Official 9/11/2001 REMINISCENCE thread

I trained in the World Trade Center II building as a Dean Witter employee. I graduated broker training at the Top of the World Restaurant in World Trade Center I building. Four years later watched the buildings going down while printing client account statements for fear the fecords would never be recovered. Weird time, but so is 2020 in the Covid era.

Larry remembers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fhl5h86Qq0

Was in first grade class when the actual event happened. Our teacher didn't mention anything to us but I'm sure she knew something was up. Saw the recordings after school of how the plane crashed with my family and their friends.

Everyone was shocked.

My biggest memory is of a coworker calling his son who worked in downtown DC and yelling at him to "get out of there". Lots of crazy rumors were flying about additional hijacked planes. Can't imagine how crazy it would have been with the social media we have today. It also was an incredibly nice day of weather at least in the DC area.

I was working on a project in Tanzania at the time. I remember it was on the radio, from the tone of the news reader I could pick up something was up. My driver translated for me. Watched it on satellite TV in camp that afternoon. Crazy times.

As a non-American not much changed, except all the PITA travel rules when flying.

kingojamin wrote:

It also was an incredibly nice day of weather at least in the DC area.

It was one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen in NYC. Absolutely clear sky: no clouds and not a shred of the usual haze. Perfect unblemished cerulean.

kingojamin wrote:

My biggest memory is of a coworker calling his son who worked in downtown DC and yelling at him to "get out of there". Lots of crazy rumors were flying about additional hijacked planes. Can't imagine how crazy it would have been with the social media we have today. It also was an incredibly nice day of weather at least in the DC area.

Funny you mention that. My memory from 9/11 was hearing about the second plane hitting the WTC on the Howard Stern radio show. I didn't have a cell phone at the time (2001), but if I did, I would have definitely called my mother-in-law who worked in the Pentagon. She was in ring D nearby the crash location and saw some coworkers die. Do you know what saved many of them? They were gathered near the TVs in the center of the Pentagon, watch NYC on the news.

I always like watching movies up until the 90's that show the Twin Towers, or shows like Friends. It's good to look into the past when things seemed better. It is probably the worst day in the history of humanity. Airport security is really annoying now too. I wish you could just literally walk up to a plane and jump in as you feel and buy a ticket at the door.

I was a newly married college student. My wife and I lived on one side of campus and she worked at a building mid-campus. My classes were on the other end of campus so I would pass her work on the way to class.

She had gone to work for the day and I stopped in to say hi. She had the tv on and I arrived moments before the second plane hit the second tower. I watched it live, as many did.

I did not make it to class that day.

kibitzer wrote:

kingojamin wrote:

It also was an incredibly nice day of weather at least in the DC area.

It was one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen in NYC. Absolutely clear sky: no clouds and not a shred of the usual haze. Perfect unblemished cerulean.

It was a beautiful morning. The day before was hot and humid and an afternoon rain shower which I got caught in broke the humidity. After the towers fell there was smoke and grey not just that day but for a while.

Was studying abroad in Australia, and had just gone to sleep - the 14 hour time difference put it around 10:30pm. A short while later one of my roommates knocked on my door and said I needed to come downstairs. I brushed it off until the other two roommates were yelling to come downstairs. Watched as the second plane hit.

We stayed up all night just staring at the TV. Our cell phones with prepaid SIM cards weren't getting out to the States so it was a full day before I was able to get a hold of my family in NJ, and my college friends in DC. Had a number of family friends working at the trade center who didn't come home that day.

We had no internet so relied just on the phones. Can't imagine what that would look like today with all the various forms of connection.

Being half a world away was a weird way to experience it. Most people we met would get so sad when they heard we were Americans. But I didn't really feel the full effect until I got home. I remember it was December 11th. I got to LAX and my flight from LA to Newark was empty. Nobody seemed to be flying. The flight attendants got really sad when I told them I'd been away since July. The towers weren't there anymore when I landed in the cold rain.

Although I was only 5, my mom decided to homeschool me for a year so I have very vivid memories of that day. She always had news playing in the background so I saw everything live. It was such a nice day out. For some reason the weather stood out to me a lot. Even being that young, it felt like a paradox for it to be so beautiful out and yet so tragic of a day.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

watched the buildings going down while printing client account statements for fear the fecords would never be recovered

are you saying you were potentially put in harm's way to print out account statements?

Did you know 3 World Trade Towers came down on 9-11(not 2)? yes or no?

alsoulsmatter wrote:

Did you know 3 World Trade Towers came down on 9-11(not 2)? yes or no?

mebbe

alsoulsmatter wrote:

Did you know 3 World Trade Towers came down on 9-11(not 2)? yes or no?

I was in lower Manhattan at the time, so yes, I was very aware.

Further to the weather that day: In addition to the perfect blue skies, there was a north wind blowing. We Manhattanites were lucky that most of smoke from that morning was pushed south--it must have been terrible in SI and parts of Brooklyn and NJ--but even so the burning-computer smell lingered for days and days.

Definitely a flashbulb memory. Details I remember...

- 4th grade

- I'd just come back from Tuesday's morning Spanish class

- The class room and where I was sitting when there was an announcement

- The wheeled-in TV playing the news coverage of people jumping out the windows rather than burning to death

- A odd speech one of the teachers made concerning "e pluribus unum" with the aid of a quarter

NYBoy wrote:

alsoulsmatter wrote:

Did you know 3 World Trade Towers came down on 9-11(not 2)? yes or no?

I was in lower Manhattan at the time, so yes, I was very aware.

Further to the weather that day: In addition to the perfect blue skies, there was a north wind blowing. We Manhattanites were lucky that most of smoke from that morning was pushed south--it must have been terrible in SI and parts of Brooklyn and NJ--but even so the burning-computer smell lingered for days and days.

Yes it was terrible in Brooklyn, but how could you complain.

a day wrote:

Although I was only 5, my mom decided to homeschool me for a year so I have very vivid memories of that day. She always had news playing in the background so I saw everything live. It was such a nice day out. For some reason the weather stood out to me a lot. Even being that young, it felt like a paradox for it to be so beautiful out and yet so tragic of a day.

i was 14 - this seemed like the birth of the 24 hour news network to me.