It’s a sad week for Friday Five. But on the other hand, it is an extremely important one for the American people.
Because we will never forget the tragedy that ensued nine years ago, tomorrow.
It will forever be on the hearts and minds of the American people, even as time passes.
For me, a then fourth grader, my memories of September 11th are probably a lot different then most. Some of the details are hazy. And children, I’ve been taught through so many English classes, tend to me the most unreliable witnesses. We miss the cues, the true meanings of things.
Here are the five things I remember about September 11th.
1. It was, in our classroom at least, a normal Tuesday. We did our class work, went to gym, had lunch. To this day, I don’t remember that many kids being picked up early (we’re about 60-90 minutes from D.C.), but I’m guessing many did. I don’t remember the teacher’s soft whispers between classrooms, the TV’s quickly turned off when we returned from resource.
2. It wasn’t until dismissal that afternoon that I first began to realize something was going on. Our principal had an afternoon announcement (a rare occurrence), and while I don’t remember everything she said that afternoon, I do remember that she wanted us to remember we were always safe at school.
3. My little sister and I rode home to the babysitter’s, full of questions. I wanted to know what was going on, but Miss Mary promised me my mom would tell me when she came to pick us up.
4. The scenes after Miss Mary’s promise are hazy. Somehow Bekah and I were home with my dad, my mom home late from work. But there is one thing I will never forget about September 11th, and that was how the sunset shone over the top of my mom’s white van as she still sat in the driver’s seat and explained to my sister and I that there had been plane crashes. That night we watched that news together and that was the first time I saw all the footage of the planes crashing.
5. A few days later, I remember asking my mother for certainty that if the bad guys died when they crashed the planes, then weren’t all the bad guys dead? I don’t really remember her answer. I’ve realized since that the bad guys are, in fact, not dead. And probably won’t be for a long time. Because the bad guys aren’t just bad people, but rather more then that. They are terrorists; they are terrorism. And I fear that that will be something that my children’s children will too fear.
In these days of remembrance, join Beth at her bloggie for this special Friday Five.
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