When did you hear about the attacks on 9/11

[MartyMcFly3]

Senior in High School. During a passing period, an announcement over the PA system informed the teachers to turn on the televisions to CNN. We were wondering what was up so I immediately went to my History class instead of BSing in the halls with my friends like normal. We watched pretty much the entire period. Saw the 2nd plane hit on live tv. Wont ever forget it nor the feelings I had that day.

 

[SilverThief]

I was at home watching them as they happened on CNN.....recovering from hernia surgery.

 

[acemcmac]

In the HS stairwell heading from the third to first floor during class change. Some kid said "omg did you hear what happened?" and I told him to shut his fvcking mouth because that wasn't something funny to joke about, thinking he was pulling it all out of his ass. It b/c it was so early in the morning, everyone was quiet and 200 people must have heard me rip him a new asshole. Then I got to my class and.... <stunnage>

 

[vshah]

i was in programming class, the first plane had already hit when the announcement came, so we turned on the tv and a few minutes later we saw the 2nd plane hit

 

[Kelemvor]

I was driving to work and listening to Lazer 103 in Milwaukee. Bob n Brian were tlaking to the Sports guy, Steve Czaben, when they mentioned something like "Wow, the WOrld Trade Center is on fire". At that time they didn't know what had happened. THen after I got to work we all started getting the word about exactly what was going on.

 

[Lurknomore]

Woke up in the basement at around 8:50. Turned on the little Toshiba and saw this humongous gash high up on one of the towers. I said this cannot be good, esp. when one announcer said that a commerical jet may have impacted. I immediately thought of collapse, but then decided to get dressed and go the bagel store.
As I turned to make a left on this underpass, Howard Stern came on and they were JOKING about some small plane hitting the towers- totally oblivious! Then I tuned to the sports station- immediately they were frantic , yelling- a second plane just hit the second tower!!! I pulled over and my stomach felt funny and my legs started to buckle. I never, ever felt that before.
In the background, I could make out a dark cloud of black smoke trailing along the sky coming from the west, somewhere in Manhattan. We could all see it, milling about the store, totally helpless.

 

[hdeck]

2nd period english class found out the 1st plane hit

 

[sleuth bandit]

About 15 minutes before the second plane hit. Or however long it took, I can't remember.
I just woke up and was having my coffee.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

We were attacked on 9/11:shocked:










seriously, it was only minutes after the first jet hit the first tower, I was in my truck getting ready to fix a laptop on the local hospital. (co-incidentally I now work for that hospital)

 

[erub]

I was a senior in HS, I found out in chapel (~850 CST), the priest said that there have been planes crashed into the towers in NY..i didnt have the next 2 periods after that so I went to a nearby friend's house to watch TV

 

[bootymac]

I was in Grade 8 and I didn't find out until English class. Was too young to fully understand and comprehend the importance of what happened

 

[ghostman]

I was sitting in my "Applied Internet Technologies" class. I don't remember hearing a BOOM, but it's not unusual for brief, loud sounds to go off in NYC. When I left class at about 9:20am, I noticed everyone on Mercer Street standing still and looking in one direction. I didn't know what was wrong, so I looked down the street and didn't see anything unusual. Then I looked up and, in the distance, was the surreal image of one of the towers consumed in black smoke. I was speechless. Even though I used to work in WTC, I never really notice it as anything other than a backdrop on the skyline. I then noticed the other tower in the same shape. I also noticed things flying around the buildings like glitter. It took a while, but I realized they were paper and other debri ejected from the explosion. I knew it had to be a plane, but I was so dumb-founded that I didn't consider it an attack. Then I heard over someone's car radio that the Pentagon was also attacked. With Manhattan locked down and unable to use any phones, I went to my next class. When class was over, I went back to look for the buildings but they were gone.

 

[TBone48]

I was at work, the radio was on, and they were doing a traffic report. 1st it was "there's a fire @ the WTC" then "a small plane crashed into it", then "OMG!! We're being attacked!!" Then we all sat around watching TV in shock.

 

[Eureka]

7th grade, we were in class, teacher had turned on the radio.

Norm

 

[TheToOTaLL]

I was walking into a client's office, and everyone was crowded around a 12" TV in the conference room watching it all happen. When they first told me what had happened, I did one of those "in one eat out the other" takes, because I didn't truely comprehend what they had told me. Then the the second plane hit and reports were coming in about the plane crashing into the Pentagon.

 

[KarenMarie]

VeggieFrog was a Senior in HS and her b/f was visiting from England. The night before... she said that she wanted to take a day off school to take him around the city to do the tourist thing. I agreed and when I left the room she was joking about how she got out of taking a test. I went back and told her she was going to school after all and taking her test.

She went to school and left her b/f sleeping. My dad called me when the first plane hit thinking it was a freak accident and I ran to wake up her b/f so he could come and watch the freak accident on the news... as we were sitting there, wide eyed, we watched the second plane hit. When we finally realized what was going on... the crash in DC and in PA, I drove like a lunatic to VeggieFrog's school and demanded that they release her to me.

then we waited to hear from all our relatives who work in NYC.

I live in Northern, NJ... about 8-10 miles from the city and I will say they we smelled burning ... or whatever it was that we smelled... for days afterwards.

It was a sucky day. And a sucky week.

 

[Aquaman]

I was sleeping and I heard it on the radio 8:30am PST.......... the second plane had not hit yet.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Kilgor]

I was delivering a letter to an office in my building and CNN said a plane just hit the WTC. I thought it was some kind of accident so I headed back downstairs. On my way down I stopped to talk to a girl I know and she told me a second plane hit the other tower, I knew it wasn?t an accident then so I headed back to the office.
I got back to the office and everybody was watching CNN to see what was going on, then I pickup the phone and one of our coworkers at the Pentagon said it was just hit by a bomb or something. I went outside to take a smoke with a friend and we were sitting there looking up at the sky wondering if our building was one of the targets We went back inside to see what was happening and saw the tower fall, so I decided it was a good time to take off for home.
All the way home I kept trying to get in touch with my mother and sister but all the cell phone lines were busy, so all I did was sit in traffic and listen to the news. I stopped at the WAWA on the way home and every body was just quiet listening to the news. When I got home I called my Grandmother in PA and found out my Mother had got in touch with her and that she and my sister were all right just trying to get out of DC.
I had the big hole in the Pentagon to remind me of 9/11 everyday on the way home. It was a truly suck ass day for the country.

 

[rh71]

waking up for work when my dad came into my room and turned on the tv... I got into work late (around 1030 I guess) and we were all hanging out in the "war room" watching the tvs as the rest of the day went down. A couple people from work had loved ones in the towers and didn't find out that they were ok until the day almost ended. My now-wife works in midtown Manhattan and wasn't close although she was one of many who had to walk out of Manhattan (across bridges, etc.).

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Aquaman
I was sleeping and I heard it on the radio 8:30am PST.......... the second plane had not hit yet.

Cheers,
Aquaman

The 2nd plane had already hit by 11:30am EST. I believe the towers even fell by then.

 

[tm37]

I was listening to TOny Bruno on my way to work.

They said that a plane had hit the WTC, they had no idea what had happened.

I walked into the office and we turned on the radio. We listened and then we tried to get on online but the major news suites were getting hammered. Called the wife and she watched the second plane hit and watched both towers fall.

 

[MrCodeDude]

My dad woke me up at like 6:00am PST and told me the Russians are attacking.

... I'm serious.

 

[flexy]

i was on the way to work and was stopping by a local coffee shop around 8:40am or so...and there was a radio playing mentioning "plane...world trade center". But i really didnt comprehend what they were saying, ordered my coffee and went to work at an ISP.

My wife worked at United Airlines (!) but she was home that day for some reason.

Anyway 10mins later i come to work and the support dude says "did you hear ? a plane crashed into the WTC".
me (immediately): "A terrorist attack" ?
"Yeah.....and another plane is on the way" the guys said.

I rushed to my work-station and wanted to get more information what was going on.
Problem: We didn't have TV in the office.

I really dont remember whether the second plane already hit when i realized what's happening....but i remember
that the one plane on the way to the pentagon was still in the air....or the second plane just hit about the time when i started to go online
and check cnn, msnbc and get some streams in etc.

Problem was that the Internet was basically dead that day (if you guys remember !!)....big problems to get anything in quick...everything was
overloaded and very slow.

Well about the time my wife called me, she was home watching TV and basically explained me what she saw on the TV. And she was in contact
with people at United AIrlines and then totally freaked when they found out one of the planes was an UA plane. (Also, worth to mention that united had some drill going on a few days/week earlier as they do from time to time)

Anyway i slowly got the images and maybe some streaming video on my computer and did noit really work that day and just wanted to get out and go to a tv and see for myself.

I just remember the irony of the pictures because it was this aboslute great, clear sunny day in new york....absolute gorgeous..and in the middle of this in the sunrise (so to speak) the smoking towers and helicopter circling the towers.

When i finally got off work about 5:00pm the whole air-traffic was down - which is amazing if you think that here (near O'Hare intl airport, chicago) you often see like 15-20 planes in the sky at any given moment. The sky was clear and blue and there were no planes. It was just weird for Chicago.

Later i remember we went to a target-store (we needed something, dont remember what)...and i remember that most/all other stores actually closed
up for the day

 

[Tiamat]

I was getting ready to pack for leaving for Freshman year at Northeaster University. It was 9am-ish and I was bored and wanted to see some VH1 (music videos).

On came a real funny joke about the Twin towers getting a plane flown into it. They even got a real good actor that looks like Bush! Suddenly they show a second plane going into it - i was thinking - wow very lame joke...

I begin to wonder ... ... "Oh hell, ill just turn on the radio just in case"

seconds later...

me: "OH FVCK!!..."

 

[PHiuR]

i was in school. 11th grade. in my Cisco Networking class. I did not even know the magnitude of the tragedy until later that afternoon/night.