And, the planes hit at 9 in the morning, it’s not like he had time to bowl and then the planes hit. This guy was playing while the rest of the country was glued to their televisions.
this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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The alley was probably nice and quiet, he could focus on his game.
It isn't impossible that he didn't know.
Many people don't listen to the radio or watch TV. No smart phones.
edit = I saw the story [comment above] and the guy was just trying to be normal. I can respect his choice.
Yeah, but I feel like if you interacted with anyone you'd know something was up, if they don't just tell you. Hell, if the bowling alley had TVs they were probably all on the news. Maybe if he was at home I'd believe he didn't know, but not out somewhere where you have to interact with other people.
This. If you were in public, you knew. Everyone was talking about it. This was before certain news media fully splintered off into exclusively covering alternate realities, so most people at the time were on the same page information-wise, regardless of where they got their news from.
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gotta get catharsis while you're processing tragedy somehow. in a lot of ways this guy had it figured out
He was in a league and the games weren't cancelled
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I remember losing track of time watching it on TV and my boss called all pissed off. Rush to work and he is giving us shit because everyone was late. A coworker guilt tripped him hard about how we all just watched thousands of people die and were traumatized. He shut up and eventually sent us home early.
I remember I was in high school and they didn’t do early dismissal but all of our classes were pointless because we just watched the news. I also remember an edgelord kid making jokes while the news was on after the first plane hit about how the pilot must have been drunk or something and then literally watching another plane hit live and he shut up
Then I had a shift at my job, blockbuster video, which decided that people may want to rent movies during this tragic time so we had to come into work. Absolutely no one came in and my coworker spent the entire shift freaked the fuck out that a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the northeast
For reference I lived in New Jersey not that far from Manhattan. I could kind of get it if I lived in like Wisconsin or something.
Silly coworker, they would have opened with a nuke if they could. (Too soon?)
That was unironically my response to their anxiety. Why would they bother with all the plane nonsense if they had access to nuclear weapons? Makes no sense. But people went nuts after 9/11, totally irrational
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Bill seems like a good guy. I read the article hoping that he would mention that he has a brother called Tom.
Quite interesting seeing how everyone reacted at the time.
When I woke up to the news, my first thought was "oh great, that's 24/7 news coverage for the next month at least. We're not going to stop hearing about this for years"
Might have underestimated things a bit.
Definitely wasn't expecting 25 years of what feels like constant coverage, infinite conspiracy theories, the invasion of multiple countries, and the death of literally tens (hundreds??) of thousands of people.
Also wasn't expecting just how much of an impact it had on security - and not just at airports. We work at the airport and access is such a major pain in the butt now, but even going to ports or train stations has this constant fear that a bloke carting a bag of tools is there to do some terrorism instead of the far more reasonable expectation that maybe they're here to do that job we requested. It's been a quarter of a decade ffs.
"We can't let the terrorists win" was the catch cry, but man they kicked our collective arses and are still doing so.
As a kid (12 years old) in the U.S., the division of eras that occurred on 9/11/01 was clear and immediate.
Adults acted very differently, starting that day. They went from being confident and in-control, to scared and uncertain. Teachers didn't know what to say to us. Some of the school staff openly wept. Everyone was really lost, and U.S.ians have been seeking a strong leader to guide them ever since.
Flags were everywhere. Everywhere. I know for foreign visitors it's hard to imagine there being more U.S. flags around the country than there already are, but it really was ridiculous. A neighbor and I used to see how many cars we could get to honk, just by standing on the side of the main road and waving flags.
It was like a hive mind took over the populace. Nationalism took hold in a way I had never seen before. Any disagreement with U.S. policy was now considered "unAmerican" and was likely to compel someone to say, "If you don't like it, you can leave (the country.)" (No, it doesn't make sense. It never made sense. I can't explain it, I was just a kid that got told it for disagreeing with George W. Bush.)
Anyway, there was a clear, undeniable shift in culture that happened on 9/11/01. It's wild to see the same people twist around over the course of 20 years, going from flying into a rage at the thought of someone criticizing the U.S., to actually agreeing that the U.S. is falling apart (even if we disagree on how or why.)
Not feed into any of the conspiracy theories, but if anyone ever wanted to quickly control an entire countries populace, this would be a great way to do it.
Two possibilities here; either the country was under attack, and not only did this guy decide it was a good time to go bowling, but the bowling ally decided not to close for the day, or; this guy bowled at least one full game before 8:46 am. Not sure which is weirder.
Or started the game before then and decided to finish anyway. Or started before then and was too in the zone to hear about news.
"Hey Earl, they just hit the pentagon. Maybe someone should tell Bill?"
"Look, he's at 260. Unless they get the White House, I say we let him have this."
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My money is on everyone being distracted so he took the opportunity to walk to the end of the lane and keep knocking over all the pins by hand.
I was in college in Texas when it happened. I don't remember anything closing.
All of my classes kept to their regular schedules.
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This is the second best day of my life!
Sir. A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.
This is the best day of my life!
"40 Wall street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually before the World Trade Center the tallest, and and then when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second-tallest, and now it's the tallest And I just spoke to my people, and they said it's the most unbelievable sight, it's probably seven or eight blocks away from the World Trade Center, and yet Wall Street is littered with two feet of stone and brick and mortar and steel ..."
Trump on 9/11.
Yes, he was always narcissistic scum. NYC tried to warn everyone else.
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Bowling a perfect game like there's no tomoro
"Fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling."
The event was used as an excuse to take away more of our freedoms. Like the War on Drugs.
We are running out of things to take. What will be demanded when the well runs dry?
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I won an online digital photography contest that day.
Are we sure this didn't happen in one of the many countries that write their dates properly?
Shit... I never thought about it. Do other countries have bowling? Like, I know the game/sport is derived from various previous games/sports throughout history.
But bowling in its current American form, is that played a lot else where? And if so, how do those top tier american bowlers i see on the ocho stack up? I guess I know what internet video rabbit hole im falling down tonight.
I'm in New Zealand, we have tenpin bowling here, and I believe the rules are the same as in the US. I'm pretty sure it's a popular game around the world.
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I don't live in the US and within the distance of a short walk, there are no less than three bowling alleys near me. One is public, one belongs to a bowling club and I don't know about the 3rd one.
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There is a small theater monologue to be written about this event.
No 7-10 splits there!
7 10 splits don't melt wooden pins
Well, he really knocked 'em down that day
We all process grief in different ways.
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