So last year I made a topic about conspiracy theories in general on this date. I'd like to avoid that type of discussion this time around

That said, do you remember where you were, and how you heard about it? Curious to see people's memories.

I was in 8th grade and between classes word was going around in the hallways. My second period English teacher refused to acknowledge anything or turn on the TV. Apparently the school district had ordered that classes would go as usual. Third period history rolled around, and when everyone was settled into their seats, the teacher said "I'm not supposed to turn this TV on. But I am going to because this is important. If you don't want to see it, leave the room and find a classroom with a study hall period." No one got up, and no one said a word for the 42 minute class. We exited silently after the ball rang, minutes after the second tower had been hit. I didn't know until I got home after school that both had collapsed.

I was in 10th grade biology class. Normal day until one of the TAs stormed in and turned on the TV. The class quickly devolved into chaos when the first tower came down, with theories abound as to what was happening (That was the first time I'd ever heard of Osama Bin Laden. One of the students was yelling about him. No evidence. Go figure.) and the school was closed for the day shortly after. I grew up in central Maryland, so many, many of the students were terrified. Many parents work for the various agencies thereabouts. One of my best friends' father was supposed to be in that wing of the Pentagon that day, but he called in sick, thank god. Spent the rest of the day watching the towers on CNN.

Mostly, I remember the confusion, more than anything else. We didn't know anything about geopolitics or "neo-liberalism" or global terrorism. All we knew was that a whole lot of people died for some reason none of us could possibly understand.

That's all I have to say on the subject. Here's to everyone who died, was injured, or lost someone.

I was in elementary school at the time so it was all kinda just "Oh, we get to see tv during class today ???" And then when I got home my older sister and my mom changed the channel to the news and I was still like "oh, is something important happening ???"

And then we had cake because 9/11 is my older brother's birthday. I'm not even sure WHEN it became apparent to me that something really big and awful happened but what I DO remember is that sometime after I was playing with the other kids with paper airplanes fighting "terrorists." My pilot was a koala.

I was sleeping. I worked the Afternoon shift so don't get home until midnight so slept in. My wife woke me up to try and tell me, but I thought "No way this could happen, maybe it's just a small plane or something"

When I finally woke up, I was shocked to see what happened and to what magnitude.

That's about how I found out, except I heard it from a close friend of mine pounding on my door demanding I let him in to use my phone to call his sister (she worked for the NYPD, and still does). I had been out the night before drinking...excessively, so i was bit hungover that day. Waking up wasn't easy that day, and as the day progressed, it didn't get any easier due to the nature of what had transpired early in the morning.

TBH, this isn't a subject I care to think about too much.

On YouTube, there's an upload of a 911 call from the Twin Towers. It's a tough call to listen to, considering how it ends, but it really drives home the horrors of what happened that day.

I live on the west coast, so there is a three hour time difference. I was driving to work when I heard about it on the car radio and was having friends text me about it. I totally had other things on my mind that day -- some personal stuff that I am not going to get into online -- but my mind was elsewhere, so the magnitude of the situation did not really hit me for a couple of days.

I was in the kitchen, doing dishes. I had a small TV on the kitchen counter I'd watch while worked. I don't remember what I was watching, but there was some kind of news banner moving across the bottom of the screen. Then they interrupted the program with live footage. A jet had just hit a tower of the World Trade Center. I stopped doing the dishes. I dried my hands and listened to reporters speculate on what was happening. While I was watching a second jet flew into another tower. I spent most of the rest of the day watching news.

I was in kindergarden I believe...

I do not remember much, but I do know that something was going on.

I was 10 years old, in the 5th grade. My best friend at the time was late to class, and he came running in, terrified. Soon after, he mentioned turning on the radio because of something crazy happening, to which the teacher obliged. Soon after, we heard the live broadcast of what was happening with the second tower, and we all had an emergency dismissal. Apparently some parents literally assumed the nation was about to be under attack and I remember a lot of people in the area were really paranoid about it. I also remember everyone was like, glued to the inside of their homes. Streets were empty that whole day, from how it seemed at the time. I remember being pretty scared about it but at the same time, I didn't really understand why it was happening or the gravity of what occurred, although I understood the tragedy of the casualties.

Where were you when they built the ladder to heaven but on a more serious and somber note I was in school in the fourth grade it was somewhere around noon and the principle was asking for individual students to be released early on the first few students called for I didnt think much of it but after almost half the class was released I grew more anxious and nervous like something bad happened to my father or someone close to me I didnt know anything about the towers or terrorrist so I didnt really care about the news I was glad nothing happened to my family and glad that I got an early release.

Ohh yes the Kevin Cosgrove call. I can only image what his relatives might of felt if they listened to it.

I turned on My Television in time to see the second plane fly into the World Trade Center. I wondered if I would still have a job to go to as an Airline Employee.

I was in Virginia being trained on a (new to me) printer. On day two, somebody came into our classroom and said a plane had hit one of the towers. We all went out to the break area and watched CNN for a while, wondering how it could of happened. Went back to class and a short while later we found out how. That was the end of class for that day. The training center was out near Dulles Airport and the company leased space for conferences and such. There was a slew of Army colonels and lt. colonels in that week, but they were all gone by 10:00 AM.

I remember I was sleeping, had just gotten off work a few hours before when my sister rushed in and told me what happened, then we both went out into the livingroom and turned on the TV and watched as another plane crashed into the tower live on TV. That was...very surreal.

I was on my way to work, strangely enough as a contractor at Portland International Airport.

I had parked at our shop, just after 6AM my time when the guy on the radio mentioned that there was a report that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. It was rather off-hand so I assumed, like I lot of people I think that heard that initial report, that is was a small civilian plane. I had to get stuff together for the job we were doing, and as we were almost to the airport I remembered what I heard on the radio and mentioned it to the guy riding with me. A this point it was almost 10AM EDT and we turned the radio station to a news station and heard what was going on; a plane had hit the second tower, there were hijacked civilian airliners, there was at least one plane missing at the time (might have been more). I don't think we heard reports of the plane hitting the Pentagon yet. I told the guy working with me that there was no way in hell that they were going to let us onto the Airport grounds and we were discussing what we would do with the rest of our day. However when we pulled up to the contractor's gate and showed our ID the guy waved us through like nothing was happening. I was stunned.

We got our stuff together and went up into the new terminal to do our work. Shortly after we got there all hell broke loose. I thought I watched the first tower collapse on live TV but the timeline doesn't match up, but I did watch it in a coffee shop in the airport terminal along with hundreds of other people. Then they announced that all flights in the US were grounded and there were thousands of people trying to figure out what they were supposed to do, many of them stuck in an airport far from home. It was really surreal being in the airport that day. We had finally got our [censored] together enough to try and do the job we were supposed to do that day, when we got a call from our office telling us to get the hell out of the airport and go home. I had all of the tools put away and the ladders locked up when we heard that the people at the airport said we had to stay and get this done today. I was stunned, but couldn't really argue with the customer, not matter how much I wanted to. We stayed at the airport all day finishing our job then headed home.

I wen to my parents' house after work because we had family in from out of town, including my grandmother whose birthday was September 11 , who were now stuck and had no idea how or when they would get to go back home.

Shortly after I got there my kids (who were 5 and 3 1/2) were dropped off and I talked to them about everything that happened that day, and what they knew about it. That was pretty heartbreaking, having to have that conversation with kids that age.

To me though the most memorable and devastating thing about that day, more than anything else, but not to take away from any of the other horrors that happened that day, was the video of the people jumping from the upper floors of the towers before they collapsed. I cannot imagine how horrified you would have to be to realize that jumping from the 80th floor of the World Trade Center was your best choice.

When 9/11 happened I was in Middle School and we heard something that sounded like thunder, later as I was doing an favor for a teacher I heard some kids talking about some smoke coming from downtown Oklahoma City then an announcement came over the intercom about what happened.

That would have been the Murrah Building in 1995, no?

Working there and I heard about it from the loud rumble and building shaking.

I had just gotten home around 3pm to my small campus apartment, and as usual I sat down and turned on the TV to watch Simpsons, and instead I saw the second plane. And then I got stuck infront of the TV for the rest of the day.

I remember the discussion last year about it. Quite interesting and I'm glad you made it out safe. My apologies if I brought up bad memories.

I was at home alone, my mother and stepfather had both gone somewhere else. I was watching Toonami at the time which I watched a lot, and Dragon Ball Z was on, I'm 26 now, I was about 10 or 11 right around the time this all happened. somewhere around 11 give or take a year or so. This was when I was being home schooled, and my parents had to go on an appointment somewhere before this all took place.

Was all alone at home when it happened, then the show I was watching was interrupted as I remember, with Breaking News/An Emergency Alert something like that. Freaked me out. At the time I didn't know what was going on seriously had thought there was a high chance the whole United States was being carpet bombed, and wondered if something near me might blow up soon, or if the building I was in was safe, although I was in New Mexico at the time, far far far away from New York.

Seems most advlts at the time knew it was a couple of civilian planes, but at the time I didn't know the full context of the situation, and thought hostile military aircraft might have invaded the country, I later learned that there weren't any hostile military aircraft, but it was very scary at the time. Mainly the fact I was entirely alone at home when it happened as a child made it a lot scarier.

Childish imagination+being alone when it took place=makes that situation a lot more frightening.

I was so relieved when my parents came home, they seemed to know something was wrong before they even stepped through the front door, then they mentioned someone on the internet said something about "How something big is gonna happen on 9/11" then they said they were gonna drive off to report this to the authorities to see if it helps the investigation. Then apparently it was just a widely known fact the authorities already knew about.

It might be a sign of my decrepitude that I have no conscious memory of where I was or how I learned of the attacks. After researching the day of the week and times involved I can make educated guesses, but that's all they are. The one thing I'm vaguely sure of is that I was home at the time, and for whatever reason learned of the attack rather quickly. The most logical avenue for me becoming aware of it is via chat in Everquest 1, which I was addicted to at the time. But that is pure supposition.

An aside. I retain firmer recollection of where I was during a much earlier event, the assassination of President Kennedy. It was announced to us in school. I would have been in either grade five or six. I don't recall the announcement itself, but do remember thinking about it on the way home, and that school was let out early that day.

Thanks, no worries about stirring up stuff as I'm ok with it...if I wasn't then I wouldn't speak about it. This is one of those things that I truly will 'never forget' as years later I can still clearly remember details of the day.

I was starting to feel old reading about people being in school as I was a couple of days from turning 20 when it happened....then I read about Decrepit being in school during JFK and I don't feel as ancient any more. (no offense Decrepit, just trying to lighten up the mood a bit)

We were rehearing with the band when my mother called and said to turn on the TV. Not much band practice that evening.

I was in seventh grade at the time, we basically spent the entire day talking about it and watching news coverage instead of actual school. It was pretty unreal.