It was a Tuesday and I was living in St. Louis, Missouri at the time, working as an ABA therapist with autistic children at an elementary school near my apartment. I was single with a boyfriend at the seminary, no children, no real significant commitment to life's changes and courses. Not even realizing how good life was.
We had just brought the kids from Morning Calendar Time to their Cubby areas to work individually with their therapists. We hadn't been at our seats more than 5 minutes.
When the principle came into our outdoor classroom and whispered into the head teacher's ear and her hand came to her mouth in shock, I figured it didn't concern me and kept on working with my student.
Then, quite suddenly, one of the other therapists got up and ran to the parking lot, rifled through his car, and brought back into the classroom a boom box with a 4" black and white TV on the front. Whilst the rest of us left our cubbys and let our kids roam free in the centers areas, he plugged it in, shot the antenna up and tuned into CBS just as we all watched a plane crash into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center.
All he said was "Al Qaeda" and I looked over at him with a funny look and said, "Huh?"
Little did I know then, that would become a household name.
As the kids wandered over to see what was going on, somebody grabbed the big tri-fold floor mat and placed it around the boom box as a screen. All the adults could see, and all the kids were jumping up and down by their respective therapists to see what was going on. Through the silence, the kids soon bored of trying to see over the mat and began playing on the floor next to us.
The rest of the day is a blur of watching TV, pushing the kids on the swings, eating lunch in our outdoor classroom, and talking about it; whatever "it" was. I don't think we earned our pay that day, because I'm not sure we did any real teaching. But we all learned a lot.
When we left school that day, I went directly to the seminary to find Allen, who had his own version of events to share. He had a TV in his room, so we went up to watch more of the same. I wondered if the Hot Air Balloon show would still occur that weekend in Forrest Park downtown. I wasn't thinking that I was being selfish, I just didn't understand the full impact of what had happened. And I was anxiously awaiting that hot air balloon show! I think we went to Evening Prayer that night in the chapel at 10:00p like we usually did, and I drove home and went to bed.
It was only as time went on did I realize that this was my generation's "Pearl Harbor" or "The Day Kennedy was Shot". And then I wondered if I should have reacted differently?
Where were you on 9/11?
2 comments:
Sarah, I lived through two such life changing events because I was in a 10th grade history class when we got word about JFK being shot. The teacher asked if anyone had a radio in school (which we weren't supposed to have) and one of the kids said yes. We listened to the radio until school was dismissed and kids sent home. On 9/11 I was on my way to a PT appointment following ankle surgery...heard the news about the first plane on a "morning show" that did lots of gags. Got to therapy and we all sat and watched the second plane hit. How awful these events were to witness and how much they have changed lives throughout the world. Let us never forget...
I was stuck in prison. In Durant Cell Block, in my small office surrounded by the almost 200 inmates that I was responsible for at that time. I remember thinking that I wanted to run to the gates to go home and hold my 1 year old baby and my 5 year old son. It was indeed a tragic event. But I am proud of how my nation responded with patriotism, heroism, and solidarity. I am proud to say I belong to a nation where individual citizens did some incredibly selfless acts of sacrifice without even thinking twice. I will never forget.
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