[LaLaLand]

What were you doing/where were you when you heard about or saw what was happening?

[montblanc]

no i was only 2

i’m pretty sure my parents do though

[Toy Soldier]

In maths when we heard about it (I was 16), at home watching it on the news by the time the first tower fell. Chilling.

[Smithy]

Yeah, in Gran Canaria, laying on a sun lounger playing on me gameboy

[Underscore]

appaz i was in my cot my mum said

[RileyH]

I wasn't even 1

[Elliot]

Being a 1 year old

[Tony Montana]

I was only 6 at the time

[LaLaLand]

Oh wow I feel old! I was 11, first week of high school.

[thisisdanny]

I remember crying my eyes out because an episode of Captain Scarlet was cancelled because of news coverage... obvs I was only little so I didn't understand but I cried A LOT

EDIT: "Digitally remastered, the series resurfaced on BBC Two in the autumn of 2001.[10] On this occasion, the episode schedule needed to be re-arranged at short notice to avoid offence in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.[63] The second episode, "Winged Assassin", in which the Mysterons destroy and reconstruct a plane to assassinate a world leader, and the third, "Big Ben Strikes Again", in which London comes under threat from an atomic device, were held back and replaced with the fourth episode, "Manhunt", due to parallels between the plotlines and events in the real world.[106] In the week after the attacks, the Captain Scarlet section on the Carlton website was also temporarily removed.[106]"

[Northern Monkey]

Yeah at work.My supervisor told me about it and i was like “meh”.Then when i got home and saw it i was in total shock.

[Ant.]

Guessin i was ****ting in a diaper at home

[armand.kay]

non of y'all were in theatres watching glitter hugh?

[LaLaLand]

I didn't even put an answer to my own question oop.

Well, It was the first week of secondary school, possibly even first day with it being a Tuesday (Mondays after holidays are usually "Staff Training"). Anyway, my school photos from my last year in primary school had arrived majorly late during the Summer so we all had to go back to our old school which is in my village to pick them up after the holidays.

I did so with a friend on the 11th straight off the school bus home, got there and was just catching up with some teachers who were asking how "big school" is etc and then a different teacher came in and said "just heard on the radio there's some sort of plane crash in New York it sounded like", and we didn't think anything of it.

Cut to me walking into my house about 15 mins later and my Mam on the edge of her seat, mouth open watching the live coverage. Absolutely horrifying.

[Shaun]

I'd also just started secondary school, think I went in for the Friday/Thursday the week before as like a sort-of induction, so it wasn't completely new.

I remember it was hometime and I was walking through the corridor of classrooms and seeing students and teachers all huddled around the televisions... I didn't stop to wonder why, really, just wanted to go home. Then found out what had happened on the radio on the drive home, and I think as I got in the first tower was just about to fall. I don't remember feeling as engrossed in what was happening as we all do now whenever something's a breaking story and it's so easily accessible on our phones etc., I think I only watched an hour or so at most... but in hindsight I think it'll never be surpassed as the most chilling "visual" experience of my lifetime. I hope not, anyway.

[Headie]

Too young to remember it myself, would've only been two.

But whenever I think about 9/11 I always think about a woman who was participating in Big Brother US at the time and had made it to the final week, only for the crash to happen just before she left the house/was reunited with her family and had to be told by producers that her cousin had been killed

I saw someone tweet a clip of it today and it always gets me

[Glenn.]

I was a couple of days into Year 7. I remember coming home and starting science homework in a fresh new notebook. I looked up at the telly and watched live as the second plane hit.

[Macie Lightfoot]

I was in third grade. I grew up in north/central NJ so I'm about 50 minutes away from NYC. Our school didn't tell us anything because we were only in elementary school, but the biggest memory was just kid after kid getting called down for an early dismissal all throughout the day, like about half of the class in total. We had no clue what was going on so we all thought it was like a game and we were trying to predict who would get picked up next. I can't even imagine trying to be a teacher on that day, but I do take a little bit of comfort in knowing that we were all so innocent and it was probably a bit heartwarming to our teacher that we were so unaware of what was going on.

I was in after care (at another elementary school in town, third grade was weird for me) because both of my parents worked and I was an only child so I loved hanging out with my friends because when I got home from school each day it was just me and my parents. It was so empty that day and none of my good friends were there or they were picked up pretty early and I just remember that it was suuuuuuch a boring day and I wished that my parents picked me up earlier. I'm glad they didn't, though, they didn't want me to be scared or upset or worried so they just wanted to treat it like a normal day.

The whole thing is still so surreal and crazy. Every TV channel was the news for what felt like an eternity. The whole country stopped and was on a hiatus, you couldn't escape the news even as a kid. I was a huge reality TV buff back then and 9/11 affected everything. Survivor was going to have a season in Jordan but then that had to get scrapped, the first season of The Amazing Race had to get pushed back a few weeks and the second season of the Mole was put on hiatus for nearly a year I think, and then the second season of Big Brother was wrapping up but had to be put on pause for a good week. We had three episodes a week but then went nearly a week without an episode. It was especially somber with Monica's cousin Tamitha, like Hayden said, who was never accounted for. She reportedly was on the ground floor ready to exit but then went back upstairs to grab her purse, likely unaware that the second tower was going to be hit as well.

And that's not even to mention all the huge changes in airport security, friends of mine who had parents working in NYC and were counting their blessings that their moms and dads made it home alive and well, and just feeling like we lost our safe space. Everyone was on high alert and vulnerable and we didn't feel like we were immune from anything anymore. I can't even describe it properly, it's like how the kids in school now were born in 2001 or later and they don't know what life was like before 9/11. To them it's just another day. It can't be said enough how much life in America changed that day.

[JerseyWins]

Yeah I remember clearly it was in 3rd grade. Living in NJ (close to New York, not far from the other side of the Hudson river), we could see the Twin Towers from one side of the school. I think classes one at a time were going into the classroom that could see the Towers from what I can remember but I never got a good look at the window. I remember kids were leaving throughout the day, and my parents came to pick me up before most of the others did so I didn't want to leave and I ended up staying. By the afternoon it was just a few other people in class with me and we just kinda had a free day playing board games and stuff all day.

[JerseyWins]

Originally Posted by Hayden

Too young to remember it myself, would've only been two.

But whenever I think about 9/11 I always think about a woman who was participating in Big Brother US at the time and had made it to the final week, only for the crash to happen just before she left the house/was reunited with her family and had to be told by producers that her cousin had been killed

I saw someone tweet a clip of it today and it always gets me

Originally Posted by Macie Lightfoot

It was especially somber with Monica's cousin Tamitha, like Hayden said, who was never accounted for. She reportedly was on the ground floor ready to exit but then went back upstairs to grab her purse, likely unaware that the second tower was going to be hit as well.

Omg that's awful </3

[jaxie]

I had been helping out at the primary school, listening to readers. I got in close to noon and put the kettle on, turned on the TV for a bit of background while I had lunch. There was a smoking building and they were talking about a plane hitting it. I thought what a terrible accident, how on Earth did it happen in the middle of a city and then watched in absolute horror as a second plane disintegrated as it flew into the building live. It was shocking to watch, I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Macie Lightfoot

I was in third grade. I grew up in north/central NJ so I'm about 50 minutes away from NYC. Our school didn't tell us anything because we were only in elementary school, but the biggest memory was just kid after kid getting called down for an early dismissal all throughout the day, like about half of the class in total. We had no clue what was going on so we all thought it was like a game and we were trying to predict who would get picked up next. I can't even imagine trying to be a teacher on that day, but I do take a little bit of comfort in knowing that we were all so innocent and it was probably a bit heartwarming to our teacher that we were so unaware of what was going on.

I was in after care (at another elementary school in town, third grade was weird for me) because both of my parents worked and I was an only child so I loved hanging out with my friends because when I got home from school each day it was just me and my parents. It was so empty that day and none of my good friends were there or they were picked up pretty early and I just remember that it was suuuuuuch a boring day and I wished that my parents picked me up earlier. I'm glad they didn't, though, they didn't want me to be scared or upset or worried so they just wanted to treat it like a normal day.

The whole thing is still so surreal and crazy. Every TV channel was the news for what felt like an eternity. The whole country stopped and was on a hiatus, you couldn't escape the news even as a kid. I was a huge reality TV buff back then and 9/11 affected everything. Survivor was going to have a season in Jordan but then that had to get scrapped, the first season of The Amazing Race had to get pushed back a few weeks and the second season of the Mole was put on hiatus for nearly a year I think, and then the second season of Big Brother was wrapping up but had to be put on pause for a good week. We had three episodes a week but then went nearly a week without an episode. It was especially somber with Monica's cousin Tamitha, like Hayden said, who was never accounted for. She reportedly was on the ground floor ready to exit but then went back upstairs to grab her purse, likely unaware that the second tower was going to be hit as well.

And that's not even to mention all the huge changes in airport security, friends of mine who had parents working in NYC and were counting their blessings that their moms and dads made it home alive and well, and just feeling like we lost our safe space. Everyone was on high alert and vulnerable and we didn't feel like we were immune from anything anymore. I can't even describe it properly, it's like how the kids in school now were born in 2001 or later and they don't know what life was like before 9/11. To them it's just another day. It can't be said enough how much life in America changed that day.

...yeah it wasn't just in the day, Macie...obviously outside of a school and its protection was the reality that couldn’t be cushioned from completely because it impacted the whole world with shock and sadness...it was also in the aftermath of things like observing silences etc...what would be the best for the very young children while they were at school ...to observe or not to observe and carry on with their school days in ‘normality’...to discuss in assemblies or not to discuss etc...hard decisions to make, you know...

[AnnieK]

I was in work. One of our candidates rang and said a plane had flown into one of the Towers. We thought it was one of those pleasure flight planes and thought it was an awful accident, then the radio just stopped mid song, the news came on and the whole thing unfolded. I went home and watched the whole thing unfold on sky news in horror.

[LeatherTrumpet]

working for an American nascent tech company in London. Got the news early that a light aircraft had hit, got online (most main news sites crashed) via guardian then we all headed to boardroom and watched it all, several folk had friends and or relatives in the Towers so it was pretty grim..

[Toy Soldier]

A very disturbing thought I've just had;

if it happened today, most people wouldn't be particularly shocked.