Where were you when... a perspective from inside an American classroom as the tragic events of September 11, 2001 unfolded.
A day I will never forget.
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It is sad to say that one of the topics that unites generations of people is the answer to the question, 'Where were you when..." Regardless of country of origin or age, everyone has one. For Americans of my generation, there are at least three of these unifying and terrible events. If one is at a gathering and has a desire to strike up a very serious, somber, yet engaging conversation; it can be easily sparked by, "Where were you when President Ronald Reagan was shot?" or "Where were you when the space shuttle Challenger exploded?" or "Where were you on September 11, 2001?"
As I sit to write this piece, I have intentionally avoided going back to research the exact details and order of events from 9/11. I want this to be my story as I remember it from that tragic day. It's been fifteen years so I know my details won't be perfect. I'm sure my brain has played tricks on me in order to help me comprehend and accept the devastating events of that day. Perfect or not, these are my memories and emotions from September 11, 2001.
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I was in my third year of teaching high school students with special needs. At that time, I co-taught a World History class with a general education teacher named Bill. He and I would start each morning by working together to put the finishing touches on the day's lesson. That morning was no different... until another teacher (who would retire at the end of that emotional year) entered our classroom and exclaimed, "A plane just crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York". Bill and I looked at each other. I distinctly remember shaking my head and saying, "What kind of idiot would be dumb enough to fly a plane in downtown New York?" I caught myself and changed my position to, "Unless there was some kind of mechanical failure or something". When I made each statement, I was picturing only one thing in my head: a small single engine airplane (like a Cessna) accidentally colliding with a building.
From mzeroa
We were lucky enough to have cable television in our classroom so we quickly turned on CNN. It only took one image, and a few seconds to process what I had seen, for me to realize that my assumptions were horribly incorrect. Single engine planes do not cause that kind of damage.
Confusion
For several minutes after turning on the television, utter confusion is the only way to describe what Bill, I and the reporters on the television were experiencing. How could this accident have happened? Was the pilot drunk? Was there a computer malfunction? What the hell happened?
As we watched, reporters began to give confusing reports of a hijacking... wait perhaps more than one hijacking? What was going on?
Bill and I didn't have time to find out. While we were processing the information, the school bell sounded. Students began to file into the classroom. They found Bill and I staring at a television in the back of the room.
Photographed by Dan Sears
"What's going on?" "What are you guys doing?” “Cool! Are we watching a movie?", the students asked as they entered the room. I turned to them and said, "We honestly aren't sure yet, but there's been a pretty big accident in New York."
I believe I was still holding out hope that there was still some inconceivably slim possibly that this was indeed just an accident. A few moments later, that ridiculously slim possibly vanished... as we all watched in horror as the second plane exploded into the other Twin Tower. Twenty six students and two teachers stood dumbfounded in unified, terrible and tragic silence.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to lash out. But there were 26 fifteen-year-old children counting on me... so I held it together (as much as I could).
I need to take breath and collect myself before continuing. I will post the second part of the story this afternoon.
@hanshotfirst When I found out about this tragic event, I then and there knew my amazing friend would be lost. And sadly from across the country I sensed his loss and to this day, it is something that I still do not forget. Only about a month out of the fire academy, doing what he actually dreamed and loved doing. RIP Christian Regenhard
Thank you for sharing. Thank you to his loved ones and him for his bravery and sacrifice.
@hanshotfirst Thanks for that. He was such an amazing person. He did his time as a US Marine, then re-enlisted for Marine Recon. After that I believe he went to South America to teach people how to Climb Ice Mountains, since the NYFD wasn't hiring at the time. When he did finally get the call from the NYFD, he came to LA to buy a car to then drive to Colorado to pick up a friend and then go back home to New York to start the Fire Academy there. He bought one of those older Jeep Grand Wagoneers, and it was such a happy adventure helping him find that Wagoneer. And well, about a month or so after the academy, we lost a great human being to a senseless tragedy.
I am thrilled you listed a happy memory here! That is how you hold onto somebody.
I'm not and american and even I still remember that day...although at the time. we weren't as shocked because we could not understand that we were watching history unfold.
Great post, man!
Thanks. I'll tell how we used it to teach later in the day. Only time I've really "taught" history as it was happening.
Prayers and love to all the families who lost loved ones to this terrible tragedy. A day many of us will never forget. Going to school that day was a very cold feeling. It was so quiet and many tears were shed. Rest In Peace to all the fallen victims. May destruction like this never be witnessed again anywhere in the world. One can only hope for such peace in a world filled with much hate greed and evil. Thank you for this commemorative post. Upvoted
"May destruction like this never be witnessed again anywhere in the world."
Very well said.
Thank you, we build off of one another through inspiration and connection.
I remember it like yesterday. I will probably post my own story tomorrow. But I lived in New York at the time and my father commuted to the city every day. He was all right, but all phones were down until nearly 10 pm . He didn't get home until after 1am. What I can say is I've never been more proud to be a New Yorker that day.
You should a have been proud. We could have been torn apart but we came together. I am so happy your father was ok
Just read and upvoted yours. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your experience of that singular, tragic day. It's important that we all remember those events, and never forget. So much of the first part of this century has been shaped by them. Ronald Reagan was before my time, and I was too young to remember the Challenger disaster well, but 9/11 will always be etched with crystal clarity in my mind.
I was at home when it happened, just waking up to get ready to go to work. A student at the University of Washington in Seattle, I had an internship at a local tech company for the summer. While eating breakfast, Mom came downstairs and said "turn on the TV! Something's happening in New York!". We watched in dumbfounded amazement as the second plane slammed into the World Trade Center, and that's when I felt a chill go through me and thought "that's no accident".
I continued watching the news coverage, thinking it couldn't get any worse, and then the first tower fell. It was unreal. My brain had trouble registering what I was seeing for several minutes. I went into work a couple hours late that morning. It was tempting not to go to work at all and just sit glued to the TV all day, but my sense of duty was strong and won out in the end.
During the drive to work, I listened to the radio and reports of another plane crashing somewhere, and something going on at the Pentagon. Were we at war? Were other parts of the country under attack as well? The roads were oddly quiet, as if the whole city was holding its breath to see what would happen next.
At work, there was a palpable sense of unease, and my boss said it was OK if I wanted to go home and take the day off. I said no, I'd stay, but I kept CNN up on my computer screen and really didn't get much work done that day. It was one of the most profoundly strange, disturbing days of my life. The day America, and the world, changed.
The quiet... you never notice how many airplanes are in them sky... until there are zero. I will never forget the erie days that followed. I'll finish the story later but it was going to be way too long and I needed to collect myself.
Take your time. It's a difficult thing to think about. The grounding of all air traffic was another dimension of events that made it seem even more unreal. My father worked at Boeing back then. I remember he called home from work that morning and said he was being told the FAA was shutting down the airspace, and all hell was breaking loose in his office. My uncle, who knows a lot about structural engineering, also called and said he couldn't understand why the towers collapsed... he said from an engineering perspective the core of the building should have been able to withstand the heat, and nobody expected them to fall. The way he sounded, all shook up about it, it was like he was taking personal responsibility for the failure even though he had nothing to do with planning those buildings. It was just one shock after another.
Wow. Your point about your uncle is really interested (the responsibility piece). It was just so bizarre that people could not wrap their head around it.
Hi @hanshotfirst, just stopped back to let you know you were among my favourite reads today. You can read what I had to say here.
Thanks for the compliment and sharing your story. I have at least 1 more piece of this to finish.
Here are just part of my memories of that time....
I was on the West Coast asleep and then sudden my roommate came out yelling saying "We are under attack! They hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And now one of the towers just went down".
I flipped on the tv and was yelling back why he didn't wake me up sooner. He was an older family friend and he just said ... I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and couldn't move or talk. He had literally gone into a state of shock.
I remember thinking crap the other tower is going to go and we were screaming thing back in forth between the two rooms with the tvs on. And then it started falling and there was a few seconds of silence.
And then just swearing about the idiots that did this is going to pay from my roommate, and I was just sitting there pretty quiet thinking there is going to be hell to pay. But it's going to come at a lot of cost to us as well.
I had to go into work that morning and I remember driving down the highway with almost every over pass people out waving flags. And I was choking up with emotion. When I got to work only two of us came in out of the six. Two were stuck in Dallas on a business trip and ended up driving together for two days back to Seattle.
I remember how quiet it was that there were no jets in the air since I lived near the airport, and I remember a couple days after when going out to lunch there were military jets flowing low over parts of the city. Everyone was just staring up in the sky and watching... kind of worried but also a since of protection with some people cheering.
I also remember the feeling of pride a lot of people had in how President Bush was taking action in the beginning, but we all know how that went away.
I remember the overpasses as well. It was a symbol. But it mattered.
Very emotional writing. Nice post
Thank you. Kind of felt I had to.
Good post. That horrifying day I was in my office in another state when I answered my phone and it was my sister calling wanting to know if everything was o.k. I thought it a strange question but it was still early and I was still having my coffee. She knew that my children worked in New York City and she was concerned. I immediately went into another office that had a television and I was so in shock sitting there watching the planes fly into the buildings , seeing people jump to their deaths , the buildings crumbling that it took a while to gather my senses enough to start calling to try to locate my children. The service at my son's office said he wasn't in his office and had gone to Morgan Stanley. " Oh, my God" she said in mid sentence as that was in one of the buildings being devastated. I finally reached my daughter who was in the city also and she was fine and had just had a call from my son, her brother, that he was in the throngs of people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to presumed safety. Thanks be to God.
I am so happy that your family was safe. A teacher I work with had a son in the buildings. It took her hours to find out he was safe. I can't even imagine.
Great post! I was at home that morning. At the time I owned a game store. So just did my best to run the store and help children have fun with games as I always did.
I was in a classroom as a student watching when the Challenger blew up.
Teaching history as it happened must have been an interesting experience.
Kids needed that.
Yes. Also in the Boy Scouts for eight years and made it to Eagle Scout. So always helping. :)