story9509.xml

story9509.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-08

The morning of September 11th started just as any other day for me. I woke up at 5:30 AM, Mountain time. As my father drove me to school,we hit Evans street, and I turned up the radio in our truck, and could hear our two favorite radio shock jocks. They were talking about "getting the air force up in there". I didn't understand the situation, and so I settled back and enjoyed the ride, thinking these two were just joking around as usual. Once I got to school, the focus was on Ed McCaffrey, who had been injured in a football game the night before. As we somberly shuffled into class, I remember people being a little on edge. The T.V. in the room was turned on at some point, and we looked at a vision of horror. I remember that a couple of kids were laughing, saying "it was cool" how the buildings were burning. We told them to quiet down, as our algebra teacher tried to get us to focus on our work. I figured that this was history in the making, and should be the real focus. I kept watching the T.V., and others joined in. I remember thinking how I wanted to do something, and to talk to my parents about what was going on. We went from class to class, watching the television, horrified. Once I made it to my last period, the teacher thought we had watched enough, and turned it off. We were in utter shock, and were scared. The rest of the day was a blur, but it makes me feel deep emotion even today.
-Jim Black