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Hello. Today is the anniversary of the day when hijackers crashed four commercial planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and the ground in Pennsylvania. That is to say, today is 9/11. Did you forget? Because you shouldn't. Ever.
As expected, the banner of names has gone up at AT&T Park, President Barack Obama gave a speech about it, urging Americans to unite, and conspiracy theorists continue to spin wild tales about who is responsible for it.
Since 9/11 has been hailed as the JFK-ish moment for the non-boomer generation, what we want to know is: where were you on September 11, 2001? Former President George Bush, at right, was, well, doing very little.
Us? We were on an extraordinarily silent BART train to get to work at China Basin, before being sent home for the day wherein we consumed mass quantities of donuts while sitting in front of the television.
Tell us, where were you on that day? Because, really, you knew this post was coming.
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At home in my flat in North Beach. I would look at the TV, then look out the window at the Transamerica Pyramid and worry that it was next. Then I'd look back at the TV. Then the pyramid.
I was asleep.
Coincidentally, I was also in my flat in North Beach watching the whole thing on TV. (You're not my ex-wife, are you, LisaLives?) Then I went to work and we all got sent home and nobody knew what was going on. What a horrible day.
I also remember where I was when I heard Reagan got shot. I'm old.
i was getting ready for school when it happened. later on i remember the school bus driver kept on swearing and eventually turned off the radio, "this is just too sad."
9/11 to me was a stark reminder of how lucky i am to live in a rich, developed country. what was shocking and life-altering for us is routine for so many others.
At jury duty in Queens.
In Early European History class at GWU in Washington, DC. I heard the fire trucks screaming outside and various sirens all throughout class. That being a normal thing in DC, class went on as usual.
When I got out around 11:00am, I bumped into a friend who said that our student center was closed down due to a bomb scare. Upon returning to my dorm, I finally learned what was going on. I spent the next few hours silently watching the coverage on TV with various people and periodically climbing to the roof where I was able to see the smoke billowing from the Pentagon not 10 miles away.
That night, I walked down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue with a friend, not a car on the road, with F-16's flying overhead. Surreal to say the least.
i was at our city's finest institute of higher learning (CCSF) getting my learn on.
then the news hit, so we all ditched school and got really high, and then went to the Potrero Brewing Company (RIP) and watched CNN for the next 6 hours. and got high a bunch more times.
i was driving to the north berkeley bart station and i was listening to kalx 90.7. the dj announced, "in case you haven't heard, the arabs have bombed the world trade center."
Manhattan, where I'd been since thursday of the previous week, flown out for a last minute troubleshoot of all the mail we were doing for the election. I decided to stay in town for the primary, which was on the 11th, instead of flying back to SF with everyone else late night on the 10th.
I too was asleep, but woken by the phone repeatedly ringing. When I finally got to it and checked the messages, they all said turn on the TV. One guy said they're on their way to San Francisco, one was from my Mom, it was crazy! I went to work two hours late that day, hoping not to have to go at all. I was delivering wine and would have to drive over the Bay Bridge that day, very nervously. After work, spent the night at Movida where my ex-girlfriend worked and watched it on TV over and over and over again. Everybody at the bar was blown away by what happened, it was a strange collective experience to be with everyone there, some I knew and some I didn't, but all interested in this singular event.
Asleep in my freshman dorm room. Second or third week at Cal. Got the "have you heard?!" wake-up call from my mom that I think a lot of West Coasters received. Ran to the common room TV where my Staten Island roommate was already standing in front of the screen cursing and screaming, and we watched the second tower collapse.
Remember walking up to the third floor balcony of my building later that day and looking at the SF skyline, wondering if it was next. Then the vigils. Photos of a guy named Mark Bingham all over the place. The sudden proliferation of American flags (until then a rare sight in much of the Bay Area, especially Berkeley). And the general feeling shared amongst us wide-eyed freshman that the relatively carefree (blissfully ignorant?)era that defined most of our childhoods and high school years had reached a very definitive ending point.
Got the news while getting coffee at Reverie. I numbly got on the N and then BART, which was empty. In West Oakland the electronic signs over the freeway read "All OAK, SFO flights canceled".
I was working at a shitty job that I hated getting paid very little. Feels like just yesterday. Wait, I just described yesterday (and today). The management failed to see the significance of the event and I was listening to it on the radio, and worked as scheduled until 3 pm. Then, I went to Ikea.
at my high school in manhattan. my principal made an announcement over the loudspeaker and classes were canceled, but they wouldn't let anyone go home. we all sat in the auditorium watching cnn on a projector, shocked, and scared that we knew people in the buildings.
Crashed at a friend's in the Sunset. Her dad come in and said "they crashed a plane into the World Trade Center!" As I jumped up to turn on the TV & computer, my friend asked "is that in SF?" and then went back to sleep. Watched CBS and went to the SDMB all morning until I had to work at Cala at 12:30.
I was unemployed in Oakland, without cable TV, awoken by numerous phone calls from parents and friends. I had just moved from New York exactly a year earlier. My roommates and I got most of our updates through the internet and a fuzzy TV, but were thankfully spared the endless repetition of the falling buildings on CNN.
I identified with that girl Preeti on Top Chef who was talking about how she knew she wanted to become a chef after September 11th, when her first reaction to the day was to cook. I headed to the store and bought a chicken, roasted it, drank a lot of bourbon, and made a cake.
Waking up in my tiny shared apartment in the Lower East Side. My roommate's sister called. I could hear her screaming, "TURN ON THE TV! TURN ON THE TV!" I heard the NY-1 and got out of bed and stood next to my roommate in front of the TV. We watched the second plane hit. I got dressed and took the F to midtown, as usual. I thought the people on the subway were unusually quiet. Did they know? Had they heard? But it was so calm. Buildings in midtown were evacuated, so the guy I was dating and I walked back to Avenue B & 13th, to find out what happened to his best friend who worked in the Financial District. No one had heard from him. We got to his apt. He had overslept. He had a landline, a T1 connection, and a TV, so his apt became an Emergency Ops hub for friends and family. We drank all day and night and never got drunk.
Working as a teller in downtown Minneapolis right before downtown was pretty much evacuated. There were rumors that there was a plane that was unaccounted for flying around the Midwest and we thought all bets were off - that even Minneapolis, yes Minneapolis, could get hit.
I lived downtown and it was odd falling asleep to the sound of fighter jets flying around protecting the city. Also went to the airport just to hear crickets chirping and see all the planes that just happened to be in our airspace when 9/11 hit like Korean and Chinese planes.
It was really odd to not hear any airplane noise in the skies over bridge and tunnel land. My wife had to get a ride back with coworkers from Southern California, but a couple other friends had to rent a car and drove back to the Bay Area from New York with some random acquaintances. They said it was one of the best road trips ever. I've always thought there was a great road movie there waiting to be made - the highways were filled with people in rental cars who got stuck and carpooled with whoever they could find, criscrossing each other's paths at truck stops, motels, Stuckey's along the way.
At a restaurant in Hong Kong. Everyone's cell phone started going off at the same time as the news spread.
I remember waking up to my radio alarm and heard on former station Z-95.7 from DJs Gene and Julie of a horrible tragedy. I took a shower and turned-on the TV to see the towers collapsing.
I woke up at my SF home listening to KQED and being really confused about why they were announcing that both towers had collapsed and then playing classical music. Then I got the phone call to turn on the TV, did so, and watched the news all day.
In the bathroom getting ready for work when the phone started ringing - my partner's best friend in Manhattan with the news. Our first thought was that it was a small plane, because the towers were still standing. Then I thought to call my family, as several folks I know and knew worked in the Twin Towers, but the phone lines were starting to jam up and I couldn't get through to anyone. I went to work for a few hours, then was sent home. I remember the only way we could get news was NY1.com. I finally got through to my mom, who was crying so she couldn't speak. I got through to my sister, who had driven through Manhattan from the Bronx earlier that day: all she could keep saying was that it was a perfect Fall day and how beautiful her drive was.
Thank the gods it was the first day of school - taking her daughter to school saved my sister-in-law's life. Other people I knew were not lucky that day.
trudging around manhattan. i had just gotten out of class at NYU when we found out what happened. after being turned away for blood donations, i walked all the way to harlem to catch a MetroNorth train to try to get home to my family in NJ. i was constantly looking over my shoulder at the plume of smoke that once was light and steel.
they wouldn't let us back into chinatown, where my dorm was, for a couple of days. but even when we could go back, most of us stayed one night before finding someplace else to crash. it was too much of a ghost town to stay. the dust was everywhere, and i'll never forget the burning smell ...
I was in Istanbul on my way into the Covered Bazaar with a buddy, and a shopkeeper told us a plane had gone into the World Trade Center. We thought they must mean a piper cub or something like happened in the 1930's to the Empire State Building. Then in the bazaar our friends were all watching the TV and we saw the towers in flames. We went back to our hotel where there was a TV in the lounge. A group of NYC Emergency Room docs were at a conference and rushed to watch with us, which we did all day and the tears came and came. The Turks were amazing at trying to comfort us all.
I was two weeks into my freshman year at USF. I heard about it because the guy in the dorm room next to me was from Manhattan and was freakin out. I went to my first class in the morning, a religion class. We had the TV on and all of us were watching and then professor came in 15 minutes late. She turned off the TV and we started talking about it. Then they rang the church bells at St. Ignatius and just kept them ringing for like 5 minutes and we sat in silence. Class was called off and a lot of us packed into the church, the fullest I'd ever seen it, and Fr. Pres. Privett gave a speech.
I got the news when I got to school in the morning. It was my sophomore year at an SF high school. We all sat together and watched the news. The girl in front of me was inconsolable. "First, Aaliyah dies, now, THIS?"
On a freeway on the way to work from the vet hospital where I dropped off my cat for a dental procedure. Listening to a music radio oblivious to what was going on until they stopped the music and started transmitting MSNBC instead. Still remember how confused Tom Brokaw sounded live-reporting all of that. Then at work trying to concentrate on my meetings while in reality everyone was listening to the radio before we got sent home.
I was sleeping at a friend's house in Elk Grove, CA, a week before starting college. She ran into the room and yelled, "America's being attacked!" We watched the second tower get hit and then we watched them fall. We went to some terrible chain Mexican restaurant and no one was out; we got our food to go. Everyone assumed San Francisco (then, consequently a suburb near Sacramento) would get attacked. I saw Weezer in Oakland the next day, for some reason they didn't cancel the show but they canceled the shows after that.
Stationed on an Air Force base in Georgia. I had just gone to sleep a couple of hours prior after doing an overnight training exercise when A buddy called me and told me to turn on CNN becase the wtc was hit. I hung up on him and went back to sleep. So he called me again, that time I believed him. Called my sergeant to see what was up, and the entire base was shut down. Everyone was stuck inside whatever building they were in for about 8 hours.
I had lived here less than a year having moved from NYC. I was ironing my shirt for work and flipped on the TV in time to see the second plane hit. I called my wife into the room, she's a native New Yorker. She looked at the TV for a minute and said, "Come on, we'll be late for work." I figured out later that she just went right into shock. She just couldn't process it.
I worked in the Financial District in investment and there were more people leaving than coming in as I made my way to my building. I was very quiet. No traffic. I got to my area and was the last of my group to arrive and was told the markets were all closed and that they had no idea if the attacks were going to continue so the safest place for us was at home. She then turned to me and said "You're from New York aren't you?" I don't remember what I said but later a coworker told me that I was white as a sheet and that it wasn't until then that she was scared because she considered me unshakable.
I made it home and spent the rest of the day doing bong hits with my wife and our roommate watching TV and repeating over and over just how fucked we were going to be. She knew 12 people in the towers that didn't make it out. She also knew just as many firefighters and paramedics who ran in and pulled people out.
Something I remember about the time was how polite and considerate people became after. Also anyone with any connection to the city or the towers sought each other out. We were all in it together for just about a week or so.
I had been laid off from a startup a month previous so it wasn't until I got 3 phone calls in 10 minutes that I got up and turned the TV on. After about an hour I called one of my friends and we walked down to the beach through GG park and I got a strawberry milkshake from the Double Rainbow on Irving on the way back.
It was a gorgeous day out in the avenues, I remember that.
sleeping/skipping high school class. got a call from my friend telling me not to bother showing up as he had been kicked off campus. watched the telly most of the day.
please, USamericans, now let's unite for united we stand. unite and deny each other things like universal healthcare
My roommates woke me up and turned on my TV. I called my dad and said it had to be Osama bin Laden, who else could it be. My roommates had no idea who Osama bin Laden was. Now it's a name every American knows.
Woken by a phone call from my mom and turned on the TV shortly after the 2d plane hit. Saw the first tower fall and noticed my 6 yo son beside me watching, him saying, "What's wrong?" as I cursed and cried. Turned off the tv, tried to explain, felt stupid for letting him see.
I was a junior in high school in Madison, WI. Woke up that morning and I think my Mom told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Like everyone else, I thought it was some small prop plane that had made a terrible mistake. I got to my Art Metal class, where the radio was tuned to NPR. The correspondent mentioned that a tower had collapsed. I couldn't even picture it - I didn't really know what the WTC was. Then they mentioned that the Pentagon had been hit and we all stared at each other. For some reason, we all kept working, probably because we didn't really understand the seriousness of what was happening yet.
I got to English class about an hour later, and the teacher had a TV set up in front, tuned to CNN. He wasn't teaching by then, obviously. We all stood around and watched replays of the first tower falling. I can't remember if we saw the second tower fall live, or on tape. I think I stayed in school until lunch. My friend had to leave because he was so upset. He didn't have a military bone in his body, but he was talking about wanting to join the Marines (which he didn't do).
Because of 9/11, I studied Arabic in college, studied abroad in Cairo and am now doing Middle East-related work.
Woke up in a cheap hotel two hours outside of Budapest with a tasted-cheap-wine-all-night hangover. We took the train back into town at around noon, dumped things at a hostel, and I went out for coffee with a guy from New Zealand.
At the coffee shop, everyone was gathered around the three computers. I went over and asked what happened, and a guy who spoke English told me. I ran, ran, ran back to a bus, back to the hostel, and watched television for 24 hours with the only other American there. I remember feeling very lonely, and very sad.
I was supposed to head back to my university to start the new semester and woke up to my brother banging on my room door telling me NYC was being bombed. My whole family watched footage in the kitchen all day in our PJ's and I chain smoked with my dad talking talking talking about everything that was fucked and would be fucked for years on end.
I was asleep in my dorm room in the Midwest when my girlfriend came by and told me to turn on the TV. I did, saw what was going on (I believe the second tower had been hit by that time) and realizing quickly that I now knew almost entirely as much as anyone on TV did and that I couldn't do anything about it and it had nothing directly to do with me or anyone I knew in such a way as to require my attention, went back to sleep.
I was still required to go to class later that day which was mildly annoying because I would have liked the day off. I only had one afternoon class, but it was exactly the same as it would have been otherwise.
I found it interesting that even by that afternoon people were immediately blaming Islamic terrorists in general as being responsible as well as bin Laden specifically, presumably because he was the only terrorist that they knew of, but without any sort of evidence. I initially was more of the opinion that it had probably been domestic terrorists if only because it was the exact opposite of all the knee-jerk assumptions. In retrospect domestic terrorism might have actually been far worse for our civil liberties and the current state of the country. Just imagine if everything Bush did had been focused entirely inward. *shudder*
I was running on Ocean Beach, really savoring the morning and not looking forward to heading down to my office in Embarcadero 3... I was listening to the radio, I think it was Howard Stern who alerted me to the crazy situation in NY. I ran home and turned on the tv. I could not compute the alert that they had "lost flights in the air" in addition to the video coverage of NYC.
I was woken up by a phone call from my gf. She told me to turn on the tv and see what's going on...I thought she wanted me to see some stupid TV show. Then it happened.
I was alone at home at the time and my brother was in high school. As soon as i focused in on what was happening, I knew exactly what was going on and all I could say over and over to my gf and just aloud was 'they got us, they got us, they finally got us.'
A family member of mine worked at the pentagon on occasion and I kept calling and calling her but all the lines were down and there was nothing we could do. We didn't get through to her for another 3 days.
There wasn't much I could do for my parents since I knew they could take care of themselves, but my brother was up the street at high school, so I said fuck this and wanted to go get him just so I would know he's safe. Luckily he called me and I knew he was ok because I was minutes away from literally grabbing a bat or knife and walking up the street to take him out of class.
Phone call from a family member. Bad hangover. My phone stopped working, so I banged on my roommate's door asking to use his. He said "come in" and I found him in bed with another man. That's how I found out he was gay. Watched the towers fall on CNN; heard girlfriend complain about my shouting (she was hungover too but didn't get out of bed. "What's the World Trade Center?") Classes canceled. Other roommate crawled out of bed around 3pm saying "wow, can you believe that girl flaked on me last night?" I said "Danny, the World Trade Center is completely destroyed." He said "what's the World Trade Center?" I said "the Twin Towers in New York." He said "oh...but that girl, man, she flaked on me." I said "Danny, they're talking thousands dead here, they think it's a terrorist attack, this could mean war." He said "but man, can you believe she stood me up? I mean, dayum." That night we had more girls coming over who wanted to get their minds off events so we rented the movie Hannibal, for some reason. Went outside to smoke and watched F-16s fly over SFSU.
In Japan, had just seen some guests off from a little dinner thing and turned on the English language news that always came on midnight. I was like, just not beleiving it, thinking that people were just spreading rumors, could not fathom that the towers really fell. Watched TV 'til very late then slept and had the most awful dreams, people burning and all of that. The next day I was so shookup I did something stupid on the computer and lost a whole month's worth of work.
I got woken up by a neighbor I didn't particularlly like banging on my door.
I was still fastening the top button as I opened the door, after looking out the 'peephole'.
Figured it was for a friend wanting something, we had a couple of mutual friends....
"Coffee, sugar, me?" was my basic response as I opened the door figureing....
"Turn on the TV to channel 7"
Me..
"What? is someone we know on .... oh crap the news... what did they do?"
I turned on the TV and as he was trying to say something like dude this is serious and I was still saying shut up I'm listening to .....
That was when the second tower live crumbled....
All I could think when I finally grasped and watched the replay of the plane strikes and the first tower going down.....
I woke up , cause of a neighbor, and saw the second tower go down live....
and all I could think at the time as I was waking up was....
It looks like someone removed the wrong piece in a 'Jenga' game.
I haven't played that game since.....
I spent the next 72 hours, except when I ran to the corner mart for more beer , cigs, milk.... the necessity's, recording on VHS ( I have recoreded over the tapes cause I don't want to remember) the network broadcast. Neighbors I liked even got me blank tapes and went to the store for me.
I don't want to remember the moment , even though I choose to etch it into my memory.
I'll never be able to forget how deadly humans can be , despite the fact I am one.
Didn't go to work... Hit a bar instead....3 days later, 1st flight to London for 10 days...
I had just been laid-off and was drinking heavily.
I walked into my living room with a hang-over and my roommate told me that terrorists had just attacked the twin towers. I though at first that this was the next Columbine-level tragedy. Later I would read that was actually one of their fantasies. Spent the next 24 hours binging out on CNN, my internets, and my insecurities.
Funny thing. The day before the Pentagon announced that they had “lost” 2.3 TRILLION dollars and no one blinked an eye. CBS news even covered it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlnQTcLHaMM
I had just done Burning Man the week before so I was still getting over the cultural/spiritual jet-lag but some of those pictures were just too creepy and similar too brush off. Surreal pictures of businessmen in 3-piece suits covered in fine dust and walking in a daze around total destruction. Those images stick with me to this day.
It’s a valid question.
What’s important to you?
Say you wake up tomorrow and your city is annihilated. Burned to the ground.
You’re covered in dust and all of your shit is toast. Burned to the ground.
What’s important to you? What is it that keeps you warm at night?
I think about that every single day.
I was driving down the 101.
My first thought? (And I'm not exactly proud of this:)
"Gary Condit, you are one lucky sonafabitch."
Was walking home from working all night in downtown SF skyscraper to my condo (close to the top floor), also downtown, thinking "fuck... now I have to watch for planes all day."
I am late to the party...but:
Also hungover, was awoken by a roommate who said "they've bombed NYC" - wandered into the TV room and was gobsmacked. Immediately got into the car and drove to the bar where I found the proprietor hanging a flag out front.
Many, many vodka drinks and CNN.
Then went and opened the CD Store....bought some beer, drank it throughout the day til the owner gave us the OK to knock off that afternoon.
Spent the evening walking from bar to bar in San Jose with some friends and got pretty drunk. Talked a couple of girls into dancing on the bar and they did.
Got yelled at by some other girls who didn't think it was appropriate behavior....we all grieve differently, I suppose.