I was on my way to work in suburban Atlanta. I was driving down I-85 in the Lilburn area when news of the first plane hit the WTC. I thought it was a small private plane and wondered how could the pilot not miss such a building. But when the second plane hit minutes later, I thought to myself that this is no accident. I don't think anyone would know what the scope of this would later turn out to be.
I was at school in Boise. I was just starting the 8th grade. It happened right as we were driving to school, and when I got to school one of my teachers informed me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.
I had no idea what that meant and brushed it off as something weird, but not a big deal- I think I pictured the private plane like you did. I definitely pictured a bunch of people doing work and then a plane just wedged into their office on the side of the building- no fires or anything like that.
Then they turned on the TV, and we watched the second plane fly in.
I thank our teachers greatly for allowing us to spend the entire morning watching the tragedy occur, and afterwards we discussed what was happening as a class.
Shortly after the towers collapsed, my mother came to school just to give me a hug since she was home alone and my Dad was supposed to be returning from Pakistan at the time. He had to hang out at the Embassy for several days before he could finally get home. Had my Dad been home, we would have had the TV on in the morning and known right when it happened. As it was, my Mom didn't know for a few hours just because she never turned on the TV.
That really was an incredible situation- one of the immediate effects I really remember is that by the end of the day, every single TV station was carrying some other news station feed. My Mom wanted my little sister and I to watch something else after dinner that night, since I had been exposed to and discussing it all day and she was only 8, but there was absolutely nothing else on television.
In school (9th grade). It had all already happened by the time I learned about it. In fact, apparently nobody in the building was aware until one of the teachers got a phone call from her husband who worked at the World Trade Center saying he was alright.
I was in the eleventh grade in my high school health class.
Be well,
Bryant
I was in third grade--elementary school. Because the elementary school is for the youngest kids, no announcement of it was made over the loudspeaker (I'm told that in the high school and the middle school, such an announcement was made). However, I did realize something was up, because as the morning went on I noticed that gradually some of my friends were being called down to the office, to be picked up by their parents. I still didn't know what exactly happened. To this day, I don't know when I "really" found out what happened and when it was forever put into my memory because although my parents told me we were discussing it at dinner that night, I have no recollection of that conversation (interestingly, my younger brother who was in kindergarten at the time DOES remember the conversation). I do remember however my mother telling me that the parents that pulled their kids out of school were overreacting.
I was in elementary school, and they said over the PA system that "something" had happened. I don't remember the exact wording but they didn't say any specifics whatsoever. I didn't even know that there was a plane or a building involved until I got home around 5 PM and my mom had CNN on.
I don't really remember anything from that day though.
I was only in first grade when it happened, however I remember parts of the day. I remember coming home and my parents being upset and relieved that nothing bad happened to me or my brother.
I had already slept in my apartment through the events and woke up right before 11 AM (central time), when I got a phone call from my father, who had been watching the coverage all morning from his house. He gave me a heads up to watch the news....he said something about an explosion at the Pentagon, the Twin Towers on fire, and a plane crash in a field. He was talking faster than my tired ears could understand. Anyway, I turned it on to MSNBC, and it took a while for me to piece together what happened from watching coverage, once I was caught up to speed and make the connection, my eyes were glued to my TV all day long.
I was supposed to enjoy my two days off from work and was supposed to meet my guys for golf later that afternoon after around the lunch hour and then reconvene at a sports bar later that night. Being glued to the coverage made me forget all about the golf. Around 4 PM, I got a call from one of the guys, he reassured me none of the guys felt like going to golf, but asked if I was still up for meeting them for dinner and we all agreed to meet at the sports bar. It was kind of a quiet, somber moment in light of the events. After that, we simply called it a night and went home.
The next day (Wednesday), I just stayed in my apartment practically the entire day....had brief chats with some of my neighbors on and off. And back to work on Thursday afternoon as scheduled.
I was in 6th grade just coming back from lunch, and going to Social Studies. My teacher had stayed out of the room to talk to the other teachers. I figured they were talking about teacher stuff. Then she turned on the radio in our room and I heard someone say something about some towers being hit. At that time I don't think I even knew NY had the World Trade Center. Anyway they dismissed the entire school at that moment, and I went home to see footage of the towers being hit by those two planes. Then it started to sink in.
:-( Houston, TX, at a warehouse near the A-B Brewery on the east side of the city near the I-10/I-610 jct.
I was driving a 18wheeler and waiting in my sleeper berth watching The Today Show on NBC while the customer unloaded 1,977 boxes of shoes by hand. I had the tv on to lull me to sleep because the unloading process would take hours and I intended to get some sleep to be able to drive after unloading.
I was just about to doze off when the Today Show returned from a commercial and I believe it was Katie Couric that said they had breaking news that a plane had hit one of the WTC Towers, at the time they thought it was a Cessna or something small, that got my attention and I rolled over and watched the day unfold. The customer did continue working unloading me, they had a tv set up on the dock area. By the time I was unloaded the 2nd Tower, Pentagon and Flight 93 had all occurred. I remember wondering how long the attacks were going to continue and what the next targets would be. Sept 11 was a extremely surrealistic day, I woke up several times hoping it had all been a nightmare, turning the tv on the realize it did happen! :-( :-(
Instead of reloading the truck that day, I went to a truckstop and watched the tv coverage into the night.
I was only like 5 but I still remember bits and pieces as I have a good memory.
I remember coming home from a co-op thing and watching the news, I didn't really know what happened but I knew it wasn't good. The following days I remember a thing about NYC firefighters, and I really remember the pictures on the newspapers here, those are some things I don't think I'll ever forget. That day I also remember we had to drop off one of my sisters friends on Goodfellow AFB here, but the traffic was backed up for MILES. We ended up like having her (my sisters friend), I think spend the night at our house.
But I will never forget 9/11. And several changes have been made on Goodfellow since the attacks. i.e. these pole things were put up at the front gate, there are these things that can stand up so armed forces can be behind them to I guess shoot the "terrorist" if there was one. Also for a while after 9/11 there were these people with assault riffles (prolly M-16's or something) that were in this camo behind the main gates. There's been more changes but I'm too lazy to type them..
To this day I always feel a little funny.. It's sad to see the flags at half-mass, I'm just thankful I'm from west-Texas, not New York. But it's very sad that this happened. But I guess the idiots were serving their country (in war I can forgive them), but in doing so they killed thousands, but for that I don't forgive and forget.
BigMatt
I was in 4th grade. I only remember my teacher being sad when she broke the news, and I remember seeing it on the news when I got home.
QuoteBut I guess the idiots were serving their country
Al Qaeda isn't a country... The "purpose" was delved from a radical religious interpretation of Jihad rather than a specific political nationality. The issue with fighting the War on Terror is the mere fact that they're spread around the globe and it shouldn't be treated as traditional warfare. Frankly, The War in Iraq and Afghanistan were bad calls, but let's not turn this into a political discussion. :P
I was in 4th grade and our school didn't make an announcement or anything. However, my dad picked me up early that day because I had a dentist appointment and he told me on the way home to brush my teeth before heading to the dentist. I did remember that they had police cars at my school that day when school let out to escort the students to the buses(idk if it was just Fort Lee buses or all of them because I wasn't there but it probably all of them)
Quote from: KEK Inc. on September 12, 2010, 12:43:06 AM
QuoteBut I guess the idiots were serving their country
Al Qaeda isn't a country... The "purpose" was delved from a radical religious interpretation of Jihad rather than a specific political nationality. The issue with fighting the War on Terror is the mere fact that they're spread around the globe and it shouldn't be treated as traditional warfare. Frankly, The War in Iraq and Afghanistan were bad calls, but let's not turn this into a political discussion. :P
Ack, well, they thought they were doing something good. Which well, wasn't.... And I'm with you on this not being a political discussion.
BigMatt
I was sleeping when the events actually occurred.
When I got to the office, everyone was in the lobby watching TV. I found my boss and asked him what had happened and he said that the World Trade Centers were gone. Naturally, I was in shock. I stood there until they got back again to what happened.
I tried to work the best I could while keeping tracking of events on the Internet from my desk. But, the internet in 2001 wasn't up to the task, most news sites were too busy to come up.
Everyone, slowly left the office as the day went on. I went to a local walking path to walk and think. It was strange as I was alone and the skies were silent. This path is under one of the major glidepaths for Nashville airport.
I also drove by a mall before going home and watching the news. It was strange to see the mall closed as if it were Christmas or something.
I was in 8th grade English class that morning, when it was announced. The school board would not let any coverage of the 9/11 attacks be shown in school. :pan: I remember thinking it was the end of the world as we know it. I watched TV coverage of the attacks when I got home that afternoon.
I was 5 years old... and the only memory of this was my dad watching it all on TV. Still to this day I can recall how nervous everybody was that day.
kinda sad that previous generations got cool shit like the moon landing, and we get to remember ... this.
come on, people, accomplish something. Make your species proud for once!
Quotekinda sad that previous generations got cool shit like the moon landing, and we get to remember ... this.
The moon landing was right on the heels of the Kennedy assassination (which admittedly is nowhere near as traumatic as 9/11 was, but at the time it happened it was by all accounts highly traumatizing, and the same sort of once-in-a-generation event that just knocked the wind out of that era) and certainly wasn't during a positive time for the county...that said, yeah! We've essentially cancelled the space program, and the war hasn't helped the economy like it has in the past. Something just ain't right.
QuoteBut I will never forget 9/11. And several changes have been made on Goodfellow since the attacks. i.e. these pole things were put up at the front gate, there are these things that can stand up so armed forces can be behind them to I guess shoot the "terrorist" if there was one. Also for a while after 9/11 there were these people with assault riffles (prolly M-16's or something) that were in this camo behind the main gates. There's been more changes but I'm too lazy to type them..
Perhaps the most amusing response in the paranoia following 9/11 was the Governor of Idaho closing and putting up pole barracades on the streets immediately adjacent to the Capitol building five days after the attack. Yeah, the capitol of
Idaho was really going to be a terrorist target...
They were re-opened about 3 weeks later once everybody realized that was completely ridiculous
Quote from: corco on September 12, 2010, 01:18:36 AMSomething just ain't right.
as individuals, there are some brilliant ones among us.
as a species, we're pretty much losers.
QuoteThe school board would not let any coverage of the 9/11 attacks be shown in school.
That's something I don't and will never understand. For really small children, yeah, I see the point, but you were in the 8th grade. Any middle school-aged kid would have been intelligent enough to grasp what was going on. You should have been allowed to watch.
Admittedly, this was just a horrible, horrible thing, but regardless of how horrible it was, it was as significant as it was horrible. You should have been given the opportunity to watch what was possibly the most significant event in our history. In my mind, prohibiting you from watching was an unforgivable form of censorship, but one that regrettably occurred at most public schools around the country.
Especially in hindsight, it's something that needed to be engrained into the national fabric. There are (incredibly) a lot of people our age who don't know anything about 9/11. Admittedly, these folks probably aren't the sharpest tools in the shed to begin with, but I can't help but think that if they had the opportunity to watch the events in their school as they unfolded they would have a greater appreciation for exactly what happened.
And frankly, the news media did an awesome job of unbiased reporting. I do wonder if the news could do that today if such a tragedy occurred. I don't want to find out.
Quote from: corco on September 12, 2010, 01:37:12 AMwhat was possibly the most significant event in our history.
George Washington notes that humans lack perspective.
Quote from: corco on September 12, 2010, 01:18:36 AM
QuoteBut I will never forget 9/11. And several changes have been made on Goodfellow since the attacks. i.e. these pole things were put up at the front gate, there are these things that can stand up so armed forces can be behind them to I guess shoot the "terrorist" if there was one. Also for a while after 9/11 there were these people with assault riffles (prolly M-16's or something) that were in this camo behind the main gates. There's been more changes but I'm too lazy to type them..
Perhaps the most amusing response in the paranoia following 9/11 was the Governor of Idaho closing and putting up pole barracades on the streets immediately adjacent to the Capitol building five days after the attack. Yeah, the capitol of Idaho was really going to be a terrorist target...
They were re-opened about 3 weeks later once everybody realized that was completely ridiculous
I meant to say they put them there to make you have to go slow and swerve in stead of having a straight path.
BigMatt
QuoteGeorge Washington notes that humans lack perspective.
Note the possibly qualifier. Allow me to condense a seven paragraph rebuttal full of minor fallacies wherein I inwardly realize I'm wrong but outwardly refuse to admit it into three sentences.
There are three super-significant events in our history- the Revolution, the Civil War, and 9/11. All completely changed the culture of this country and brought with them radically different interpretations of right, and in turn the interpretation of the Constitution. 9/11 was, for all intents and purposes, the third American Revolution, which makes it tied for most significant event in our history.
I don't think the third American Revolution has happened yet.
bear in mind that by 2006 or so we were just about back to "business as usual" as a society - back in the housing bubble groove, back to forgetting that there were two wars in the middle east, back to consumerism gone to Hell.
it took until (take your pick) a subprime derivatives disaster and/or that black guy threatening to take away our Medicare before the peasants really started getting restless.
and now, as a country, we're generally hoping this economic malaise shall pass, so we can go back to being consumer idiots. Can we default on a loan yet? Can we default on a loan yet?
business as usual, as far as I can tell.
I was just a week into eighth grade...I was in science class when a teacher from across the hall cut in class and said that the towers had just been bombed (not realizing at the time what had happened...it was shortly before 9am). Needless to say, the rest of the day quickly turned from a normal school day to a day of watching TV...virtually every classroom had CNN on in the room, and school was effectively cancelled for the day.
I was only 4 and didn't have preschool that day. So in my mind September 11 was just like August 3 or November 15. From what my mother told me I was just playing outside blissfully unaware that part of New York was being destroyed while they were inside watching a news channel.
Not much of an exciting story I know.
Quote from: corco on September 12, 2010, 01:18:36 AMPerhaps the most amusing response in the paranoia following 9/11 was the Governor of Idaho closing and putting up pole barracades on the streets immediately adjacent to the Capitol building five days after the attack. Yeah, the capitol of Idaho was really going to be a terrorist target...
Just like no one would have thought that an open field in Somerset County in Pennsylvania was going to be one of the sites of 9/11. Granted it wasn't a target, but it was still a major incident as a result of United flight 93. So I guess no one was going to take any chances.
I was a junior in high school at the time, and that morning I was in chemistry class. The biology teacher came in and said that the World Trade Center had been attacked and had collapsed, and that the White House was being evacuated. After the biology teacher left, the chemistry teacher pondered for a second, then told us, "Get back to work!" So, we finished our experiments.
Oddly, that morning the lights in the school went out for a few seconds which happened to occur around the time that the plane crashed in Somerset County, about 30 miles from my high school.
QuoteJust like no one would have thought that an open field in Somerset County in Pennsylvania was going to be one of the sites of 9/11. Granted it wasn't a target, but it was still a major incident as a result of United flight 93. So I guess no one was going to take any chances.
Entirely different situation, though. Flight 93, as you mentioned, wasn't a target. Nobody decided to crash it right there.
Some pole barricades preventing cars from driving by the capitol of Idaho wouldn't have prevented Flight 93 from inadvertently crashing on top of it- the only thing they could have prevented was a targeted land-based attack, like a car bomb. Which, again, I ask- would anybody waste their time carbombing the captiol of
Idaho? I just can't fathom that situation- if I'm a terrorist and I'm going to all that trouble, I'd pick something a little bit more meaningful. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the carbombing of the Idaho capitol would have been greeted nationwide with a "What the hell?" rather than horror. Add to that that the actual building is pretty well elevated off the ground and set back from the road- it would take some crazy skills to detonate a car bomb that did any significant damage, so some random schmuck pissed off at taxes or whatever couldn't have pulled it off- it would have taken an organized terrorist body. Which, again, why would an organized terrorist body carbomb the capitol of Idaho? The capitol wouldn't have even been the most significant thing to target in Idaho- terrorists could have put a pretty decent dent in the nation's potato supply with a few well targeted potato plant attacks, and then we have an Air Force base, which would have been a more symbolically painful gesture.
Given that the roads around the capitol are primary commuter routes for folks in the North End, it was a ridiculous inconvenience for a significant portion of the city of Boise- they were finally taken down because nobody besides the governor (who was trying as hard as he could to make them permanent), including most of the state legislature wanted them there.
I was in a 'citizenship' class at the end of the school day (or at least I was when the towers fell) - we were oblivious in our class that anything had happened - all the other year 11 (roughly equivalent to 10th grade, though it's the last compulsory year) citizenship classes had been watching the news, whereas we talked about stuff like "part of good citizenship is to be aware of what's going on in the world" (it was a brand new compulsory - from the Government - subject and it was our first lesson of it.) - we made some jests at the teacher afterwards about the irony of missing the news event of the decade because we were talking about needing to be aware of what's going on in the world!
I found out from a friend on the way home, and thought he was joking until I heard a snippet on the radio in a shop that basically confirmed that two planes had hit two towers in New York. The time of day it was (I'd wrongly thought it was earlier in New York than it was), the intended nature of the attack and the damage, didn't hit home until I got home and turned on the TV.
Other than a third of year 11 (the half who had citizenship then, minus my set), and some of the teachers, none of my school knew anything - it was very surreal walking around town, where some of the adults knew, others didn't and 1000 boys on the street who were completely and utterly carefree.
I had recently got back from university for summer when 7/7 happened, so was asleep when it happened. I found out about lunchtime when I went on the internet and someone told me - my Dad had been working at home and didn't know until I told him, which was odd, as he had colleagues in London, and his job at that point was about what to do if something happened to staff/data centre/etc.
The attempted plane bombings arrests were probably the one that will be strongest in my memory in years to come, mostly as it was so much more closer to home than even 7/7 (which had people from Luton and Aylesbury involved, which aren't that far away from me) - streets I vaguely knew, and less than 10 miles away, shut off (only a few hours before I found out) with someone who I went to school with and got on well with getting arrested. I was working at a college at the time, where he did a one year business qualification a couple of years before - some of the staff knew him and my co-data-putter-in-er thought that his link of going to church with the guy's mum was rather a close one, until I told him mine connections to him and gave several anecdotes about him that seem highly surprising given what he had been arrested for. Plus it also had the biggest direct effect on my life - we haven't "carried on as usual" and the liquids in hand luggage has annoyed me several times.
---
Poles around a capitol building would perhaps stop a Glasgow Airport-style attack, but I think people from Glasgow would be more effective than people from Gdansk - you don't see Gdansk people kicking people while they are on fire, just because they weren't suffering enough! ;)
I was actually up in the Orlando area (northeast of Sanford to be exact) doing some land survey work for a state project. I had no real visualization of what had transpired that morning until the evening when I was back at the hotel and in front of a TV. Being out in the field all day, I only had a radio to listen to periodically, so I had to use my imagination as to what had happened and how it happened. And since we (me and one other person) were working a little bit away from civilization, the only noise you could hear that morning was the sound of plane engines from nearby Sanford International Airport overhead. By mid morning however, those noises stopped and created an eerie sensation in the woods where we were working. At that point we only knew of the planes hitting the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and nothing more. So I knew when I no longer heard the sound of the engines that something was horribly wrong. Every so often we would jump in the truck to get an update, and with each one, the news sounded grimmer and grimmer. We finally called it a day at 3pm when we got a flat tire and had to go to a Goodyear in Sanford. Luckily it was still open, as most places had already closed due to the attacks. I had to fend for myself for food that evening and was able to only find an Arby's open in Lake Mary out by Interstate 4. Hardly anyone was out on the road, which for the Orlando area never happens. After eating my meal I ventured out onto the interstate and low and behold I was the only one on the stretch of I-4 between Lake Mary and Longwood!!! Not one vehicle was in either direction. It was just me and the interstate, which if anyone knows Interstate 4 at all, there is ALWAYS some form of traffic at any time of day. That moment (as well as the events of the day) still play fresh in my mind well to this day.
I also remember later in the week when things were getting somewhat back to "normal" about all the rumors on how possibly Disney was a potential target as well as the VAB out at Cape Canaveral, either of which I never found out if they were simply rumors started by the locals or indeed fact.
9/11: I was five time zones ahead of Washington and New York, so it was midafternoon when a housemate came into the kitchen (I was then living in a large house which had been subdivided into flats with a shared kitchen) and told me that a terrible thing had happened. We tried to get information from the Internet, but the Guardian website was sandbagged by the traffic. Eventually another housemate who owned a TV allowed us to use it to follow the news coverage. We were glued to it as 7 World Trade Center came down.
3-11 (or 11-M as it is called in Spain): I learned about this during a Web news check in the afternoon. Fewer people died and the coverage in the Anglosphere fell off fast because, after all, it had happened in Spain. Nevertheless I had more of a feeling of someone walking on my grave than with 9/11 because I had actually travelled on the commuter train routes which were involved in the bombings, less than four months previously.
7/7: At 9.30 I had just heard that London had been chosen to host the 2012 Olympics, so I said, "This is an absolute disaster for London." Then I heard about the Tube and bus explosions.
I was in 11th grade and in French class when it occured. A senior coming back from the bathroom mentioned something about "a small plane hitting the Twin Towers". The next period, the school principal came on the PA and elaborated on what had happened. The thing that I remember the most was the sense of chaos because people at first thought more than the WTC, the Pentagon and Shanksville had been attacked.
Quote from: J N Winkler on September 12, 2010, 01:08:01 PM7/7: At 9.30 I had just heard that London had been chosen to host the 2012 Olympics, so I said, "This is an absolute disaster for London." Then I heard about the Tube and bus explosions.
Having London News, I had heard the day before (was daylight when the news was given).
You're right though - in 24 hours London had something destructive and bad for the city long term... and multiple terrorist attacks (I guess that's better read out - I think similar jokes were being made within a week by some of the more risqué comedians).
Quote from: nyratk1 on September 12, 2010, 03:37:25 PMThe thing that I remember the most was the sense of chaos because people at first thought more than the WTC, the Pentagon and Shanksville had been attacked.
7/7 was similar - even a few hours after the events the BBC had 6 or 7 potential attacks (they couldn't work out if three reports at Aldgate, Aldgate East and Liverpool Street were one bomb or not, likewise Kings Cross and Russell Square). They did something similar for 21/7 (which given it was in the middle of the day, I picked up quickly), though that got corrected quicker, mostly as there wasn't a huge cloud of panic, secrecy and dust about, clouding where the bombs had failed to go off.
9/11 I was working in a tall federal office building just outside Washington DC. I still remember going up to the 15th floor and looking at the smoke coming from the Pentagon...
Quote from: algorerhythms on September 12, 2010, 10:52:22 AM
I was a junior in high school at the time, and that morning I was in chemistry class. The biology teacher came in and said that the World Trade Center had been attacked and had collapsed, and that the White House was being evacuated. After the biology teacher left, the chemistry teacher pondered for a second, then told us, "Get back to work!" So, we finished our experiments.
Chemistry teachers have no personality. It would be nice if they could formulate one. ;)
As for where I was, it was 10th Grade. A friend and I were walking up the stairs, during a break between classes, to her second-block class which was ironically a Sophomore's Social Studies/American History type class. The teacher had on the news coverage and we were pretty much the only people in the class as it was still during the break. I don't remember much else except that some classmate asked me, in front of our class, "Are you Arab?" :rolleyes: and I made $7.50 in tips at my serving job that night....in 3-4 hours.
What I remember most clearly about the first hour after learning about 9/11 was the sheer sense of panic. Two planes had already hit: what if there were another 20 on their way? Who was doing this and did they have the resources to escalate to, for example, a nuclear exchange? And I was 3000 miles away from the actual scene of the events--it would have been a far more searing experience for New Yorkers with people throwing themselves off the WTC above the fire floors, large fractions of the entire city's firefighting force lost in the WTC collapses, etc.
It is no exaggeration to say that 9/11 was the Pearl Harbor of our generation. But in terms of absolute numbers of lives lost, it was even worse. 2500 people died in Pearl Harbor; over 3000 died in 9/11. Pearl Harbor was caused by an identifiable enemy sovereign state acting in accordance with its established military doctrine. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, was then, and still is, much harder to grasp hold of even at a conceptual level, let alone in terms of military response.
Quote from: florida on September 13, 2010, 12:56:07 AM
Quote from: algorerhythms on September 12, 2010, 10:52:22 AM
I was a junior in high school at the time, and that morning I was in chemistry class. The biology teacher came in and said that the World Trade Center had been attacked and had collapsed, and that the White House was being evacuated. After the biology teacher left, the chemistry teacher pondered for a second, then told us, "Get back to work!" So, we finished our experiments.
Chemistry teachers have no personality. It would be nice if they could formulate one. ;)
My current chemistry techer would probably kick you out of class if you said that because he is so hilarious during class. :wow:
My story is uninteresting, I was at work and people who weren't there yet called in and told us about it.
My dad however, was at his local golf course, and after checking in at the clubhouse, he had literally just walked out the door toward the first tee when the TV coverage cut in. He and his playing partner, neither of whom owned a cell phone at the time, went on and played a full 4-hour, 18-hole round of golf before finally learning what had happened upon getting into their cars to head back home. I figure he was one of the last Americans to find out what had happened.
I was on my way back to college from home (I had some personal business to attend to, as to why I was home on a Monday night with college being 75 minutes away)...didn't know about it until I got back to college, but I had gotten a sausage biscuit from the drive-thru at Hardee's when it happened.
I woke up to CNN News on my radio talking about the "tragedy", but never, what I call, "backfilling" or bringing people up to date. There were photos of the smoke & debris on TV, but again no real details.
I found out what happened from NPR on my way to work.
Since all air flights were canceled, we had almost no business at the hotel and we spent most of shift watching the news and the replays of what happened. No one really spoke much... we were all in shock.
Meanwhile, there were lines at all the gas stations with prices zooming to over $6 a gallon.
I was working in the call center in the building where I currently work. I still have a vivid memory of looking out on one of the projection TVs they use to keep up on news and seeing the second plane hit the second tower in the live shot they had going since the first plane hit. Then I heard from other agents about the Pentagon and Shanksville and the enormity of what had happened hit me. I called home to my folks to tell them to turn on their TV or they might not have thought to do it themselves. We ended up being released early from work as a security precaution, and later I saw people make a run on a gas station over what turned out to be rumored supply problems.
Quote from: J N Winkler on September 13, 2010, 07:38:00 AM
It is no exaggeration to say that 9/11 was the Pearl Harbor of our generation. But in terms of absolute numbers of lives lost, it was even worse. 2500 people died in Pearl Harbor; over 3000 died in 9/11. Pearl Harbor was caused by an identifiable enemy sovereign state acting in accordance with its established military doctrine. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, was then, and still is, much harder to grasp hold of even at a conceptual level, let alone in terms of military response.
Another difference is that Pearl Harbor was a military target and most of the casualties were members of our armed forces. While the military target of the Pentagon was hit, the bulk of the casualties and damage occurred at the World Trade Center towers which are obviously civilian targets. And, even at the Pentagon, the majority of the people on the aircraft that crashed there were civilians as well.
I actually remember seeing the breaking-news headline on the Post-Gazette website right after the first plane hit... The headline was only "plane crashes into World Trade Center building"... At the time I, for whatever reason, assumed it was just going to be some small 1-man aircraft accidentally crashing into the building, and didn't bother clicking on the link (I was in a class at the time). By the time that class was over, it was obvious that I assumed wrong.
I was commuting into work in downtown D.C., with the radio off. My normal commute swings south of the Pentagon, but I got within a mile of the Pentagon just after the attacks started, when inbound traffic completely stopped. Complete traffic stoppages are unusual even in the D.C. area, but that one didn't seem extraordinary for some reason. Since I couldn't see the Pentagon or the rising smoke from where I was on VA 27 approaching I-395, and my car radio was still turned off, I had no clue about what was happening. So I did a U-turn across the grassy median to get to the I-66 Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, my usual plan-B route into work.
I managed to make it slowly over the Potomac, and out the E Street Expressway. But when I saw the White House surrounded by Secret Service agents with submachine guns, that's when I turned on the radio to figure out what was going on. By then, both of the WTC towers had come down, and the order was issued to evacuate Federal offices in downtown D.C. I turned south instead of continuing east to my office, working my way slowly down to I-295 to return to Virginia via the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (by then most or all the bridges between D.C. and Arlington were reportedly closed). With all the road closures extending into the Virginia suburbs -- including US 50 all the way out to Falls Church -- it took me four hours to get home in Arlington on the back roads that had not been closed.
All the other drivers sharing my situation were orderly, patiently waiting in line and leaving the shoulders open for emergency vehicles ... but also carefully looking around for the rumored incoming planes that had not yet been accounted for.
Seeing all these people post about how they were in school or (gasp) in single digits age-wise makes me think this is a pretty young crowd. You all are a bunch of young pups and I'm the resident old fart.
Anyway, I was at work listening to the radio and getting ready to put out a weekly newspaper (and wondering what we were going to have for news that week since it had been a slow news week in Powell County, Ky.) when I heard the report of a plane crashing into one of the towers. I dismissed it as an accident. One of the females working there had a nosy granny who called her at the drop of a hat so she was on the phone with her grandmother who was watching everything on TV. We had no TV in our office. When I heard the second plane had it, I knew it was no accident. Then the subsequent reports came in about the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash.
We lived in Winchester at the time and my wife was design editor/senior staff writer for the daily paper there, so she had a busy day with getting the latest news in the afternoon paper. She got home on time and told me that I wouldn't want to watch the day's events on TV. I had a much longer day since I was doing all layout and production as well as writing, but I got home late that night and got to see some of the coverage.
Turns out that 9/11 ended up being our big news for the week, but not in the way you might think. Our publisher did not want state or national news on the front page because, he said, there are other sources for that and our newspaper was the only place to get local coverage. The county fair was going on that week and the night's activities were suspended. I think it was more out of fear than out of respect, although why anyone would think that Stanton and Clay City, Ky. and the Powell County Fair would be a target for terrorists is beyond me. The cancellation of the fair's activities on Sept. 11 was our big story for the week.
Prior to that day, the "I remember when..." moments for me were the moon landing and Nixon's resignation. And I have to say, as an aside, that the aftermath of 9/11 got me much more interested in politics and current affairs and helped firm up my political/ideological beliefs.
I was at my work when another coworker had said "Trade center's on fire". I shrugged it off at first but when a second co-worker turned up a radio and I heard consistent news, then seeing TVs on with the coverage in both the conference room and library, that was when it hit. Many of my co-workers put down their production and watched the tv for quite some time and I called a couple people, one of which never realized what was going on.
AgentSteel53 - your quote resemble's Agent K's quote in Men in Black:
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."
Quote from: hbelkins on September 13, 2010, 03:15:44 PM
Seeing all these people post about how they were in school or (gasp) in single digits age-wise makes me think this is a pretty young crowd. You all are a bunch of young pups and I'm the resident old fart.
I'm glad you said that because I was worrying I'm getting old as I'm starting to see some of my friends go bald.
Quote from: hbelkins on September 13, 2010, 03:15:44 PM
Seeing all these people post about how they were in school or (gasp) in single digits age-wise makes me think this is a pretty young crowd. You all are a bunch of young pups and I'm the resident old fart.
Anyway, I was at work listening to the radio and getting ready to put out a weekly newspaper (and wondering what we were going to have for news that week since it had been a slow news week in Powell County, Ky.) when I heard the report of a plane crashing into one of the towers. I dismissed it as an accident. One of the females working there had a nosy granny who called her at the drop of a hat so she was on the phone with her grandmother who was watching everything on TV. We had no TV in our office. When I heard the second plane had it, I knew it was no accident. Then the subsequent reports came in about the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash.
We lived in Winchester at the time and my wife was design editor/senior staff writer for the daily paper there, so she had a busy day with getting the latest news in the afternoon paper. She got home on time and told me that I wouldn't want to watch the day's events on TV. I had a much longer day since I was doing all layout and production as well as writing, but I got home late that night and got to see some of the coverage.
Turns out that 9/11 ended up being our big news for the week, but not in the way you might think. Our publisher did not want state or national news on the front page because, he said, there are other sources for that and our newspaper was the only place to get local coverage. The county fair was going on that week and the night's activities were suspended. I think it was more out of fear than out of respect, although why anyone would think that Stanton and Clay City, Ky. and the Powell County Fair would be a target for terrorists is beyond me. The cancellation of the fair's activities on Sept. 11 was our big story for the week.
Prior to that day, the "I remember when..." moments for me were the moon landing and Nixon's resignation. And I have to say, as an aside, that the aftermath of 9/11 got me much more interested in politics and current affairs and helped firm up my political/ideological beliefs.
I might be a equal contender for the old fart position (dob 3/17/53). I too was surprised at the responses in this post, so many "I was in school posts".
Probably just a brain fart on your part, but you didn't mention the JFK assassination in your "I remember whens". My "I remember where I was" moments are JFK (5th grade, sent home from school early), moon landing (roadtrip to Alaska, in MN at THE moment), 9/11 and John Lennon assassination (spent day moving into new apt, this was 1st thing I saw when I plugged in tv).
I remember RFK and MLK assassinations also but can't place exactly where I was when I heard but I was pretty young.
Quote from: hbelkins on September 13, 2010, 03:15:44 PM
We lived in Winchester at the time and my wife was design editor/senior staff writer for the daily paper there, so she had a busy day with getting the latest news in the afternoon paper. She got home on time and told me that I wouldn't want to watch the day's events on TV. I had a much longer day since I was doing all layout and production as well as writing, but I got home late that night and got to see some of the coverage.
I have a friend who was working for TV news at the time, heard about #1 plane, saw #2 on TV and posted on-line something to the effect of "we are at war". She left TV a couple years back, but refuses to watch ANY TV on 9/11
My dad remembers the JFK assassination...he was a freshman in high school, and remembers that they called all the students to homeroom and dismissed them. He also remembered that many of the girls were crying. My dad was also upset (but not beside himself)...he looks back on the JFK days fondly.
My dad is one of the few people still alive (he's 80) that remember both Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
IIRC Pearl Harbor is still a bigger deal for him.
Quote from: mightyace on September 13, 2010, 10:22:31 PM
My dad is one of the few people still alive (he's 80) that remember both Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
IIRC Pearl Harbor is still a bigger deal for him.
yep, as I said ... George Washington would like to remind us all about perspective.
I didn't realize how young some of you are, particularly the ones who said they were in elementary school when 9/11 happened.
I was listening to that "Ladder to Heaven" song.
Quote from: 74/171FAN on September 13, 2010, 07:51:09 AM
My current chemistry techer would probably kick you out of class if you said that because he is so hilarious during class. :wow:
Okay, I officially state that 'most' are joyless :D
As for all the "young pups", it still makes me feel old that some members here were in elementary school.
Quote from: florida on September 14, 2010, 02:45:52 AM
Quote from: 74/171FAN on September 13, 2010, 07:51:09 AM
My current chemistry techer would probably kick you out of class if you said that because he is so hilarious during class. :wow:
Okay, I officially state that 'most' are joyless :D
I had a great chem teacher who was a big ol' Irish guy who looked like Santa while my brother had a sarcastic old lady who sometimes wore a shirt with Curious George dead from drinking too much ether.
Quote from: allniter89 on September 13, 2010, 08:39:38 PM
Probably just a brain fart on your part, but you didn't mention the JFK assassination in your "I remember whens". My "I remember where I was" moments are JFK (5th grade, sent home from school early), moon landing (roadtrip to Alaska, in MN at THE moment), 9/11 and John Lennon assassination (spent day moving into new apt, this was 1st thing I saw when I plugged in tv).
I remember RFK and MLK assassinations also but can't place exactly where I was when I heard but I was pretty young.
No brain fart. I was just a few weeks shy of my second birthday when JFK was killed so I have no memory of that.
Quote from: hbelkins on September 14, 2010, 03:30:04 PM
Quote from: allniter89 on September 13, 2010, 08:39:38 PM
Probably just a brain fart on your part, but you didn't mention the JFK assassination in your "I remember whens". My "I remember where I was" moments are JFK (5th grade, sent home from school early), moon landing (roadtrip to Alaska, in MN at THE moment), 9/11 and John Lennon assassination (spent day moving into new apt, this was 1st thing I saw when I plugged in tv).
I remember RFK and MLK assassinations also but can't place exactly where I was when I heard but I was pretty young.
No brain fart. I was just a few weeks shy of my second birthday when JFK was killed so I have no memory of that.
So I guess I AM the resident old fart (ROF)! I didnt realize you were that young, or I was that old..lol!
5th grade classroom. My parents pulled me out early.
I know, I can't believe we have a staggering number of these youngsters that weren't in the real world back in 2001 ( a few here still aren't in the real world to this day).
Years ago I asked a 70-year-old British friend where she was on 22 November 1963. I figured I would get an interesting answer given that Kennedy was not her head of state. She remembered that she heard about it in the evening (Britain is six hours ahead of Texas time, the shots were fired around 12.30 PM, and Kennedy was declared dead at Parklane Hospital at one PM), and that it was a Friday. She had just come home from work and was getting ready for the weekend.
Even though I had not reached my second birthday and have no memory of the JFK assassination, I knew someone who was there and had a key role in the events of the day.
Malcolm Kilduff was assistant press secretary and had accompanied JFK to Dallas because Pierre Salinger had other duties elsewhere. Kilduff made the announcement of Kennedy's death and is holding the Dictaphone microphone used to record the swearing-in of LBJ aboard Air Force One. Most of the photos that were published showed only his hand, but he was clearly visible in the full original, uncropped photo.
Mac married a native of my hometown and they moved back here, to the house where she grew up. He managed a local Radio Shack store inside a Ben Franklin dime store for awhile, he served on a number of community service boards, and he was the editor of the local paper for several years, and I worked with him for part of that time.
He was a recovering alcoholic and was always the bartender at events where alcohol was served, since he said there was no fear of him drinking up all the booze and depriving the other guests of it. Unfortunately he fell off the wagon after his wife's death and ended up in an assisted living facility, then a nursing home.
In the evenings you could often find him at the local IGA, dropping quarter after quarter into the Ms. PacMan machine.
He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
He was certainly quite a character.
Quote from: hbelkins on September 17, 2010, 04:40:23 AM
Even though I had not reached my second birthday and have no memory of the JFK assassination, I knew someone who was there and had a key role in the events of the day.
Malcolm Kilduff was assistant press secretary and had accompanied JFK to Dallas because Pierre Salinger had other duties elsewhere. Kilduff made the announcement of Kennedy's death and is holding the Dictaphone microphone used to record the swearing-in of LBJ aboard Air Force One. Most of the photos that were published showed only his hand, but he was clearly visible in the full original, uncropped photo.
Mac married a native of my hometown and they moved back here, to the house where she grew up. He managed a local Radio Shack store inside a Ben Franklin dime store for awhile, he served on a number of community service boards, and he was the editor of the local paper for several years, and I worked with him for part of that time.
He was a recovering alcoholic and was always the bartender at events where alcohol was served, since he said there was no fear of him drinking up all the booze and depriving the other guests of it. Unfortunately he fell off the wagon after his wife's death and ended up in an assisted living facility, then a nursing home.
In the evenings you could often find him at the local IGA, dropping quarter after quarter into the Ms. PacMan machine.
He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
He was certainly quite a character.
Interesting story, thanks for sharing!
Did the assasination seem to have affected his life later?
Is that why he went back to private life?
Did the town know of his position as A P S or was he just "another Joe"?
Everyone knew what Mac's place in history was. He wasn't shy about talking about it.
It was a bit hard for him, as a native New Yorker who spent most of his life in the DC area, to adjust to life in smalltown eastern Kentucky, but he made the best of it.
I don't recall exactly why he left government service, but he always relished the story of how he got started with the federal government: gluing photos on passports.
One of the more interesting stories he told was about working as a newscaster in Las Vegas and seeing a rattlesnake slither into the studio while he was live on the air.
I'm sure the events of that day had an effect on his life. He did not seek to be thrust into that spotlight. But I think the death of his infant son, while he was abroad, probably affected him more than anything.