I Was In 3rd Grade

Date Submitted: 02/14/2017
Author Info: Racheal (Erie, PA - USA) 
Occupation: Other
Lived in NY on 9.11.01?: No
Knew someone who perished?: No

I live in the north western area of PA. I was in third grade and I remember it was just a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was warm. The attacks happened in the early morning, but I had no clue of it at all. I remember being confused because the teachers told us all that we had to have inside recess today, but they refused to tell us why, and as I said before, it was a really nice day. I had no clue that America was under attack until I got home from school. I went into the living room and my grandma had CNN on full blast and she was on the phone with someone. I watched in horror as I saw the second tower collapse on tv and people running from the buildings covered in what looked like ash, some of them had blood dripping from wounds on their heads. Of course when I finally saw what happened, it was just replays of what happened that fateful morning. I remember my grandfather taking cases of bottled water and canned food down to the cellar and my grandma putting on my sneakers. We didn’t know what was going to happen or if more attacks were going to come and we just wanted to be ready incase we had to get out of there and quickly. I didn’t find out until later on that the older kids actually watched the event unfold on live Tv because many teachers turned on their televisions. How my elementary school worked was 4th-6th graders were upstairs and Kindergarten-3rd graders were downstairs. They let the older kids watch the events unfold on live tv. I also found out later on that my school was on complete lock down. No one, not even parents were allowed in the building to get their kids and that’s also why we weren’t allowed to go outside for recess. I was far too young at the time to really understand what was going on, but I do remember feeling scared because my grandparents were acting very seriously and they wouldn’t let me play outside. My grandma wanted me in her sight at all times.

Close

Site Design & Development
Robb Bennett @ Visual23

Site Design & Logo Design
Vince Pileggi

Managed By
Ali Imran Zaidi

Originally created in 2001 by
Robb Bennett and Ali Imran Zaidi.