9/11

[openbook1]

I was only 9 when 9/11 happened but it might be one of my clearest memories. I remember it like it happened yesterday. I was at my gran's after school and I always watched tv for a while. The news came on and it showed the towers on fire. Then my mum picked me up and we went to Tesco. They had the news on all the display tvs and the first or second tower collapsed. It was awful.

 

[Pickminy]

I was 11 and had just got home from secondary school. I remember turning the TV on and it being on every channel, I didn't realise the full scale of what was happening. It sounds awful but I was miffed there was no childrens TV on and went out with friends. It wasn't until the next day that it hit me. I can't believe its been 20 years! Did anyone watch the programme on itv about it the other night? Life under attack I think it was called. I've watched so many documentaries on it but this one hit me differently.

 

[L3moning]

Where were you when 9/11 happened?

I may have posted this elsewhere on tattle, but I was in a year 11 biology lesson. Supposedly learning about teeth. Our teacher told us about what was happening / had happened at the start of the lesson, and we were all a bit shook up by it, and not much learning got done. The only specific memories of that lesson are the guy who sat next to me freaking out a bit about WW3 and a guy repeatedly shouting "I bet it was the fucking Arabs!" (spoilered because it's not that PC), and the only response - from an admittedly lenient teacher - being a half hearted "calm down [name]".

 

[Gym&Tonic]

I was 19 and work in an estate agents at the time and the first I knew of it was when one of the valuers came in and said that two high jacked planes had been flown into the financial district in New York and ‘thousands had been killed. Then for the rest of afternoon we were getting phone calls from clients telling us about it as they were watching it live. I still didn’t realise how bad it was till to I got home and saw it on the Six O Clock News. My mum had watched the whole thing unfold live because she always had the T.V on in the day then. The image of the jumping couple holding hands is the one that haunted me for ages afterwards.

Im another who has been to Ground Zero. This was before it was redeveloped and really isn’t anywhere near as big as you’d expect.

 

[taffygirl77]

I’m sat watching the Netflix documentary now. I was on my honeymoon in Brazil, we flew out on the only uk flight on the Monday. I was glancing at the tv and said to my hubby, “We’ve not seen this film” we found out a few days later what happened. We had to have our luggage all shrink wrapped - it was surreal

 

[Stillwater]

I have a friend of a friend who is one of them people who says they can see ghosts etc and they come through to her to pass messages on to people, basically cut a long story short.. She was in America a few years ago and visited the 9/11 memorial and she said all she could see was people walking around crying & screaming and calling out, she said these were actual ghosts of those who have lost their lives. She immediately left the area and has said its something she can never unsee. The same at the museum too, they were just walking around crying and screaming! She hasn't returned to America since x

Do you believe her?

 

[Mrspowell]

I was coming back from swimming lessons and we heard it on the radio. Does anyone know if there’s any new docs coming out or recommend any maybe I haven’t seen?

 

[Itsmedoctortea]

I wonder if sky news repeated Kay burley's "reporting" this morning?

"The entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been decimated in a terrorist attack." Kay Burley, Sky News presenter

I have searched forever for this (never to be found) video!! She is a weapon

 

[FlatWhite]

I was in primary school. I can remember the school principal coming to our classroom, knocking on the door and telling the teacher a second plane had hit. They put it on the tv and we all watched, not knowing what was going on but just sat in silence and shock.

 

[LennyBriscoe]

I was 13. I vaguely remember hearing something about a bomb in America. Walked home from school and when I got in my mum was watching the news. We watched it all afternoon and evening.

I really recommend a new documentary on National Geographic. It’s a 6-part series called 9/11 One Day in America. It’s utterly harrowing but it’s a very detailed look into what and how things unfolded in chronological order, using video footage and survivor’s interviews. Probably the “best” 9/11 documentary I’ve seen for want of a better word.

Thanks NP, and @CheesyMarmite I’ll have a look for those documentaries

 

[LennyBriscoe]

Good point Lenny I hadn’t considered that people sold their footage.
I could totally understand they might film at the time in case something else happened and they didn’t survive, to leave some record I just couldn’t fathom why they would keep it. There is a lot of “amateur news crew” behaviour I found distasteful. At one point the wife of one “Joe Public” tells him not to point that thing at her or film her.

I just found this listicle which was interesting reading

Top 10 Luckiest 9/11 Survivors

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attack on American soil, we’re reminded of the day’s cascading tragedies. Four

listverse.com

Thanks for the article Hotes, some amazing stories

I wanted to say that I wasn’t implying that the people who had taken footage were ghouls trying to profit from tragedy - I think there would have been so many documentaries made in the years after that they had invited anyone with footage to submit it.

same , it makes me feel so old as for me it is a current event rather than a historical fact. I remember being at school, I was 13/14 and heard about it, I had never even heard of the twin towers so had no idea what a big deal it was, honestly I don't even think I would have known where afghanistan was either. I remember getting home and my parents and everyone was around just gathered around the tv in disbelief, I will never forget the sight of people jumping.
It is unbelievable the effect it has had on society, iteresting article here from the guardian https://www.archive.is/oldest/https...1-what-was-life-like-before-the-world-changed
Don't know if it has been mentioned but there is a documentary called The Woman who Wasn't there which you can watch on youtube about someone who faked being in the towers. absolutely awful

I was talking to my husband about her last night, I’ll have a look at that. Things like that interest me so much - what’s the psychiatric background of someone who goes to such great lengths to pretend she was immersed in one of the worst tragedies of all time

 

[Blurou]

It happened around 8:45-9. I imagine many were already at work, hence over 1500 being killed above the plane level. My husband is from North America and the work hours in an office like that are very different than the UK. It is not unusual for my husband and others to be at work from 6 am for a meeting overseas. General start time is around 7:30 am.

This is not accurate at all, a small amount of officer workers in NYC starts work at 7:30am - not the normal at all! Some offices I've worked in NYC people start more later like 9:30 and are there until 7. The two towers had capacity for 50'000 people. Had it been later in the day the toll would have been much higher.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I have to say the documentary on ITV using the footage filmed by ordinary folk was interesting from a cultural perspective. In 2001 there were a number of people filming their day watching the towers, the news, phoning friends, walking through the dusty streets. They were pretty much filming themselves screaming and panicking with their camcorder.
Nowadays we know people would probably do similar with their smartphones but back in 2001 why would you film yourself freaking out watching the towers fall 6 blocks away...and keep the footage for20 years? Must be an American thing.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I watched this and it was really interesting, not the best film ever made but a very different perspective and threw up a lot of alternative stories which hadn’t really been in the mainstream.

 

[Kaylon8083]

I was 17 and in first year of Sixth Form. I remember coming home from school and my mum had the news on, which was unusual and was white as a sheet.

I remember watching it in shock and wondering what this would mean. It definitely changed the world so much.

 

[justbeingnosy98]

I was 9 so too young to understand. I just remember going to my friends after school with my mum and my brother and being annoyed that CBBC/CITV wasn’t on because the news was on every channel.

In all honesty it’s only in the last few years that I’ve been able to comprehend the severity of it. Now I just cry when I think about it too much - I think it’s the fact that so many people in the towers and on the plane knew they were about to die and knew they couldn’t do anything about it. It’s for sure my worst fear.

We went to New York about 2 years after but my parents didn’t feel it was right to visit Ground Zero. I would go if I went now though but I know I’d just bawl the whole time.

I want to watch the documentaries but I don’t think I can

 

[Al Fresco]

I was working at the time and sitting an exam when it happened so, by the we got out in the evening, I had my usual 90 min commute before I got home. When I walked in and saw it on tv, I couldn’t believe it and I still don’t believe it in the sense of what we’ve been told vs what my brain was telling me.

I don’t agree with “conspiracy theories” being used as general insult, often used by the media; if you believe something could be subject to a conspiracy then theories are a natural consequence and open-mindedness is essential. I’m not some uneducated crank, I have a Masters degree, an inquisitive mind and have learnt over my 50++ years that my gut feeling is usually right. I’m retired now and for the last two days I have cried more than ever over this event.

MSM documentaries don’t cover enough. This video is well hidden (she starts about 4 mins in). I don’t know what happened to part two, it used to exist. Even if you believe none of it, it is still remarkable.

Presentations – Dr Judy Wood

www.drjudywood.com

 

[LaurieLaurie]

I was too young to know. I remember the news being on but I just went off to play.

 

[Itsmedoctortea]

Have you got a spare few hours? It must be in this video somewhere. Report back if you get the timestamp!

I have got to 2hours 16mins and still no mention, will report back after my next stint.

 

[MyLittlePony25]

I was 12 and on reception duty at school. I saw the tv in the receptionists office but didn’t know what it was as they whispered about it. I didn’t think any more of it until I was home my mum put the news on. I watched all evening with her, as the second plane hit, as the people jumped from the buildings and as the towers fell.
It was the first I heard of terrorism and I have never and will never forget it. The fear they must have felt… the pain, the fear I felt and the fear that rippled through school, through the world… my childhood hadn’t been great but it was ‘normal’ for me but from that day and for a very long time, I saw the world as a very dark place.
It sometimes seems so long ago but also only seems like yesterday that it happened. I will certainly be thinking of all of those that lost their lives, on the day and in the aftermath and the military personnel too.