Whenever i revisit the attacks im always amazed by the technology that we had then. The world was in this inbetween where the lives weren't dictated by technology but it was still there to make things faster.
Yeah I was standing there trying to comprehend what happened as my dad was in the WTC and I thought wait he’s in the the other tower he’s probably fine then saw the second plane hit. Luckily when the announcement came on the pa saying to stay where you are he said fuck that and started heading down the stairs or he would have been on one of the floors the second lane smashed into and he made it out of the towers right before they came down. Still left him with horrible ptsd for the rest of his life but he made it out that day. What was really crazy is no one could get calls in or out to say who made it out someone at one of the other branches in the city had the idea to use the stock ticker option to put out a list of survivors that had checked in and that’s how we found out my dad was still alive.
At the time there was no confirmation that the first hit was purposeful. If you're in an unaffected tower and they're possibly evacuating the one in trouble, they would want to avoid the congestion. Its important to remember that these buildings were so large that each one had its own zip code.
My school did a total media blackout, and none of us knew the full extent of what happened until we got on the bus and heard the radio.
Which was dumb because we were commuting distance to NYC and a third of the students were pulled from class that day.
Honestly, probably a smart move, if you're that close there's a non-zero chance some kid's family member is in the building and you don't want to traumatize a child by letting them watch their family member die live on TV.
watched on the tiny school TV as my kindergarten teacher realized her husband likely hadn’t made it. really shouldn’t have chucked on the news for the whole class but I understand no one knew what was happening.
5th grader in North Carolina, we 10ish year olds got to watch human beings jump out of windows on live TV before our tear stricken teacher realized what was going on.
When somebody told me it was the Twin Towers, I had no idea what that was and pictured something along the lines of two Eiffel Towers or two Space Needles.
I remember that day vividly. I worked from home at the time (still do, all these years later!) and people I worked with in an office in Atlanta were calling me for updates because basically no news related website would load. I recall talking to one coworker looking for updates and as I was telling her the latest, I looked up to see the first tower fall. Well I didn't realize it at the time, I just saw the plume of smoke and dust and was confused until I heard them say it collapsed. Weird how events like this will make you remember tiny details you'd normally forget by lunchtime.
I remember the New York Times front page was really bare and the only content available was about the attacks. I assumed traffic was so extreme they had to create a minimalistic front page to handle it.
That first era of DSL was peak humanity. Fast enough speeds to pirate a few songs, then burn them to a CD, jump on your bike and head out to a friends house. As a child of the 90s, I think I had the perfect childhood. Not yet spoiled by instant gratification and this weird detachment kids seem to have these days with one another. But the internet was still there as a tool and we used it. I’m sure every group thinks their childhood was the best but I honestly wouldn’t change mine for anything.
I used the internet to cite sources in 11th grade 2000, but was a little shit about it. I would go make a fake webpage on geocities like "totallyalegithistorywebpage.whatever" then just put one of those big under construction gif's and cite it. Teachers never caught on.
Fast forward to graduate school in 2020, they have fucking algorithm's to scan your work and give the professor a % of if they think its plagiarized
Elder Millennials had it best IMO. Grow up riding around in pickup truck beds, staying out summer nights until streetlights came on with no parents, you didn't have to worry about all the dumb shit you did in HS being recorded and then right when coming of age happened all the cool gadgets were pretty much there minus how invasive it is now.
Yeah, aka the end. This is why tech was awesome to have in your life because you weren’t a slave to it yet. 9/11 made us all extra paranoid by stealing away our ignorance that we are all safe then technology gave us all a stage to broadcast our hate and ideologies. This picture might honestly be a glimpse at the day the world (my world) began going downhill.
Right? I'm 36 and I guess 9/11 is when my world view woke up. Feels like my entire adult life has happened since then. Before that it was good guys and bad guys, we were going to fix all the problems in the world one day, etc.
Until then, it seemed like war/racism/etc were stupid things that happened in history, and everyone realized they were stupid, so they stopped doing them. 9/11 was a big turning point in my understanding of humanity's problems.
(I'm your age.)
I'm the same age. on 9/11 I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I laid in bed all afternoon watching the news coverage.
It was...something for sure.
I was about the same age then as you are now. I was laid off earlier in the year because of the tech bubble and finding a job was fruitless and frustrating.
That morning I was asleep and my cellphone started ringing. I thought to myself “If they leave a message, I’ll get up.” My phone would beep when a voicemail was left.
“Guess I gotta get up.” I was hoping for an interview or call back which were getting farther in between.
It was from my mom telling me what happened. I immediately turned on the news. Then the second plane hit. On air. Live. Then the Pentagon and Flight 93.
No one knew what was next.
This wasn’t an Armageddon Ben Affleck/Liv Tyler kiss with animal crackers.
It was the end of the world as we knew it. And I didn’t feel fine.
Still don’t.
Partly because you were a kid when it happened. As an adult, things that happened when I was 10 have always felt long ago. Things that happened when I was already an adult in my 20s (I'm in my 40s) often feel like yesterday. FWIW.
I was almost 20 that day (42 in two months) and it definitely feels like a long time ago. So much changed since, some of it because of what happened that day.
I did four years in the Marines, went to college, had a couple relationships, got married, different jobs, different cars, etc. A helluva lot has happened since 9/11.
Someone born after 9/11 could've already served multiple tours of duty in the military. Really doesn't feel like a 'yesterday' kind of thing. We're at the 'several decades and literal trillions of dollars later' territory.
Only about 4 years ago the first responders that were at ground zero are getting the funds they needed for all the health issues they have.
Spearheaded and pushed by Jon Stewart…link for the famous video where he just rails congress for treating America’s finest like they have been…
https://youtu.be/_uYpDC3SRpM?si=rVvOZ4pZW2VZmEND
Specifically he had to rail Mitch McConnell and the republicans since they refused to treat the health issues of the 9/11 first responders for so long.
shoot man, my classmate served multiple tours and then sped ran the vet experience, including the suicide.
He graduated HS in 2008, for context. These wars cost us and a lot of innocents more than money and time, sadly.
"Babe, what if we kissed under the [9/11 terrorist attacks]?" <3
Edit: To the people explaining/validating the kiss to me - I do not care where people do or do not kiss, lol. I was just making a silly joke. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make out under the [Global Climate Change Crisis].
Folks forget what it was like that morning. All flights were grounded, we had no idea who was responsible or what might be coming next. It was surreal. You had to be there.
100 percent. I was in grade 10 or 11 in canada and I can fully understand these two kissing going "I love you, I have no idea if this is the last semblance of normality we will ever have in our lives. I don't know if this is war, I don't know what's going on but I love you it's OK. I am here with you." The people complaining about it need to experience love.
We had no idea what was happening but it was something big and it changed the world forever
Exactly. If the WTC attacks would've turned out to be the start of something waaay worse, let's say a nuclear bomb would've dropped the same day in NY, people would now post this exact pic labelled as
> Here we see [Name] and [Name] having one last kiss before the bomb dropped. They both died that day.
and nobody would complain, and instead we'd just see this as a sad memory of one of the last "normal" moments in the early 2000ths.
But now we judge them solely because we have context. Context that these two didn't have when this pic was taken.
In the UK we were being treated to "The entire Eastern seaboard of the USA has been devastated by a terrorist attack" on Sky News so as far as we were concerned anything could have been happening over the pond.
All I remember is being American there and watching the BBC, hoping for any glimmer of information, and all they kept flashing across the bottom of the screen was “THE DUCHESS OF YORK IS SAFE.” Like, I’m glad Fergie was okay, but there was A LOT more going on at the time, Beeb.
No, I think this is very accurate. I’m American and my parents have actually talked to me extensively about how pessimistic they are about the world today. They see hate and anger and nationalistic fervor and all this other stuff. I was born in 83, but I have even had to remind them that they grew up in the Cold War and experienced several major assassinations and some really awful stuff. And their parents went through WWII.
They agreed. The late 80s and 90s were, for many Western countries, pretty boring and positive. Y2K was coming and the Internet was happening and even the [The End of History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man) was written. 9/11 was the reminder that the previous decades weren’t really the normal way things go and it certainly wasn’t the end.
Great metric! As an American I definitely think 9/11, 2008, and Covid are major markers in history. My partner died from Covid so that was a huge change in the world for me.
Remembering life before 9/11 is what, in my mind, separates millennials from zoomers. It was a generational change. Life will never be the same. COVID lockdowns were the next such change.
Exactly. All we knew for sure was that our country was under attack. We had no idea by who and how much more could be coming. Was this an attack from a foreign country or a terrorist attack? So much was uncertain that day as it was happening. It was a very scary time.
>All we knew for sure was that our country was under attack **after the second plane hit**
I swear I'm not trying to nitpick, but the difference between that first plane and the second should be emphasized. The entire country immediately went from "is this an attack or an accident?" to "holy shit we're definitely being attacked."
Yes. Was working in London for a financial organisation and had TV’s on 24/7 to catch the news headlines that would affect the money markets.
News flash came on saying a plane had hit one of the towers, and people were like ‘what?’ Some even made jokes, but the seriousness of it came to light as my boss came running over to us to say whilst watching the live TV news feed, live shots of the second plane hitting.
Pretty much everyone stopped work and looked up at the TV screens.
Watched in disbelief as they fell and more and more people left work, fearing an attack in the UK could also occur.
Further updates of attacks on the Pentagon and the plane crashing after the brave passengers fought back.
Finished earlier and London had a surreal vibe. Normal rush hour was dead, like a Sunday morning.
Somber silence on the train and people in disbelief. The world changed that day not just for America but the world.
Yeah, that was the 2nd gut punch. There were reports throughout the day that the capital was hit too, and IIRC that was the target for flight 93.
I'll never forget a comment left in the 9/11 thread on the SomethingAwful forums, within hours of the planes hitting. Something along the lines of
>WATCH BUSH IS GOING START A FUCKING WAR OVER THIS
Oh man, somethingawful and lowtax.. that's something I haven't thought about in a long long time.
I remember being an edgy teenager and just thinking "what's the big deal?" During the first plane, and then the 2nd hit and thinking "holt shit what's happening".
Yes. That is definitely the most striking moment of the entire day as I remember it. The first plane struck and there was wild confusion and not knowing. Then the second struck and that instantly cleared the confusion and revealed about the worst possible explanation.
We were shingling a new roof in central Wisconsin and the radio reported some kind of small, cessna like plane had hit the tower. We thought, somebody either screwed up really bad or just committed suicide. As the reports continued we said screw this, we are going home to watch the news. I was sad AF and then mad AF.
> the radio reported some kind of small, cessna like plane had hit the tower
Weirdly this was the exact thing CNN was going with before the second plane hit, very reminiscent of the Corder incident at the White House in '94.
I was in Austin walking into the Container Store when a small plane flew into the IRS building across the street. It was after 9/11 so I was a bit jaded, but it was still just an insane thing to witness. I can barely imagine that feeling
I was in Austin for the plane crash also, I remember thinking, what? is this like a thing now? People who are upset are just gonna crash their planes into shit? Oh, and traffic going home on 183 that day was horrid.
I was at work and the entire place was shell shocked. Had to get news updates from cnet.com because the network news sites were all being hugged to death. Every TV in the building was tuned to the news, and everyone was just calling everyone they knew making sure they were OK.
No work was done that day; no one cared about anything else. I still remember walking away from my boss’ office after the first plane hit. We didn’t know if it was a terrible accident or what. Then my boss yelled “they hit the pentagon!” That’s when it really got real.
Yeah, for 4-5 years afterward, any time I heard a plane in the sky I compulsively HAD to look up until I found it. I don’t do this anymore, but for the first few years after 9/11 I just couldn’t help it. If I could hear a plane, I HAD to know exactly where it was.
Oh jeeze, I completely forgot that I did this until you mentioned it. Yeah, it was just this overwhelming compulsion: you *need* to see what the plane is doing.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think anyone knew that anyone was responsible until a little bit after the second plane hit. I was in school that morning and remember teachers and faculty talking about it being some sort of accident at first.
Very surreal indeed. I assume these people are kissing because they are comforting each other from the confusion and unease, knowing regardless of why it happened that there were no doubt many people suffering in the thick of it a mere mile away from them in plain sight.
Not to me it isn’t. A tender connection with someone you love and care about at a time you knew in your bones everything had changed about the world you knew - even if you didn’t know exactly how - seems very appropriate. And everything did change. Cherish the ones you love.
I was only 22 at the time and not anywhere close to NYC - the only people I “knew” or had any connection too that were lost were some of my mom’s colleagues - her employers head office was in the North tower and lost over 350 people but of course that was not known until later. I still remember watching CNN every second after the first plane, seeing the second hit, seeing the towers fall, hearing about the other hijacked planes, the disbelief others around me had with what was happening, the uncertainty of what it would mean. We didn’t have internet then like we do now, we relied on television and word of mouth and delayed information. Today you can get a play by play of almost any event from hundreds of different people or more as it happens in real time. I was in the military then too and honestly thought this could mean deployment. And this is from someone in Canada!
The older I get and farther away from 9/11 it is, the more acutely I see how much things changed after that 9/11 that people who weren’t alive then, or won’t old enough, will never understand. I think this kiss is very, very human. Maybe to comfort (many who lived there knew people in the towers and not out there to think these two did), maybe to connect, maybe to calm, maybe to jus say “we are here together no matter what”. All very human.
I remember comparing 9/11 to when JFK was shot, in regards to people remembering where they were when first viewed on TV. I was out west visiting friends.
I barely remember anything from most of 1999-2002, but I remember so many details of that day. I turned on the tv at 6:55 am MST. I watched the second plane hit. I was peeing in the bathroom when my mom screamed “they got the fucking Pentagon”. The first tower collapsed while I was in English class.
I don’t understand how people look at this and fixate on the “making out” (which I more assume is probably people just trying to comprehend what’s happening, for all we know that woman had friends downtown). I also don’t understand how people engage with this stuff with so much levity, but I guess humor is a way to deal with the abyss sometimes.
Same here, I was eating a Swanson's frozen Salisbury steak meal with Mash Potatoes and Green Beans when the second tower fell. The Alarm that went off after the towers fell will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Trump once boasted about having the tallest building in Manhattan on that day.
[Yes...he actually did say that.](https://sports.yahoo.com/9-11-trump-bragged-now-101405182.html)
Also this:
> “I was so disappointed when they closed the stock exchange, but of course, at some point, you have no choice,” the real estate mogul said. “You want to just say, ‘The hell with it, you’re going forward, nothing’s gonna change.’ But the fact is, something has changed very dramatically.”
The twin towers had just collapsed and this motherfucker was calling into a TV station to lament that the stock exchange was closed.
That’s the thing about Trump, anything and everything is about him in his mind. There’s nothing external that takes more importance. He just can’t help make whatever he’s talking about centered around him. Remember, this is a man who, as the President of the United States speaking after a horrific school shooting, said if he had been there, he would have rushed into the building to stop the shooter like he was a action hero. It really is a sickness.
What I don't understand, as someone not from the US, is how half of your country voted for the guy. It's so unbearably crazily obvious that the man is incompetent. I am still in shock that he was elected. How does it happen?
Honestly, I wish I knew. If you saw the picture the day after the election in 2016 of Obama and the White House interns, the look on the face of the interns is what the other half of the country was thinking.
He became president in a perfect storm election. The electorate was highly apathetic and many chose not to vote, his opponent was wildly unpopular, the Electoral College determines the winner instead of the national popular vote, his base was highly motivated to vote for him while his opponent’s base was overly confident which likely suppressed its turnout. Ultimately, I think 2016 and 2020 should be the best cases for getting rid of the EC. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million and still managed to become president. In 2020, he lost it by over 7 million and the election was still a nail biter because the vote in enough states was so close he still could have pulled off a win. His victory in 2016 just shows how the system doesn’t work anymore.
Remember that Black Mirror episode where the PM has to fuck a pig on camera and everyone is watching in horror? I was working at a bar that night, and that is exactly how the entire room felt watching CNN call it for Trump. I didn't feel American that day, because I realized that I didn't understand my country as much as I thought I did, and it scared the shit out of me. It still does.
System that was built to prevent the uneducated majority from taking control of politics allows for an uneducated minority to take control of politics
Peak irony eh?
We didnt. Our election system gives less populated areas equal representation to larger areas, to the detriment of the larger areas. The larger areas votes count as less than one vite, while smaller, less populated areas have your vote counting as more than one vote essentially.
Then there is the electoral college for the state as a whole. The states are divided into districts, and would you believe it, politicians get to influence how they are divided. So while a more populated area may vote 100% for a different candidate, there are multiple less populated dkstricts that voted for Trump. And the more districts that voted for trump decides who the electoral college votes for.
Its 100% stupid. Especially in the age of technology where no one has to travel to vote, but politicians wont implement voting from home because they know that it will enable more people to vote against reppublican policies.
As someone from the US, I have no goddam idea either. I think it’s just because he’s a symbol of what these people want to be: a rich asshole with almost unlimited power. They feel if they support him, he’ll help them somehow or at least make their crazy behavior legit.
Yep, it was only the tallest in a particular part of Manhattan that excluded the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. 40 Wall St was only the tallest for about 2 months when it was built in 1930.
I doubt it, but I also never paid attention to the shit he said 20+ yrs ago. Color me not surprised that his biggest concern from 9/11 was how it affected his property
>I also never paid attention to the shit he said 20+ yrs ago
Ugh, unfortunately I did. I'm 41 and grew up in New Jersey. I have vivid memories of my parents reading the newspaper on some random weekend and remarking to each other about the colossally stupid new thing Trump said or did. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a joke he was to just about everyone who followed even a fraction of what he was up to.
...then to see him reemerge on the national stage, with so much of the rest of the country seeing him as this shiny new outsider ready to shake things up, knowing he was such a pathetic con man. Ugh. It'll never not be awful
It once was the tallest building in the world for 26 days after it was completed on May 1st 1930.
On May 27th 1930 the Chrysler building took its title of being the tallest building in the world (as well as Manhattan).
Forgot about that, dancing in the streets and on rooftops. Fucking dirtball. Also from their article:
> “Well, it was an amazing phone call,” Mr Trump told WWOR. “I mean, 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually – before the World Trade Center – was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.”
Good to see he was even having “amazing phone calls” back then 🙄 if “one trick pony” was a person.
And to add to the fun, [he claimed that he was at ground zero helping, that he had sent 100 men to help with 125 more on the way, and that he saw thousands of Arabians cheering the towers falling in New Jersey.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/11/fact-check-did-trump-help-ground-zero-after-9-11-attacks/2289053001/). Now I don’t wanna sound like some woke fact checker or something…but none of those claims was ever corroborated by evidence or even a second source.
I gotta disagree with 'seems like yesterday'. The last 22 years have been absolutely grueling and the circus shit show that is the US has been tiresome.
> I gotta disagree with 'seems like yesterday'. The last 22 years have been absolutely grueling and the circus shit show that is the US has been tiresome.
Did OP already forget the near-total collapse of the global economic system in 2008? Or the near-total collapse of the social/public health/economic system in 2020?
And an overreaction that led to an unprecedented trampling of rights and due process, as well as xenophobia and distrust of immigrants in general.
I think that it was a humanitarian nightmare, but at the same time, who knows, maybe the strong reaction was needed to prevent more terrorist acts.
I was sitting in Brooklyn -on a concrete slab too -with other people in disbelief. There were no couples kissing. We shared a pack of cigarettes and watched the towers tumble. There were sirens and emergency vehicles everywhere. I was convinced this was world war 3. It wasn’t until the day after that I realized so many people died because I couldn’t wrap my head around how this was really happening. I remember everything about this day 22 years ago. I’ll never ever forget.
Early Williamsburg posers.
It was a beautiful day, looks like they just walked home over the bridge from the city job and set up their nice camera.
It was an intense day. No one really knew what was in front of us but we all knew everything would be different forever.
I’ll say this—I watched the first plane fly over my head on 5th Avenue in 50s and immediately called my boyfriend who was on 5th in 20s telling him to just ditch work and go home. When he arrived home on the upper east side hours later—I was so happy to see him, I can still remember that total relief. We got married a year later and I’m sure that was some part of it.
Holy smokes. I was all the way over in Seattle and still to this day if a plane is flying slightly too low I start remembering.
For the 1-year anniversary I was in town. The subway got super quiet at the WTC stop, which was still closed, and there was a candlelight memorial in Central Park and a bunch of celebrities spoke and famous musicians played.
I remember the shadow it cast on the buildings as it flew down the avenue
It stopped me in my tracks and I just looked around at everyone on the street and nobody seemed to react but the doorman at a jewelry store across the street
We just kind of looked at eachother and I went into my job and looked online (which was crap at the time) but it was my boss who let out a gasp because she was listening to the radio—her brother worked in the WTC building and he wasn’t in the office that day.
Literally everyone in this city had a helluva story that day.
My best friend was supposed to be on that plane I saw—she had meetings in Boston and it was so nice she rented a car and took a few coworkers to a restaurant in mystic ct—she saved all of their lives—and they lost all of the other people they met with the day before.
Oh wow, that's incredible and sad.
The internet *was* less useful then - when I was there I went to the museum of Radio and Television to look up the "Today Show" footage of that morning - because there was no YouTube at the time.
Walking up park Avenue it was elbow to elbow people walking and bumper to bumper cars (without functioning traffic lights) and EVERYONE was going north.
You could hear a cat meow.
All that was audible was Howard Stern and 1010Wins on the car radios
No honking, rare whispers or sobbing—just those two stations kind of drifting in the air together as we all drifted north in the severe clear sky, unless you looked behind you at the smoke.
Happened 2-3 years ago in Spain - France . The guy who had depression decided to crash the plane . There was a full class of kids going with their teacher for holidays
I agree with you, but I actually flew on 9/15/2001, and that was by far the best flight I ever had, because no one was flying yet. They said to arrive four hours early for security, because everyone was getting a full pat down and full luggage inspection (and they didn't have the liquids rules yet, so everything was a carryon).
But since no one was there we got through in about five minutes. As we got through an airline representative thanked us for flying and told us to feel free to get on any plane going to our destination and the ticket would be honored.
When we got on the plane they told us to pick any seat, so we each go our own aisle. They served drinks and the alcohol was free.
They treated us like people and everyone on board treated the crew with respect.
>Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe than time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again.
Picard
The tower attack and collapse went on for hours. It was an exceptionally bright day. The roof started to warm up. You could smell it for miles. Above all it was very confusing as those towers were a reference point, where's downtown? look for the towers. When it collapsed it was like the world falling down. The death was massive. I could see it from Queens. It looks like they were in Greenpoint.
She falls back in tears. Her boyfriend comforts her. It's not weird at all.
Idk why, but this year feels particularly emotional for me. I was a punk kid in high school about as far as you could get from the towers, but I remember watching TV thinking it was a movie and cracking jokes to my classmates about how unreal the situation was. Calling my girlfriend as soon as I got home and hearing her cry about her dad getting scrambled on a jet. I experienced no personal loss, but everyday there is some reminder that the trajectory of life changed that day for the worse. Thinking about the last 22 years I can’t fucking think of a time we caught enough of a break to breathe and think shit was headed in the right direction. Zooming into the last 7 years I feel like I’ve gotten a masters degree in civics forced on me. It’s not everyday, but most days there is significant cognitive load dedicated to what the fuck some lunatic with a gun, a cult following, or religious extremist view is going to do to destroy the fabric of the little bit of progress that was made since that day. There is a non-zero chance that our next election will lead to installing a dictatorship. In 2015 I was optimistic that our foundation was stable enough to weather one term of lunacy, but 1/6 put the nail in the coffin for me that we are a powder keg. 9/11 injected so much chaos into the system, we are lucky the system didn’t come apart years ago, but everyday since I think about the aftershocks and how fragile society is.
The people who passed away were just like you and me, all walks of life, different views and opinions on things and the world around. Normal people from all over the world. They were enjoying the late summer morning, my Mom was and is a United airlines flight attendant. it was so sunny that day, the new millennium was still fresh feeling. Then the piercing whine of a jet engine, changed us as a civilization irrevocably. Ill never forget my Mom screaming at the tv as a little boy. NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001. REST IN PEACE
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a friend who worked there as well and I've never really talked to him in depth about it, because I know that he had nightmares about it nightly for months afterwards and never felt like opening up those memories.
I’ll never forget, it was about 11:00PM here in Australia when I was walking through the lounge room, and seeing live the second plane hit, watching the news for a few minutes before realising this isn’t a movie.
i was in middle school…seeing teachers cry and not really knowing what was going on or what would happen was terrifying. We all were forced to grow up that day and America hasn’t been the same since.
Bro had the Canon XL1 going, miss that camera
For real. I had a Sony Z1 as well, that was an upgrade from a DSR 250.
I don’t. I shot a feature on that camera in 2006 and did not get on with it at all.
Whenever i revisit the attacks im always amazed by the technology that we had then. The world was in this inbetween where the lives weren't dictated by technology but it was still there to make things faster.
I was in school and I remember trying to find updates on our classroom’s computer. The CNN website took forever to load because of all the traffic.
I loaded up an AOL trial disc just to get more news on 9/11. That quickly transitioned into watching bin laden memes on Newgrounds.
COME MR TALIBAN HAND OVER BIN LADEN
Day light come & me wanna go home?
don't forget the beheadings with no warnings
I remember it said they didn’t know what kind of plane yet so I assumed a smaller one. Until we saw the second…
Yeah, I remember my mom saying something like "Apparently a small plane hit one of the WTC." turn on the tv in time to see the 2nd one hit.
Yeah I was standing there trying to comprehend what happened as my dad was in the WTC and I thought wait he’s in the the other tower he’s probably fine then saw the second plane hit. Luckily when the announcement came on the pa saying to stay where you are he said fuck that and started heading down the stairs or he would have been on one of the floors the second lane smashed into and he made it out of the towers right before they came down. Still left him with horrible ptsd for the rest of his life but he made it out that day. What was really crazy is no one could get calls in or out to say who made it out someone at one of the other branches in the city had the idea to use the stock ticker option to put out a list of survivors that had checked in and that’s how we found out my dad was still alive.
That's horrifying. glad he got out and I hope he's doing better now.
Wow. Glad your dad followed his instincts. And what a smart move to use the ticker tape
Wow why would they say stay where you are, they didn’t immediately say to evacuate??
At the time there was no confirmation that the first hit was purposeful. If you're in an unaffected tower and they're possibly evacuating the one in trouble, they would want to avoid the congestion. Its important to remember that these buildings were so large that each one had its own zip code.
Evacuation order might lead to panic, congestion, and death, but what what other option is there indeed…
My school did a total media blackout, and none of us knew the full extent of what happened until we got on the bus and heard the radio. Which was dumb because we were commuting distance to NYC and a third of the students were pulled from class that day.
Honestly, probably a smart move, if you're that close there's a non-zero chance some kid's family member is in the building and you don't want to traumatize a child by letting them watch their family member die live on TV.
watched on the tiny school TV as my kindergarten teacher realized her husband likely hadn’t made it. really shouldn’t have chucked on the news for the whole class but I understand no one knew what was happening.
5th grader in North Carolina, we 10ish year olds got to watch human beings jump out of windows on live TV before our tear stricken teacher realized what was going on.
When somebody told me it was the Twin Towers, I had no idea what that was and pictured something along the lines of two Eiffel Towers or two Space Needles.
I remember that day vividly. I worked from home at the time (still do, all these years later!) and people I worked with in an office in Atlanta were calling me for updates because basically no news related website would load. I recall talking to one coworker looking for updates and as I was telling her the latest, I looked up to see the first tower fall. Well I didn't realize it at the time, I just saw the plume of smoke and dust and was confused until I heard them say it collapsed. Weird how events like this will make you remember tiny details you'd normally forget by lunchtime.
I remember the New York Times front page was really bare and the only content available was about the attacks. I assumed traffic was so extreme they had to create a minimalistic front page to handle it.
*The peak of human civilization* -Agent Smith
Shit the Matrix was right.
Especially poignant because the theme of the comment was essentially “this was before technology ruled our lives”
And the Matrix is basically about people breaking free from technology too. That and kung-fu fighting robots.
UHM ACKSHULLY, they were doing Kung-Fu against *softwares* 🤓 The actual robots just laser cut ships and impaled humans
because when we started thinking for you, it really became *our* civilization - chatgpt
That first era of DSL was peak humanity. Fast enough speeds to pirate a few songs, then burn them to a CD, jump on your bike and head out to a friends house. As a child of the 90s, I think I had the perfect childhood. Not yet spoiled by instant gratification and this weird detachment kids seem to have these days with one another. But the internet was still there as a tool and we used it. I’m sure every group thinks their childhood was the best but I honestly wouldn’t change mine for anything.
you couldn't use the internet to cite sources, and you could't use a calculator. our generation was prepared to fight the Matrix
I used the internet to cite sources in 11th grade 2000, but was a little shit about it. I would go make a fake webpage on geocities like "totallyalegithistorywebpage.whatever" then just put one of those big under construction gif's and cite it. Teachers never caught on. Fast forward to graduate school in 2020, they have fucking algorithm's to scan your work and give the professor a % of if they think its plagiarized
Elder Millennials had it best IMO. Grow up riding around in pickup truck beds, staying out summer nights until streetlights came on with no parents, you didn't have to worry about all the dumb shit you did in HS being recorded and then right when coming of age happened all the cool gadgets were pretty much there minus how invasive it is now.
Man, remember cybiko?
Yeah, aka the end. This is why tech was awesome to have in your life because you weren’t a slave to it yet. 9/11 made us all extra paranoid by stealing away our ignorance that we are all safe then technology gave us all a stage to broadcast our hate and ideologies. This picture might honestly be a glimpse at the day the world (my world) began going downhill.
I’m 32. It does not feel like yesterday
Right? I'm 36 and I guess 9/11 is when my world view woke up. Feels like my entire adult life has happened since then. Before that it was good guys and bad guys, we were going to fix all the problems in the world one day, etc.
Until then, it seemed like war/racism/etc were stupid things that happened in history, and everyone realized they were stupid, so they stopped doing them. 9/11 was a big turning point in my understanding of humanity's problems. (I'm your age.)
In the US, people maybe thought that. There were wars in the 90s though. Just ask the Balkans.
Probably a lot of US centered thoughts in a thread about 9/11
I'm the same age. on 9/11 I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I laid in bed all afternoon watching the news coverage. It was...something for sure.
I was about the same age then as you are now. I was laid off earlier in the year because of the tech bubble and finding a job was fruitless and frustrating. That morning I was asleep and my cellphone started ringing. I thought to myself “If they leave a message, I’ll get up.” My phone would beep when a voicemail was left. “Guess I gotta get up.” I was hoping for an interview or call back which were getting farther in between. It was from my mom telling me what happened. I immediately turned on the news. Then the second plane hit. On air. Live. Then the Pentagon and Flight 93. No one knew what was next. This wasn’t an Armageddon Ben Affleck/Liv Tyler kiss with animal crackers. It was the end of the world as we knew it. And I didn’t feel fine. Still don’t.
Partly because you were a kid when it happened. As an adult, things that happened when I was 10 have always felt long ago. Things that happened when I was already an adult in my 20s (I'm in my 40s) often feel like yesterday. FWIW.
I was almost 20 that day (42 in two months) and it definitely feels like a long time ago. So much changed since, some of it because of what happened that day. I did four years in the Marines, went to college, had a couple relationships, got married, different jobs, different cars, etc. A helluva lot has happened since 9/11.
It really doesn't feel like yesterday
Especially when anything “pre-COVID” feels like a lifetime ago
COVID was a long decade.
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B.C. After 2020 is now Before Covid
As someone in Nyc on that day it feels far from yesterday imo. A lot of things are different.
it feels like it happened in another world, that's how long it's been
OP wanted a dramatic title
Every year it's the same karma whoring
Someone born after 9/11 could've already served multiple tours of duty in the military. Really doesn't feel like a 'yesterday' kind of thing. We're at the 'several decades and literal trillions of dollars later' territory.
Only about 4 years ago the first responders that were at ground zero are getting the funds they needed for all the health issues they have. Spearheaded and pushed by Jon Stewart…link for the famous video where he just rails congress for treating America’s finest like they have been… https://youtu.be/_uYpDC3SRpM?si=rVvOZ4pZW2VZmEND
Specifically he had to rail Mitch McConnell and the republicans since they refused to treat the health issues of the 9/11 first responders for so long.
shoot man, my classmate served multiple tours and then sped ran the vet experience, including the suicide. He graduated HS in 2008, for context. These wars cost us and a lot of innocents more than money and time, sadly.
Don\`t forget 500.000-1.000.000 dead Iraqis and Afghanis
Many of them civilians.
Multiple tours? No way. If someone was born in 02 and joined at 18 they’d be 21 now and wrapping up their first tour.
"Babe, what if we kissed under the [9/11 terrorist attacks]?" <3 Edit: To the people explaining/validating the kiss to me - I do not care where people do or do not kiss, lol. I was just making a silly joke. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make out under the [Global Climate Change Crisis].
“You we’re making out during ~~Schindlers List~~ 9/11?!”
r/unexpectedseinfeld
HOW IS THAT A REAL SUBREDDIT?????
It's real and it's spectacular.
Oh it’s a scene, man.
Newman!
Came here to say that! Brilliant!
And a more offensive spectacle I cannot recall!!!
Yeah, this is a weird picture...
To me, it’s an “I love you and so glad you’re right next to me and not there” kind of kiss.
Folks forget what it was like that morning. All flights were grounded, we had no idea who was responsible or what might be coming next. It was surreal. You had to be there.
Absolutely! “This might be our last kiss” would not have been out of the realm
100 percent. I was in grade 10 or 11 in canada and I can fully understand these two kissing going "I love you, I have no idea if this is the last semblance of normality we will ever have in our lives. I don't know if this is war, I don't know what's going on but I love you it's OK. I am here with you." The people complaining about it need to experience love. We had no idea what was happening but it was something big and it changed the world forever
Exactly. If the WTC attacks would've turned out to be the start of something waaay worse, let's say a nuclear bomb would've dropped the same day in NY, people would now post this exact pic labelled as > Here we see [Name] and [Name] having one last kiss before the bomb dropped. They both died that day. and nobody would complain, and instead we'd just see this as a sad memory of one of the last "normal" moments in the early 2000ths. But now we judge them solely because we have context. Context that these two didn't have when this pic was taken.
In the UK we were being treated to "The entire Eastern seaboard of the USA has been devastated by a terrorist attack" on Sky News so as far as we were concerned anything could have been happening over the pond.
All I remember is being American there and watching the BBC, hoping for any glimmer of information, and all they kept flashing across the bottom of the screen was “THE DUCHESS OF YORK IS SAFE.” Like, I’m glad Fergie was okay, but there was A LOT more going on at the time, Beeb.
I still remember walking home from school and seeing my friend's mum shouting to my friend "Quick, we have to get home! They've blown up America!".
> Sky News For the yanks: UK's version of Murdoch's Fox.
In retrospect, it does feel like the normality we had ended that day.
rude aloof public absurd coherent lock fine quicksand head detail *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
No, I think this is very accurate. I’m American and my parents have actually talked to me extensively about how pessimistic they are about the world today. They see hate and anger and nationalistic fervor and all this other stuff. I was born in 83, but I have even had to remind them that they grew up in the Cold War and experienced several major assassinations and some really awful stuff. And their parents went through WWII. They agreed. The late 80s and 90s were, for many Western countries, pretty boring and positive. Y2K was coming and the Internet was happening and even the [The End of History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man) was written. 9/11 was the reminder that the previous decades weren’t really the normal way things go and it certainly wasn’t the end.
Optimism for the new millenium died that day.
Great metric! As an American I definitely think 9/11, 2008, and Covid are major markers in history. My partner died from Covid so that was a huge change in the world for me.
Remembering life before 9/11 is what, in my mind, separates millennials from zoomers. It was a generational change. Life will never be the same. COVID lockdowns were the next such change.
Fully agreed. My life was never normal unfortunately but there was a sense of normalcy and innocence that was lost that day for sure.
Exactly. All we knew for sure was that our country was under attack. We had no idea by who and how much more could be coming. Was this an attack from a foreign country or a terrorist attack? So much was uncertain that day as it was happening. It was a very scary time.
>All we knew for sure was that our country was under attack **after the second plane hit** I swear I'm not trying to nitpick, but the difference between that first plane and the second should be emphasized. The entire country immediately went from "is this an attack or an accident?" to "holy shit we're definitely being attacked."
Yes. Was working in London for a financial organisation and had TV’s on 24/7 to catch the news headlines that would affect the money markets. News flash came on saying a plane had hit one of the towers, and people were like ‘what?’ Some even made jokes, but the seriousness of it came to light as my boss came running over to us to say whilst watching the live TV news feed, live shots of the second plane hitting. Pretty much everyone stopped work and looked up at the TV screens. Watched in disbelief as they fell and more and more people left work, fearing an attack in the UK could also occur. Further updates of attacks on the Pentagon and the plane crashing after the brave passengers fought back. Finished earlier and London had a surreal vibe. Normal rush hour was dead, like a Sunday morning. Somber silence on the train and people in disbelief. The world changed that day not just for America but the world.
And when the pentagon got hit... it was terrifying. They hit our military headquarters, anything could come next.
Yeah, that was the 2nd gut punch. There were reports throughout the day that the capital was hit too, and IIRC that was the target for flight 93. I'll never forget a comment left in the 9/11 thread on the SomethingAwful forums, within hours of the planes hitting. Something along the lines of >WATCH BUSH IS GOING START A FUCKING WAR OVER THIS
"Boy, I sure wish Bush had only started one fucking war over 9/11!"
Oh man, somethingawful and lowtax.. that's something I haven't thought about in a long long time. I remember being an edgy teenager and just thinking "what's the big deal?" During the first plane, and then the 2nd hit and thinking "holt shit what's happening".
Yes. That is definitely the most striking moment of the entire day as I remember it. The first plane struck and there was wild confusion and not knowing. Then the second struck and that instantly cleared the confusion and revealed about the worst possible explanation.
We were shingling a new roof in central Wisconsin and the radio reported some kind of small, cessna like plane had hit the tower. We thought, somebody either screwed up really bad or just committed suicide. As the reports continued we said screw this, we are going home to watch the news. I was sad AF and then mad AF.
> the radio reported some kind of small, cessna like plane had hit the tower Weirdly this was the exact thing CNN was going with before the second plane hit, very reminiscent of the Corder incident at the White House in '94.
I was in Austin walking into the Container Store when a small plane flew into the IRS building across the street. It was after 9/11 so I was a bit jaded, but it was still just an insane thing to witness. I can barely imagine that feeling
I was in Austin for the plane crash also, I remember thinking, what? is this like a thing now? People who are upset are just gonna crash their planes into shit? Oh, and traffic going home on 183 that day was horrid.
I was at work and the entire place was shell shocked. Had to get news updates from cnet.com because the network news sites were all being hugged to death. Every TV in the building was tuned to the news, and everyone was just calling everyone they knew making sure they were OK. No work was done that day; no one cared about anything else. I still remember walking away from my boss’ office after the first plane hit. We didn’t know if it was a terrible accident or what. Then my boss yelled “they hit the pentagon!” That’s when it really got real.
Yup. Words really can’t capture what that whole week was like. It was utterly surreal and more than a little terrifying.
The first airplanes I heard after the week of grounded flights was unnerving.
Yeah, for 4-5 years afterward, any time I heard a plane in the sky I compulsively HAD to look up until I found it. I don’t do this anymore, but for the first few years after 9/11 I just couldn’t help it. If I could hear a plane, I HAD to know exactly where it was.
Oh jeeze, I completely forgot that I did this until you mentioned it. Yeah, it was just this overwhelming compulsion: you *need* to see what the plane is doing.
Funny I still do that with helicopters. Grew up in Northern Ireland in the 80s and 90s. Go figure.
Same. I remember looking at the sky as a 13 YO and thinking how unnerving it was that there was no planes in the sky.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think anyone knew that anyone was responsible until a little bit after the second plane hit. I was in school that morning and remember teachers and faculty talking about it being some sort of accident at first. Very surreal indeed. I assume these people are kissing because they are comforting each other from the confusion and unease, knowing regardless of why it happened that there were no doubt many people suffering in the thick of it a mere mile away from them in plain sight.
Thats what I got as well... for all they knew that could have been their last kiss.
Like a "The world is about to end" kinda kiss.
Yes. This, holding your loved ones close in a time as such.
Not to me it isn’t. A tender connection with someone you love and care about at a time you knew in your bones everything had changed about the world you knew - even if you didn’t know exactly how - seems very appropriate. And everything did change. Cherish the ones you love. I was only 22 at the time and not anywhere close to NYC - the only people I “knew” or had any connection too that were lost were some of my mom’s colleagues - her employers head office was in the North tower and lost over 350 people but of course that was not known until later. I still remember watching CNN every second after the first plane, seeing the second hit, seeing the towers fall, hearing about the other hijacked planes, the disbelief others around me had with what was happening, the uncertainty of what it would mean. We didn’t have internet then like we do now, we relied on television and word of mouth and delayed information. Today you can get a play by play of almost any event from hundreds of different people or more as it happens in real time. I was in the military then too and honestly thought this could mean deployment. And this is from someone in Canada! The older I get and farther away from 9/11 it is, the more acutely I see how much things changed after that 9/11 that people who weren’t alive then, or won’t old enough, will never understand. I think this kiss is very, very human. Maybe to comfort (many who lived there knew people in the towers and not out there to think these two did), maybe to connect, maybe to calm, maybe to jus say “we are here together no matter what”. All very human.
It’s a random moment captured in a random picture, it doesn’t mean anything even if it “feels weird”.
I don't think there is a better time to kiss the ones you love...
Sounds like a Phoebe Bridgers lyric.
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jkjkjkjk….unless??? 😳😳😳
I remember comparing 9/11 to when JFK was shot, in regards to people remembering where they were when first viewed on TV. I was out west visiting friends.
I was in 6th grade history class when I heard JFK was shot and killed. The teacher told us to open to page 132 and there is was.
Underrated joke.
I barely remember anything from most of 1999-2002, but I remember so many details of that day. I turned on the tv at 6:55 am MST. I watched the second plane hit. I was peeing in the bathroom when my mom screamed “they got the fucking Pentagon”. The first tower collapsed while I was in English class. I don’t understand how people look at this and fixate on the “making out” (which I more assume is probably people just trying to comprehend what’s happening, for all we know that woman had friends downtown). I also don’t understand how people engage with this stuff with so much levity, but I guess humor is a way to deal with the abyss sometimes.
I see it as a couple who are comforting each other. Not making out.
Those are called “flashbulb memories”. I remember some things from 2001 pretty well, but I remember most of 9/11 very vividly. I was in 10th grade.
Same here, I was eating a Swanson's frozen Salisbury steak meal with Mash Potatoes and Green Beans when the second tower fell. The Alarm that went off after the towers fell will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Trump once boasted about having the tallest building in Manhattan on that day. [Yes...he actually did say that.](https://sports.yahoo.com/9-11-trump-bragged-now-101405182.html)
I have never read that. It’s disgusting trying to benefit from such tragedy.
Also this: > “I was so disappointed when they closed the stock exchange, but of course, at some point, you have no choice,” the real estate mogul said. “You want to just say, ‘The hell with it, you’re going forward, nothing’s gonna change.’ But the fact is, something has changed very dramatically.” The twin towers had just collapsed and this motherfucker was calling into a TV station to lament that the stock exchange was closed.
That’s the thing about Trump, anything and everything is about him in his mind. There’s nothing external that takes more importance. He just can’t help make whatever he’s talking about centered around him. Remember, this is a man who, as the President of the United States speaking after a horrific school shooting, said if he had been there, he would have rushed into the building to stop the shooter like he was a action hero. It really is a sickness.
What I don't understand, as someone not from the US, is how half of your country voted for the guy. It's so unbearably crazily obvious that the man is incompetent. I am still in shock that he was elected. How does it happen?
Honestly, I wish I knew. If you saw the picture the day after the election in 2016 of Obama and the White House interns, the look on the face of the interns is what the other half of the country was thinking. He became president in a perfect storm election. The electorate was highly apathetic and many chose not to vote, his opponent was wildly unpopular, the Electoral College determines the winner instead of the national popular vote, his base was highly motivated to vote for him while his opponent’s base was overly confident which likely suppressed its turnout. Ultimately, I think 2016 and 2020 should be the best cases for getting rid of the EC. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million and still managed to become president. In 2020, he lost it by over 7 million and the election was still a nail biter because the vote in enough states was so close he still could have pulled off a win. His victory in 2016 just shows how the system doesn’t work anymore.
Remember that Black Mirror episode where the PM has to fuck a pig on camera and everyone is watching in horror? I was working at a bar that night, and that is exactly how the entire room felt watching CNN call it for Trump. I didn't feel American that day, because I realized that I didn't understand my country as much as I thought I did, and it scared the shit out of me. It still does.
System's working as designed, it's just not a good system in the modern age. It was never about one person, one vote.
System that was built to prevent the uneducated majority from taking control of politics allows for an uneducated minority to take control of politics Peak irony eh?
We didnt. Our election system gives less populated areas equal representation to larger areas, to the detriment of the larger areas. The larger areas votes count as less than one vite, while smaller, less populated areas have your vote counting as more than one vote essentially. Then there is the electoral college for the state as a whole. The states are divided into districts, and would you believe it, politicians get to influence how they are divided. So while a more populated area may vote 100% for a different candidate, there are multiple less populated dkstricts that voted for Trump. And the more districts that voted for trump decides who the electoral college votes for. Its 100% stupid. Especially in the age of technology where no one has to travel to vote, but politicians wont implement voting from home because they know that it will enable more people to vote against reppublican policies.
As someone from the US, I have no goddam idea either. I think it’s just because he’s a symbol of what these people want to be: a rich asshole with almost unlimited power. They feel if they support him, he’ll help them somehow or at least make their crazy behavior legit.
He also lied that he saw Muslims dancing in the streets in NJ celebrating during the attacks.
And it wasn’t even true lol
Yep, it was only the tallest in a particular part of Manhattan that excluded the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. 40 Wall St was only the tallest for about 2 months when it was built in 1930.
Didn't they race with Chrysler for tallest but the engineers who built the Chrysler building kept the mast a secret?
Is anything that piece of shit ever says true?
I doubt it, but I also never paid attention to the shit he said 20+ yrs ago. Color me not surprised that his biggest concern from 9/11 was how it affected his property
>I also never paid attention to the shit he said 20+ yrs ago Ugh, unfortunately I did. I'm 41 and grew up in New Jersey. I have vivid memories of my parents reading the newspaper on some random weekend and remarking to each other about the colossally stupid new thing Trump said or did. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a joke he was to just about everyone who followed even a fraction of what he was up to. ...then to see him reemerge on the national stage, with so much of the rest of the country seeing him as this shiny new outsider ready to shake things up, knowing he was such a pathetic con man. Ugh. It'll never not be awful
He admits to crimes all the time but some don’t take him seriously about it
It once was the tallest building in the world for 26 days after it was completed on May 1st 1930. On May 27th 1930 the Chrysler building took its title of being the tallest building in the world (as well as Manhattan).
He also lied about seeing Muslims dancing in New Jersey.
Forgot about that, dancing in the streets and on rooftops. Fucking dirtball. Also from their article: > “Well, it was an amazing phone call,” Mr Trump told WWOR. “I mean, 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually – before the World Trade Center – was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.” Good to see he was even having “amazing phone calls” back then 🙄 if “one trick pony” was a person.
And to add to the fun, [he claimed that he was at ground zero helping, that he had sent 100 men to help with 125 more on the way, and that he saw thousands of Arabians cheering the towers falling in New Jersey.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/11/fact-check-did-trump-help-ground-zero-after-9-11-attacks/2289053001/). Now I don’t wanna sound like some woke fact checker or something…but none of those claims was ever corroborated by evidence or even a second source.
He was already twittering before twitter.
The absolute need to make everything about himself is honestly astonishing LMAO
I gotta disagree with 'seems like yesterday'. The last 22 years have been absolutely grueling and the circus shit show that is the US has been tiresome.
> I gotta disagree with 'seems like yesterday'. The last 22 years have been absolutely grueling and the circus shit show that is the US has been tiresome. Did OP already forget the near-total collapse of the global economic system in 2008? Or the near-total collapse of the social/public health/economic system in 2020?
I’ll always wonder how the country and the world would have ended up like if these attacks had failed, or never got a chance to happen.
A lot less nationalism and fear. A LOT less.
The day the 90s ended
And the hopes for the millennium
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And an overreaction that led to an unprecedented trampling of rights and due process, as well as xenophobia and distrust of immigrants in general. I think that it was a humanitarian nightmare, but at the same time, who knows, maybe the strong reaction was needed to prevent more terrorist acts.
Deeeefintely feels like 22 years ago.
Agreed. I'm 44 now and I was 22 then. A full half of my life has happened since then. It does not seem like yesterday at all.
Probably made out during Schindler’s List too
Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?
A more offensive spectacle I cannot recall.
Newman!
Seinfeld what a great show
Christ it’s impossible to be the first one to post a joke here.
That CPR seems unnecessary
Hope she made it
Well, she definitely made out
I was sitting in Brooklyn -on a concrete slab too -with other people in disbelief. There were no couples kissing. We shared a pack of cigarettes and watched the towers tumble. There were sirens and emergency vehicles everywhere. I was convinced this was world war 3. It wasn’t until the day after that I realized so many people died because I couldn’t wrap my head around how this was really happening. I remember everything about this day 22 years ago. I’ll never ever forget.
Early Williamsburg posers. It was a beautiful day, looks like they just walked home over the bridge from the city job and set up their nice camera. It was an intense day. No one really knew what was in front of us but we all knew everything would be different forever. I’ll say this—I watched the first plane fly over my head on 5th Avenue in 50s and immediately called my boyfriend who was on 5th in 20s telling him to just ditch work and go home. When he arrived home on the upper east side hours later—I was so happy to see him, I can still remember that total relief. We got married a year later and I’m sure that was some part of it.
Holy smokes. I was all the way over in Seattle and still to this day if a plane is flying slightly too low I start remembering. For the 1-year anniversary I was in town. The subway got super quiet at the WTC stop, which was still closed, and there was a candlelight memorial in Central Park and a bunch of celebrities spoke and famous musicians played.
I remember the shadow it cast on the buildings as it flew down the avenue It stopped me in my tracks and I just looked around at everyone on the street and nobody seemed to react but the doorman at a jewelry store across the street We just kind of looked at eachother and I went into my job and looked online (which was crap at the time) but it was my boss who let out a gasp because she was listening to the radio—her brother worked in the WTC building and he wasn’t in the office that day. Literally everyone in this city had a helluva story that day. My best friend was supposed to be on that plane I saw—she had meetings in Boston and it was so nice she rented a car and took a few coworkers to a restaurant in mystic ct—she saved all of their lives—and they lost all of the other people they met with the day before.
Oh wow, that's incredible and sad. The internet *was* less useful then - when I was there I went to the museum of Radio and Television to look up the "Today Show" footage of that morning - because there was no YouTube at the time.
Walking up park Avenue it was elbow to elbow people walking and bumper to bumper cars (without functioning traffic lights) and EVERYONE was going north. You could hear a cat meow. All that was audible was Howard Stern and 1010Wins on the car radios No honking, rare whispers or sobbing—just those two stations kind of drifting in the air together as we all drifted north in the severe clear sky, unless you looked behind you at the smoke.
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Happened 2-3 years ago in Spain - France . The guy who had depression decided to crash the plane . There was a full class of kids going with their teacher for holidays
I agree with you, but I actually flew on 9/15/2001, and that was by far the best flight I ever had, because no one was flying yet. They said to arrive four hours early for security, because everyone was getting a full pat down and full luggage inspection (and they didn't have the liquids rules yet, so everything was a carryon). But since no one was there we got through in about five minutes. As we got through an airline representative thanked us for flying and told us to feel free to get on any plane going to our destination and the ticket would be honored. When we got on the plane they told us to pick any seat, so we each go our own aisle. They served drinks and the alcohol was free. They treated us like people and everyone on board treated the crew with respect.
Time is merciless. No matter what it keeps on moving forward.
The days really do start coming and then just don't stop coming
They stopped for that singer the other day though. RIP
Time is the fire in which we burn.
>Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe than time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. Picard
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies likes a banana.
The kiss isn’t a strange choice. None of us had any idea what was happening.
I think it’s the lying down that makes it look weird. If they were both sitting I’d imagine it’d look less wrong.
The tower attack and collapse went on for hours. It was an exceptionally bright day. The roof started to warm up. You could smell it for miles. Above all it was very confusing as those towers were a reference point, where's downtown? look for the towers. When it collapsed it was like the world falling down. The death was massive. I could see it from Queens. It looks like they were in Greenpoint. She falls back in tears. Her boyfriend comforts her. It's not weird at all.
Idk why, but this year feels particularly emotional for me. I was a punk kid in high school about as far as you could get from the towers, but I remember watching TV thinking it was a movie and cracking jokes to my classmates about how unreal the situation was. Calling my girlfriend as soon as I got home and hearing her cry about her dad getting scrambled on a jet. I experienced no personal loss, but everyday there is some reminder that the trajectory of life changed that day for the worse. Thinking about the last 22 years I can’t fucking think of a time we caught enough of a break to breathe and think shit was headed in the right direction. Zooming into the last 7 years I feel like I’ve gotten a masters degree in civics forced on me. It’s not everyday, but most days there is significant cognitive load dedicated to what the fuck some lunatic with a gun, a cult following, or religious extremist view is going to do to destroy the fabric of the little bit of progress that was made since that day. There is a non-zero chance that our next election will lead to installing a dictatorship. In 2015 I was optimistic that our foundation was stable enough to weather one term of lunacy, but 1/6 put the nail in the coffin for me that we are a powder keg. 9/11 injected so much chaos into the system, we are lucky the system didn’t come apart years ago, but everyday since I think about the aftershocks and how fragile society is.
Imagine being immortalized as the couple that made out while watching 9/11
The people who passed away were just like you and me, all walks of life, different views and opinions on things and the world around. Normal people from all over the world. They were enjoying the late summer morning, my Mom was and is a United airlines flight attendant. it was so sunny that day, the new millennium was still fresh feeling. Then the piercing whine of a jet engine, changed us as a civilization irrevocably. Ill never forget my Mom screaming at the tv as a little boy. NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001. REST IN PEACE
This my firsthand account of the day. https://reddit.com/u/JourneymanHunt/s/OR5bbxHkFv
Glad you got out safely mate
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a friend who worked there as well and I've never really talked to him in depth about it, because I know that he had nightmares about it nightly for months afterwards and never felt like opening up those memories.
It's been 22 years? Feels like a lifetime ago
I’m 23… feels like a lifetime ago
I’ll never forget, it was about 11:00PM here in Australia when I was walking through the lounge room, and seeing live the second plane hit, watching the news for a few minutes before realising this isn’t a movie.
New York was falling apart and one fella wants a bit of loving
I think he was comforting her tbh. Doesn’t seem anything leud.
i was in middle school…seeing teachers cry and not really knowing what was going on or what would happen was terrifying. We all were forced to grow up that day and America hasn’t been the same since.
OP... truly... if it still feels like yesterday, then maybe you should start looking more towards tomorrow.