Where were you on 9/11?

[fantastic_jackie]

What's your story? Where were you 8 years ago? I know I remember in detail.

Reply in a comment or on your own journal. 10 minutes taking yourself back and remembering... it's surprisingly powerful.


I was a Sophomore in High School, 2nd Period - Band. We ambled in, having heard rumors in the halls through the passing period. Few people had been updated by their teachers, so actual information was sparse. Gathering our instruments, we were mostly silent, listening to the ones who had heard anything more about the Towers in New York. No one really believed they were passenger planes.

We waited for the announcements in our seats with a quiet murmur around while students attempted to convince the band director that something was happening and we needed to know. He assured us that it would be on the announcements if it was anything big, and so we waited. We never warmed up until after the announcements were past, but the announcements never came.

At this point, we began attempting to set up even one of the TVs we had there - a total of 4 in the Band Hall - but as none of them had antennas, all we could get was snow.

The band director went to his office and began printing off news updates from Yahoo: that was how we spent it. Every 5 minutes, a new update until finally the second tower had fallen. The other two crashes were reported. The slow realization that it was no accident. There were things that were reported in one update and retracted or questioned in the next. No estimates on casualties.

The announcements never came. We never played our instruments. Several students were picked up by their parents.

Third period rolled in, the halls eerily quiet - but not silent. The principal came on briefly: we had the option to leave if our parents so chose. We had a long moment of silence; a full two or three minutes - the longest I've ever experienced.

I stayed through school; I remember the fears of how large scale the attack was going to be, whether Texas would have been considered a target, and if it was, would Dallas be it or Houston or Austin or San Antonio? All after school activities were cancelled. I came home and didn't stop watching the TV for the next two days exempting when we attended the WBAP memorial gathering on 9/12. I watched until my parents demanded I turn it off.

Comments

[epyon26754.livejournal.com]

for me it was my first period class, algebra, and Mr. Charlie Brown (not kidding thats his name) poked his head in the door and said, hey a plane just hit the world trade center. now Charlie Brown was the type that pulled practical jokes, so we, including the teacher, all laughed at him. he kept incisting that it happened, and finally we got a tv set up in the hall, at that point we all thought it was a small single engine plane, cause it does happen. but once we saw the tv we realized that the fire was too much for it to have been a single engine aircraft, then as we were watching between periods, the second plane hit. they called a school assembly and sent everyone home, some kids at the school had parents that worked in New York. I walked home in 5 minutes.

i got home in time to hear the reports about the pentagon, then the towers collapsed... not much later my dad came home, they had evacuated all the sky scrapers in the city. as it stood it wasn't even noon yet, we kept watching the news untill around 8pm when we realized that they were just repeating themselves for the past hour, and tried in vain to find a channel that wasn't broadcasting news about it. really, almost every channel was doing something related to the days events.

the next day we whent to our homeschool classes and talked about it. we also had a "meeting for worship," it was a quaker school, they all do it. one of the kids in the upper school had a parent who was in one of the towers, who didn't survive, so basically, no one spoke. then life continued.

[terriayame.livejournal.com]

wow, Andy... I never thought about it before, but... you weren't even in high school yet...

i feel so old...

;_;

I also didn't know you knew anyone who died that day. (or knew of)

[epyon26754.livejournal.com]

i don't even remember a name, i just remember that there was someone at the school whose parent died

[terriayame.livejournal.com]

Obviously, my experience was the same as Jacks... My memories are more clear for the following, though...

In second period, I was part of a group of students who didn't look at the updates like everyone else... I saw a print out briefly in the hands of one of the guys in class, but since we weren't friends, I didn't feel welcome... Instead, we stood outside on the band loading dock -we could see the buildings for Fort Worth from there. We were watching to see if anything would happen... Nothing did, of course...

I went on to 3rd period after that, and I indwardly scoffed at the kids who were going home early. I didn't think they really cared, they just wanted to get out of school...

My 3rd block teacher was a raving liberal loon, and we never really got along -though at the time, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why... Instead of having class that day, she allowed a discussion of "what do you think happened" to go on in the class, but she refused to allow us to watch the news. Many students were convinced that it was a radical Islamic group or Saddam Hussein himself that was behind it. Some thought it was another Timothy McVay... I don't remember what my teacher thought it was, but she was avidly decrying any possible relation to radical Islam...and I remember that some students got really angry because it was like she was accusing them of being intollerant for suggesting it -even though the media had brought up the speculation. I disliked her even more after that day... she was so arrogant.

As for me, I didn't have an opinion... had no clue. At the time, I remember thinking it wasn't a big deal -figured it was just a few casualties, some crazy accidents, and it would just go away. I didn't know what the twin towers were... It wasn't until I got home and saw the coverage that I understood what actually happened and why it was so huge. -I don't remember hearing about the downed plane in PA until I got home... and as the story came out, what the passengers did...it still makes me want to cry today. -As for the Pentagon... I remember just staring at it on the tv in complete disbelief. It looked unreal.

The next day, we went to a memorial service in Arlington... There were a lot of people, but it was vertually silent except for passing cars on the road, and the ringing of a bell. Attendees would ring it in honor of those who had died the day before...

[epyon26754.livejournal.com]

you should see the movie United 93, its good, though i feel disgust towards the passengers that don't try to do anything.

[terriayame.livejournal.com]

yeah... i was too nervous to see that one =(