Sometime in September

Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Tyler Creek Apartments. September 11th 2001.

Joe wakes up to a bright sunny morning and climbs out of his bed. From across the room his sister Rudy also gets out of bed and starts getting ready for school. “Joe! Rudy!” Their mother Ruby called out. “It’s time for school”. “Yes ma’am. We gettin’ ready” Rudy responded. After Joe finished getting dressed he went into the kitchen to get his lunch and headed out the door.

At his bus stop he was met by his friends Anthony and Amanda. When the bus arrived the trio boarded the bus and joined their schoolmates in conversation about how the new school year was going and how everyone was still reeling from the death of R&B sensation Aaliyah just a couple weeks earlier. When the bus arrived at Seawell Elementary the children got off and headed for the cafeteria. As Joe walks into the cafeteria he meets up with his new friend Torron and they have breakfast together as their schoolmates play kickball at the basketball court outside the cafeteria.

By 8:30 a.m. Joe and Torron have entered their third grade classroom where they and all their classmates are greeted by their third grade teacher Ms. Scales and her assistant teacher Ms. White. Ms. Scales starts off the class day by doing a homework check. Joe along with Torron and his other classmates Carlo, Andrea, Giffin and Lisa are all active in answering the homework questions aloud for Ms. Scales. When homework review ends Ms. Scales and Ms. White get the class started on a language arts assignment.

8:55 a.m. As Joe, Torron, Carlo, Andrea and Giffin work on their class work assignments at their desk, Ms. Scales is called out of the class by Ms. White and another teacher. Ms. Scales has a look of concern on her face as Joe and several others briefly notice as she goes back to her desk. As Joe and the others continue on with their language arts assignment, Ms. White returns to class with an even more concerned look on her face. When she makes her way to Ms. Scales’ desk the class is suddenly interrupted by a voice on the school’s intercom, it’s the vice principal: “Teacher’s and students we are having a fire drill”.

Before Joe and the others could get a grasp on what else the vice principal was saying the fire drill bell was going off and everyone was departing the class. When they made it out to the hall all the teachers and students were crowding the way out in heightened conversation. “Didn’t know we were having a fire drill today” Joe thought to himself as he Torron and the others evacuated the building. As the teachers and students made it outside Joe noticed a look of concern on the other teacher’s faces, similar to the looks Ms. Scales and Ms. White had before the fire drill bell was hit.

With Joe and the rest of her students surrounding her Ms. Scales finally breaks the news on what’s happening. “Ok guys, listen up” she began. “Two planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York”. Joe, Torron and the rest of their classmates stood with blank expressions of shock on their faces. “It’s a terrorist attack on the country” Ms. Scales concluded. “Oh my gosh” Joe started. “First Aaliyah’s plane crash and now this.” Everyone else joined in on his sentiments. As every other teacher gave their brief remarks about the World Trade Center attacks all the teachers and students made their ways back into the school to return to their classes.

As the day continued the teachers and students kept discussing the twin towers attacks while providing updates on any more unfolding information. What the children did not know was that the attack was still unfolding and by that there were more planes in the US airspace that were hijacked and making their ways to other US landmarks. While students and staff tried continue what started off as a normal day. There were classmates who were being picked up by their parents early from school and many of the ones who stayed were emotionally distraught from the day’s events.

When school dismissed for the day Joe got back on the bus and made his way home. All anyone could talk about was news of the attacks, which so scattered all over the place that it was hard to determine what was confirmed and what wasn’t. As Joe got off the bus and headed in the house he saw his mother Ruby sitting in the living room on the couch by herself with the tv off. She had a lamp on next to her as she greeted him when he walked in. “Hey baby, did you have a great day at school?” Ruby asked softly. “Yes ma’am” Joe replied. He then noticed that his mother’s smile wasn’t as as lively as it normally was when she greeted him after he made it home. Joe could see his mother was disturbed under the surface of her smile.

He went to go sit next to her on the couch examining her broken smile. “Joe, did you know an attack happened to us today?” Ruby asked softly. “Yes ma’am” Joe answered. “Do you know what that means?” Ruby continued. Before Joe could answer his big sister Rudy walked in the door from school. “Hey mama, hey Joe” Rudy began. “Hey boo boo” Ruby responded. “Did you hear about what happened today?”

“Yes ma’am” Rudy started. “There’s a girl in my class who’s daddy works at the twin towers. She was really upset.” “That is terrible” Ruby sighed. As Ruby and Rudy continued Joe turned on the tv. The tv was on the channel ABC, which just happened to be broadcasting the evening news earlier than usual.

The first sight Joe saw when turned on the news was the island of Manhattan covered in thick grey smoke. The image was mind blowing for him. It looked as if someone dropped a nuclear weapon on the city. As the news reporters detailed the footage he was looking at he then saw footage of the towers collapsing. Following the collapse footage Joe was then exposed to footage of the Pentagon in Washington DC covered in flames. Joe and his family had just seen the Pentagon in person when they visited Washington a year earlier. The news anchors were reporting that a plane had also hit the Pentagon.

Joe had not heard earlier that the Pentagon had been hit, so this was quite a shocking revelation. It was in these moments that he felt the severity of what unfolded earlier that morning. As he eventually saw the footage of the towers being hit his eight year old self realized that a wartime attack had just occurred. As footage of the World Trade Center collapse played over and over the screams of everyone around the towers were etched in Joe’s ears. All he could see was the dust blanketing the city like a storm while thousands of people fled the island in terror.

As he watched the smoke billowing out of the Pentagon in Washington he also saw hundreds of people from the military converge on the scene of the attack. There was no doubt in Joe’s mind that this was a time of war. While watching the attack coverage Joe also noticed something at the bottom of the screen, something he usual only saw when it was snow or icy weather, it was a list of school closings and delays. “Oh man we might not go to school tomorrow”Joe thought. Later that night Joe and his family listened to president George W. Bush address an unraveled nation where he declared a state of war. A new war with a new policy.

Aftermath

That’s how Tuesday, September 11th 2001 went for me. It’s safe to say September 12th and beyond was quite the aftermath. When I went back to school that next morning the world was a different place. The only thing every teacher and student could talk about was the attack. The principals and the teachers knew they had an obligation to address this world trembling catastrophe in a way that we would understand, so a great deal of our schoolwork was converted to be centered around the attacks.

Later that weekend me and my sisters went to visit our family in Greensboro and like the rest of the world they too were locked into the coverage of the attacks. We all knew a lot of military service members were going back into action and my godbrother remarked what if my mother was called in due to both of my parents having served in the US Navy. My sister said she wouldn’t let my mother go. That same Friday night me and my godbrothers visited a next door neighbor friend of theirs a who was sitting on his porch. When he saw a plane fly above our heads in the clear night sky he said “every time I see an airplane I think about the crash” my godbrother responded with “which crash? The one from Tuesday? Or the other one (referring to Aaliyah’s)”. This really spoke volumes of how crazy of a time we were living in.

During the next week the tension only rose due to the Anthrax attacks. It seemed like we were under a second wave of attack, only this time it was in the form of a chemical weapon being mailed to our doorsteps. That weekend I went over my dad’s house and he told me that he was in Washington DC the first Saturday after the attacks visiting a friend of his who is a politician in DC. He showed my dad the Pentagon and it was apparently still in smoke and flames.

Life definitely changed for me and the rest of the world after September 11th 2001. It changed so much that I nearly forgot about the incident that sparked our changed world. It wasn’t until the movie United 93 came out in 2006 that I was reminded of 9/11 through the story of the heroism of the fourth aircraft hijacked that fateful day. September 11th 2001 had a big impact on me growing up. An impact that I still feel everyday with the wisdom and knowledge I gained from it in the years following that morning. I’ll never forget that time in September.

~Dedicated to the memory of September 11th 2001.