How did your dad react, or did you two have any kind of conversation? It must have been weird having him bang on your door to see something on TV.
I was a freshman at Magnolia High School. I was riding the bus into school. There were like ten kids on the bus and we had known the driver since we were like five, so we were listening to the Buzz. They came on right before we got to school and said they had reports of a cessna crashing into the World Trade Center. When I got to school, I asked my buddy if he had heard about it, and he said no. In home room, we convinced our teacher to turn the radio on, only to hear two planes had now crashed. I went to first period, told my English teacher, and she turned on CNN and started frantically calling het brother, who had a flight from Chicago to New York. We watched CNN the rest of the day. Football practice was cancelled. We had a couple bomb threats throughout that year. September 11, 2002, a "suspicious device was found in a hallway at school. We got sent home early, and the bomb squad had a long day. Turns out, someone dropped a homemade camera. Craziest thing of the day: a buddy asked me who was responsible and I shot back, "I don't know. Probably Sadaam or Bin Laden." Crazy how some days you will never forget.
I was in elementary. Watched the whole thing on TV. Teachers were more sad at the time than we were. Kids really can't process this at all.
10th grade in history class. I vividly remember the moment the second plane hit and how sad and uneasy I became. During lunch period, I (a Muslim man) had to deal with kids my age coming up to me and saying things like "you terrorist!" or "Why did you just blow up our buildings?" Needless to say, I was distraught for a while. Moe
The worst thing was probably knowing that it was best to not react, because they would have just piled it on even more. Hope you got through the last two years of school okay.
1st class period, I & P Science, freshmen year of hs. They announced over the loud speaker that a plane had hit the twin towers (assuming it was the first plane since they made no announcement of a terrorist attack), right before the bell rang for 2nd period. By the time we made into 2nd period all tv's were on the news.
I was in 5th grade, was getting ready to go to bed when my mom told me to quickly come over and watch the TV. Watched the second plane hit the world trade center and thought it was horrible, but didn't think much after that.
I was in about my third week of Navy bootcamp. They kept us in the dark for most of the day. You could tell something was happening, whispering, huddling among the leadership. Then around 8pm they brought the chaplain in and told us. I'd say the reaction of most was a sudden realization of just exactly what we had signed up for and signed away. I was hoping it meant we would be expedited through training into some kind of war but no such luck. The next day our division was scheduled for dental which meant you sit in the waiting room all day till they call your name. Fortunately for us there were TV's in the waiting area and we saw the news footage basically all day long the next day. 2 yrs later I was on an oiler out in the Persian Gulf when the shock and awe started. Never really got closer than watching helo's take off in that direction from out there. The one thing that probably made the whole experience very different than it might have been otherwise was a great appreciation for what we were doing. People were very patriotic and calling us hero's and we hadn't done anything.
7th grade English class. Another teacher came in the room and had a quiet exchange with my teacher. My teacher looked kind of confused, turned on the TV and there was the smoking tower. We got really excited, but our teacher calmed us down pretty admirably. The PA eventually came on and told the teachers to turn off the TVs in case something too graphic happened and we just got a lot of motivational speeches about hope and patriotism and such the rest of the day.
8th grade..heard hissings in the hallway that something major happened on my way to 2nd period where I had biology and my teacher told us, then she started tearing up and we kind of just chilled not doing any school work. She might've taken out a TV to see the report but I can't be sure. The rest of the day is a blur but I think my teachers were trying to keep everything normal and not panic anyone. The significance of it didn't hit me until I got home and I saw news report the whole day of nearly every channel.
I was in 5th grade, I remember the teachers meeting up in the hall ways with a panic look on their faces not knowing how to react to what was happening. At the time I had no idea what was going on.
Yay let's partake in this spectacle of rehashing negativity every year until we decide to move on. Remember it, fine. But thinking about it and just replaying what happened is just counter productive.
2nd year of high school, I heard it from one of my classmates, and then a teacher told us all about it. I didnt watch the news till I got home (around 3 pm) and watched the news all day.
it will play out like this for years, just like the Challenger, JFK, Princess Di, etc... to not remember and respect is a disservice to the victims, heroes, and family members of 9/11. it's the ten year mark, look at how much has changed. many have moved on.
BTW I found the thread of the 9/11 attack when it was happening, reading over it gives you a real sense to what was going on during that time, for those of us who were to young to remember or understand. http://rafer.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=21805
Hardly anybody thinks about it every year....until 9/11. So for one day of each year, people think about what happened when 3000 people were killed on one day. Is taking just 1 day too much to ask, is it that wildly counter-productive?
