story859.xml

story859.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-04

I live only 5 miles from where United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. I was in my 10th grade English class. We went to the internet lab that day to do research for an upcoming project. When I arrived to the lab, my teacher told us that we would not be researching due to the day's events. She told us that we could look up information on the WTC and Pentagon if we wanted to, though. I had no idea what she could be talking about, so I immediately went to CNN.com to find out. When I got there, the headline read, "Planes Crash into WTC & Pentagon, One Tower Collapses." I couldn't believe my eyes! Just then, one of my friends turns to me and said, "I think you need to refresh your page." He must have hit enter to go to CNN just a split second after me, because when I refreshed the page, I saw "Both Towers Collapse." Well, I was so worked up by that time that I was shaking really bad. When I went to my next class, my teacher was watching the news on TV. We were supposed to take a test that day, but I think she was going to let us watch the TV instead. She informed us that in addition to New York and Washington, a plane had also crashed in Shanksville. This made us even more upset than before because Shanksville is less than 10 miles away, and it's even closer to my house. Well just then, every TV in the school turned off. That really made me worked up then because I thought, "What could have happened now that they won't let us watch the TV?!" I later found out that they didn't want us to know about the crash in Shanksville. My teacher then made us take the test. Luckily, she put Mozart on the cd player. This soothed me enough so I didn't fail the test. Parents then started pulling there kids out of school left and right. It ended up that school got out early. On the bus ride home, my sister approached me. She said, "Why did we get out of school early? Was there a bomb threat?" I couldn't believe she didn't know. Apparently in the Jr. High School, the teachers wouldn't let the kids watch TV. I explained everything to her and she was shocked. When we got home, we found my mom there. She had gotten off of work early due to the events. Our phone was ringing off the hook all night. Relatives, who heard that a plane had crashed in Somerset, kept calling asking if we were all alright. When my dad arrived home, he wanted to know everything. He knew the basics of what had happened, but since he works in construction, he didn't know all of the details. He then informed us that he was working outside of Shanksville and he heard Flight 93 fly over. September was truly an unforgettable day for the people of Somerset County.