Community Chat

[LTT1]

@Jordan2

What a defining tragedy for all...

That day as I was assisting students in the learning lab, a group of other teachers called me into the attached office. They had a TV in there and it was on.

They gently motioned me over and said "Look."

(The obvious thought here and everywhere in the school was not to let on as to upset the students.)

As we kept watching in disbelief over the first twin tower, there right in front of us, the second tower was hit!

Simultaneously, my personal phone rang ... it was our DD, calling from college, asking if I was ok. She was shaken but was going to be strong for me ... Aww.

Students found out one way or another that day. Some went home. Others warily asked me if I knew or if everything would be ok.

Through the years, a student here and there showed up in my classroom who had endured a personal 9/11 tragedy. One lost his uncle, his role model, who was a NYC firefighter who lost his life helping others escape. This young man told her s story bravely. He has no dad or mom in his life.

Without exception, my students year by year have considered this the most formative national event in their lives. (The defining national event of my life was the assassination of President Kennedy).

[Jordan2]

On Sunday I will be watching the ceremony and the reading of all that lost their lives that day, I feel as hard as it is to watch I owe it to everyone of the victims to remember them.

[911]

On the 81st floor of the North Tower and my husband a NYC Fireman was underneath both building collapses and survived...........we are very blessed and eternally grateful to Jesus.....it was not our time..........

[MyGirlsMom]

..my daughter's birthday. 

[cancun08]

I was at work that morning and we were all watching on TV as the second plane hit.  Little did we know then but one of the girls watching with all of us had a cousin on that flight who was flying in for their annual family reunion.  May we never go through that ever again.  May all of their families find peace and may all who lost their lives rest in peace. 

[hckynut]

I was watching and listening to it in our basement entertainment room. Watched it for hours on end.

hckynut(john)

[beach-mom]

I was late that morning. Caught a glimpse of the TV thinking it was a movie. Then the calls started coming. I called two friends whose husbands were pilots. We were worried about friends at the Pentagon. Then I found out a friend was in the flight crew of one of the planes. Sad day. Every year. 

[Noel7]

6 am, we got a frantic call from our young daughter, a student interning for Congress in Washington DC. 

She said all Congress offices got a message for everyone to run for their lives, a plane was headed for The Hill.  She called on her cell, running with her shoes in her hand.

It was chaos there and she had nowhere to go, where she lived had been blocked off by police and soldiers carrying large guns, and helicopters were circling overhead.

She and a friend helped a bloodied woman who had come from the Pentagon, but no one knew where to go. 

Her cell phone didn't have a full charge, I suggested she go into an open business once in awhile to ask to either charge it or phone home.  People were great and let others do that... we were terrified for her, she was so young.

9/11 is hard for her every year.

[LTT1]

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@LilacTree wrote:

Home getting ready to leave for work when my daughter called that a plane had hit one of the towers.  We were still unsure if it was an accident.

When I got to work I went straight into my boss's office who had the TV on.  I sat on the floor as the towers fell, completely in disbelief.  My boss and I just looked at each other.  He had tears streaming down his face.  There were no words.  I felt frozen.

We all thought there was going to be a war.  Of course it's something one never, ever forgets.

ETA:  I am also old enough to have witnessed (on TV) JFK's assassination as well.  I saw Walter Cronkite take off his glasses as he announced the President was dead for the first time.  I had just had my second child.  I loved JFK and cried for many years every time they showed that family prior to and after the assassination.  I didn't know much about politics in those days . . . to me it was the end of "Camelot."

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@Vivian Florimond

It just dawned on me... the parallel between 9/11 and JFK assaination in my lifetime.

My 6th grade teacher (I ADORED her) collapsed against the lockers across the hall. It was our nation's theory that we were invincible that was shattered. 

This could not happen in America.

And so it fell even harder on us during 9/11.