September 11th - what are your stories about that day?

[HeelYeah2012]

I was in 6th grade at the time. Word was spreading through the school about what was happening, but students and teachers alike were a little confused.

Then my dad showed up and got me out of school for early dismissal. I got home and just sat on the couch beside both of my parents and watched the news coverage for the rest of the day, having no clue what all of it would mean for the future.

 

[HeelInTheOzarks]

I was still teaching at the time (middle school, 8th grade). I had to call the media center for something that was probably mundane and they told me what was up. I turned on the TV in my class and just watched with the kids. I did that throughout the rest of the day. Turned the TV off to teach my lesson, then turned it back on when they were working independently. There was a lot of quiet talking among the kids and several questions that I really didn't know how to answer, but still gave the kids a chance to watch and try to comprehend exactly what was going on. The next day, I didn't take up homework and totally retaught the previous day's lesson because it needed to be done that way. One interesting thing - there were 2 Muslim students in the entire school, that most folks, including staff had no idea about until 9/11 happened. When the rumblings started about Muslims and primarily Muslim countries being the perpetrators of 9/11, the kids at the school really rallied around these 2 students, acting as protectors and just being good friends because they were really "hearing it" about their religion from the national press, local press, and general local loudmouths. I still see these 2 to this day - great guys and working in the community to make things better.

One thing that I'll always remember: I ran a LOT back in the early 2000s. That night, I went out for a quick run just to clear my mind, get some fresh air, and just to get away for a bit. It was clear as a bell, much like today is and how I'm assuming tonight will be, and all I could see in the sky was stars. No planes crossing, no strobes flashing, nothing. Just the stars. It was eeeeerie....

My World Civ professor that semester as a college freshman was Egyptian. He spent several of the next class meetings talking to our class about the situation and answering questions about Islam - I know he also was a speaker at some community meetings about it all that he invited us all to attend. I always wonder how tough that was for him - a whole room of white kids in Missouri staring at him.

 

[SmilingJack]

I remember 9/12 when my wife and I took a walk in the neighborhood and we could really hear all the birds and stuff. I’d never realized how loud air traffic was and how much it drowned out the birds. I also remember being grateful my father had passed away in July and didn’t have to deal with it.

 

[UNCMSinLS]

I was working at the federal courthouse that day. It was a beautiful, fall-type day in South Carolina. As I got to work for a 9:00 AM start, I heard a radio report that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought it was some amateur pilot who lost control of a plane. A similar thing had happened with the Empire State Building decades earlier.

I talked a little with the CSOs (Court Security Officers) as I went to my office. They had a small TV set with a shot on the screen of the North Tower billowing smoke. I got to my office and worked a bit. I then got a message from my boss saying that all courthouses were closing due to the "terrorist attacks". I thought, "What the hell is going on?" I spoke to an attorney friend of mine who told me the South Tower had been hit, too. At that point, I knew how serious things were. I ran an errand to the bank, where a teller said "they" were crashing planes into buildings all over the country. I got back to the courthouse and it was nearly empty. I went down to the break room to see that the Pentagon was smoking. At about 1:00 PM, I went home on nearly empty highways.

When I got home, my kids (aged 5 and 7) were there after early-release from school. My wife didn't let any of us watch TV that evening. After that day, the television was on nearly every night for weeks as the relentless parade of depressing stories beamed into our living room. I'm not sure I cried on September 11, but the weeks that followed were filled with enough tears to last a lifetime.

 

[UNCMSinLS]

Were Timothy McVeigh and Osama Bin Laden alive today the events of January 6, 2021 would have made them both smile Putinesquely.

I would argue that Bin Laden knew us far better than we knew ourselves. I suspect he wouldn't have been surprised in the least by January 6 or Trump 2.0. He would simply say, "I told you so." Bin Laden did more to reveal the true nature of this country than anyone since Martin Luther King, Jr. or Frederick Douglass.

 

[UNCMSinLS]

I was in tenth grade. And had PE for first period. I remember changing back into my regular clothes in the locker room after PE and a classmate passing around a printed screenshot of CNN’s lead article about it. Like it was some piece of secret contraband.

My nearly seven-year-old son made secret trips to the basement to take a peek at a TV there before I got home.

 

[UNCMSinLS]

I worked with a guy for many years (post 9-11) who on 9/11 worked at Cantor Fitzgerald but was late to work that morning.

When I lived in NYC in the late 80s, I interviewed with a law firm in a building in front of the towers. I remember getting off the subway at the WTC stop and seeing the towers from the street. I didn't get the job, and I doubt I would have lasted 12+ more years in New York. But the memory of the towers and my proximity to them remains.