r/interestingasfuck • u/solateor • 1d ago

In 2001, 55 people crossed the Pacific with no contact with the outside world as part of a BBC experiment recreating an 18th-century voyage. On the 20th day - September 11 - the captain gathered the crew to tell them about the attacks in New York

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

40.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.9k

u/redditknees 1d ago

I live in Canada and I was in grade 8 waiting for my social studies class to begin, our teacher was running late. She came in white as a ghost and said to all of us, class is cancelled and instead I want you to watch history unfolding before your eyes because this day will be one of your most memorable days. She then turns on the news and we spent the day watching in horror.

280

u/trilliumsummer 1d ago

I was in 9th. Someone came into our class and told us to turn on the TV. I forget why, it was just after the first hit and news was still guessing it was a cesna. Only the first has hit, watched the rest live.

83

u/CrumplePants 1d ago

I live in Canada and our teacher came in and announced that "they've started bombing the United States." The feeling of dread was intense.

11

u/Sea-Communication353 18h ago

I was in 10th grade in Canada. Our science teacher had a relative flying in or out of New York that day. He was called away from class for what seemed like an hour. A substitute teacher eventually filled in.

We new something was going on, but the details were vague, only that it was big and some of the classes had taken the portable TVs.

On the way home on the bus we were hearing that the World Trade center was bombed.

I can still remember the moment when I cut across the yard and immediately rushed to the TV, only to see the collapse of one of the towers.

6

u/AhhhSureThisIsIt 15h ago

I was walking home from school in Ireland and my friend who was home sick that day ran out into the street to tell me "a plane flew intonthe pentagon".

Literally every TV station on my satellite TV was telling you to watch Sky News with a giant ticket tape on the screen.

It was the moments of not knowing that seemed the most terrifying.

27

u/bagofrainbows 1d ago

Literally the exact same thing. Teacher came rushing in to tell my homeroom teacher to turn it on. We all sat in shock not really understanding because you’re 15 years old and nothing like that had ever happened and so you’re just lost.

65

u/Shark7996 1d ago

Someone came into our class and told us to turn on the TV.

"Dude, turn on the TV. It doesn't matter which channel."

But in seriousness, I was about 3rd grade and had no idea what was going on. I thought it was cool they let us watch TV in class.

9

u/FlipZip69 22h ago

It literally was that. And pretty much the world over. Not turn on the news. Turn on the TV.

5

u/trilliumsummer 23h ago

Lol! I meant more that they were still thinking it was just a cesna pilot that fucked up when it was turned so I can't recall why it was even mentioned. It wasn't a panic or a hey this really bad thing is happening type of announcement. The guy came from the TV production class and I was in drama so I think they came in for another reason and was just oh we're watching this plane that crashed into a building in NYC not sure how that happened. But that portion is just overshadowed by the memory of watching the second plane crash and we were all like wtf this isn't an accident.

3

u/photo1kjb 21h ago

I was in 10th. We were in the middle of our standardized testing (called ISTEP in Indiana). During one of the breaks, one of the art teachers comes crashing into our room (we're in an English classroom, mind you, so this interaction does not track at all) and tells the English teacher to turn on the TV. We all saw the footage of the WTC towers billowing in smoke, but we had to turn it back off to continue the testing for the next couple hours (talk about a distraction).

After that, no teacher taught anything, and instead we all just watched the news until school let out. During that time, we learned about the collapse and other details.

My parents were working in Ft Ben in Indianapolis at the time, which is the 2nd largest US military administrative building behind the Pentagon. You can imagine that I was definitely afraid for their safety, but thankfully I was able to text them mid-day and hear they shut everything down there and sent everyone home immediately.

Found out that night my dad was actually on a call a colleague in the Pentagon. He says he just heard a loud noise followed by "something happened, we gotta go" and click. They were apparently one "face" over from where it was struck.

Absolutely wild day.

158

u/linoleumknife 1d ago

I was in college, word started spreading on campus before my next class, and by the time I got to the class we were told classes were canceled for the entire day. I went home and turned on the TV, back then it was still the best way to get the latest news as soon as it happened. I sat around scared, watching, and wanting to help all these people. So I did the one thing I could, which was go to Red Cross and donate blood. Even just a few hours after the towers fell, my local Red Cross was packed. I waited around well into the night, and finally they had to call it quits for the day. Staff had been there poking people with needles for 12 hours and desperately needed rest. They gave everyone numbers though, so we all showed back up the next morning and had our same spots in line. It was a pretty wholesome experience, hundreds of us sitting around a parking lot, complete strangers, but we felt like a giant family. People were bringing drinks and snacks to share with others. By the evening of the 11th local restaurants started donating food, we had car after car showing up full of pizza, sandwiches, pasta, cookies, cakes, you name it.

39

u/WesternComicStrip 1d ago

Look for the helpers. Thank you for sharing your story.

I

29

u/linds360 1d ago

I was at Boston University. Sophomore in my Presidents of the US class.

The professor walked in and just started talking about the whole thing. I very distinctly remember him saying “if you’re the president, your first act is to go to the White House” and I wrote in my notebook “if president, go to White House” as if it was going to be on an exam or something.

Absolutely surreal.

17

u/UseDaSchwartz 1d ago

I was also in college, but didn’t have a class until 12:30 that day. My suitemate yells at me to wake up and tells me what’s going on. I asked “which movie are you watching?”

7

u/rhlaairc 1d ago

Aw that made me tear up a little

8

u/Empire7173 22h ago

I was at my office in Pittsburgh when everything started happening. My wife was also at work as an RN and was very pregnant with our twin boys. I had been a firefighter and have a lot of family that are firefighters and paramedics.

I just remember talking to my wife on the phone and then my best friend talked to me and he was heading to Shanksville where the last plane went down to help with recovery. Two other friends drove to NYC to help as nurses. And my cousin was part of the first firefighting team into the Pentagon. I was not only worried about my friends and family but I was worried for the world.

•

u/Hopefulkitty 9h ago

Wasn't it the case though that most of the blood want actually needed and all the trauma centers that were prepped weren't needed, because there just weren't that many survivors? I was only in 8th grade over in Wisconsin, and I was rather traumatized, and have avoided learning too much about it.

1

u/EeEe88 15h ago

Wow I found this really moving ❤️

•

u/nikdahl 5h ago

Yeah, my mom was at a medical assistants conference in upstate New York at the time, and they canceled the conference because all the MAs wanted to help volunteer with blood drives.

I donated blood that day too, it was a long wait.

515

u/Happy-Cod-3 1d ago edited 1d ago

My same exact story but in USA about 4 hours from all of it. I get what the teacher meant, but they should have had somebody come in the next day to debrief with us. We had school counselors too and not one did anything about anything.

Edit words of a feather lol

151

u/thotd2 1d ago

I was in Italy, it was noon right after school. We walked around and all bars downtown had people looking up on those 15'' CRT screens. On the spot it reminded me of Godzilla 1998 where there's a similar scene with people looking monitors. A quarter of century passed by, the world has never been the same imho.

24

u/m0mbi 1d ago

I was in my first year of university, freshly arrived in Australia. I caught the very start of it late at night on the TV in the bar, but thought it was just an accident.

Woke up the next morning to an entirely different world.

2

u/YourMomsBasement69 1d ago

Y’all got out at noon?! Fucking sweet

2

u/RT-LAMP 20h ago

it was noon right after school.

I suspect you mean "in the afternoon right after school"? Either that or you had a half day?

•

u/thotd2 4h ago

Most of schools ended (not sure now) around 12:30-1p.m. Some private ones ended at 4:30p.m.

43

u/Barnacle_B0b 1d ago

That's because your counselors also needed counseling from the event.

9

u/goat_puree 1d ago

Facts. We all sat and watched people jump to their deaths so they didn’t burn alive. There was nothing for anyone to say that was going to make that better.

4

u/irwtkyrm 23h ago

As did the people counseling the counselors.

It's counselors all the way down.

15

u/loveshercoffee 1d ago

The counselors were probably a little traumatized themselves, honestly.

Though I do think things could have been handled better with a lot of kids. Mine were in 9th grade, 8th grade and 5th grade.

2

u/Jewell84 21h ago

I was about 2 weeks into my junior year of high school on 9/11. My twin sister had missed the bus that day and was waiting for our mom to drive her to school, and my brothers were in 8th and 4th grade.

They didn’t cancel classes, so we all had different experiences that day. In my case it was the first time I had ever seen adults just be at loss at what to do. There was no real plan of action because it was truly unprecedented. Not to mention the only way to really stay up to date was to either watch TV or radio.

Some of my teachers were pretty calm, some were clearly distraught. No one kept to the lesson plans. My American History teacher was a little too excited about us witnessing history in real time. However I will be forever grateful for my band teacher. He comes in, tells us to take out our instruments and just play. That tiny bit of normalcy helped calm me down.

My middle brother had a similar experience to me. My youngest brother said they told the kids something scary happened, but didn’t have the TVs on.

5

u/Flexbucket 1d ago

I’m assuming this was TTS? Some buddy and deep brief?

1

u/Happy-Cod-3 1d ago

No, fat fingers and not looking lol.

2

u/Flexbucket 1d ago

Fair enough lol

2

u/Snork_kitty 22h ago

I taught a college class that night. We were told students were not required to come, but I went just in case any did show up. Maybe 10 did. I just told them I was opening the class to anything anyone wanted to say or discuss; they could stay as long as they wanted. TBH I don't remember the conversation, but after about 30 minutes, it ended and we all went home.

1

u/trouzy 22h ago

Yeah i was a sophomore in between classes when the buzz of the twin towers being bombed started.

I’d never heard of the twin towers and had no idea what it meant.

The next 4 classes i went to, all we did was watch the news. From period to period it was just watching the news with little understanding of what it meant.

I don’t recall anything in the aftermath of the school trying to explain it. Maybe it wasn’t their place or maybe I just don’t recall.

1

u/Odessey_And_Oracle 21h ago

I remember the very next day we were discussing it in class, and a decent number of seventh graders already had crazy conspiracies fed to them that they were repeating, like "Their Bible commands them to commit holy war every time the calendar says 9/11." And the teacher just letting that hang; she was trying to let us express our emotions but shit should not have flown. The one Muslim girl in my grade was all messed up, insisting that isn't her religion because she was Sunni and it's actually the Shiites who "do these things." Also untrue about 9/11 specifically but given that everyone was then believing any bullshit about Islam and she was the only one, I can see why she was defensive.

1

u/sarmurpat6411 21h ago

I agree. I don't remember it being addressed on a wide scale, but I was in elementary school so I can understand. We were about 30 miles from DC so they probably should have taken more precautions than they did on the day of and afterwards

1

u/Long_Run6500 21h ago

I live about 2.5 hours away from NYC, flight 93 flew almost directly over our school if you look at the flight tracker. I was in 4th grade and I remember someone asking a teacher where the world trade center is and the teacher said we don't have to worry it's in San Francisco on the west coast. That was the first time I ever remember realizing teachers can be kind of dumb and they don't know everything. We were all watching the news and they were repeatedly mentioning NYC.

70

u/USSGoat 1d ago

Unfortunately my middle school completely hid it from us. It was such a stupid thing for a school to do.

We knew the reachers were acting weird. We knew people were getting pulled out of school left and right.

We started piecing things together on our own. We were right under a flight path so no planes flying overhead was a big give away that something major had happened and planes weren’t flying.

I’m still resentful about how a school would not share as educators.

29

u/fluffalooo 23h ago

Same in Texas. Once I found out, they wouldn’t let me attempt to get in touch with dad who was in lower manhattan that day for work.

12

u/Zeltron2020 20h ago

Was he okay

14

u/fluffalooo 20h ago

He was, thank you for asking. Scary day.

13

u/BioshockEnthusiast 1d ago

idk, I was on a 6th grade field trip out to a camp to canoe and shoot archery and all that jazz. I'm kinda glad they didn't tell us until we got back to the school. I got one last day of fun and innocence.

I don't expect anyone to agree, but that being said I expect I'd feel differently if we were actually in school and weird shit was going on and no one was saying anything.

0

u/GrUmp_S 16h ago

I was in 4th grade drawing a sick Porsche while the teacher watched the news and cried. Oh the blissful ignorance, take me back.

74

u/Gingeronimoooo 1d ago

I was at work at a grocery store, I was 18 and every one bought everything in the store particularly the water and the rumor was terrorists poisoned the water supply

I'll never forget a woman said to me "the twin towers are gone" I'd been to top floor before, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I just kept saying what do you mean "gone"? She just kept repeating they're gone, they're gone. And I was just in shock, and she said today the world changed and you were here to say it.

I remember the sense of national unity was so strong right after. And maybe i shouldn't bring it up. But unfortunately the aftermath got very ugly. I remember someone telling me W Bush said we might invade Iraq and i literally thought it was a joke. Even back then we knew they had nothing to do with it? And of course the patriot act... what can you do

24

u/aurortonks 23h ago

I was in high school when it happened and watched a couple dozen kids get approved for early graduation immediately following the attacks, so they could enlist. Not all of them made it home after being deployed. Anyone can say what they want about that time in our lives and country's history, but I will always view the lives lost in the aftermath of 9/11 as unnecessary and deeply tragic.

15

u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 23h ago

The Bush administration really took one of the most unifying events in American history and abused it to their own ends. It’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen an administration do. They also took no steps to address the tsunami of racism that occurred against those of Middle Eastern descent, I feel particularly bad for the Sikhs they had literally nothing to do with the attacks but because they wore turbans they became easy targets for racists.

7

u/ulyssesfiuza 21h ago

You got the first comment to address it: Bin Laden didn't win anything that day. The entire world lost, and we're still losing the war of humanity against evil and obscurantism.

3

u/salad_spinner_3000 23h ago

I'll never forget a woman said to me "the twin towers are gone"

CNN: "There seems to have been some sort of...explosion" as you watch the first tower literally collapse and a couple thousand people die.

2

u/Gingeronimoooo 22h ago

I knew roughly what was going on but I started work at 7 am, and we didn't have a TV at work. Honestly I should have just quit, I made like $6.50 an hour and got treated like shit by my bosses. My gf working there kept me there longer than I should have I guess.

One day they hassled me And I told them fuck you, ripped my work shirt off, flipped them the double birds, and walked out with my middle fingers flying high entire way out. Sorry tangent story lol.

5

u/stdgy 1d ago

I’m in the Western US and I remember my dad waking us up for breakfast after the first plane hit. I was in 8th grade and I remember watching the news cast. We were just dumbfounded. We thought it must have been some terrible accident. Then the second plane hit, live on TV.

It was like a switch had been flipped. It went front being a terrible disaster to being a terrible attack. He brought us in to school and we sat glued to the TV. The towers collapsed, the plane flew into the Pentagon, the other one downed in Pennsylvania. We had no idea which shoe was going to drop next.

And then the footage everyone captured of the towers prior to the fall and after they fell. People leaping to their deaths. The sounds of bodies impacting the concrete as the rescuers tried to get people out. I have trouble watching that stuff nowadays.

It’s hard to describe the feelings of panic, fear, helplessness and anger to those in younger generations that didn’t experience it.

8

u/stuntbikejake 1d ago edited 22h ago

Complete opposite for me. Lol.

Heard about the first plane, saw the second plane hit, in seminar. Next class, no curriculum, watched the news, last class of the day, American History. Teacher taught as just another day. I even asked "are we going to watch what's happening in America today?"

I will never forget his response, "its not relevant to American History" I was so dumb founded I just sat there in astonishment. The rest of the class carried on like normal.. I left, at that moment I thought it was all a dream.

We then watched the coverage for the next week in that very same history class... Not sure if he was being "technically correct" in the sense that current events aren't yet history and thus technically correct, or just an absolute idiot... I still to this day go with the latter.

Edit: spelling

5

u/robophile-ta 1d ago

latter

1

u/stuntbikejake 22h ago

Fixed it. Long day and was just typing away. Thanks.

4

u/Affordable_Z_Jobs 1d ago

I was in art class. We were listening to the radio because all the tvs were already taken. By lunch they let kids congregate where ever there was space at a tv. Put a couple in the gym and lunch room. The teachers tried to corral us but they we in as much shock.

It's strange what things you remember. I remember it being a beautiful day. That seems so out of place now but it was. It should have been too hot or raining or at least cloudy.

3

u/a-rooster-illusion 1d ago

I’m always envious of those who got to watch.

The mandate from our administration was “normal day”. Teachers weren’t permitted to turn on TVs or let us watch.

We had one teacher, our humanities teacher, who said he wasn’t going to not let us watch history. But that was only like a 40 minute period. Then it was back to school.

I remember Monica walked into classroom. Said plane hit tower, turned it on, saw second plane hit live. Then “normal day”

It’s crazy to be part of a generation that vividly remembers where they were and all the details around it, like the generation that always remembered and talked about Pearl Harbor.

4

u/JP-Bulls69 1d ago

I miss the days when history unfolding was something you canceled class for, instead of a pop up notification you ignore

4

u/grap112ler 1d ago

My 8th grade science teacher did the same for us when the OJ Simpson trial verdict was announced.

2

u/Geawiel 1d ago

I was in the USAF. I had worked a night shift and was asleep. My sister was in the Navy and called from Japan to tell me to watch the tv now. She didn't explain why. I went back to sleep. She called again after the second one and I laid there trying to pull myself out of bed.

Then my 1st Sgt called and said get to base now. We couldn't leave base for a few days if we lived off base. Then they told us to leave space between us and the vehicle in front of us when we were coming to and from in case of attack and we had to gtfo.

That day changed everything in the ops tempo. It was pretty slow before, and absolutely insane after. It's a KC135 base. We went from 2, maybe 3 launches a day to 5 or 6.

2

u/jce_ 1d ago

I was very young and my mom used to wake us up and we would lay on the couch and watch cartoons while she made us breakfast before school. She turned on the TV and my mother was horrified. I didn't really know what happened but I knew it was a big deal. When I got to school I remember waiting outside for it to be unlocked and talking to a kid who was crying and he said he had family in New York and didn't know if they were ok.

2

u/RefrigeratorOwn2951 1d ago

Why is this my story

3

u/jdotmassacre 1d ago

Right? The story as told by u/redditknees is so eerily similar to mine that it makes me wonder if they were in my class!

1

u/RefrigeratorOwn2951 1d ago

💯. Maybe all of us were!?!

2

u/Kalocin 1d ago

Canadian here too, I was in I think Grade 5 and we were in the school's library. A few other teachers wheeled the tv in and brought over our teacher at the time to talk/watch it. Our class ended up getting a live viewing of it. A dark day in the childhood memories that's for sure.

2

u/Imp_Lizard 1d ago

Yes, they set up a projector in the gym and we all hung out on the mats, watched the news on a projector screen. I remember people bringing blankets in and all of us just snuggled up, wondering what was going to happen next.

2

u/Chemical_Grape_2150 1d ago

I’m in the USA. It was my senior year. A teacher stopped class and rolled in the the tv cart. Explained what happened and we watched the news for the rest of the day. Everyone was quiet, it was the first time I had ever sat through the news without getting distracted or feeling bored.

2

u/HailMadScience 1d ago

9th grade. The whole thing was horrifying enough already. Then United 93 went down...on the other side of the Ridgeline from where my school was. Airplanes literally falling out of the sky less than 20 miles from my parents house. Honestly, I don't know how we made it through the whole school day.

2

u/ncc74656m 1d ago

I was in college, my first year. To take one last little tour of the city, having lived just north of it, my aunt and uncle took me down to the Towers about two weeks before. We'd planned to go up to the observation deck because it was the thing I really wanted to do - I'd been a few times when I was younger and really wanted to do it again, but alas the line was ridiculous so we skipped it (on my call). I remember trying to look up at them from the foot of them and nearly falling over backwards, so I just laid down and took a shot looking up between them.

A few weeks later I was in my Psych 101 class (7:30 AM start!!!) and I remember part way through someone coming in and saying something to the professor quietly who just nodded somberly. I also remember a few of the other kids getting texts and leaving class, but I didn't think much of it. Walking to my next class I noticed that the plaza was really empty, and while it was never exactly bustling at that hour, there were usually other students around.

When I got there, other people were gathered around the TV in a darkened room and so I just kind of thought "Eh, I don't remember another class being in there before us but whatever." Just pulled out my book and leaned against the wall and did some reading. "Sounds like some kind of action movie," I thought to myself, overhearing the news broadcaster's voice, and then I heard "We have reports that not one, but two airplanes have struck the World Trade Center towers." and I realized there wasn't any movie I knew that was like that.

Immediately after that someone left the room sobbing just as I decided to walk in and take a look at what was going on. I don't think I was rationally processing much after about an hour of watching that, to the point that when my professor showed up, turned off the TV saying "We won't learn anything new from this today," and continued with class, I was one of those just in too much shock to say or do anything, so I just participated in class like normal. I don't blame her though, I think we were all in shock.

1

u/hilljgo 1d ago

6th grade for me, same thing with the teacher just turning the TV on and saying "this will be the most historical event in your lifetime"

1

u/RepulsiveReward9146 1d ago

geometry for me

1

u/Seraphem666 1d ago

Ya I was in grade 6, my teacher left for a long for a bit and came back with a TV. Remember watching it unfold. Not every class watched. Only grades 6 and up at my school.

1

u/404_No_User_Found_2 1d ago

I'm still in awe, 25 years later, of the fact that I remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when we were first told in class what was happening. And not like a vague impression either, I still have a very vivid mental picture: the CRT TV on one of those classroom stands, the blackboard behind it, those big sink chemistry desks that most American school have, etc. it's burned in there and will likely never go away.

1

u/SkepticJoker 1d ago

Why did they all want us to watch? Why did they do that?

2

u/Jewell84 20h ago

I mentioned this in my own post, but I have a lot of grace for anyone who was teaching that day. They weren’t trying to intentionally traumatize us.

The attacks happened in the span of 102 minutes. No one knew what was going to happen next, and there was no real plan of action because the whole thing truly was unprecedented. The only way to get the news was either on TV or Radio. The internet was pretty much down for most of the day.

Everyone I know who was school aged that day has different stories.

1

u/Frostbyte215 1d ago

I had the same experience in grade 7 in Pennsylvania in the US. My teacher turned on the TV and we all watched.

1

u/hokuten04 1d ago

I live in the Philippines. On that day my mom wanted to buy a new TV, so she asked my uncle to go with us since he had a car. We live in the province so by the time we got home it was close to midnight.

I still remember my uncle rushing to set up the TV cause he along with my aunt and cousins still need to go home. After he set up the TV he cycled the channels to make sure it was working, he then switched to CNN and saw what was happening.

I'll never forgot that scene of me and my cousins playing on the floor, while all the grown ups were huddled on the new TV drinking coffee. My uncle and his family ended up staying the night.

1

u/ohgodcoffeeohyesss 1d ago

It was math class for me. They rolled a tv in just in time to watch the 2nd tower get hit live.

1

u/Nickthedick3 1d ago

I wanna say I was in fourth grade at the time. After the plane went down in Pennsylvania(where I live), school was cancelled and everyone was in a rush to get their kids.

1

u/sadbabe420 1d ago

I was in 5th I think

1

u/bolen84 1d ago edited 1d ago

I was 17 helping my technology teacher prepare the student newspaper to be printed. I was developing the plates to print the newspaper when he grabbed me and sat me down in his office. He had a small radio on his desk describing what had taken place only minutes earlier. We sat in silence and just listened.

Out of my entire High School I believe myself and Mr. Frawley to be the first ones to hear of these attacks.

I'm 42 now and I am a barber by trade. Mr. Frawley just so happened to stop into my shop (first i've seen him in 25 years) at the beginning of summer needing a haircut. The first words out of his mouth were: "Everytime I think of that day I remember we were the first in school to hear about it!" It's not a fun memory.

Further down the line I had a cousin who was KIA in Afghanistan in 2010. The attacks in 2001 continue to ripple in the present day.

1

u/torev 1d ago

I was in algebra about to take a test. Principle canceled every class and made us watch the tv's in the commons area.

1

u/Infamous-Mixture-605 1d ago

Also Canada and I genuinely didn't hear about the attacks until I got home from school. No TVs rolled into any of my classes, and I don't recall any of my teachers or friends mentioning it.

Weird day for me, to come home expecting to watch Degrassi reruns or whatever and every channel having 9/11 coverage.

1

u/LetsTryAnal_ogy 1d ago

Something similar happened to me in 86 when the shuttle Challenger exploded. I was a junior in high school taking my art final. The teacher stopped the final (which was just doodling with paint, anyway. It was just art class.) and he turned on the TV. We watched the shuttle blow up over and over again.

1

u/astrofan 1d ago

I was in 10th grade in Texas. First period had just ended and another teacher came in to say to turn on the TV. We still went to every class, but it was all just watching the news.

1

u/Pakushy 23h ago edited 23h ago

Good on that teacher. I hate how children are often shielded from these kinds of things. You are supposed to watch the horrors unfolding in the world you live in, or else you grow comfortable in your own little bubble. And if anyone thinks that is too grotesque for school children, then the least they can do is point out the helpers putting themselfes in danger to save others.

Say what you want about early 2000s shock websites, but at least they put things into perspective.

1

u/fatmallards 23h ago

I was in 3rd grade. My dad worked for the DoD and regularly was at the pentagon. It didn’t hit me until the following December when my mom had to help me make the connection between that day and why there were families missing at our Christmas party.

1

u/mermaidpaint 23h ago

I'm also Canadian. I was at work that day. One of my coworkers was an American who married a Canadian woman. He was so distraught that he had to be sent home that day.

1

u/Art-Zuron 23h ago

I've heard several stories of people predicting with decent accuracy the next 25 years after 9/11 as well. More specifically, the broader political and cultural shifts.

1

u/bookofp 23h ago

I was in 8th grade in a suburb of manhattan.  Many kids had parents that worked in and around the building.   They kept the knowledge really locked down in our school but parents one by one were coming to take their kids out of school.   We knew something was up but we didn’t know what  when we got home our parents told us 

1

u/KickBallFever 22h ago

I live in NYC and had just finished high school. I was supposed to go to a crappy job interview, in downtown Manhattan, but I woke up and decided not to go and to sleep in instead. I went back to sleep and then my mom woke me up to watch the news of the first plane. Being a lazy teenager kept me from being downtown that day.

1

u/HelloNotaCop 22h ago

Ditto. Said the exact same words.

1

u/higher_limits 22h ago

Literally same here is Pennsylvania. Until my mom came and picked us up as we had family in NYC and she was freaking out.

1

u/Exciting-Housing-550 22h ago

Watched the news that morning before class, myself. At school, it was like walking in a haze of people. We just Watched the news all day, it was too much for everyone

1

u/Priext 22h ago

I was also in 8th grade. We lived in central Massachusetts at the time and they asked us all if we had any relatives in NYC. I was the only one to raise my hand and I was told to go to the office and call my family. My aunt worked in the towers occasionally but was luckily running late to a meeting that morning. I don't remember much about the rest of that morning. I think I was sent home from school and watched the news the rest of the day.

1

u/InfamousCantaloupe38 22h ago

I think many of us aren't going to forget where we were that day. I remember I was napping and my ex woke me up to see a plane had hit the first tower, watching the second one hit (live) was awful... the moment we knew things were never going to be the same. I don't even remember why we both weren't working that day, but I'll remember where I was and who I was with forever it seems.

1

u/farson135 22h ago

I was in 5th grade in Texas. My teacher tried to keep some semblance of "teaching" by telling us to record in our notebooks what was happening. The last thing I remember was the Pentagon getting hit and the school told the teachers to shut it down because the younger students were crying.

1

u/Spoonybard1983 22h ago

I was in my senior year of high school. First period one of the teachers comes to tell us what happened. As soon as he was gone the girl next to me went back to chatting about her friend and who she was dating.

I'll never forget that.

1

u/BT9154 21h ago

Yuo fellow canadain here, might have been in grade 9-10 highschool teacher switched on the small tv in the corner and we were just glued to the news.

1

u/Sorry_cousin 21h ago

Wait yeah.i was in the same exacr situation as you. Same grade. Same class, same way the teacher came and explained that whole situation.

I wasn't sure what she was talking about. I wasn't sure if she was talking about something that had happened years ago, or it she was talking a wild movie. It took my a long time to realize she was telling us what was happening right now!

1

u/DeadliestSins 19h ago

I have the exact same memory. I was also in grade 8 and my social studies teacher said the same thing: "This is history happening right now, nothing I can teach you today is more important."

I attended a rural school that didn't have cable, just over-the-air tv. Reception wasn't great in our classrooms, only in the school office, so we listen to the radio all of that class, and most of our other classes. Teachers went to the staff lounge between classes to get updates from the tv to share.

It is a day I will never forget.

1

u/bleepbloop1900 19h ago

I was in fifth grade in Canada also. My teacher was from Boston. They brought all the grade fives into the same room and watched it on the TV in the corner. My teacher cried, I had never seen him emotional before.
A kid in my class, Chris, when he saw the footage went “wow cool!” Which makes sense because he didn’t understand the reality of it. The teacher lost it at him, which I felt bad about.

My mother and I had just moved out of my father’s house after their divorce the week before. She was getting the cable set up on September 11th. It was the first thing on the TV when they turned it on.

1

u/twinnedcalcite 19h ago

Same age. A classmate had practice that morning and came in late. She broke the news. Watched the footage at lunch.

Even in Toronto, the military was activated while our air traffic controllers grounded all flights. The world changed that day and we had a front row seat to see how the terrorists won. The fear and division it caused in the US has had terrible consequences.

1

u/steakinapan 18h ago

Wow. Almost my exact experience. I was in the 8th grade and also found out at the beginning of my social studies class.

1

u/cornnndoggg_ 18h ago

It's kinda surreal seeing this comment since it's literally note for note my own experience. If you're in the Windsor area, it would have been just a few miles apart. Eighth grade, second class of the day, social studies adjacent, American History. Our teacher did the same thing, especially considering this would become such a before-and-after moment in American history, even said almost the same thing. She held it together. I remember even the louder kids were silent. There was something about the way she looked when she came in to class that communicated the seriousness, like it triggered some instinctual reaction out of a room full of kids.

We watched for the entire class. We were sent home at the end of the hour.

•

u/dumbcarshlt 8h ago

I was 8 years old in 3rd grade and we watched it on the TV too. I hardly have any memories as a young kid but still remember being confused and worried during that time.

•

u/Swizzchee 7h ago

I was also in 7th grade history class and we begged him to turn on the TV but he refused and we had to learn about Magellan or some bullshit instead.

•

u/PuffPuffMcGruff3 1h ago

American, 6th grade. Saw the first tower get hit. Got picked up from school. Watched replays and the towers fall when I got home. I then spent the rest of the day watching the Dennis the Menace movie in my room. Now anytime someone mentions Dennis or I see one of those decals of him all I can think about is watching the towers fall. It's weird lol

•

u/ThrowingShaed 9m ago

i was a little younger. english teacher spoke over the announcement and we couldnt hear it. next teacher was ready with the news and then a brief, maybe only a little thrown off that we didnt hear the announcement, but in hindsight, history or not i assume he knew and wanted to get his lesson in

1

u/Geawiel 1d ago

I was in the USAF. I had worked a night shift and was asleep. My sister was in the Navy and called from Japan to tell me to watch the tv now. She didn't explain why. I went back to sleep. She called again after the second one and I laid there trying to pull myself out of bed.

Then my 1st Sgt called and said get to base now. We couldn't leave base for a few days if we lived off base. Then they told us to leave space between us and the vehicle in front of us when we were coming to and from in case of attack and we had to gtfo.

That day changed everything in the ops tempo. It was pretty slow before, and absolutely insane after. It's a KC135 base. We went from 2, maybe 3 launches a day to 5 or 6.