story6205.xml

story6205.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was volunteering at my children's elementary school. I was in the book closet getting books organized to pass out to the classrooms. Someone (I can't remember who) came in and told me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center, at first I thought they meant the one in Boston and I was concerned for a fellow Ups driver that I new had deliveries for that building out of Boston's Logan Airport.
soon after I realized it was New York. After the second plane had hit I thought this is war, we are going to war. Teachers and Faculty were all buzzing trying to decide what if anything to tell the children. The older kids were told a brief account of the events, but nothing that would cause them concern. I remember the building was secured and they asked me if I would answer the door and make sure all visitors went to the office. Tv's and radios were turned on in small coners of the building making sure no children could see of hear them. The phones started ringing off the walls, calls were coming in mostly from concerned parents. Parents started coming in to pick up their children. I thought it would be best to keep my children in school and felt they were safe because I was in the building, had I been anywhere else I'm sure I would have dropped what I was doing and headed for the school to be near them. I knew if I took them home they would have been hearing the news and I was getting very emotional, being at the school kept me calm for some reason. I must have said over and over I can't beleive this, this can't be real. Eventually the school day was over and as I was walking to my car with my children they started asking questions. What happened in New York? Why did so many parents come to school to get their children out early? Who would do such a thing? Are we safe? My children were 11 and 8 at the time so I was able to give them some information and discuss it with them and assure them that we were safe. I told them that our President would protect us and that we needed to pray for ourselves, our country and the victims and their families. Since I worked for UPS out of Boston's Logan Airport I was unable return to work for several days, when we did return to work security was heightened, the National Guard was there. I always wondered what it was like in countries where the army walked around the neighborhood with there guns and now I felt like I was actually living it. As time went on we adjusted to the "new way" of life. Still to this day, one year later I cry when I read an article or hear a story related to the terrorist attacks. I still have times when I just can't beleive this happened in our country and then I say yeah it did. GOD BLESS AMERICA