911 + 20

[onlinebiker]

Saturday is the 20 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the WTC and Pentagon.


Where were you and what were you doing? 

Thoughts, rememberances and conspiracy theories?

I was at home - busted up - stuck in a wheelchair.

I was listening to Howard Stern. Say what you want about Stern - but he got it dead right that day. If you don' t believe it go back and listen to the recordings.

A bro of mine stopped over - and I had him go up in the attic to get an old black and white portable my ex wife had left - as I did not have a TV set up. My buddy got it set up about 10 minutes before the first tower collapsed.

I never felt more helpless.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I was getting my last haircut.

Boru

[arewethereyet]

I was at work listening to a morning talk show out of Charlotte. Though it was a comedy show, they broke in just as they were getting ready to sign off for the day (morning drive show) and said a plane had hit one of the towers. I think like most people, I thought it was a small plane that went off course for some reason. The MCs of the show stayed on air and started giving play-by-play reports. After the second plane hit I went to my boss's office where he was meeting with the Chairman of the Board and just busted in the door and told him to turn on the radio and that something bad was happening in NYC.

Word went around the office and we were all listening/watching either on radio or PC to things as they unfolded. We were allowed to go home a shortly after it all started where I watched it on TV as one thing after another happened. It was chilling...we were surrounded by military bases so we wondered if any of them would be targets.

It was right after this that cable and a TV were installed at the office.

[zwanzig]

I was in study hall, high school freshman, 14 years old. My study hall for that period was usually pretty bare, only like, 8-10 students usually. But there was just me and another dude sitting there for a bit, wondering where everyone was. Then another kid showed up to tell us that there'd been a terrorist attack, someone had flown planes into the Pentagon (that was the first I had heard about). It really stopped my brain, never before having a concept of 1. attacks from foreign enemies happening here, in this country and 2. The idea that the U.S. was not universally well liked by other countries. Innocent/naive illusions were really dispelled that day.

[Brian37]

Saturday is the 20 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the WTC and Pentagon.


Where were you and what were you doing? 

Thoughts, rememberances and conspiracy theories?

I was at home - busted up - stuck in a wheelchair.

I was listening to Howard Stern. Say what you want about Stern - but he got it dead right that day. If you don' t believe it go back and listen to the recordings.

A bro of mine stopped over - and I had him go up in the attic to get an old black and white portable my ex wife had left - as I did not have a TV set up. My buddy got it set up about 10 minutes before the first tower collapsed.

I never felt more helpless.

I was living in Central Virginia at the time. I slept in, my wife at the time was at work. I woke up about 15 minutes after the last tower fell. So all I saw on the news was commentary and replays. Still scared the shit out of me. They ended up closing the factory she worked at shortly after I woke up and she came home.  I was horrified at seeing the jumpers one after the other. What a horrible thing to have to chose, burn alive or jump. 

A few weeks later I ran into a lady who was actually in NYC and blocks away when it all happened. I had never seen so much fear in someone's eyes in my life. 

Just about everyone that day felt helpless. Nobody knew if more was coming. I was wondering if that was going to be the start of WW3.

[zebo-the-fat]

Driving to a repair job, heard it on the radio, I thought it was something like a light aircraft crashing into the building, had to go and do the repair so didn't hear anything else until I got home and saw it on TV, the one thing I will never forget is the pictures of people jumping off to escape the flames and smashing into the ground, it still makes me feel sick to think about it even now.
I was in New York many years later and visited the site (about 2 weeks before the new tower opened to the public) got the chills thinking about it, but it was one of those places I just had to visit

[Silver]

I was at work, telemarketing where they called in to sign up for the chance to win a jackpot and we pitched magazines to them, and the person to whom I was speaking was in New York and talking to me when the incident happened. He was describing it to me, and at the time I figured it simply wasn't real.

[Brian37]

Driving to a repair job, heard it on the radio, I thought it was something like a light aircraft crashing into the building, had to go and do the repair so didn't hear anything else until I got home and saw it on TV, the one thing I will never forget is the pictures of people jumping off to escape the flames and smashing into the ground, it still makes me feel sick to think about it even now.
I was in New York many years later and visited the site (about 2 weeks before the new tower opened to the public) got the chills thinking about it, but it was one of those places I just had to visit

I don't remember how long after, but Time Magazine had a couple of issues focused on that day. The most disturbing pictures were the jumpers. And I don't mean the now famous "falling man". l wasn't aware of that particular image until a couple of years ago. 

Back then shortly after it happened, a photographer caught several jumpers at once. The pictures, to my memory were not up close, but you could tell they were humans, almost flea sized but still close enough you could make out they were humans. The most haunting image to me were a couple holding hands on the way down. The image had a couple of single people far below the couple, then another one single above them. 

I wish I could describe that one picture better. But it would be like having a defective water faucet that dripped one drop after another.

[Pat Mustard]

+48 surely.

[Hillbillyatheist]

I was taking a class, learning how to use computers. that day I was taking a test for that class when the teacher stopped me and asked me if I wanted to go home. I mean I've failed a test or too in my dad but I never did so badly they wouldn't even let me finish. LOL

but then she mentioned the "bombings" apparently at the time that was her understanding of what had happened.

now I'm from Oklahoma and still remember vividly the bombing of the federal building here in our state back in 95. so I had pulled out my Walkman (remember those?) and had the news on, and was frozen in terror thinking, "not again, not again, not again" in a loop. it was clear I wasn't going to finish that test. the teacher gave me a ride to my house where I was glued to the TV, horrified, angry and shocked.

it's a day burned into my memories.