18 replies to this topic

[mbxsd]

So the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 is coming up and I thought it'd be nice if we all shared our stories of what we did during that fateful day. Here's mine:

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I was in my 2nd grade classroom doing something for Writer's Workshop when the twin towers collapsed. I was sitting on my table and doing my work when all of a sudden the loudspeaker asked one of my classmates to go to the office because her parents wanted to pick her up.

Ok, not a big deal, I thought. Parents picked up their kids early from time to time. But I became more confused and worried when more and more kids were being called to the office. My teacher was obviously perplexed, and so were the rest of my classmates. None of us had a clue of what was going on.

Then, when about half the kids have left the room, I was finally called to the office. When I went there I saw my mom who was carrying an umbrella. Together we ventured outside, and to my surprise, ash and debris were falling from the sky. I remember having to shield my face with the collar of my shirt so as to block the dust from getting into my lungs. I also remember reaching out and touching a piece of falling, charred newspaper, and reading what was imprinted on it. Of all my 7 years of life, I had never seen such a strange phenomena occur, and I was unaware of what was exactly going on until I arrived home and watched the television with my family.

On the news, footage of the burning towers was being shown, and the news anchor was giving a long and sad narration of the event that occurred. I didn't really know what was going on, but I could tell from the tone of the anchorman's voice and the worried look on my parents' face that it was something awfully tragic.

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So yeah, share your thoughts.

[xMrStrife]

I remember i was in kindergarten and after the attack the entire school was dismissed. (You can see the towers on some rooms of the school). My family went back to my house and we just open the TV to see what was going on.
On my backyard, there were also paperwork and documents from the debris.

[blackmanor1000]

I was in my 2nd grade classroom. I remember our teacher going to the window and then we all starting watching her and then I noticed the smoke coming from the tower. My school was in Bensonhurst but I still had a pretty clear view of the smoke. Some kid started crying because his mother worked in the towers, but it turned out she was on the first floor and was one of the first people out. Soon thereafter I got picked up and went to a family friend's house while my mom picked up my sisters from their middle school. I remember the family friend making a huge deal and made me dash into his house with my hands over my mouth, but I think I was too far to really get any debris. Then my mom came and took me home and we just watched TV and I remember a few of the channels being knocked out. My uncle was a police officer at the time but, fortunately, he was uptown at one of those random Harlem River bridges making sure nobody came in or out of Manhattan and not actually at the site.

[ClEMeNt]

I didn't move to New York until about 4 years later. (I used to live in Maryland)
I was in first grade and I was one of the first to be called (I think I was the only one) to the office to be sent home.
A lot of my relatives lived in New York, so I guess that was the reason why?
Anyway, I watched the plane hitting the tower on TV, and being young, I didn't understand and shrugged it off.

[Alanmp08]

There was some quiet discussion about it, but I never learned what happened until maybe a few weeks later and I never understood what happened until maybe some years later. Looks like the class was too busy to notice? Well, the school's in Brooklyn, not sure if that's sufficiently far enough for nobody to notice without something on the news, etc.

[Sulate]

My class room had a direct view to the towers. No one noticed when the plane hit but my teacher got a call and I presume someone told her what happened. She said oh my god and ran to the window. All of of us stood on our chairs to see out the window and smoke was billowing out the tower. My school was sent to the auditorium and I waited there for about 5 hours to get picked up. I think for most of us who didn't lose anyone we knew directly to the attack, it doesn't hold as much impact since we were so young.

[rEvolution]

I was in Pre-School when the towers were hit. I really didn't remember anything, but my mom told me that she got a call from my father at home. He told her what happened, and she turned around and picked me up immediately. I never saw the twin-towers in my life.

[mbxsd]

Sulate, on 11 September 2011 - 12:38 PM, said:

I think for most of us who didn't lose anyone we knew directly to the attack, it doesn't hold as much impact since we were so young.

That's very true, and it's rather unfortunate. I didn't care about 9/11 for the past 9 or so years, but I've only recently begun to realize the impact its had on my life. I think that whether or not you lost a loved one to 9/11, it's had a large significance on how we view the world. It just doesn't feel like it because we've lived with its results for nearly our entire lives, and it's become normal to us.

[ClEMeNt]

So I'm not the only one who doesn't really care for this 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack?

[xMrStrife]

Is there someone that happen to know the title children's book about the day after 911?
I remember reading it in school but I forgot the title.

[blackmanor1000]

ClEMeNt, on 11 September 2011 - 02:13 PM, said:

So I'm not the only one who doesn't really care for this 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack?

It's not that I don't care, but it doesn't really effect me as much or inspire as big a sense of patriotism as it does other people. It was just such a shocking incident that it's interesting to re-watch the news coverage.

Also, as an architecture student, I find the memorial a tad bit ugly. The inundation of trees is ugly and doesn't work.

[xMrStrife]

blackmanor1000, on 11 September 2011 - 04:30 PM, said:

It's not that I don't care, but it doesn't really effect me as much or inspire as big a sense of patriotism as it does other people. It was just such a shocking incident that it's interesting to re-watch the news coverage.

Also, as an architecture student, I find the memorial a tad bit ugly. The inundation of trees is ugly and doesn't work.

I think it doesn't matter how the memorial looks like on the outside, inside are memories that will never be forgotten. I don't know anyone personally from that passed away from the terrorist attack, but I know friends who lost their dads and husbands who lost their wives that day. Its was a sad day in American history.

[AnAdrenalin]

xMrStrife, on 11 September 2011 - 02:26 PM, said:

Is there someone that happen to know the title children's book about the day after 911?
I remember reading it in school but I forgot the title.

I remember that book too. The one done by a class of kids( somewhere bewteen 1st-2nd graders)wrote and drew it and it got published?

I remember I was in lunch during the attack and and my older brother was actually a freshman at tech. My mother left her job in Manhatten as soon as she heard and got me straight from the lunchroom then up to my class to my cubby to get my stuff and go home. It was hectic once we made the 10 minute walk from school, my mother trying to figure out how to get my brother home without leaving me alone at home. I couldn't remember the details, maybe something about tech not allowing kids to go home without a parent after the attack but he ended up staying with a friend from tech. Personally we didn't know anyone near the world trade center except a few relatives and family friends including some Stuy students who fortunately left unharmed.

[mbxsd]

AnAdrenalin, on 11 September 2011 - 06:49 PM, said:

I remember that book too. The one done by a class of kids( somewhere bewteen 1st-2nd graders)wrote and drew it and it got published?

I remember I was in lunch during the attack and and my older brother was actually a freshman at tech. My mother left her job in Manhatten as soon as she heard and got me straight from the lunchroom then up to my class to my cubby to get my stuff and go home. It was hectic once we made the 10 minute walk from school, my mother trying to figure out how to get my brother home without leaving me alone at home. I couldn't remember the details, maybe something about tech not allowing kids to go home without a parent after the attack but he ended up staying with a friend from tech. Personally we didn't know anyone near the world trade center except a few relatives and family friends including some Stuy students who fortunately left unharmed.

My sister was a senior at Brooklyn Tech when the 9/11 event occurred, and she was allowed to walk home by herself.

[avaviney]

The 9/11 attack changed the world drastically. I will forever remember that dreadful day.

[Jund]

I honestly don't remember anything from that day.

Now I feel bad.

[NickC]

Vividly in a 4th grade classroom when my teacher received a phone call and broke down crying - subsequently the principal came in to cover for her. It is was a routine to write a daily "journal" entry as a Do Now assignment in the morning and I still have that entry ...somewhere in the garage.

It is shocking to me that the older I get the folks who were younger than me will just have fragments of this memory.

[Jund]

NickC, on 16 September 2011 - 09:29 AM, said:

It is shocking to me that the older I get the folks who were younger than me will just have fragments of this memory.

Well I was in first grade back then, so I guess I didn't really comprehend what was going on.

All I remember is being sent home and gathering around the telly with my family to watch the news.

[Tsukasa]

I wasn't even in Pre-K when it happened, but my brother was in a catholic school over here in Maspeth and had a direct view of the towers- he raised his hand and said that he saw planes hit a building, and the nun told him to sit in the corner for disrupting the class.
I don't believe she ever apologized to him.