Where were you on 9/11? No, seriously

[Gulftastic]

Because of noisy student wanker neighbours, I had a terrible nights sleep on the 10th, so was knackered at work, and booked the afternoon off to go home to bed. Just as I was leaving, news had come through about a plane hitting one of the towers, bt we all thought it was a small plane. By the time I got home, the full spectacle was on my TV. Terrifying stuff. I went on the web that night, and folk I used to talk to in America were in pieces and very, very scared.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Watched it on Sky News. Then bought a shitload of cans with a mate to drink in the park and talk about the end of the world. I think that is the most understandable reaction to any major atrocity. A time for reflection. And cans.

[sick as a pike]

I was in a writing session, generating ideas for Lily Savage in Lily Live, a "Satirical comedy take of the week's events."
As it became clear how intensely serious and world-changing the unfolding events would become, it also became clear that we wouldn't have to write any jokes that week.

[wosl]

bought a shitload of cans with a mate to drink in the park and talk about the end of the world.

I still remember Jon Snow's apocalyptic sign-off on the Channel 4 Evening News that night - real "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" stuff.  I'll let him off this once, though; the first and still the only man-made act of destruction I've lived through that has generated the same awesome feeling of doom and vulnerability that you experience in the wake of some large-scale natural destructive events (or even some small ones: I'm looking at you, the Dudley Earthquake of 2002).

[up_the_hampipe]

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.

Yeah that's surprised me as well. I didn't hear about it until my news-crazy gran picked me up from school and rushed me home at 3pm. I was annoyed that BBC 2 weren't going to air The Simpsons.

[Head Gardener]

Really enjoying Trumps touching tribute too:

[Chollis]

why al qaeda always be hatin

[gilbertharding]

I was 32 years old, and having a bit of a shit time with a building project which already seemed a bit like the end of the world. We'd discovered a sewer under the building which I think everyone thought I should have known about, and they had to stop the project and spend loads of money diverting the drain...

I was working for Kent County Council. We kind of had the internet, a bit, but of course it was totally useless that afternoon. Loads of rumours went around, and it was clear no-one really knew anything. A light aircraft had flown into a tower block, kind of thing...

I had to go to a site meeting on the Project of Bastard that afternoon, and so I listened to Radio 4 in the car, and heard the full story. I was listening live as the first tower collapsed. I remember thinking not "that puts it in perspective", but "well, at least if there's a World War no-one will care about that bloody sewer or this stupid building" - like the attacks were a proxy suicide which would save me the bother of gassing myself.

[Petey Pate]

I was about 10 at the time but even then kept interrupting school assembly with 'what about the anniversary of the 1973 coup in Chile that America helped orchestrate?'

[Replies From View]

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

So the conspiracies were true all along!

[kngen]

On tour with my band in Germany, Bremen to be precise. We were waiting at the train station to meet bands/friends we played with last night to exchange money or gear or something. One of us would occasionally wander into the station to see if they were waiting inside. I saw a large group of Germans watching a cluster of TVs on the concourse, hands over their mouths, some in tears, and looked up and saw smoke coming out of the towers. The broadcast was a straight feed from CNN but whenever I could just make out some details from the CNN reporter, a German newsreader would speak over the top drowning it out. At first, I thought it was just another bomb, like the 1993 one, and thought Bremen's commuters were over-reacting a little, and went back outside to tell the rest.

Then it became an exponential increase in surreality and shock as bandmates would walk in and then come back and say 'A plane flew into the Twin Towers', 'Another plane flew into the other tower', 'Now one's crashed into the Pentagon'. The band we were meeting were American, and they were just quite literally speechless.

We carried on our tour, trying to catch snatches of footage at petrol stations and food courts as we made our way through Germany to Holland, but only really saw the full sequence of events a couple of days later when we staying in a squat in Amsterdam. We had the misfortune of sharing this experience with a couple of crusty lassies (one English, one German) who scoffed at the tenor of the news coverage: 'Huh, like this is a fraction of the people who died in Rwanda, yeah? But where was all the coverage of that?' said the posh English one.

I turned to her and said 'If you don't think this changes fucking EVERYTHING, then ....' I couldn't finish the sentence, I was so angry. She's probably a UKIP councillor now.

As morbid and grotesque as it seems, I envy the people that got to see the second plane hit the tower as it happened, as it seems like the most fantastically horrific (or horrifically fantastic) thing you could witness watching a TV screen. The whole thing seems oddly incorporeal, and I find it hard to empathise with my American friends, even the cool, progressive ones, when they talk about their reactions to that day. 'Chickens coming home to roost' is the phrase that popped into my head back then, and it's never really gone away, even though I know how callous it is. As shocking as it was to me, I don't think I was shocked enough.

[dallasman]

I actually spent 9/11 building a LEGO Twin Towers, but when I heard about the planes, I thought "fuck this then" and kicked it over.

[gilbertharding]

...scoffed at the tenor of the news coverage: 'Huh, like this is a fraction of the people who died in Rwanda, yeah? But where was all the coverage of that?' said the posh English one.

I turned to her and said 'If you don't think this changes fucking EVERYTHING, then ....' I couldn't finish the sentence, I was so angry. She's probably a UKIP councillor now.

Yeah. "Huh! How come American lives are considered way more valuable and newsworthy and..."

Seriously, if you can't come up with at least three very very good reasons why this is unfortunately the case, you're just too stupid to be allowed to talk near me.

'Chickens coming home to roost' is the phrase that popped into my head back then, and it's never really gone away, even though I know how callous it is. As shocking as it was to me, I don't think I was shocked enough.

I completely agree. You can probably just about say it out loud nowadays, but still.

Remember all the terrible Web 1.0 websites with animated waving stars and stripes flags all over them? Thank God for The SmokeHammer: http://web.archive.org/web/20011228215340/http://thesmokehammer.com:80/issue1/docs/strategy.html

[EOLAN]

At school, Economics class as news of the plane hitting came in via one guy's phone. Then he proceeded to freak out and thought the world was ending. Then while our Prime Minister (Taoiseach) was hanging out with an American ambassador our Finance Minister was getting loads of photo-bombing coverage as he was meeting Yaseer Arafat - a primary suspect at the time.

Then stacking shelves later in the supermarket where the main topic of conversation was the Liverpool Champions League match; and the events in New York coming second.

[Alberon]

I was at work listening to Mark and Lard on the radio who cut the jokes and sketches after the news report of a plane hitting the WTC. Couldn't get on the BBC or CNN websites.

We scrambled around for a TV with an aerial and by the time we had that running in the technicians common room the second tower was coming down. Watched it for another hour or so then went home and watched the news most of the evening.

[jobotic]

Trade union training. Wasn't until the woman giving me a lift home put on the radio that we knew anything about it. Got home in time to see the second plane hit.

My friend honesty thought for a few hours that the Twin Towers meant Wembley and The Pentagon was the Pentagon shopping centre in Chatham. Which in many ways would have been even more shocking.

[Head Gardener]

I did a live mix a couple of days after the event using samples I took from news reports



https://www.mixcloud.com/Gardener/twin-towers-memorial-mix/

[gilbertharding]

...the Pentagon shopping centre in Chatham...

"...causing £700M of improvements."

[Twed]

I was 32 years old, and having a bit of a shit time with a building project which already seemed a bit like the end of the world. We'd discovered a sewer under the building which I think everyone thought I should have known about, and they had to stop the project and spend loads of money diverting the drain...

I was working for Kent County Council. We kind of had the internet, a bit, but of course it was totally useless that afternoon. Loads of rumours went around, and it was clear no-one really knew anything. A light aircraft had flown into a tower block, kind of thing...

I had to go to a site meeting on the Project of Bastard that afternoon, and so I listened to Radio 4 in the car, and heard the full story. I was listening live as the first tower collapsed. I remember thinking not "that puts it in perspective", but "well, at least if there's a World War no-one will care about that bloody sewer or this stupid building" - like the attacks were a proxy suicide which would save me the bother of gassing myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD4IDTOv52s

[Egyptian Feast]

Working in a betting shop in Willesden. My manager had a call from his partner and we turned the TV on just after the second plane had hit. We put the news on in one of the screens in the shop, but a couple of punters complained so it was switched back. I'll never forget the profound look of disinterest on one of the customers as he regarded the screen for a split second, then asked for 5/2 on his 35p dog bet.

[shiftwork2]

Clicking away on BBC news in a hospital office.  Prior to starting at 1pm I'd had a lie-in watching Suddenly Susan on C4 in bed, a show that I've always held responsible for the events of 9/11.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

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.

Same. Really bizarre in hindsight, but it's only just occurred to me that the school probably decided teachers shouldn't say anything. Funny to think it was still a time when even that news could travel pretty slowly.

Made it the whole bus ride without hearing a single thing...got home home and was still oblivious for at least another hour until Newsround.

[seepage]

doing the practical part of an IT course in London. The lecturer interrupted playing Tragic Kingdom. 

[Large Noise]

There was a kid at my school whose birthday was that day. I walked past and saw that he and his family were the only 5 people in the Partick branch of McDonalds on 9/11.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I was copying some files over from a Commodore Amiga to a pc.  The Amiga used an ordinary TV as it's monitor.  When I'd finished and plugged the aerial back into the TV I was greeted with the sight of the two smoking towers.

[thraxx]

There was a kid at my school whose birthday was that day. I walked past and saw that he and his family were the only 5 people in the Partick branch of McDonalds on 9/11.

One for the bleak thread.

[a duncandisorderly]

'Chickens coming home to roost' is the phrase that popped into my head back then, and it's never really gone away, even though I know how callous it is. As shocking as it was to me, I don't think I was shocked enough.

yep. at least until the 'inside job' stuff started to appear in amongst the chatter, that's how I felt.

a year later, my band was in the USA. somewhere on the beach-front of LA, I bought a beasties t-shirt that had the towers on fire in the background & a dead puppy lying in the foreground. I wish I still had the thing so I could show you. I didn't buy it to shock people or wind them up, but out of astonishment that such a thing could exist.
a week later, on the other coast, we had a day off & went to ground-zero. whatever one's thoughts about the cause or the motive, the sense of loss & grief there was thick enough to slow your breathing down. no, I wasn't wearing the beasties t.

[edit] a harsh recollection- I remember thinking it was odd that no-one had done this with an airliner before, given that we'd seen many hijackings & quite a lot of suicide attacks of one sort or another for decades before this... putting the two together seemed rather obvious...

[mr. logic]

Same. Really bizarre in hindsight, but it's only just occurred to me that the school probably decided teachers shouldn't say anything. Funny to think it was still a time when even that news could travel pretty slowly.

Made it the whole bus ride without hearing a single thing...got home home and was still oblivious for at least another hour until Newsround.

I got told about Dunblane and Jill Dando, but not 9/11. Doubt it was policy or anything.

I heard about it on the radio. I always remember them seeming curiously detached and unmoved on Radio 5. When they talked about trades and crashing, I thought there had been some financial disaster. I went to two football matches over the next five days, both of which felt weirdly charged. It was an odd old week. Part of me now regrets being too young to really devour the news.

Is there anywhere to watch the entire BBC news from that night? Not the live stuff, the six o clock one.

[Pingers]

I was in Victoria, I remember seeing an Evening Standard poster/placard thing and then bought one (I think) to read what had happened. My first reaction was shock: that it was possible to do this and that someone had done it. I had very recently finished Ahmed Rashid's book on the Taliban and oil politics in Afghanistan, so my second thought was "They'll attack Afghanistan". When a book about politics allows you to foresee major world events then you know it's done its job really well.

[Icehaven]

I was in the last few weeks of the summer holiday in between my first and second year at Uni, in Coventry city centre shopping with my Mum, and we'd noticed it was quiet*. Suddenly remembered it was a mate's birthday a few days earlier so texted to say Happy Birthday, and she replied "Thanks, are you watching TV? Isn't it terrible?" We got home few hours later so probably late afternoon and spent the next 12 hours or so watching the news. I videoed several hours of it because - dunno really, I just did, and a friend who'd been backpacking in the far East or somewhere at the time actually borrowed the tape when he got back a month or so later and sat and watched it all.

*About 12 years earlier my Mum had taken my cousin and me shopping in Cov and had noticed a large crowd gathering around a shop with loads of TVs switched on in their window (was probably Tandy). We went over to see what was happening and it was Hillsborough. I don't go shopping in Coventry with my Mum anymore.