Where were you 8 years ago?

[Doug Masters]

I was sitting in the cockpit of a Delta jet after just landing in Atlanta when my world changed forever. 9-11-01. RIP brothers...

[georgeman]

i was siting in my fourth grade class room and the principle came in and told us that a national tragedy has happened. That is all that I can remember

[aydee]

...

I was looking out the window of my brother's office on the 15th floor of Rockerfeller Center, wondering why the heck F-16s flying were south, so low over West Side highway in New York City...

...my world changed forever too when I lost 3 friends in the Towers because they worked there, and one while he tried to help people out.The last one was also a drummer, whos young son has grown into a fine young drummer himself.

9/11 has changed the world forever. It seem to lose its innocence.
Cant believe its been 8 years..wow.

PS- My friend Doris L, just a regular ol advertising agency exec just happened to be downtown at the time and life automatically chose a role for her.
She single-handed saved many many people from greater harm and tended to the injured and the disoriented for a day and a half without going back to her apartment.
Not a part of any rescue team, volunteer group, Red Cross or anything. Just an ordinary gal. extra ordinary, I should say.

For every world renowned villain that makes headlines, there are many more unsung and anonymous heroes and heroines.

...

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I was on the fourth floor of the hospital I work in and looked into a patients room and saw the second plane hit. Not a good memory.

[Doug Masters]

9/11 has changed the world forever. It seem to lose its innocence.

Cant believe its been 8 years..wow.

Every generation has a "lost innocence" event...Pearl Harbor, JFK, 9-11. This one is especially painful. I've been an airline pilot since 1998 and have seen first hand the changes in the industry. Those bastards took alot from me that day and I'll never forget.

[Rezn8]

I was driving back to the DC area at the time. (I live up the hill from the Pentagon - the side that was hit). When I finally reached my house it wreaked of smoke. It was devastating. I grabbed a few essentials and jumped back in the car and tried to make it up to NYC. I grew up in NY and my mom worked for FDNY for about 30 years, so we were very close with many who lost their lives that day. Along with friends from the neighborhood, people I knew from the Pentagon and all those who died in the rush to help, it was a very hard time for all of us.

[Concrete Pete]

Hey Crew,

I was pouring a concrete pool deck in Woodland Hills, CA. when the news came over the radio. The DJ on the radio station made it sound like some retard in a plane hit the tower, then the other plane hit, and we knew it was a terrorist attack.

We stopped pouring for about 15 minutes (cost me money to do so), and said a few prayers for the people in the towers, the rescue crews, and their friends and families.

May we never suffer such an attack again, EVER, and may the guilty be caught and tried.

God bless (what's left of) America, and may we long stand as a country and as a positive influence on the free world. Amen.

Cheers,
C. P.

[dwsabianguy]

I was in my 5th-grade class when it happened. Yup, elementary school; I can't believe it's already been that long. I remember it as though it happened yesterday, and the continuously looped footage is burned into my memory.

[Ainulindale]

whenever i remember 9/11, i think of losing my good friend to a motorcycle accident but shortly after ( exactly one month to the day ) my first daughter coming into this crazy world, my eyes were opened to the best and worst of the world that year...

[DestinationDrumming]

I was working at Sellafield a nuclear reprocessing plant in the North of England when the pictures came on the television. I was trying to work out what targets the terrorists might choose in the UK and the top 2 were Canary Wharf and Sellafield.

I'm sorry for all your losses

[harryconway]

I was living in an apartment in South Pasadena, at the time. Woke up, rolled outta bed, poured my 1st cup-of-joe for the morning, turned on the TV, and there was the first tower a blaze. As my "morning brain" tried to figure out what was happenning, the 2nd plane hit, and it became all to clear that this was no accident.

[eddiehimself]

I remember our school had started late that year and it was actually the first day of my year 6 which is the last year of primary school in england. I didn't see it when it happened. I guess all the teachers tried to keep it hushed up because the first i heard of it was when i got back from school i guess my mum had just left the TV on all day because it was just on with pictures of what had happened. I could hardly believe it when it had happened but i think after that i didn't think of it as seriously as it really was because i was only like 10 to be fair.

[razorx]

I was sitting in my fifth grade english calss. RiP.

[michael drums]

I was laying in bed watching TV, just after kissing my girlfriend(at the time)goodbye before she went to work @ around 8:30 AM. I was channel surfing at around 9:00 AM, when I passed a news channel that had a camera view of the north tower of the WTC, and it was on fire and smoke was just billowing out of the sides and top of it. I was instantly transfixed on this, and almost immediately following, I saw a plane crash into the south tower. This was absolutely surreal for me to see this. Especially when the reporters on the news covering this did not know yet what caused this to the north tower.

And when the south tower was hit, it took about 30 seconds for the reporters to realize that the south tower had just been crashed into by an airplane. I SAW THE SOUTH TOWER GET HIT AS IT HAPPENED IN REAL TIME. And I'll NEVER EVER forget that. And when the south tower was hit, I immediately said to myself that this was NOT accidental. That this was an intentional terrorist attack.

And I've NEVER been the same since.

RIP to all who we lost on that tragic day. In New York, DC, and Shanksville.

Except, of course, the 19 vicious, evil, and inhuman terrorists that changed the world forever.

[Jeremy Bender]

I was was sitting on a locomotive waiting to take our train out and we were told the D.O.T. had all private and commercial airlines and railroads shut down until further notice. Nobody knew at the time if airlines were the only mode of transportation involved.
They released us about six hours later. Terrible times indeed.

[Pollyanna]

In Australia I woke up to the clock radio and sleepily noticed that it wasn't the usual morning radio show. As I came to I realised what had happened. As I stood at the train station there was this weird mood; everyone seemed really pensive.

Over the next few weeks all of our news was completely dominated by 9/11. Then I noticed a small column buried in a newspaper about an earthquake that killed 100,000 Indians. No fuss. Almost no interest. I thought that was kind of grotesque.

People can be brutal but while we focus on each other's foibles nature plays far more deadly hardball.

[Steady Freddy]

I was sitting in front of my computer just like I am now, About the same time of day.
My wife was in the next room watching TV. She called out and said a plane had hit the WTC. I thought it was an accident.

I was posting on a fourm like this one. The forum was suddenly a buzz with the news. Folks from the area were getting the news faster than us on the west coast.

I'd shout out what they were saying and a few minutes later it was on the TV.

I kept bouncing back and forth between the TV and the computer.

It was a horrible day.

[dr.funkenstien]

I was in Grade 4 at elementary school, while the teachers were trying to make us young kids understand what happened. I hope we all, all around the world had a moment or two of silence yesterday.

Brendan Colameco

[Evenstevens280]

In Australia I woke up to the clock radio and sleepily noticed that it wasn't the usual morning radio show. As I came to I realised what had happened. As I stood at the train station there was this weird mood; everyone seemed really pensive.

Over the next few weeks all of our news was completely dominated by 9/11. Then I noticed a small column buried in a newspaper about an earthquake that killed 100,000 Indians. No fuss. Almost no interest. I thought that was kind of grotesque.

People can be brutal but while we focus on each other's foibles nature plays far more deadly hardball.

I know it's horrible, but natural disasters never really have precedence over deliberate disasters.

If a man had gone into the street and shot 10 people dead, that would get more news time than a landslide that has killed 300 just because those 10 people who were shot died because of the actions of another human.

Anyway, 8 years ago I was 12 years old and had just finished school. I was being driven home by my mum and she'd told me what happened. I didn't really know what to make of it until I got home and saw the images on the news. It made my stomach turn and the videos and footage still makes me shiver every time I see it.

[TheGroceryman]

I just started 5th grade, the day went normally until we got an announcement on the PA to stop all classes. we didn't know why, they never told us, the rumors were "something bad happened in the city." We were a catholic school so the whole school paused to go to our church to pray. We then went to home to find out the full story. I really didn't understand it all, didn't really know how much of an effect it had on everyone.

I remember being really scared.

[Pollyanna]

I know it's horrible, but natural disasters never really have precedence over deliberate disasters.

If a man had gone into the street and shot 10 people dead, that would get more news time than a landslide that has killed 300 just because those 10 people who were shot died because of the actions of another human.

True, but I also felt a sense that Americans mattered more because they are "more like us", which I find kinda nauseating.

It's weird how attacks, especially from those perceived as enemies, get us so much more steamed up than natural disasters and accidents. Evene more so when it's a lot of people dying at once. Far more people are killed by road accidents, gunfire and other forms of suicide in the US each year than the number who died in 9/11. Yet where is the focus? Where does most of the preventation work go? On the things people perceive as personal.

I guess that's just how humans are wired, but it's not very logical and probably not best for our welfare either.

[eddiehimself]

True, but I also felt a sense that Americans mattered more because they are "more like us", which I find kinda nauseating.

It's weird how attacks, especially from those perceived as enemies, get us so much more steamed up than natural disasters and accidents. Evene more so when it's a lot of people dying at once. Far more people are killed by road accidents, gunfire and other forms of suicide in the US each year than the number who died in 9/11. Yet where is the focus? Where does most of the preventation work go? On the things people perceive as personal.

I guess that's just how humans are wired, but it's not very logical and probably not best for our welfare either.

What you've got to consider though is that even though as an event the loss of life wasn't perhaps quite as much as some things, the actual repercussions of this event were huge. I mean if we want to start talking in number of deaths then this was directly responsible for the war on the taliban in afghanistan which is estimated to have lead to the deaths of half a million people.

Yeah maybe it is a bit unfair that we take precidence of events that happen near us but at the same time, there are a lot of things like this in the news media though. I mean why did maddy mcann take so much more precedence over all the other little boys and girls that went missing in summer 2007? Why does Lady GaGa take so much precedence over all the other pop groups of the last 20 years which sound EXACTLY the same? It's just what happens. Some of it might be seen as illogical but in this case i don't think it is. The people who are reading western media probably aren't so bothered about an earthquake that happened in inda because they don't know anyone who lives there, and they know that their daily lives are not going to be affected by the outcome of what happens. With the twin towers, our lives have most certainly been affected. Not just airline restrictions but the politicians have used this to enforce many a security measure on our lives that affect many people going about their daily businesses.

Also i would agree with the man made vs natural violence thing too because having said the thing about india, the mumbai attacks of last year did get a lot of news coverage.

[blasterbeat]

Living in Northern California, driving to work when it all started to happen. When I arrived there my co worker asked me if I heard about the jets. I thought he was asking about the football team. Then we turned the radio on. When the second tower fell we actually heard that in the background on our radio. It was something I never want to hear again.

[Skitch]

I was working a swing shift and was the on-call guy when I was paged. When I returned the page I was told that the United States was under attack. When I went to work (I worked unsupervised and alone at the time), I just listenend to the radio trying to find out what was going on and what the lastest news was. When I walked the dog that morning, I knew nothing was ever going to be the same.



Mike

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[Delwrick]

8 years ago I was eating lucky charms getting ready for my first day of fourth grade. You guys make me feel so young...

[Pollyanna]

8 years ago I was eating lucky charms getting ready for my first day of fourth grade. You guys make me feel so young...

Yeah, I know what you mean, Delwrick, all these old people on the forum make the rest of us feel pretty young! *cough cough*

[wy yung]

I was up late and saw it all unfold after the 1st plane hit. I think I watched TV for about 3 straight days.

Mongrels!

[Big_Philly]

I came home from school, my father would have some colleagues from work over that day (he recently started working there), the party had started when I got home and I immediately noticed something had happened by looking at the guests. Then my dad's assistant told me about what happened.

I lost no-one that day so that's a blessing, but even I noticed how the world has changed since.

[bigtom59]

Well it’s going to be a long story, but if you have the time I will try to make it as quick as possible. Lets see, eight years ago I was, auh, I was , I was auh ( where the hell was I eight years ago?)