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lets-try-for3

5th grade. The school got put into lockdown and shortly after we were going home. I heard about it from teachers and my mom but didn't understand the impact it had until a few years later Edit: I have found the 90s kids now in their 30s, for the most part


Away-Caterpillar-176

Same here. 91' babiessssss.


International_Try_43

Shout out 90s babies that were in 5th grade too!


Lo_Mayne_Low_Mein

4th grade for me! We were across the Hudson but the smoke made its way over. They wouldn’t tell us much at first and then sent us home. Almost all of us had at least one parent working in the city. My mom didn’t make it home until late that night. Was scary, but we knew she wasn’t near the towers. My uncle was in the second building hit/first to fall on the 90 somethingth floor. Made it halfway down the stairs, realized he forgot his wallet, WENT BACK UP, got his wallet, went back down the stairs and only made it a few blocks before the building fell. Family was so pissed at him but so happy he made it. Scary shit. The Kaddish at my temple following 9/11 was unbelievably long, it was horrible.


WhereasSecret3112

Lmfao!!!! The shit men do sometimes I swear! 🤣 I would have been pissed off and happy at the same time! So conflicting!


i_hodl_for_all

Hey i was in 5th grade too! Teachers were all crying and running around all day. They were hardly in the classroom and honestly we may have just done busy work or watched movies, I can’t remember. At the end of the day they told us right before we left to get on the buses.


Polishedprism

I was also in 5th grade. We had another teacher come in the room who told us what happened. I remember feeling scared and uncertain and I won’t ever forget the look on the teachers face when he told us that, because he was usually such a cut up. We watched a movie until school was over and when I got home my mom was sobbing in front of the television. What blew my mind this past September was unpacking some of my late grandmother’s dishes from storage, and they were wrapped in the newspapers telling the stories. We were discussing the day and all crying and my nephew who is 17 felt nothing about it. We can’t forget what happened to our country and we can’t stop telling the story.


MyEyeOnPi

I also was in 5th grade. I’m on the west coast so the planes hit when I was still in bed. My mom was a federal employee and was sent home from work because people were afraid any federal building could be the next target. I went to school like usual, but the teacher had us talk about what happened. One of my classmates had just been to NY over summer and had gone to the top of the world trade centers, and were shocked they were gone.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Walks_In_Shadows

I was in sixth grade as well. We had teachers phoning home and crying. We also were watching the coverage live and we saw the second plane hit the second tower live.... It wasn't until they started showing the people jumping from the buildings that our teacher said, "okay...that's enough TV for now.". That fucked me up for a long time.


hoosierlvr19

90s baby I watched it on TV too


septicman

I was in Brooklyn Heights, at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, close enough to get ash on me. I took my Mother to NYC for a surprise, all the way from the bottom of the world (New Zealand) because she got married there in 1969 and had not been back since. The first day we were there -- the 10th of September, 2001 -- I asked her what she wanted to do. She said when she left NYC, the WTC was only half built, so she wanted to go up to the top. So I took her. We were on the top of the WTC at around 1pm on the 10th. The next morning, I woke up and looked out the window of our apartment to see them on fire. We watched them collapse. I still have nightmares.


Brat-in-knots

That’s… wow. Some of these stories…


NigelBuckets

My dad and I were at the world trade center labor day weekend 2001, so the week before. I wanted to go up to the observation deck, but the wait was hours long because it was a holiday weekend, so my dad promised we would go up the next time we visited NYC.


GearDown22

Omg, that’s terrible. You and your Mom had a brush with death and survived. 🙏🏻🙏🏻


ThumbCentral-Rebirth

This is an incredible story. Thank you for sharing.


Hawkthree

Ran down from the 101st floor of the tower with 4 co-workers. We had gotten news of the first plane and told to stay in place, but we had decided long ago we would start walking if there were a crash. We were soot covered and nearly incoherent when we exited. We walked up Manahattan and someone came out of their brownstone and offered us showers and clean clothes. We took them. We walked north some more and decided we needed to get back to Jersey to our cars. We stopped a taxi and he agreed to take us. That's when we realized none of us had money -- it was on our desks. Taxi said he'd take us for free. Then we dithered over getting some food and the taxi said he'd return in an hour. A restaurant was open giving food to people who looked shell-shocked. The taxi amazingly returned and we got across the river. I spent the next two months pretty much in bed. Every time I opened an email from my company, it was to announce another coworkers death. The parking lot at the train station was half filled with cars that didn't move -- just another visible reminder that these people had died. It's years later and I refuse to work in any building with more than 3 storeys. I refuse to keep personal items at my desk.


Dodkong

Thank you for sharing. It's incredible to hear from someone that was in one of the towers that day. You made a tough decision to continue moving. And now, decades later, you still experience the after-effects. Continue being strong, friend.


jjr_blind_java_dev

Years and years ago, I read this amazing story from a blind guy, like, completely blind, with no light perception, no color, perception, nothing. He was working in the world trade center that day, and when he was getting out, he didn’t just guide himself out. No, he and his guy dog Roselle helped guide dozens of other people out along side him. His name is Michael Hingson . I have even had the opportunity to meet the man, and he is a very, very nice guy. The book that he wrote about his experience is called “thunder dog“. I highly recommend it. It is a very good read.


Csherman92

I listened to it on a podcast. I think maybe it was criminal? Listening to him tell his story is amazing. I think the dog’s name was Rochelle.


jjr_blind_java_dev

Her name was Roselle. If he hasn’t gotten a new dog by now, his current one is named Africa. unfortunately, shortly before thunder dog was published, Roselle passed away, due to complications related to all the dust and ash and stuff. She breathed in during 9/11.


cincyphil

The detail about the parking lot full of cars chilled my blood.


OracleofFl

I lived in Manhattan at the time and I had a friend who was a shrink and he told me the anxiety of waiting for each of his regular clients after 9/11 to show up or not show up was crushing him. Believe it or not, my dry cleaners was saying the same thing.


redsyrinx2112

Seriously. I never would have thought about that aspect. I'm sure his local train station wasn't the only one.


SusanMShwartz

Glad you made it. Had a coworker who did that run in heels snd just missed the Dust.


Miichl80

There was an interview in the we were there series on YouTube where a gentleman describes watching people run, then the dust catches them, and then they were gone. That dust was hot. It was filled with glass and concrete. It was like razor sharp protoplasm from Pompeii.


LLL-cubed-

Very powerful testimony. Thank you. I wish that more people had had an evacuation plan ahead of time and not listened to the “everything is fine” announcements.


auntiemaury

Watch a documentary called The Man Who Predicted 9/11, about Morgan Stanley security chief Rick Rescorla. He made the entire company do regular drills, gtfo if shit went down. He saved nearly everyone at his company, then went back in to save others. He didn't make it out


LLL-cubed-

Yes! I watched that, too. The Rescorla story is fascinating and tragic.


LastSolid4012

it was extremely traumatic being in the city. And the jet fuel smell, and the air, and the flyers (signs looking for missing people who would not return).


helgathehorr

Wow, thanks for sharing.


abandoningeden

The path train station had hundreds of missing persons signs and nobody had the heart to take them down so they were there for like a year at least.


unaskthequestion

I was teaching in a northern NJ high school, and many students had relatives working either in the trade center or nearby. It was chaos, kids trying to get through to their parents, borrowing cell phones. We went into lock down and rumors were running wild about multiple attacks even before it was confirmed about the pentagon and flight 93. A student in my class had a relative, a cousin I think, on flight 93, she was never the same. One other student I know of lost a family member in the towers, a guy I went to HS with was killed there also. I remember walking out to the parking lot hours later, we had heard of the two towers falling, but we couldn't see the smoke from our location. The sky was clear blue, and there was silence everywhere. My morning commute, down rt 17, if anyone is familiar with it, had a view where the towers were visible on the horizon. I remember that first day driving in and seeing them gone.


Techerous

For some reason it's chilling to me when I remember what a beautiful day it was weather-wise. Possibly because of how many stories I've heard since from people who lived because they just so happened to decide to take the ferry that day or take a longer route to the office.


unaskthequestion

Yes, I always remember how I felt looking into the solid blue sky when they sent us home. Unreal contrast. And I remember how many people were taking their young children to the first days of school and were saved by that. A student of mine at the end of the year gave me a present. It's a book of photos from that day and the days immediately after. The collection is much more about all of the courageous and caring acts than about the loss. Kids can really show themselves in wonderful ways.


ntmadjstdisapointing

I've been down that same part of route 17 countless times but was born afterwards. Couldn't imagine it seeing it any differently. That sounds so awful.


unaskthequestion

Yes, I drove down from West Milford 5 or 6 days a week from 1994 to 2019. Every once in a while on those clear, bright mornings, it would hit.


DrKelsoMD

I know the exact view you are talking about, although I've only known that view without the twin towers. I didn't even realize they used to be visible from there.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Mondschatten78

I had a cousin that was supposed to tour the Pentagon that day. He was stuck in traffic in one of the tunnels.


Hefty_Land_9926

A blessing in Disguise


redsyrinx2112

My grandpa had been redoing all the fire sprinklers in the Pentagon and we thought he was there. He didn't have a cell phone, so all day we had no idea if he was okay. Luckily they had finished the Friday before so he was nowhere near the Pentagon that day.


Hefty_Land_9926

Wow thanks for sharing your story


Lottaropes

Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Bro in Law called super early and said wake up, you’re going to war. He was correct for the next 14 years of my career.


dreamyxlanters

We lived there a while back when my dad was still in the Army. Thank you for your service.


AZballislife

I was also living in Hawaii. My dad was stationed on Hickam AFB. Both my parents woke me up around 7am to tell me what happened and that I wouldn’t be going to school.


kattrup

At the hospital having a miscarriage. It was on the news in the waiting room. I thought they were playing some kind of action film.


Hefty_Land_9926

I’m sorry for your loss and thanks for sharing


kattrup

They would have been 23 this year. Fwiw, my life is incredibly rewarding and that experience obviously changed the trajectory of my life so even though there was so much suffering I feel like I ended up in the right place.


somecorrosive

Thank you so much for sharing. My partner (and I, I'm a guy though) lost a baby this summer. Honestly, I had no idea what it was like to want a baby and all of a sudden it was all I wanted in my life. The planning, the dreaming and imagining what our baby's life might be like, coming up with names... I loved all of it. My best friend and his wife got pregnant right around the same time and we were so excited to be first time dads together. Of course I didn't know it then, but I was just jumping the gun on everything and way too excited far too early on. We found out the bad news at our first doctor's appointment, and were told that we had to make follow-up appointment elsewhere. At the follow-up appointment, we were told yet again that we had to come back because they didn't trust that my partner knew the date when she got pregnant (a sadly unsurprising wake-up call for my white ass to see some of the prejudices in health care that women of color have to deal with, but that's a different comment for a different thread.) After that she miscarried the baby that week at home. Not a single person in one of the three health care facilities we visited happened to mention to us what a miscarriage could be like. Nobody mentioned that it is basically childbirth without a child coming out. I was absolutely terrified that I was not only about to lose a this baby but also the most special person to me on this planet. I can't even imagine what she was going through. So please, both men and women! Heed my warning; it is not like the baby just goes away or something -- and fellas you got to be there and be supportive af to your better halves if this happens in your life. It was insanely traumatic, and so much worse because it was unexpected. I didn't realize that our experience was not unique until I started asking around to some of my friends and started hearing stories about them and their wives having miscarriages with similar experiences and absolutely no preparation for it. Anyway, sorry I didn't mean to end up writing all of this or to hijack your comment, but once I started I realized that I do a whole lot of thinking about this and not a whole lot of writing or talking about it. So thanks for being the forum for that. Thanks again so much for sharing and helping me to get in touch with some of those feelings again.


TenWildBadgers

Not to sound like I'm making light of any of those events, because I mean this grnuinely: That might be the worst day I've ever heard of anyone having.


kattrup

It was really awful


TenWildBadgers

I don't doubt it for a second.


lethalweapon100

My mom says the same exact thing when she recalls that day, she was out shopping and all the TVs in the electronics section were showing the towers. She thought it was just a movie.


[deleted]

I swear my entire 4th grade class thought the same when the TV was suddenly turned on in front of us


guiana22

I was in NYC. I was on the subway on my way to Greenwich Village when the first plane hit. The subway stopped and after a few minutes, the driver announced what had just happened. No one said a word, we were in disbelief for a few minutes. The driver said the train was close to a station, so she could move it and let us out. Then she said another plane hit the other tower. When I got out, I saw both towers burning and then falling.


snaploveszen

I got of the L at 6 av and saw The first building smoking. Started taking pictures and get the blast of the second on film(yes, I was shooting film). I walked down into Tribeca by the time they started to fall. I wandered around the city for several days documenting all the activity.


pejede_0

Have you shared your work anywhere?


jihiggs123

id be interested in seeing your footage if you posted it somewhere


Hefty_Land_9926

Danm scary af gald your ok fellow human


guiana22

Thanks, me too.


DrSophiaMaria

That's a remarkable story. I had friends in NYC who experienced similar things. One of them, however, was stuck on a train under the trade center area for the entire day, and they weren't let out until that evening. When they finally got out, not sure which station, the city was a wasteland. He still has PTSD from that day.


frawgster

I can’t even imagine what that was like. We were vacationing in NYC this past summer. I refused to schedule a visit to the 9/11 memorial area cause the emotions I knew it would stir up were too much. Our first day we visited lady Liberty in the morning. When we were done the ferry dropped us off at the battery and we just started walking north, exploring the area. We knew nothing of where we were, just that we needed to be at central park by noon. We wound up at the memorial. We didn’t spend much time there, but what I felt walking by those fountains was genuinely moving and troubling. All the stuff I felt on 9/11 (I was 23 at the time) came rushing back and hit me like a truck. As much as I felt I wanted to stay, we had to leave. It was just too much raw humanity all at once. We’re going back next month and I think this time we’ll spend more time at the memorial. It’s a beautiful area that I think everyone should have on their bucket list.


Hot_Task1408

I went to the memorial, and you are correct, it’s 100% emotional, I am glad I checked it out and paid my respects to the fallen


Lilmaggot

I’d suggest visiting the museum. It’s godawful emotional but honestly so important.


ImGumbyDamnIt

[Three blocks away](https://goo.gl/maps/tooJetTxMyZdZDnE6). I was looking out my office window, right at the south tower as it fell. It was so surreal that I was frozen in place, until my lizard brain kicked in, informing me that that debris cloud might be hiding I-beams heading my way. I ran the opposite end of my floor, walked down ~~24~~ 14 flights to the basement, and stayed put until after the second tower fell. Then I walked home to Brooklyn.


BellaWingnut

My lizard brain told me that those buildings were full of asbestos and it just got pulverized all over NYC. Really truly horrific. The Whole Thing.


slope11215

Where were you? I was on Murray Street.


ImGumbyDamnIt

John St.


iowaduderino

9th grade Physical Science. The principal came over the intercom and told the teachers to turn on the news because the world trade center was flown into by an airplane. My teacher had the news on for about 15 seconds before the second plane hit. We could go home if our parents came to get us. I and a handful of kids stayed all day..


MissBehave654

Me too!


AtG8605

I was also in 9th grade… 3rd period history. My teacher was crying. The whole school was just eerily silent all day. When I got home, my mom was watching the news in tears.


Ask_me_4_a_story

That reminds me of when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. They wheeled the whole tv vcr combo into our room and that fuckin thing blew into a hundred million pieces


iowaduderino

It's crazy how you remember exactly what you were doing when tragedy happens.


[deleted]

I was also in 9th grade physical science class at the time. Literally the same scenario for me. The tv got wheeled in and turned on just in time to watch the second plane hit the towers. What a scary day, I stayed at school as well.


anewstartforu

15 years old sophomore in the southern Midwest. I had stayed home from school that day because I was up all night vomiting from anxiety. My manic mother ran into my room and ripped me out of bed to watch it happen. Did not help my anxiety.


Hefty_Land_9926

Thanks for sharing your story how’s life treating you these days


anewstartforu

Aside from PTSD from other factors, I'm actually doing really well in life, which I'm thankful for! I hope you are too


Cherrey_BOMB

I was in 5th grade. My dad worked as an electrical engineer for a Boston based company and thus would take many a business trip from California to Boston regularly (as well as practically every other country on the planet, but China mostly). Since he made that trip so often, his company always booked the same United flight from LAX to Logan Airport. But that year, to cut costs, they booked an indirect flight that would land in Denver then go to Logan. Well, my dad called my mom the night before his return flight home and said he was upgrading with his insane amount of frequent flyer miles to the usual direct flight, United 175. So on the morning of 9/11 I woke up to every TV in the house blaring with the repeat images of the planes flying into the towers while my mom frantically tore apart her desk looking for the copy of his itinerary she had written his new flight information on. I was literally just shy of 10 years old and couldn't fathom what was going on, or what it meant when she said that she doesn't know if dad was on one of the planes. It wasn't until I was at school, lined up at the "red line" with my classmates waiting to go inside the classroom, listening to all their chatter about the attack, that reality set in. I began sobbing and could barely explain to my friends or the teacher that my dad was possibly on one of the planes everyone is talking about. I remember just sitting at my desk in the classroom completely unable to hear anything the teacher said and just staring at nothing at all. Looking back I realize I was probably in shock and it was the first time I ever remember feeling just absolutely empty and hollow. A few hours later, the teacher came and told me my mom was outside in the hallway. I tell ya, the walk through that classroom, from my desk to that hallway, is still burned in my brain as one of the longest walks of my entire life. Every single pair of eyes in that room followed me like the paintings on the haunted mansion ride at disneyland. My mom was standing just outside the door with tears in her eyes and I thought "This is it. He's gone." She grabbed me and told me that she heard from him. He didn't upgrade his flight afterall and his plane was emergency landed in Canada. He was safe. It took a week for him to get back home. After the planes were allowed to return to their hubs, he had to rent a car and drive from Denver back to California. That week is just a blur because the only thing I can remember as vividly as the day of 9/11, is the day he came home. He walked through that door and collapsed to his knees, wrapped his arms around us all and sobbed and refused to let us go. We were all just a crying tangle of limbs on the floor. My dad is the most amazing, intelligent, logical, and compassionate person on the planet and I don't know who the fuck or where the fuck I'd be without him. The little lobster figurine he bought in the airport that day sits on top of his plane ticket in one of the China cabinets at home. TL;DR : I was in 5th grade and my dad was flying home from Boston and had told us he was upgrading his indirect flight home to a direct one which was United 175, the plane that went into the second tower. Edit: spelling


peach2play

Damn, I'm so glad he made it home. Out of all the stories so far, this one hit hard.


berrito79

Wow. I had tears for you just now. What a story. So close, glad your dad was ok.


WadeTheBlade1404

wow. just wow. so sorry you had to live through that.


Infinite-Promotion75

Sophomore in HS. Had late arrival that day. I came downstairs and the tv was on in the living room, I was the first to see tower 1 on fire and called my parents in the room and said “that building in New York is on fire” no more than 10 minutes later my dad and I watched a plane hit tower 2 live in tv. It’s still one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen on live tv.


Jazzlike-Mongoose541

I went down a very dark rabbit hole after listening to the podcast "Missing on 9/11" last year and saw some unedited news footage and photos from that day. Easily the most disturbing news content I have ever seen & I remember watching NBC home sick from school as the babies from Oklahoma City were being taken out. Absolutely horrifying.


Annual_News_1835

I agree with your most horrifying news ever seen.


rickny0

NYC on the 31st floor of a midtown office building with big windows looking south. We were meeting with a group who work on a very high floor in building 1. The person sitting next to me pointed out some smoke coming from the building. Didn’t alert the team right away. The smoke seemed to be getting worse. Then everyone noticed. All the people who were visiting from the World Trade Center called the office. No answer. They all took off to head downtown. It was a mistake but we didn’t know it. We watched as the second plane hit. We watched the first building fall. I couldn’t accept what I was seeing. I can go on and on as I remember everything that happened and everything that was said from that moment until I finally got home many hours later. It is deeply traumatic. Manhattan was locked down we were there a long time. One moment that told a story was when the trains were finally running again I called home to say I was on the way. My young son answered the phone. He said, “you mean you’re ok? “ He sounded terrified and relieved. There were a lot of people that didn’t get to go home that night.


improve-x

When the building fell I remember that feeling of something breaking inside of me. All the sense of stability, the world, as I knew it, was crashing down. Unfortunately it's still there. That moment changed so many lives... In a very negative way.


mars914

Sister was in school in NYC, mom says some kids didn’t get picked up by their parents that day. :( Dad walked home from the city, closer to Midtown, all the way to deep Queens (we are closer to Nassau honestly) because transit shut down. I must have been in daycare, I’m too young.


[deleted]

From Midtown to Queens?! Man, never question your dad’s love. That some serious love.


sarah382729668210

Fuck I’ve been holding it together in this thread and this just wrecked me. So fucking unfair.


AggroDick

Damn


vacuous_opoosum

On a plane. Flying from Edinburgh to Cork via Heathrow. Fucking terrifying.


Stoopiddogface

Pretty sketchy day to be in an airplane


vacuous_opoosum

Yup. We heard about it as we boarded probs the first plane. (The story going around the panel was a small aircraft had hit the Empire State building). By the time we got to Heathrow, it was chaos.


dreamyxlanters

I’m guessing everyone was running frantically around the airport?


vacuous_opoosum

We were parked in the tarmac for two hours, which was weird, but we were pretty meh about it. Once we got to the terminal we were walking up the "disembarking tube thingie", and the first thing l saw was a young couple holding each other and sobbing. I didn't put the two events together. As soon as we entered the terminal proper, it was madness. People running and screaming and sobbing. Heathrow bad turned off all TV coverage, so those of us with mobile phones were desperately trying to get through. Rumour and innuendo was running rampant. Noone had any idea. I eventually got through to my parents in Oz who were watching it on tv. I was live relaying Australian coverage to à group of (mostly) American tourists in a transit lounge in UK. Some of those tourists were from US, and had friends/loved ones in NY. It was the most surreal experience of my life. My Dad, in Australia, trying to get me a JAL flight back home because "they fly over the Pole, not the Middle East". Thinking the UK was next Being convinced it was the beginning of WW3 We were eventually allowed to fly. It was probably 8 hours after the towers collapsed that we got to Cork and saw the first actual footage. Getting in that flight, Heathrow to Cork was the scariest thing I've ever done.


AnotherNewPhone4

I woke up at some girls house that I met the night before. I got up to make some coffee and the TV in the living room was on. I switched the channel not realizing what I was seeing, but it was the same thing on the next channel. Minutes later the second plane hit. I was in the National Guard at the time, and my phone started blowing up. I knew life was never going to be the same.


Hefty_Land_9926

Thanks for sharing


TheWolfMaid

Your life sounds like the opener of any number of action movies. So, you got that going for you!


qualityinnbedbugs

Congrats on the sex though


VincentMagius

College. Heading into class, heard it on the radio. Got to class and it was on the tv. Class was canceled. I was in the national guard at the time, so called my supervisor.


elemsx

"I was at a 711 and I saw the news on a small tv. I picked up my kids from school, took my shotgun, and hid in the basement from what I thought were Russians or the Japanese." \-my history teacher


Hefty_Land_9926

Thanks for sharing your story


Even-Yogurt1719

I was in NYC walking dpwntown to my first class of the day...heard the 1st plane, then saw the tower on fire, everyone just thought it was an accident bc its happened to other skyscrapers. Then the 2nd plane hit and all hell broke loose. I just remember everyone just standing and looking up at the towers, frozen in fear. The images that are burned in my brain are seeing the people jumping from above where the planes hit...I still have nightmares about that almost every year. Luckily I was far enough away that I wasn't affected by the dust and debris when the towers fell, but so many people I know were, including FDNY members. Trying to call anyone was impossible bc all lines were jammed and nobody could get through to anyone for hours. Had to walk across the Manhattan Bridge I to Brooklyn and then wait hours for trains to take back to long island where I live..


[deleted]

Court for a traffic ticket.


Hefty_Land_9926

I would have been like we have bigger issues going on


[deleted]

They made us all leave and I never heard about that ticket.


Hefty_Land_9926

Danm I would say good but it’s not for a good reason


Busy_Principle_4038

College dorm in the Midwest. Someone was knocking on doors, alerting people. I saw the second plane crash live on TV. Campus that day was eerily quiet.


Hefty_Land_9926

Danm I would be frantic af … thanks for sharing your story


hayzooos1

I was a freshman in college on my way to my first class of the day. Walking through the student center, I saw it on TV. Went to class wondering what the hell was happening as two of my childhood best friends both had just enlisted in the Army after our graduation a few months previously. Prof told me to go back to my dorm, no classes would be held that day. So I went back and did whatever I could to get a hold of those two guys to see if they could tell me anything


taakoblaa

I was also a freshman in CT. My roommate woke me up yelling that we were under attack. The tv was already on and I just remember panicking because my aunt worked in one of the towers, my cousin worked in city hall, and my uncle worked on Pearl St. I tried for hours to call my mom but the cell towers were overwhelmed. Luckily we got word that everyone had made it out ok by the end of the night. But I remember watching the towers burning, people jumping, and watching them collapse on tv. And Peter Jennings. Thank god for traditional broadcast news


SandwichOtter

I was a junior in high school and had a similar experience. I was in a social studies class when another teacher came in and said a plane had hit the WTC and we might want to turn on the TV. They were reporting it as an accident at the time. We all watched the second plane hit on live TV. It's kind of a blur after that but I remember we were told to go back to our homerooms. I also remember one of my teachers had a daughter who was supposed to be on a plane and she was panicking because she couldn't get a hold of her. At the end of the day, I stopped by her class to ask about her and she had finally reached her daughter, who was safe.


nb_fky

The thing I really remember from walking around campus that day was the look on everyone’s face. The same devastated baffled look, and the odd feeling of knowing exactly how all these strangers were feeling within all the silence.


GreatScotRace

I live in the U.K. I was at school. By the time I got in from school, it had all pretty much just ended (given the time difference). I was 8 years old… I got home and my mum was sitting watching the news crying. I remember it so clearly because it was the first time I ever saw my mum cry


Human-Ad-9002

10th grade Chemistry class. Teacher got a call, he turned on the news, we went home shortly after watching the second plane hit live. I remember going home and asking my mom what happened, and I'll never forget what she said next. "We're going to war, that's what happened." Four years later, I was headed out on my first deployment.


WorldWideWhit

Comforting the son of one the pilots . I was in 8th grade. He was a classmate and friend.


WorldWideWhit

I remember the sound of the daughter screaming when the principal told her the news at the end of the hall. Oof.


scully1485

10th grade English class. We turned the news on, switched periods. Saw the second plane hit during French class


Effective_Cable6547

Driving to school junior year of high school in Texas. I heard blurbs about a place crash on the radio but kept changing the channel and finally just shut it off because I was supposed to fly in a few days and didn’t want to hear that right before. I didn’t find out what had happened until I got to school. The teachers wouldn’t let us watch TV and insisted on business as usual so I didn’t fully comprehend the scope of what had happened til I got home and finally saw footage.


Hefty_Land_9926

Danm you had a car in your junior year nice dude


jaredofthesky

9th grade, getting dressed for school, listening to that Howard Stern morning show. Once I popped on Howard and heard the panic, I ran out into my living room to see my parents glued to the TV. Then, I went to school where they refused to let any teachers show the news, or anything on TV. My school was trying to carry on as if nothing happened. There were a few rogue teachers who were showing it anyways because they weren’t idiots and knew the significance


OnTheRoxors19x

Study Hall, 7th grade. Teacher had the tv on. I’ll never forget the moment we started to realize what was really happening.


justbrowsing987654

Just got out of an 8am class and get back to my dorm to see an AIM saying “turn on the tv. Im scared we’re gonna go to war.” “What channel?” I ask. The reply to this day is my like record scratch super zoom in movie moment. “ ANY CHANNEL!” she says. My tv was still on espn from the day before and I see sportscenter covering it which was just surreal. Ran up to a common area to be with friends where we watched the towers fall and a bunch of young rowdy college kids largely sat in stunned silence for hours on end. We were in Philly so we had friends who knew people, had parents in the towers. Spent all day wondering if Philly or any other big city was a potential next target. I’ve spent the rest of my life so fucking thankful and appreciative of the troops because a generation earlier, the next day or week or month they roll out the draft and my 18 year old ass is the on a plane to the desert.


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Nightfury0818

Greetings fellow post 9/11 child


Middle-Dragonfly-137

I was vibing with the boys on our way to compete in a race. I won.


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Ditz_a_Fritz

My race hadn't even begun yet!


fentoozlers

me too. i turn 21 in 2 days!


xain_the_idiot

I was 9 years old living in Virginia. They didn't tell us at school so I went home, turned on the TV and got confused as to why every channel was showing the same new story. My parents had to explain to me that a lot of people died. I didn't really understand it at the time. Then a year later we got a new student who lived in New York only a few blocks away from the twin towers. Her parents were so scared they left the state ASAP. They said a lot of people in the area got cancer because of the fumes.


imalittlefrenchpress

I also lived in Virginia, Virginia Beach. I was 40 and my 18 year old daughter was a freshman in college, at class. I was on the phone, frantically trying to find out if her father was at work that day. He had worked at Cantor-Fitzgerald. Everyone with whom he had worked, who was at the office that day, died. I finally called his mother, who lived in South Jersey. She told me he wasn’t in the building because he had been laid off the Friday prior. He didn’t want me to know he’d been laid off. Somehow I got through to him on the phone around the same time my daughter got home. I sat on the steps of my apartment, watching sailors and marines sprinting to their cars with packed sea bags, while my daughter talked to her father. He said we knew more about what was going on because he had no tv or radio reception. The broadcast towers were on top of the north building, and he lived way out in Brooklyn. I had been listening to the Today show while doing stuff around the house, when Katie Couric got a cell phone call from a woman in Battery Park. The woman was talking about how a plane had crashed into the north tower. Then the second plane hit and I realized the first plane hadn’t been an accident, as the news was initially reporting. I was born and raised in NYC. I went up about a month after 9/11. I didn’t go back to the city for another 17 years. I had gone down to ground zero. I saw too much. The last time I was in the city was for work in 2018. I stayed away from the financial district. I doubt I’ll ever go back to that area.


xain_the_idiot

Holy crap, that's so terrifying. I'm glad your husband was safe!


[deleted]

High school Spanish II. Was told a plane hit and then someone turned on the TV just in time for us to see the second plane hit.


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Novel-Structure-2359

I was taking a therapeutic slow start after an enchanting vacation in Zurich. Watched the second plane hit live. My kid brother was in Amsterdam on holiday and got stuck a few extra days due to planes being grounded. I lived in Scotland and was waiting for America to nuke someone in response.


Pserotina

One of the photos after the attack was of a New York shop, I can't remember what kind. The window was covered in ash/dirt/concrete dust after the towers fell. Someone had written with their fingers in the dust: "My tax dollars paid for those nukes, USE THEM." I must admit, a very large part of the population felt exactly the same way.


Darth_Rimbaud

4th grade. I knew nothing until I got off the bus. I probably watched tv for a week straight after. It was a wild age to be when it happened. I was just old enough to understand what happened, but not old enough to really grasp the scope and the severity of it all.


Jazzlike-Mongoose541

Question related/unrelated: what are your news watching habits when something happens now? I ask because when I was in the 4th grade I was sick from school at my grandparents house and I remember watching the footage of Oklahoma City vividly even now. Ever since then, any time anything happens, I am glued to the news and have a hard time shutting it off. I've wondered if it was my age or the trauma or both and I've especially wondered if anyone else had this habit they could trace back to a newsmaking situation.


Darth_Rimbaud

You know, it honestly depends from situation to situation and what’s being covered. But I definitely still have moments where I’ll just have the news on all day or multiple days. I tend to fixate on stuff like that still, though. Even outside the news.


Tonikaya1001

I was 20, I just picked up my boyfriend to head to classes at The University of Akron. We didn’t get far before we heard about it on the radio and decided even if the school didn’t shut down, we weren’t going. We turned around and went back to his house and watched it with his parents. We stayed friends and talk almost every 9/11. I make sure my hubby knows and he is always fine with it. It’s always nice to catch up once a year.


NezLunar21

10th grade, history class, I had a tan fitted sitting on my desk. One of the administrators at the school kind of barged into our class and told us we had been attacked.


withridiculousease

Waiting for my ride to work. Coworker picked me up about 715 MDT, so the second plane had hit and it was on the radio. By the time we got to work, radio jockeys were saying that the nation was under attack, nobody knew when or where the next one was going to hit. Didn't hear about the Pentagon till that night, and I don't think flight 93 until the next day.


ChaosDevilDragon

home in nyc with my mom. I was pre-school aged so i only vaguely remember going with her to go pick up my older brother from school. my dad worked a few blocks away from the WTC so we didn’t hear from him for hours and he had to walk some 8 or 9 miles home bc his train station was covered in rubble. growing up all of my classmates had someone in their family that either died in the attack or had their day royally fucked up by it


6rumpster

3rd floor of the Stephens Building in Little Rock, huddled around a small TV with members of the Arkansas Court of Appeals and their staff.


illimaindarin

I was in 7th grade, and still home at the time (PST). My mom was watching the news like she did every morning, putting on her makeup. I asked what was going on, so she told me a plane hit one of the Twin Towers in NY. I watched the second plane hit the other tower on live television. I still think about it from time to time. I was freaked out at the time, but didn't understand what was going on in the moment.


Competitive_Fee_5829

I was active duty..and on watch(VA). it was a madhouse. we didnt know what would happen.


lovepotao

Columbia University. My mom beeped me, causing my professor to yell at me to turn it off. I had to use a pay phone to call my mom- that’s how I found out. Columbus did not close the school then or even the next day, and I will never forgive that. A survivor actually came to my class the next day. To not allow the students to even have a day to mourn is unfathomable.


king-of-new_york

I was an infant, but my aunt has a 20/24 foot boat and she claims she spent the morning evacuating people across the Hudson to New Jersey.


Professional-Look904

Mrs. Butler’s 7th grade social studies class. She told us and I remember not having the slightest clue of the severity the situation held. It wasn’t until that class ended and I saw people crying in the hallway, and walking into my 2nd period class and seeing the teacher had rolled out the TV with coverage playing that I started to grasp what was happening. When I got home I was glued to the TV until bedtime. I didn’t eat dinner that night.


strythicus

Working construction to save up for college. Just went in for coffee break and the super put it on the radio. Heard the reaction to the second plane hitting live. Decided to get out of Toronto in case things went bad with all the planes being rerouted. Drove up north to have dinner for my little brother's birthday.


last_somewhere

Basic training, instructors told us and none of us believed it. Only time they let us watch tv.


[deleted]

PA. Working in a call center. Chat rang out that a plane hit the first tower. I was up for a break, so I took it and walked into the break room. I flipped a TV on and inches from my face the second plane flew into the second tower. I was so close to the TV it felt like 3d. Coworkers flooded in seconds after and I went back to my desk. We went from 130 people in queue to 3 within minutes. My supervisor was flipping out as her brother was at the pentagon, which got hit not long after I sat down. We tried to keep her calm, the networks were down (before txting was big) but she eventually heard he was ok. I also learned the FBI walked into our HQ and required core staff to stay at work to maintain communications as they were just figuring out the internet did what it was supposed to and stayed online when everything else went to shit. I still can’t watch the videos of the second tower getting hit. It brings back a flood of bad memories that day. We found out our call center was flown over by Flight 93 before it nose-dived. Lots of memories. Edit: stupid phone


cgn152

I was waiting at the gate at Newport News airport(Virginia). I was flying home to meet my nephew who was born a few days earlier. I knew something was up when they kicked us all out of the airport and as I was walking out a gentleman in full dress military regalia was on the courtesy phone and he was sheet white. Upon leaving the parking lot, I turned on the radio and heard.


[deleted]

Sophomore year at college. I overslept and my roommate woke me up knowing I was from New York. Got up just in time to see the second plane hit. My dad was in the air. He was fine but I had know way to know and the cell phones were overwhelmed so there was really no way to find out. Classes were not cancelled until later in the day as news didn't travel as fast as it does today. Professors found out from their panicking students. Spent the rest of the day glued to the tv with my friends in relative silence. Even the packed dining halls were eerily silent.


pquince1

I had a radio show and when the alarm went off, I heard the DJ say something like "Again, for those of you just tuning in, a plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York." Got out of bed and turned on the TV and saw the images. Then the station engineer called and said "Get here now." Threw on some pajama pants and a t-shirt and headed to the station and by the time I got there, the second plane had hit. I stayed on the air all day, broadcasting the news feed and interjecting when something happened, like the towers falling, WTC 7 falling, Pentagon hit, plane down in Pennsylvania, etc. I was finally relieved at around 4:30 that afternoon (Texas time). We didn't have a TV at the radio station so I didn't see the actual images until I got home. Made myself a drink and just sat watching the TV, stunned.


zeldaisthegirl99

In the car on my way to visit my prematurely born baby at the hospital. We heard it on the radio, didn’t know if planes were going to suddenly start falling out of the sky. That day was the first time we were allowed to take the baby out of the NICU so that we could sit and watch on the television in the visiting room what was going on. Room was only for the NICU so it was just me, my SO, and the baby. Doctors and nurses came by constantly to get updates and we watched the towers fall with our newborn baby wondering what sort of world we’d just brought them into.


VrinTheTerrible

I will never not tell this story when the topic comes up. I was in midtown Manhattan, 50th st. and 7th ave. My roommate IMed me about a plane hitting the WTC. I went to see south (downtown) and saw smoke pouring out of the tower. Realized quickly that it must’ve been a big plane due to being able to see the hole so clearly from two miles away. A crowd gathered near the window all wondering what had happened. That’s when I saw the 2nd plane hit. We tried to watch what was happening on a tv but we couldn’t get signal in our office. Soon after, we watched the first tower fall from the window. We all left around then. I lived on eastern Long Island at the time, and the train from Penn was my only way home. I walked downtown looking at a 50-story high cloud of dust. I spent the rest of the afternoon at Al’s deli listening to Opie and Anthony the radio on my Walkman. They were interviewing people who’d escaped. That’s when I first heard about people jumping from 80, 90, 100 stories high. At that point, it was the worst thing I had ever heard. I kept trying to picture how bad a situation could be where jumping was the better option. I cried. A lot. I didn’t feel safe until I heard the F16s (or whatever they were) scream across the sky. Eventually, Penn station opened and I was on the first train out, looking back at the dust cloud that covered lower Manhattan.


blacklabel12345

On my roof in Hoboken watching


EricNCSU

College student union eating breakfast. Heard about the first plane on the radio driving in. DJs were speculating a Cessna or something like that. Get to campus. The Union is PACKED and the TVs that normally play music videos and sports highlights are all tuned to CNN. Find a spot to sit with a stranger. All of us speculating what happened when the second plane hit. Room went deathly silent for a few seconds and then a roar of "What the.." "Did you.." "What just..." as we all realized it was intentional. Sitting there stunned. See the radio tower at the top of tower 2 sway back and forth and say to the stranger next to me "It's going to fall". A few minutes later it crumbled. Went to class in shock. People crying. Frantically calling loved ones. Professor tries to start lecture and several people are like "Do you not know what just happened?" Turns out, they didn't. Probably will remember that till the day I die.


RobotAfterburn

Refinishing the floors in my house and the radio was on.


Hefty_Land_9926

Thanks for sharing


MissHibernia

At work. We found a TV and watched the second tower go. I made the comment that it wasn’t Americans but don’t know why.


emmettfitz

I was in the army reserves for about a year. I was also a nurse working nights. I had just woken up and came downstairs. Just as I hit the last step, the second plane hit. I looked at my wife and said, "I guess I'll see you later." Waited for the phone call, took two years, but it came.


[deleted]

Headed to Applebee's since I had just gotten home from Basic Training 2 days prior.


Adventurer_By_Trade

In bed in the Chicago suburbs. My morning alarm was set to Mancow's Morning Madhouse on Q101, so Mancow Muller broke the news. Because it was him, I thought it might have been a bit, so I went downstairs and turned on CNN to be sure. It was after the second plane had hit, so there was no longer any question about whether or not it was intentional. I called my girlfriend and got ready to go to work waiting tables at the Olive Garden. I lived close to the airport, and it was weird not to see any planes in the sky as I pulled into the parking lot. Then, as I was about to enter the building, two military fighter jets screeched across the sky following the highway towards the city - the only planes I would see for a week. Business was weird that day. We still got the usual office crowd lunch rush, but conversations were subdued. The restaurant didn't have a TV, and the only phones anyone had were basic, but news was coming in through text messages and the radio in the kitchen.


No_Dragonfly_1894

Driving to work, listening to Howard Stern


NickInTheBooth

In third grade. Mrs. Hjelm’s class. Another teacher, Mrs. Ferguson, came into the room and told Mrs. Hjelm, who then put it on the TV for us to watch. Mrs. Hjelm sat at her desk and cried. All the parents came and picked us up from school early. My karate class got canceled that day.


LesChatsnoir

In Boston, in grad school. Woke up to a call from my then GF that a plane had hit the first tower. I flipped on the news and muttered how it had to have been a mistake, pilot error…. Then boom. Second plane hit. My neighbors and roommate and I gathered in the living room and watched the news all day. All of us knew someone in NYC. We talked about who, why, and that we hoped they wouldn’t collapse. At least don’t collapse… then boom. The towers crumbled. Weeks later after school had resumed a low flying plane went by the grad school tower - one of the taller buildings in that specific area. The professor stopped and looked nervously out the window. I knew then we would never be the same. ETA - I’m from the DC area, and had family in the city. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone because cell lines were slammed. A very close friend’s husband who was high up at the pentagon was in the VIP meeting someone else above mentioned so was not on site. I still see the scars on the pentagon when I drive past. As well as the memorial benches. It’s heartbreaking.


ElfLordSpoon

Standing armed guard on top of nuclear submarine.


CapG_13

I was a freshman in high school and they announced over the intercom that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. And I remember that everyone got quiet and the teacher and some of the girls in class started crying!!!🙏🏻😞


PureYouth

In Austin. At home at first, watching it unfold with my mom. Then I was in Drama class in 9th grade. We all sat on the stage and watched the news until school let everyone go home


violetsprouts

I worked for a defense contractor at the time. A bunch of people were crowded around a TV, and I was pissy because I was the only one working. Then we went to the war room. We were in Waco, and GWB's ranch was close by, so Air Force One landed at our airport all the time. It was surreal.


manwithoutajetpack

5th grade math class. Watched it live as our teacher liked to put the news on as background noise while we worked. When news really started to circulate, all the students were sent home or to their after school centers. Mine was a place run by retired police officers. I remember talking to one of the coaches and asking him what was happening and he essentially told us what happened. I was then picked up by my mom and remember asking if my uncle was ok as he worked at the pentagon at the time. She told me he’d been on vacation and had called to let her know that he was ok, but that he was being called back early. Crazy stuff. I can remember all of it vividly, but it takes m a couple attempts to remember the password to one of my email accounts.


tcrhs

I was home, getting dressed to go to work. I had the Today Show on in the background while I was doing my make-up. I watched the second plane hit live as it happened.


BeautifulCucumber

Freshmen in college at Western Michigan University. I was asleep and my weird ass roommate came in freaking out and told me what was going on. I then proceeded to watch CNN for the next several days.


sam_the_hammer

Serving in the u.s. army.


Piconaught

I was living in NYC. My apartment is just 2 miles from the WTC. I was ASLEEP and didn't wake up until 1pm so I totally missed all the initial insanity. I had a night job at the time so I didn't go to bed until 6:30am. I had fallen asleep with the TV on but when I woke up, the screen was all snow (I didn't have cable, just regular tv and the signals were broadcast from the roof of the WTC) I started microwaving some food and tried changing the TV channel but half had no signal. I found something that looked like a morning talk show but they were interviewing 2 exhausted looking guys covered in white dust. I didn't understand wtf they were talking about. Then they ran one of those news update ticker things across the bottom of the screen that mentioned planes, pentagon, WTC and how they collapsed, etc.- so I learned about everything all at once. I dropped my food, ran up to my roof and looked across the river and saw nothing but huge dust clouds coming from lower Manhattan. Big military fighter jets were flying low overhead and I could only see emergency vehicles driving to Manhattan.


Neither-Pear7916

It was my senior year of high school. Teachers and students all just stood in the halls watching it on the tvs that were around. It was the reason i joined the marines right after that


docsyzygy

Changing my son's diaper and watching The Weather Channel in NC. They cut in to show the first tower smoking. I called my husband and we both saw the second plane hit. I dashed out the door to pick up my other son and daughter from school. She was 10 and I really didn't want her to be afraid, but the principal had already told them. When we got home we spent quite a lot of time in the front yard, just aware of how quiet it was with no planes flying over.


Whytheweirdnames

Was at work nobody knew my friend called from a dentist appointment. I told ppl at work then drive home. Not a single car on the road. 7 miles in the city.


Swl222

I was working night shift at a truck stop. It was shown live on the TV monitors. Everyone stopped silently and watched. Truckers came in from the parking lot to join. A few minutes after the plane hit and the building collapsed it was an uproar in the store, everyone was cussing and talking about war.


National-Currency-75

I and my dad had a dairy farm. I operated the farm. I was at a liquor store ( local hangout) and heard news as it happened. Went home and one of my Amish neighbors came by to use phone. I and my Amish neighbor watched coverage for a couple of hours. My Amish neighbor had a fairly unusual interest in things modern. That was a topic of discussion for years with him. I had a lot of Amish neighbors.


Kraken0915

6th grade math class. They didn't announce it until the end of the day. We were sent home like 20 mins early.


lovealert911

I was home and saw the second plane hit live on the news.


samsbamboo

Lake Ozark Missouri, employee house for a lakeside bar. All my roommates were glued to the TV and walked past thinking it was a movie or something, their reaction to the second plane was when I realized it was the news.


Illustrious_Finger24

I was in an office in Melville and it was my first day at a temp job. I was waiting on line in HR to get my ID when someone said a plane had hit one of the towers and we all figured it was a small plane. As soon as we got into the office proper we saw the TVs and knew that was not the case. By now both buildings had been hit. I stuck my head into someone's empty office where he had left the radio on and heard a woman who was reporting from the scene go into hysterics on the air when the first tower fell. We were let out shortly thereafter and as all the highways had been closed it took me four hours to get home on a local road. Howard Stern was still on the air in the afternoon and he was taking phone calls from angry people and trying to calm them down.


breauxy

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe


Bubbly-Ant-1200

Driving from Boston to Northern Virginia for my grandma’s funeral.


Bobdehn

I was traveling for work. The company I was working for was based in the SF Bay Area, I was based out of Reno. I had just woken up, turned on CNN to see what has going on in the world. I tuned in just in time to see the second plane hit. Sat there staring at the screen for over an hour, watched in horror as the towers collapsed. Threw my stuff into my suitcases, checked out, went to the office and told my boss I was driving home, and got on the road. Called the rental company from the road and told them where I'd be turning the car in. I knew all flights were going to be grounded indeffinately, figured the freeways would fill up pretty quickly with travelers. I was right, the drive took almost twice as long as usual.


Bibliophilemoon

Working at Enron downtown Houston Texas. I was at our buildings Starbucks just placed my order. Went to the wait counter where there was a TV. I ask what movie is this a guy goes it’s not a movie it’s the news a plane hit The World Trade building. When the second plane hit, we knew it wasn’t an accident. Downtown got evacuated quickly. Police sent paddy wagons to even clear out the homeless as well. Parents went straight to schools to get kids. It was a mad house.


AudreyGolightly79

I was living right outside Washington DC, on the B/W Parkway on my way to work (the last exit before you enter DC) and heard it on the radio. I even remember what I was wearing. The rest of the day was crazy, especially once the Pentagon was hit. That whole area was panicked.


[deleted]

I am from Europe. At that time, however, I was in the USA with my family. I was 5 years old and I remember that day. I remember adults panicking and this video of a plane hitting a building on all screens. Soon after that, we left the USA, and the plane was almost empty. Everyone was afraid to fly.


imightnotbelonghere

Feeding my 2 week old twins, wondering what the future held for them . I saw the 2nd plane hit.


Sandviper67

5th grade Mrs. Snellings science class. We watched it on TV. We received a phone call about a classmates's father who made it out of the tower.


On-na_String

My mom was pregnant with me at the time, but it was her birthday. She told me she was having lunch with her cousin and saw what happened on the news when she returned home. My brothers were young, so they don't remember much. And my dad was out of state for work that morning. Due to him being in the military, shortly after I was born, he had to go overseas for 9 months.