It was horrifying to watch, I was in school and the teacher turned on the tvs. They turned them back off after the first tower fell, but we all just kinda moved through the rest of the day in shock.
You guys stayed in school? They sent us home at lunch after they figured we weren’t learning the curriculum that day. Watched the coverage all afternoon. Repeat strike and collapses of the towers. Idn why the news chose that “last time in NYC” vibed recap like it was a sweeps week 2 part story arc, but they did.
I was in school too but I literally don’t even remember if they sent us home anymore. I just remember my first period teacher put the classroom tv on the news and we watched until the second tower fell. My memory of that day after watching that is completely blank.
This is a part of the reason we're so messed up mentally. I remember the Challenger explosion. After we saw it in class, we sat there for a minute realizing the people were killed. Then the teacher turned off the TV, and started our math lesson. No mourning, no therapy, no acknowledgement. Just "oh well, let's move on"
I remember hearing about the plane hitting the WTC on the way to school idly listening to the radio -- and then they mentioned a second plane hitting. I had very little idea of the ramifications of this at the time as I was like 12? I got to school and they had the TV on showing the towers burning live. We got to watch the towers collapse live, and the entire day (save for a couple short breaks) were just us watching the news and the teachers talking about it.
Some kids got picked back up and went home and didn't come back for a week (as if a small 2 room schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere, Missouri was a prime target for a follow up attack).
I was 12, too. I wasn't allowed to watch the news at home because it "wasn't for children", so I had no context when the RE teacher put it on the screen. I thought it was a film/movie and wouldn't accept assertions to the contrary until the next day, when I guess sufficiently many people I'd met seemed to believe it.
(I think people trying to convince me of things that weren't true was a common way of bullying at the time.)
60
u/curious-kitten-0 10h ago
It was horrifying to watch, I was in school and the teacher turned on the tvs. They turned them back off after the first tower fell, but we all just kinda moved through the rest of the day in shock.