<p>We’re 4 hours earlier than NY, so I woke up to hearing about it on the radio alarm. I went down stairs and watched the towers fall on TV. About that time I had to go wake up my son for school. I remember sitting on his bed watching him sleep and thinking we’re at war and I don’t know with who. I wondered if my son (age 12) would be in danger of being drafted - no way I thought.</p>
<p>About 1/3 of my son’s school were kids from two military bases. The school schedule was disrupted since with tighten security on the bases it took 2 hours more for the kids to get on and off base. Those kids were terrified (rightfully so) that their parents would be deployed.</p>
<p>Just finally had time to read through this entire thread and it sures does bring back sad memories. I was at work (where I am right now) at a HS in MA where I teach. We were fortunate enough to all have televisions in our classrooms, and I just remember a teacher rushing in to my classroom and turn on the TV. I did not have a class at the time. We put on the TV just in time to see the 2nd tower hit. Our prinicipal came on the PA system shortly afterwards and told the student body what was going on and said that if the teachers wanted to, they could keep the TV’s on throughout the day. We were told that if any student seemed upset and did not want to watch, then they could be sent to a central location. I do remember many parents coming in and signing out their kids. It was a really quiet day in a building normally bustling with activity (it is a vocational high school). Sadly, we found out later that night that my husband’s cousin lost her husband (they had only been married 6 months) at the Pentagon, where he had just moved back into his newly renovated office. We had been invited to their wedding but could not attend because I had just started chemo treatments. In the news last week, I heard that the memorial at the Pentagon has just opened, and we hope to be able to go sometime to pay our respects and view his memorial bench. The next week, I went into NYC the day Broadway resumed to see a friend who was in a show, and you could still smell the fires burning and see the haze when you drove into the city. It was strange to see the empty spot where those familiar towers always stood.</p>
<p>We live in a commuter suburb of NYC and our town lost about 10 people on 9/11, several with small children who attended my children’s schools.
The middle school and elementary schools did not tell the children what had happened as many had parents who worked in the area around the Trade Towers.
The school staff spent many hours checking the contact info of all the kids, determining which parents might be affected and then trying to contact these parents or emergency contacts so that there was someone available to pick the children up after school.
I was a class mom and I came in to help make phone calls that that day.
I’ll never forget the school secretary sobbing when she called and found out 2 of the first graders lost their dads when the first Tower went down.
A friend who is on our local police force went down to the commuter parking lot to check on which cars were still unclaimed that night. It was a way of helping determine which commuters would never be coming home. Horrible.
The only planes that were flying were fight jets and some army helicopters that we could hear overhead, we started whenever one flew by.</p>
<p>It was all so chaotic, it felt like life as we knew it had changed forever.</p>
<p>Sarha, thank-you for your post. We too live in a suburb of NYC. Our town lost over 30 people in the Towers that day. I find it so hard to write about, my H and I knew 2 people who were killed.</p>
<p>Our school system dealt with the day in a similar manner to yours. Only the high school left it up to the teachers, if they felt they should tell the individual classes of children. My D and I were talking about it tonight at dinner. She said her art teacher had a radio on all day, and anyone who wished could come in and listen.
I remember the next morning going outside to get the newspaper. Immediately I noticed that the air smelled very strange, like a mix of concrete and plastic. It was frightening.</p>
<p>I had just walked into work, in the customer service center (call center) of a mutual fund company. At the end of my row of cubicles was a ceiling-mounted TV, which always showed CNBC. I looked up and it was showing the towers, with smoke coming from one tower. I remember saying out loud, “Well, that’s not good.” I think it must have JUST come on, because I was the first one to look up and see it. I remember thinking that there must have been an electrical fire or something that had smoldered all night and finally flared up and now the building was on fire, followed by the thought that it was a good thing it happened early in the morning and they probably didn’t let anyone into the building. When I heard a plane flew into the tower, I thought they meant a private plane and I couldn’t figure it out because it was such a gorgeous, clear day. </p>
<p>Our schools elementary and middle schools shut off all the TV’s and shut down the internet, and went on with the day as normal. They decided they wanted to let the parents be the ones to talk to the kids. I think the hs might have watched it live, I don’t know because my kids were younger. We live in MA, and there it turned out there were families in neighboring towns with loved ones on the planes (but we didn’t know that at the time). </p>
<p>I will always remember walking into work 5 minutes before, thinking what an absolutely gorgeous day it was. People in my work dept often spoke on the phone to people at Dean Witter, who was housed in the towers, so it was eerie. My co-worker’s sister worked in 7 World Trade Center, it was a harrowing 45 minutes before she got word that her sister was out and safe; then the tower fell and it was another 1/2 hour before she knew that her sister was still ok and walking north to escape the dust cloud. When the sister came home to MA a few days later, her mom had a big party and bought her a Coach bag to replace the one she lost when she left it in her office and ran. My co-worker was about 25, and she was kind of jealous and didn’t fully understand why her mom was suddenly treating her sister like a queen. Those of us who had kids understood, though, but we told her she’d have to have kids to understand.</p>
<p>We live on the west coast and were just waking up. My husband put on the Today show, as usual, and woke me up. Since I am a terrible sleeper this is unusual. We just watched in horror. I woke up our son, who is/was in show business and told him to turn on the tv. He did and thought for a second that I was nuts: Why would I want him to see a special effects so early in the morning? I sent the kids to school. And since we live in a very multi cultural area we have Muslim kids going to schools. Many of the mothers came running to school to take their children home (the Muslim children) for fear that they would be hurt by the other kids. Obviously, nothing happened.</p>
<p>I was in 4th grade when this happened; I remember sleeping comfortably in my mom’s bed until I woke up to my brother (16-17 at the time) and my mom whispering quite loudly. I later rubbed my eyes and asked my mom what was wrong, and since it was only 6 am on the West Coast, my mom gently told me to go back to sleep. I knew something bad had happened though, since she wasn’t normal and the sky didn’t seem so either.</p>
<p>Later I went to school, and all the children and staff filed out onto our lawn to bow our heads in silence. For one incredibly long minute, I still remember the exact words I thought - “This is the quietest silence I’ll ever have to go through.”</p>
<p>Our community is very multi-cultural, and our city was profiled for a while for having the largest concentrated amount of Afghanis. I don’t really believe there was any hostility that occurred in other cities, for in mine, it’s just not right.</p>
<p>I couldn’t stand sitting through more than 5 minutes of the footage though. I still can’t.</p>