September 11th. Where were you 13 years ago?

• cruiser_96

  

  My guess is, this thread or something like it gets broughtup every year. And while, I guess, the reflections have the tendency to grow stale, I think it is the leastwe can do.
  
  I was just over a year out of the Army, a bit shorter out of a failed engagment, and working in the team store for the Bluejackets. Since it was summer, and I wouldn't begin classes at CSCC, I could work from 10a-6pm everyday. Wake up at 8am, have breakfast, shower and would leave the house around 9am (with every intention of leaving at 10 til) and drive the 43 minutes to work. I was really into listening and creating music at the time so I had my tape player on, just rocking out as I travelled into work. (That's right...I said tape player!)
  
  By the time I arrived at work, our in-store TVs that usually had on a Canadian sportscenter were showing CNN. Moreover, as the morning progressed, we ended up with "customers" just hanging around watching.
  
  At noon were closedthe store, went home, and watchedthe news reports.
  
  So where were you?
• A PAC

  

  I was a freshman in high school in fourth period math class. I remember when someone told me that a plane hit the WTC that I thought "how could someone screw up that bad?" When someone else told me a couple minutes later that the other building was hit, I knew it no accident. The rest of that day is still vivid in my mind. God bless the brave 343 firefighters and over 100 cops who gave there lives that day. Prayers with the families of those who didn't make it out.
• SportsAndLady

  

  8th grade, study hall.
  
  I remember jerkin around in "class" and the very nerdy teacher pulled down the map of the USA and started to explain to a few kids very nonchalantly where the trade towers were and what happened and I thought he was telling a damn history story or something. I couldn't believe how calm he was explaining that and only talking to a few kids in the class, not everyone. I didn't know what actually happened until about an hour later when the principal spoke over the loud speaker.
  
  Very weird memory for me
• BR1986FB

  At work. Everyone came into our conference room to watch things unfold on the TV. Words can't explain the rage that overcame me while watching that.
• fish82

  

  On approach into PHL as the first tower was hit. Watched the 2nd hit and the subsequent mayhem on the TV in the lounge. Spent the next two days stuck in the last hotel room at the airport, pretty much glued to the TV and talking to my wife/kids on the phone.
  
  Not the best three days of my life.
• Zoltan

  Sophomore in high school. We had a fog delay that morning so I was sleeping when the first plane hit. My brother woke me up and told me it was on TV. We went into school and got word another plane hit the other tower, as well the pentagon.
  
  We watched TV coverage in most of the classes that day, and I saw the towers's collapse live on TV. Our coach did not cancel practice because he correctly though most of us would just go dick around anyways. I also remember the huge lines at the gas stations pumps when I drove home at the end of the day. First time I really realized how fragile the world stability is.
• Fab4Runner

  

  I was a junior in high school and had just walked into accounting class. We spent the rest of that period (and most of the day) watching the news.
• Con_Alma

  I was in the exact same place I am today which is my office getting ready for the market to open.
• GOONx19

  

  5th grade math class. I can't believe it's been 13 years.
• justincredible

  

  Freshman year of college. Got a call from my roommates dad to turn on the tv when we got back from our morning class.
• sleeper

  

  8th grade, band practice. Came back from band practice and the TVs were on at the school showing the first plane hit. Right as I walked in we saw the second plane hit. The next 2 weeks I was glued to the TV.
• TedSheckler

  

  Sitting in my desk in my office.
  
  I had the TV on after the first plane hit, because everyone thought it was an accident at the time. I was on the phone with a customer as the 2nd plane hit and I remember just pausing mid-conversation in shock.
• Belly35

  

  The wife and I where both home, we took the day off to just relax and enjoy the day. We had the TV on and was sitting in the back porch enjoy coffee, planning what to do. When the media was filming the tower a the second plane hit we knew this was not an accident. We called the family, got my girls out of school and they (total of 20 family members and kids) all came over to my house to watch the events happen. The wife and other wifes fixed lunch and dinner and many stayed until the next morning.
  
  John F. Kennedy I was in the 7th grade between classes, got to my history class on the second floor of jr. high, the teacher had the TV on, an announcment was made over the PA that the President was assassinated. All class was canceled and we had to stay in the class we were in until school was let out.
• Fab4Runner

  

  Esquire has some fantastic pieces of journalism re: 9/11. Here is a great read:
  
  http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/ESQ0102-JAN_WTC_rev?src=soc_fcbks
• salto

  

  Jesus Christ I'm old.
• TedSheckler

  

  Ari Fleischer is giving an amazing timeline of what he was doing that morning. It's worth following. He does this every year and every year it's chilling.
  
  http://twitter.com/AriFleischer
• redstreak one

  

  I was a bartender at the time while I finished college, so I woke up at 9 and turned on ESPN and they were saying turn to ABC for more bomb coverage. When I flipped the channel I just sat on the edge of my bed for a while watching then called my mother and brother. I was packed and ready to head out to Reno for a friends wedding that afternoon!
• Tiernan

  I was at work and got a call from a friend who asked me if I knew what tower another mutual friend worked in because a plane had "accidently" hit one of the towers. I didn't know but tried to call her. Got no answer and called her Mom. Right at that point another co-worker comes in a says "two planes have now hit both towers". In that instant we knew it was a terrorist attack. My friend who worked in Tower 2 on the 32ndFlr did get out unharmed that day but she of course knew many who did not and 9/11 is always a tough day for her.
• OSH

  

  My junior English class at the high school. A senior friend of my brother was walking by and said something about planes hitting the Towers. He ended up in the Marines and working in the Pentagon after he graduated, I don't think it was any coincidence that he followed that route after that day.
  
  Unbelievable day. Like mentioned above, I remember the lines at the gas stations. I had only had my driver's licence for almost a month.
• BRF

  

  Teaching high school seniors in government class.
  
  Thought it was just an accident upon first report.
  
  Rest of day glued to TV and making students feel as safe as possible.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Junior in college. Roommate woke me up around 9:00 a.m. Came downstairs to watch TV. Hopped on campus shuttle, and it was quiet and eerie as hell. Went to class, and BGSU ended up canceling everything for the rest of the day.
• like_that

  

  I was in 8th grade going to school in VA. The teachers tried to keep it a secret. I noticed a bunch of kids were getting calls from their parents to come home. I knew something was up when football practice was cancelled. It wasn't really until I got on the bus home that I realized the magnitude of what was happening. My dad was working in the AF at the time and he went to the pentagon all the time. I then started to freak out thinking my dad was in there. He wasn't, but I was pretty pissed my mom or dad didn't give me a fucking call.
  
  A couple years later my dad revealed that he had a meeting at the pentagon that morning, but it was cancelled.
• QuakerOats

  I was at work and watched it on a TV in our office. What was really eerie about it was that I had a surprise trip to NYC planned for my wife leaving the next day, and actually had reservations at the Marriott World Trade Center for the last 2 nights of a 4 day trip. I still have the email saved from Windows-on-the-World, the restaurant on top of the Trade Center, confirming my reservation for dinner that weekend. A few days later and we would have been directly involved in the attacks.
• sherm03

  

  I was in my Algebra II and Trig class junior year. My teacher flipped on the TV and the whole class just sat there and watched the coverage and saw the second plane hit. We changed classes and I went to my English class. The teacher was a hardass, and she made us still take our vocabulary test, but kept the TV on mute. Everyone tried to focus on the test, but the kid in front of me looked up and said, "that building just collapsed." My teacher started crying and asked us to pass the tests forward and we just watched the news coverage the rest of the class.
  Our lunch that day was the quietest I have ever heard. It was so eerie to hear an entire lunch room of teenagers with barely anyone saying a word.
• Tiernan

  like_that;1652950 wrote:A couple years later my dad revealed that he had a meeting at the pentagon that morning, but it was cancelled.

  Never let the truth get in the way of a good story...