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Thread: 9/11 - Where Were You?

  1. #1
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    9/11 - Where Were You?

    This is not intended to be a political discussion.

    In two days, as you undoubtedly know, it will have been ten years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. I thought it'd be apropos to share each other's memories of that day--where you were, what you felt, who you were with, etc. I'd also like to hear from people outside the US, a perspective we, as Americans, rarely get.

    I remember the day well. Actually, I remember that day more vividly than any other day of my life. I got to school around 8:15, and my first hour English class was meeting in the library instead of the regular classroom since we were doing a research project. I remember two of the library workers standing in a corner of the library with a TV pointed towards them and thinking it strange. A student came in and told us he heard that a plane had hit a building in New York City. I, I think like a lot of people before actually seeing it, assumed it was a small one-or-two passenger plane.

    When I got to my second hour class, civics, our teacher had the TV on, and all we did was watch it and talk about it. I just remember sitting there, amazed because it didn't seem real. I saw the towers collapse live, and the whole class just gasped. It was unbelievable.

    The rest of the school day was pretty much devoted to watching it on TV and talking about it. It seemed every teacher became a councilor of sorts. I remember a couple teachers who tried having class as usual, but it didn't work. It was the only subject of conversation in the halls. When I got home from school that day, I turned on the TV and watched it some more.

    It's something I'll never forget. Much like people who lived when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it will never leave me.

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    All I remember is my parents telling me a tower fell. Now I understand the significance, but I suppose I could be excused then, as I was only three ...

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    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
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    I was in Mr Trevett's history class. I can't believe it was a decade ago.

    I only found out about it in the evening. I remember the school bus broke down, as it was wont to do, and dad had to come and pick me up from a lay-by on the motorway. It was he who told me.

    Terrible business.
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

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    BadWoolf JuniperWoolf's Avatar
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    I was in grade eight. When we got to class, the first tower had just been hit but the second one hadn't yet. Our teacher asked us if we knew what happened and the only person who's parents put the radio on during their morning routine was a kid named Bill, so he was all informed which annoyed everyone because Bill was a douche.

    Anyway, Mr. Hula told us that something very important had happened in the world and that we should try to cement everything that we see and hear that day into our memories because some day younger generations will ask us about it (he said "one day, people are going to ask what you did on the day that the world trade centers were hit," and what do you know!). Then we went to the library with the school's other grade eight class and they put on the tv maybe five minutes before the first tower collapsed. When it did, we were stunned but I was sure at the time that there weren't any people left in there (I obviously learned differently later). I remember the other class's teacher, Mrs. Fester, murmured "well, god damn." It was the first time that I had heard a teacher swear.

    I spent the next few days trying to learn who organized it and the next few months watching everyone freak out on tv, but I was somewhat dissociated from what was happening because I was a kid. I just tried to pay very close attention to the sequence of events because the adults were acting so serious and because Mr. Hula told me to.
    Last edited by JuniperWoolf; 09-10-2011 at 04:27 AM.
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    I didn't go to school that day. It was evening before I knew about it. I still haven't seen complete television coverage of it. For some reason, that I don't understand, this event doesn't impact me in the way that many other horrors do, such a depiction of an individual child being tortured.

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    Card-carrying Medievalist Lokasenna's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf View Post
    Anyway, Mr. Hula told us that something very important had happened in the world and that we should try to cement everything that we see and hear that day into our memories because some day younger generations will ask us about it (he said "one day, people are going to ask what you did on the day that the world trade centers were hit," and what do you know!). Then we went to the library with the school's other grade eight class and they put on the tv maybe five minutes before the first tower collapsed. When it did, we were stunned but I was sure at the time that there weren't any people left in there (I obviously learned differently later). I remember the other class's teacher, Mrs. Fester, murmured "well, god damn." It was the first time that I had heard a teacher swear.
    It was actually revealed later that the teachers were all aware of it thanks to the radio in the staffroom, but they all decided not to say anything to the students so that the day's teaching would not be interrupted. I've still not come to a decision about whether that was justified or not.

    In my parents' shop, they knew about it quite early because the wife of one of our employees phoned up to tell her husband about it. My dad took the TV from the staffroom and set it up on a table in the shop, so that the customers could see the rolling news. Apparently loads of people just forgot completely about their shopping, so entranced were they by the horror unfolding across the pond.
    "I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche

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    I had a doctor's appointment that day a few hours after it happened, and no one mentioned it to me. I still haven't read the details of it, of the individuals involved, and now when I'm in the hospital ER lobby and the anniversary of it is on TV, I turn away from it.

  8. #8
    I was at work, in the other job I had before this one, and someone heard about it on the radio. However, they didn't bother to tell anybody about it, so eight hours later I saw it on the news when I got in. Nothing stops the work ritual.

  9. #9
    somewhere else Helga's Avatar
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    it was around 9 in the morning here on the ice and I was skipping class and buying french fries to take home. I remember watching it on tv and thinking how it reminded me of alien invasion movies, it was unreal.
    I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo

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    I was in Beijing, a home-week for a 3-month long project in Tokyo. The Beijing office head (my boss) called, and told me the World Trade Center fell ... I thought he was joking ... and he said "I never joked about people's life" and then I knew it was real ...

    This discussion thread makes me realize the generation gap I have with my fellow forum-members ...

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    Ebulliently Eclectic irinmisfit92's Avatar
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    Wink

    I didn't recall anything partly because I was only 9 years old during that time and 9/11 wasn't that of a big news in my country. Indonesia was more isolated back then and even if it was big on the news, many people didn't really concern themselves with the news because the country had their own plethora of problems and preferred watching soccer rather than news.

    I think it was my Mom or Dad who told me about it, but as a primary school student my friends and I were very ignorant of these kinds of things. Dad never really allowed me to watch much TV; just the news; so I probably caught the news from watching the telly in his room around those days.

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    I had been teaching that day, and hadn't heard anything about it. I was in town on Trinity Street and popped into a bakers to buy a pasty. The woman behind the counter and another customer were talking about it and I asked them what had been going on. Thet told me about seeing the planes crashing into the towers.

    I went home and my wife had sky news on. They were doing reports about what had happened and I watched it then. The bakery has since shut.

    It will be one of those moments - as has been noted - when people ask you where you were such as when Nelson Mandela was released and JFK was shot.

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    Interesting stories, all.
    Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 09-11-2011 at 03:40 PM.

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    Internal nebulae TheFifthElement's Avatar
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    I'd taken my son for a scan that morning on his hips, and had taken him back to nursery and was driving back home when they announced what had happened on the news. I went home and put the TV on and didn't move for hours after that. We watched the whole thing in total, abject horror. I think that's one of the worst things about it - the fact that you could watch it all unfolding live, as it happened. Most of the time with disasters and atrocities you find out about it afterwards, you see the aftermath or eyewitness footage and that's it and it has kind of a shielding quality to it when you see things after the event. But this was all right there, and no matter that I was hundreds of miles away across the ocean I was witnessing a terrible event as it happened. Unforgettable, and terrifying.

    Thoughts are with the people of New York today.
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    Registered User JazzJazz's Avatar
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    I was 8 years old when it happened so unfortunately I don't remember I remember the aftermath though. All lessons in school were cancelled and we were given talks on it. Although I don't remember exactly where I was when it happened, it's still had a huge impact on my life in regards to how safe I feel and how I view the world.

    My thoughts and best wishes go out to everyone involved and affected by that dark day.
    JazzJazz

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