Where have YOU been ?

Well, it is six years ago today that terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and damaged the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Where have you been in the very moment of these attacks?

How did you learn of it?



(I'll come back later.)

I was on the toilet.

I was in the car driving along the motorway when the news came over on the radio. The traffic visibly slowed as more and more peope were concentrating on what was coming over the airways.

I was happy to turn 24 and thinking about the birthday party I was going to have later that evening.

Needless to say things changed. I watched both towers fall and saw the second plane hit the second tower while at work.

They told us not to watch t.v. but I was not about to miss history. Anger would be the appropriate adjective for how I felt that day.

Disbelief would not be far off as well. That day, I wondered where we would be 5, 10, 25 years later. Would this day be a watershed moment that truly introduced us to the 21st century? Would it be Pearl Harbor? In the six years since, I've grown older, today I turn 30. However, the images from that day do not seem to have aged along with me, the memories seem as clear as when I first heard gasps from the anchorperson reporting the news.

I hope those images always seem fresh so that I never forget, we never forget, what happened on that fateful, 9/11.

It was 14.45 o'clock here when the first plane crashed into the tower.
I was sitting in my arts lesson and had no clue for the next hour, like all the rest of our school.
Then, I drove back home by bicycle (if I had taken the bus, I would've known earlier).
When I got hme, my friend called me and just said: "VZ, turn on the TV."
"Why, anything special?"
"Just turn on the fucking TV!"
"'Kay, seems to be quite special, hm? Which station?"
"Don't matter. Bye. Imma call you later."

My mother learned of it nearly immediately, she was in the garden, our neighbour came out and shouted something like: "OH MY GOD, IT'S WAR, THE US IS AT WAR! AAAAHHH!" It is not surprising that my mother took it the easy way. "Yes, ma'am, everything's gonna be alright! It can't be that bad, can it?!" - and she continued taking care of the flowers until I called her in.

We were filing in from morning band practice when we first saw it on the TV. They tried to shut it off and have a productive first (band) period, but it was obvious that that wasn't going to happen, so they gave up, wheeled a TV into each music room, and we watched the news for the rest of the period. TV turned on just in time to see the South tower fall.

I was in class. At the time I was in a Catholic private school and the teaching staff assembled us all at the church across the street. I remember kids spewing out a lot of speculation, some people kept saying the Empire State Building had been hit by a plane, some said it was an accident, and others said it was terrorism. It sort of weird, I had never really heard the word "terrorism" used much before 9/11. Anyways, my school principal told us that the Twin Towers had been attacked and we all went back to class, only most of the time we weren't learning, we were watching the news and listening to the radio. There was never really an attempt to censor any of it; I think our teachers understood that it was important for us to know what was happening, especially since some of use had relatives in New York City. The thing that struck me most wasn’t the towers collapsing; it was the people jumping to their deaths on live national television. That piece of it was sort of lost in the aftermath but that the part I remember most.

I missed it all since I was at school, and since I was at a sort of cuddly, family, private-school then, there was no way they would tell us, let alone let us watch it.

So I found out as soon as I got home.

I was at work. Someone said something about a terrorist attack in New York. Internet seemed to have collapsed (at least the news sites) and we tried to find a working TV and finally succeeded.

1 or 2 hrs later our Business English lessons were skipped since everyone was shocked but at the same time did not really realise what had happened. It seemed impossible. Personally, I was first thinking about a publicity stunt similar to the "War of the Worlds" radio story. Unfortunately it turned out to be true.

I was in the midst of my morning routine, having coffee, and feeding my one schnauzer at the time, and watching CNN, when word broke that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. At first, no one knew that it was a hijacked airliner, just that a plane had crashed.

With the smoke plumes and fire out of the first impact, I was one of those who saw the second tower hit by an aircraft live on television; it was at that moment I think everyone realized that the earlier impact had been a passenger jet, as well. Then came the reports of numerous planes that were not where they were supposed to be; and it was much later that we learned that the White House and the Capitol had been evacuated and then, that a passenger jet had slammed into the Pentagon. It was ten minutes after than that the national air traffiuc control system was shut down, and then we learned that a fourth jetline apparently on course to Washington had crashed nose first into the ground in Pennsylvania.

At the time, I worked full-time as a home based legal editor, and it took a few hours for our managers to realize that no work was going to get done that day or that week.

I remember I was on the phone talking with a friend when the second jet crashed into the WTC. I was concerned for a close friend who lived in New Jersey and worked at the time as a substitute teacher in a public school about 15-20 blocks north of Ground Zero. It took a few hours to learn that he never made it into Manhattan that day; it took him several hours to get off a rapid transit train stranded in New Jersey and walk back home. He could see the Twin Towers across the river from his house, though.

I'll add that I knew that it has to be Osama bin Laden the moment of the second impact; and I happened to have ABC News on when the first tower collapsed; that turned the tradgedy of an attack into a catastrophe.

I had moved from New York a year and a half prior to 9/11, so I was not there.

Instead I was sitting in Physics class in high school. Teacher came in, said something just happened that was "more important physics" (omg really?) so we turned on the television.

Hint to pacifists and other hippies: don't tell me that I don't know what it's like to have my city turned into a battlefield

Ramzi Yusef in 1993; the fatwa; the American embassy bombings in 1998; USS Cole in 1999: how could people not know this was coming?

Daily television routine (back when I watched television). Turned on the teevee, saw something about a plane flying into a WTC tower. "Well that's not such a big deal" I thought, "a B-17 flew into the Empire State Building during a foggy night once but hardly no one remembers that now. Stiff upper lip this'll be a novelty in 40 years hence."

"Terrorism? We don't know that yet. What silly media speculation, what yellow tabloid-frenzy; always with the bloodhype."

Out of nowhere some mysterious fireball slices through the second tower.

"Balls."

I was at school, and then my mom came to take me home. When I got home, I turned on the TV and was shocked to see what I saw.

I was about 11 or 12 at the time and me and some friends were organising a 2nd hand sale or something to raise money (we were in the last year of junior school so responsibility like that was given to us). I first heard a teacher mention a plane being hijacked and that was about it. Then news came a second one was hijacked but I wasnt too sure what was going on. Then later I was picked up and my mother explained what happene detc, and then I saw the images on the news. i believe I saw the 2nd tower live too..

I was asleep!!

I was in a total panic. AP English, my senior year, was starting. And Misty and I had just realized we had nothing to serve our cake with.

We had been assigned to do a presentation on the Florida Everglades. Our class had been reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston, and Misty and I were supposed to present about the current locale the characters found themselves in. And we had planned on doing that the best way possible - with food and creativity.

The night before, we'd stayed up for hours assembling a cake model of an everglade biome. Now, our presentation was about to be ruined because silly us had completely forgotten to bring plates, napkins, or utensils.

I had run up to Mr. Jones' desk all frantic, demanding the use of his phone to call my mother and have her bring the bare necessities required to have our cake and eat it too.

While I was on the phone to Mom, my good friend and classmate, Stephen, had come up to the desk as well, asking that we be allowed to turn the classroom tv set on to watch the news, as there had been an airplane crash in New York.

Mr. Jones brushed the request aside, busy trying to get class in order as the bell rang.

Meanwhile, I had communicated to my mother the dire consequences of our situation and she had agreed to take the ten-minute drive and drop off some of the paper products we had around the house.

The first presentation was under way when Mr. Jones' phone rang and the front office let him know that my mother was waiting out in the school parking lot.

I remember running down the front steps of the school and leaning in the passenger window of the Suburban.Mom had the radio on KSL News Radio 1160 and was listening to the announcer. I began to thank her for the plates when she shushed me and we both heard them say that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

I remember being confused. I remember Mom telling me to run back to class and to have them turn the TV on.

She was trying to call Dad on her cell phone - he was in Japan on a business trip for a week. Later I'd hear his story about being in his hotel room and seeing all these pictures and not knowing what on earth was going on because it was all in Japanese.

I did as Mom advised. The cake, the presentation, the paper cups I held at my side - all forgotten as the class stared at the images on the screen. The bell rang, signalling the end of class, but no one moved.

I stayed for second period, only long enough to call Mom again and ask her to take me home. I remember feeling truly unsafe, unsure for the first real time. I remember wanting to be with my family.

I still remember the cake.

IndieGirl:

the Suburban

Click to expand...

Murderer of global climate! But that deserves its own topic.

When, it is rare, but when do I drive a car, then it's my mum's SUV. I hate it though.

I remember as though it was yesterday, and with my mental facilities in the shape they are, thats quite a feat.

It was my Junior year and i had a "Single" dorm. I was getting ready for my tuesday morning Art History class. As usual i had CNN on while i was moving about my dorm room getting read, and the news came to a halt with this "breaking event". I myself stopped, and watched with wonder and curiosity as i saw the events unfold before me. I didnt know what to think. They said this was footage of the world trade center being attacked. As i watched the smoldering tower, there came another plane towards the other tower! I watched, mouth agape as this seemingly impossible scenario played out on my little TV. i shook my head, looked at my watch, and scurried out the door to class. WHen i got to the classroom, there were only 2 other students sitting there, in the dark of the room waiting for the teacher. I sat down with them and asked if they had heard anything about what was going on in new york. they casually mentioned that they heard about "some planes" hitting "a couple buildings in ny" and nothing eles. the teacher came in, and dismissed the class, telling us to all go back to our rooms and call any family we had. The entire rest of that week was filled with prayer and support vigils, cancelled classes, traumatic encounters with friends and faculty, and a change in the face of modern War Tactics.

I lived in NYC for a year. When i first moved there, i went to see Ground Zero. I didnt know anyone that was directly affected by the situation, but seeing that massive hole, the memorial flowers, plaques, cards, and messages left by, and for, those who WERE affected directly or indirectly, i cried. It was the most emotionally powerful moment outside of my grandfathers funeral. I highly recommend that everyone should try to get there before they make any progress on the "Freedom Tower" that will replace what was there.