I was in my senior year of high school and my first hour of the day was Spanish. It wasn't until the end of the hour that I heard first that a plane had hit the Pentagon. Unfortunately it was from my odd-duck (to put it lightly) teacher who was laughing about it. That still hits me every time I think about it. Why was he laughing? Maybe it was his weird way of coping, maybe he didn't know the severity of it. I heard more from people talking out in the hall. "Planes were hijacked" "World Trade Center" "Pentagon".
My next couple of hours were Art. Since the school was under construction the cable tv for the classrooms had been cut just earlier that day so work could be done. The art room was one of the only televisions in the building that still had bunny ears and could get a signal. Teachers brought their students in for the day to watch everything unfold. I watched one of the towers fall. I can't remember if it was 1 or 2. I watched as they realized a fourth plane had been hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania. I even remember the false report of a car bomb outside the state department. I had to get away from it all after lunch so I spend the next hour in the dark room. Sam and her boyfriend provided their usual drama that day to relieve the sense of dooms day. I remember the moment it hit me that Brian was at boot camp at that moment. That his dream of being able to travel and spend time in Japan wasn't going to happen. That the furthest that he would travel would probably be the Middle East. Unfortunately that ended up being true. He thought it was safe to join, we had been at peace when he joined.
Thats my "Where were you when it happened?" moment.
What's yours?
I was working at the insurance company at the time, I remember hearing about it from a co-worker who wondered what was going on with air traffic control. Of course everyone jumped on the internet to find out more information. Then they announced everyone needed to get off the internet because of security concerns. Makes me laugh now, like the terrorists really cared about Farmer Bob's back 40 of corn.
ReplyDeleteIt was my first year of teaching in Red Wing and I found out during hall duty after my first class. Luckily I then had prep and was able to watch the events unfold in the Media Center. It was one of those surreal moments and I became overwhelmed very quickly and needed to get away from the news coverage. (Which, by the way, was hard to do because that was all there was on television for hours/days/weeks to come...)
ReplyDeleteThe biggest shock for me was the reaction of the students. So many of them - actually TOO many of them - thought it was funny. They came back the next day laughing at what they had seen and talked about people jumping out of the towers, etc. I was shocked. Sick to my stomach. Disappointed.
What a welcome into the teaching world after just two weeks as well as the new economy/country that evolved from the horrendous events of that day.
It was my senior year at BSU and I always had the radio wake me ... I remember thinking it was only a little plane and some freak accident. I had to run to target before class and remember how scared people were upon hearing word of the multiple crashes that day. I can also remember the fear of even hearing a plane fly over ... There were many conversations of the event in my classes.
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