9-11-01

[Sleeper]

I saw the news reports out of NYC while eating breakfast before my 9:30 class at the local community college in Alexandria, Va. Really got freaked out seeing the second plane hit, went to class knowing something was really, really wrong. Eight minutes into a Geology 110, heard a loud boom. The Pentagon, though we didn't know it at the time. Professor kept the class going for about another 20 minutes or so, but nobody, including him, was into it.

Walked out of class, saw a TV showing that one of the towers had just collapsed. Heard radio reports while driving home that the State Dept. had been bombed and that the FBI and other buildings in D.C. were being evacuated. What a morning.

 

[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.

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

Classic Arnold.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I covered Coast Guard football at the time. Every Tuesday was our weekly press conference with the coach and a few players in the officer's club on base.

The SID, Jason Southard - one of the best, by the way - called and said we can't meet on base because they're not letting anybody on. So we, and a couple of the cadets and the coach, went to a pizza restaurant down the street off the base.

These were some wide-eyed military men. I don't even remember what we talked about. I don't think the upcoming game was much on it.

Later that afternoon I was getting a '67 Land Rover that I won on eBay delivered to my house. And at 3 p.m., Imus was still on WFAN telling everyone to keep it calm.

And it was a cloudless, beautiful blue sky the whole day. Seems to me it was like that around the country.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

Wait -- there is Coast Guard football? Like, a football team fielded by a school for the Coast Guard? Please explain.

 

[slappy4428]

Cloudless blue sky in Michigan that day, too

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Wait -- there is Coast Guard football? Like, a football team fielded by a school for the Coast Guard? Please explain.

D-III, brother. Plays the Mass. Maritimes of the world. Actually made it to its conference championship last year.

One more piece of trivia: Otto Graham was the coach and AD for about 15 years.

They stunk up the joint when I covered them, though.

 

[Angola!]

And it was a cloudless, beautiful blue sky the whole day. Seems to me it was like that around the country.

It was like that in Idaho.

I found out about it when I was skipping my 7 a.m. class as a senior in college. I was supposed to be running or walking, but I was on the 'net. The internet sites didn't have a lot of info and I didn't really believe it.

So, I started to drive home and that's when all the radio stations flipped to the news.

The one thing I noticed was everyone was driving really slow and had these bizarre expressions on their faces.

I had the unfortunate experience of waking up all of my roommates to let them know.

I went back to class and the professor tried to pretend like nothing happened. I eventually stood up and left and he tried to yell at me. I basically told him to shove it and then went back home and watched TV all day.

 

[dargan]

Cloudless blue sky in Michigan that day, too

Exactly the same in the ArkLaTex that day, too.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Was sleeping. Wife woke me up right after the second tower was hit. Was off that day and watched TV news all day. Very surreal.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Sittin' on my bed, working on an online piece, checking message boards occasionally . . . and somebody brought it up.

Turned on the TV. Hmmmmmmm. Not good.

 

[Gomer]

Was working for an afternoon daily in British Columbia, then started seeing those news flashes come across the Canadian Press wire, similar to what Corky posted earlier.

Called my girlfriend (now wife) and told her to turn on the TV.

"What channel?"
"All of them!"

I still had a story on stock car racing to do. Lord, what an unimportant sack of **** I felt like for writing it, but I got it done. Went home and watched TV for the rest of the day.

A couple months later I remember watching a tribute to all of the people who died that day. It was set to the song Only Time by Enya. That song still gives me shivers as a result.

 

[dooley_womack1]

On the year anniversary, I hate to admit what I was looking for when CNN was scrolling all the names of those who died. Three Niedermayers. Dead.

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Mine's pretty similar.
I was a sophomore in college. Got up for my 9:30 class, checked my instant messages and had one from a friend that said a plane flew into the World Trade Center.
In my mind, I thought it was some bozo who flew a bi-plane into a tower. I didn't even turn on my TV, and instead went to Spanish 2.
Came back to find the apocalypse ongoing.

 

[Wenders]

I was 16 and a sophomore in high school. I was in Intro to Journalism when my teacher comes running out of her office, grabs the remote and turns on CNN. We were the first in the school to know about it.

Second period, we had a sub. Her brother was in the Army at the nearby Army base (which was the first base to send troops to Afghanistan). She was freaking out because she had already tried to call him and his cell phone was off, which meant he was probably headed out.

Usually, the TV in the cafeteria was muted and no one even paid attention to it. Everyone was standing around that day. I knew my mom probably didn't know, so I called her at work, right there in the cafeteria (we weren't supposed to have cell phones on school property). I wasn't the only one calling their parents for reassurance, to pass on the news, to hear about family members or just to hear their voices.

We talked about it the entire day. I went home and watched it on CNN for the rest of the night. We had the Dallas area news and that night, I remember watching as they not only chronicled the events in NYC and Washington, but also the events in Dallas. Because of the outrage over the fact that it was a terrorist attack, several mosques in the Dallas area had been vandalized during the day.

I've never seen so much wide-spread panic. Most of the teachers (who were younger) had never seen anything like it and were terrified. I don't think any of us could have predicted what has happened to our world now.

I also remember being so afraid of what was going on that I made a bed on my parents floor and slept in their room that night.

 

[buckweaver]

I will add this: Reading some of your comments, I am very, very glad and grateful that I was out of high school that day.

I don't think I would have forgiven any teachers or otherwise who tried to keep the TVs off or ignored the news out of some sense of ... I don't know. The most world-changing event of our lifetimes ... ignored? The mind boggles.

 

[Angola!]

I will add this: Reading some of your comments, I am very, very glad and grateful that I was out of high school that day.

I don't think I would have forgiven any teachers or otherwise who tried to keep the TVs off or ignored the news out of some sense of ... I don't know. The most world-changing event of our lifetimes ... ignored? The mind boggles.

Yeah, it seems like the best real world education you could have. Showing what's going on in our world.

 

[Smash Williams]

I was a senior in high school just outside of Boston. It was second period AP English, with Mrs. Conley. We all wandered in a little bit after the first plane was hit to the television on, and all we did was watch the coverage. We saw the second plane hit live about 10 minutes before the period ended. It was bagels and books day.

There was a group of about 40 of us in a variety of AP classes, and all 18 of us in that AP English class were a part of it. We all knew each other pretty well and were talkative, but it was nearly silent the entire 50 minute period.

But before we left, Mrs. Conley gathered us all together. We'd only been seniors for about three weeks, but she wanted us to know we had to not get freaked out. The younger students would be watching the seniors, and especially us, the class leaders, the popular kids, the one's whose names they'd heard, to know how to respond. We needed to make sure they knew everything wasn't okay, but us panicking wouldn't make it any better. She meant well, and was probably right. But I was 17 and all I wanted to do was sit in front of a TV and gape and try to process.

Then I had to go to BC Calculus with Mrs. Wynn, and she gave us a brief speech about it, then made us take a test. We heard about the pentagon after we left.

Around fourth period, a nasty rumor started to make its way around school that there were more planes headed for other cities, including Dallas (where my father lived) and Boston (where my mother worked), so I was completely freaked out. I went upstairs to the library, where they had a TV showing the coverage. I tried to call both parents, couldn't reach either, and remained freaked out for the rest of the day. But I tried not to show it, and I made sure my younger sister knew mom and dad were fine, even though I was lying through my teeth.

After school, I had drama rehearsal for Grease. We didn't do anything except stand around the piano while a sophomore named Kiyoshi Matsuyama played Train's "Drops of Jupiter," and we all sang along. It's a nonsensical, crap, idiotic song, but I can never turn it off when I hear it even now.

 

[CM Punk]

Junior year of college. Noon class (CST), so I slept in until 11 on Tuesdays. I'm the get-up-and-go type. No TV, Internet, radio. So I walked to class and didn't hear **** until I got there. We had class anyway. There was some gas price gouging, but I had filled up on Monday.

Went to my midday shift at work, went to another class at night. The rest of the week played out in flyover country like nothing ever happened.

 

[trifectarich]

I posted this last year, but I think it's certainly warranted.

Here is the first bunch of AP Newsalerts from throughout that day, starting with the very first one on down. I've never met Jerry Schwartz, but I'd sure as hell like to shake his hand and say he did a fantastic job, all things considered.

You're right. I'd love the opportunity to listen to Jerry recount his experience that day.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

MSNBC replaying 9/11 coverage in real time