I was in a metaphysics class.

We didn't TV at my apartment, so I really didn't see that much footage.

I was at work. A web design "internship".

I got there a little late, and on my way to work I was struck by how empty the streets were and how eerie everything seemed. I never listen to the radio so I didn't know what was going on until I got to the office (boss's loft apt.) and saw the footage on my boss's giant TV. That was just before the 2nd plane hit, I think.

It was a weird week.

Earlier that week I had just reconnected with a guy I had dated 6 years earlier. In short, we had dated for about a month, had to end it for complicated reasons, but never really fallen out of love with each other for those 6 years. So Monday of that week we had bunmped into each other at school & it seemed we might get back together again. Very weird.

Then on the 11th I woke up extra early for no apparent reason, and---totally out of character for me---randomly decided I should turn on my tv.
I watched the second plane hit on tv as it was happening.

I lived alone, so it was weird to not talk to anyone else about it. I just walked to school in a daze.

As for the guy: his Mom worked a couple of blocks away from the towers so he was pretty freaked out. Then all manner of other strange events happened in his life... and we basically never met up again.

(sorry to frame such an event within a romantic story, but that was just part of my experience of it all)

It was also interesting/weird because the next week I was at a design conference about design and politics. We were supposed to work on a project with someone. I was matched up with a woman from Pakistan. We were both interested in exploring cultural issues in design. In the end we just collected all the magazine and newpaper covers that and did our project on the images of middle eastern people in the media.

i had moved to paris about 4 weeks earlier, and i was in class. i remember calling one of my best friends (also studying in paris) to tell him what was happening. i mumbled something about how we were under attack and the world trade center was falling. his brother worked there, and after i told him, my friend collapsed in the middle of some street in paris, his girlfriend luckily with him and his brother, luckily and inexplicably, was late to work that day and safe. for the record, the french were more than sympathetic with americans that day and for the weeks following; the sentiment, which was expressed in the headlines of all the major newspapers, was "today we are all new yorkers". don't believe anyone who tries to claim otherwise.

I was asleep in bed in Winterville, GA, just having dreamt of being accused of a murder I didn't commit near Drayton, GA. My roommate at the time, Katie, ran in and woke me up by saying, "Stuart, I'm scared, something really crazy is happening, a plane just hit the World Trade Center." I remember being in disbelief and not being able to make an sense out of it. When it was announced that it was terrorists, I sat in shock for the entire day not believing what I had seen and wondering if my friends who worked in the financial district were even alive. 9/11 was my awakening. Before that day, I was more of the type of person to say, "fuck policticians and politics, there's nothing you can do about it anyway."

I was in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Concord, NH. I was spreading cream cheese on my bagel, and watching MSNBC, and the first tower had already been hit. The guy was saying that they thought it might be a small, commuter type plane. I remember thinking "Didn't a plane hit the Empire State Building once," and then thinking, just as the announcer said it: "This is strange, it is a really clear, beautiful morning."---->KABOOM!! The second jet hit, and I also remember his response: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are obviously looking at some sort of terrorist attack."

We had two events scheduled that day for the PR tour I was "co-ordinating" for the firm I worked for that summer. I had been on the road since July, and the tour was due to end on September 17. I woke up that morning and checked my email, and I had 3 interviews scheduled for the 18, and by 9:28, they were cancelled, and the tour was effectively cancelled.

I called my dad, who is a well known "Guy in the know," and I asked him what the fuck was going on. He didn't know what I was talking about, so he asked his buddy in the next room to come in and turn on the TV. I remember the gravity of his voice, and could almost here his jaw drop as he said "...I'll call...you back." That's when I knew BIG STORM SOON COME.

We went to our second event at the assistance of teh dolt who ostensibly running the show. I remember saying something like: "It's a bad day to try to get press." And, basically, refusing to go on to the second event, or so anything but listen to the radio. We ended up going back to the Hampton, hitting Wal Mart for some food and beers, and pretty much sitting around having a few, and contemplating what was going to happen next.

you guys are totally killing my patriot day.

I had just pulled up to work and I was in the parking lot next to the building when I heard about the first plane on the radio.

My body felt like it had been overtaken by goosebumps and fear. I flew out of my car and down the sidewalk and up the stairs to the office. I started yelling to the four people who were already there to turn on the tv in the back that NY was under attack.

We watched in horror as the next building was hit and so on. I could barely function at work after that I was so freaked out and horrified. My dad let us all go home early that day.

Charlie was with me that night and I had to shield him from the tv, though I wanted to watch the coverage myself. He was 4 at the time and until now had no idea what was up. Today we talked about it in the car on the way to school because his new school in Oak Park is actually doing a remembrance today and he didn't understand why.

Phil, strange but I started posting a few days after also. I think about two weeks later actually.

I was at home, messing around on the computer. The nite before, I'd gone out to see one of my favorite bands - & had one of the most fun nites out EVER. I'll always remember how the highs of the nite before juxtaposed with the lows of the next morning.

Anyway, I think I was on a message board & someone posted "Turn on the news NOW". I spent the next several hours glued to CNN.

That nite I went in to work...I was working a job that required me to ID songs being played on the radio. Well, of course that day it was all newscasts. So odd that there was pretty much NO music being played on the radio anywhere in the US.

How much different is this from Shinshe-Shinshe?

Way to make light of one of the most catastrophic days in our history.

don't mind the ignorant. from several of his posts it's obvious he hates America.

I was just finishing packing for my trip to NYC for CMJ. After that the rest of the day was spent dealing with all the other people from my station that were going to attend with me and having to tell them "why are you worried about going to a music festival, call your mother and make sure she's alright"

anyways, around 9pm my roommate and I just sat in silence for a while, smoking, until we got pissed at all the frat kids coming home from the bars going "whooooo" like nothing had happened.

my wife was deeply affected and she's in nyc on vacation visiting friends still so i hope she does ok.

i took an early bus to work that morning then a downtown commuter bus to work (qwest in denver). i overheard a couple people saying something about the world trade center, but didn't hear any specifics and they mentioned it as we passed the denver wtc, so i didn't think anything of it. it wasn't until i read the news at cnn.com and saw a work broadcast email (at about the same time) that i found out. a following broadcast email said everyone could/should go home and i did so. i didn't really feel the full impact of the tragedy until i returned home to watch the news coverage that morning-through-afternoon. horrible day.

I was walking into the gym that morning, and the tv they had on in the reception area showed one of the towers burning, but they hadn't yet realized what had happened. I had my radio with me, and when I put on Howard Stern to start working out, that's when they started to understand. Got home, turned on the tv, and was glued for the next hour or so. Watched the towers fall down and started to cry.

My future wife lived in the apartment above mine, where I was sleeping. My roommate came running up the stairs and busted in. He said, "You better come downstairs quick, your mom keeps calling and I think you better see this."

That was after the first tower was hit. Ran downstairs in time to see the second one hit. I remember it not really computing. Just kind of in awe at what was happening. It took a while for the gravity of the situation to sink in. Didn't go to class but I probably wasn't going regardless.

dude, for a twelve year old on the other side of the world, priorities are a little different. Just trying to say i was probably a little too young to make full sense of the situation, as evidenced by what imagery is more prominent from that day, today. As such, I'm sure no one on Obner will really srtongly relate to the impending anniversary of the 2002 Bali Bombings or the anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

I was just starting my senior year of college. I lived with three other guys. Two of whom were not there that morning. My actual room mate was up at like 6am. He was dating a girl from Hong Kong at the time and her parents called her and she in turn called him. Just after the first plane hit he knew. Instead of turning on the tv or waking me up, he just proceeded to do his greek homework. I woke up about 10 minutes before the second plane hit. I spoke with my roomate who said in passing, "oh yeah, sarah's parents said a plane flew into the world trade center". I walked out to the tv and turned it on. No more than 15 seconds later the second plane hit. I kept telling my friend to come look. I had to go into his room and tell him it was very important for him to come watch.

It was a pretty crazy day. It was surreal. I of course called my family just to talk to them. None of them were in NYC, but you know, you just want to talk to them when that stuff goes on.

BEARPAW, that is an unbelievable story. I can't imagine being there at that time. It seems like it would be really traumatic. Do you have any lasting effects from it?

yeah, I agree here. I don't think he was trying to make light of the fact that this happened. But, before we get all high and mighty about it, there are plenty of horrible things that go on around the world that we as americans don't even know take place. It's not important just because it happened to the U.S.

I was in the shower when the planes had hit. Not knowing the extent of what was happening, I still went to the subway to head to work.

About halfway between 42nd street and 34 street stops, the subway comes to a complete stop, and a recorded voice comes throughout the car saying "Due to a situation at the World Trade Center, we are being held inefinitly".

MOst of the people in the car had heard briefly of what had happened to this point, but none of us would know what else took place, as we were stuck in the subway car for almost three hours with that recording playing every few minutes.

Now any New York or frequent visitor to NY who ever rode the subway knows that god forbid the train stops for two minutes, that people start yelling and complaining. Our car as I susected all the other cards in this subway line were eerily quiet. i think we all kind of had the same though that it may have been safer to be inderground, then what could possibly be going on above ground at this point...

About 90- minutes in, people imaginations started going wild and different theories were being thrown around.

Eventually, we were instructed to start moving in between cars and we climbed down throught the first car of the train and with fire department assistance, we walked about a blocks distance to the 34th street station where we climbed a ladder to the platform and we went along our way.

My office was only 4 more blocks from subway station. the streets were empty and the people who were out and walking around had silent motionless expressions on their face. i was still unaware of the extent of what had happened.

i made my way to the office, and everyone was gathered around a tv inthe conference room. I remember seeing on the screen 'world trade center destroyed'. i was confused. I asked someonee what that meant since the last bit of news i had heard were that only two planesd had hit the towers.

i then saw a replay of the towers collapsing, and it all hit me like a ton of bricks...

ok, theres ton more details and stuff i left out, but that was the gist.

It was melodramatic because it embodied the fundamental error on which all of the wrongheaded U.S. action to follow was based--the notion that the terrorists responsible (and those like them) had the means to attack our country, rather than 3 buildings. The reason they had to coordinate the flights and haven't successfully attacked the U.S. since is that their methods are unsophisticated and their means extremely limited. But as long as you think your crappy house in Florida is in danger, you'll keep believing they've got WMDs.

i was sleeping... then my roommate came in my room and yelled at me "dri, you HAVE to see this on tv, wake up NOW" and i yelled at him, "what could possibly be that important that i need to wake up now?! i still have another hour to sleep!" so he drags me out of bed... i'm staring at the tv like what is this, took me a few minutes to realize what was going on. a friend calls me and then that's when it all hit me and i just couldn't believe it and felt like such a jerk.

then went to work still in disbelief of what was going on - at the time, i worked for a really small financial company and they were just glued to the radio. then they sent me home and me & my roommates sat around and watched cnn all day.

I was doing some work at my lab in St. Joe's Hospital and we heard on CBC Radio 1 that a plane hit the WTC, and oddly enough, that was my first thought too, I even remember the pictures of that little plane. When the second plane hit, we all went and watched tv in the nuclear medicine lounge. It was kind of surreal, there were all kinds of doctors, techs, scientists and patients all sitting there watching it unfold. After that pretty much everyone went home, except the doctors and patients. I think they stayed behind.

I was working at the Merchandise Mart on 9/11. My friend Karen came running over and said that her husband called her screaming about his friends in the WTC (up until about May of '01, he worked for Cantor Fitzgerald). We couldn't get to CNN.com because of traffic, so we went into a conference room to watch the television footage. Right after the towers fell, we were evacuated by building security. I got a ride home from a friend and sat at home with my husband while he called NY and Boston to make sure his friends and family were okay.

Above friend Karen was pregnant at the time of the attacks and had a complicated miscarriage about three weeks later. Her husband lost his friends, his baby and nearly lost his wife over the course of a month.

I was sitting in my grad dorm, my sister called me from the State Office building to watch CNN. I then spent the greater part of the day watching tv with my other sister who was getting her MA as well along with a bunch of international students.

There is so much wrong with this statement that I don't even want to sully a thread of remembrance with the Politics of War, but here goes:
Whether you like it or not, they attacked OUR COUNTRY. They attacked three symbolic targets (financial and military) and would have gotten a fourth if they had hit the Capital or the White House. Yes, their means are limited, but they did so to strike the maximum amount of damage, and it had a negative effect on the country's psyche and economy, by design.

And,I know you will refute all of my statements with all of your logic and genius, but the debate has been defined, and a majority of Americans, whether they believe in the cause in IRAQ or not, believe, rightly, that these fuckers are out to kill as many Americans as possible, and bring our country to heel. So, that is the reason that anyone wishing to beat an incumbent Republican this year has to establish his national security bonafides, along with opposition to Iraq, and why the next presidential race will play much like the 2004 race, where the 3 issues will be: Does he care about people like me? Can I trust him? Will he keep us safe? Until you can effectively answer those three questions, pissing and moaning about Dalen's worry for his crappy house in Florida might make you right, but it won't get your guy elected.