Episode 496
Remembering 9/11: Before 7:46 AM
Today marks 25 years since September 11, 2001, and I want to spend some time remembering that day with the respect it deserves. I’ll be honest—this isn’t my usual nonsense; we’ll pause the jokes for a bit and reflect on how that ordinary Tuesday turned into something none of us expected. It was a clear, sunny morning—people dropping kids off, grabbing coffee, worrying about traffic—then at 8:46am American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower and at 9:03am United Flight 175 hit the South Tower, and everything changed. There’s now a generation that knows 9/11 as history, not memory, and for those of us who lived it we can still pick out tiny details that split life into before and after. I’ll play some tunes too, but I wanted to acknowledge the weight of the day and remember those moments with the dignity they deserve.
Takeaways:
- I mark 25 years since September 11, 2001, and we take part of the morning to remember.
- We recall it was an ordinary Tuesday morning before the attacks abruptly changed life for millions.
- American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46am, and United Flight 175 hit the South Tower at 9:03am.
- We note American Flight 77 left Washington Dulles and United Flight 93 left Newark after a delay, with Flight 93 departing at 8:41am.
- We remember how tiny personal details—where we were, who we called, what we watched—became permanent dividing-line memories.
Transcript
It's haystack.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:And throughout the morning, I'm going to spend some time remembering that day.
Speaker A:Now, this is not going to be two or three straight hours of it, right?
Speaker A:We're going to play a bunch of tunes.
Speaker A:That doesn't stop.
Speaker A:But I do think 25 years is an important milestone.
Speaker A:I've admitted I've gone years sometimes without talking much about 9 11.
Speaker A:But at this point, there's an entire generation of adults who know September 11th as history, not memory.
Speaker A:For those of us who remember it, I think one of the strangest things about September 11th is remembering that before it became 9 11, it was a Tuesday.
Speaker A:It was a clear, sunny morning in New York.
Speaker A:People had gone to work and dropped off their kids.
Speaker A:They'd poured their morning coffee and complained about traffic.
Speaker A:And Bob running late for work.
Speaker A:Somebody was thinking about what they were going to have for lunch.
Speaker A:And at airports in Boston, Washington and Newark, passengers boarded flights to go to California.
Speaker A:American Airlines Flight 11 left Boston at 7:59am Eastern Time.
Speaker A:United Flight 175 took off 15 minutes later.
Speaker A:Another six minutes later, American Flight 77 left Washington Dulles.
Speaker A:And United Flight 93 was delayed for nearly 40 minutes and finally left Newark at 8:41am Eastern.
Speaker A:So think about that.
Speaker A:At 8:41am Local time in New York on September 11, there were still millions of Americans having an absolutely ordinary morning.
Speaker A:Five minutes later, at 8:46am Eastern, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Speaker A:The ordinary Tuesday was over.
Speaker A:Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03am, United Flight 175 struck the south tower.
Speaker A:Whatever uncertainty had existed after the first impact had now disappeared.
Speaker A:America was under attack.
Speaker A:And I think that's one reason those of us who lived through that morning remember such seemingly insignificant details about where we were, where we were standing, who told us, what television we watched, on what radio station we listened to, who we called, because we can almost identify the dividing line.
Speaker A:There was a world when we woke up that morning, and it was a Tuesday.
Speaker A:And then there was the world afterward.
Speaker A:25 Years ago today, millions of people crossed that line together, and none of us knew just yet how much was about to change.
