Where were you on 9/11? No, seriously

[up_the_hampipe]

It's a played out topic, I'm sure, but it's an event where the world stopped (unlike these days where we just carry on watching Netflix Prime on our Alexa Sticks while terror attacks and mass shootings occur). I like hearing stories from people on that day. I doubt this one will be as good as the Ask Reddit thread that's been fascinating me all afternoon, but let's give it a go.

[Norton Canes]

At a market stall in Amersham. Had a day off work.

[bgmnts]

I was outside school walking home with my mum and my mum's friend stopped her to day "have you seen the news etc etc".

[Sebastian Cobb]

[tag]fuck off plod[/tag]

[chveik]

At school

[wosl]

Painting the bathroom.  Came down for a bite and put on the news, and then watched for a bit (this would have been just after the second strike) before going back up to finish painting.  It was obviously going to receive blanket coverage and unfold gradually, news-wise, with a lot of recapping and looping, so there was no need to watch constantly.

[BlodwynPig]

Hiking on the Pembrokeshire coast.

Hitch hiked back to campsite and woman turned off radio when we got in car.

My girlfriend called her parents and came back to tent saying Pentagon had been hit by a plane and some buildings called the twin towers.

We took a walk in the eerie evening light, only the echoes of Coronation Street coming from within the dotted caravans and the fighter jets flying westward overhead to keep us steady on our feet.

[thraxx]

I was on a Specific Learning Difficulty Diagnosis course in Telford with some work colleagues. 

The director of the learning centre came in in a daze and told us that some planes had flown into the twin towers and the pentagon.  Stunned silence.

I spoke up and said 'Erm...  Are you saying that there has been an attack on the USA?'.  'I think so, yes...'

Tele goes on, hard to put into words the shock of seeing the images roll in.

At that time I was in a line of work connected to public security, so we really did make our excuses and leave.

[Head Gardener]

at home watching the TV when Supermarket Sweep or whatever I was watching was interrupted

[a duncandisorderly]

building graphics in a studio control room for the german version of an Mtv show called 'videoclash'; when I turned round to explain something to the poor spod who was going to be populating these graphics templates every day after I'd gone back to london, he wasn't there.

when I went downstairs to the kitchen area, the entire staff of this place in munich were staring slack-jawed at CNN. as I absorbed what appeared to have been a nasty accident, the second plane hit.

my boss rang a few minutes later- 'viacom are banning unnecessary travel with immediate effect. we'll get you a train back to london, then when we go to IBC this weekend [in amsterdam] there'll be trains for that too.'

after some reflection, I told him I was happy to fly actually. I went back to my hotel in munich- couldn't do any more work with WWIII looming- & got wasted on the weed I'd brought with me.

[Lordofthefiles]

Hungover from a student night out, watched Neighbours (uninterrupted by the way - no newsflash is more important than the goings on in Ramsey Street), then saw the world change.
The second plane hit was horrific/fantastic, and the collapse (knowing that the fire brigade had been rushing to the foot of the tower for an hour) was truly numbing.

[Buelligan]

I was riding a great big V-twin across northern France from Switzerland to Calais and the UK.  The route I took passed several very large war cemeteries flying the American flag and I remember thinking, as I rode past, what a fucking waste it was and how sad it was that America appears unable to grasp how far beyond terrible war is and that it would continue shoveling its children and ours, onto the bonfire for coin until it suffers war on its own soil.  When I got to Calais there were big screens showing footage in the petrol station, I wondered why they were showing movies in a garage.  Seems I was wrong.

[popcorn]

Walked home from school. Dad was watching telly. He said "a bad thing happened". I had never heard of the World Trade Center before.

One of my best mates was living in New Jersey at the time. He said everyone in the neighbourhood walked up to the top of a hill and watched the towers burn. He captures his thoughts about the event very movingly in this video.

[Operty1]

I was at work taking in a delivery, and the driver said 'it's on the news, they've flown planes into the twin towers in New York'. Thing is most of the drivers delivered from the continent and were pissed, we just thought he was mental. But he kept going on about it as we unloaded the wagon. In those days if you sent the word NEWS as an SMS to something or other number at Nokia you got a text headline back, so i sent one off my phone (only one mind, in those days texts were silly money) and the text headline that came back simply read 'Third plane flown into Pentagon'.

Felt weird.

[Replies From View]

I was videoing it.

[Puce Moment]

Paris Disneyland.

The place cleared out so I had a fabulous day. Got back to the hotel at 10pm and realised what had happened and why there was extra po-po on the streets.
Stayed up all night watching the news.

[Fry]

Was walking home from school, got in and Mum was sat on the sofa with her hand over her mouth looking all shocked. First thought was "Grandad is dead!", then she explained what had happened but I didn't really grasp the enormity of the situation so I sat down and acted shocked with her for what seemed the appropriate amount of time then went and played playstation.

[biggytitbo]

Masturbating.

[Chollis]

Was walking home from school, got in and Mum was sat on the sofa with her hand over her mouth looking all socked. First thought was "Grandad is dead!", then she explained what had happened but I didn't really grasp the enormity of the situation so I sat down and acted shocked with her for what seemed the appropriate amount of time then went and played playstation.

Almost exactly this

[Twed]

I was in the long "living with my parents doing nothing" period of my life. Only 17 years old now I think about it. I thought I was older until I did the sums.

My CaB of those days were the emulator-zone.com forums. I woke up and the Greek admin of those forums had sent me an MSN Messenger message: "America go boom". Got a little info, turned on the TV. Saw the second plane crash live. That's an incredible thing to see. An incredible range of emotions were felt. Sadness that makes you punch the air because it shakes you out of the dull blanket of depression by being so immediate and surreal.

[BlodwynPig]

Masturbating.

Still? After all these years? Still masturbating after all these years...

[Ornlu]

I was only 10 (I know), but I remember being at the swimming baths that day for my mate Hassan's birthday, before coming home and seeing my ma and da watching the news, hands over mouths.

The first plane hit at about 1.45pm UK time right? I've always just wondered what I was doing out at a pool party with a load of my mates when I probably should've been in school, thinking about it.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Working in the office of a daily newspaper. We actually did all gather round a TV, just like in the films. It didn't feel cool or exciting at the time, obviously.

[biggytitbo]

9/11 is a touching (ooh pardon) story of redemption and forgiveness. 17 years on, not only have we made it up with the people we say inflicted the worse terrorist attack on the west in history, we're willing to start WW3 to defend them. Sob, we are old softies really aren't we?

[wosl]

Edit: there's no need for that.

[biggytitbo]

Really enjoying Trumps touching tribute too:

[popcorn]

The first plane hit at about 1.45pm UK time right?

I had to check this. You're right, which is weird, because it meant I got through the entire school afternoon without hearing about it.

[Lemming]

Faking sick to stay home from school. Saw it unfold on TV. Didn't really understand the relevance, but my mother was shitting herself and called my dad at work to ask if he'd seen it, so the gravity slowly dawned.

[Buelligan]

Your dad's George Bush?

[biggytitbo]

No kidding though I was actually masturbating as the second plane struck.