Quote:
Originally Posted by Macie Lightfoot
I was in third grade. I grew up in north/central NJ so I'm about 50 minutes away from NYC. Our school didn't tell us anything because we were only in elementary school, but the biggest memory was just kid after kid getting called down for an early dismissal all throughout the day, like about half of the class in total. We had no clue what was going on so we all thought it was like a game and we were trying to predict who would get picked up next. I can't even imagine trying to be a teacher on that day, but I do take a little bit of comfort in knowing that we were all so innocent and it was probably a bit heartwarming to our teacher that we were so unaware of what was going on.
I was in after care (at another elementary school in town, third grade was weird for me) because both of my parents worked and I was an only child so I loved hanging out with my friends because when I got home from school each day it was just me and my parents. It was so empty that day and none of my good friends were there or they were picked up pretty early and I just remember that it was suuuuuuch a boring day and I wished that my parents picked me up earlier. I'm glad they didn't, though, they didn't want me to be scared or upset or worried so they just wanted to treat it like a normal day.
The whole thing is still so surreal and crazy. Every TV channel was the news for what felt like an eternity. The whole country stopped and was on a hiatus, you couldn't escape the news even as a kid. I was a huge reality TV buff back then and 9/11 affected everything. Survivor was going to have a season in Jordan but then that had to get scrapped, the first season of The Amazing Race had to get pushed back a few weeks and the second season of the Mole was put on hiatus for nearly a year I think, and then the second season of Big Brother was wrapping up but had to be put on pause for a good week. We had three episodes a week but then went nearly a week without an episode. It was especially somber with Monica's cousin Tamitha, like Hayden said, who was never accounted for. She reportedly was on the ground floor ready to exit but then went back upstairs to grab her purse, likely unaware that the second tower was going to be hit as well.
And that's not even to mention all the huge changes in airport security, friends of mine who had parents working in NYC and were counting their blessings that their moms and dads made it home alive and well, and just feeling like we lost our safe space. Everyone was on high alert and vulnerable and we didn't feel like we were immune from anything anymore. I can't even describe it properly, it's like how the kids in school now were born in 2001 or later and they don't know what life was like before 9/11. To them it's just another day. It can't be said enough how much life in America changed that day.
|
...yeah it wasn't just in the day, Macie...obviously outside of a school and its protection was the reality that couldn’t be cushioned from completely because it impacted the whole world with shock and sadness...it was also in the aftermath of things like observing silences etc...what would be the best for the very young children while they were at school ...to observe or not to observe and carry on with their school days in ‘normality’...to discuss in assemblies or not to discuss etc...hard decisions to make, you know...