What were you doing the morning of 9-11-2001?

Had been in a worker's comp settlement. Made some coins, headed back to the office when my law partner called and told me what was going on. Back to the office, then home. Stuck some additional items in the truck, then back to the office to listen to what was unfolding.

We bought the condo in NY shortly thereafter, and ventured down often to ground zero when there. There was a fire station over on 8th, Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9, that lost 15 members that day, their entire shift. We walked over every now and then and look at their memorials.

Tough stuff.

Same as the day it happened, go for a surf, because nothing else really matters when I think of this crazy world.

I was in 7th grade in Northern New Jersey. They assembled all of us in the gym after the first plane hit, but before the second one did, with CNN being projected on a big screen on stage. The principal told us that "the WTC had been attacked, that we weren't sure by whom, but that it was not an accident, and that the country was going to be at war." Then we all saw the second plane hit, and were subsequently dismissed to return to classes, which were not cancelled. I had Spanish after that, where I got to enjoy watching both towers fall with my classmates while my teacher sobbed uncontrollably at her desk. I took the bus home at 3:00 as usual.

That day and the events of it have stuck with me in a big way. People who experienced those events and did not live in the greater NYC/DC metro area cannot relate to the experience of those who did. Remember the days of every other car on the road having a "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" bumper sticker, or the "Terrorist Hunting Permit: No Tag Limit" ones that seemed ubiquitous? I sure do. Fucked up event, and arguably a comparably fucked up response. I have never before, and hope I never again, experience the collective rancor and blind rage that was palpable in the area for months after the attack.

I was one of a handful of people who actually made it in to work before the 2nd plane hit. I was on the phone with someone watching when that happened. Hung out at work getting paid and tried to follow online, but the internet was totally wrecked, slammed that morning and afternoon. 2001 internet wasn't nearly as robust as today. Wife had already called in sick so had her start running the DVR right after hearing the 2nd plane hit.

Tonight our Boy Scout Troop is going to drop in to visit several fire stations to bring thank you appreciation cards and a big box of cookies to first responders. I bet those snacks will come in handy since they're going to all be slammed with Hurricane Flo calls over the next week or so. Last year I saw a little kid dressed in a Halloween fire fighter costume with his dad walking down the street towards the local fire station... then it hit me it was 9-11. That was totally cool..

On the subway from Brooklyn to Midtown. Wife gets off at WTC and goes to work in a building overlooking the WTC. She was just getting her morning going when her whole office building shook and then outside it looked like snow from all the papers falling.

By the time I got to my office, there’s a message from her saying there’s been a bombing and she’s leaving with coworkers and heading away from the WTC. Later, when she we at Canal St, she turned around and saw the first one fall. Somehow without cell service we found each other in midtown and walked north to the Upper West Side to a friends. I’ll never forgot the near constant sirens all day and fighter jets roaring overhead. We got back to our place in Brooklyn the next day to find our neighborhood covered in ash and the smell of death lingering.

I was working in a nuclear plant.

I was in a Banking Regulations class in the basement of Villanova Law School. We were told a plane hit WTC...the adjunct felt that it was just an accident with a small personal craft and kept teaching. About 10min later, a student came down and told him the Dean ordered us all into the student lounge.

When we walked into the lounge, we still didn't know the extend of the incident...the look on everyone's face told us everything.

I had left NYC one year earlier.
We were stunned and shocked. It all played out while we we’re getting ready to go to work. A statement on NPR running on the clock/radio made us rush to the TV for the live stream news shows
It was days before we tracked down our friends

Living in California at the time. I had to attend some company meeting that started at 7AM, so I had to be up and on the road by 6. I remember some idle chat about a plane accident in NYC. Thought at first it must have been a small private plane. But then the second plane hit and work was done for the day.

I had just moved to Bellingham, WA. Girlfriend woke me up in time to see the 2nd plane hit. I remember the TV newscaster freaking and saying that it wasn't a replay, but another plane crashing into the 2nd tower. Spend the rest of the day watching tv news, which was the opposite of my normal MO. That continued for a few weeks.

Before 9/11 the 24 hr news channel wasn't that much of a thing. There were a few, but not like it is now. It is amazing to look back and realize how controlled their messages were. We won't get the whole story in our lifetimes, if ever.

I remember reading this at some point:

Quote:

---

"The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.
It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerrilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead" -- or even dead, for all we know -- but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper.
Nothing -- even George Bush's $350 billion "Star Wars" missile defense system -- could have prevented Tuesday's attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off.
Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.
We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.
This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.
Good luck. He is in for a profoundly difficult job -- armed as he is with no credible Military Intelligence, no witnesses and only the ghost of Bin Laden to blame for the tragedy.
OK. It is 24 hours later now, and we are not getting much information about the Five Ws of this thing.
The numbers out of the Pentagon are baffling, as if Military Censorship has already been imposed on the media. It is ominous. The only news on TV comes from weeping victims and ignorant speculators.
The lid is on. Loose Lips Sink Ships. Don't say anything that might give aid to The Enemy.
-- Hunter S. Thompson (ESPN column) published in HEY RUBE"

---

I was training for a marathon and ran a 12 miler that morning, and I was in Grad school at the time. I found out when I got in to the lab 930ish westcoast and everyone was in shock. Watched all day on the internet.

Driving up Lincoln Peak to work on some hydrants on upper Jester. Listening to Howard.

We didn’t see another plane go over for days afterwards.

i too was on the west coast. it was a surreal day. It was a sunny day in seattle and I turned the TV on as I was getting ready for work and soon after saw the first tower collapse

25 mile fire camp on lake chelan. We were scheduled to ferry across via helicopter to work a fire. Air show shut down so that didn't happen. Listened to it develop on the radio. They brought in a big screen and a satellite dish so we could watch.

1) sleeping in....Valle Escondido between Taos and Angel Fire.
2) 1st plane: rooting for "team fire" to put the fire out and rescue everyone.
3) 2nd plane: scrambling supplies into pickup trucks to get away from Los Alamos/Sandia because I thought we were going to get bombed and I didn't want to be upwind of that place if it was attacked.
4) collapses: waiting it out with friends upcanyon, up high, off the grid, smoking and drinking coffee and talking about wtf happens next. We thought it would make the US question our international business practices and consumerism. Whew...nope. I miss being that naive, it was nice, and I was nicer then.

working at desk listening to howard stern...he mentioned something happened, then went to the HR dept. to check it out on TV.

office desk, working on some mind numbing project schedule, remember mother in law called and asked if I was ok (I was to fly out east later that week) I thought a cesna flew into the side of the twin towers. I was annoyed as buried ass deep into excel spreadsheets. co-worker came in about 20 mins later and finally added it together. packed shit up and headed home. somber day.

I was living at the Lake of Ozarks at the time. I remember the day being beautiful. Early fall, no clouds, mid 80's but cool at night.

my brother was out west, he was in the air at the time and had to land in reno or something like that. ending up driving all the way back to KC with 2 other guys he just met. dropped one off in Denver, the other took the car onto Chicago after KC. got come about 5-6 days after

We buried my grandmother whom I was very close to on the 9th. Flew Boston to San Jose on Sunday. I had a shitty boss at the time and wanted to take a day to chill and consider my grandmothers life, so I lied and told her I was flying home on the 11th and would return to work on the 12th.

Early on the 11th, I was headed up the coast to surf, and heard on NPR that a plane had hit one of the towers. Figured it was a Cessna.

Surf was small, but really clean. The ocean is my church, so I spent the entire morning in the water. Midday I came down the coast to grab a burrito and take care of shit to return to work. The falling towers were all over the TV.

Fuck. I used to spend time there. It was one of my favorite spots to hang out at late at night in Manhattan. I’d lay on my back, and stare up at those things at two in the morning.

I decide to go back out for another session. I returned to work on Friday once cross continental flights started up again. Can’t recall how the surf was the rest of the week.

I was one month into a hiatus from work, and was woken up by a friends call. Had I not taken the hiatus, I would have just started a new position on the AMEX with our offices in the WTC.

Always wondered how that would have worked out.

My son was 2 months and 4 days old and my parents were visiting.

My dad was helping us build the steps up to out new house out East of Carnation, WA, actually one that had been in progress since 1994.

It was my turn to take my son in the morning, around 10:00, I turned the TV on.

Could not believe it. My dad had grown up in the Jewish ghettos of NYC, son of Scottish immigrants, Bronx High School of Science and he was pretty stunned as well.

We kept plinking away all day, working on the railing and wondering what had gone on, heading inside to see updates and all the news hysteria about terrorists. I do remember being especially struck by the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the unfolding story about that.

While all the indignation was going on, I kept thinking about the Shah of Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qaddafi, and all the fucked up stuff the US had supported in the Mideast and how those efforts had come home to roost.

I was getting ready for work. I don't ever turn the TV on in the morning, but for some reason I did that day. And I mean I don't know if I ever had turned it on in the morning before. No idea why I did- maybe to check the weather or something. When it came on Katie Couric and Lauer were talking about the first plane and speculating whether it was an accident or intentional with a live shot of the towers behind them. I remember when the second plane hit and I knew what I was seeing. It's still very sobering for me to think about. Was a strange day at work with everyone silently standing around the TV.

I was living in Bronxville, NY, and dropped the ex wife that morning off at her job in the Bronx, then smoked a joint and went to my gym, where, as I walked in, the TVs were tuned to a channel showing the north tower with a hole in it, smoking, and the headline "plane hits WTC tower", and I thought, wait, what, as I looked around the gym and all the ladies just seemed to be oblivious. It was a beautiful day. I know you may have heard that a hundred times, but, it was an absolutely gorgeous, blue sky, late summer day, after a string of many, from morning until sunset. They probably chose to act that day because of the visuals, since they probably weren't too familiar with instrument flying. Anyway, needless to say, I was not in the mood to work out, so, I went home nearby and turned on the TV, like everyone else, and watched the other tower get hit, which, of course, told us all this was no accident. Then I got on the phone and contacted the wife, trying to figure out how to get her home, out of the city, since transit was shutting down out of fear, more than anything, that there were other targets. She eventually told me she had a ride from a workmate, while I was on the phone, saying, holy fucking shit, the north tower just dissolved into a dust cloud. I had to get something from a storage unit we had in an old, industrial area of Yonkers, which, typing that, sounds weird, to do that at that time, but, I guess I just wanted to be distracted from this shitshow. There's a high point in Yonkers that one can see all the way down to lower Manhattan, and I'll never forget the sight I witnessed along with maybe a dozen other people of the massive smoke and dust cloud enveloping lower Manhattan and traveling over to Brooklyn Heights. It was a beautiful day for such a horrible sight.

I went to work three days afterward in midtown Manhattan. Two things again I'll never forget. The zombie like expressions on New Yorker's faces everywhere on the street trying to get on with things, and, the smell. It was awful, that smell.

I still can't hear bagpipes without almost breaking out in tears. For months, any fireman's or cop's family who was killed were given a full sendoff at St. Patricks if they wanted it, a block from work, and they brought the caskets out to a full bagpipe crew. I had to walk by that maybe ten times. Incredibly sad thing to see.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

While all the indignation was going on, I kept thinking about the Shah of Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qaddafi, and all the fucked up stuff the US had supported in the Mideast and how those efforts had come home to roost.

---

I wasn't gonna comment in this thread. But I was there that day. Somehow survived while some others I knew didn't. Meanwhile some fucktard in Washington State building a railing 3000 miles away can only think about how we brought this on ourselves?

Maybe when the big fucking earthquake hits Washington one day, the rest of the country should think how you deserved it because you lived in a active fault zone?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

and, the smell. It was awful, that smell.

---

do you ever worry that smell contained all the stuff that's been making people ill?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy

do you ever worry that smell contained all the stuff that's been making people ill?

---

Yup. But, I'm pretty sure that midtown was far enough away for it to do damage. So far, so good.

Edit: Actually, I was more concerned that I smelling 3000 people incinerated.

working. it was 3PM here and just the week before i had signed up for "cnn breaking new email alerts". i got one email the day before about some celebrity type news and was going to unsubscribe but didn't get around to it. then on 9/11 i started to get these emails (link below). it didn't take long before the whole internet was unusable for news and all i had to go on was these emails coming in. i stood up in my office and asked loudly "does anyone know what is going on?". no one had a clue. they didn't even believe me when i told them. i left early, a bit of a nervous wreck.

http://www.pagetutor.com/misc/cnn.html

Lived in TriBeCa about 1/2 mile away at the time. Normal Tuesday morning I would have been in or walking to Chambers St subway at that time. Dumb luck that I had an early recruiting breakfast on upper west side that day. Came out of that to see everyone crowded around screens and proceeded to watch the rest of it on TV from a few miles away.
Then girlfriend, now wife, worked downtown, watched the second plane go in from her office window and some hours later walked through the debris to upper west side where we stayed for a few days before being allowed back in our place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Timberridge

I wasn't gonna comment in this thread. But I was there that day. Somehow survived while some others I knew didn't. Meanwhile some fucktard in Washington State building a railing 3000 miles away can only think about how we brought this on ourselves?

Maybe when the big fucking earthquake hits Washington one day, the rest of the country should think how you deserved it because you lived in a active fault zone?

---

People don't cause earthquakes.

I'm not going to apologize for trying to understand what motivates people. It's what I do.

According to the terrorists, we do bring this shit on ourselves. They're not justified, but that's where their motivation comes from.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

While all the indignation was going on, I kept thinking about the Shah of Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qaddafi, and all the fucked up stuff the US had supported in the Mideast and how those efforts had come home to roost.

---

Me too. In the weeks that followed I remember thinking that 9/11 would surely put the US on a path of peace in the ME or it was going to get hit routinely like Israel going forward. I was wrong on both thoughts. Once I found out the shit on the Saudi's, I wanted Shrub to nuke Riyadh. Fucker invaded Iraq instead :confused: And look at the cluster fuck the world is in now.

yeah, dood made an odd leap from "what motivates this action" to "he thinks we deserved it". Those are separate and unconnected sentiments.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

People don't cause earthquakes.

I'm not going to apologize for trying to understand what motivates people. It's what I do.

According to the terrorists, we do bring this shit on ourselves. They're not justified, but that's where their motivation comes from.

---

Take your terrorist motivation theories to another thread. This is a remembrance thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Take your terrorist motivation theories to another thread. This is a remembrance thread.

---

So you make the rules, huh?
The topic was what I was doing that morning in the middle of all that horror.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GiBo

I was getting ready for work. I don't ever turn the TV on in the morning, but for some reason I did that day. And I mean I don't know if I ever had turned it on in the morning before. No idea why I did- maybe to check the weather or something. When it came on Katie Couric and Lauer were talking about the first plane and speculating whether it was an accident or intentional with a live shot of the towers behind them. I remember when the second plane hit and I knew what I was seeing. It's still very sobering for me to think about. Was a strange day at work with everyone silently standing around the TV.

---

This is almost exactly the same scenario as for me. We had turned the tv on, which we always did in the morning, and saw that a plane had crashed into the first tower. I was confused: How could a plane run into one of those towers on a bright, blue day like that? Then we saw the second plane. I knew immediately it was Bin Laden. Unmistakable. My heart sank, knowing that the impact on our way of life would be forever, for the victims, for our country and our world. Nothing would ever be the same again. The entire sensation of thoughts and emotion being so scrambled is what I remember. It took some time for things to really start to sort themselves out. We broke ground on a new house on 9/15. I was thinking that, with the economic hit we were going to take, did it make sense to move ahead with it. My final thought on that was, I'm not going to let the bastards win, we were moving forward.

Timber, how'd you get out?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

So you make the rules, huh?
The topic was what I was doing that morning in the middle of all that horror.

---

No but there's decorum and all the other posts prior to yours stayed away from that. Do you go to a friends funeral, and during the eulogy say that his lifestyle came home to roost? Most people with no frontal lobe damage would have some class about that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Timberridge

No but there's decorum. Do you go to a friends funeral, and during the eulogy say that his lifestyle came home to roost? Most people with no frontal lobe damage would have some class about that.

---

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think Buster ever suggested that anyone deserved to die. Your scenario is apples to oranges.

Heard about the first plane on the way into work. Second plane hit right after I got to the office. We were in the middle of a huge software conversion and had a conference call with the consultants and other offices. Somebody had dragged a TV into the conference room, so we're trying to get through this meeting as we watch the towers come down.

Drove home at lunch to check on wife, almost 1 year old twin daughters and my mom who was staying with us. There was a brilliant blue sky, not a cloud to be seen. I couldn't figure out what looked strange until I realized there were no jet contrails.

Peter Jennings said "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking". R. I. P.

Seriously though, along with wondering how many more flying bombs were up there on suicide missions I worried about friends and family I knew worked in that part of town. I wasn't worried about anything near my home or work. The closest nuclear plant is still a pretty safe distance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Timberridge

No but there's decorum and all the other posts prior to yours stayed away from that. Do you go to a friends funeral, and during the eulogy say that his lifestyle came home to roost? Most people with no frontal lobe damage would have some class about that.

---

No? Sure seems that way.

I think other posts adhered to your sense of decorum, they didn't stay away from them.

Nice personal attacks there, they always accomplish so much.

Nobody deserved 9/11.

Everything about it was tragic in the most volatile sense of the word and I do not intend to impugn anyones sense of loss or trivialize deaths of those know to some of us or not.

If my admission of what I was thinking about that day upsets you, I apologize, that's not my intent. My intent was to share my experience on that morning, as requested.

I had just woken at up for work and my wife told me a plane had hit the WTC. It didn't even dawn on me at the time that this could be something other than an accident. Then I saw the second plane hit and it was truly surreal.

My parents came into town the following weekend and we drove down to the Oregon Coast. I don't remember now, but we must have been somewhat concerned that they wouldn't have been able to get here due to flight restrictions. I do remember that things seemed much quieter than normal everywhere we went on that trip.