i was in 8th grade walking down the hall to my first class of the day when the loudest kid in school came rumbling down the hallway yelling "A PLANE JUST CRASHED INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER!!" and i responded by saying "Sweet! Something exciting for once, do we get to go home?"

so yeah, i'm probably going to hell

These always leave me thinking about people who were standing around outside and the next second they're saying 'oh ****' and the next second they're dead.

I remember I had just finished changing from gym class when the principal announced that a plane had hit the WTC. My first thought was that it was some small prop plane and my thoughts were something along the lines "oh man dealing with all this traffic **** is gonna piss my dad off"

When we got to the next period the full magnitude of what happened was revealed, the teacher had gone and gotten a TV. I remember just sitting there in shock and then wondering about my dad and if he was ok. He works in brooklyn but that is not particularly far from Manhattan so I rush down to the office to try and get a hold of him. As people know cell phones were just not working, so I just re-assured myself that everything was ok and went about my business, kinda just in a daze.

When I got home that afternoon my mother told me that she had heard from my dad, he was ok. He was in building 7 (which later collapsed). My cousin was still in te academy at the time and they had them helping with traffic, and my uncle was still unheard from (he was a FF in manhattan). We eventually heard from him, he had luckly heard the evac call and gotten out of there.

Later that night we remembered we had some family on my dad's side that worked in the FDNY in Manhattan, still un heard of. I just needed some time to think so I threw on a movie and went to bed. My mom woke me up a few hours later to tell me they found the remains of one of my cousins and another was still missing.

I remember it was a Tuesday, I did not see my dad until Saturday. He said that this was the first time he had been home since then. He just went home and then pretty much came straight to see me. We went out and he donated some money to a relief effort dispite being the relief effort. And it was no small sum of money either. We spent the rest of that day together.

We had the funeral for my cousin the following week. We had a private wake hte first night, followed by a public viewing the 2nd night. there were 2 showing at the fire house, both of which were mobbed. The line was down the stairs, through the lobby and down the road. It was emotional but I was still ok. I was seeing a lot of family i had not seen in forever, grudges forgotten very quickly. We had the funeral the next day. They closed down the main road in the town of the funeral, which is a pretty busy road. Outside there were 100's of firefighters paying respect. The funeral home is only about 2 minutes from the church. When we got to the church, it was packed to the gills. Im pretty sure we broke the fire code it was so packed.

It was a truely surreal ceremony. The eulogy was chilling, but unbelieveable. I still to this day cannot believe the job this man did. My dad ended up being one of the pallbearers. He was dressed in his NYPD dress, something I have never seen him in. As they were walking out, they were singing proud to be an american by a family friend who is an amazing singer. He walking by and pounded my fist and I just totally ****ing lost it. I think it all hit me then that my cousin was gone we had to do this 3 more times and how close I was to loosing my dad. I just couldnt stop crying. I was one of the last holdouts and man it was tough.

My dad shortly thereafter went to work on the terrorism task force, a combination of both his request and Mayor Guliani. He worked at ground zero and through the rubble for about a year. He one day brought me back a piece of glass from the WTC, i still have it and will forever have it.

9th grade, gym class, we all came in to watch after the first plane hit, and pretty much stayed there for a few hours. watched the second plane hit, first tower collapse, pentagon get hit, the works. pretty much saw it all on live tv. what a day.

Damn.

I was scheduled to go back to Boston to help my parents move on September 25th, which I still did, but as soon as I could I drove down to NYC to see my friends there. NYC was indeed a different feeling place around then. My first morning there I started to walk from my hotel at 39th and Lex down to Ground Zero. After only a few blocks I reached an armory that I think had functioned as a center for victims. It was still plastered with photos of the missing, pleas for their safe return. By then, of course, it was a memorial - many of the posted pictures contained stories about who these people were and how much they were missed. I stood there on that street in NYC and wept like a ****ing baby (which I feel like doing again now), and I wasn't the only one, there were people just standing there, reading and crying. I had been so angry, but in an instant I became so very sad for us, for all of us, because of the evil that men do. So I cried my eyes out, and then turned around and went back to my hotel, I wasn't able to handle going all the way.

Now, to go through the thread and delete troll posts. If you don't want to participate in this thread, don't, but do NOT post inflammatory things for the sake of getting people riled up. This is not a thread for politics, conspiracy theories, or whatever.

No great stories as although I live in NYC now was in 10th grade and was going for first time at Thanksgiving, so never saw them standing. I do want to link to this Esquire article deemed one of their best 7 articles of all time. All of them are great, and some hark back to the 60's, but the one about 9/11 and the jumpers was especially poignant: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN

Lol, this is so sick. Building collapses at 9:59 and it's now 10:03 and Brokaw/Couric still have no idea what happened since it's just a haze of smoke.

I always listened to the radio falling asleep and when I woke up the next morning in a dreamlike fog with the news, it was truly a surreal experience. Even after I fully woke up, I didn't believe it until I turned on the TV.

One of my more vivid memories, which has taught me a bit about myself.

My Mom calls about an hour after. I assume she's calling to make sure I'm ok. After all- Seattle has Boeing and significant military bases around it. We're a target.

She is actually calling to tell me that she's ok- because there was some rumor about jets in the air to intercept a plane above Anchorage or something.

We can always find a way to make it all about us, imo.

I remember I was 13 getting ready to go to school, I was in the shower and my mom told me to come in the room and watch the tv. this was right after the first plane had hit, and it wasn't for sure a terrorist attack yet. then i saw the 2nd plane hit and that moment was pretty crazy, will remember that the rest of my life. I don't really remember feeling anything, not even horror or shock, probably desensitized by video games and movies, and I distinctly remember feeling like i was just watching a movie. It didn't really sink in til I went in my room to finish getting ready, and I remember so clearly thinking "those ****ers that flew the planes are burning in hell right now." made me feel a little better, lol. but that whole day was gnarly, and the rest of the week too, it happened on a tuesday and til friday pretty much every class was spent talking about it.

It's weird to think that future generations will look back on the 2000's decade, and this will be the event that clearly defines it.

Along with my own story earlier, my uncle had a meeting in one of the top floors. He decided to skip it and play golf instead, so he sent 2 co-workers in his place. They called the office and told the secretary to get a hold of their wives, tell them they love them and that they are not getting out.

My uncle was in therapy for a long time knowing that he sent those poor guys to their doom.

just was out of college living with some guys that were still in college.
they were up all night the prior night doing whatever it is they did, i walked into the living room and they said "some planes crashed into the wtc, you gotta see this",
watched the tv for like 5 seconds and then left for work like any other day and didnt think much of the whole thing.

the magnitude didnt hit me until much later, and im shocked to see so many people had such an immediate response to it. maybe i was too young too realize that it was such a big deal, im not sure.

Like everyone, that day is very vivid for me. I was in DC, and could see the smoke from the Pentagon from my office.

But mostly what I recall about the aftermath is how I got caught up in the hysteria and national pride. I was angry, shocked. I hung an American flag. I've always been anti-war but in those days, I wanted someone to pay.

Looking back, I feel ashamed at how my pride for my country and the need to both lash out and to reach out got twisted by our leaders. Now I think about the flag I hung and it seems silly, and a symbol more of what went wrong in the later years than a symbol of what I was feeling at the time.

I read a few stories about how the World Cup really helped Germany become ok with nationalism and pride again -- how overt symbols of loving your country were shied away from for a long time, and how hosting the World Cup helped to repair some of that.

I feel like 9/11 could have done that, but our government pissed on any goodwill we had and now I'm just as reticent to show that nationalism as I ever was.

My school was one of the few that decided that they should pretend the whole event was not happening. TVs were not allowed for showing the events, discussion was not allowed in classrooms, etc. Meanwhile everyone knows roughly what happened, some people had family working in the city (my school was NE of Philly), and even some teachers are allowing discussion to take place. The situation was handled so ****ing poorly that it frustrates me thinking about it - I didn't see the images until I got home that afternoon.

I was working at my job at a copy place (in Germany) when a customer came in saying something incoherent about "stupid Americans getting it this time" or something and I was confused and considered him to be more than moderately crazy.

I remember turning on the radio, as we had no TV in the shop. So my first four or five hours I listened to the radio and this was a rather surreal sensation, as I always felt like I had to see this to really believe it. After getting home in the evening (around noon NYC time) I immediately turned on the TV and watched deep into the night. I don't remember whether I went to university the next day, I just remember that it made me feel very sad. Strangely enough I didn't think about the victims too much, but just felt sad that human beings were able to do such a thing.

I think that's generally what I find most abhorrent about all kinds of wars. Not that there are people suffering, but what they bring out in the nature of mankind.

Wow, Neil Cavuto just made it. He's in the studio covered in duct explaining how he was a block from the building when it came down.

driving while listening to Howard Stern. i called my wife and told her to turn on the tv.
definitely agree that surreal is the perfect word to describe it all.

I was a senior in highschool, I was skipping second period about to get a BJ from some ugly chick and there was an announcement on the PA system. She started freaking out and decided to go back to class.

For the past 2 years I watch loose change and smoke a fatty to remember what 9/11 really was

My school was 4 blocks from the WTC and I was in photography class. Students were told to go to homeroom and then to the first floor to wait for further instructions. At some point we felt a light rumble, which I think was the first tower going down. Eventually we all went outside, none of the faculty really knew what to do and just told everyone to go home.

I live in Queens and unfortunately the 1/2/3/9 line stopped running for whatever reason, so a few of my friends and I walked from Chambers Street up to 42nd Street Times Square, only to be told that the 7 train wasn't running either. Walked up to 85th Street or something in the UES to my friend's place and waited there for a few hours until trains were back up and running. That was probably the most I've ever walked in one day.

I'm not a USA USA type of patriot, but I still get an insta-lump in throat when I see videos of September 11, it's the only public event I can think of that has such an emotional grip on me. I was living in Hawaii at the time, but people called and woke me up at like 3:30am, and I remember how all the sunlight and explosions on tv seemed really vivid in the darkness and stillness of my dinky studio on the side of the island. I definitely called a bunch of my Hawaii friends with the standard, "wake up--turn on your tv." I knew two people in the towers but they were both evacuated and through email we found out they were ok pretty quickly. My sister was living in NYC then and even though we 99.999% knew she was fine, it was still a relief to confirm.

For the next month or so my ass was glued to the chair in front of my TV, I gulped it down. It's embarrassing but at the time it felt like equal parts Pearl Harbor and OJ, a major intellectual and emotional event fueled by gallons of that weird adrenaline we get from good gossip. I remember for like two months I would wake up wondering if today was going to be the day that Al Qaeda followed up with another strike. I wasn't scared, I didn't feel "terrorized," but I was just thinking that if I was Bin Laden, I would want to strike again, right now...the sense was that so many people were hanging by a thread...and that four well-placed suicide bombers in the next week would have shut **** down for a month.

Regarding the question upthread, about how an emotional reaction without a direct personal connection to September 11 can be seen as a sign of weakness...crazy talk. Like I said, on the patriotism scale I probably come in at about a 3, but I sure felt the pull that day: they attacked americans and they would have eagerly attacked me. And you didn't have to be american, we have an instinctive bond with other people just because we're people, and obviously this bond can get trumped by competing bonds/motivations, but it's always there, and if a meteorite clobbered Tehran tomorrow and the only thing on tv for the next week was footage of ten million turbans running around scared and confused and on fire...I think someone would have to have a pathological lack of sympathy/empahty not to be moved. And of course September 11 wasn't a neutral meteorite, which makes it worse.

It turned out that by virtue of hometown I knew a few people who were friends with Todd "Let's Roll" Beamer, and my best friend in NYC knew five or six people who died, but watching them be sad about it didn't really make me too sad. The emotions I felt and feel were less about individuals and more about scope.

Wrong forum.

istewart, thanks for the links.

I just though about whether today's blogging and twittering culture would have changed the perception of this. I know people called their loved ones from the burning towers and the planes, but I am somehow happy that this was kept in the families. I really think a "help us" kind of tweet would make me feel devastated.