Where Were you That Day?

9/11 in the eyes of a third grader who was in school and didnt know what was happening until she came home from school.

september 11th 2001

8:43 A.M

Tiverton R.I

tiverton elementray school

3rd grade class.

 

 

I was sitting at my desk mentally groaning in my head about the math lesson my teacher was teaching. YUCK Multiplication! I was struggling and wishing that I could just pull out my colored pencils and draw instead. I hated math it was just so silly and confusing I just didnt get it!

 

Two minutes pasted and I even more confused about what was on the board 5 *4= 20? HUH??? I wanted to give  up. Suddenly the other 3rd grade teacher comes rushing in CRYING! She goes to my teacher whispers in her ear and then both women just leave the room! my teacher didnt even say that she would be back! Us children instantly started talking! Whats going on? What happened? Did someone she knew died? is she coming back? What shoud we do? the only thought running through my head was YES NO MORE MATH!!! and I whipped out my colored penicils and started to draw. Grass, a cute house with a chimmeny and windows and smoke coming out of the windows, a little girl in the window and a dog in the front yard, with the sun shinning in the corner of the page and the sky like four different blues. The rest of the class was gossiping the way only 3rd graders could. i was content just sitting there not doing any math.

 

20 minutes or so went by and at that point I had like 7 drawings all done and I couldnt wait to give them away to my family! I had made one for my stepmom, one for my daddy, and one for my little brother zak. I even made ones for my mommy, and my sister and brother Summer and jeremy who lived with mommy in Maine. Suddenly My teacher came back in. It was clear that she had been crying her eyes out, her eyes were puffy and red her face was all pinched and tears were still streaming down her face. But she acted like nothing was going on! She picked up her piece of Chalk that she had dropped, turned to the board and went right back to teaching that yucky math. thats when I started to worry. What was wrong with MRS. R? and why was MRS. P also crying? When the "class Pet" asked our teacher what was wrong she just put on a fake smile and told her that nothing was wrong. I was so stunned! SHE LIED TO HER!!! teachers werent suppose to lie to their students! I was starting to really worry at that point.

 

the first half of the day went by and MRS P would come in and whisper in my teachers ear making her cry more. but still they wouldnt tell us anything! THEN at lunch time our lunch teachers turned off the lights and told us we were having SILENT LUNCH! which means NO ONE was to talk AT ALL throughout the whole lunch time. and if anyone did they would have to stand at the fence for the entire recess.  That shocked us kids! Normally we didnt have silent lunch unless one of the three 3rd grade classes had acted up and got us in trouble. Us children were at that point starting to get confused. Crying teachers, silent lunch, and when we passed the windows earlyer on our way to art class we saw the principal lowering the flag that was in our front lawn. I rememebered somewhere that that meant that someone important died. OH GOODNESS! did the president die??? That would certainly explain it all! who was our president anyway? bush something? I couldnt rememebr. When we went to Recess everyone went on their merry way and had fun laughing giggling playing on the slide and jungle gym. Me, I sat on the jungle gym and watched the recess teachers. They were huddled together and occasionally lookign out over the children to make sure they were ok. From where I sat I could hear some of the words. Towers, New York, Accident, keep children in school, make sure they're safe.  I didnt understand any of it. So I jumped down and walked over to them. I asked what was wrong and they said that it was teacher buisness and to go run along and have fun. I wasnt convinced. I mean MRS. M ALWAYS got some of the kids together and played kickball at recess EVERYDAY! and suddenly today she wasnt? and she made us have silent lunch even though no one got in trouble? And why was MRS. R crynig and lying to us? I was starting to get really confused now. I just wanted my dad.

 

 The rest of the day rushed by in a blur. more crying and more secrets. Finally It was time to go home and when I was in the bus line for bus two one of the teachers came up to me and said that I was to be in the Walkers line (meaning someone was picking me up after school instead of going on the bus). That was really weird. Today was really weird. I skipped down the steps and ran into my dads arms. I looked up at him and gasped. WERE THOSE TEARS IN HIS EYES???? WHAT WAS GOING ON? WHY WAS EVERYONE CRYING! I asked him why he was crying and he just pulled me into another hug and huged me really tight to the point of it hurt. I looked araoudn and noticed alot of kids were walkers today and their parents were get this CRYING and hugging their kids like they haddnet seenthem in ages. My dad put me in the car and I said hi to my baby brother zak who was in his carseat. My dad drive us the two minutes it took to get home and once in the hosue he put my brother down on the floor to play with his toys and sat on the couch turning the TV on.

 

AND THEN I UNDERSTOOD

 

I saw the Telivision and was frozen. There on the screen were the Two biggest building in New york City. I rememebered learning about them from my state project MRS R had the class do (My state was tenessee, my best friends was New York) ANYWAY. there they were on the screen. Only something was VERY VERY wrong with them. One Was burning form the top floors black icky smoke was coming out of it and fire was snapping away. Then Suddenly A PLANE hit the other one creating a giant explosion from the top floors smoke joining the other building's smoke and fire was bright and destructive. I gasped and fell onto the couch, huddling next to my dad, who seemed to not even realize I was there. He was staring at the screen tears running down his face. I watched some more and saw that all this happened at 8:45am this morning. Then all the pieces fell into place. Thats why MRS R left and came back crying why all the teachers were crying and why we had silent lunch. THAT'S why the flag was put at half mass. Suddenly (What I came to later realize) the South Tower started to fall, White smoke and dust came plummeting down and covered the streets below All those people on the ground you could see were screaming and trying to run away from it. Some where caught in it. Tears streamed down my face. All those people in that building They didnt make it! They couldnt go home to their families. I started to cry harder and my Dad finally realized I was sitting next to him. He gathered me to him and we cried together.

 

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Later that week our school had a gathering in the gym. Our Principal told us about what had happened that day on 9/11. He told us how The twin toweres were hit by bad people called terrorist. He said how they didnt like America and they wanted ot Hurt us. He told us about the two planes that hit the towers and how one hit a place called the Pentigon. He told us how There had been a plane that crashed in pensylvania But it was meant to hit the white house where the president lived but the people on the plane stopped it. That lots of people died that day. It was a very sad day for America. Lots of firefighter and policemen died as well trying to save others. They were heros. But most of all LOTS of normal everyday people struck out and put their lives on the line for their fellow people. That They were all heros. Every single one of them. Alot of the younger kids didnt understand what was happening. But I did. I started to cry. Those poor people. But I knew America wouldnt let this cripple her for long. I knew we would right this wrong. How I didnt know. But I knew. And I knew that from that day on I would NEVER forget those lives that were lost because of Bullies.They shook us and hurt us But we wouldnt let them BEAT US!

 

 I knew that Not EVERYONE from that counrty (were the terrorist lived) were bad people. My daddy had told me that ALOT of..what was the word. OH yea Poeple who were the religion of Muslim (thats the religion the terrorists were) lived in AMerica. But I shouldnt be afraid of them I shouldnt treat them wrong or mean just because some of their fellow religion people were really bad people. Just like some Americans were really bad people didnt mean I should be afraid of them. My daddy told me that all countries had some bad people in them but that most were good.

 

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Its been 13 years from that day. I can still see that screen. In the days following manyh newspapers across the country put a big american flag on one of their pages. For weeks after the attack on New york all you could see in peoples windows were that flag, at least in my neighboorhood. My dad put it up as well as candles in the window for a vigil to the ones lost. That day it had happened Many parents wanted to yank their children out of my elementray school, but my school stood firm. They told they parents that it was better to keep us in school. There was no need to scare us and upset us. we were only little children.

 

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My father had stayed home that day from work because my little brother had been sick and couldnt go to day care. All that morning my father was oblivious to the horror because he had the telivision tuned to the children station (nickalodeon) My aunt called him in tears and at first he thought she was being dramatic with all the tears and crying (my aunt was a really bad drama queen) But when she asked if he had seen on TV what happened and he said no what channel her words were "IT doesnt Matter" He KNEW something was worng. All he had to do was click one channel up and BAM the news was on the screen. He sat there and cried for hours watching it unfold on the TV.

 

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My Grandfather had been in the pentigon that day. Thankfully He had been out when the plane hit, ( My heart goes out to those who werent as fortunate) Though he had had to be locked down with the others who had survived, for security reasons.

 

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that day was the saddest day in our history.

Almost 3,000 died in the Twin towers or in the area around them

343 of them were firefighters and paramedics

23 were NYC policemen

37 were Port Authoriy Policemen.

125 Military men and women and civilians were killed in the attack on the pentagon.

EVERYONE in all four of the planes were killed

 

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There are two people who because of them 77 People were saved from the north tower. When the tower went down they were never heard from again. To this day their bodies are still missing but they are pronounced Dead.

They were Ordinary people who put their lives at risk to save others.

THEIR NAMES WERE

FRANK DEMARTINI (an architect)

PABLO ORTIZ ( a construction worker)

 They were jsut Two of the MANY MANY heros that day that gave their lives to help others.

 

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YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL FOREVER BE IN OUR HEARTS The victims of 9/11

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

The story about the little girl is Acutally a true story. it is through my eyes when I was in third grade.

Reviews

[Ashira Macy]

This was fantastic and chilling my friend, especially towards the end. I too remember that day vividly (which is saying something because I don't remember most of my childhood.) And I think it is an important thing to remember, so many people died that day and it was one of the United States' biggest tragedies. Thank you for writing this and giving insight to those who don't remember (or didn't hear much about it.) This was great to read.

[♔ CrownedDevil &#..]

What a chilling story. Nicely penned.

[Lazerbagels]

Woah I prefer the short story to the poem, and this was great. An original idea as well. I think it's noble of you to write this. Good job.

[Fenix Flight]

I believe that this day though as sad as it is should ALWAYS be remembered. I was just trying to honor it and the people who died the best way I could and that was to share my story

[AprilRN1210]

This is a lovely write told from a personal perspective with a moving message.. There are a few grammar and spelling mistakes, but overall--very well done... It held my interest and gave me an insight into what you were thinking, feeling, and the events surrounding as well as the changes occurred since then and the effect it had on your life... nice job!

[Matching Socks]

Wow! You are really talented as a writer. You need to pursue this more.
Stick with poetry but explore writing stories.
This gave me goosebumps.

[Fenix Flight]

I love to write. It has always been my passion.

[Hawk Flight]

Your right, not everyone who is muslim and form those countries are bad people. that is a lesson many of us still need to learn.