walking to school

When the first plane hit, I was in my car driving the short distance to th anual training for work. The NPR announcer said that a plane struck the WTC - for quite a while I thought it was a private plane since he made no mention of size. A coworker came in and brought a TV and enlightened us. Kept tabs on the situation throught the day when we could.

After a couple days of nonstop coverage, I was thankful for the Food Network...

I was nine at the time, in my room. Playing with lego. And didn't hear about it untill the day after.

I was 6 and I'd just started junior school. The headmistress called an assembly and they rolled a TV into the auditorium so we could all watch it live. I didn't really understand it.

I was sleeping. I work the off shift, so that was my sleep time. Wife woke me up saying a plane hit the World Trade Centers. I just thought it was a small plane since I was so tired I didn't really think it was possible what she said. So I went back to bed. I was shocked when I woke up and found out what really happened.

Sitting in this chair, like now. Got out of bed, sat at the computer, opened the browser to see the news, there it was.


I probably would have forgotten, if it weren't for having been asked what I was doing that day a couple hundred times between then and now.

Ugh, I'm never going to get the hang of this weird date format - I keep thinking "so what happened on the 9th of November?" until I realise it's the 11th of September.

Anyway, I was staying at my other half's parents' house. The whole thing was entirely surreal and it took a long while for me to realise it wasn't some tasteless joke.

I was just a month shy of turning seven and was in school. I'll jump on the bandwagon saying it didn't really mean much or affect me. It honestly still doesn't. Of course, my condolences go out to anyone who lost a family member as a result of it... but my condolences go out to anyone who lost a family member, period and there have been far worse events in modern history.

I was 27 right here in my bedroom (i sleep in late usually) & when I first saw the news on tv I thought it was part of a movie.

Agreed, I remember being in Sixth Grade computer lab and a teacher walking in with a note and crying out of the room, even when I was told about it I was like 'Oh, okay' out of cluelessness, today it's just apathy, but it's strange when you have a bad memory, yet you can remember it so clearly.

@Softnerd- I can't speak for her. But I don't see 9/11 as a comedy sketch, but for some people it doesnt mean anything. It doesnt for me. (Again, I'm not being an ass, it's a sad event, I just dont feel anything over it)

Scarily and sadly common (especially once you start removing conditional modifiers). My condolences go out to all who lost their lives and loved ones (and all who had to live through it in general - I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been). But, ultimately, it's been 10 years. At some point it must become history.

I really don't remember, the only thing I remember about 9/11 was I was in my 1st grade classroom and the teacher showed us a newspaper about it.

I was in my room getting ready for school, and came out because I heard tv. I thought it was unusual because my parents never allowed tv to be on before school. My first thought was that school was cancelled, and I was really excited, but then found out what really happened. My parents were quieter then usual. Not a day I will forget even though I was pretty young.

Was a junior in Highschool and still remember being in my math class at 7:31 looking out that window. Got a really bad feeling that day which made me feel sick to my stomach before anything had happened. It was during my 3rd period class that someone came back from the office saying a plane hit the world trade center towers. Everyone thought he was lying and we brushed it off however during my 4th period chem class the teacher turned on the news and we learned it was real. Got home and had my mom telling me to keep the news on to keep her up to date as to what was happening.

Perception is made of "conditional modifiers." :shrug: How many times have that many civilians been killed deliberately in a single attack in the past 10 years?

Anyway, I wasn't trying to say that everyone should be walking around horrified about it 10 years later, especially those that weren't cognizant of the implications of what was happening at the time. My point was just that the buildings themselves and the politics involved weren't terribly relevant to the impact it had on people.

Well, for me personally, the issue is I hear about this kind of thing EVERY DAY, and granted it isnt tragic on the scale of WTC's event, but the fact is that people are dying every day because of radical political activists. The only reason people here are horrified is because it happened here.

I was in 4th grade when it happened. We were an hour or two into the school day, I think, when the teacher told us "something" had happened and asked us if we knew what terrorism was. I remember giving a hypothetical example of a terrorist attack. This confused one of my classmates. Eventually, we were all sent home early, and I watched the news coverage on the T.V. As I recall, all the planes had impacted by the time I got home. I don't remember if I saw live or recorded footage of the towers collapsing. I believe we were sent home early due to our proximity to the District of Columbia.

Like colonel Martyr and others, I don't really feel anything for 9/11, and like many, it took me a few years to really understand it. To be quite honest, I wish the nation would stop this annual mourning ritual and get on with their lives.

I was watching Bob the Builder before going to 1st grade and my dad came into change the channel to the building and I was all mad that I could not watch Bob the Builder anymore. Of course I was too young at the time to understand what exactly was happening.

I was probably 15 or so at the time and by the time I had woken up for school the planes had already hit the towers and the Pentagon. I don't think we got word of the fourth plane until some time after and what had happened on board.

Went to school and all my teachers had it on tv, save one because he was a jerk, and pretty much all we did all day was watch the news.

I had just got home from High School, must have only been my first week. I think it was before the second plane hit.

Funny how the start of high school was synonymous with WTC jokes, and later, jokes aimed at arabs.

Still can't believe it's been 10 years, wow. I was 14 and a freshman in High School. I will never forget that day, it was 3rd period around 9:30 and I saw the image of the towers with smoke coming out of them. I didn't understand the magnitude of the event until a couple of years later.

I think it's what happens when a nation doesn't have any domestic disturbances for 150 years... they get obsessed with one when it finally does happen. I've got to wonder how the nation would deal with a nuclear bombing on its soil, a war actually brought to U.S. soil, genocide on U.S. soil, or other such things. "We will never forget" the destruction of two large buildings and the killing of a few thousand people... according to the saying, anyway... but there are far, far worse things that can happen. Death and murder are facts of life. They're sad facts for our socially-dependent species and naturally, we grieve... but people die. It's an inevitability and sometimes, they're deliberately killed... also an inevitability. I could name several events of the past century that completely and utterly dwarf the 9/11 bombings and even said things get passed by. Bad things happen and while being upset about it is perfectly natural, accepting it as an inevitability of life is as well. I doubt the future will be all lovey-fun time for everyone everywhere, so people can't afford to be so emotionally vulnerable as to never forget and stop talking about a still relatively minor tragedy so often.

Careful with the political commentary people.

Sure, just not people in relatively stable countries that someone here is likely to know personally. You expect people in unstable or war-torn countries to become collateral damage. You don't expect one of the largest structures in the country to be destroyed in one fell swoop in any situation short of World War III.


Also because it was a large-scale, unexpected attack on a large group of civilians in a place they felt safe. For a short period of time it was pretty scary for those watching it happen that were old enough to extrapolate the possible implications for the rest of the country. For a lot of people it shattered their sense of security. That might not be a bad thing long-term, but it tends to leave a mark psychologically.

I can understand that it might be easy to dismiss for people that were too young to understand what was happening at the time. For others there was a huge degree of uncertainty attached to it that most of us weren't accustomed to. "Emotionally jarring" would probably be an understatement.

If I remember right I was at home during lunch break from school when I was 8.

Spoiler tag: Putting this in a spoiler tag because the information contained in it is not directly related to this thread and may be offensive to some here.