story4788.xml

story4788.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I am a librarian/teacher in an affluent bedroom community close to NYC. Many of our parents work in finance and, we learned, a surprising number worked in the WTC itself.

I had no class the first period of the day and was preparing to teach a middle-school Latin class when the Assistant Principal came into the library and told me to turn on the television because a plane had hit the WTC. I immediately assumed that it was a small private plane, like the one that crashed into the Empire State Building in the 1940's. It seemed odd though since the day was gloriously clear. I turned on the TV just about 9:00 am. Stupefied, I watched the second plane hit and learned of the attack on the Pentagon. I watched the reports as long as I could but went to my class as usual, trying not to convey to my students the sense that anything was awry. I had two consecutive 40 minutes classes during which concerned parents came to remove their children from school and both of the towers fell. It became impossible to pretend that nothing was wrong and the administration gathered the older children in the gym and explained the situation to them. It was at this point that we began to realize just how many of our students had parents whose daily routines included some time in the Trade Center. Some of the faculty also had spouses who worked at the site. There was no way we could carry on with our normal class schedule, especially given the fact that fighter jets were routinely roaring overhead by this time.
The Principal began the laborious process of notifying parents that the school would be closing early. Of course, we are committed to remaining at the school until all of the children are picked up so it was late in the afternoon before we actually were able to leave. By this time, we knew that we had been remarkably lucky.
Not one member of our immediate school community was lost. The truly amazing thing was that several of the fathers of our preschoolers would have been at work in the affected areas of the WTC but for the fact that our Tuesday/Thursday preschool classes began that day and several dads had stayed home from work or delayed their departure for the city to see their oldest child's first day at school.

While I had never worked in the towers, I had been to Windows on the World, attended meetings there and just strolled through the lobby on my way from the World Financial Center's Palm Court when I took the ferry across the Hudson. Even a year later, it is difficult to wrap my mind around that day. I find it hard to look at the skyline when I am driving to the city. I can't determine where Manhattan ends anymore.

The school at which I teach is a parochial one attached to a church with a small graveyard and a recently built mausoleum. Today - 9/11/02 - I had to pull the shades in the library which looks out over that mausoleum. One of our town's 9/11 victims is buried in a crypt that faces our windows. Throughout the day, floral arrangements of rememberance were delivered and I couldn't bring myself to try to explain their significance to the second graders in my class.