Friday, September 11, 2009

We remember.

I was teaching preschool. September 11, 2001, mid-morning. A father dropping off a child told me some strange and offbeat comment (and I'm quoting here, please forgive the way he put it, it's just how I remember him saying it): he said to me at the front door of the school, "Oh those Arabs have done it now."

I could not understand what in the world he was talking about, and we had a wide variety of cultures in our little town, including some very nice families from middle-Eastern countries... what was he talking about?? His weird comment just did not make sense to me. Then, to my puzzled look, he told me what had just happened in NYC. And that it was an act of terrorism. Apparently from overseas.

I then had to keep it together and remain very calm and continue teaching, and arts and crafts, and snack time... basically act as though the world had not just changed... because 4-year-olds need comfort and familiarity, not chaos and worry.

Only when they had all gone home and I went home did I look at the news for the first time, and break down.

Where were you?

3 comments:

Lois Christensen said...

I remember calling my daughter's school and asking if we should come and pick her up. They told me no, that the teachers knew what was going on but weren't telling the students because we lived so close to the city many parents worked in the city and they didn't want to scare any children.

I thought then and now with your post how hard it must have been for teachers to keep it together and not react to the madness going on. And people complain that President Bush did go running out of the school that morning!!

What courage you and all the other teachers had to hold it together and keep the lives of those students safe until they were able to be in their parent's arms again for their parents to tell them how our world forever changed.

PeppyPilotGirl said...

I was working from home. My husband called me early on to say that a plane had flown into the WTC - at that point, we were all still assuming it was an accident. I called my mom and told her about it. She got off the phone with me to call my aunt for my aunt's birthday and was talking to my aunt as Mom watched the second plane hit.

What I remember most though? How incongruously gorgeous the day was. It was one of the prettiest fall days I've ever seen and it was utterly incomprehensible to me that such horror could occur on such a beautiful day.

jessielavon@yahoo.com said...

Hi darling,Have been on a long extending vacation from on child to another.Then I went down to the beach for a few weeks and stayed at my sisters. I have another grand baby on the way!