I had my clock radio set to MPR as well and woke up to them talking about the first plane. Usually the news every morning didn’t register but that day it did.

I turned on the TV to see what was going on, which I usually don’t do. After a couple minutes of “oh my that’s a tragic accident” the second plane hit an I immediately knew it was no accident.

I worked downtown Mpls at the time and no way I was going to work that day. Thankfully my boss told everyone to stay home.

Seeing all of it live is a memory burned into my brain the same as watching the Challenger blow up live in middle school.

The memory I have of that day is similar. I had an early morning class and work in the afternoon. When we left the early morning class, a friend got a call from his parent asking if he was okay. We were in a midwestern college town nowhere near in danger of being a target. Checked the news on Yahoo and all we could get at that point was that a flight flew into the World Trade Center. We thought it was a private small jet that flew off course and laughed it off. Went home, turned on the TV and saw the second plane hit.

I still think back to that day and have some guilt about our initial reaction to the first flight. Given how instantly news propagates today I assumed that back then we knew the details already and just made light of the suffering. I moved to NYC right after college and recall those early years in the city where everyone knew every little detail of the day. Your recollection assuages some of the guilt I harbor from that day.