my new york brehs, any of yall witness 9/11 personally?

[ineedsleep212]

I was in 6th grade. When somebody went to our home room and was like one of the Twin Towers were on fire, I was real confused. We went to another classroom that was empty across the hall and we could see both towers clearly (school is in Brooklyn). I didn't know what to make of it and the teacher was confused too and didn't know what to make of it (at least that's how I remember it). We thought or I thought that it was like for some movie or something. It just had to be cuz it was so out of nowhere and getting attacked didn't even come to mind at least to me.

Then we saw the other tower get hit and then shyt got real. It kinda hit home, but still I was confused. My teacher really didn't overreact or anything. He just calmly brought us back to our room and explained the situation. Saying basically how there are people from other countries that don't like us or whatever and even name dropped Al Qaeda I think. I actually wasn't nervous, but I wasn't in a state of shock. It was more like I was perplexed. Some children got picked up by their parents and then they dismissed us early. It only hit me later watching the news about what was going down. Watched tv for the rest of the day hearing about everything and watching what they were showing all over the news. All of the footage and all of the talk. Got me shook.

It seriously feels right now to me like a clear difference in how the world felt before and after 9/11. It kinda felt as though before 9/11, America seemed unfukkwitable and like we couldn't be touched. WTF were terrorists? Then after it was like all of a sudden, I felt like I was more aware of the world and not trapped in an American world. I was nervous for a little cuz of the talk about the smoke and then all of the stuff about the anthrax envelopes. Nobody I knew died or was really directly affected by the tragedy but it still makes me uncomfortable to watch. Not in a change the channel kinda way, but in a I get it lets keep it moving. Watching the stuff just makes me feel like yea any and everybody can be touched by someone you don't even know. It made me think of nukes and biological warfare and a bunch of stuff. It always kinda pisses me off that I live in NYC to be honest only because it's always gonna be a target and I'm like why. Like man I ain't trying to die.

 

[tremonthustler1]

I was in the BX, sophomore year of HS. Everyone was mad hyped that day because The Blueprint and Ghetto Fabolous were droppin that day. Anyway, I was in my computer science class, and for some reason the internet went down. We didn't know that was due in part to the Towers getting hit and disrupting everything.

Anyway, next period, that's when my Latin teacher told us sketchy ass details of what happened. He said a plane may have accidentally hit one of the towers so if you know anybody go to the phones ASAP. Every kid in my class thought the building was fine but that the plane got messed up, so we didn't think much of it.

Everyone went about their day until they decided to let us out early. Everyone unknowingly was happy as fukk because the school made a decision not to show us what happened. They didn't even tell us it was a terrorist attack until they told us it was time to leave. The problem was that they shut down Manhattan and my HS is right next to it so a lot of kids are from there. They were afraid they weren't gonna be let in so they had to get I.D'd up. There were no trains, no buses, nothing.

They let us out, and there was a Bx1 running. Everyone's running around crazy and me and my boys are still confused. We were just happy we had school off the next day. So I'm off to the Wiz and that shyt is shut down. No Hov or Fab CD for me so I just walked from Fordham to my house. Where I live there's a drawbridge that leads to Manhattan. That got shut down, so all I saw was cars parked. They couldn't even move. I get home and my mom is recording it all on VCR. As soon as I saw the buildings fall shyt was real. My whole family was glued to the TV that day. Everyone in DR was calling my house to see if we were OK (in DR they don't know the difference between where you live and the WTC. They just assume it's all the same thing).

That day was so vivid. I remember what I wore, what I ate, what I bought. The days after all I did was play The Blueprint and Ghetto Fabolous and just went about life normally. I remember when everyone was doing a vigil and the first flight out of NYC happened. I've never seen anyone be in awe of a plane flying overhead before. My whole block thought "they are the bravest motherfukkers in the world right now" because nobody wanted to be on a plane after that. It was just a weird few days. From then til my sophomore year in college everyone always would ask me how 9/11 was. Just crazy how everything changed after that everywhere else but so little around my way.

 

[thaKEAF]

That's me brehs, on my 3rd day of high school. And I do think that my life went on a different path due to those events..

I was in math class, and the first impact wasn't really felt.. Thing is the school classrooms mostly don't have windows.. So the lights flickered but we felt nothing. There as a 'shelter drill' and everyone kinda stepped in the hallways for 5 minutes then we all went back to the classroom. Funny thing is that the teacher said "this reminds me of 1993" - and a few minutes later... The whole building shook violently, the lights flickered like mad, and we knew something was up.. Evacuated as quickly as possible, went south and tbh i didn't really recognize what was happening. Something bad obviously, buy my mind wasn't in a right state.. Maybe too young to properly think things through. Paper falling from the sky like confetti, big slash on the side of a building. First priority was getting the fukk away from the scene obviously. Walked 3-4 blocks, stopped, then looked at the scene again. And then some time passed, and it felt like an earthquake. Everyone started running in every which direction.. Had gotten far enough to get near the SI ferry.. Literally running from the black smoke and I was one of the last to squeeze into the ferry as the gates were closing.. The doors shut real quick and the ferry was on it's way, running from who knows what. Eventually the black smoke consumed us all and I just remember it being very quiet. Got off on Staten Island, completely stranded, but a lot of classmates were in the same situation. Eventually they set up camp in Curtis HS and mad people spent the night there.. my parents knew i was fine but no communication = no idea what happened = eventually everyone got a turn on the phone and everything was alright. Spent the night there and got some buses from the city and was escorted back into the city.. remember taking the train home and there were like 5 people on the entire train, and this was the day after at around 10am.. a bit surreal and never seen the subways that empty since then.

No school for a few weeks and we had to attend Norman Thomas until probably December.. it was a fun time to be honest, all of us were strangers and I made some good friends at the time.. By December they were planning on reopening the school but the day before the reopening (it was probably way too unsafe and early, considering the effects of the workers still there even 10 years later) I got a call from this classmate saying it was off.. it was on/off/on/off for a while. I personally made the decision to switch to the local school then.. wanted to be in business, that's why I applied for Eco, and it's a real nice place from what I hear/have read about it. Didn't really experience it. My local school was just two blocks away.. it was alright but kind of a hood school. Maybe I was just tired of the weird schedule or wanted things to be easier. Has it's redeeming qualities but for some reason when I got older my motivation and people I hung around wasn't the best for success.. no doubt things would've gone better for me personally had I stuck around at this school, cause it was no nonsense and everyone was pretty smart and focused.. or perhaps it's just justification for failure, or maybe it's nothing as one or two folk I knew from Eco ended up attending the same college I ended up going to. I made the switch in January 02, never even been back downtown to that area since then. Not that I'm shook or anything, or had any psychological effects (lol) just never had a reason to go.

that's crazy

 

[yoyoyo1]

Wow. I guess I'm showing my age. I had always thought that the closest school to the World Trade Center was our rival school, Stuyvesant HS. I know that for a while they had to meet at my school. Never knew there was a school closer than Stuy to WTC.

word, it was 100% fukked up - it was the "forgotten piece of the puzzle" and I won't lie kinda got annoyed every time those c*nts were mentioned - they were milking that shyt for all it was worth while never getting affected in the slightest.

 

[thaKEAF]

Didn't witness but I'll just post what happened on my day..peoples stories outside of NYC could help the thread get bigger.

I woke up early that Tuesday for school with my throat feeling like so I told either my grandma or mom and they said okay go back to sleep. I was like and jumped back into the bed. When I woke up the TV was on CBS and all I saw was a huge cloud of smoke around NYC. I walked out the room into the kitchen and my grandma was watching the same thing. I was like because to that point I don't think I had ever heard the terms terrorist or World Trade Center in my life.

My moms took me to the doctor and everyone was just quiet and it just felt weird. One lady was telling another one that a bomb had just went off in front of the White House and that she knew someone who worked in the WTC. One of the nurses was taking my blood and she just mentioned that some crazy stuff was going on I was like "yeah". I don't think it really hit me how serious it was because I was just starting 8th grade and was still pretty young. We went to this place to get something to eat and everyone was crowded around the TV. When we first got into the car the local radio DJ for our rap station was saying Saddam/Iraq had claimed responsibility. Later on CBS News took over the radio broadcast so while my mom was in Walgreens for like an hour I sat in the car listening to it. That was the first time I heard the name Osama Bin Laden and they started saying he was behind it. The entire day just felt surreal cause all this crazy shyt was going on, and I was like a kid with nothing but adults around the city listening to them talk to each other about it. A part of me wishes to this day that I would have just went to school.

When I got home and hopped on AOL it was all over the home page and they had a pop up of tribute art kids had drew. It had taken over all the tv channels so I just sat there and watched. A few days later I heard my aunt telling my mom that my cousin who was obsessed with the internet wouldn't logon to AOL because of those pop ups that would talk about it as soon as you logged on. And that he was having nightmares..I mean even then I knew it was a dramatic event but I'm like you live in Memphis you're a kid how did this shake you like that? But looking back at it now I guess it could happen. I remember my friend said his mom picked him up from school early and was like "THEYRE GONNA HIT THE UP BANK NEXT" which makes no sense cause it's just a random building in Memphis.

A month or so later this guy who was part of the Army came to our class room to speak to us about it. I don't know if dude was trying to scare us or if he was crazy but he told us we were going to war that coming Sunday, and that the Army had just stopped an attack that was gonna happen by our school. He said the terrorists had like these chemicals and were gonna drop it right on the street next to us but they stopped it. All of us were shook as fukk even our dumbass teacher she was buying into it. I raised my hand was like "so the tanks are gonna be over here?". Like a week or so later that same dude was in the newspaper and they said he had stole free fair passes that the city gave the soldiers and was trying to sell them. He got arrested then I realized That fool was lying to us the entire time.

 

[Beer Drinker]

I worked in 3 park avenue on the 34th floor. Went to work early cuz I was getting a new phone and was hyped. Got in the elevator and people are talking about a fire and all this other shyt. I'm like wtf they talking about.

Get upstairs and everyone is looking out the windows. We had a direct line to the towers. All I see is both of them on fire. I start trying to call people but of course everything was busy. Next thing I know the first one falls. Didn't even see it. Looked up when people started screaming and it was just gone. Shortly thereafter the second one fell which I did see.

Obviously no trains were running so I walked from 33rd and Park to the 59th street bridge and then across the bridge to my house in Queens. Not a terrible walk actually. Plus it was a nice day.

edit: damn I'm only 29 and I feel old reading through this. people were in high school and shyt. i was in college and working part time in the mornings

 

[Soul Gleaux]

I was in class at the time...one of my teachers came into my homeroom and pointed out the fact that there was smoke billowing from downtown (we're in the Bronx), then they had us watch the news and that's when we learned the towers got hit.

From then on out, it was the best school day ever. Classes cancelled, ice cream and junk food galore, they let us into the gym and we just went wild We were 13 so it didn't really register the way it should have until I went home later that day and was like "Damn, they knocked down the towers "

For a while, every time a plane flew overhead we would start screaming....we were some dumbass kids lol.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

i wonder what Ja-Rule thinks.

 

[Danie84]

I just finishing reading all your posts. It's crazy, I too rememeber exactly what I had on and how beautiful that morning was.

No matter how many times I tell myself not to, I watched those annual documentaries and specials they have on that tragic day. Still can't get the images of people jumping to their deaths like that. The eeriest thing, is seeing all those doctors and medics with stretchers oustide the hospitals near the Towers, awaiting victims to show up, and none ever coming.

 

[DrunkenNovice]

damn no eye-witnesses?

 

[DerrtySouthpaw]

i was in the 3rd grade. we aint even get out early and mom said something bout a plane crashing to some towers. i didnt get it i was like doesnt that shyt happen everyday? couple weeks later a nikka was getting nightmares. fukk bin laden

 

[Kings County]

wow american propoganda to realllll they wanted us to turn on the arabs

 

[Kings County]

i wonder what Ja-Rule thinks.

no respect for the fallen

 

[SecretLover]

Was 8 years old staying in Rochester I just remember getting picked up from school not knowing wtf was going on, scared and crying cause everything looked dead.

 

[the cac mamba]

no respect for the fallen