An archived thread from Something Awful on the morning of 9/11
326 replies, posted
As a young spanish kid I remember 9/11 just comig home back from school, seeing my mother watching the news and all the 9/11 rustle going on, and I was like 'meh just another disaster' and went straight to my room and forget about it
Memories of that morning are surprisingly fresh after all these years.
Was a freshmen in a tiny private school in the middle of a ghetto. it was either still homeroom or the first period class. no one had any clue what was happening until someone turned on a small radio for some music and got a special report of a plane crashing into a tower. we all listened to the radio quietly for a while until we just needed to actually see it.
We went around, spreading the news and grabbing of the school's two 80's era tvs. wheeled the cart into the classroom and set about finding a way to make some sort of aerial. things from paperclips to a tire iron (to much amusement) were brought in. eventually we used a paperclip stuffed into the attached vcr that was then connected to some cloths hanger wire and finally just held by someone as a human antennae.
when the image cleared, the first thing we saw was the first tower beginning to collapse. a few jokes were made at first, but eventually the gravity of the situation hit. not too long after, nearly the entire school, students and teachers, had crammed into that small classroom to sit or stand where they could. time had stopped for us. classes forgotten. school forgotten. just everyone in the room staring at the tv in complete silence for the rest of the morning until everyone just went home.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;40315453]I read nearly that entire thread. Relived every damn minute of that morning. Hard not to get a bit emotional as you go through peoples' reactions. You see the jokes taper off as the gravity of the situation sinks in, and by the time the second tower fell there was just shock left.
Never before and never since has there been a day that will be so clearly remembered by every American who was old enough to understand what was happening.[/QUOTE]
Hell, I was 6 goddamn years old and I was [b]still[/b] freaking out.
[QUOTE=Psychokitten;40319884]Hell, I was 6 goddamn years old and I was [b]still[/b] freaking out.[/QUOTE]
I was 8 at the time... oddly enough I don't remember much. Maybe because I was far away, living in Vancouver. I just remember my dad showing me the towers exploding and collapsing, my 6 year old brother saying "cool!" and my parents saying "NOT COOL!!"
[QUOTE=Psychokitten;40319884]Hell, I was 6 goddamn years old and I was [b]still[/b] freaking out.[/QUOTE]
I was scared. Little 6 year-old me wasn't sure why all of his teachers were crying, why everyone was being taken out of school, or why my parents were so shaken up and in teachers when I got home. I do remember eventually figuring out that we were attacked and that it was bad. Actually, it is my first memory outside of my own personal bubble.
[IMG]http://puu.sh/2C4Sk[/IMG]
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;40318658]Better not listen to this then.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOzSeu6sJA[/media]
(Honestly surprised this wasn't posted yet)
(Also if you have never listened to this before and you aren't desensitized to this sort of stuff, this will probably give you nightmares)
It's weird to go back and read everything in that thread.
Freaky[/QUOTE]
Watching that... yeah, now I remember why I want enlist.
I remember that my family had gone camping for a few days, and so we had no contact with the rest of the world during 9/11 and had no idea it happened. So when we got back home, we were all really confused as to why everyone was so upset.
wow just so many "hurr die turban heads murica is the greatest" posts
"Some Arab Fuck City Neeeds to be nuked. This is fucking intolerable."
[QUOTE=archival;40320655]wow just so many "hurr die turban heads murica is the greatest" posts
"Some Arab Fuck City Neeeds to be nuked. This is fucking intolerable."[/QUOTE]
well how the fuck would you feel, in the heat of the moment, you don't know any facts at all, all you know is that your country has been terribly attacked and you're just furiously mad at everything
God I remember that day. I was a sophomore in high school. Sitting at home, waiting for school (I had first period off), watching Good Morning America reporting on a plane crash. Saw the second plane hit, as did my dad in another room. I was frightened. Got to school, heard about the Pentagon. I was terrified by that point. Sat through a couple classes, watching it all unfold live. One kid in my US History class got a phone call, left the room. Teacher chased him out, then came back in alone. He had an uncle in Tower 2.
Sat through another class before I felt so sick I went home. Sat there in silence with my parents, watching the news for the rest of the day. Was weird to go outside, and not see or hear a single thing (lived under the approach path for 2 civilian airports and an air force base).
Everything was silent until about 9pm I heard a propeller plane fly overhead. Found out a few days later it was a plane loaded up with blood from the Red Cross heading to NYC.
ON that day I was at an airport where i was going on a plane to new york but it got canceled to these events. I was only about 5(can't quite remember how i was) when it happened so 9/11 didn't really hit me hard, it does now though.
[QUOTE=Northy66;40320024][IMG]http://puu.sh/2C4Sk[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Reply:
[quote]OMG BUSH IS SMUCH A DOOFUS AND HEILL START A WARE WITH PEACE-LOVRING OSAMA BIN LANADEN.
If this was terrorism (which it appears to be), the smoking crater left over where Terrorist HQ once stood will be the start and the end.[/quote]
Swing and a miss
I wonder where some of these SA users are now...
[QUOTE=theblah12;40315624]Not sure, though there's also this: [URL]http://archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive[/URL]
The videos seam to be split up into 30 minute or so chunks here rather then 30 seconds.[/QUOTE]
Wow, its interesting how so many stations go from a slow news day, to "holy shit the WTC was hit".
Also, I was watching the Moscow one. For some reason, they break to American commercials briefly after they do their initial coverage, and go to some Russian TV show? Bizarre.
[editline]17th April 2013[/editline]
Although I don't remember much about the coverage. There was very little emotional impact for me when it happened. I was in school, 9 years old, and we didn't have TVs hooked up to cable. All I heard over the PA system was that the WTC was hit and should say a prayer (Catholic school). Unfortunately, me not really knowing what the WTC was at the time, I didn't really understand the gravity of the situation. For me, it was business as usual until I came home from school and could actually see it on the news when it finally clicked.
I was in Kindergarten, and the Catholic School I was at let us out early after I happened. I had no clue what was really going on.
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;40318658]Better not listen to this then.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOzSeu6sJA[/media]
(Honestly surprised this wasn't posted yet)
(Also if you have never listened to this before and you aren't desensitized to this sort of stuff, this will probably give you nightmares)
It's weird to go back and read everything in that thread.
Freaky[/QUOTE]
Oh fuck, that's terrifying.
[QUOTE=Mike Tyson;40321015]I wonder where some of these SA users are now...[/QUOTE]
I wonder where the friends of the guy who said he had friends in there is.
I was a freshman in high school, and it happened just before my first class of the day, English. The entire school day was either, "oh wow let's talk about it," or, "let's TRY and just... do what we do every day." School was let out a bit early, and that entire day felt really fucking weird.
I think if you remember back to that time, if you were an American, you could slowly feel the collective rage of the country building.
Six years old at the time myself.
I feel almost as if I'm kind of disconnected from the entire public perception of the event. My parents never took me out of school. I didn't hear about it while I was in school. I barely remember what happened when I got home, though apparently I got to stay up later while my parents watched the presidential address. All I remember is hearing about people trapped under rubble and first responders and volunteers trying to get them out. I think that I had always assumed it was some kind of natural disaster.
I didn't really understand it until that point in my life where I started to ask questions about things like that. I assume it's usual for people to eventually start to ask about things like cancer and death when they start to widen their sphere of comprehension as they mature. I guess in my case 9/11 was also on the list.
There's was just this outpouring of fear and rage over it, and although I can sympathize, I've never felt it myself.
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;40318658]Better not listen to this then.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOzSeu6sJA[/media]
(Honestly surprised this wasn't posted yet)
(Also if you have never listened to this before and you aren't desensitized to this sort of stuff, this will probably give you nightmares)
It's weird to go back and read everything in that thread.
Freaky[/QUOTE]
I knew what was coming when I heard Tower 2, and dreaded awaiting the moment it happened.
When it happened I was 4, so I don't remember seeing it on TV. but when me and my mom were discussing the Boston Marathon yesterday, she told me she was reminded of 9/11, and even at my young age, I knew damn well what happened, crying my eyes out walking out, then seeing the towers on fire.
[QUOTE=Demache;40321034]Wow, its interesting how so many stations go from a slow news day, to "holy shit the WTC was hit".
Also, I was watching the Moscow one. For some reason, they break to American commercials briefly after they do their initial coverage, and go to some Russian TV show? Bizarre.
[editline]17th April 2013[/editline]
Although I don't remember much about the coverage. There was very little emotional impact for me when it happened. I was in school, 9 years old, and we didn't have TVs hooked up to cable. All I heard over the PA system was that the WTC was hit and should say a prayer (Catholic school). Unfortunately, me not really knowing what the WTC was at the time, I didn't really understand the gravity of the situation. For me, it was business as usual until I came home from school and could actually see it on the news when it finally clicked.[/QUOTE]
Well it's a different country and continent, so they didn't react with live footage of every second of it. Also it seems to be a satellite version of the channel broadcast in the US - the logo is different, at least, and it explains those adverts.
I was 7. In Australia. Had to be dragged away from the TV. It hit me pretty hard.
The internet is amazing though. No one is ever going to wonder what life was like in the past as long as we have archived internet. This is pretty much like living through the whole thing again.
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;40318658]Better not listen to this then.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOzSeu6sJA[/media]
(Honestly surprised this wasn't posted yet)
(Also if you have never listened to this before and you aren't desensitized to this sort of stuff, this will probably give you nightmares)
It's weird to go back and read everything in that thread.
Freaky[/QUOTE]
Oh jesus christ it's this video again. It's sort of okay until the very end where everything hits you like a brick. You KNOW it's going to happen, it even says it on the captions at the bottom, but you still don't expect it. There is something about it that nothing else has been able to capture.
[QUOTE=Tigster;40318908]The end is just nauseating.[/QUOTE]
It definitely makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I always gloss over 9/11 threads, not trying to remember past where I was. This video snapped me right back to that day and those that followed.
A volunteer fireman came to my grade school a short while after it happened to talk to us about the efforts that firemen and other emergency personal made that day. Firemen here have a box of some sort that will start beeping loudly to let all those around know if he or she is on the ground, incapacitated. So that night I watched the news, which had first-person video of a fireman who ran into the smoke and rubble to pull as many people out as he could with the scores of other firemen. The entire screen goes grey from the smoke as he goes in deeper. And then you hear it.
You hear it. The [i]beeping[/i].
So loud and so often you can't tell how many of them there had to be.
[QUOTE=gerbe1;40321933]I was 7. In Australia. Had to be dragged away from the TV. It hit me pretty hard.
The internet is amazing though. No one is ever going to wonder what life was like in the past as long as we have archived internet. This is pretty much like living through the whole thing again.[/QUOTE]
Not sure that's such a good thing, considering the subject matter. Still, we promised ourselves that we wouldn't forget.
Its simply amazing how patriotic everyone was after they saw the first tower collapse. It really shows you the heart of being an american.
My father is actually a first responder, and at the time of the attacks he was on leave due to cancer (which he survived). It was very possible I could have lost him. Kind of ironic to say the least.
Just finished reading through that entire thread. Brought back a lot of painful memories just watching the recaps of the planes hitting the WTC on my school's TVs (I was 13 at the time). Everyone was very shaken that day trying to comprehend what was happening. Well, some. Others were just going about their business, trying to carry on with the day, but we knew how much this shook us. I wasn't there, and neither were my classmates and teachers, but we felt it. We sure as hell felt it. Confusion, anger, sadness.
Nowadays, Every time I look at one of those license plates or bumper stickers that say "We will never forget," I just want to reply, "damn right we won't forget." Moments like 9/11 leave such an impact that we CAN'T forget it, ever.
That, and, we promised those victims that we wouldn't.
[QUOTE=froztshock;40321767]Six years old at the time myself.
I feel almost as if I'm kind of disconnected from the entire public perception of the event. My parents never took me out of school. I didn't hear about it while I was in school. I barely remember what happened when I got home, though apparently I got to stay up later while my parents watched the presidential address. All I remember is hearing about people trapped under rubble and first responders and volunteers trying to get them out. I think that I had always assumed it was some kind of natural disaster.
I didn't really understand it until that point in my life where I started to ask questions about things like that. I assume it's usual for people to eventually start to ask about things like cancer and death when they start to widen their sphere of comprehension as they mature. I guess in my case 9/11 was also on the list.
There's was just this outpouring of fear and rage over it, and although I can sympathize, I've never felt it myself.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I feel kinda bad because it didn't really effect me that much when I was a kid either. A natural disaster kind of fits with what it felt like to me.
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