9/11 - Where Were You?

[rowan]

15 years already. I was teaching in St Petersburg and one of my students arrived with the news. Only she couldn't explain it very well in English and left me with the impression New York city had just been bombed. Rather distracting, to say the least. I was still fairly pro-American in those days and assured my students the US would deal with the situation appropriately. Never would've guessed I'd be joining a million man march in Barcelona against the American invasion of Iraq barely a year-and-a-half later! Incidentally, I still have a photo of me in front of the Twin Towers back in the early 90s, while I was attending college (uni) in the States.

[Len]

I was 13. In Christchurch, obviously, getting ready for school. Flicked on the tele and there it was. Didn't really realise the seriousness of it at that age. Nor the bullshit that followed in terms invaisions.

[Coco]

Just a usual day, I wasnt doing anything out of the ordinary. I do remember having a foggy introspective mindset all day after I had seen the initial footage on the news...

I was fixing the kids breakfast before school. Got a call from my husband telling me to turn on the news. I ended up keeping them home from school and planted myself in front of the tv most of the day til he got home.

[zer0]

Probably at primary school. I remember next to nothing about it, which means it probably wasn't talked about much in school.

TBH the most startling revelation to come from the fallout, that continues to this day, is that Lennard will be 30 soon. Ha. Old man.

EDIT: The only real bit of 9/11 commotion that I can definitively recall is that the the local Bin-Laden construction company quickly changed its name.

[BBD]

Driving home from a meeting, motorway was fairly quiet, it was early to mid afternoon when there was a newsflash on the radio saying a plane had crashed into the first tower. I got home and switched on the TV, smoke pouring out of the tower. I phoned my wife at work and as I was on the. Phone to her the second plane hit. Can't remember what I said as the enormity of it hit me as to what I was watching, I think I knew it was a seismic moment but there were too many unknowns for me to realise the full significance of it.

I am still touched by it if I ever see the towers in old films or TV footage

[onlynameleft]

On a week long course in Birmingham. Still haven't seen much of the footage, didn't see any of it at the time.

[Donny osmond]

Sitting at my desk in an office just outside Dublin. Whole office went quiet as we just watched the news all afternoon. Distinctly remember wondering why news anchors were talking about the people in the towers who died and all I could think was to wonder why no one was talking about the people in the planes who must've died too. Bit of a weird train of thought, but then it was a bit of a weird day.

It was only after about a day of watching the footage that the full horror of it struck me.

[Digby]

Sitting at my desk, one of the lads from an IT projects testing team walked past and said a plane had flown into one of the towers, and was either told to bugger off and stop wasting our time or had people assuming some idiot in a small prop plane had crashed. Where I was sat wasn't that far from one of our banks of dealers however and they'd gone very quiet, and then all the screens (as in the various pricing indices) went red, just everything, FTSE, CAC, DAX... and from then it was just weird. The information was coming through very slowly on the TV screens which were all switched to news channels, emails from friends were coming in fast with a lot of rumours, and you couldn't get onto any website to get an update as demand surged so much there was in effect a denial of access. My boss eventually got onto the CNN site and we gathered at his desk, but it turns out he'd gotten on CCN which is (was) something like Cannabis Central News and not quite the same thing as he'd been aiming for.

I honestly have no idea what happened next as in markets being closed and what time we actually left the office. But I can remember being part of large crowd in the pub watching the news in near silence as footage was played showing that people had thrown themselves from the towers prior to their collapse.

[Mellsblue]

On a family holiday in Spain. I was having siesta and my mum came in to wake me up. I thought it was a practical joke until I saw the tv. I didn't move from the sofa for the rest of the day.

[morepork]

In Philly, at work. Someone said a plane had flown into a building in NYC, then one into the Pentagon. Everything just stopped as it unfolded. Some of the coverage was heartbreaking. For the next week there were no planes in the sky along the eastern seaboard, just regular pairs of F16s fanging overhead on patrols. The spirit and compassion of Americans at that time was quite something to behold.

[rowan]

In Philly, at work. Someone said a plane had flown into a building in NYC, then one into the Pentagon. Everything just stopped as it unfolded. Some of the coverage was heartbreaking. For the next week there were no planes in the sky along the eastern seaboard, just regular pairs of F16s fanging overhead on patrols. The spirit and compassion of Americans at that time was quite something to behold.

Wow, you were close to the action then! We drove by Philly on the way from DC to NY on our East Coast adventures (back in 92). Regarding the planes, the Gay Rugby World Cup is named in honor of Mark Bingham, a gay rugby player aboard Flight 93. Initially they claimed passengers, including Bingham, forced it down, though I believe Rumsfield since let it slip that the Airforce had no choice but to shoot it down. Very tragic either way, of course.

[Lizard]

I was at home getting ready for work. In those days we used to flick the telly on to catch the headlines over breakfast. My initial thoughts were basically, "Well, this changes everything." I watched tv until they ran out of updates (you can tell when this happens during emergency reporting as the journalists start interviewing each other). I presume I caught the bus to work, which was my usual commute then, and I was late in. No one really did any work that day.

I kept the front page of the NZ Herald for some reason. I've still got it somewhere, I think.

[Len]

Where were we when they started dropping bombs on innocent people because of this? Sad thing is none of us know. Why should we care more about the victims of 9/11 than the god knows how many killed as a result of that attack?

[morepork]

Where were we when they started dropping bombs on innocent people because of this? Sad thing is none of us know. Why should we care more about the victims of 9/11 than the god knows how many killed as a result of that attack?

Given it was pretty much two days later, most would remember. Iraq is the main legacy of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the kok Blair. People over here are well aware of that total fuck up. Ditto the immediate imposition of unprecedented levels of domestic surviellance.

[rowan]

Where were we when they started dropping bombs on innocent people because of this? Sad thing is none of us know. Why should we care more about the victims of 9/11 than the god knows how many killed as a result of that attack?

Very true, but the beginning of the Iraq invasion I do remember because it was even more shocking than 9/11 itself. I was sharing a flat with a couple of Central Americans in Barcelona at the time, and kept assuring them there was no way the US would be so crazy as to invade Iraq when there was absolutely no reason for it, practically the whole world was opposed to it, and everyone knew they'd end up destroying the country and destabilizing the entire Middle East.

But one of my Central American flatmates (the other was female), told me he knew for a fact that America was going to invade because they had 100,000 troops stationed in Kuwait alone, and if you multiplied that by how many hamburgers they were eating and how much beer they were drinking it was economically unsustainable. He then made a few calculations on a note-pad, stood up and circled the date March 20 on the calendar on the wall. A couple of weeks later the invasion commenced - on March 20.

[Sandydragon]

15 years already. I was teaching in St Petersburg and one of my students arrived with the news. Only she couldn't explain it very well in English and left me with the impression New York city had just been bombed. Rather distracting, to say the least. I was still fairly pro-American in those days and assured my students the US would deal with the situation appropriately. Never would've guessed I'd be joining a million man march in Barcelona against the American invasion of Iraq barely a year-and-a-half later! Incidentally, I still have a photo of me in front of the Twin Towers back in the early 90s, while I was attending college (uni) in the States.

I was sat in a launderette when my phone rang to cancel leave. By way of explanation I was told to watch the news.

[Which Tyler]

Got home from Uni and turned on about 10 minutes before the second plane, and just watched in shock, somehow assuming it was anti-capitalists going way too far. Missed the afternoon lectures as everything else basically fled my mind

[kk67]

Don't know much about the finer details of high rise construction or mechanical engineering but I was watching for the first time some footage shot by a family of 3 from 20/25 blocks away, just minutes after the first plane hit.
You can hear a very upset infant girl in the background saying 'It's coming down'...and her Parents reassuring her that it absolutely wouldn't.
Even though I'd also tell a child it wouldn't, it really struck me because when I saw the second plane hit I can remember clear as day thinking exactly the same thing.

[Big D]

Where were we when they started dropping bombs on innocent people because of this? Sad thing is none of us know. Why should we care more about the victims of 9/11 than the god knows how many killed as a result of that attack?

I remember it vividly. I was sitting on the sofa texting one of my best friends at the time. Both she and I wondered how it would all end.

The thing with 9/11 that will stick in the mind first for me is the imagery associated with it rather than the number of people who died. The images of the towers collapsing, people jumping etc.

[Stones of granite]

I was in a conference call with a customer in Menlo Park, California. We hadn't long started when the news broke and basically spent the rest of the time with them speculating what was going on. By the end of the following week it was clear that their funders were pulling the plug on the project and blaming the attacks. By the end of the year, our business had fallen off so much that we were put on consultation, and at the end of Feb 2002 I was made redundant.

[OptimisticJock]

15 years already. I was teaching in St Petersburg and one of my students arrived with the news. Only she couldn't explain it very well in English and left me with the impression New York city had just been bombed. Rather distracting, to say the least. I was still fairly pro-American in those days and assured my students the US would deal with the situation appropriately. Never would've guessed I'd be joining a million man march in Barcelona against the American invasion of Iraq barely a year-and-a-half later! Incidentally, I still have a photo of me in front of the Twin Towers back in the early 90s, while I was attending college (uni) in the States.

I was sat in a launderette when my phone rang to cancel leave. By way of explanation I was told to watch the news.

Tell Everyone Leave Is Cancelled

[Sandydragon]

15 years already. I was teaching in St Petersburg and one of my students arrived with the news. Only she couldn't explain it very well in English and left me with the impression New York city had just been bombed. Rather distracting, to say the least. I was still fairly pro-American in those days and assured my students the US would deal with the situation appropriately. Never would've guessed I'd be joining a million man march in Barcelona against the American invasion of Iraq barely a year-and-a-half later! Incidentally, I still have a photo of me in front of the Twin Towers back in the early 90s, while I was attending college (uni) in the States.

I was sat in a launderette when my phone rang to cancel leave. By way of explanation I was told to watch the news.

Tell Everyone Leave Is Cancelled

Oh hell yes. Get your kit together and report in, and then wait, and wait, and wait some more. The sense of disbelief and near panic in some quarters was something to behold.

[OptimisticJock]

I was sat in a launderette when my phone rang to cancel leave. By way of explanation I was told to watch the news.

Tell Everyone Leave Is Cancelled

Oh hell yes. Get your kit together and report in, and then wait, and wait, and wait some more. The sense of disbelief and near panic in some quarters was something to behold.

I can well imagine.

[Lizard]

And the repercussions continue. About half an hour ago my serene progress from the premium check-in salon to the Gold status lounge was interrupted by some bloke in an ill-fitting uniform demanding that I take my laptop out of my bag. If anyone could make a bomb that thin and light they would be doing very well indeed.


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[Sandydragon]

And the repercussions continue. About half an hour ago my serene progress from the premium check-in salon to the Gold status lounge was interrupted by some bloke in an ill-fitting uniform demanding that I take my laptop out of my bag. If anyone could make a bomb that thin and light they would be doing very well indeed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is possible. Standard security check is to turn the laptop on and confirm it works.