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Every once in a while an event puts everything in perspective. Something occurs that's so overwhelming that it changes your life forever. On 9-11-01- ten years ago today- 3,000 American citizens died in a senseless act of terrorism. We took a moment as a nation today to remember those lost. It's a day we will never forget, ranking with the Pearl Harbor attack as the worst disasters ever in US history.

Personally, I can't remember what I did last night or the day before, or even this morning, but I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing and what I was thinking. I'd like to here from everyone else. Where were you?

I was my car going to a massage job at a communications equipment company in Genoa, IL. I had just pulled into the parking lot while listening to WGN radio. They were talking about the first plane hit; the second hadn't hit. Just before I turned the car off, the news came in that a second plane had hit the other tower. I sat there listening for about 10 minutes, thinking to myself that it wasn't just an accident. By the time I got inside the company had set up a large screen TV in their breakroom and there were about 40 people watching the coverage. No one talked. A couple people were crying. I was watching when the first of the towers fell. I felt sick. At that point I called my buddy, who was a paramedic. He was on standby thanks to a statewide alert for EMS personnel. I told him to let me know if he had to go anywhere because I was going too. I can still see the towers collapsing in my mind. I never will forget it.

I Was a little kid, in my living room, watching Transformers, then my Uncle switched it over to the news, and I didn't understand the importance of what was going on. I was old enough to know it was a bad thing, yet for some reason, it didn't register! I felt so dumb in coming years. everyone was talking about it, and I wore this attitude like I didn't even care. I care now of course, But back then, I was a kid, in my own little world, and I didn't quite understand how it was more imortant....

I remember most of that days as well.

I woke up at 8:30 to go to my 9:15 class at Kent State University. I was a freshman in college. My grandma was in her room watching TV and she told me what had happened up to that point. I believe it was only the first plan that had crashed into the WTC. I still got ready for class, and when I got there they told me it was canceled due to the events. On the way back to my car someone told me the second plane hit and the first tower had collapsed. By the time I got home, the second tower had also collapsed. It was just surreal. With the day free from school, I decided to run some errands. I went to get the oil changed on my grandma's car, and the guy at the garage told me something I will always remember. It wasn't PC, but it was to the point: "Those g**damn towelheads got us." I just shook my head. Then another one of them told me a joke. Funny or not, you decide. At the time, I nervously laughed. But it's something I will also not forget.

"A cowboy, an Indian and a Muslim are standing around talking. The Indian says 'Once we were many, now we're few.' The Muslim says 'Once we were few, now we're many.' The cowboy looks at him and says 'That's because we haven't played Cowboys and Muslims yet.'"

Anyway, after leaving there and getting some groceries, I went home and watched the events unfold on the news. I spent the later part of the day with my then-girlfriend, whose father was a firefighter at the time. We couldn't believe the death and destruction caused that day, and even now it has lasting effects. I can truly say my life has never been the same since. This must have been how people felt back in the 40s after Pearl Harbor. When I think of my life and my adulthood (I turned 19 2 weeks before) I can't help but imagine how different it would be if it hadn't been for the events of that day.

Unfortunately, in some measure the terrorists succeeded in their mission of altering everyday American life. With the atrocious response of the Bush administration the foreign and domestic situation of the United States is very bleak. It's a hard road ahead, and so far no capable leader(s) have stepped up. None.

I do remember the brave firefighters and police officers from New York City who helped save lives that day. May their memories live forever as heroes.

I remember getting up in the morning and watching Transformers on Fox Kids. I even remember the episode. It was the RID episode where Skids couldn't control his need to race.

My mom came into the room 15 minutes into the show saying we need to switch it to the news. I saw the WTC and next thing I knew, a plane crashed followed by another one. Then about 10 minutes before I had to leave for school, the towers fell.

I was in the 6th grade when that happened. Now I'm 21 and a sophomore at college.

I was at work listening to Howard Stern live on the internet.. Their news actually came faster than the local stations.. It was surreal listening to the events unfold then watching everything on tv..

I was in the 4th grade at the time, in math class. I remember the teacher and I think she taught math. Anyway, we all sat down and she explained the situation to us. I can't remember anything she said, so I don't know how sugarcoated it was. I could tell everyone's parents were getting worried because the kids in my class were getting called out of school early one-by-one. Eventually I got dismissed early and went back with my mom to the apartment we used to live in. The front lobby of that school was pretty packed.

I saw the towers on the news and all the smoke coming from them and I was terrified. I saw a guy walking outside that day. It looked to me like he was holding something black and I was honestly worried it was a bomb. Needless to say, it wasn't. I kept worrying that whole day that the terrorists were going to bomb our apartment complex.

It should be noted that I suffered quite heavily from anxiety disorder back then. I was scared of a lot of things.

I feel bad because I didn't even know about Flight 93 until maybe a year or two ago. I don't think enough has been done to honor the memories of the heroes on that flight who saved the lives of so many other Americans.

I remember I was having a nightmare before my mother got me up saying a plane hit the World Trade Center. I raced downstairs just in time to see the second plane hit. I think I screamed, because I just have this image of myself watching this and screaming "NOOO!" My dad was there in his undies and he was swearing a lot, more than I've ever heard from him before. We watched and watched, and Mom took a shower with me relaying updates to her. Some Jehovah's Witnesses came over to spread their word and Dad cussed them out. I don't remember what we had for lunch. Then Dad had to go to work and my brother came home from school. He told me his teacher had been crying in class and that reminded me of when Mom told me her memories from when JFK was shot. Then we went to Ace Hardware to get something or other, just to get out. I got a little glass bird, a green one. My brother got a blue glass elephant. I can't remember what we had for dinner, but I remember that I took a shower and I cried.

Treetop Maximus wrote:I feel bad because I didn't even know about Flight 93 until maybe a year or two ago. I don't think enough has been done to honor the memories of the heroes on that flight who saved the lives of so many other Americans.

I agree with this. Former President Clinton recently spoke and said that he had found out that the memorial for United Flight 93 was significantly short of money. Then he dropped a bombshell, saying that he and current House Speaker John Boehnner were going to be hosting a co-fundraiser in an attempt to raise money for the memorial. I agree: the actions of the folks of Flight 93 saved a ton of lives and they should be remembered as every bit the heroes as the first responders and firefighters in New York. I highly recommend donating to this cause if possible.

Quick personal note: a thank you to everyone for sharing your memories. This truly is something we should never forget and sharing like this is a good way to remember and build comaraderie. I'm curious to hear from some of our outside-the-US Transfans. What was your perspective as the events on that day unfolded?

Is there an official website for donations? I couldn't find much info.

Treetop Maximus wrote:Is there an official website for donations? I couldn't find much info.

I'll keep looking. If I find anything, I'll be sure and post it here.

I was in college, student teaching.

I had just started teaching math to a group of 3rd graders. The teacher came into the room and told me what was going on during a break in class. I was told not to say anything to the students. We had an assembly the next day.

I was a tough day that day trying to go about teaching and acting like nothing was going on outside. At lunch we were all glued to the tv getting information.

It was a tough day.

I was in first grade when it happened. I don't remember much. I think my parents told me that some people had flew some planes into some buildings in New York City. I asked if it was the Empire State Building (because I wanted to visit it someday, and hoped it wasn't destroyed), and they said it wasn't. I then kind of shrugged it off, not realizing how bad it was. They might not've even told my that lots of people had died. The next day at school, our teacher told us about it. Two kids laughed, not understanding it, and she yelled at them and had them leave the group. After that, the day was pretty much normal, although some kids were gone at memorial services. I feel like it never really hit me the way it should've, since by the time I fully understood how awful it was, it was far from recent.

At school and didn't hear about it until I got home. My mom thought they where making a movie...

I was on days off, at home. The first I knew of the strikes was when I took a quick drive into town just before lunch to return some videos I’d rented. They were all Steven Segal movies and I joked with the gal I gave the videos back to about how mindlessly silly all of Segal’s action movies seemed to be. The gal countered with something like: speaking of mindless action, how about what’s going on in New York, with the Twin Towers collapsing and all? I confess I thought she was pulling my leg at first, and even after she’d given me a rundown on the situation as best she knew, I was still rather sceptical during the drive back. I still had a little rabbit-eared TV back then and checked it out as soon as I got home. It was true! Every channel was covering the story. A lot of the info being aired seemed so incoherent and contradictory, though, that I decided I’d carry on with my day’s plans and tune back in later, towards evening.

While I was pruning some shrubs along the fence line I share with a neighbour, the neighbour came out wearing his work duds (he does security) and told me that he was being called out on an emergency basis to the airport, that a whole bunch of jets were being diverted there because the States had just closed its borders to all commercial air traffic and was grounding everything. He confirmed that it was all due to several major terrorist attacks on American targets, then hurried off. Shortly afterwards, I saw an airliner go by low overhead, en route to the Halifax airport. They continued to come in, one by one, all afternoon long, and you can see some of the end result, how the visitors were parked and tended, in the aerial photo at the following link:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/188171/

I returned to work two days later and the first person I saw was one of our then-resident American service people, an Army major. When I expressed my condolences over what had happened to his country, he started crying. He was one of the first people in our building to later volunteer for a position within the newly created homeland security forces. I like to think that he had a personal hand in hunting down Bin Laden. It would have given him a great deal of satisfaction.

My own major feeling in regards to 9/11, then and now, is still surprise that the terrorists involved were able to get organized enough to carry out several such large operations all at once. Aside from that, I’m pessimistic enough to believe that there’s a great deal of evil in the world and that its fallout is largely inevitable.

I remember it vididly. I was in 10th grade English class. My teacher got a call on her cell from her mother and was told what happened. We turned the TV in the classroom on and started watching it. About an hour later the whole school was in the auditorium for a special assembly (small Christian school). They told everyone what they knew and we just went class to class watching the news or just talking about it if the room didn't have a TV.

Where were you on 9-11-01?

I lived in brooklyn NYC back then.

I work nights & came home around 3:00am. I woke up on 9-11-01 around 12:00pm & slept thru the towers being bombed & torn down around.

my brother was watching the news & told me all about it. my mom & dad were in PA vistiting my sister.

I called my work number & was told they would be shut down for a few days.

my dad woke me up that morning, i was 13 years old, 8th grade at the time, just waking me up for school and then told me an Airplane hit the World Trade Center, that it's all over the news and I just ran to the TV, initially thinking to myself "how can that happen? was it really an accident or on deliberately" once I got to school, it was news all day in the classroom and knew it had to be on purpose once the second plane just hit

I was six years old, sitting at school, all my friends standing around watching me draw Spider-Man, when all of a sudden somebody from the principal's office came into the room and talked to the teacher, who then told us what had happened. I remember freaking out because I thought it was going on downtown, near where my dad was working.

I was in class when the planes hit. My third period teacher was the only one who refused to turn on TV, which was when the towers fell. A girl who left to use the bathroom ran in crying with the news. In retrospect, I should have just gone home that day to be with my family.

A b-roll (a transitional shot) one of the channels aired that evening still haunts me. The shot was of a nearby playground looking like a war zone, covered in dust. I had been there once maybe, but I recognized it immediately. And then I realized the towers were gone. Really gone.

My parents were glued to the TV all week. My dad used to run a business in one of the buildings that scientists expected to crumble. It didn't.

My aunt volunteered to help the injured. She's never talked about what she saw.

Five years later, the editor of the college newspaper wrote a callous editorial telling readers to move on. I started writing an angry letter, but couldn't find the words, and then deleted it. I cried for the first time in years that day, and have on nearly every 9/11 anniversary since.

It Is Him wrote:I was in class when the planes hit. My third period teacher was the only one who refused to turn on TV, which was when the towers fell. A girl who left to use the bathroom ran in crying with the news. In retrospect, I should have just gone home that day to be with my family.

A b-roll (a transitional shot) one of the channels aired that evening still haunts me. The shot was of a nearby playground looking like a war zone, covered in dust. I had been there once maybe, but I recognized it immediately. And then I realized the towers were gone. Really gone.

My parents were glued to the TV all week. My dad used to run a business in one of the buildings that scientists expected to crumble. It didn't.

My aunt volunteered to help the injured. She's never talked about what she saw.

Five years later, the editor of the college newspaper wrote a callous editorial telling readers to move on. I started writing an angry letter, but couldn't find the words, and then deleted it. I cried for the first time in years that day, and have on nearly every 9/11 anniversary since.

Sometimes colleges are not the best place to get cultural advancement. College students often become isolated from reality, which is why so many college campuses lean to the extremes of one political spectrum or another. I can't believe someone would be so callous though. That's just cruel. I admit to shedding tears as well every year. It's good to mourn.

For those who were interested, it seems that there is a new drive for funding for the United 93 flight victims. Here is the link to donate.

https://myaccount.nationalparks.org/ssl ... px?pid=550