Where Were You 9/11/01?

Off Topic
1

After watching the news this morning, and seeing all my NY and non-NY based online friends all remembering a truly horrible occurence in our Nation’s history, I found myself thinking back to where I was on that specific day 12 years ago. Similar to how my Mother still vividly recalls where she was when she heard that JFK was shot, I imagine that I’ll have quite the memory for a long long time.

I was on a hiatus at the time from a project I was working on for Disney TV (in Manhattan), which was typical in the industry, waiting around for budget approvals, staffing etc. Living on Long Island, my usual M.O. was to hang in Manhattan at a spot in the Village called the Spring Street Studio. You could always find between-gig animators, illustrators, and even art students hanging out and sharpening their sketching so they’d be at their best when the next project rolled around.

On that particular day, I couldn’t for the life of me get a ride to the train station. Parents, Brothers, friends with flexible jobs etc, no one was able to help. Little did I realize that not being able to get downtown on that date would be a good thing. So it looked like I’d just hang around the house, spend time with my dog, make some work related phone calls and really just do nothing.

This was back in '01, and so I was still listening to Howard Stern on the radio every morning. It was just automatic at this point as I had been listening for a long while. I remember his reporting about what a lot of people assumed was a smaller plane hitting one of the towers. As events slowly unfolded, I abandoned my radio listening and actually turned on the TV, which meant something as I don’t watch much normally.

I sat transfixed by that TV set for the rest of the day, not really sure what to think. I’m sure many others who were watching in hopes of hearing some concrete explanation of exactly what the hell was going on, were left similarly perplexed.

12 years later, and most of it still doesn’t make sense to me. The world is certainly not at all what I thought it was when I was a young child.

S

2

I was a sophomore in High School. I’ll never forget it either. I was walking into a history class with a great professor very light hearted. I was joking with friends. He snapped at us, “Show some respect!” I was taken aback, like wtf man, and then I saw everyone watching CNN on the TV. The first image I saw was the black smoke pouring out of the Towers. Then they fell.

3

I was studying “brain 101” for an exam in a few days time. I remember taking a break and putting on the TV to see the second plane hit the tower live.

Im in Australia, so this all happened at about 9pm.

tweet

4

I was getting my hair cut when the first plane hit, and was at home watching the news on TV when they fell. Probably my clearest memory from my late teens.

5

[quote]Diddy Ryder wrote:
Probably my clearest memory from my late teens.[/quote]

Ya same here

6

I was in my office which is in downtown Brooklyn when I was working with the feds…drinking coffee and bullshitting with work friends, I was right across the water about a mile away…saw it as it happened and the second one, it looked like a black missile, watched the towers topple, was evacuated. watching smoke follow me as I drove home was unreal.

Seeing B-52 Bombers fly over my neighborhood was surreal, watching the towers smoke from my terrace at home was sickening. Watching the news and people holding pictures of their loved ones, knowing there was no hope was stomach turning. The mad rush to find if loved ones were ok was brutal…one of the worst days of my life, and I have had some fucked up days.

Seeing some sort of togetherness and patriotism after the fact was heart warming

7

[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Seeing some sort of togetherness and patriotism after the fact was heart warming[/quote]

It really was amazing. Sad to say that it sometimes takes some truly horrible shit to make people appreciate the important things.

I remember being in Astoria and still seeing a giant smoke stain in the sky weeks after the actual events.

S

8

I was almost seventeen and at home, playing the guitar when my father came in and took me to the living room to watch the telly. I remember not realising how big this was until the next day.

9

In school.

10

499×669 113 KB

Saw this and thought I’d share.

11

I was in the 8th grade in my social studies class with Mr. Walker. One of my favorite teachers ever. School basically stopped, and he turned on the little wall mounted TV in the classroom, and we watched until it was time to go home. I had virtually no concept of terrorist attacks at that age and thought it was just some horrible accident. Mr. Walker seemed to know right away that it was no accident though; even before the news was saying it.

12

All my brothers, sisters and Mom lived in NYC and 3 of my brothers work near NYU around west 4th on 9/11. I however was stationed in Honolulu Hawaii. Living on the other side of the Ala Wai canal on date street. In Hawaii when I woke up at 3 am to go to the gym people on the street started yelling we are at war the are attacking NYC

13

[quote]csulli wrote:
I was in the 5th grade in my social studies class with Mr. Walker. One of my favorite teachers ever. School basically stopped, and he turned on the little wall mounted TV in the classroom, and we watched until it was time to go home. I had virtually no concept of terrorist attacks at that age and thought it was just some horrible accident. Mr. Walker seemed to know right away that it was no accident though; even before the news was saying it.[/quote]
5th? I must have your age remembered wrong.

14

great idea for a thread Stu.

I was in 10th grade, in a portable annex site due to overflow at my school. When it happened, the weak minded powers that be who ran the school demanded a media blackout and ordered all teachers to keep the TVs off and not allow students to access phones/internet. We were basically locked into our classrooms with nothing but rumors and misinformation until school was over. None of us had any real idea what had happened until after school.

Looking back on it now, whoever was in charge should have lost their job. Whoever made that call was an idiot. people have family in NY, people are entitled, regardless of age, to be aware of a national crisis.

15

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
I was in the 5th grade in my social studies class with Mr. Walker. One of my favorite teachers ever. School basically stopped, and he turned on the little wall mounted TV in the classroom, and we watched until it was time to go home. I had virtually no concept of terrorist attacks at that age and thought it was just some horrible accident. Mr. Walker seemed to know right away that it was no accident though; even before the news was saying it.[/quote]
5th? I must have your age remembered wrong.[/quote]
8th lol typo

16

[quote]four60 wrote:
All my brothers, sisters and Mom lived in NYC and 3 of my brothers work near NYU around west 4th on 9/11. I however was stationed in Honolulu Hawaii. Living on the other side of the Ala Wai canal on date street. In Hawaii when I woke up at 3 am to go to the gym people on the street started yelling we are at war the are attacking NYC[/quote]

Must have felt helpless bro

17

Sitting at my desk in the 39 (? may be 38 can’t remember) floor of 399 Park Ave, NY, NY on the south east side of the park.

Watched the whole thing, just south of me.

18

I was sitting with my father who was at home in the terminal stages of a protracted battle with cancer. He was paralyzed from the waist down, weighed less than 80 lbs, and was in incredible pain. He was heavily medicated with morphine, which I was administering with the doctor’s instructions to give him as much as was required to manage the pain. I had the television on with the volume low watching what was happening and trying to comprehend what was already a very surreal set of circumstances.

For the most part my dad was not concious but occasionaly he would become lucid, look intently at television, and tell me to turn the volume up. I could only wonder what was going through his mind as he took in the information while also, no doubt, considering his own situation. He wasn’t awake long enough to discuss anything but the look in his eyes told the story. He died one week later on September 18th.

I, like everyone one else, was sickened and in disbelief at what I was seeing in NYC on television while I was also dealing with the heart breaking and gut churning scene that I was powerless to stop as I watched my father dying. At the same time, I was deeply impressed by the courage and selflessness that I saw in the cops, firefighters, other first responders, and citizens as they put themselves in harms way to help others. It is definitely not a day that I will forget.

19

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
After watching the news this morning, and seeing all my NY and non-NY based online friends all remembering a truly horrible occurence in our Nation’s history, I found myself thinking back to where I was on that specific day 12 years ago. Similar to how my Mother still vividly recalls where she was when she heard that JFK was shot, I imagine that I’ll have quite the memory for a long long time.

I was on a hiatus at the time from a project I was working on for Disney TV (in Manhattan), which was typical in the industry, waiting around for budget approvals, staffing etc. Living on Long Island, my usual M.O. was to hang in Manhattan at a spot in the Village called the Spring Street Studio. You could always find between-gig animators, illustrators, and even art students hanging out and sharpening their sketching so they’d be at their best when the next project rolled around.

On that particular day, I couldn’t for the life of me get a ride to the train station. Parents, Brothers, friends with flexible jobs etc, no one was able to help. Little did I realize that not being able to get downtown on that date would be a good thing. So it looked like I’d just hang around the house, spend time with my dog, make some work related phone calls and really just do nothing.

This was back in '01, and so I was still listening to Howard Stern on the radio every morning. It was just automatic at this point as I had been listening for a long while. I remember his reporting about what a lot of people assumed was a smaller plane hitting one of the towers. As events slowly unfolded, I abandoned my radio listening and actually turned on the TV, which meant something as I don’t watch much normally.

I sat transfixed by that TV set for the rest of the day, not really sure what to think. I’m sure many others who were watching in hopes of hearing some concrete explanation of exactly what the hell was going on, were left similarly perplexed.

12 years later, and most of it still doesn’t make sense to me. The world is certainly not at all what I thought it was when I was a young child.

S[/quote]

I was not working that day. I think I woke up at 10:30 AM, turned on the television, and saw the burning and smoking wreck and all the replays of the event. It didn’t dawn on me immediately, but then I thought, “Holy shit! Guy (one of my still-closest friends) works for Lehman Brothers in one of the towers!” I called him up and he was out of breath, running and he couldn’t talk much. He was safe though and got home later in the day.

I could see smoke in the air from some parts of my town.

20

Yes good idea Stu.I was at my business and have a small TV in the break room area which was always left on in the mornings.I spent the entire morning going back and fourth from performing my jobs to watching the TV.Like you said about your mother Stu,It really is crazy that even though I don’t have the best of memories,I can recall the entire day of what I did and where I was at on 911.