Slightly Premature 9/11 Memories and Reactions Thread

captainbrass

It's a couple of days to the 10th anniversary, but I thought I'd start this now as the media is full of this anyway. What are your memories (if any) of 11 September 2001 and the attack on the World Trade Centre? Has it affected your life in any way since?

I remember being at work in London, being told the news by some secretary and saying something stupid like "Oh, dear" because I just didn't know how to react. I also remember that the Sunday afterwards my church sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" as a show of solidarity, which is the sort of thing they would never normally have done (without complaining). Obviously, there's been huge consequences since, but apart from 7/7 in London and all the changes in airport security I can't say they've truly affected me personally.

Nova

I was just a kid.

A couple of kids in my class built a huge tower of wood sticks in class and threw paper planes at it. Our teacher went nuts.

Legionnaire

I remember waking up in the morning and going to watch TV. Dad was already there watching. I was 6, so I didn't understand what was happening or why I couldn't watch Teletubbies or any of the other shows. I remember getting annoyed that, no matter what channel I changed it to, it was still the same. If I remember correctly, the background of the news report was solid blue. It was about 7, 7:10 in the morning. Naturally, the trip my family took around America was made a lot more of a hassle because of airport security, but in the wake of what happened I can understand. That's about the extent of its effect on my life.

MillerCross

I was a kid, too.

I don't remember much beyond coming home to see my whole family huddled around the TV going nuts about it and me thinking it was a movie.

Bob

all  I can remember is being a kid and not thinking it was real, i just stood there speechless.

Central Avenue

I was 11. I was in sixth-grade social studies when the principal made an announcement...something like "Teachers, you may now turn on your classroom TVs to see the events that have been unfolding throughout the day." But the classroom we were in was new and hadn't had a TV installed yet, so the teacher grabbed her radio and we listened to the news instead. I remember being sorta fascinated but not really feeling anything...I sorta lacked empathy as a child.

I also remember that when the bell rang, the teacher in the next class demanded that we stop paying attention to the news and go back to focusing on our classwork. That pissed me off. A lot.

Waltzy

I remember being like "mom can I play Breath of Fire III now please?"

MillerCross

you neeeeerd

Malkavian

I was asleep when the announcement was made and as such was really confused as to what the hell people were talking about people were talking about.

InsanityAddict

It sure helped me learn the distinction between the Empire State Building and the WTC. Also, it probably was in my final year of primary school, as I remember a lot of off-colour jokes we didn't understand being made the very next day already, which was the standard response to any newsworthy disaster, really.

ClockworkUniverse

It kinda bothers me that people are still making this huge of a deal out of it. if the purpose of the attack was to inspire terror and anger, we're really helping out with that.

TheConductor

I remember being 9 and hearing about it and...not really caring. As horrible as that sounds.

Nova

It kinda bothers me that people are still making this huge of a deal out of it. if the purpose of the attack was to inspire terror and anger, we're really helping out with that.

so says Post 11

Alkthash

Oh great, now I'm dreading all the people telling us how they were personally affected by it. Look, unless you lived in New York or in DC or had family there, no you weren't personally affected by it. You have no damned reason to get so emotional about it all.

Elbeem

Cross-posting from the TVTropes thread:

I was 23, and the funny thing about it is that to this day I can't remember a single thing I thought or felt as the events were unfolding. I know I was aware of what was happening, I know I watched the footage, but I simply can't tell you how I reacted to it. I guess I just mentally checked out from the shock of it all.

I can echo what another poster said about being angry the next day, when I heard about an enraged old man in a nearby town trying to run over some guy dressed in traditional Sikh clothing as he was walking out of a Walmart. I remember hoping that they threw the book at the driver, because tragedy is never an excuse for bigotry or for attempting to harm innocent people.

What stands out the most clearly in my mind was how it affected my Mom, as I could see when I visited home the next day that she was a nervous wreck. I heard from her and my younger siblings that in the
weeks to follow she remained glued to the TV, watching the footage of the towers coming down and people jumping out of buildings over and over again. She was never the same after that, and was later diagnosed with PTSD with the events of 9/11 likely source.

That's when I realized that for all the benefits a 24 hour news cycle can bring, it can also be dangerous for those who aren't mentally prepared for it.


edit: ^  If you're dreading this so much, why are you reading a thread that's sole purpose is for people to talk about such things?

Chagen

I have no memories of it. At all.

I was only 5/6 at the time.

Malkavian

I'm not old, Chagen.

Stop making med feel like I am.

snowbull

Yeah, I was probably 6 at the time. If I even knew what was going on I wasn't really interested. I recall there being a moment of silence at some point and having a hard time keeping still for the duration of it.

ClockworkUniverse

I was nine. All I really understood at the time was that bad things had happened.

Forzare

I would have been seven, about to turn eight, I believe. 

I was in third grade.

I remember when it happened, and I vaguely remember first hearing about it.  I don't remember what my reaction was.  I remember watching it on the news.

I do remember one kid getting taken out of school to be homeschooled right after, though.

Icalasari

I was 9 at the time if I recall

I didn't care then, I still don't now. People should let the ones with family or friends there grieve, or somehow got extremely effected (the PTSD example). Otherwise, shut up and stop giving terrorists what they want

RedEyedAbyss

A little young at the time, so I didn't quite get the full implication of it, but the aftermath of the attacks which were exploited for political reasons was one thing that moved me leftward on the political spectrum. Also, I sometimes wondered how Americans would react if it was someone else that was attacked, particularly a country that the US have (or had) animosity towards (thinks of the douchebags that claimed the Japanese earthquake was retribution for Pearl Harbor; let alone that wasn't the worst thing they did in the war years).

Schitzo

I was 12. When I woke up and wandered into the living room, my sister was watching TV. when I saw the footage, I asked "hey, what movie are you watching?"

She turned back to look at me without saying a thing. She was crying.

Me. "... ... ..."

Elbeem

I think the great lesson to be learned in this thread is that Elbeem is an old, old man who should get back to yelling at whippersnappers for messing up his lawn.

captainbrass

And Captain Brass should get back to the Sunshine Retirement Home for the Elderly and Confused. Which, if the nurses are hot enough, probably wouldn't be so bad.

(Actually, I usually work on the assumption that the average age here is about 20, so I knew I'd get a lot of "I was in school"-type comments. I was curious anyway.)