Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
30 Times People Missed Something Big Happening In The World And Were So Confused About It
With 5G melting our brain, it's hard to imagine someone can still stay oblivious to what's going on around them. But they do. Whether they choose to disconnect themselves or not, there are people who live off the grid and seriously fall behind the world. To us strangers, the most interesting part of their detachment is probably its end. The sudden mind blow that sweeps across their entire perception of reality.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Equine_Ravenclaw_Directioner 4 years ago
That lucky man. Thankfully he was ready to wear a mask and was respectful!
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Yes, he also hadn't been inundated by crap media
Load More Replies...
SykesDaMan 4 years ago
The time traveler from the past fooled you!!! Well done sir! Well done!
Billy Mahoney 4 years ago
Probably the only one at the time that for sure was negative for COVID
Mahesh Chandra Achuthanna 4 years ago
I hope for the day when I can go off-grid and not worry about the world. Takes some real mental stability to not go insane.
RELATED:
#2
Night Owl 4 years ago
Damn. I wish there was somewhere she and people in a similar situation (like that former prisoner, for example) could ask for help
Vicky Zar 4 years ago
Family, their Doctors, Psychiatrists.... there are so many people that will help you. At least in my country...
Load More Replies...
Bama Belle 4 years ago
I think that woman might have been lying. It's very rare for someone to wake from a coma after that long. The ones that do are usually quite impaired.
Miriam Brose 4 years ago
I call bullshit. No one is able to move by themselves after they didn't mive at all for 15 years.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Math can be hard with brain damage. Even if "just" is "a month ago".
Load More Replies...
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
I find this story highly unlikely. The number of people who 'wake up' from such an extended coma and go on to be able to be at all independent is vanishingly small.
Donna Harris 3 years ago
My friend dated a man who had been in prison for fifteen years...she went into the store for a coffee and a side of toast for him..he gave her five bucks. She hopped back in the car, handed over the coffee and proceeded to drive. He stared at her for a second...uhhh, change? She laughed and said it was okay he didn't owe her anything she had it covered (it was 5.50~he gave her a fiver)..SHOCK
#3
Nahn Yahbiz 4 years ago
Jesus. Could you imagine being his family seeing him walk in the door that evening?
Equine_Ravenclaw_Directioner 4 years ago
They'd think they were seeing ghosts.
Load More Replies...
Karin Jansen 4 years ago
What, but, how..? How do you go from train delay to 10 hours later? Seems like I'm missing a few hours here.
Monday 4 years ago
His train was stopped, not delayed. They likely held the trains for several hours and you can't just get off if you aren't near a station. What surprises me more is that he didn't hear what was going on outside while stuck on the train.
Load More Replies...
BlackPearltheSeaWing/NightWing 4 years ago
I've heard a similar story. My teacher once said she had a student that after hearing about what was happening on 9/11 started crying. Her father had been sent to work in the twin towers that day. My teacher let her call him trying to see if he was okay, and he picked up and told her his meeting had been cancelled.
Kioh81 4 years ago
I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Only relevant if you know Spartan school of Aeronautics is located here.... Which some of the terrorists supposedly went here to learn to fly. My friend, (in his 30's)went to school thinking it was a normal school day, he's middle eastern, and halfway thru his day he's coming home to his gf who calls me bc he was treated like trash by everyone at the campus bc of 911. Ever see a grown man cry and be humiliated bc he's been spit on and harassed by his "school mates" bc he "looks like" the horrible people that committed those crimes was a super eye opening experience. I was only 20 and cried with him, his "American" gf, and all his friends by the sheer injustice. What happened was unforgivable but he, nor any of them, had NOTHING to do with it and was always super gratiful for the opportunities he had for schooling here. It was so devastating to witness.
Nadine Debard 4 years ago
Actually I learnt about 9/11 quite late after it happened. We were going on holidays, driving hours in our car, listening music, but not radio. It was Tuesday, so we didn't meet anyone until our destination. At 8 pm, when I called my family from a phone booth to say I was OK, my father told me with a broken voice "they destroyed the empire state building" and was unable to explain more. I quite didn't understand. Afterwards, we couldn't get proper information (we were camping and not having a clue of what really happened). The radio repeated "Al Quaida" but again, we didn't make the connection. When we went back home 2 weeks after, we saw the videos, shown on and on, everywhere on TV, all the day. We then realized what it really was, how horrible, sudden, terrifying it was, and I can't even explain the dissociation and the shock we felt. I spent 8 days looking at these horrifying pictures before my brain admitted it was true.
Sharon Dean 4 years ago
I had a close friend that worked in the towers and after the small plane hit it before 9/11 he transferred out to the company's Connecticut office. He missed that jet that would have killed him.
#4
Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
They had to bring his former commanding officer over to convince him the war was over. He did not believe people when they told him. He thought it was American tricks.
Dan Lombard 4 years ago
Actually it was the Philippines, much more territory to hide in than Guam. From the BBC: "The last Japanese soldier to formally surrender after the country's defeat in World War Two was Hiroo Onoda. Lieutenant Onoda finally handed over his sword on March 9th 1974. He had held out in the Philippine jungle for 29 years."
Lisa Chambers 4 years ago
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-soldier-found-hiding-on-guam
Load More Replies...
CowboyHank 4 years ago
That poor guy terrorized the village he was living next to. He went home to a hero's welcome but not before he murdered a handful of locals.
Load More Replies...
ExerciseThoughtYouSaidExtraFries 4 years ago
Guys I currently live in Guam, and it’s true. I have been to his cave in Talafofo Guam. His name is Yokoi. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokoi%27s_Cave
Celtic Pirate Queen 4 years ago
That's a true story. He was completely traumatized to learn the war was over.
Dan Lombard 4 years ago
It was actually the Philippines. A lot more territory to hide in than Guam. From the BBC: The last Japanese soldier to formally surrender after the country's defeat in World War Two was Hiroo Onoda. Lieutenant Onoda finally handed over his sword on March 9th 1974. He had held out in the Philippine jungle for 29 years.
Wes Nishi 4 years ago
No these were separate. You are correct that there was one in the Philippines. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoichi_Yokoi
Load More Replies...
Steve Wilson 4 years ago (edited)
. When he got back to Japan he thought the people had become soft & westernized & immigrated to Peru.
#5
Leah Helbig 4 years ago
No more like 2001 thats when s**t really started to happen and its just gotten progressively worse from there
Load More Replies... 
MimSorensson 3 years ago
“… Ok, what I need you to do is to imagine a mix between “Outbreak”, “Wag the dog” and “Texas chainsaw massacre”…
#6
Random Person 4 years ago (edited)
HAHAHAH OOPS! the things that happen when you go on vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Crochet lady 4 years ago
Yeah, that response with the emoji was truly odd.
Load More Replies...
Vintage Insider 4 years ago
My parents went on a camping holiday, came home and discovered the 6 days war had happened.
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
It can happen! My friend's parents went out camping in the summer of 1967 and then came back to find out that a whole war (the Six Days War) had happened in the meantime.
Electric Mayhem 4 years ago
"I'm not around to keep things running for one week and the government gets overthrown, COINCIDENCE???.......yes."
Sebastian George 4 years ago
No big deal. That kind of thing happens on a regular basis in Thailand.
Ekaterina S 4 years ago
Hey OP, I was just returning to Bangkok (from Phuket) when this happened and desperately hoped my flight back home would not get canceled!
#7
Night Owl 4 years ago
Poor guy :( They should keep prisoners informed at least about basic things in the outside world so they can prepare them. This is so infuriating
Patti Vance 4 years ago
i used to teach classes for prisoners that were preparing to be released. i was actually an officer for the district attorney but after i had been in contact with several who had been released after long sentences i started a program at the local prison for this purpose. got both the state and national awards for this but, after i left the d.a. 's office found out that the program just faded away.
Load More Replies...
Requiem 4 years ago
Was he in solitary for 20 years?? Because they have TV and Newspapers and new inmates coming in all the time. The prisons in Canada got the vaccine first and they tried to say it was unsafe for them being in a place that is secured away from everyone else and wanted to be set free. How stupid are you to believe he spent 20 years not knowing whats going on in the world
Crochet lady 4 years ago
There was an item on a news program recently where a lawyer said she spent an entire day with her client who had just gotten out of jail after something like 30 years. He had no family, no friends to help him navigate the world of internet, internet banking etc. She said what was crazy was when he left prison they told him to make his parole appointments by internet yet no one had trained him in how to even use the internet. He didn't understand text messages, debit cards or any of the like. It seems if we want people to rehabilitate we could help them along their journey be teaching them some life skills before we release them. I could see where the recidivism rate would be high for people like him, it must be overwhelming on top of reintegrating into the world.
The_tattered_hippie 4 years ago
Unless this is in some 3rd world country, this isn’t true. My best friend has been in prison for 12 years and he knows more about current affairs than I do. Just today we were talking on phone and he mentioned that Ariana Grande got married. Lol He subscribes to US weekly and they watch tv daily.
Scagsy 4 years ago
I saw a documentary about an American prison once so I'm sure he could have obtained a newspaper from time to time - if he wanted to. There was this con called Red and he could get you anything. Even a large poster of Rita Heyworth. Fact.
Equine_Ravenclaw_Directioner 4 years ago
Oh no. Why didn't they say anything in prison? Don't they get any news,
Michael Grimes 4 years ago
Okay, a guy who was in prison where prisoners in some places were actually rioting because of the pandemic, and this guy had no clue?
#8
Dan Buczynski 4 years ago
You'd probably always wonder if you somehow stumbled into an alternate dimension.
Yeah, you heard 4 years ago
9.11 was a terrible tragedy... but it did not change the world. Maybe it changed America, I don't know, but not the world. E.g life in Thailand, Guinea, Indonesia, Switzerland, and Bolivia went on as normal, to name a few.
Lulu Lemons 4 years ago
It changed how airline security worked in the majority of the world, so there was some impact outside America
Load More Replies...
Anne Wilkes 4 years ago
Text messages were ridiculous then, and cost a lot of money. BS. Total BS.
Anne Wilkes 4 years ago
Mmmm... i dunno bout this one. They BOTH had cellular devices? With service? Idk. I watched the plane hit the pentagon with my own eyes... cellular service was totally unreliable and most people didn't have phones. Idk. They probably stopped for gas, a newspaper and a big mac before they turned their phones on and "got the news".
Mosheh Wolf 4 years ago
Sorry to be That Person, but smart phones were almost unknown in 2001, and accessing the internet via your phone was not part of the USA at the time. So "turning in their phones" would tell them nothing at all.
Beth L 4 years ago
I had just started an outdoor-based graduate program that week. We were scheduled cross the border to go backcountry in Canada on Sept 12. So we did. It was a bit tricky getting back into the US 10 days later, but a different part of our program was already backcountry in the Colorado Rockies on 9/11 and spent several days hearing insane (and mostly wrong) rumors as they hiked out. All of us missed the visuals of the day - I still skip retrospective TV specials on the topic. The still pictures in the Bellingham newspaper were enough.
Lonnie Facchina 4 years ago
This same thing happened to friends of mine. When they stopped at a gas station and went in for snacks, the attendant told them they may not be able to get back into Canada... they didn't have a clue.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
Every day there's tens of thousands out camping/ on trails/ off-grid in similar ways. So it's not really a rare case.
GV Martinez-Williams 4 years ago
Service area for cell phones wasn't great. Forget about getting service anywhere outside a metro area.
#9
Scagsy 4 years ago
Can't believe it took so long, I guess, is the only downside.
Load More Replies...
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
And yet states found a way to make same-sex marriages impossible by refusing to issue marriage licenses.
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
And the bills were debated for years before and that federal legalization was much anticipated, so it's about a surprising change as New Year after Dec 31.
Load More Replies...
Imheresometimes 4 years ago
I don’t know much about history, and I’m surprised that it took America that long (plz no hate I live in America, was born in America. I’m just kinda surprised)
#10
glowworm2 4 years ago
Unlike the other poor guy who had just finished his 20 year sentence.
Load More Replies...
The_tattered_hippie 4 years ago
Again, I don’t think so. Prisoners wear masks and their visitations were cut off. They even had isolation for the prisoners who contracted COVID. No way did this guy not know. 🙄
#11
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
Anyone who says that drugs killed him likely lacks a brain.
Load More Replies...
Crochet lady 4 years ago
My mom, who was the first black person to attend her college was in a coma when Obama was elected. It broke my heart that she would never get to see that a black person could actually make it to the WH. She fought for civil rights, was quite the champion so she would have been thrilled. She eventually awoke from the coma but never regained her faculties, except for brief moments, so we never did get to tell her before she passed.
Marnie 4 years ago
But do this: Google "eden prairie minnesota riots". Note that in the search results, they have bolded "protests", as if you searched for "eden prairie minnesota protests". Then go search for the same thing on ecosia.com. It doesn't change it there, and you get different results. My son pointed out that google was doing that sort of thing, and found this proof and sent it to me. Really scary.
Load More Replies... #12
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 4 years ago
Really can't blame him - I felt the same minus the monastery
Anthony Nizza 4 years ago
I would have gone back to the monastery and stayed another 10 years.
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
More than half. And horrified more than confused.
Load More Replies... 
#13
Vicky Z 4 years ago
Even more sad is that they had to explain to him probably that he is still too vulnerable due to the virus
Load More Replies...
H Edwards 4 years ago (edited)
I'm hoping that the family were not there because of visitation restrictions due to covid, and nothing worse.
Nubis Knight 4 years ago
Same happened to a friend of mine: He had a heart attack on 20th of March 2020 and was put in a Coma to heal faster. Woke up a weak later when first lockdown hit Germany.
#14
Call Me Mars 4 years ago
My mom had a piece of the Berlin wall when she was a teenager. Then her mom threw it out thinking it was trash. It would have been cool to see though.
Jonathan 4 years ago
One of my clients has a piece. Pretty cool looking at it.
Load More Replies...
Tim Venker 4 years ago
Thank god we have David Hasselhoff to remind us every year that he is solely responsible for this :D
Equine_Ravenclaw_Directioner 4 years ago
You missed out on all of the climbing over the wall and tearing it down with pickaxes :(
Anne Wilkes 4 years ago
The fall of communism would have been awesome to see. Now you're seeing the uprising of it.
Steve Wilson 4 years ago
I missed the Berlin Wall coming down because my father was dying in a hospital.
#15
Damo Lee Park 4 years ago
he looked hastily scribbled, as though there wasn't enough time to finish the definition and shading, before releasing him into society
Load More Replies...
Amanda Hunter 4 years ago
Prisoners should be taught life skills if they don't want to see repeat offenders.
Susanne Tomlinson 3 years ago
If that was in England we'de have sat and let him have a play.Well in the north of England South Yorkshire.
Joe Baker 4 years ago
I think that they are implying "Sketchy" is some how racist. Only if you expect an ex-con of being a minority. If you made that leap, you are the racist here.
Aeon Flux 4 years ago
"Racist" isn't what I got from that. Some of y'all are projecting, I'm afraid.
Load More Replies... 
#16
AzKhaleesi 4 years ago
umm this is both a blessing and a curse. A curse because the pandemic part... a blessing because of the pandemic part. She now had time to take it slow and re learn with no judgements.
Katinka Min 4 years ago
20 years?? What kind of psychiatric instiution was that where they keep someone this long and don't prepare them for the world outside??
Dawn Birdsong Olmsted 3 years ago
In the psychiatric institution there were no computers and no internet access?
#17
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Please remember how and why Trump won and never make the same mistakes again.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
People liked Bernie, but then he said Hillary was cool, people didn't like the sound of Hillary, so they voted Trump, and we ended up with a clown that turned out to be actual Hitler. Russia was doing something or rather at the time.
Load More Replies... Watching 4 years ago
The literal gutter trash of our country. There's just more of them than we ever thought.
Load More Replies...
Sue Knerl 4 years ago
I don't blame her, I was utterly gobsmacked that that buffoon got elected. What the hell is wrong with people.
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
He appealed to the lowest common denominator. Don't read books? Neither does he? Eat junk food? He does too. Like underage girls, pushing yourself on women? He does. The list goes on and on.
Load More Replies...
Ms LaDonna 4 years ago
Obviously John? you are the loser, in SO many ways!
Load More Replies...
Carole Reid 4 years ago
He never should have been allowed to run in the first place. Grifter with a naked wife.
Ambar 4 years ago
I was in first grade when trump became president and honestly, I had no idea why people were sad I was like: why we sad?! I am still confused on why people were crying and sad but hey! I got a little reason why near the end of his election and when Biden won. trump is so selfish i'd say U^U
Jamma 4 years ago
Worse than selfish, but since you are so young I'll leave it at that.
Load More Replies...
#18
Sharon Dean 4 years ago
No, no damage at all, it's meant to shake....it was overpass collapses that killed most people!!
Load More Replies... Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
I may have been on the bridge with him. I had just gotten off when the earthquake struck.
Peppy Piplup 4 years ago
Yikes! (Side note, reading the words "Loma Prieta earthquake" gave me mild flashbacks to the case study on Seismic Gap Theory that focused on that particular quake that I had to do for my final exam on Geography a few weeks ago.)
onearmed bandit 4 years ago
I was in Seagate Building 6, about 6 to 7 miles from the epicenter. Changed my life. Rocked my world! Glad I wasn't on a bridge.
Lisa Chambers 4 years ago
I saw how a section fell out and someone in a minivan was trying to jump the span. I had just returned to the US from being overseas when that happened. We were like "is this real?"
Rachel Gold 3 years ago
My dad was at Candlestick Park for the World Series during the earthquake
Jennifer Sacrison 4 years ago (edited)
I remember this!!! I was relatively close to this and I had no idea what was going on...my first earthquake and the aftermath was so sad. I was worried about my Dad cuz he worked in Oakland. Luckily he was in one of those earthquake retrofitted buildings and being the crazy man that he is he stood at the window and watched the building sway back and forth towards the ground!!!
#19
80 Van 4 years ago (edited)
Someone posted asking if he was assassinated but got downvoted and removed their comment. Not everyone is familiar with US politics from the 1970’s, so others may have a similar question. Richard Nixon was not assassinated but resigned due to withholding information about individuals who were stealing political information from the other party. He knew he would likely be impeached, so he resigned instead. His name has come up frequently in the last four years as many drew a parallel between him and the 45th US President and the difference in how they handled similar charges. If this is interesting, check out information on Nixon and the Watergate scandal, but hopefully I saved some people from having to do a Google search.
Gabi 4 years ago
Thank you. Indeed, not everyone is familiar with US politics.
Load More Replies...
Triv 4 years ago
OH MY GODS TO F*****G IDIOTS WHO DOWNVOTE IGNORANCE!!! In response to the post, Emerald asked "Wasn't he assassinated". And at LEAST seven IDIOTS downvoted her rather than correct might be genuine ignorance, misinformation or confusion. Get off your f*****g high horses before they rear and throw you! Shaming someone for misspeaking or not knowing it's one of the things that's desperately wrong with this world. Get the f**k over yourselves and remember that WE have to put up with your ignorant asses, too!
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
This happened to my Dad (kind of): he was in Italy at the time, but didn't speak much Italian. He and some friends saw a group of people gathered around a radio and asked what was going on. One guy spoke English and said to them, "What do you mean 'what's going on?' Your president just resigned!"
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago (edited)
Watergate. He resigned ahead of impeachment and removal. This was back when Republicans gave a s**t about crimes committed while in office.
Load More Replies...
M Kate McCulloch 4 years ago
No - Nixon resigned in disgrace. He was smart enough to have some moral compass at the end.
Timothy Leung 3 years ago
On the day Ford was announced president I was visiting relatives in the East Coast. Everyone was dancing in a square and cheering. One of my aunts (Canadian) even asked the band to play Spanish Eyes.
#20
Becky Samuel 4 years ago
Me too. Went camping in Europe and completely missed the collapse of the USSR!
François Carré 4 years ago
What about that Russian astronaut who was away on the Mir station for several months in 1991 for a mission... When he came back to Earth, his country simply no longer existed.
Robin Roper 4 years ago
Sorry Rachael but it was a failed coup d'etat which did lead to a shift in power and eventually the breakup of the USSR.
Michael Grimes 4 years ago
No offense, but a coup is an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a political faction, the military, or a dictator. In this case, the government had actually fallen, which was the best thing to have happened since 1945.
#21
Everything AGR 4 years ago
kinda makes me think of andy from the office when he sails away and grows a beard and stuff
SirPatTheCat 4 years ago
No the global coronavirus pandemic occurred while he was out at sea
Load More Replies... #22
Paradise 4 years ago
Yes, please! I am ashamed to live with the 'Muricans sho love Trump and their guns.
Load More Replies...
Holes2Heaven 4 years ago
Yeah, you don't lose memory with a heart attack. I'm a doctor, I should know. Sounds like he has a neurological issue going on.
#23
Hannah Edwards 4 years ago
Busted! I once bunked college and was on the news wandering around the city centre.
Lee Kerr 3 years ago
I had problems with anxiety and depression in a stressful job. At one point it was so bad I phoned in sick and said I’d be off a couple of days but didn’t tell my husband. It was school holidays and he’d booked the day before the bank holiday as leave so I told him I’d taken it as a lieu day. We took the kids out for the day to a local historical site. A few days later they do a piece about the place on the local news; there’s my family and I just going up the steps! Fortunately, although quite a few of my colleagues saw me, everyone assumed it was been filmed the day it was shown and I was in work the next day.
Load More Replies...
Trina Selleck 3 years ago
Yeah I know that Dad, but I still went to coach class after school finishing time, just Incase it was still on you know!
#24
Night Owl 4 years ago
Can you do that again for the Israel-Palestina war? Please? It's worth a shot (umm... pun not intended)
Richard Henderson 3 years ago
That’s not a war it’s an invasion of a powerful military against a virtually defenceless populace who are being systematically persecuted.
Load More Replies...
#25
Kirsten Kerkhof 4 years ago
I remember I was at a meeting when 9/11 happened. I'm an English teacher in Europe, and this happened in literally my first month of teaching at a school with primarily Muslim kids. Let's just say that the first two weeks were mostly talking. The kids were incredibly scared that they'd be blamed ...
KatHat 4 years ago
Unfortunately a reasonable fear, due to so many people being both hellishly ignorant and hateful douchebags.
Load More Replies...
Jamma 4 years ago
I was also arriving on my campus as it was happening. We had a big Finance test that day, and the professor still made everyone take it, and the average results ended up being several standard deviations lower than our other results that semester. They didn't get thrown out, either. :(
Hannah Edwards 4 years ago
It was one of those events where everyone knows where they were when they heard the news. I was cat sitting for a friend in a safe little street in the uk and still felt frightened and paranoid.
H.L.Lewis 4 years ago
I was on the road at the time of 911. But I always have the radio on. The 1st report just said a 2 engine plane had hit the tower. So in my mind it was just someones personal plane. Then tbe 2nd one hit and I finally understood they were passenger planes. Approaching a turnoff for a rest area I could see a line of planes waiting to land. Get to the rest area and am walking to the ladies room. 2 women just happily chatting in front of me. I ask them if they knew what was going on today. They were on their way to a religious singing and had been happily chatting with each other the whole time. I told them. All these years later I still feel bad for probably ruining their day. But I had to speak to someone. The word surreal has been used over and over to describe that day. But it is really the only word that works. It felt so good to get close enough to home that I was able to pick up my regular radio station and finally hear familiar voices.
Damo Lee Park 4 years ago
I worked at Sydney International Airport at the time. I had woken up, gone to work, and the terminal was PACKED solid. The giant arrivals board had been turned into a big screen TV, and you should have seen the looks I got when I said "man, Harrison Ford is looking bloody TERRIBLE. And those effects? did they hire a 12 year old?" at the action on the screen. Turns out George Bush is NOT Harrison Ford, and those weren't effects...
Fixin'Ta 4 years ago
I don't like to listen to, watch or read the news first thing in the morning (usually starts the day off badly), so when I walked my son to school (in the Mountain Time Zone in the US) on 9/11, I smiled brightly at the crossing guard and said, "Good morning!" And he looked at me funny and said, "If you can call it that." I asked him what he meant, and he said, "You didn't hear about the plane that flew into the World Trade Center?" I said no, but didn't have time to stop and chat about it as I had to go into the school office to check on something (don't remember what). Once I got in there everyone was talking about it and I discovered it was a passenger jet (later discovered there were two), not a private plane like I had thought, and it was terrorism. I wanted to take my son out of school, but hubby drove by on his way to work and said no one was going to bomb an elementary school in the middle of Arizona, but wow, it was scary to let him stay there. Went home and stayed glued to TV
Amanita Virosa 4 years ago (edited)
I was teaching kindergarten at the time and of course had no clue of what had happened. The principal came in and filled me in. I had a little girl whose Dad was a firefighter in the city and I remember praying he was off that day, he wasn't. They never found his remains.
Michelle Brandt 4 years ago
I was a senior in high school with a free first period, so I usually came in later and I was playing CDs in my car at the time, not the radio. I had no idea what had happened until I got to school and all the monitors were tuned to the news.
#26
LexiLu 4 years ago
This is the same situation as the previous post about Ford being president with no mention of Nixon. Shortish version -- Nixon did/knew some shady stuff, got caught, knew he was going to be impeached so he resigned. It was called the Watergate scandal because of the name of a building involved.
Load More Replies...
Lynne Monteith 4 years ago
I think what I would like to know is where was this Voiceover coming from?
Susan Hills 3 years ago
That was a news broadcast - Airforce 1 wasn't landing on the eastern seaboard - it was landing in Orange County, California.
Load More Replies...
#27
Trina Selleck 3 years ago
A very unCONVENTional way of learning about it!
Load More Replies...
Anna Rush 4 years ago
Why did they need to know tho? It would've made exactly zero difference in their lives.
Wilhelm Chile 4 years ago
Because if knowledge doesn't cause harm, it's inherently a net positive
Load More Replies...
M Kate McCulloch 4 years ago
he didn't really have to tell them. i'm sure they would have been fine not knowing.
#28
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
And special loonies, and toonies... I showed my mom the toonie that glows in the dark and she thought it was fake.
Load More Replies...
Hiker Chick 4 years ago
LOL same happened to me. I came back to the states after living overseas, the cashier gave me a state quarter with my change, I handed it back to her and told her she had given me a game token. Oops.
Lisa Chambers 4 years ago
Hahah! I always have to look at my change to ensure its US currency since I have tucked in coins and bills from all over.
Linus Nilsson 4 years ago
Hey, we upgraded our currency a couple of years back. Since we practically never use physical money (I live in Sweden), I still don't know how our money looks
#29
#30
Seabeast 4 years ago
Everywhere. It started in the USA and spread around the world.
Load More Replies...
Thenatural 4 years ago
The banking system has collapsed?? Kind of over stating wouldn't you say?
Greg Arious 4 years ago
My brother awoke from a coma, I told him that That tRump was president. It took me some time to convince him that I was serious.
#31
Luna Lovegood 4 years ago
It sounds like covid probably, but yeah it is rather nonspecific
Load More Replies...
#32
BlackPearltheSeaWing/NightWing 4 years ago
That's actually pretty sad. Why didn't anyone he worked with tell him the war ended?
#33
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
There are still a lot of people who believe that this attack was staged by BLM, Anti-fa and the democrats in a joined effort to give Trump a bad reputation. Which is ridiculous, Trump already had a bad reputation.
Paloma Vita 4 years ago
Yes... and Trump would not have told them "we love you" if they were not there on his behest.
Load More Replies... Alphabet Soupy 4 years ago
Voting was (up to) November 4, the insurrection happened on Jan 6, I’m confused.
Joe Reaves 4 years ago
Georgia had a run off election for the Senate (I think? For something anyway, I'm not American)
Load More Replies... 
Xandra, The Little Hufflepuff 4 years ago
I was at rehearsal all day, so I didn't know what happened until I got home around 11 that night. Because we don't have our phones on during rehearsal, because it messes with the mics. I got home, and my parents were watching the news. And I just looked up at the ceiling and yelled, "IT'S BEEN 6 FRICKIN' DAYS! ARE YOU SERIOUS?????"
K Witmer 4 years ago
They didn't say they were from Texas. They only flew there
Load More Replies...
#34
Triv 4 years ago
Right. I hate iProducts, and a few days or so ago I had to use my mom's iPad to do something. It took me five minutes to figure out how to find the programs because she doesn't keep them in a home screen, and I don't think I can remember how I did that.
Load More Replies...
#37
bakkysak09 4 years ago
i saw a comment that said " they should have added a bunch of new contestants after giving them the news"
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Ome of those bachelor/bachelorette shows here in nz had the ssme thing: all off filming in seclusion and then got told mid way through hey guys, um covid, we gna have to thinking on the fly here 🤷♀️
Tanya MacLeod 4 years ago
BB Canada too. They had to leave the house and end the taping due to non essential quarantine.
#38
Ambar 4 years ago (edited)
so weird in my opinion that people grabbed TP instead of food and shelter and more things
Sky Render 4 years ago
Panic buying never makes sense. During the swine flu outbreak people hoarded duct tape and cardboard boxes. I wish I was kidding.
Load More Replies...
#39
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago (edited)
There's so #many hashtags here it #looks like the #roblox #chat #filter.
#40
#41
Monday 4 years ago
Sad that your political system is so fragile that one old man can destroy your entire country. Almost as sad as how your ego is so fragile that a comment you don't agree with makes you compare perfectly legal politics to terrorism and mass death. I sincerely hope you live a long and fruitful life so you may grow more as a person and become better than you are now.
Load More Replies...
#42
vogonpoet 4 years ago
Not really a "LOL". They should have informed him before he left. The shock of it could send him spiraling back into whatever he was in rehab for.
Requiem 4 years ago
Oh my god Ill be living at home for awhile anyway and not going outside.
Load More Replies...
#44
JessG 4 years ago
Okay, but all the other ones like 9/11 and the pandemic were "huuuuuuuge" news too, and still people didn't know they had happened. How is this one different?
Load More Replies...
#45
Sasy 4 years ago
The homeless thought that mask wearing was because of them...as in people not wanting to be contaminated by homeless, poor people, like a class distinction. That would have been a horrible feeling.
Load More Replies... Add New Image
What do you think ?
JennyLaRue 4 years ago
There was a reality TV show being filmed on a Scottish island, with the expectation that they'd live there for a year and they'd show updates on TV over the year. The show went a bit to pot because they didn't have a great balance of skills and characters, so the show was already being pared back, but some of the people remained on the island till the end of the year. At the end they had to explain to them that Britain was leaving the EU and trump had been voted in as president in the US. (although after the last few years that feels less shocking than it did at the time!)
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Are you sure about this? Seems to have the years mixed up, the people on the island were there years before the voting for Brexit
Load More Replies...
Carol Emory 4 years ago
Not away from social media, but I did go in for emergency surgery on a Tuesday morning after suffering a severe gall stone attack. When I woke up, San Francisco was in chaos after suffering a 6.9 Earthquake that collapsed bridges and killed 63 people. I sat in my hospital bed watching the horror unfold on the news.
Ingrid Smith 4 years ago
my husband was in a coma due to covid for about 2 months, and despite what they show on tv, coming out of it is very gradual. He was out from April 5 to early June, 2020. I had so much to tell him when he woke up, not just in our personal lives (which were hell) but the world in general
Pamda Panda 4 years ago
This reminds me of reverse culture shock a bit. I lived in China for four years. When I came back to the US, I had no idea what cell lots were at the airport and it took me a while to figure out what "struggle bus" meant.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Oh goodness.... in my mom's family they still oten only listen to/pay attention to news from back home, so they had no idea for *weeks* that any number of things happened in North America. Took them a while to even figure out Justin Trudeau was the new guy in charge, LOL, and they live in Quebec now!
Grouchy Bear 4 years ago
My ex when on a 3 week camping trip in 1992. The first question he asked me was "What's up with OJ?" He missed the bronco chase and everything. Meanwhile I couldn't get away from it.
bill marsano 4 years ago
Someone with a deep knowledge of TV soap operas can, I hope, provide the details, but the basics are these: In the '70s I was an editor at TV Guide magazine. A writer in our NY office sent in a profile of a woman starring on one of the soaps. She was as the French say "of a certain age"--in her 40s at least. And, critically important, she was German, only arrived in the US years after World War II. So inevitably and hesitantly our writer had raised the question of her experiences in Germany during the war. (Younger BPs should be aware that in those years (1939-1945) Germany was under the sway of Hitler; that Jews, gays, gypsies, the mentally ill and physically disabled were being systematically murdered in a vast network of concentration camps; and thatBerlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and other cities were razed to the ground by ceaseless bombing raids.) So--what WAS her experience of the war? Well, she said, "our family was on vacation." And TV Guide printed it.
Bex 4 years ago
Nowhere near as big as any of these, but I went to Woodstock '99 with 3 friends (and none of us had phones back then). The 3rd day started with riots, so we packed it up and left early. But we got stuck in traffic, and we lived several hours away, so we didn't get home until close to 9 at night. When I walked in the door (I was 21 but living at home before my Sr year of college), my parents and sister jumped up and started hugging me. They had been watching the riots and problems on tv all day and since we weren't supposed to come home until the next day, they thought we were still there and caught in it all. Meanwhile, we knew nothing about what was going on, and all I wanted after a weekend of drinking, camping, and overflowing latrines with no access to showers, was to take a hot bath and go to sleep.
Sasha Kuleshov 4 years ago
Also remember being a kid while your country is currently having a civil war and everyone is trying to keep you peppy and whatnot so you don't realize everything's going to s**t? ._.
Yettichild 4 years ago
I went into boot camp in August of 2001, so I was there on September 11. They told us about it, but I didn't see footage until we finished in October. When I went in, no one really cared about people in the military unless they were a veteran themselves. When I came out, the whole country was plastered in red, white and blue.
JennyLaRue 4 years ago
There was a reality TV show being filmed on a Scottish island, with the expectation that they'd live there for a year and they'd show updates on TV over the year. The show went a bit to pot because they didn't have a great balance of skills and characters, so the show was already being pared back, but some of the people remained on the island till the end of the year. At the end they had to explain to them that Britain was leaving the EU and trump had been voted in as president in the US. (although after the last few years that feels less shocking than it did at the time!)
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Are you sure about this? Seems to have the years mixed up, the people on the island were there years before the voting for Brexit
Load More Replies... Carol Emory 4 years ago
Not away from social media, but I did go in for emergency surgery on a Tuesday morning after suffering a severe gall stone attack. When I woke up, San Francisco was in chaos after suffering a 6.9 Earthquake that collapsed bridges and killed 63 people. I sat in my hospital bed watching the horror unfold on the news.
Ingrid Smith 4 years ago
my husband was in a coma due to covid for about 2 months, and despite what they show on tv, coming out of it is very gradual. He was out from April 5 to early June, 2020. I had so much to tell him when he woke up, not just in our personal lives (which were hell) but the world in general
Pamda Panda 4 years ago
This reminds me of reverse culture shock a bit. I lived in China for four years. When I came back to the US, I had no idea what cell lots were at the airport and it took me a while to figure out what "struggle bus" meant.
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
Oh goodness.... in my mom's family they still oten only listen to/pay attention to news from back home, so they had no idea for *weeks* that any number of things happened in North America. Took them a while to even figure out Justin Trudeau was the new guy in charge, LOL, and they live in Quebec now!
Grouchy Bear 4 years ago
My ex when on a 3 week camping trip in 1992. The first question he asked me was "What's up with OJ?" He missed the bronco chase and everything. Meanwhile I couldn't get away from it.
bill marsano 4 years ago
Someone with a deep knowledge of TV soap operas can, I hope, provide the details, but the basics are these: In the '70s I was an editor at TV Guide magazine. A writer in our NY office sent in a profile of a woman starring on one of the soaps. She was as the French say "of a certain age"--in her 40s at least. And, critically important, she was German, only arrived in the US years after World War II. So inevitably and hesitantly our writer had raised the question of her experiences in Germany during the war. (Younger BPs should be aware that in those years (1939-1945) Germany was under the sway of Hitler; that Jews, gays, gypsies, the mentally ill and physically disabled were being systematically murdered in a vast network of concentration camps; and thatBerlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and other cities were razed to the ground by ceaseless bombing raids.) So--what WAS her experience of the war? Well, she said, "our family was on vacation." And TV Guide printed it.
Bex 4 years ago
Nowhere near as big as any of these, but I went to Woodstock '99 with 3 friends (and none of us had phones back then). The 3rd day started with riots, so we packed it up and left early. But we got stuck in traffic, and we lived several hours away, so we didn't get home until close to 9 at night. When I walked in the door (I was 21 but living at home before my Sr year of college), my parents and sister jumped up and started hugging me. They had been watching the riots and problems on tv all day and since we weren't supposed to come home until the next day, they thought we were still there and caught in it all. Meanwhile, we knew nothing about what was going on, and all I wanted after a weekend of drinking, camping, and overflowing latrines with no access to showers, was to take a hot bath and go to sleep.
Sasha Kuleshov 4 years ago
Also remember being a kid while your country is currently having a civil war and everyone is trying to keep you peppy and whatnot so you don't realize everything's going to s**t? ._.
Yettichild 4 years ago
I went into boot camp in August of 2001, so I was there on September 11. They told us about it, but I didn't see footage until we finished in October. When I went in, no one really cared about people in the military unless they were a veteran themselves. When I came out, the whole country was plastered in red, white and blue.
Related on Bored Panda
