September 11th...6 year anniversary

[zoebartlett]

I just wanted to mention that my thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims of September 11th. I didn''t know anyone who was a victim of the tragedies, but I know that so many people all throughout the country did.

When I heard the news that day, I had just begun a teaching internship in first grade. My cooperating teacher and I were doing assessments with students in our room when a coworker handed me a note. The note briefly explained what had happened at that point (it was in the morning but I can''t quite remember the time). The guidance counselor made her way to all of the classrooms, making sure that everyone was okay. Parents began arriving soon after to pick up their children, just to be close to them for the rest of the day. Because we taught 6 year olds, my cooperating teacher and I didn''t address the events to the class that day. We knew when the kids got home that day, many (unfortunately) would watch the news with their parents. The next day we began our morning meeting talking about it, taking our cues from the kids themselves. My cooperating teacher actually began the conversation by talking about how sad someone feels when a pet dies (she must have been thinking that many kids can relate to the death of a pet). That was meant to segue into a brief conversation about what had happened, although I think we then heard everyone''s stories about their pets (not necessarily death related) and then moved onto the deths of some of the grandparents. the kids were trying to make sense of it all in their own way, and they were trying to relate the tragedies to what they knew in their own lives. Some of the kids who really seemed to understand what had happened began drawing pictures and writing about what they had seen or heard about. It was tough for many reasons, but we continued to tell the kids that they were safe. It was hard for many to grasp because of their age, but also because we don''t live anywhere near the sites.

Where were you?

 

[strmrdr]

Just waking up for a dentist apt for a root canal when the first tower was hit.
Saw it on a board I hang out on and turned on the tv about 2 min after the 1st tower was hit. Saw the second hit live on TV.
Shortly after the towers fell went too the dentist office and everyone was out in the lobby around the TV.

Spent the day with a numb mouth sipping Pepsi watching the news and loading magazines and cleaning guns.

 

[rainbowtrout]

I was in my high school biology class, senior year. I remember being terrified that all of my male friends would be drafted.

 

[AGBF]

Uh oh. I''m showing my age here. I was on an Internet diamond board that existed before Pricescope. I saw a posting by Juan Lozano, a jeweler in Mexico who is also a pilot, about the first plane hitting. I stayed glued to that board getting information there, but also put on the television.

My daughter was in elementary school in Connecticut. Our town was a bedroom community outside of New York City. The fathers of most children at her school (and her father) commuted to New York City daily to work. Throughout the day no one knew if any parents at her school had been killed. In fact, there was such chaos that no one knew for several days. (By an absolute miracle, no child at her school lost a parent.)

My husband, whose offices were down in the Wall Street area in lower Manhattan, very close to the site of the bombing, was in rural Massachusetts at a leadership convention, completely isolated. No one at that site knew about the bombings until I called there. When my husband came home (as he did immediately, for the conference broke up) he brought a man from New Jersey who worked at the same bank with him, the idea being that he would stay with us if he had to. Bridges between Connecticut and New York were out. Both this man and my husband just wanted to get into New York, to their offices. My husband''s team had had to be evacuated. The next day he managed to get in, past the National Guard who were trying to keep people out.

I am late or I would write more. It feels like yesterday.

Deborah

 

[Kaleigh]

I awoke to a phone call from one of my best friends. I had slept in that morning, hubby had taken the kids to school. She said should we go and pick up the kids?? I said why, what''s going on?? She said turn on the TV!! It was 8:50 or so. We sat on the phone in shock. I was shaking. I asked her to pick me up, and that we would go to the kid''s schools and get them. I called my husband, he said he had been evacuated from his building One Liberty Place in Philly. At that time, Philadelphia wasn''t in the clear, he was on his way home. I went with my friend to get the kids. It was calm at one school, chaos at the other. Then once home, we tried to explain it to the kids. Maintaining a calm front was key for us. Inside we were devastated as we had very close friends that worked in the Towers. We all went to college together. Everyone was calling, asking what we knew, and vice versa. They didn''t make it. They were just about the nicest guys you''d ever want to know, family was everything to them. Their voices have been silenced but their spirit''s burn bright.

 

[musey]

I was a senior in high school, sitting in my psychology class. We were on central time, so the attacks were already underway by the time we got to school... but like Strm, I saw the second hit on live TV. CNN, I think, not sure.

Most of the teachers, including mine, suspended classroom activities for the day so that we could watch the coverage in class. A lot of the kids, QUITE disrespectfully, took advantage of the situation and just goofed around, playing games, talking and laughing. I was really upset about that, and just sitting there staring at the TV.

My psych teacher was upset at them too, and told us that in 10, 20, 40 years we would all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when it happened. Would we be proud of our behavior, sitting and laughing while those people lost their lives? Sadly, it did little to shut my classmates up.

But she was right. I remember everything I did that day, and everything I felt.

 

[monarch64]

This is always a sad day...I still tear up when I conjure up memories of the day itself...I was 24, just landed my first job post-college and was out of town training with the corporate office of my company. Myself and the other executive-trainees were taking advantage of the continental breakfast in the hotel before reporting to work and there was a small t.v. in the lounge...we first saw reports and coverage of the initial attack, then were glued to the t.v. and watched the second hit live...we had to get to the corporate office so we left but followed the news all day and were devastated. We were in the vicinity of a U.S. airforce base and saw all kinds of planes none of us had ever seen irl before flying overhead...it was just total sadness, a lot of confusion, and a lot of wishing we were home with our loved ones. I had met my now DH exactly 10 days before that day, so I was communicating with him constantly as soon as i got back to my hotel room. I remember him saying "we'll be talking about this for the rest of our lifetimes, this will never go away." So true. I remember a few trainees leaving to go home to their families whether it meant losing their jobs or not...I remember going to the gas station to fill up my tank before price gouging set in, which it already had, I think I paid over $2 a gallon when the typical price a day before or even that morning had been just over $1...I remember being upset and angry and most of all emotional over all the lives we were worried were lost. Also I remember that some of our buyers were in NY at the time it happened and they all got stuck there due to the airports being shut down, I felt so bad for them even though i hadn't met most of them at that point.

I was just watching Anderson cooper 360 tonight and there was a story about one soldier who was in Iraq who was in 7th grade when this happened...I realized then that this has affected SO many people through the past 6 years, even kids who weren't even thinking about their future careers maybe. It was strange to think that these soldiers over there now had such a different experience than I did, they were just kids when this happened yet here they are serving our country and when I was their age all I could think about was having a good time and making it to class the next day.

I'll never forget driving down the highway or just on random streets afterwards and seeing all the American flags being waved and the sense of unity everyone expressed and felt as a citizen of the U.S. Never before or since have I experienced such a feeling of being united as a citizen of this great country, it did bring us all a bit closer. I wish we could all remember that when we're having road rage or disagreeing about whatever political issue. In the end we all just want to come home safe and sound and have our loved ones around us and protected.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 9/12/2007 1:38:05 AM
Author: monarch64
I''ll never forget driving down the highway or just on random streets afterwards and seeing all the American flags being waved and the sense of unity everyone expressed and felt as a citizen of the U.S. Never before or since have I experienced such a feeling of being united as a citizen of this great country, it did bring us all a bit closer.

Yes. I am old enough to have thought that it must have been the same way after Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, which was before I was born. I remember one of my friends (someone who, like me, vehemently opposes the war in Iraq) motioning a car to stop while she ran across the street to upright a little flag that had fallen over. The flag in our front window obsured our view of the street. I still wear my flag socks, the ones I bought on eBay during its Auction for America.

Deborah