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Where were you on 9/11/2001

I think we have one of these threads every year...

Me, I was driving to work early (left coast) when the news reported that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. At first, it sounded like some moron had crashed a private plane into the building...then more of the story came out. I worked 12 hours that day with only sparse and sporadic reports from truck drivers that came to the site...when I got home that night and saw the videos...😱🙁😡🙁
 
Read through that thread above. So much confusion and disbelief as the events unfolded. To think all of those people posting had no idea how much the world changed that day.
 
I remember going to my second period study hall when a plane had hit the twin towers and they thought it was an accident. By third period another had hit. By English class, which had been conducted in the library that date to do research on some paper, the teacher was freaking out when a student ran up and said the tower is collapsing. We all scurried to the small tv propped up into the corner ceiling in the library in shock and utter disbelief. Well, most of us did. I winced to hear one of my fellow classmates utter "Wow, cool!". Ugh.

UglyCasanova said:
Read through that thread above. So much confusion and disbelief as the events unfolded. To think all of those people posting had no idea how much the world changed that day.
Click to expand...
And not at all for the better. I regard 9/11 as marking the end of America's golden age. It was as if our freedom and privacy had peeked before going into decline ever since. Though it may have begun with the so-called "Patriot" Act, with the NSA and the government increasingly stepping up surveillance both online and off in the name of security and protection, I fear those golden innocent days will never return.
 
I was at work. The Internet was basically down from all of the traffic going to the news sites, so I got the news of the towers falling from my trusty two way Arch pager. I've never seen them send news reports in all caps before.

My boss didn't believe what he was reading until he got to a TV in the cafeteria.
 
We were on a two week vacation to the Hawaiian islands and spending the first week on Molokai. I never, ever, watch TV in the morning and certainly not on vacation. We were going to go out for breakfast and while waiting for my wife to get ready, I decided to turn the TV on.

With the time difference, it had already happened. At first I was thinking what kind of programming is this but in a few seconds it became apparent that it was a real event and one that had already occurred. The coverage, when I very first tuned in, was replay of earlier coverage by the network so it took a minute to get my bearings.

In the aftermath, it was decided by the powers that be that cars could not be parked within x number of feet of an airport and that cars already parked had to be moved or towed. That meant that every car in the vicinity of the airport on Molokai had to be moved. It had to have been a banner year for the tow operator(s) on Molokai. On an island that small if there was more than one I would be surprised.

By the time we were to make our flight to Kauai for the second week, the flight bans had been lifted and we were able to get there under severe scrutiny before boarding the plane.
 
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Running down deadbeats. John boy and Billy brought the news.




And the Challenger disaster....Clemson, Riggs hall. Man, there were some talking heads about that until they figured it out that it was the cold.
 
In high school spanish class (spanish II maybe? I remember the classroom we were in anyway). We were discussing Ed McCaffrey breaking his leg in stomach turning fashion the day before (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Hwvq_ppE0) and then the teacher turned on the classroom TV to watch the news, and we didn't know why. Still didn't entirely grasp the gravity of the situation, we were thinking it was just some type of awful accident.
 
Was working in Dallas skyscraper (on the 7th floor)...they evacuated the building around 9AM...I got home just before the 1st tower fell 🙁
 
Was at work. Co-worker said hey, a plane hit the WTC. As with dang near everyone else thought "that's a helluva accident, probably a small plane". Then a group of us formed in the breakroom watching and I remember thinking to myself "how in the heck are they going to fix this building." Then the second plane hit...and the rest is history.
 
High school, grade 10. First year in our new building. I remember hearing bits and pieces of what was going on, but not knowing what the pentagon or world trade centre was I did not really realize the scale of everything, and mostly the classes were kept in session. I figured a small plane landed into an apartment building or something. Maybe a couple injuries and few deaths at most. But as the day went on and I kept hearing stuff I was starting to think it was much worse and could not wait to get home to check the news.

Got home after school and turned on the TV and it was just surreal to see what was going on. Pretty much every channel was talking about it and it felt like an apocalypse and as if it was the beginning of something much worse.

I remember gas prices shot up immediately too. I didn't drive back then so never paid attention to prices but I remember them being under a dollar per litre and they shot up over a dollar. Gas stations had taped a "1" on the signs as most signs did not support prices that high. They eventually all got upgraded. Only saw prices go below the 1 dollar mark a few times after that, and it was for a few days at most.

I remember keeping up with the news for a while after that too. Once they determined it was Bin Laden that was the mastermind behind it I kept checking if they caught him. Little did I know at that time it would take them 10 years, and that there was more to it than that. Agendas etc...
 
For some reason I can't remember, I was heading in late to work that day. Still had the news on and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Very surreal day by the time I got into work.
 
Was in a class - I can't even remember if it was history, english or math in 8th grade.

Turned on the TV during it, parents came early and picked me up.
 
It's also crazy how there are some young adults that weren't even born yet when 9/11 happened. I was in college at the time and preparing to head to class. TV was on and me and my roommates were watching the news. First plane crash we thought it was an accident, assumed it was like a Cesna but saw the damage and as engineers, we knew something was off in terms of the damage. Then saw the second plane hit and was like 'wtf'.
 
6th grade math class. Our history teacher who was in the portable next door coming in and whispering to our math instructor. Crazy day...I went to the bank with my parents after school let out early to pull out a fair amount of cash.
 
I was in high school, 10th grade. It was during my web design class. Some kid came into the room and said a plane flew into the WTC, so my teacher turned the TV on and we all watched it. We first thought it was just a dumb pilot or something went wrong, but as we were watching the second plane hit and we all immediately knew it was an attack. I think we even saw the first tower fall live on TV, and the second too. One of the kids in my class was panicking because his dad worked in one of the buildings right next to the tower, but I think he was alright.

The only class where we did not watch the news was biology; our teacher said it would be good to just continue with classwork for at least one class to try to get our minds off of it.


Sonikku said:
I remember going to my second period study hall when a plane had hit the twin towers and they thought it was an accident. By third period another had hit. By English class, which had been conducted in the library that date to do research on some paper, the teacher was freaking out when a student ran up and said the tower is collapsing. We all scurried to the small tv propped up into the corner ceiling in the library in shock and utter disbelief. Well, most of us did. I winced to hear one of my fellow classmates utter "Wow, cool!". Ugh.


And not at all for the better. I regard 9/11 as marking the end of America's golden age. It was as if our freedom and privacy had peeked before going into decline ever since. Though it may have begun with the so-called "Patriot" Act, with the NSA and the government increasingly stepping up surveillance both online and off in the name of security and protection, I fear those golden innocent days will never return.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, or maybe I just have really fond memories of 1999-2001. Living in America just feels so much different from before, as does nearly everything you do. Seems like everyone instantly became less trusting of others, and shortly after is when social media started to pop up.
 
Was at home, eating breakfast about to go to work. A buddy called me up freaking out very badly i could barely understand him on the phone, he told me to flip on TV to some channel. I did. Just as the second plane was hitting in real time i started watching about 5 second before the second plane impact. I asked him which movie this was as the CGI looked very very real for the time. He told me this is no joke and no movie its actually happening. I dropped my phone and got online asap and started chatting with a bunch of friends about it, crazy times..
 
from 2002 - https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/where-were-you-on-9-11.920518/
from 2007 -. https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/where-were-you-on-9-11.84745/
from 2011 - https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/where-were-you-on-9-11-2001.2187968/
from 2013 - https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/where-were-you-on-sept-11-2001.2341945/

my response from 2007 thread

At work taking my break and watching TV. Caught the breaking news about the WTC being hit by a plane. Saw the 2nd tower being hit live and watched the towers fall. 🙁

Company decided to close for the day since there were warnings that the Sears tower might be a potential target.
Click to expand...
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/where-were-you-on-9-11.84745/page-5#post-24119220
 
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