What were you doing on September 11 (9/11)?

[saminblack]

I guess we are all too young to have had a 'JFK moment' (i.e everyone of a certain age says they can always remember what they were doing when they heard President Kennedy was shot) but perhaps 9/11 (i.e today) will be 'our' unforgettable memory. I wondered if other people still have it engraved on their minds about where they were and what they were doing when the Twin Towers were attacked.

I was out at lunch and on the way back to the office at about ten to two I listened to Radio Five (which I do ALL the time) and heard Simon Mayo utter the words 'we are getting reports of a problem at the top of the Twin Towers which may have been caused by a plane hitting it'. That was intriguing enough so I went into the canteen at work where we had a big telly and found a few people watching.

At this stage no-one knew what had happened and we were all wondering how a plane could have accidentally hit the building when there, right in front of our eyes as the pictures were carried live on the BBC, a second plane crashed in.

Suddenly it seemed as if our world had changed forever (and in a sense it did). America was clearly under attack from person or persons unknown and then we heard rumours of another plane heading for Washington, others heading for the Pentagon etc etc it was like watching a big glossy thriller - except this time it was horribly real.

Needlesstosay by now our canteen was packed (very little work got done that day) and we all varied from wild, crazed speculation to moments of silence as we realised the implications of what we were seeing.

I will never forget those minutes/hours/days but those commentators predicting at the time that the world never quite be the same again were spot on. Now, eight years, on there are troops in Afghanistan as a result and (indirectly because of it I think) also in Iraq and we had a trial this week in the UK of people who were trying to do something similar. And, depressingly, the 'war on terror' seems like it has no end - and we are still no closer to bringing Obama to trial.

And for me it it all started with Simon Mayo's seemingly innocent remark as I drove back to the office after popping out for a sandwich...


Anyone else care to recall their 9/11 moment...

[Alias]

Nope.

[Alias]

and we are still no closer to bringing Obama to trial.

I've lost track of all the "conspiracy theories", so you'd best remind me mate- what the fuck did Obama have to do with it again?

[suchi]

and we are still no closer to bringing Obama to trial.

I've lost track of all the "conspiracy theories", so you'd best remind me mate- what the fuck did Obama have to do with it again?

[nickinblack]

Sam,I think that must just be Republican propaganda about Obama.

[gizzard]

I was sat in a caravan in Wemyss Bay in Scotland having a sandwich watching it live on the TV.

[icecube]

I was sat in a caravan in Wemyss Bay in Scotland having a sandwich watching it live on the TV.

Sandwiches seem to have been the order of the day then!


So what did you have then lads?
Cheese, BLT or just a plain salad?


Can't for the life of me remember what I was doing last month never mind x years ago.....

[saminblack]

and we are still no closer to bringing Obama to trial.

I've lost track of all the "conspiracy theories", so you'd best remind me mate- what the fuck did Obama have to do with it again?

In years to come I will be saying 'I can still remember where I was and what I was doing when I confused Barack Obama with Osama Bin Laden..'

[themaninblack1963]

I was a manager of a sheltered housing scheme then and went in for my lunch break and sat down and put sky news on, i thought I'd gone to a movie channel when they were replaying the first plane hitting the tower, then it dawned on me that it was real!! I was sickened, I rang the wife who was in work and told her to put her tv on to the news, I sat there for the rest of the day watching the awful events and the aftermath take place. Sda very sad and the killing continues.

[gizzard]

I was sat in a caravan in Wemyss Bay in Scotland having a sandwich watching it live on the TV.

Sandwiches seem to have been the order of the day then!


So what did you have then lads?
Cheese, BLT or just a plain salad?


Can't for the life of me remember what I was doing last month never mind x years ago.....

My memory is'nt that good!

[cassini]

I was at Manchester airport about to catch a flight back to London - saw the first plan crash into the Towers on the TV screen in the departure lounge just before boarding. My flight was, I think, the last flight out of Manchester before all flights wre grounded.

cassini

[PaulinLondon]

I was hunched in front of my computer.

I had just finished my sandwich (cheese and tomato) and someone, I forget who, came into the room and said that a light aircraft had crashed into one of the Twin Towers.

How wrong he was…..