the attack.

I spent the rest of the day with one of our designers, watching her TV and both of us just freaking out.

 

[mike311gd]

I don't think I'll ever forget that day, and it wasn't really the sight of the planes hitting the towers.

A freshman in college, I was let out of my mass media class early, and I was walking back to my room to take a nap before my 2 p.m. class. As I walked down the hill and looked to my left at the first dorm on campus, I saw two idiots singing a familiar song: REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It." I thought that was pretty weird, and thought about why for the rest of my walk.

Then I walked into my suite and saw all my roommates sitting in front of the television, which is where I parked myself for the rest of the day. Our afternoon classes were canceled, and that was the first day I didn't play GTA3 or The New Tetris since I started college. We didn't turn the TV off for at least a couple days.

I called home that afternoon to see how the girlfriend was doing, but then it was back to the tube.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

I was a junior in high school when it happened.

Went to school like normal that day, and didn't know anything had happened until much later in the day.

The school admins sent out an e-mail to teachers saying they could either let us watch the coverage throughout the day or they could not say anything at all to us. Some teachers didn't have "normal" classes that day. Others did, and they just happened to be teaching my classes.

I didn't know anything had happened until third period, or 11 that day, when one of my friends came out of a room crying. She had been having family/boyfriend issues, so I asked her if her boyfriend had done something wrong. She said no and said 'Just go watch the TV in the bandroom.'

I did, and they were re-airing the footage from when the first plane hit the WTC. Then the second plane hit, and I thought it was just another angle or a replay or something like that.

Then my band director told me it was two planes, and that both buildings had collapsed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on TV. Two years before that in 1999, the band took a trip to NYC/NJ over spring break and we went on a ferry ride around the Statue of Liberty and saw the WTC.

I took about 30 pictures of the WTC and still have that home, tucked away in an album along with the other pictures from that trip.

Anywho, the school thought about canceling everything that night and the rest of the weekend, but didn't. We had rehearsal that night, the football team had practice and everything went on as normal as possible that night.

There's a gas station just down the road from the band's practice field, and it raised prices to above two bucks a gallon. The line was stretched at least a mile down the road both ways, and didn't let up for a few hours. The station eventually lowered their prices to $1.50 or so after the state cracked down on price gouging.

We stopped rehearsal at around 7:30 that night as President Bush had named that time as a national moment of silence. We stood in a circle for about 20 minutes while Mr. Eck (the band director) said a long prayer and talked for a bit. It was a pretty moving time, with everyone standing around crying and leaning on each other. Then it was back to rehearsal, but the mood was very somber the rest of the night.

Friday night when on as planned, although people in the stands at the football game kept a constant eye on the sky for another possible attack. Fort Knox, which is about 45 minutes from where I live and 20 from where I work, was put on high alert and every time a plane or chopper flew overhead, people cringed and some even screamed throughout the game.

When one of the local TV stations came down to film part of the game for its highlight show, everyone just about jumped out of the bleachers and headed for the hills when that chopper landed.

This is my generation's 'Where were you' moment. And for some damn reason, I wish I had heard the news earlier that day. But I guess the teachers I had thought it best to not let us watch it. I know at least two of them wouldn't have been able to hold it together, let alone keep a class of 20-25 kids from panicking and going into mass hysteria.

 

[Magic In The Night]

I was awakened by the sound of the sirens, something you always hear in New York but there were so many and they didn't stop or fade away like they usually do. I then looked out the window of my friend's east-side 36th Street apartment and saw the black smoke pouring out of the tower. I couldn't believe how big the fire was. I turned on the TV and saw that a plane had hit it. Just as I looked out the window again, I saw a plane flying where I had never seen one go before and seconds later, the big gaping hole in the second building. It was terrifying. I then went into a sort of shocked-like state as I watched the rest of it, some on TV, some out on my friend's terrace, at least until the announcers said no one should be outside breathing that air, which turned out to be true. After the towers came down, I continued to watch. Finally, about 3 p.m., I went out for coffee and something to eat and saw everyone still walking up 3rd Avenue, with bits of the dust in their hair and absolute shock on their faces. The next few days in New York were indescribable as the city had such an eerie silence and people would just hug others when they saw them on the streets, embracing the fact that they were still alive. The memory of that day, and the week after, will never fade.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

I don't think I'll ever forget that day, and it wasn't really the sight of the planes hitting the towers.

A freshman in college, I was let out of my mass media class early, and I was walking back to my room to take a nap before my 2 p.m. class. As I walked down the hill and looked to my left at the first dorm on campus, I saw two idiots singing a familiar song: REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It." I thought that was pretty weird, and thought about why for the rest of my walk.

Then I walked into my suite and saw all my roommates sitting in front of the television, which is where I parked myself for the rest of the day. Our afternoon classes were canceled, and that was the first day I didn't play GTA3 or The New Tetris since I started college. We didn't turn the TV off for at least a couple days.

I called home that afternoon to see how the girlfriend was doing, but then it was back to the tube.

Wow, there's a sense of perspective. It was so long ago that Mike had a girlfriend. Makes you think.

 

[albert77]

One thing that sticks with me was my mom calling me from Texas after the towers had collapsed. She was sobbing, and she said, "if this is Armageddon, I just want to hear your voice one more time."

 

[Beaker]

Like mike, I was a freshman in college at the time, in just our second week. I didn't have class that day until a bit later, so I was just waking up when it happened. We lived in a suite type setup, and one of the guys from across the common area came and woke us up. I was just sort of shaking off the cobwebs from sleep at the time, and then I woke up to see video of one of the towers collapsing. We all just stood around the tv in one of the rooms, not really sure what to say at all. Everything had changed in an instant.

I had a writing class later that day, which I still had to go to, but of course no one wanted to be there--I still remember the looks on everyone's faces. All we did was talk about what happened for a while, not that anybody really knew much at that point. I don't think we were there the whole class time.

I don't remember too much about the rest of the day except that we had a candlelight vigil on the quad that night, which was pretty somber to say the least.

 

[HackyMcHack]

I was about four months into my job near two major air force bases, working sports desk. I was scheduled to be off that day. Woke up around 9 a.m. CDT and flipped on my computer. The My Yahoo page had the small plane crashing headline. I thought a plane had just gone off course. I did my normal morning Internet rounds, then went back to My Yahoo about 10 minutes later. I looked at the headlines again, and by then it had the second building hit. That was my uh-oh moment.

Later on, I went into the office with the intention to help out, but I mainly went in just to soak in the moment -- and watch the world change.

 

[azom]

Sophomore year in college.

Woke up, went to the cafeteria for breakfast, got dressed and walked across campus to my history class. When I got there, the professor said something to the effect of, "I'll try not to keep you here long, with what happened in New York this morning." And that was all he said. I was completely confused.

It was another two or three hours before I got to see what had happened. I spent a couple hours watching, then tried to move on (I recall a Wal-Mart trip).

 

[RedSmithClone]

I had just finished pulling an all-nighter at work to get extra stuff done. I went home fell aslep and an hour later the phone is ringing and it's my mom saying "Are you awake? Are you watching the news? Can you believe this?" I rolled over in bed, grabbed the remote flipped it on and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I got up, showered and went back to work to help with whatever I could. One of the men who died in one of the planes was a local youth sports coach.

 

[Bubbler]

I was sleeping and my brother (Z-Man) called me from Cincinnati and woke me up. I was in a half-fog when he told me and I was like, "What the **** are you talking about?" I don't think I really believed it until I turned on the TV, then my blood went cold.

I believe I then had the displeasure of telling my wife and each of the guys on my staff. The reaction they gave me was similar to the reaction I had for my brother.

My next call was to work to do whatever I could to help out. I ended up doing desk work, then spent two or three days feeling like the most worthless fifth wheel ever as sports shut down other than some scant prep events.

It was my first day back from a Labor Day week vacation. I took vacation last week over the exact same time period for the first time since, and I admit, 9/11 popped in my mind more than once. I was waiting for some shoe to drop again this past Tuesday and praying that it wouldn't.

I don't like to remember 9/11 the day, rather, I like to live life just as I did in the days before it. To me, that's the only way I can shove it up the terrorists' asses.

 

[Gold]

I live on the west coast, and I drove my daugher to first grade. I turned on the sports radio station and I heard something that wasn't sports radio. The information wasn't clear, but they said there were two planes which hit the World Trade Center. I work for the federal government and I thought we wouldn't have work, but I went in just in case. The US Marshals told us the building was closed. The first thing I did was to go to my daughter's school to see her. They were at recess and the teacher sent her over to see me. They didn't close the school and I was glad about that - if they let kids go home, they probably would have watched the thing on television.

I decided to go get some paint and do some painting. I felt like I should be doing something positive to counter the destruction, and the painting helped take my mind off the atrocity. We had just moved into the house about 10 days earlier, and I figured this was a good opportunity to do the painting.

We were sent home after work the next day, and I did some more painting. I remember talking to a football coach doing a story for a possible preview - but it was an away game so there would be a question whether they could get a plane. It turned out it wasn't played.

All I could think about was the firemen who had died. My father was a fireman, so that is why that affected me. I remember covering high school games that weekend. Usually the National Anthem, after hearing it so many times at games, has no affect on me. This time, I really felt something.

The other thing I remember clearly was driving back to the office after the game, I saw a young man just waving an American flag back and forth. That seemed a telling symbol reminding me to keep the faith.